I cringed at my past actions, but there was nothing to be done about it now. I asked Mors and Aurea about the provinces that were listed as traitors in the decree. Ocaephis was in the Merca province, and was close to the border of Uten province, which was one of the still loyal provinces. The Agmen and Corpor provinces were both north of Merca province, and the 3 provinces essentially divided the empire in half from north to south. In the Pithus Empire, those declared traitors against the emperor were reduced to slaves, whose fate was to be sold and used for the rest of their lives. The rebel leaders had cleverly used this fact to force the commoners and soldiers to fight for themselves and their families, as the only other alternative was slavery and death.

“The fact that 3 of the 6 provinces are taking part means this is no small rebellion. The planning for this insurgency must have occurred years ago. I wonder if the rebel leaders made up the news that everyone in the rebel provinces were declared traitors?”

The 3 loyal provinces were the Uten province, Atrox province, and Mancip province. The capital city, Duradad, was situated in the middle of the empire in its own province of Summus. Summus was the smallest of the provinces, but was the most heavily fortified of them as well. Duradad itself had layers upon layers of walls, so many it was apparently jokingly referred to as an onion.

“Alright, let's go,” I said after saving images of each decree on the board. I spent the rest of the day exploring the merchant’s ring, and buying items from several shops as I passed by. Spices, cooking ingredients, books, clothing, maps, gems and crystals, and furs were only a few of the things I bought.

“Ocaephis definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the largest trade cities in the Merca province.”

After my shopping spree, I was only left with about 100 gold and some change. Aurea had bought a few items that caught her fancy, and Mors chose to save his money. Even after the sun had set, I had only managed to explore half of the merchant's ring. The three of us rented a room in an inn called The Blue Lagoon for the night. Aurea and Mors ate a dinner consisting of boar steak, a thin stew and a small salad. They went to their room after finishing dinner, which luckily had 2 separate beds. They fell asleep not long after, and I stood watch the entire night, only taking a small break to replace a battery.

I let my companions sleep in, knowing they were tired from the long journey. Mors woke up first, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. As he was getting ready, I woke Aurea up and suggested she freshen up. Her hair looked like a tangled rat's nest, but she used a small comb she purchased the other day to straighten it out. Once we were all ready, we went out and looked around the rest of the merchant’s ring. I had already bought most of what I was looking for yesterday, so I only looked around. There was one store, however, that did catch my attention.

“The Cage ‘n’ Collar, huh?”

“Were you interested in buying some slaves?” Mors inquired, seeing my interest.

“Slavery is legal in Pithus?” I asked.

“Of course. Slavery is one of the most profitable businesses in the empire. There are entire mercenary companies dedicated to raiding neighboring countries for slaves. Sometimes, the empire even helps out these mercenary companies if they are raiding a nation Pithus is at war with. The empire gets help in the war, and the mercenary companies get help with acquiring their merchandise. It's a win-win for both parties.”

“I shouldn't be surprised. A lot of places had some form of slavery at one point.”

“[It was a common trait among many civilizations on Earth.]”

“Dad and I never owned any slaves,” Aurea remarked. “He always said they were too expensive and troublesome to deal with.”

“Well, I don’t see why we can’t take a look at their goods,” I replied, opening the door.

The interior of the shop was well lit, with sconces lining the wall every few meters. The only things I could see were a small counter along with cabinets along the wall, with labels such as working, combat, and specialty.

“Be right with you!” someone shouted. The sound came from behind a door at the back of the store. I waited patiently until a large, burly man came through the doors, cleaning his hands with a dirty rag.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Sorry for the wait, what can I help you with?” He said. His voice was deep and gravelly, making me wonder if he was a smoker.

“I was wondering if I could take a look at what you have for sale?”

“Sure, but you need to give me more to go off of than that. What kind of slaves are you looking for?”

I pointed to the labeled cabinets, asking “Well, can you explain to me what each of those labels mean?”

“So, most slaves are categorized by their skill sets. The ones in the working class are slaves that were once builders, bricklayers, farmers, that sort of thing. They are pretty popular with our wealthier clientele. Combat class slaves are usually prisoners of war that were sold into slavery, and as their name implies, are good at fighting. Merchants like to buy them to protect their goods, as a cheaper alternative to hired guards. The others are usually put in a specialty class. Those slaves are harder to come by and had valuable professions before being slaves. Some of them might have been winemakers, cobblers, cooks, jewelers and blacksmiths.”

The specialty slaves interested me. If I acquired some, I might be able to get some information that I might not be able to get elsewhere.

“If you’re interested,” he said, interrupting my thoughts, “I got a new batch of elven slaves that some mercs sold to me a few days ago. Would you like to take a look?”

“Wait wait wait… did he say elves?”

“[Yes.]”

“Yeah!” I blurted out. Everyone looked at me a bit strangely. “Uh, I mean…sure.” I said, taking a moment to compose myself.

“Come on back then,” he said, opening the door and beckoning me to follow. I told Aurea and Mors to stay put, and I followed the man to the back of the shop. The man led me down a long hallway, with a few metal doors on both sides. My sensitive audio sensors allowed me to hear some sounds from through the door, namely weeping and groans of pain. Taking me to one of the doors, the man used a large iron key to unlock the padlock that hung from the door. He opened the door, revealing the poor souls kept within. Each of them varied in appearance, from a dark skinned and muscular man, to a tanned woman with dirty red hair. They were all chained to the wall, with clamps attached to their left ankles and right wrists.

“This is where we keep all the new arrivals before we sort them into their respective classes,” the man explained. “But the ones I was talking about are over here,” he said, leading me towards the corner. There was a group of 4 pale skinned individuals, all with long silver hair covering their faces. I noticed 2 of them were smaller and thinner, along with having even lighter skin than their larger counterparts, almost as pure white as snow. But most interesting of all, was the fact that the larger ones had 8 fingers and toes, while the smaller ones only had 6.

“Woah. Not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t that.”

“[They may be afflicted with a type of polydactyly.]”

“No idea what that is, care to explain?”

“[Polydactyly: A congenital condition in which one or more extra fingers or toes are present on the hand or foot.]”

“Oooh ok.”

“Can I examine them?” I asked casually.

“Of course,” the man nodded, “Just don’t hurt them. We have a ‘You break it, you buy it’ policy here.”

I grabbed the chin of one of the larger elves and forced it to look into my eyes. I was unsure as to its gender, but aside from the extra fingers and toes, its anatomical similarity to humans led me to assume it was a male.

“Wow. Silver eyes to match the hair, along with thin, triangular ears. Other facial features are nearly identical to those of a human.”

“[These elves might be an offshoot of the homo sapien or homo erectus genuses.]”

“Maybe they split off even earlier in the evolutionary tree.”

After performing a superficial examination, I stepped back and spoke to the shopkeeper. “I’m not from around here, and not very familiar with the elves. Can you tell me a bit about them?”

“Sure. The kingdom of Hvenesia is the homeland of the elves, and is currently the only country that can rival Pithus. Elves are usually longer lived than us humans, and sometimes live up to 200 years old. I’ve heard that some of the elders of the elves are about 300 years old too. Elves are stronger and faster than humans, which is the main reason Pithus is having a hard time dealing with Hvenesia. That’s also why capturing elves for slaves is harder to do. Uuuh, what else?” the man asked, scratching his head. “Oh yeah, they are way more susceptible to disease and infection than the other races. If you buy an elf slave, you have to be ready to spend quite a bit of money on medicine. Most of our customers don’t want to deal with that kind of expense, so it's usually nobles or rich merchants that buy elf slaves.”

I thanked the man, and promptly bought the 4 elves. Like the materials I bought from the first shop I visited, I arranged for them to be loaded and waiting at the front gate, along with several days worth of food and water for them. It cost me quite a bit of money, but I was happy with my purchases.

“I’d say this trip has definitely been worthwhile”