Unknown Location, Near the Town of Eldor. Troug, 6th.

Olea Munroe

“My head… what in the hells was wrong with those mushrooms?” was all Olea could think, and therefore say, as she awoke in a dimly lit cell. A cell, not quite the type of cell she would have assumed to have awakened in after having been the subject of some arcane ritual sponsored by the church. Or was that a thing here, they did the whole care-bear routine chanting We Care over and over again till I’m better and then I get locked away for their future amusement. Probably not. This had to be something else, possibly one of those trials that had been mentioned in that place between places.

I had to figure this out. I also had to get something to eat, I could seriously feel my spine through my stomach. Washboard abs are fantastic on a model but having a hole where food should be does not feel good at all, they can keep their oils and tans.

“Focus…” I muttered to absolutely no one, only to be surprised, again.

“She’s awake.” Came a whisper in the dark nearby.

I looked around again to find that I was not quite alone, there were others here with me. Some other girls, and a few boys were scattered about the area. All in cells, all quite dirty. They did not quite look as starved as I felt, but I was sure they would disagree.

The girl who had spoken was in my cell, along with two others. What kind of mess had my delirious mushroom addled mind gotten me into? Fact finding mission: Commence!

“Is she okay? Where’s she from? What’s her name?” came a few inquiries from the other cells.

I was saying cell as if this was an old-timey prison with near rows separated by a hallway for guards to walk about in an orderly fashion, this was not that. The cells were more like well-wrought cages of wood and iron shaped into a dome, though much thicker and sturdier in appearance than I was currently comfortable with. The cages were all lined in no discernible order down the length of a large cavern, so we were either underground or inside a mountain. I guess both were technically underground though, something to ponder later. I only saw a handful of brown shirted guards walking about with thick clubs, no easy blades to steal anywhere in sight.

I sat up and gave myself a look over to determine if anything was out of place while the girl in my cell told everyone to quiet down and let me get myself oriented before they began to barrage me with questions. I liked her already.

Everything seemed to be in order, I was now wearing a tan-colored pair of pants and a nicely serviceable shirt, and I was mostly clean. Well, clean for me. I had about a day’s worth of dust in various places, but my hair felt free of blood and dirt, I would take this win.

“Where am I?” I inquired of the girl who had cut off my future headache of an interrogation.

Normally I’d be asked that question internally of my friend Help-chan, but it seemed as if he truly was gone forever, or until I could find his great prismatic ass in the waking world, as he put it. Though now I was wondering how wise it would be to find the lair of a dragon the size of a small town in the first place, I doubted he had friendly neighbors.

“Dunno, I think we are still somewhere near Eldor. Not right sure though.” Was the answer I got. Where the hell was Eldor?

“Where is Eldor?” I asked.

“Nearby. Dunno how nearby though, miss.”

Groaning inwardly at finding someone as vague as myself, and maybe even more dense when it came to context and all that other stuff, I began to clarify.

“Where is Eldor compared to South Jaga City?”

“Oh, that where you from miss? That’s a might bit farther away then. Eldor is a small town north of North Jaga which you can see from across the lake in South Jaga, if-n your eyes are good, and the skies are clear. It’s a good long way out, a few days walk even to the cities from here.”

“Well, hells.”

“Is that where you be from miss?” came the question on the hells of her explanation.

Okay, I’d been polite enough, maybe I was being too polite. I had to put my foot down somewhere, or this would just end up making me angry, and who wants to be angry with a bunch of people who were obviously being held for ransom, or potential slavery. Actually, slavery makes more sense, I doubted anyone would pay any ransom for me, let alone the one-armed kid on the other side of the cavern-like area we were in.

“Would you stop calling me miss, already? It’s annoying, and I’m not an old woman!” There I’d said it.

“Sorry, mi- mam” she stammered quickly, as if trying to placate an angry child.

“Call me Olea, please. Though I will settle for your majesty, or mistress if you were older and we weren’t all filthy. Ignore all of that, except my name, that was important. What is your name?”

“My name is Malory. Also, I apologize for offending you. You look like an elf, and most elves are a bit, uh…” she drew that emptiness out as if worried she may offend me, yet again.

“Fine, fine! Yes, lots of elves are probably uppity snobs, I get it, though I have never met one personally. Just treat me like one of the girls or something. It’s fine.” I may have been rambling a little there myself as my mind worked through the problems of the day.

The girls looked slightly startled at my vehemence as she shared glances with the other two in the cell with us. They seemed content to just listen in and keep their distance, not easy in a cell that was barely ten feet across and round. That was when the foul smell of their waste pot hit me. Ahh, hell no.

Noticing my glance the smeller of the other two spoke up, “It’s not as bad as you think Mi-Olea, they come by and change out the pots quite often, and we can even put up one of our blankets to keep folk from peeping in.”

“Peeping in? Who cares about that right now, we are in a cage, in a cave, and likely to be sold off as slaves. I’m more upset that it took me this long to notice something that smelled so foul.” I swear I must have gone scent-blind to most of the foulness in the area as I was recovering because as I concentrated on the missing parts of my environment that cold truth of the situation sank in.

“As you say.” Chimed in the other-other girl.

“Not doing this, girl one what is your name?” I pointed at the first one who spoke of peepers.

“I be Quinn, mistress!” came the high-pitched reply.

“I am called Mouse, your ladyship.” Came the tinny voice of girl two.

“Well met then. I’m glad to be finally introduced.”

They nodded in unison as Malory watched them with a confused look. It was almost as if she could not recognize the instant groupie mentality they had quickly adopted. I should totally start a cult, after we escaped, of course.

“Excuse me for asking, Olea. How did you end up here? When they brought you in, you looked dead, did they poison you somewhere with something?” Malory asked.

“They kidnapped me from church I think, I had a bit of a curse problem. I also might have eaten bad mushrooms, it’s hard to remember as I have been kind of mental for the past… month?” I said in reply, even as my mind was coming to terms with missing more than half of the time I had been in this world. Someone was going to suffer for making me miss out on life, as it was. My heart ached a little bit as I considered all the people back home across the lake who may think I had died. I idly wondered at the thought of who was feeding the street-kids, before my mind drifted once more to my friend Crow-Kun. I would need to give that bastard a cracker, or something.

“Kidnapped from a church?” questions the two girls, Quinn and Mouse, in stereo.

“By the Twelve, that is blasphemy.” Gasped Malory.

“They sell slaves, doubt they care about the gods and their judgement, though I think Kenarious would love to play with their corpses. She seemed like a right proper closet killer.”

“Excuse me?” said Malory.

“You know, that Trougholiea lady.”

“Do you mean the spring child of the Three, one of the Twelve, Troug?” asked Quinn this time, looking somewhat frightened.

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“Yeah, that one. She seemed like a future stalker kind of gal.”

The three of them looked at me as if I had just killed a whole mess of puppies and had declared myself leader of the trash-heap. Yep, they thought I had up and lost my marbles. That begged the question, were marbles a thing here? I thought I had seen someone playing with marbles, but were they playing marbles? I would need to investigate.

“Anyway, who does a girl need to talk to around here to set up an escape plan?”

The girls collectively shuddered as they shared a small glance amongst themselves. Apparently, they were not the ones I would need to be sharing plans with.

“Do they have any mages down here? Where is the overpowered Barbarian that is just waiting for his hangover to fade so he can muster the strength to murder all the bad guys? Anyone?” I asked, really doubting the odds that the plot-gods were smiling upon me.

“No mages, miss. Sorry, Olea. They took a kid away yesterday for trying to use magic missiles on one of the guards. We are pretty sure that there isn’t anyone here who can use anything but healing magic or simple combat stuff, just no one is stronger than the guards. We’re all novices, mam.” Said Mouse, she really surprised me with all the knowledge and speaking up so fast even with a name like Mouse, unexpected.

Mouse was a small child, maybe in the neighborhood of twelve, while Quinn was at least fourteen by her appearance. They each had the same shoulder length brown hair with matching green eyes. Siblings? Neither of them looked to be well-nourished now, which made me wonder when the last time they had been fed was. Making people suffer was one thing but letting someone go hungry; talk about crimes against humanity. There would be wrathful vengeance in the future.

“Next question, how long have we been here?” I had to establish a timeline first, or I thought I did. It helped me think when I was speaking, monologues worked fine but I was no Doctor Who, miracles didn’t just happen after I spoke for a few minutes without interruption.

It was Quinn who spoke first. “My sister and I have been here for almost two weeks, you, him, and Quinn both came in a few days ago. She was awake when they brought her in, we thought you were dead until you started snoring.” I noticed the word him being dropped as Quinn looked over to the pile of blankets I had skipped over until now. There was something underneath that pile that resembled a person but then my mind caught up to the rest of the statement.

“I don’t snore!” I shouted, indignant.

“No, no. You surely did snore until we rolled you over, was mostly to have you snoring the other direction, but then you stopped.” This was from the blushing Mouse.

I walked over to the pile of blankets and delivered a very soft but firm kick to the pile even as Malory and the others turned to the rear of the cage. Listen, I know it is a round cage and therefore has no front or back technically, but I am assuming rear because they faced away from me, this is perfectly reasonable logic!

The pile began to make vague sounds of annoyance which made me assume that I had failed in my task and as such would need to invest a little more brick into my kick. I drew back just a bit and performed a mini-punt action to there I assumed his posterior was located.

“Ouch! Hey!” came the muffled shouts from under the pile of fabric.

“Hi, my name is Olea. It is nice to meet you, why are you sleeping when everyone else is awake? That’s rude.” I then turned around and focused my eyes on the scene taking place at the cavern entrance. Apparently, there were more victims being delivered today.

We watched as several burly guards walked in towing a line tied to a group of boys and girls of varying ages and obviously different species. There was at least one dwarf, and what I think may have been two others who shared some characteristics with domesticated animals. I won’t say cat girls, as they were male and at least as old as myself, but there was a feline grace in their gait, possessing that coiled potential that leopards usually have when eyeing a gazelle. If they did not look so downtrodden I would say they looked very, very scrummy. Sorry, I am aware that it is equally rude to be thinking such thoughts when we are all captured and probably going to be sold off some time in the not-so-distant future, but I could not quite bring myself to not have such thoughts. I was sure that if we were not all in a dire situation that I could have maybe succeeded in getting one of them to buy me a drink, or at least a meat pie.

At the thought of meat pies my stomach decided that I had had enough freedom of thought and chose to make its presence known.

“Was that your stomach, miss?” asked Mouse.

I decided to let it slide as Mouse was so much younger than myself, I would not strike the kid for her impertinence. It also helps that she called me Mistress not five minutes ago.

“It was, sadly.”

“They won’t be feeding us for a few more hours miss, its usually bread. Not good, but not bad either.” Piped in Quinn.

Malory said, “It’s quite bad, if you get the moldy piece.”

I decided that I did not want to wait any longer and brought up my new spell for just such an occasion as this, though I doubted many picked it up as a guarantee against slavery-induced starvation.

Create Food: This spell will assemble ambient magic into a solid form that can then be consumed by living creatures as a form of sustenance. Yes, it creates food. Food generated with this spell is generally influenced by the spellcaster and their environment. Food created can be altered and improved by the Level, Wisdom, Constitution, Knowledge, and even mood of the caster. Remember, sad cooks make sad food.

“Bingo!” I nearly shouted the word, though I doubted from the looks I was receiving that anyone was familiar with the term. Was there Bingo in this world? I’d have to see about creating a new trend for the masses.

I chanted the little spell to myself while holding my hand out expectantly. In less than three seconds I found myself to be ten mana shorter but one potato richer. I guess the environment decided that potatoes were the most suitable thing to conjure.

I bit into the spud to find a taste I did not quite expect, it was similar to a properly baked potato, but it had a definite hint of horseradish in there too. This sure as hell beat the last attempt I had made with the spell, was it due to my total lack of feelings at the time or had the curse interfered somehow with my ability to taste things, as if sapping away all the joy in my life. Questions for future me, the present me was busy inhaling a potato.

“Does anyone have anything to drink, or better yet a cup?” I asked of the people who were all staring at me, new prisoners totally forgotten, even the boy was staring.

“Hi, my name is Derek. It is very nice to meet you, can I have some food?” he said without a hint of shame.

“Well, look there. Proper manners!” I clapped at him even as he stared at me with those hopeful eyes. He wasn’t alone either. It looked like I was about to be the vending machine for my fellow prisoners in cage forty-three today. No, it wasn’t numbered, I just kind of called it that in my head, no one can pretend they don’t do the same thing all the time.

After casting my little spell three more times to make three more potatoes, and being down another thirty mana, I decided to take another look at my happy little stat sheet.

Name: Olea Munroe

Level: 12

Archetype: Water Priestess

Health: 153/153

Mana: 136/174

Stamina: 152/176

Attributes:

* Strength: 10

* Dexterity: 13

* Constitution: 10

* Charisma: 16

* Intelligence: 13

* Wisdom: 10

You have Fifteen Attribute Points Remaining

Experience Till Next Level: 4,500 remaining of 25,000.

Skills: Twenty-Four skill points remaining.

Stealth - Rank 1

* Pierce - Rank 1

* Sneak - Rank 1

Piety - Rank 3

* Armor – Rank 1

* Command – Rank 1

* Conjure Elemental Spirit – Rank 1

* Create Food – Rank 1

* Create Water – Rank 1

* Cure Wounds – Rank 2

* Detect Aura – Rank 1

* Detect Magic – Rank 1

* Dispel Magic – Rank 1

* Protection from Evil – Rank 1

* Vigor – Rank 2

* Water Breath – Rank 1

* Water Walk – Rank 2

* Wind Walk – Rank 3

Triumvir Soul Skills

* Dowsing

* Forum

* Shared Senses

* Soul Link

* Soul Vault

* Vessel of Souls

* World Map

“Oh, goody.” I whispered to myself. The others cast curious looks at me but said nothing as they munched happily on their spoils. Two sources had both told me I had the skills to see this problem solved, granted they were a little vague, but I knew I would get to the bottom of this as I had only so many skills available. One issue I saw was that I was still lacking quite a few skill points to just max out everything. I had twenty-four and was pretty sure it would take well over forty to fully max each skill and spell. It looked as if I would need to spend some time researching my possible spells and their upgrades. Just when you think all the homework is done, you get a pop quiz, how basic.

Next up, nothing beats having those fifteen shiny Attribute Points. I would need to determine a better way of distributing them to help me out of the current situation and not cripple myself in the future. Sure, bringing my charisma to thirty-one and trying to seduce my way out of here might work for me, then again it may just convince them that my sale-value had just gone up.

Thoughts to consider, all of them. Next little thing to look over would be these new Soul Skills. World Map seemed pretty self-explanatory and when I looked at the details, I was not disappointed by what I saw.

World Map – With this skill the user can quickly determine their location in the world, all explored areas are forever stored in an image that can be called forth at will. Map can be made visible to others by channeling mana into the ability. Only places explored by the user shall be shown. People that share a Soul Link with the user have their own experiences added to the Map. Changes that take place in the world and thus alter any area previously discovered will be updated if they are of significant note.

My own little map skill coming complete with user friendly usability. Neat. The other skill had a stronger hold on my thoughts.

Soul Vault – This ability allows the user to store indefinitely any item of their choosing. Time shall not pass for the items inside. Item storage limit is determined by the level and power of the user’s Soul. Space available is equal to the accumulated level of Linked Souls cubed. The same space is shared amongst all people and creatures linked to the User.

It was at this point that I realized my days of slumming it were over, if I made it out of this mess, I would never suffer from a lack of traveling necessities again. I also made a silent vow between breaths that I would not become a hoarder. Nope. Not me. Not ever. As if it the gods themselves were listening, I heard a small chuckle carry across an imaginary breeze. It made me shiver.