On Slavery – Musings of a dark elf

For all the fun things the Imperials did, they sure were hypocrites. Thinking his race ‘Evil’ of all things, what was the difference between the slavery his kind practiced and the taxes and authority the church and nobles enforced on their peasants?

With each bite he could taste the memories of his dinner, feel the adoration he had for their church. What a bland mind than one who would willingly serve the Remnants. His kind used their gift without reverence, magic too, why limit themselves.

Early spring / Mercy 782 ADM – Eternal Empire – Modona’s upper district – Kabey’s mansion

His prison didn’t look much like one, the walls had small windows, positioned high above the ground and were decorated with drapes of clothes weaved in patterns, there were also many miscellaneous objects on shelves and hangers, nothing that looked sharp or dangerous.

On his left was what seemed to be a living room, with a low tables and comfortable looking cushions over a carpet. While on his right a few beds had been arranged, separated by folding panels of wood. It all seemed suspiciously empty.

As he passed the frame of a door a voice made him flinch, Victoria had been crouched in waiting, her dark practical robes somewhat camouflaged in the shadows contrasting with the small golden pendant she wore.

“Hells, little cousin they got you too.”

“Hi Vic', yeah I've been caught.”

Victoria was in her twenties, and unlike her brother Agrios had inherited mostly from the Merentah bloodline with long black hair cut in bangs and purple eyes, though she had more imperial features. That wasn't the only difference she bore to her brother however, he had gotten most of their father's charm while she had his deadly cunning.

“How did it happen?”

“They sent a hunter and thugs after us, I was with Grace Olian shopping when they cornered on us.”

“Theses idiots killed a knight?!”

“She is alive, but they sent her to a healer. And you, what happened.”

“I was out for a meeting with the Kleites, they jumped us and… well they have no love for the Kleites.”

Ulysse balked at the implications. Death had visited them.

“Shit, is uncle Ro' alright?”

“Robert wasn’t at the meeting, it was a top brass affair, nothing that required muscle.”

“Phew. So what do we do now?”

“We wait until we get an occasion or we are bailed out of here.”

Hours passed in their comfy prison, Ulysse had dragged a cushion to sit behind Victoria's crouched form, she had insisted that readiness might be the key to escape. Eventually the sun went down and a few servants were escorted in their room, one installed an enchanted lamp while the other served them their meal.

Victoria only let him approach it once the servants were gone and she had tasted it.

Ulysse got to eating, taking a huge spoon of couscous with the deep red sauce.

“Haaa, Vic' it burns help, my mouth is on fire.”

She burst out laughing, keeping at it until the burns had died down.

“Ho little cousin it’s nothing, you’ll see when Mogens have you take the poison training you'll learn the true meaning of spicy.”

“If It’s worse than this count me out.”

He eventually managed to eat some food under Vic's advice of what was – or was not – spicy.

After dinner Ulysse waited for the servants to take their dishes, he did not want anyone bothering them for what would come next.

“Hey Vic’ do you think we are being watched?”

“Of course we are, though how is the question, I haven’t found any peepholes, or otherwise.”

“Maybe we just aren't, they seemed pretty decent aside from the kidnapping.”

The mere suggestion that they were not in fact being spied on earned a look of disbelief.

“Of course they are, and you shouldn’t believe anything theses peoples say.”

“Fine, is there anywhere we can talk then, I have some very important questions.”

“Middle of the room then, covered in one of those cloths and whispers-only.”

They did just that, sitting over the carpet, – Victoria had checked and the floor underneath was full – then wrapped in cloth to muffle noise.

“That feels like overkill.” He wispered.

“Trust me it really Isn’t, I can hear the guards chatting downstairs when I focus.”

He definitely couldn’t but maybe she could.

“So anyways, there goes my first question. Are you a mage?”

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“First, not mage, second, didn’t grandpa tell you never to speak of it, third, how in hell did he tell you so young.”

“Grandpa didn’t tell me, my abductor did, I got him talking in the coach.”

“Shit, you really aren’t meant to know that, have you even gotten the book yet? Not everyone gets it.”

“I'm not supposed to talk about it, but on an unrelated note the Librarian gave me a book a few days ago.”

“The librarian? Don’t lie to me, what is book about?”

“Necromu…”

“Shush you idiot. Never say that, we are from a frontier town, not the other side.”

“So I was right.”

He had some hopes that they weren’t. Now squashed, given her reaction.

“Let’s not talk about it, we'll see that you have the Talk with grandpa when we get back home.”

She paused, thinking.

“That book is usually a test to see if you are to join the inner circle, don't talk about it long enough and you get in. Otherwise you just get the Talk after two years. If you get good enough at the language, we call it chosen-tongue, you actually get to learn magic. For now that’s all you need to know.”

“Ok, thanks, and just so you know I didn’t tell about it to Osen."

“Your abductor I suppose?”

“Yeah, he was pretty nice, he was all about apologizing for the kidnapping.”

“As long as you know he cannot be trusted.”

That was the last she said before rising and taking their cover with her.

“Now go to sleep kiddo, tomorrow is still your birthmonth.”

***

In the dead of the night – inside the ‘guests’ room

Ulysse had a lot of troubles falling asleep that night, he felt alone and vulnerable, the bed was different from his, and his sister was nowhere near him. He had wondered if she was as worried as he was, likely not, she always fell asleep faster than him.

He didn’t realize it when he eventually fell asleep.

He woke in panic, arms flailing wildly and trying to push on something that was firmly pressed on his face stopping him from screaming, a hand he realized, then tried to bit it.

In the dark something shuffled close to his ear then whispered.

“Stop it Ul', It’s me.”

It was Victoria's voice, that calmed him down a little, this time she let herself be pushed off. Leaving him panting at the brutal awakening, when he got his breathing under control he whispered back.

“Hells you are bloody crazy, what is wrong with you?”

“Out of this whole family I’m the only one who has her shit together.”

Her voice stayed stone cold and low whisper.

“We are having you escape tonight.”

“Ho, that’s nice, how?”

“Remember the windows, I'm hauling you through one of theses. They might be too small for me but they weren’t made to imprison young children.”

“Ok, but how do I get down, we are like ten meters from the ground.”

“Seven, at most. And don’t worry I thought of everything. Take this…”

She handed him a makeshift rope, made of the many cloths hanging from the walls.

“And this…”

It was hard to say what it was in darkness, but it looked like some sort of golden pedant. The one she always wore he realized.

“Its an eternium pendant, it wards against magic, with that you’ll sneak out of whatever divinations they throw at you.”

“Ok, what should I do now?”

“I'm going to carry you to that window, you’ll go feet first, when you get down you run to the hedge, not the door, and you climb it, you do the same with neighbors and don’t be seen there, they might be in on it. When you feel you are far enough or you recognize the heraldry of an ally you talk to them, tell them to send someone at our home address, don’t say you are a Merentah or talk of the Kabeys, just your name. Got it?”

She looked at Ulysse expectantly, he had the gist of it so he nodded, she had him repeat and he did, mostly. He was glad he wasn’t in Victoria’s head, it must have been hell to live in constant paranoia like her. Pretty ironic that she was caught despite all her precautions.

She filled him in of the finer points and helped the boy get ready. Once all was done and they were standing below the window she whispered once more.

“Ready? If you feel you can't do it we can still abort.”

“I’m not afraid of heights don’t worry.”

He had good reason to be confident in climbing down the house and a few fences, though he couldn’t quite tell her he’d been climbing the house back and forth for at least a year.

With a nod she hooked her hand underneath his arms and lifted him a bit short of the windows. He flexed his legs back, shuffling his feet to get them through the window, finally he kicked the blinds then slid the rest of the way. Only stopping when his arms reached the edge. Victoria threw him the makeshift rope and he slid it all the way down while she held down her end. With a little wave he let gravity pull him back a little, unhooking his arms and grabbing to the rope.

The ground was barely visible in the dim light of the moon, still, it gave him a goal. Ulysse started rappelling down, careful to grab whatever imperfections he could from the wall so he wouldn’t have to make the rope fully bear his weight, he didn’t believe it would remain in one piece. All went fine until he reached the three meter mark, his feet met nothing. Looking down he was just on top of an arch, he could drop down from here but if he was unlucky he'd sprain his ankle. Carefully he let himself down on the rope for a meter, then grabbed the ledge. Only then did he look back up.

Two piercing, bright yellow rimmed eyes looked straight at him, he froze in fear, losing his grip and fell on his back painfully.

The monster took a step into moonlight, revealing his scaled snout the color of sand. It was Veless, that realization didn’t calm Ulysse, had the hunter come to kill him now that Osen wasn’t watching?

“Haha, I like you kid you'v got some balls. I knew you'd try to escape after seeing you almost kill the little bossman. You'd make a fine hunter if you were born saryn.”

Ulysse was a very surprised at the hunter’s friendliness.

“You aren’t going to do anything?”

“Only getting you back inside. The question is, will I have to tell my friends about your attempt.”

“Would that be bad?”

“They wouldn’t be happy, you wouldn’t like that. But don't worry I have a deal. If Osen becomes a ward to your house, you help him out, don’t let him be a victim of your family. Deal?”

That didn’t seem bad, there were no real drawbacks to it.

“Deal, I guess.”

“Good, you gave your word, we cut the tongue of liars where I come from.”

That made Ulysse gulp.

“Now come here, someone need to haul you back up there.”

Veless fully exited the shadows, standing below the arch and patting his shoulder.

“You want to carry me? Aren’t we going back the entrance?”

“And let the guards report your failed escape, sure.”

“Ho, ok let’s climb, you know its like seven meters from the ground yes?”

“A little challenging with you but that should be fine.”

The lizardman took him over a shoulder, one second the position was uncomfortable, the next it was jarring. Veless was running towards the wall at full speed, quickly lighting it in violet. His powerful legs barely made the three meter jump to the arch's edge. With a flick of his tail he repositioned and kicked himself further up, holds of ice sprouting where his feet touched the wall, translating all his speed and rocketing up. He reached the window with his free hand and hanged there.

“Wow, that was cool, I’m not sure if even uncle Ro' can do it.”

“The secret is in the tail, hard to balance without one. Now get back in, I trust you are good at climbing down.”

Ulysse climbed back in with some difficulty, he heard a thump outside, likely Veless dropping back down.

Victoria was waiting on one of the pillows.

“I heard what happened, a shame but it was to be expected. You mind giving me back my pendant?”

“Here," He handed to small golden thing to her and she put it back on, “Say, why did you send me if you knew I’d be caught?”

“There might have been a guard, but if there were none the Kabeys would have one less hostage, plus I learned something.”

“What?”

“Theses hunters of theirs didn’t look so threatening compared to our knights, but they are no knights, nor guards though they dress like them. They are trained assassins, and some of them are quite impressive.”

“Yeah, it was Veless who got Grace down with the help of a few thugs. Anyways, since our escape is toast I'm going back to sleep, wake me like a normal person if you need to.”

“We’ll see.”

Ulysse hoped she was talking about their escape, not about the way to wake him.

This time, when he reached his bed he fell asleep instantly.