“Casper said we wouldn’t get run out of every place we go to, yet here we are, running out of the second city in a row,” Annabelle grunts out the words as her horse trots through the countryside headed south to the location Casper had marked for them the day before.
“You probably shouldn’t be talking” Elisayra reprimands the larger woman riding beside her, narrowing her eyes to the freshly opened wound in her stomach.
“I’ll live, I’ve had much worse” Annabelle reassures the small girl, but Elisayra doesn’t seem to buy it much.
“Elisayra’s right” Alex joins in. “you’re the strongest out of all of us, you need to take care of yourself, we need you to be healthy, as selfish as that is”
“The slave of yours is more than capable” Annabelle retorts, nodding up a little bit to the half fiend woman riding bareback alongside Alex in their little caravan.
The half fiend turns and smiles in response.
“Is she really?” Elisayra asks, also turning to look at the incredible woman.
Alex nods her head, and falls back slightly to better speak to the others without craning her neck uncomfortably backwards.
“Lailah is indeed very strong, she is a half fiend and was part of one of the few surviving local tribes in the southern regions.” Alex explains. “They were famous for their tracking, trapping and hunting in the region. And like most half fiends she's very strong, maybe even stronger than Casper'' she notes at the end.
“Stronger than Casper? I doubt it, but even if she is, isn’t that pretty damn dangerous?” Annabelle cocks an eyebrow up at Lailah, then turns that accusing glance Alex’s way. “What if she turns on us? Stabs us in the back?” she continues. “I’ve met a good number of slaves who would jump at the chance to either escape or get revenge if given the chance”
Alex shakes her head. “Don’t worry. I'm very familiar with the slave markets, I made sure that when I selected her it was from a well trained stock. She wouldn’t dare try to turn on us.” she nods confidently.
“How do you know she's well trained?” Elisayra buts in, a slight blush forming over her cheeks.
“Ah…um, trust me, I know” Alex chuckles nervously.
Annabelle looks back to the city already a full 5 miles behind them. Smoke still drifts from where the auction house stood. The roaring of riots and looting has long since vanished into the distance, now replaced with the ambient noise of rustling grasses and chirping of songbirds in the area.
Fuck her stomach hurt.
Annabelle looks down to the growing blotch of fresh blood replacing the other dark stains that already ruined her tunic. She was practically riding fully exposed with how torn up she was, but it didn’t matter much to her now.
“Any chance you have healing magic?” Annabelle asks the slave.
“No, mistress, I'm afraid not,” she replies apologetically. “My magic is that of the hunt. I have keen senses, and am adept in reading the body language of many creatures. My magic is also that of emotional resonance. I can attune myself and others to emotions, tug and pull on their feelings. I might offer you some relief from the pain and distract your emotions with thoughts of more pleasant things, but I can not heal your physical wounds.” she explains.
Her voice is low for a woman, husky and sultry, almost like the purr of the large cat from the savannahs across the crimson sea Annabelle had heard about.
“And how can I be sure you won't use that power to manipulate us?” Annabelle asked, the casual nature of the half fiend explanation of her abilities already putting her on edge.
Annabelle didn’t particularly care for half fiends. She had run into a tribe of them once before, and they lived up to their names. The fight that ensued was hell on earth for her and her people. Annabelle and her crew never ran from much, but that was a fight they had to cut their losses on. She still remembers the screams well into the night from the men they had to leave behind. She could only imagine what kind of horror they put them through.
Those half fiends weren’t even of the martial variety, which is why she and her crew were initially confident in being in the area. They had heard the rumors of the tribals being in the area, but every bit of information they got regarding the group was that they were mostly peaceful, hunter gathers who had very little experience fighting other humanoids.
Either every single person she met was lying, or even the lowest of the tribals were just that much stronger than the average human.
Annabelle felt her mind wandering to the thoughts of how much stronger then, the celestials were, and then compared to the celestials, the man in black on the ship.
She shivered, and tore her mind away from the memory as if the mere thought of the man in black would summon him in a cloud of smoke to cut down their entire party.
“Because I am owned by Master Alex, and I will do as he commands of me. I am not so foolish as to disregard my place in this world now.” The half-fiend replied to Annabelle's question. She had almost forgotten she had asked it with how her mind was drifting.
“Ah, it's alright Lailah, they…know that I am a woman” Alex says softly.
“Very well, Mistress Alex,” Lailah corrects herself.
“Hmmm… fine” Annabelle decided to drop it for now. She wasn’t just going to trust this slave on Alex’s word alone. The things she had to endure, her own experience, far outweighed the weight of her traveling companions' words.
It wasn’t that Annabelle didn’t trust Alex, but if she was being honest, she had to admit she didn’t really know her that well either. Sure they had traveled together and spent time together, but so much of it was behind the disguise she bore that it made it difficult for Annabelle to truly trust anything the woman said now.
Of course, Annabelle knew that it was out of necessity, but still, it was principal.
She would still be keeping an eye on the slave regardless.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Several more hours came to pass, as the group traveled deeper and deeper into the southern countryside. By now the city wasn’t even visible, yet still evidence of the smoke lingered in the sky above. It wasn’t much, mostly dispersed into the now orange and purple clouds from left from the ending sunset.
Even at a relatively fast pace, it would take the better part of a full day for Casper to reach them now, and the horses were getting tired.
Furthermore, Annabelle was exhausted. She ultimately decided not to take the slave up on her offer to distract her mind from the pain, and in that denial suffered silently with the burning in her stomach the entire trip.
“We should stop here for tonight, we shouldn’t travel through the woods on horseback at night, it might injure them” Annabelle called out. A true enough statement that wouldn’t get any odd looks, when in reality she wanted to stop because she felt on the verge of passing out, and didn’t want to appear weak.
Luckily for her, the others agreed and began to talk among themselves as they dismounted their horses and began to prepare the camp in the cover of large boulders and tall trees.
They were well away from any roads that would be traveled, and they were far enough away from the city to avoid the likes of travelers or bandits, but Casper had insisted that they still take extra precautions against being spotted, so they did exactly that.
They were good at setting up camp now, they had done it so many times as a group that it developed into an almost pleasant routine.
Everyone had their jobs, everyone had their order of operations and in no time flat the camp was set, a fire started, food cooked, and relaxation commenced.
“Was it really as scary as everyone says it was?” Alex asked, directing the question at Annabelle as she laid down on a patch of soft grassy earth, propped against a tree slightly in order to better look at everyone while still giving her ass a break from the discomfort of riding all day.
“It was…” She had to admit.
Annabelle's entire body shivered at the thought of the marked slave on that stage. The atmosphere her presence alone created. The stunned, petrified silence, the abject terror present on even some of the guards faces, and that horror realized as the man in black assaulted her and the celestials.
She had told them briefly about what had taken place on their trip, but talking did in fact hurt so she tried to keep it to a minimum, which ended up leaving more questions than answers in the others minds
To think that the marked girl would be more powerful than the man in black felt impossible. She knew the only reason she had survived so long in the encounter was because the celestials had been healing her. She thought, naively at first, that she might actually be strong, that she could fight side by side with celestials.
She was wrong.
It wasn’t until after she had nearly died, gotten on the road and inspected the damage to her body did she see the lingering scars of where the man had stabbed her repeatedly, only for the wounds to have healed nearly instantly.
The only strikes she could dodge or parry, were the slowest ones, after he had already exhausted himself with countless other injuries she couldn’t even perceive at the time. She would have died 100 times over had both celestials not been channeling their energy into healing her, and the only reason they had died was because they too were exhausted from that effort.
“How can something like that even exist in this world?” Elisayra shivered visibly. Her mind too must have come to the same conclusion, that the man on the boat would be considered so much lesser than a marked person.
“That's why they are meant to die as infants, before they come into their power” Alex nods sagely at her own words. “It is for the good of the kingdom…no, the good of the entire world that such powerful people are not allowed to exist”
“In my culture, they speak of the mark only in passing” Nephinae speaks up.
The others look to her then, as she passes out the newest portion of soup for everyone.
“They speak of the marked in reverent tones, and use divine language to describe their nature. In human culture the marked are feared, in Elven culture the marked are, how would I describe it…”
“Prophetic,” Lailah interjects from her position among them.
“Yes, Prophetic is an apt word.” Nephinae confirms. “They are described as divine forces of nature. They are to be feared and respected as would a raging wildfire, or a tsunami. They are no more unnatural than any other force of nature. But whereas the earth calls forth thunderous storms as part of its own natural order, the magics of this world call forth their own storms, the marked.” Nephinae concludes in time with the handing out of the latest portion.
“The same is true for you then?” Alex asks Lailah
The half fiend woman nods her head in time with the faint flicking of her barbed tail.
“Yes. it is very much as you say”
Lailah looks briefly to Alex, to confirm she is permitted to speak further on the matter, and once Alex motions her confirmation, the half fiend continues.
“Our tribes rarely interacted with one another, yet many had much the same story to tell. The Dark Star that appears every 20 years is the equivalent of nature for the magic of the world. Magic flows through the planes and the earth like the current under the ocean. Shifting and changing, yet it is unstable. Those who can pull magic from the current will do so without regard for its effect on the greater whole. In much the same way a kingdom might remove all the trees in a forest to make way for its now city, and in doing so disperse the animals that called it home, only to complain of these same animals attacking farmers and their livestock now that they have no more prey left to feed on, the dark star is such a response from the magic of the world. There are those who draw upon magic, and in doing so create an imbalance, the dark star marks children meant to cure this imbalance.”
“But how would the marked children know who to kill? It seems too random doesn’t it? At least in the natural world a forest fire happens for a reason, animals attack livestock because they are hungry and need food. Marking just any random child with power seems foolish” Annabelle counters, not at all buying this magical nonsense.
“On the contrary.” Nephinae interjects, “Unlike nature you see, magic is intelligent. There is a reason that one must perform specific rituals and speak certain words of power to command it. Magic is capable of discernment. In much the same way certain magic allows one to divine possibilities of the future in some instances, magic then must be capable of divination inherently within itself. The dark star can divine the nature of a person, and mark those it knows will aid in its cause of restoring the natural order”
Lailah nods at the elves words. “Nature is first and foremost outwardly chaotic, with order and structure internally. Magic on the other hand, is outwardly orderly, structured and exact, with an internal chaos.”
“This hurts my head” Elisayra presses the palms of her hands against each temple and squeezes dramatically, shaking her head left and right.
“I just think it's all utter nonsense. Order within chaos and chaos within order just sounds like fancy words used to explain away the truth of our world” Annabelle sighs.
“And what truth is that?” Alex asks.
“That nothing makes sense and there is no point in trying to make sense of it. Call me simple all you want but I've heard people philosophize day and night about the nature of things, and at the end of the road they return to the same mud they were born from. It doesn’t matter, is all I think. I can’t control magic so there is no point in trying to understand if it’s smart or not. I just need to know that if I cut off a mages hands and remove his tongue ill win a fight against one”
“The dislike of philosophy is yet still philosophy” Nephinae reasons.
“Sure, I just don't think sitting around talking about it gets much done. You are welcome to spend all that extra time in your own head, I'd rather be spending that same time looking at the world around me and focusing on the things I can see and touch and feel” Annabelle dismisses.
Alex frowns a little. “I like it…”
“Perhaps we can discuss it more than milady” Nephinae smiles.
“I am going to bed” Annabelle huffs, moving from her lying position under the tree, to her tent to turn in for the night.
Frankly, the discussion of the marked children was going to be giving her nightmares. She still felt that warm pressure emanating from the girl even as she closed her eyes and tried her best to forget it. She knew that if she ever encountered a marked person again up close, it would be the end of one of them. If they were a slave, she would kill them. She couldn’t sleep at night knowing something like that existed in the world. Or, if they were not a slave, she would die.
She just hoped that Casper had managed to make it out of that disaster in one piece.