Mash held a bag filled with the wraps that he had gotten. The shopkeeper had sealed them in some kind of paper and had written down which meat was within on the outside. He grabbed one and noticed a large C on top of it. What meat was that again? He didn’t really remember, but he guessed that it didn’t matter either. The rumbling in his stomach was enough to ignore it.
He removed it from the wrapping and stuffed the entire thing in his mouth. That was impressive as the wrap was easily as big as two of his fists pushed together. He had done it somewhat unconsciously. It crunched as he chewed, and he wondered if there were bones inside or something. Not that bones were a problem. He could easily chew through them, and the wrap was delicious regardless. It wasn’t spicy, but it felt like there were a lot of spices in it. In fact, it was surprisingly sweet. The meat itself was the sweet part, and he wondered what it was. He turned to Trek to ask but paused when he noticed the look on his face.
Trek’s eyes were glowing again, and Mash noticed that his hand drifted to rest atop his sword. In his domain, he noticed that Kerik had done the same and had positioned himself directly behind Mash.
“What are you?”
Trek spoke, his voice quivering slightly. The guard knew that Mash was stronger than him and obviously didn’t want a fight. So, why had he become so aggressive all of a sudden? Mash had to speak around the wrap, but he had to ask.
“Wait, what?”
“Mash was human. He has a skill that lets his body change to his needs. We should’ve warned you, sorry.”
Much to Mash’s surprise, Jill spoke before anyone could do anything. She spoke so quickly that her words were barely understood, but it did make both guards relax slightly. Mash just looked at the group with clear confusion in his eyes.
“When you opened your mouth, it just kept stretching till it fit the wrap. It should’ve been impossible, but your mouth stretched across your cheeks. It looked like it should’ve torn your face. That was more than unpleasant.”
Red spoke and Mash felt her glare on his back. Trek gazed at Mash for a second longer before relaxing. The guard smiled slightly before responding.
“Well, I would avoid doing that in front of Vasha back there. Otherwise, she might not ask you out next time.”
Mash thought that he would’ve choked if he could. Instead, his skill seemed to prevent that, and the food went down the correct pipe. However, Mash’s instincts caused him to cough reflexively. Trek laughed at the overreaction, and Mash forced out his response.
“I don’t think that will happen. I’m pretty sure she was scared of me.”
Mash was fairly confident in that. He remembered how the shopkeeper had needed to turn around and take some deep breaths. She had been nervous around him, of that he had no doubt.
“Ha! Afraid! Would you be afraid if someone walked up dropped a handful of gold, and then had the good sense to realize and apologize for his mistake? Most women would at least give you a chance for that. And you are certainly pretty enough.”
Trek spoke while laughing. His voice carried further than Mash was comfortable with. Mash opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. Was Trek right? Mash was going to argue because of his appearance but he wasn’t sure. His scars and scales were gone. Other than some strange tattoos his skin and hair were flawless, and his clothes were equally perfect. He had just been so used to people being scared of him that he didn’t really consider an alternative. Now that he was thinking about it, the only really weird part of him now were his eyes. Also, high leveled people were just naturally better looking. Well, they looked more like their most perfect selves. That was just a byproduct of raising your charisma.
“He’s not wrong, but that just made the way you ate the wrap all the more unsettling.”
Red commented from behind, and Mash was left with nothing to say. Their comments made him feel better. He thought that he didn’t really care about his appearance or how others saw him, but he felt a little better knowing that he didn’t scare everyone he met anymore. Even with that feeling, he didn’t change how he ate the wraps. He even opened his mouth even wider than before for the next one. The group made a collective groaning noise, as Mash relished in the food and confidence.
They continued to walk through the streets. Apparently, the inn was closer to the center of the city. Kerik was very open with his explanation of the city, and he told them about the inn. It was called the Adventurer’s Gate and rested beside the central market. Apparently, it was placed there because the highest leveled guards and citizens lived in the area. They were the only ones who could really deal with foreign groups like Mash’s team. The inn would be durable enough to handle any incidents and even acted as a guild too. The city didn’t have many adventurers, so it didn’t have a need for a larger guild complex.
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Once they entered the central part of the city, Luke stopped them. He pointed to a set of tall buildings. Three buildings seemed to place almost perfectly in the center of the mountain, and they towered over everything other than the buildings that acted as supports for the entire mountain.
“What’s that? I feel like it's…wrong somehow.”
Mash stared at the buildings and had absolutely no idea what he meant. The buildings were excessively large. They were rather magnificent structures. Some had balconies, and one of them seemed to have a park on the roof. One of the others was like a ball, and he wondered how they had managed that. He doubted that it could be made without a skill. It was too perfectly spherical, and it was painted gold. While those things were odd, he didn’t think that was what Luke meant when he said wrong.
Mash could see both guards wrinkle their noses within his domain. They were perfectly synchronized in their disgust, and Mash wanted one of them to explain.
“The building with the Park on it is the Slavery. The spherical one is an auction house. The last of the three is an arena.”
Kerik’s words were barely processed after the first sentence. Mash couldn’t help but step back a little. He knew that slavery existed in other kingdoms, but he hadn’t expected to see it so openly. His home had had slaves once, but that was a practice that had long been dissolved. The reason was obvious. A slaver’s skills were just as bad as a necromancer's. Worse since the people it affected were still alive. Few skills were banned back home, but enslavement skills were among those that were restricted. It had taken generations to stop the spread of such skills, but Mash was lucky enough to be far removed from that time. He knew that it wasn’t considered evil here, but for it to be so open, just felt wrong.
“How can you be okay with that?”
A cold hatred had entered Luke’s voice, as he chastised the two guards. The venom in the words surprised Mash. He didn’t know that Luke could talk to someone like that. Mash checked his friend in his domain and noticed the mana around him start shifting. Was he going to attack them? That didn’t seem like Luke, but then Mash remembered what Kerik had said about the season. And that made it seem like a very real possibility.
“We’re not. Most people aren’t, but the current king is a slaver of some kind, and slavery has grown rapidly.”
“How, don’t you know what skills they get?”
Luke didn’t care for their excuse, and Mash nodded along although he recognized that Kerik and Trek weren’t really to blame for the situation. Certain classes were banned back home, though it was because of the skills those classes got. Necromancers took a person’s soul. Mental Mages stole a person’s mind. Slavers owned a person’s heart. They had skills specifically designed to make people more obedient. To subjugate people so that they would become slaves in truth. They could change the classes of another.
Neither Kerik nor Trek could answer that question. Mash knew that no classes were truly banned everywhere. Some places even allowed necromancers. The only type of skill that he knew for sure was banned in all of the major kingdoms was memory alteration skills. Those skills were considered too dangerous. There were few legends of people with those skills, and each one was a nightmare. They were the kind of story that adults wouldn’t even tell children to scare them. Mash shook his head trying to dismiss the thought. He had spent a long time contemplating those skills when he had first read the stories. Not because he considered learning it, but rather because he wanted to make sure his memories were real. He felt himself start to work through his past and had to stop himself. That would get him nowhere quickly.
The conversation among the group had escaped him slightly, but he saw that Red was whispering something to Luke. She seemed to stop him from rampaging toward the Slavery, but even she didn’t seem confident in the decision. It was one thing to stop Mash from causing a scene earlier, and another to convince someone not to kill every slaver he saw. If they were back home, it wouldn’t even be brought to a discussion. After the group started walking again, Mash realized what the disparity had been.
All those people that had crowded the small alleyways had been slaves. The main roads were meant for the free people. Mash was disgusted, but he was also deeply confused by something.
“Are there more slaves than free people here?”
His question left his mouth without much thought behind it. Kerik responded quickly, but he obviously didn’t want to talk about it either.
“No. The most recent survey indicates that thirty percent of the population is enslaved.”
Mash took a sharp breath, his mind getting caught by the idea. That were a lot of slaves in one city. Red’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she responded with a coherent thought.
“Wait. There is no way a kingdom can operate properly with such a high slave population. How many slavers are there here?”
Kerik sighed.
“I don’t know. There aren’t that many slavers here, but they are somehow able to make an endless number of slaves. Nobody other than the slavers themselves knows how it works. I assume the slaves know as well, but they are not allowed to mention it.”
Trek patted his fellow guard on the shoulder before turning to face the group. They had shifted slightly. Mash and his friends had slowed slightly and made a small gap between them and the two guards.
“Look, we hate it as much as most, but few can argue with the king. Even if he is a new one.”
That response opened a dozen more questions, but Mash could tell that neither guard wanted to talk about it. Through his domain, he could feel how much they truly hated the current state of their home. Sadness rolled off them in waves. He thought about his own brother. About the guards, he had met long before then. He even thought about his father, and what he had said about being a part of the guard. If the guards felt like this, then this was a broken kingdom.