Chapter 48 - Sacrifice

Cries and shouts from the slaves below deck were calling out to them, some of whom could be seen through the blasted hole in the middle of the ship. They were ignored for the time being as Brae counted his losses and moved his men’s bodies respectfully out to the side, while the other corpses were being sifted through for any goods they might have.

“You minion Rivia has increased her Rejuvenation skill by 1 level.”

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Simplified Status Page

Name: Rivia Ahst

Race: Culn, Lesser Demon

Class: Priestess

Level: 15

HP: 140/140, MP: 100/100, SP: 100/100, DP: 39/39

Skills: Rejuvenation^ (lvl. 16)(Dark Miracle), Immortal’s Infernal Blessing (lvl. 4) (Alkir’s

Miracle), Pestilence (lvl. 6)(Dark Miracle), Small Blades (lvl. 2),

Absorbent Soul Sacrifice (lvl. 2)(Ritual)

Traits: Curious, Faith Driven, Trey Bon’s Minion

Magical Attributes: Dark

Opinion of you: Subservient

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Trey blinked at the notification and turned to see Rivia healing one of their sailors. Wind whipped across her face and hair in a shower of ocean spray, and upon catching his eye she finished the miracle and excitedly got up. To his further surprise she yanked on a rope attached to a corpse, only to see that it wasn’t a corpse at all but was a living breathing human man she’d captured during the battle.

The tied up pirate was badly injured, his Achilles had been severed on both feet... and it was obvious Rivia’s pestilence miracle had been used on him to the point that he’d almost died before she’d canceled it out to preserve his life. Trey grinned, having no doubt about what she wanted to do with him. His guess was clarified to be true once she began to speak, coming within a few feet of him and bowing in respect.

“Master! I have obtained a man worthy of sacrifice! Perhaps we may proceed now to get it out of the way?”

She looked up at him eagerly, her gorgeous features never failing to catch him off guard whenever she was happy. The demoness always got this way whenever she was furthering her cause to become closer to her chosen goddess. Alkir, Mistress of Darkness, hadn’t given Rivia a pledge opportunity yet… but Rivia’s current and primary goal in life was to get one. She’d talked to him about it many times. Undergoing a pledge would bind Rivia to Alkir’s service as the only god or goddess Rivia could worship, but it would seriously improve Rivia’s power and ability to cast unique or otherwise unavailable miracles as she did Alkir’s bidding - or spread Alkir’s word.

Trey had even recently seen another priest in the Deadlands of Ornthas who’d been brought along to nullify undead in another group, and the priest had pledged and been accepted to one of the Holy Trinity - a god called Juez. This priest was absurdly powerful and had smitten down swaths of undead in his path while temporarily allying with the group Trey had been contracted to.

Trey’d noted that the priest seriously disliked him even at first glance, and made very loud objections to participating in the temporary alliance purely because of Trey’s status as an infernal summoner. To the point - Trey could tell a significant difference between this pledged priest and the others he’d seen since getting here to Ornthas - and if he could get Rivia to that sort of status with her chosen goddess, it would significantly help the party out.

So with Trey’s approval, Rivia had continued to undertake Absorbant Soul Sacrifices with anyone who Trey deemed unworthy of life. Despite the increased stats he or another one of the group got for every sacrifice they undertook, Rivia would get a notification from Alkir about their bond growing deeper. It was the ritual she’d learned from Alkir’s First Writ not long ago, and Rivia was confident that Alkir already held her in favor - so she had an edge. Even on Rivia’s status page: it showed one of her miracles, ‘Immortal’s Infernal Blessing’, to be specific to Alkir. This was not done without a deity's favor, so it was factual proof of it all together. In large part, allowing Rivia to continue her heart’s desire in becoming a pledged priestess of Alkir was one of a few reasons why Rivia had come to hate Trey less than she had in the beginning - after he’d taken her from her home in Oblivion against her will.

Trey gave a scowl in the wounded pirate’s direction and promptly slammed a foot into the man’s back. The resulting impact caused the man to grunt pitifully, but he was so near death that he couldn’t even raise his head or comprehend what was being said around him.

“Let’s do it.”

Rivia beamed up at Trey with a perfect smile and pulled out some light-blue chalk from a small satchel on her waist. Some of the others began to watch, but most had already seen her perform such a sacrifice at least once before - so it didn’t draw too much attention.

The demoness drew a large, almost perfect circle around the man’s tortured body onto the wood of the deck. Then she drew another smaller one that connected to the first. Large pockets of rot riddled it from the pestilence miracle she’d cast earlier, and he was having a hard time breathing despite his deep gasps of air. As the circle completed, she began drawing out small markings designating the soul sacrifice to the Infernal Crowns, and then the one to her chosen dark goddess who was part of the pantheon. This ritual could be performed to send the soul to any of the Infernal Crowns, the primary pantheon of dark deities. So when drawing it out: Rivia had to make sure that Alkir’s signature marking - a throne of flames - was at the centerpiece of the smaller circle attached to the larger one.

Jason came to watch beside Trey as they both leaned against the railing. The larger blonde man crossed his arms with a slight scowl. “I still think this is fucked up.”

Trey rolled his eyes in exaggerated fashion. “Were you not just picking them off as they swam away in the water? Save your preaching for someone else.”

“Yeah… but this is to a dark goddess. An EVIL goddess. Is that really the kind of stuff you want to get rolled up in?” Jason was seriously concerned at the idea, shaking his head at Rivia’s obvious glee while the demoness began to sprinkle a red powder over her victim.

Trey shrugged. “Dunno. Don’t really care either. Never really believed in god much growing up, even when I went to church. Don’t really think much about these gods or goddesses here either. Either they exist, or they don’t. But if this really is a game, I’m going to take any advantage I can get. If it isn’t a game… well, consider my soul already fucked.”

The two men had undergone many debates concerning the reality of their situation, but neither one of them had ever conclusively decided on what this all was. They’d both decided to go with the flow and accept their lives as something of an enigma. Trey claimed to just not know - but he would certainly guess at it being an unnervingly real virtual reality experience. Ashe and Jason leaned towards this all being reality despite the All Spirit’s notifications, while Izumi didn’t really care either way and decided to live out her life the way she’d want to regardless of if it was real or not.

His thoughts were interrupted as Rivia stripped her robe, satchel and sandals off. She always stripped for these rituals, for reasons he really didn’t understand but she insisted on being important. He just used it as an excuse to ogle the girl’s nude athletic body, as did all the others watching.

Rivia lifted her eyes skywards and began to mutter incantations under her breath, either arm out wide to expose her breasts to the world. Her long black hair fell straight down with her back arching, kneeling within the larger chalk ring and continuing to mutter. Then the chalk began to blaze with crimson flames and the area immediately around them grew dark despite the light of the sun.

“Alkir, Mistress of Darkness... hear the prayer of this one undeserving servant… a kindred spirit, one of the faithful damned...”

The flames shreaked, hissing faded words nobody could grasp expelling from the beyond - and an area of darkness formed around them upon Rivia’s words. Rivia shuddered and smiled as she felt Alkir’s touch, relishing in the attention her goddess was giving her.

“Take this soul as an offer of tribute from my master and I. May you feed on it to satiate your everlasting hunger, may it dwell in your realm of darkness evermore. Please bless us for the offering we give thee, and send us your favor. We are your humble disciples, great one, and we ask you to guide us in our daily lives so that we may become closer to your unholy grace.”

Rivia’s outstretched hand, the one carrying the sacrificial dagger, erupted with green mana. The demoness abruptly looked at it in shock, nearly dropping the weapon as she did. This had never happened before in her previous rituals and even Trey was seriously confused at the new addition to their procedure… but the flaming dagger she held didn’t appear to be hurting Rivia whatsoever.

Dagger of Sacrifice

Item Tier: (7) Rare

Damage: 16

On Hit Effect: None

Bonuses: None

Requirements: None

Durability: 99/101

Special: Experience gained by sacrificing to the higher powers is doubled.

Curiously inspecting it, he began to see a change in its identification information that flickered back and forth. His eyes grew wide with amazement as the weapon began to change in physical form too - becoming much longer, sleeker, and an ebony black that had a gap split down the entire length of the blade through the middle until it met the base. Green wisps slithered along the weapon and continued to gently lap at Rivia’s hands. Then, the identification information permanently changed.

Acolyte’s Infernal Dagger of Sacrifice

Item Tier: (9) Grand

Damage: 82

On Hit Effect: +20% additional dark mana damage on strike

Bonuses: +34 Dexterity

Requirements: 48 Faith, Dark Attribute

Durability: 589/589

Special: Experience gained by sacrificing to the higher powers is tripled.

Still, the priestess knelt stunned and unable to speak. The ritual was stalled, and everyone held their breath at the new unprecedented happening. That was… until a creepy and unearthly woman’s voice called out to Rivia.

“Take my gift, and continue with the sacrifice… faithful child…”

The words caused Trey to go cold. Completely, cold. He began to shiver immensely and looked over to Jason who was doing the same. Had he really just heard that? That hadn’t been in his head had it?

With renewed vigor and a maniacal smile, the demoness continued the last lines of the ritual while raising the dagger over her head. “GLORY TO YOUR WILL, AND MAY THIS WRETCH FURTHER STRENGTHEN YOU IN ITS PASSING!”

The dagger plunged down hard into the dying man’s chest. He didn’t have much longer in this world anyways, but the shriek he gave out was one filled with horror. The green wisps of dark mana surged across his ruined body as the demon priestess yanked it back and forth in rough, brutal jerks - carving through bone and muscle alike with each violent yank. She began to laugh amidst the dying screams of the dying pirate to the horror of some, and the less surprised gazes of others.

A second later and the man’s screams stopped. A tiny light appeared overhead as the man’s soul was gathered by the ritual for transport. The dark miasma tainting the otherwise sunny day expanded and contracted repeatedly around the site of sacrifice, and the demoness gripped her shoulders with her hands in a self-hug of absolute happiness.

Then the tiny light screamed a shrill high pitched wail. The flames of the chalk rings disappeared entirely, and the dark miasma vanished… leaving only the priestess with a stupid looking smile plastered across her stunning features.

“Your minion Rivia has gained 1 level in Small Blades. Your minion’s ritual has been completed. You have gained 1 strength and 2 intelligence stat points from this sacrifice. You and your minion Rivia have gained further favor with the goddess Alkir, Mistress of Darkness.”

Trey scratched his head, a little dumbfounded at both the new dagger as well as the voice of who he could only assume to be a goddess that had spoken out from the ritual’s rings. He didn’t really have the words to put into sentences what he was feeling at that moment, so all he ended up mustering was the singular word: “Brutal.”

“Quite the poet.” Ashe chimed in with a hum. She waved and began to trot over to Izumi who was finally clambering up onto the galley from the smaller cog they’d originally sailed on.

Izumi saw the carnage on deck and frowned deeply, taking Ashe’s hand to pull herself on deck over the rail. “It looks like I missed the entire battle. I came out when I heard the fighting stop... but I’m glad you’re all ok. Oh. Big Cow Daddy died… I’m sorry to see that.”

The Japanese girl blinked a couple times at seeing the minotaur’s corpse but knew she wouldn’t lose sleep over it. Big Cow Daddy had been less than good company since Trey’d acquired him - and Izumi, although a kind girl, hadn’t really gotten along with the overly muscled demon.

Brae slapped Trey on the shoulder, ignoring Izumi completely and whistling at the sight he’d just seen with Rivia’s ritual. “Wow. Was that the goddess herself who talked to you Rivia?”

Rivia only nodded, still infatuated with the idea that she’d finally heard Alkir’s own voice - not in a dream, but in person. Rivia even looked like she was about to faint from sheer happiness. Trey was the one to finally help her to her feet, and she clung to him while still looking skywards and murmuring to herself about the Infernal Crowns pantheon. He didn’t bother asking her about what it was she was saying though, because every time he asked about this subject he’d get a full blown lecture that would last quite a while. Though the topic did interest him… he had other things to do.

Telling Rivia to put her clothes back on and calling out to the others of his small mercenary group, he began to help sift through corpses to find valuables they may take. There were still well over twenty unchecked corpses, and as they found money or items of note they tossed them into the pile the other sailors had started. Swords, cutlasses, varieties of still-intact light armor, coin purses, bows, potions, axes, shields, and drugs made up the majority of the pile with a couple of oddities standing out. There were a couple maps, an hourglass, a sack filled with a mortar and pestle with herbs, some power gems filled with mana, and two magically enhanced telescopes.

“I’m calling the bag of herbs!” Jason eagerly scooped it up when he’d seen it and strapped it over his side to make it two bags of ingredients he’d no doubt use in the upcoming weeks. He’d nearly doubled the amount of supplies just in that one find and was smiling widely at the find while Izumi enthusiastically congratulated him and Ashe just rolled her eyes.

Brae stood nearby, barking orders to his 9 remaining men. The scarred captain shook his head in pity after walking by the corpses of his laid out comrades and then peered down the crater in the ship where slaves chained to oars were sitting idly by or anxiously calling out.

The captain cleared his throat and raised a hand to block a spray of ocean water as a particularly large wave crashed into the ship and caused it to sway for a moment. “Hey Trey, may I speak to you in private for a moment?”

Trey’d been looking over one of the dead pirates with Ashe, but he gave her an obnoxious yet friendly swat to the back of the head as he turned to leave. “Yeah that’s fine. What's up Brae?”

Walking across the bloodied deck towards the back of the ship where the captain’s quarters were located, Brae remained quiet until they stopped at the door leading in. Inside the doorway on the right side was a wooden staircase leading to the lower deck. To the left was a pantry filled with various types of rope and canvas. In front was a slender hallway that led back to another door where the captain no doubt slept.

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Brae cleared his throat again, looking exhausted and holding his left arm in a way that signified he’d injured it during the fighting. His sword was bloodstained and he noticed it only then, wiping it off as best he could with one of the nearby canvases and some spit. He gave Trey a glance just as Napoleon scampered over and climbed up Trey’s side to perch on his shoulder.

“You did fine work lad. Beyond fine work. I’m glad you’re on our side…”

Trey grinned at the compliment, leaning against the wood and holding his imp to scratch behind Napoleon’s ears. “Thanks. That’s what you paid us for right?”

Brae just scoffed and shook his head in disbelief. “No lad. You went above and beyond what we paid you to do. It is an absolute certainty we’d have all died today if you and yours hadn’t been here. Let me ask you a question… where is it that you’re all staying?”

Trey was confused by this and it showed, his brows furrowing at the question. “Do you mean, where do we live?”

Brae nodded, adjusting his linen shirt methodically as he’d done hundreds of times in the past out of habit.

Trey blinked. “Well, we used to camp out a couple miles west into the jungle on Teretog’s island… but now we rent a place in the Fost guild’s compound. It isn’t that cheap, but it is what it is. It’s too dangerous to live in the city without a large group or place to call your own, and there’s an All Spirit runestone I’ve bound myself to just a couple islands over that I’d heard about from other Earthborn here. Why do you ask?”

Brae gave him a small smile. “I’d figured as much. So I have a proposition for you. How’d you like to live here?”

Brae pointed back to the captain’s quarters over his shoulder.

Trey raised an eyebrow, setting the imp down and letting Napoleon wander off. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

The older scarred man chuckled, then motioned for Trey to follow him in. Pushing through the wooden door and into the private quarters, they found a rather magnificent fluffy red bed. It was very large, large enough to fit many people at once. Pillows aligned its back and bottles of various alcohols along with plain goblets were along the far wall on a dresser. Aside from the bed it was a rather simple room, but the glass window along the back gave a rather nice view of the sea and off beyond it to the islands in the distance.

Brae watched Trey’s expression change. He could tell Trey liked it.

“I’m offering you the ship.” Brae said forwardly. He crossed his arms in a serious fashion. “It should go without saying, but I know you wouldn’t take it if I didn’t put it out there myself. You and yours protected me and mine to the best of your abilities. One of your minions even died, and I’m sorry for that loss. This warship is still in fair condition, it’s still sail-able even with the loss of one mast, and although it will need many repairs the enchantments on the hull alone are worth a small fortune. You could even strip them and sell them here on the black market, for which you’d have many buyers. This galley is elvish in design, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was somehow stolen from one of the southern navies. Do you want it?”

Trey pooched his lips, looking around the room again in satisfaction. Then his face fell and he sighed loudly. “I mean, yeah. It’d be great, but I can’t.”

“Why?” Brae asked curiously.

“Isn’t it obvious? I don’t know how to sail this thing. I don’t know how to navigate. I don’t even have a crew big enough to do anything with it.” Trey held up his hands helplessly to either side, a pitiful look of regret sitting as an expression. “But it’s a nice gesture. Thank you Brae, I appreciate it. I think you should be the one to keep this ship, after all your cog is pretty much fucked after those hooks took out the side. If you detach it from this galley now, it may very well sink.”

Brae snorted and shook his head adamantly. “No, the cog will still be able to float fine. If you don’t accept the ship, then I need to find something else of value that is worth your efforts. Otherwise it will haunt me to my end days, knowing that I cheated the man who saved me and my comrades’ lives. What is it you want? We can give you all the money we find here on the ship, though pirates usually hide their greatest treasures somewhere on land so their subordinates don’t steal it. So there probably isn’t much here. Or we can give you one of the three items we took back from Ornthas? Perhaps some of the slaves? Slaves are worth a pretty penny after all and you could sell them when we get back.”

For the relics, there were three of them and none of them were fully identified yet... so their worth was to-be-determined. Picking one of the relics would be a gamble, but it was likely they were all worth a great deal of money regardless. As for Slavery, it was common practice in many of the countries here. Even while in Vork: the villagers talked about how during blood feuds if one side one, most of the time the losing family would be sold off into slavery without much of a thought about it from the rest of the village. Trey was leaning more towards this entire experience being some virtual reality death game and took the All Spirit’s words at face value most of the time. If anything, he believed these other people aside from the Earthborn to be advanced AI’s themselves. He wasn’t certain of it, but it definitely seemed that way to him and explained a lot of how this world worked. So here he wasn’t necessarily opposed to slavery as long as it benefitted him, OR if the ‘people’ AKA artificial NPC’s deserved it. After all, he’d already enslaved Rivia had he not? He’d done the same with his recently deceased minotaur. The other minions he had were there of their own choice, but as a summoner he was actually in the business of enslaving demons after all.

He’d even tried minionizing a couple human slaves a while back. His job description said that he would be able to contract demon, fallen, and enslaved class minions to him… but every time he’d tried with a slave at the markets here in the Lawless Lands he’d come up empty handed. The system would then notify him that these people didn’t meet the criteria for the three classes he could subjugate, and he’d then learned from some other amused warlocks he’d met that ‘Enslaved’ class minions were somehow bound magically prior even to a contract and not just physically bound. The enslaved class minions also couldn’t be of Fae, Undead or Angelic origin either, leaving the mortal races as the only options. They’d also mentioned that this rule could be bent or even broken at higher tiers of the black magics, and it made Trey wonder whether or not those rules could also be broken for Earthborn.

It’d certainly be a little creepy, thinking that he or other summoners and warlocks could enslave the will of a person from Trey’s home world. Someone who wasn’t an NPC.

Anyways: the warlocks told him that after leveling up enough or finding the proper spells he’d be able to contract people that way, but were unwilling to sell him the spells themselves without an absurdly high price tag that he’d immediately passed up with a ‘no’.

“We’re going to probably conscript a couple of those willing, and those that don’t seem interested will probably be sold at the markets.” Brae continued after letting Trey think on it for a while. “I’ve already taken a look down there and I can tell it piques your interest. Want to take a tour of the cargo?”

Trey nodded, and he followed the scarred captain down into the lower decks.

Funny that he thought of Brae as the ‘scarred’ captain though, because Brae probably thought of Trey as the ‘scarred summoner.’

The lower level upon coming down the stairs was filled with stored foods. Dried and salted meats kept in strange leaf pouches meant to preserve them were in abundance. More liquors, potatoes, tropical fruits and fish were also found in plenty just before entering the long walkway of the under-level to the rowing benches. There, somewhere between 50-60 shirtless men were chained to the benches with scars of whip lashes across nearly all of their backs. Some of them were young while others were sporting long white beards and in their later years. Brae led Trey down the rows at a slow trot as the slaves either cowered underneath their gaze or held out their shackled hands with hope lighting their expressions. Murmuring between the unfortunate captives was kept to a minimum after seeing Trey’s demonic appearance though.

Coming to the spot where Trey’d blasted the upper deck to create a crater, Trey saw that collateral damage had unfortunately happened. Three of the slaves lay mangled and dead while still chained to their benches, and it gave him a small sense of guilt. He hadn’t meant to do it, but it couldn’t have been helped.

“The more valuable ones are in the back.” Brae motioned for Trey to continue following him after his friend had slowed, and soon the two men came to a door. Opening the creaking wooden door was a series of small bunk beds that the pirates had no doubt used. Beyond that and further down at the end of the galley was a cell built into the left side of the ship. Coming closer Trey quickly saw that there were more slaves here as well, only these ones were human women and they numbered at only 12. All of them were pretty, and by the way they were all bruised and chained; it was a certainty they were often used for the enjoyment of the old crew.

Some of them looked up curiously with Trey’s arrival while others just continued to lay hopelessly on the wooden floorboards in an uncaring daze... until a small voice called out in excitement to question whether or not the fight was over. The women had all heard the commotion from up above them, but none of them knew what had happened. What they did know was that they’d never seen either of these particular men before.

“Are they dead? Are the bastard pirates dead?”

The question was ignored however as Trey’s eyes scanned the naked women. Glancing over at a bottle of wine atop a nearby table, likely left from the crew earlier that day, he took a long swig and sighed with satisfaction. Now all he needed was some hardcore stimulants or hallucinogens and his life would be complete.

Brae motioned towards the slaves with a wave of his hand and cleared his throat. “These ones should each be worth about 1 platinum apiece. I was going to sell them back at the Teretog markets and give you the earnings, but I wanted to see if you wanted any first. You can even have all of them if you wish, just let me know what it is you decide. As for the men in the last room… they’d likely only be worth one or two gold each. None of the men have any fighting capabilities, pirates don’t keep slaves who can rebel against them.”

1 platinum coin was roughly worth the equivalent of 1000 dollars. With 12 of them, and each of these women being roughly worth that even from Trey’s estimate due to the level of attractiveness these dozen women had and seeing the slave markets of Teretog himself, it would be a very good haul for Trey’s group and more money than he’d ever had before. Even now, Trey and his friends only had a single pouch of coins worth a tenth of that.

Trey sighed as some of the women chained in the cell shifted to look at him anxiously, awaiting what he would decide to do. Most of them simply didn’t care though: their situation wouldn’t change. To most of them, being sold in Teretog or being kept by Trey as a slave wouldn’t be any different than being enslaved to the pirates who’d first taken them. A couple blondes were present amongst otherwise raven-haired Amazonian women, probably taken from passing ships the pirates had commandeered or coastal villages they’d plundered by Trey’s guess.

“What would happen if we set them free?”

Trey’s question surprised everyone immensely, especially Brae. The scarred captain raised an eyebrow and folded his arms in contemplation.

“What would happen?” Brae repeated curiously.

Trey nodded. “That’s right. Would they be able to make it? I know we won’t be able to take them back to whatever countries they came from… I wouldn’t ask you to make that kind of trip. I know it would take time, money and would mean traversing dangerous waters for strangers. What if we just let them off at Teretog with some minor amount of money to try and make their own way back?”

Brae snorted at the idea, shaking his head with a deep sigh despite the newly hopeful looks from many of the girls. “Trey… You’ve seen what Teretog is like. Unless they have someone to go to for protection, they’d immediately be robbed of their money and enslaved again. People go missing in Teretog all the time, especially women. Or worse, they’d be robbed and killed or sacrificed… you know how many black magic users exist here in the Lawless Lands. You’re one yourself! It would put us out of the money we’d give them, the money we’d otherwise make selling them, and put them in the same exact scenario that they’d be in here. It would be less than pointless.”

“And what of the men?” Trey inquired curiously. “What if we let some of them off with the girls? I could take all of my payment that way, you wouldn’t owe me anything but the basic fee if you did.”

Brae’s eyes lit up at the suggestion. The slaves were worth a good amount between both the men and women… but not as much as he knew he owed this man. Perhaps it would be a good trade.

“Do you not want them? I’m confused… Are your demons not slaves?”

Trey smirked. “They are in a sense, but Rivia is the only one that is truly a slave. Rivia also deserved her position, while these girls did nothing to deserve their current conditions to my knowledge. Believe me when I say I would like to keep them all for myself! What man wouldn’t? But there’s some lines I shouldn’t cross lest I become one of the assholes I hate so much here in this world. Let all of the slaves go, and we’ll call it even.”

One of the Amazonian women frantically shook her head and would have come up to the bars of the cell if her chains hadn’t yanked her back upon getting up. She made a yelping sound once she fell backwards and hit the floor, but quickly recovered to gain the attention of the two men talking. “Please do not let us off with those vermin, lord. They are as bad as the pirates… please no!”

Trey threw up his hands to either side helplessly, now having the full attention of all twelve women. “Then WHAT do you want me to do exactly!?”

There wasn’t an immediate reply, and the Amazonian girl slunk back down in defeat.

Trey shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Do you have anywhere we could drop you off in Teretog? Do ANY of you have anyone we can contact in Teretog?”

There were a couple murmurs and the women exchanged looks with one another, but nothing tangible was said. A couple minutes later the interrogation passed by and not even a single one of them had a reliable option. The few blonde women told him they’d been kidnapped from a fishing village on the eastern coast of Yosemar after their families were killed and their houses burned to the ground, while the tanned Amazonian women had been taken from a grasslands region to the southwest where their tribe had been slaughtered. Apparently some of the men here were also from these areas, though only two of the darker-skinned Amazonian women wanted to be reunited with the men they knew while the others adamantly stated they wanted to be kept as far away from them as possible.

Eventually Trey unlocked the shackles of the two women who’d wanted to reunite with the men they knew out in the rowing area, and had Brae take them over. Giving them each a couple copper apiece, Trey apologized that he couldn’t give more and with a friendly smile told them to meet him up on the deck with Brae’s glance as the scarred man left. Although it wasn’t a decision Brae would have made himself, he couldn’t deny that it worked out in his favor.

Now Trey was left scratching his chin and looking down at the other women trying to figure out what to do, just as he heard a familiar voice call out from the way Brae had left.

“Hey jackass!” Ashe yelled out cheerily as she skipped over and nudged Trey with a grin. She had a bottle of wine in one hand and took a long swig from it before burping and wiping the dribbles from her face. “Izumi and Jason were wondering what you were doing down here. Brae said you were freeing the slaves and otherwise trying to figure out what to do with them? I’m kind of surprised considering you keep Rivia, thought you’d take a couple for yourself.”

Unlike Jason and Izumi, Ashe had become thoroughly jaded since her arrival in Teretog. She’d killed people and creatures many, many times and had undergone pretty horrific things at the hands of soldiers in the Yosemar dungeons. In retrospect, she wasn’t even close to the same person she’d been coming in from Earth. She sometimes would even get annoyed with Jason for being so goody-goody about things, but had taken a strong liking to her companions nonetheless – often finding herself leaning more towards Trey’s side of morality as opposed to Jason’s. Though Ashe did think this was possibly not just a realistic game like Trey seemed to believe, she didn’t gawk at the thoughts of murder, drugs, or stealing anymore. She did what she had to do to survive, and if a little bit of bad tidings for others meant she lived it up… then as long as it didn’t negatively impact her friends: fuck it.

“Rivia is a special case.” Trey sighed loudly, tired of repeating himself. He’d already explained it multiple times. “If they’re innocent I won’t harm them. These people haven’t done anything.”

Ashe rolled her eyes with an audible grunt. “Well I’m tired of being horny and alone. You have Rivia all to yourself, so I want one! At the very least, give them the option to sell themselves to us.”

Trey raised an eyebrow in subtle shock. He often heard Ashe complain about how she wasn’t getting any, but he hadn’t expected her to want a sex slave.

“I’m serious!” Ashe exclaimed with a drunk hiccup. She scowled, brushed her long blonde hair out to the side, took another swig of wine and folded her arms while tapping her foot. “They can take their chance at freedom in this batshit crazy area of the Lawless Lands, or they can sell themselves to us!”

Ashe then gave him a sly wink. “To us… or to me…”

He paused, more than a little surprised, and turned to the other ten still-chained women in the cell. Ashe was lesbian so it didn't surprise him too much that she'd suggest it. “I… suppose that is also an option if you want it. I can either drop you all off in Teretog with a little bit of coin apiece and your freedom, or since most of you have nowhere to go you could sell yourselves to Ashe.”

Ashe raised an eyebrow with a crooked smile, and the thoughts racing through her drunken mind were lewd at best. Her preferences weren't ever something she’d let her extremely religious father and pastor know about, but she was free from his judgmental views now. She was being true to herself, and although she very rarely did find men attractive… she far more often found women to be for her tastes.

Trey cleared his throat to continue after he’d captured the attention of the women and gave a knowing look to Ashe.

A thin, freckled blonde girl in her late teens with cropped hair that went down to her shoulders timidly lifted a hand to get Trey’s attention. Her gaze shifted away from his crimson and lack eyes as they laid on her, but he waited patiently for her to push through her obvious hesitations.

“Are you a demon?” the young girl asked softly, the shackles chaining her to the ring on the wall clanking together as she moved.

One of the other blondes from the same village, a woman likely in her thirties, sneered at the younger girl. “Are you stupid? Can you not identify him? He’s an infernal summoner. Warlocks and summoners often get the attributes of the demons that serve them.”

The tone was rather rude and Trey had a hard time understanding why she’d talk to the girl like that, but nevertheless shrugged it off. People here in the Lawless Lands were absolute jerks most of the time so it wasn’t anything surprising. It had certainly earned a couple people a swift slash across the guts or a crack of their spine when Trey’d been in particularly bad moods – sending those jerks on a quick ride to the afterlife when they’d pushed their luck too far.

The younger freckled blonde cupped her hands together and said nothing, sitting in silence and feeling stupid about her question.

“I would like a chance at freedom.” Said the older blonde woman and held out her shackled hands with wide pleading eyes. “I’ll take my chances on my own. If I don’t make it, then at least I got another chance. Please… let me go.”

It didn’t take long for most of the others to agree with her, so he obliged. Once he’d unlocked yet another one of their shackles, the rest of them began to grow excited at the idea of a freedom they’d never thought would come. Some of them began talking to one another about joining one of the brothels in Teretog to save up money for a trip home, while others nervously fidgeted about their prospects of surviving without being enslaved again. They could be killed or used as sacrifices, made to play in local arena deathmatches for entertainment of the major syndicates and guilds, or left to starve on their own. The chances of survival were low and they all knew it, but the temptation of freedom overcame their sense of personal safety.

Except for one of them.

Ashe curiously watched the pretty, freckled blonde girl sit quietly by as Trey unlocked each of the other women’s shackles, letting them leave the cell. He told them to talk to Brae about getting a couple copper each along with whatever food or clothes they could find and carry from the ship. They thanked him profusely as they went, two of them even crying loudly and hugging him in thanks before walking out of the room. As it finally came to the last one, Trey waited for the teenage woman to hold out her own wrists so he could unlock her shackles too.

What he got from her instead was unexpected.

“…What… What are your terms if I sell myself? I have no family left… and the other women from my village dislike me. I have nowhere to go and fear what would happen if I left on my own.”

The blond teenager looked up to him, finally meeting his eyes as he straightened his posture to appreciate her symmetrical facial features.

Trey and Ashe exchanged glances, with Ashe giving him a big thumbs up – a signal from her saying that she approved.

“First, how old are you?” Trey asked with a small frown. “Please tell me you’re at least 18.”

The woman nodded gingerly, becoming braver by the second. “I just turned 18 years of age before I was taken as a slave five months ago. Why?”

Trey’s frown turned to a smile, then he nodded approvingly. “Good. So my terms our these: You become our slave and perform the tasks we require of you. In turn we’ll feed you, clothe you, and make sure you aren’t ever harmed. We’ll take care of you. You’ll be treated kindly, but you’ll still be our property and do what we say when we say it. Or namely - you'll be Ashe's property.”

The girl looked over at Ashe who was smiling drunkenly down at her before replying with growing interest. “What are the tasks you would have me perform?”

Trey blinked and looked back over his shoulder as he heard a small commotion from the rowing area - where the male slaves were kept - but ignored it after it soon died down under Brae’s brief shout of annoyance. “What skill sets do you have?”

“I was a fisherman’s daughter, so I know how to work a boat. I didn’t do much else.”

“So you basically can’t do anything.”

The girl shamefully averted her gaze, growing red in the face which further emphasized her freckles.

“Who cares!” Ashe gleefully laughed and walked over to shove Trey aside. “I think you’re pretty. That’s all that matters.”

The imprisoned girl blushed a bright red, covered her mouth with her hands and averted her eyes, but she didn’t seem too bothered by the compliment.

Trey’s eyebrows heightened again and he shook his head, but kept the kind smile while continuing to talk to the chained girl. “You can carry some of our belongings and work as a servant. Truthfully Ashe just wanted to fuck you anyways… And you can do other small tasks we find for you. What’s your name?”

Another ruckus of commotion from the other room caught Trey’s attention for just a split second but he ignored it nonetheless.

The young blonde looked back up to him hesitantly, rubbing her fingers together and tugging slightly at the tight shackles along her wrists. “My name is Eeme. Will you be... Will you be using me too?"

Trey shook his head. "No, I have Rivia for that, she's a culn priestess. No harems for me."

Trey pointed upwards towards the deck. “She’s upstairs. Anyways this is Ashe. She’s not into guys and prefers girls instead, so you’ll be sleeping with her."

Ashe giggled at the comment and continued appraising the slave girl as Eeme glanced back. “Does that sound alright with you dearie? I promise I’ll… treat you well...”

Ashe was practically salivating while she shamelessly eyefucked this new woman while thinking of all the things they would do together later that night.

The soft words and small smile creeping onto Ashe’s lips made Eeme feel at ease, and she returned it with a small grin of her own. With a fluid motion she brought up her shackled hands and expectantly waited for Trey to unlock them.

“I accept your terms. I would likely end up dead, in a brothel, or under the thumb of a cruel master otherwise. I might as well choose one that promises to treat me right.”