The birds chirped and flew around merrily, the trees swayed to the slight breeze, all in all a most peaceful environment. Too bad Abrar was in no mood to appreciate the beauty when being caught in a net trap and hanging on a tree. The strange trap seemed to be made of some fibers which refused to snap even when Abrar used his newly gained magical skills. The feathers of the roc hermit did appear to have some effect but it was like attempting to file away an iron bar with a sharp nail, requiring immense effort to snap even one strand.
Many hours passed as Abrar tolled away at the net binding him, stopping periodically to rest his aching arms. He had almost managed to cut a hole, large enough for him to struggle out.
However his efforts were too slow and the owners of the traps, a strange bipedal toad like race holding staves surrounded him. Abrar ogled at the strange creatures, having never seen anything like that before other than in games and movies. The toads, seeing their trap in ruins, flew into a rage smashing their staves at Abrar to vent their frustrations.
“Boss, this human bastard has ruined the priceless eternity web! That’s a precious heirloom of our clan and won’t be easily replaced. We should beat this wretch to pulp and feed him to dogs.” One of the toad men turned to the leader beseeching a painful death for Abrar.
“Wait! It was an accident! I didn’t mean to get trapped in this net!” Abrar shouted trying to shield his head from the sticks striking him. Seeing no cessation of violence, he frantically threw his hand at the assailants conjuring up a space rift, cutting one of the staves aimed at him.
Seeing this burst of magic from an otherwise frail human specimen, the toads stopped their assault turning to their leader for instructions.
The brown gem on the forehead of the leader glowed ever so slightly as he peered at the spacial tear before him. “Space magic?” He cried out disbelievingly; this weakling could utilize space magic?
A torrent of thoughts rushed by the mind of the toad as he finally came to a conclusion. With greed in his eyes, he ordered, “Knock him out lads, we just made a sweet fortune.”
The toads spat water-balls at Abrar who was still entangled in the net. They then rushed at him while he was stunned by the impact of the high velocity water-balls and smashed their staves at this head, knocking him out cold.
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When Abrar came to his senses, he was in a dimly lit room, hogtied and gagged. He could not understand what had happened to him. He could faintly recall the events that had happened prior to his getting knocked out. ‘Was I captured by those toads?’ Abrar attempted to make sense of his surroundings.
The room was empty other than a strange pedestal at the center of the room which appeared to be inlayed with multicolored gems which on closer inspection were remarkably similar to the forehead gems. Abrar could see brown, blue, green and red amongst the vast variety of gems.
The door at the end of the hall flew open and a pair of strange insect like creature which looked like some twisted ant versions of centaurs, entered accompanied by the leader of the toads. One of the insects stooped at the pedestal, examining it before rising clicking its mandibles with satisfaction. “He does indeed possess affinity for space magics as you claimed.”
The toad puffed in smug satisfaction as he started to haggle over the sales price. Abrar finally understanding what was going on, started to struggle in a misguided attempt to break free. With no success in brute force, he attempted to use magic only to find his contact with magic blocked for some reason.
The insectoid upon seeing his futile struggles clicked his mandibles in amusement, “Young mage, you aren’t going anywhere while the magic suppressor band covers your gem of fate. Give in to your fate and you will live a comfortable life under your new master free from any worries.”
The toad sneered at Abrar before turning back to the insect, “Five thousand gold isn’t enough for a young mage with spacial affinity; surely he merits a better price.” The insectoid was not moved in the slightest, “Affinity does not equal talent. For all we know he might never move past making space rifts. Not to mention these pesky humans make the worst slaves with their short lifespan. Five thousand is already a heavy price. Take it or leave it.”
The toad seeing his words were having the wrong effect on the insect slaver hastily agreed to the mentioned price. After some promissory notes were exchanged, the toad left leaving the two insects alone with Abrar who was still struggling.
“Haha, there is no medicine for stupidity!” The insectoid who had been speaking till now burst into laughter, alarming his companion. Still laughing he explained to his subordinate, “This slave which we got for five thousand will go for seventy thousand at the very least if we invite some Martial Elder Clans. Luckily country bumpkins like that toad do not know the true value of space magic to martial cultivators or he won’t have been so hasty to sell to us instead of auctioning it.”
The other insectoid clearly was one of the ‘bumpkins’ who did not know the significance of Abrar’s skills but was unwilling to expose himself and earn the contempt of his boss thus did not speak any further. The lead insect scuttled as fast as his four legs could carry him to his newly purchased prize. Scooping up the hogtied human and stuffing a sedative pill in his mouth after pulling off the gag, he carried him out personally with a gentleness he did not show to even his blood kin.
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Abrar woke up on a comfortable bed. He sat up and tried to make sense of what had happened to him. He remembered the slaver and the toad haggling and the slaver stuffing some sedative pill into his mouth. It seemed after he was knocked out the slaver had Abrar washed and dressed in clean and gaudy robes that appeared to be designed to catch eyes.
Abrar noticed two other additions to his person that made him rather concerned; a thick metal band that covered the gem on his forehead which did not budge no matter how hard he tried and a black collar on his neck with a chain attaching it to the bed, a cruel reminder of what lay ahead of him.
A day passed, Abrar was locked in the room receiving food via a small flap on the door every few hours dictated by the slight shaking of the ground to which he had already gotten used to since his arrival into this world. In solitude he thought of many escape plans but not one he had the slightest hope of succeeding. ‘Am I fated to be a slave?’ He was going crazy with worry when the door finally opened revealing two burly human slaves who grabbed the startled Abrar and tied his hands before his back and gaging him before removing the chain on his neck to lead him out of the room.
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Abrar was lead to a building and made to enter a line of beings with similar collars on their necks denoting their rank as slaves. One by one the slaves were dragged past a door leading to a huge hall where the auctions were taking place. After a few hours it was finally Abrar’s turn; he was dragged on a stage where the insectoid slaver stood clinking his mandibles with anticipation before a rather diverse audience.
“Honored guests, take a look at this fine specimen. This is the main attraction of today’s auction, the prize of our Divine Chains Merchant Guild. Yes this is indeed the spacial magic adept that you all are here for! Look at this young human, look how he still possesses vitality and potential to grow!” The insect began to advertise Abrar who was forced on his knees on the stage. “This human mage is not any common one either; he is the chosen princeling shaman of a tribe of savages! Look at this totem feathered whip and this ritual dagger! They are included as accessories along with the specimen.” The insect was clearly an expert in bullshit and even devised a fictitious and romantic past for Abrar to propel his value using his stethoscope whip and scalpel as evidence.
The bidding started immediately and nearly all the guests invited to the auction began to yell prices. Abrar could see all sort of strange beast like creatures that would have only appeared in nightmares in the past; he could see a lot of humans in the numbers too. The humans did not appear to hold any sympathies for him on account of shared species and yelled out prices with the same greed in their eyes as the rest of the bidders.
An hour of bidding commenced and the final price was something that the sly insect would have never dreamt of getting. For a most princely price of three hundred thousand gold coins, Abrar was handed over to the mercy of his masters; a pair of tall serpent-man hybrids.
Gagged Abrar looked at his new masters in despair who led him to a horse carriage surrounded by dozens of guards. He was forced into the carriage while the two serpentmen entered right behind. The two lamia-like beings looked mostly alike apart from the different colors of gems on their foreheads; one possessed a brown gem while the other a blue gem. The blue gem looked at Abrar and hissed, “Young mage, we belong to the Sorus Elder Clan. Serve the clan well and you will lack for nothing in the world; wine, women, song, whatever you desire will be yours so long as you help us with something to the best of your ability.”
The other lamia removed the gag from Abrar’s mouth finally allowing him to speak.
“What do you want from me?” he gasped fearful of his future as he was well aware there was no free food in the world and everything had a corresponding price attached to it. If these snakemen were willing to treat a bought slave so well then the work they wanted done must not be easily accomplished.
“You will know in due time young magus. We are taking you to the clan fortress where the queen awaits you.”
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A day passed quickly as Abrar took advantage of the cordial behavior of the lamia to inquire more about the world. The lamia having been fed the fake backstory by the slaver truly believed him to be an uneducated savage and happily addressed his questions so he wont embarass himself before the queen.
Abrar learnt the stone on his head were titled ‘Gem of fate’ and the color indicated the strength of the wielder, he also learnt that even though technically all sentient beings possessed the same magical capacity on the same color level, magical affinity, comprehensive ability and robustness of body played a huge role in strength of a person. He also discovered an interesting bit of information; on this vast world everyone who dared to utilize mana was referred to as a martial cultivator who were further split into two schools of thought namely: Mages who could use mana externally as spells and Martial Artists who would use mana to strengthen their limbs to perform prodigious feats of strength and agility. However it appeared becoming a mage was much more difficult as it required mental flexibility and imagination which many lacked and thus martial artists outnumbered mages by twenty to one.
Abrar would have inquired more but it appeared the carriage had reached its destination, a fortress in the middle of grassy plains. The huge wooden doors were guarded by burly snake men carrying halberds who upon seeing the insignia on the carriage, had a path cleared in the crowd to let the carriage through. The carriage finally stopped before a large manor house in the center of the fort. Abrar was asked to dismount and under the watchful eyes of the guards escorting him was led to a huge throne room.
The throne room was lit by glowing crystals embedded in the walls casting an eerie environment which the lamia did not appear to mind in the slightest. In the end of the hall on a huge stage, the snake queen lay coiled on the cushions. She was rather beautiful if you ignored the huge white scaled tail coiled beneath her or the long tongue that would flick out of her mouth time to time tasting the air. The red gem on her forehead drew Abrar’s attention indicating her strength as the queen of the Sorus Clan.
Beckoning Abrar forwards she lifted his head with her fragile looking hand and observed his face carefully. Her long tongue flicked out, lightly striking the gem on Abrar’s forehead before retreating. As if the taste of the gem had been satisfactory, the queen drew back in approval.
“Tell me your name young mage,” she commanded in an imperious manner that did not feel out of place in the slightest with her regal demeanor.
“Abrar Chattha,” spoke Abrar in a daze still not very comfortable with talking to man serpent hybrids having lived in the purely human dominated environment of Earth.
“Abraaar,” The queen hissed testing the name in her mouth, “A strange name but one that does catch attention.”
Uncoiling herself she rose to her full height which dwarfed Abrar by a fair bit; she slithered to a door at the back of the throne beckoning Abrar along. Following the queen he passed through a series of stairways and corridors until they were deep underground. The queen stopped before a door and using a needle forced a drop of blood from her thumb onto the door which swung open by themselves. They entered the huge basement and the doors shut behind them locking them in.
Abrar gasped at the sight he beheld: a mountain of gold, silver and gems! He could see sets of armor, sharp weapons and shelves filled with old crumbling books and scrolls. He could see piles of jade boxes in the corner which were certain to possess priceless treasures.
The queen laughed at the awed look in his eyes and hissed out amused, “If you succeed in what we want you to do, whatever you desire from this hoard will be yours, you will have wealth, women, respect and power.”
“However…” Suddenly the queen’s amused tone vanished and she spoke in a cold manner, filled with killing intent, “However if you fail in this appointed task in a two years’ worth time…” She pointed at at the mountain of gold. Looking carefully Abrar noticed something he had failed to notice before; a massive golden serpent lay coiled on top of the mountain of gold, much larger than the snake he had encountered in the forest. This behemoth possessed a silver gem on its forehead showcasing its majesty and power to the terrified Abrar
“The ancestor is always hungry seeing she spends his time contemplating the mysteries on nature and guarding the foundations of the Sorus Clan; she won’t reject the snack of a tender human mage...”
Abrar’s blood ran cold under this threat; he was certainly not out of the blue yet. “What do you want me to do?” He asked hoping the snakes won’t have a too difficult to complete request.
The queen laughed charmingly, “Make us a world!”