Day 6, 6:35 AM
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
― Frederick Douglass
I wake up before the sun rises.
Manuella did not stab me in my sleep. Still, the ‘I will do anything to survive’ speech put into perspective the stupid, self-indulgent end of my life in Chillago. I expected nightmares to haunt me, dreams of all the real problems I could have had, of all the horrors my family could have suffered, but fortunately I didn't.
“Good morning,” I whisper just in case and get an immediate reply.
“Good morning. It was not cold enough to huddle, but we should purchase blankets. I have been considering our next course of action, and concluded that buying goods from houses in the immediate vicinity of Amplegord is likely to get us caught. We have to be at least a day away to make proper escape and to conceal our trail from those pursuing us.”
She fired all of that in one breath, I have no idea how.
It’s a shame she was born here. She would make a great speed speaker for drug commercials, which have flooded the regular television.
Manuella pauses for breath, and I have only one question.
“Did you sleep last night?”
“I slept for three to four hours,” she says at a normal pace. “I rarely get to sleep more during the night. It will probably take me a week to return to the normal sleeping schedule, maybe more. Now, the other thing I wanted to say is that whoever you killed will not be the sole reason law is searching for you. Once the viscount gets word that I have escaped, he will consider it a personal task to capture me. The king does not consider me a threat, otherwise they would not have sold me from brothel to brothel to tour the country, but it will still look bad if I really escape.”
She pauses, and I imagine that, if the sun were up, I might have gotten an apologetic look.
“So, I apologize. I should have told you immediately, but then you would not have taken me with you.”
“It’s fine.” My voice is mellow, and she really can’t make my circumstances worse. “Since we’re being honest. The viscount is already after me. I murdered his daughter.”
She actually gasps!
“Don’t be shocked. She was a bitch. I risked my life to save her multiple times, but there wasn’t a grateful bone in her body. I told you, wolves, bandits, I still have some bite marks on my leg. Anyway, we were alone, and she just kept pushing, so I pushed back. I may have gone too far, though.”
She’s staying silent for awful long.
“Don’t worry, I’m not insane,” That’s debatable. “And just like you said, I will not hurt you unless you provoke me. I will do everything in my power to help you. I will fight wolves and multiple armed men for your sake, just treat me like a human, not like a thing whose greatest honor is to die so your ass doesn’t get bruised. All right?”
I can hear her gulp.
“All right. I can understand what you mean. I may not approve of your actions, but I was not in your place, and you obviously will not share any additional details.”
Her words irk me, I don’t know why.
There’s some weak light we can’t really see by, but our conversation started spiraling down an abyss neither of us wishes to explore. Better to end it, along with our misery.
“Let’s go.”
She doesn’t protest, and we blindly fumble forward in silence. The forest floor beneath my feet is cold and wet. I focus on the uncomfortable sensation to get my mind off things I don’t want to think about.
The forest grows brighter, and we press on with greater confidence, but neither of us wishes to start a conversation. Not speaking is a release compared to the stupid, needlessly honest shit, with which we started our day.
Even though we don’t speak, the forest isn’t silent. I have noticed a lull in this world’s predawn hours, when night birds go to sleep and day birds still haven’t woken up, but that lull has passed, and chirping fills the air, soon followed by buzzing. A sudden, loud growl interrupts all the pleasant nature sounds.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
I sigh.
“I’m hungry,” I say even though she doesn’t say a word. “Are you hungry? I’ve got some bread and roasted wolf meat. It’s four days old, but it should still be good.”
I can see disgust in her face, but she still nods after a moment of inner conflict.
We sit down, and I pull out the meat. I sniff it, and it smells fine-ish. Not as fine as the roast we had in the brothel, but it should be edible. I hope.
“So, what’s your plan? Where are we going?” I ask. “We can’t stay on the run forever, and I would like to get someplace where I can live without a slave status. I would prefer an honest living, without killing.”
“We have two options,” she says seriously, without hesitation. I can tell she has put some thought into the matter. “We could either run into the neighboring kingdom of Dolacia, or we could return to my former duchy and search for loyalists, or join my little brother, if he’s still alive. Then we could start a rebellion.”
Rebellion should count as a riot? Right?
Just in case I have to check something. “The second option sounds dangerous, and being a rebel is hardly any different from being an outlaw. What happens if we go to Dolacia? Are we legally free, or refugees? What’s our status?”
She gives me a look, and I know I said something stupid.
“We would buy easily tradable merchandise, a wagon, and a pair of donkeys, then pass the border as peddlers. Then, with a bit of bribe, we can become their low-class free citizens.”
She doesn’t like the idea.
“And the problem with that is?” I ask.
“We are strangers in a strange land. We speak their language with a distinct accent. That is if you speak Dolacian? Since we are foreigners, everyone will try to exploit us and rob us. The officials we try to bribe may take everything and enslave us again. There are major issues with that plan.”
[You have been on the run for six days.]
Blue screen pops up, and I stop prodding her for information, and she stops talking. Reading that brief, squiggled message takes an embarrassingly long time, then I dismiss it. Luckily, she seems to think I was mulling over my options.
“And with the first one?”
“I know those people. It is easy to find loyalists, if you know where to look. My whole situation is the king’s plot to force my brother out in the open and have him executed as a traitor. At least, that is my guess. Otherwise, they would have either killed me, or kept me as their plaything. There is no reason for this perverse, convoluted torture.”
Her chin wobbles as she speaks, and her voice breaks once or twice. I don’t know how certain she is, but knowing my luck with administration, the choice where I rely on a benevolent desk clerk probably leads to hell.
“In that case, I say we should try to join up with the rebels. Which do you prefer?”
“I would also prefer joining my father’s loyalists. However, that would bring us deeper into the kingdom. There is no escape if our pursuers find us. I should point out that the punishment for treason is death, but you already face that same punishment for murdering a noble, so my warning is pointless.”
She waits to see if I have any more questions, but I tear into the meat, and a moment later she gnaws on her roast.
“F1,” I mumble between bites, and the blue screen of death appears. I glance towards her. She keeps chewing her meat. She either didn’t hear me, or she’s ignoring my mumbling. The latter could be a bad sign.
Still, I can’t worry about it.
“What is strength?” I whisper, and the information appears.
[Strength represents the power of your physical body.]
Well, that’s obvious.
“How is strength calculated?” I believed the question too fiddly, but apparently BSD understands what I mean, and flashes again. The text is fairly long, but my brain is starting to process the letters with greater ease.
[Attribute score of ten represents the average strength of a healthy specimen of your biological sex and species. Each attribute point below ten represents a cumulative ten percent decrease, while each attribute point above represents a cumulative ten percent increase. Compounding applies.]
Compounding applies? That means a strength score of twenty makes me… two-point-six times stronger than an average male. And the next point would increase it to two-point-eighty five. I wonder how that translates to intelligence? If all my attributes are already so much above average, there’s no reason to increase them further, while greater intelligence will definitely get me places.
Just in case, I check all my attributes. Physique makes me more resilient towards diseases and critical injuries, which is excellent. I’m torn between intellect and wisdom, the former is an equivalent of agility, and includes the nimbleness of the mind and greater ease with which I use my mental ability. Wisdom is like strength, but somewhat more general and encompasses peripheral and instinctive reactions among other things. I don’t quite agree with the definitions, but I guess I have little say in the matter.
Presence and charisma are also cool, like wisdom and intellect, but regarding empathy and force of personality.
Maybe they are the part of the reason Manuella followed me?
Just as I’m about to check Composure, BSD appears on its own.
[Ability - Literate acquired]
I guess you become literate by reading enough? Makes sense. I check my screen, and really, I can understand the squiggles just like I understand the regular old alphabet.
I check Composure while finishing my fifth and final steak.
“Shall we get going?” I ask, and Manuella nods.
“You eat a lot for a slave, and you seem like you are still growing.”
I stare at her for a long moment, not really sure what to say. Luckily, I have Blunt.
“I have a lot of room to grow.”