Janpir bent over the girl with a wariness that belied the soft creature that lay before him. Could it really be a human? Long, silk-like hair hung down her back and covered her body from the brewing winds like a cape. As the wind blew, it threw her hair in a thousand directions and in that maelstrom, Janpir saw the clarification he desired.

A small, black tattoo was branded into the woman’s skin. She was a woman at the very least. A Name Day Ceremony could only take place after a person turned twenty years of age. As he moved closer, he saw only the Primos tattoo. The tattoo, once invoked by a Speaker or Soul Warrior, that declared a person’s fate. At least, the beginnings of a fate.

On the woman’s breast lay the character Chasun. A crescent moon with three white dots in the middle. That was a rather common character to receive for a Name. It could mean a variety of fates but all revolved around a closeness with Life. There was an oddity, though. As Janpir brushed aside a few strands of brown hair, his eyes widened in surprise tinged with more than a little horror. Her Prominent Strain, the path in which her life would no doubt lead, was a the character Kak. It was a river, wide as a man’s finger, leading away from the symbol all knew to be Life’s.

The meaning could not be more plain. This woman’s bond to Life, whoever she was, had been broken beyond repair. She was forsaken unto humanity. He shivered inside as he quickly pulled his hand away. There were many like her here. Janpir, of course, was one himself. One could not end up in this Realm without such an occurrence.

Or, Janpir thought, without monstrous strength. Enough, that even one of the the Three Great Empires would respect his strength.

Janpir was not such a man. He knew of few, in his thousands of years in existence, that were.

Most in the Thadun Realm just tried to survive. A perilous prospect for any below the Immortal Barrier. But even as an Immortal, he knew his place. If he stepped out of line, his life would be as worthless as the woman’s at his feet.

A soft moan escaped her lips as her limbs quivered in his grasp. Janpir frowned in thought as he stood. He could just kill her. But, what would be the point? Another bond-less human gone. There were millions upon millions here.

Janpir stuffed one of his hands into a pocket and rummaged around absentmindedly. The cold wind blew through his hair as the grey ink of the morning gave him a hint of a shadow. Cool metal met his touch. Not a lot, though. Only the smatterings of coins one might find discarded on the floor of a market.

He had been away from civilization too long. This girl, though, she might fetch a fair price from one of the schools. They’re always looking for bondless.

Already doing the sums in his head, he lifted the woman over his shoulder and moved like he was the wind, itself, off into the distance.

~

Father! No, don’t! Father! A rock, the size of a man’s hand came hurtling towards her. With a squeak born of fear and anger, she clenched her eyes shut against the pain. Oh, the pain! She did not think anything could hurt so bad. The impact was not the worst of it. No, it was what came after.

She lay on the ground, eyes glazed over, as townsman after townsman continued to pelt her with rocks. She no longer felt, no longer moved. Only the wheezing of her throat kept her company.

Henna Markwhall, that slip of a girl, shook as she stood over her broken body. Kais supposed it was broken at this point. She thought she had been beyond caring at that point. She thought the worst had been her father. When he was forcibally removed from the square, jeers and catcalls accompanying him, that had been the worst.

But, when Henna, too scared, too honest, to do what the Speaker and Mayor demanded of her, they took over. They called it ‘Cleansing the body and soul’. Before they began, she thought she couldn’t speak. But when they began stripping away what remained of her flesh, she screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed….

Kais awoke with a start. Cool metal pressed against her back and, with surprise, she sat up with a jolt. Her hair fanned out around her. Where am I? The last she remembered...The last she remembered...No. Best not to think of it. If I do…

Kais’ heart fluttered in anxiety. She had never been one of those people to like surprises. Her life in Denah was always formulated around routine. A time to get up, a time to cook, a time to clean, and a time to sleep. There was tranquility in patterns.

But this…

Kais curled herself up on the bed and tried to not let the fear overtake her. The air was crisp, cool, and stank feintly of rust. Before her, a closed door outlined a stark walk, stained by green and grey marks. In fact, all the walls were the same.

Time passed. The longer she spent looking at those walls, the more she found their mottled color to be comforting. They were like a painting not yet begun. She was, in fact, in the beginnings of a slumber on the cold, hard palate that was her bed when the door to her enclosure was thrown open before it slammed against the wall with a shudder.

A man, as large as a bull, stood in the doorway. His full, black beard hung in curls down a blotched face that exposed a nose that looked as if it had been broken one too many times.

Surprise and fear chilled Kais’ bones as she looked at the man. His dark, black as night eyes, glinted in amusement. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed a bundle at Kais who caught it reflexively.

“Put this on,” he grunted.

She looked down at the bundle. Clothes. A tunic and pants. Embarrassment turned her face bright red as she realized this man, this giant, had seen her naked! With her back turned to the beast of man, she pulled the garments on before he could have any lewd ideas.

But, as she turned around, the quirk of his lips behind that full beard, made her sure that he most definitely had.

However, she was in a place she did not know, did not understand, and a man was in a room alone with her. That brought her back to the present. Fear began to cause sweat to bead her brow and she began to flick her fingers back and forth as her stress mounted.

“Where am I?”

Her voice sounded like it had been thoroughly raked with a hoe. No wonder, as it had been crushed into oblivion.

“Thadun,” the man said as he appraised her.

Kais shivered. How did I end up here? Was the Speaker right? Did I somehow forsake my bond?

Hell. The Realm in which Life itself opposed. The bastion that was all demonic and unholy, Thadun was the land all in Denah feared. It was said, if one entered Thadun they were the worst of humanity. Murderers, Rapists, Traitors. These men Life would send here. Everyone else, Life would grant admittance to His Realm, Akshal, the most tranquil Realm in all existence. Or, so it was said.

“How…” Kais began before trailing off. Confusion crossed her face as the man beckoned to her and began retreating down the hallway.

Am I supposed to follow?

When the man’s echoing footsteps began to recede, Kais made a split-second decision and scampered after him. This man knew answers. To what, she had no clue. But, he knew something. And for that alone, she would put herself under the dangerous gaze of that man.

After less than a minute she caught up to the man. As she approached, her footfalls loud in the dimly lit metallic corridor, the man turned and nodded to her.

Before he could say anything, she opened her mouth and shouted, “How did I get here?”

She didn’t mean it as a shout. But, frantic as she was, scared as she was, it came out as such. Blushing, more from anger than shame, she waited impatiently for the man to respond.

One blink.

Two blinks.

A draft of wind blew through the corridor. Musty and damp.

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“I bought you,” the man said after a long moment had passed.

Bought? Bought!? Am I….Am I a slave?

She nearly choked out a response; however, her crushed throat made that gesture impossible. Instead, what came out sounded more like a wheeze.

“Why?”

For the first time, she saw a grin pass under the man’s beard. With a practiced motion, he bent, lifted the wall. Not a wall then. After Kais’ initial shock had passed, she saw the wall was actually a door with a handle camouflaged by the grey-green lichen.

Wind whipped her hair and chilled her very bones. The man stood under the door, his massive arms straining against the weight.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

With a jerk of his head, he growled, “Well, get in there.”

Get in? This was too much. She had no idea what was beyond the door. However, she could feel the biting cold of the wind, the clash of swords, and the screams of men. Kais shivered. Was she supposed to go in there? For what?

With a shiver, she turned behind her to look at the hallway she had just traversed. She could make it back to the room she had been in. She thought. But, even then, this man had bought her. He actually had bought her.

She knew a few stories about slaves. Denah had none but the bigger cities most definitely had some. Even if she ran, others would be obligated to return her. With a quick scan over her body, she saw a faint symbol, glowing like a flickering candle, on the back of her hand. As she inspected it further, she saw the outline of a trident.

There was no escape. None at all.

A despondency, unlike one she had ever known, came over her. She had not felt this when she was declared a traitor to her race, nor when her father threw his stone, nor even when the Speaker skinned her alive. This, though, this was a removal from everything. She was in a place she didn’t understand, owned by a person she didn’t understand, and asked to do things she didn’t understand. All she knew was that pain would be involved.

Pain.

The one thing she did understand.

A small, pained smile crossed her lips.

To think, in this new existence, whatever it was...Kais pulled her mind away from the maelstrom that was that line of thought...One step at a time.

Survival could be her only thought now. She had been brought back from the brink to have a second chance. Even in Hell. A chance was a chance.

She ducked under the man’s arm and entered a vast plain. Red rock percolated the surrounding hillside while dusty grass, the color of wheat, sprouted as thick as a well-plowed field. Blood-stained patches dotted the grass below a thin, waspish figure.

Before she had time to take in this image, a rough shove to her back caused her to stumble forward.

“Get in there,” the man growled. “Come back to the door when you’re done.” With a grunt, he slammed  the door down behind her, showering her with a cloud of dust. Coughing, she rose unsteadily and began to trot over to the man in the middle of the field.

What else could she do?

There were no options but to continue on. For a split-second, she considered running for the barren wasteland beyond, however, as she rounded a bend, she saw the twenty-odd archers, poised and ready above the field and just waiting for an excuse to fire their arrows.

No.

She had no choice.

Tightening her fists, she slowed her trot as she neared the man before her. He was a tall sort. Long black hair flowed down to his waist and his jerkin, once fine, was tattered exposing a muscular chest and tattooed on that chest was a Name.

Kais tried to hide her surprise as she walked up to the man but she was not practiced at the gesture.

“Funny,” he drawled, “they’re always the same. So naive, it’s laughable.”

He had a funny way of speaking. It was as if everything was a joke. The quirk of his eyebrow, the sardonic twist of his mouth, and the languorous way he held his sword. His sword that dripped blood down its twisted expanse.

Kais went pale in shock. Was she supposed to die here? After all of this? Another life lost because of bad luck.

But no. Not yet. She could fight.

Balling her fights tightly together, she stalked up to the man. Anger permeated her voice and wariness made her stay out of reach of the man as she said, “Why am I here and who the hell are you?”

The man turned to the compound down the hill from which she arrived. His small grin had grown even wider. As he slowly turned back to her, he chuckled and said, “Perhaps I will.”

After a moment’s thought were he seemed to consider the matter, he shrugged. “Alright. Fine. You, like I, are bondless. We have no tether to Life and none of the...disadvantages.”

He picked at a scab on his elbow and flung it off into the distance. “This here,” he pointed to the oozing wound, “is an illusion. We are just Souls now. No bodies to speak of. Therefore, we don’t have to eat, breathe, shit, or piss. Our bodies don’t feel too much pain and we make good warriors because of that. So, that is why you and I are here. Well, something like that.”

He shrugged. “Though, none of this will matter to you because, by the look of you, you’ll never reach the top of the rankings.”

Kais backed up as panic began to overwhelm her. No body? How…? Her thoughts were a confused mess as the man began to advance upon her. A gleam appeared in the man’s eye as he raised his sword, thinking this would be an easy victory.

With a sigh, he flicked his sword down as he said, “They are all the same.”

A sound like a shovel scraping the ground met her ears. Somehow, Kais had closed her eyes as she prepared for the impact. Fear had overwhelmed her as the blade came down but, when she opened her eyes, it was not she who was in pain but the man.

A scowl crossed the man’s face as he fell back. A spasm gripped him and he dropped his sword with a surprised grunt. “You…” he panted, “have some unique properties.”

Kais was just as surprised as he was but she knew this was her only chance. She ran after the stunned man and threw herself on him. Wrapping her arm around the man’s neck, she attempted to throw him to the ground. But, it was not to be. The man regained his strength just as she reached him. With a casual wave, he pushed against her. A snapping sensation rent her ears as she tumbled through the air and fell against the ground in a heep.

No! No! Not again. I will not fall again. No!

Kais tried to rise on unsteady legs. They didn’t seem to work properly. With a heave of effort, she threw herself towards the approaching man. Nowhere close. A small crunch met her ears as the grass below her crumpled.

“I give you credit. You worked much harder than some. And none of that begging either. I like that.”

She glared up at the man as he approached her. He still had that small, sardonic grin on his face. Oh, how she hated it.

“But, then again, I can’t just let you walk out of here. Hamaric would have my head. But,” he continued, “I could let you live. You have some promise afterall.”

And, then, he began to beat her. He was not as vicious as the Speaker or the Mayor and, so, she endured in silence. Kais was unwilling to give the man any satisfaction as he mutilated her body. Pain could be endured, death could not.

This was a lesson.

This world, this Realm, was Hell. The only one she could count on was herself. With a curse to the heavens above, she vowed, with all her being, to survive in this place. Survive with all her might.