For a few short seconds, the world became dark with grey silhouettes moving in her vision before Iris's eyes adjusted to half-light inside the trade house. Kia watched the elf grimace, deep shadows appearing on her face as a deep frown followed her thoughts. For the hooded undead, the transition from light to dark was as smooth as to be almost unnoticeable. The terrible necromancer rarely took her mind off the treats humans made but now she focused on the one thing that was of higher priority than food. She pedantically surveyed Iris's face, focusing her curious eyes on the risen's purple eyes.
The ancient haven't altered Iris's exterior too much and any changes had been brought upon by modifications done to the elf's core rather than coming from under Kia's hands. The monster in the girl's skin pondered if she should change that. She hadn't had any time to test her creation and tweak the minor issues she had noticed since the day she left her domain. She had left Iris's original eyes intact but because they remained mundane even after the ritual all the flaws of them still remained. Her favourite couldn't see mana nor could she see in perfect darkness or adjust her vision to quickly changing light. The fact that there was a simple answer to those problems annoyed the ancient. Currently, Iris used mundane vision altered slightly by her previous race, inferior to her current one. Mundane vision relied on the ambient light entering the eyes and for the non-magical beings that was it but beings made from mana could like her use their mana for more than living and casting spells. A small inconsequential amount of it could be used as a fuel creating light inside the eye causing there to be light even in the darkest places. Of course, this was a simple method which didn't even enter Kia's mind as a possible replacement but even low-level magic body parts were infinitely superior then their ordinary counterparts.
The pale monster pushed air into her cheeks. It has been nearly five months since the ancient had left her domain, for the humans around her it might have been a lot of time but for the immortal undead, this period of time was nothing more than a blink of an eye. Yet in the blink of an eye, she had seen so many new things and felt new and previously unknown emotions that her mind worked harder than ever before to decipher. This and the strange effect the outside world had on her made staying awake for more than a day difficult which was needed if she wanted to operate on Iris not to mention the immense mana cost she couldn't sustain while her creation stayed low-level. She hadn't investigated any ways of tricking her body reliably to stay awake for some time and the few times she had fought exhaustion off she was unable to make notes only remembering warm embrace before her memory would cut off. In truth, the ancient felt for the first time an uncharismatic desire to not unveil the mystery. Snuggling against her warm creation caused her to drift somewhere where she felt truly safe, unassulted by her nightmares. Perhaps she will wait to improve Iris once her creations improves slightly.
"Kia, I don't like how you stare at me." The subject of her meandering thoughts suddenly spoke up causing the powerful mage to squeak in surprise almost falling over as her heel hit a curb. "Careful." The elf grabbed Kia's wrist before she managed to fell, helping her regain balance.
The two moved forward again through the broad corridor. It was still relatively early in the day with everyone going about their tasks but there were still people walking through the trade house. Since they had moved up in the city the burghers here wore clothing made from better materials than most people in the lower city.
The pair stuck to the right side of the corridor, they gazed at the goods the merchants inside brought in. Each merchant seemed to have a designated spot where they could sell with a clear border where one merchant's territory ended and others started. The merchants dealing outside mostly sold things which sold easily and quickly but the traders here sold things which needed time to sell or required more protection than a keen set of eyes. Dyed clothes, spices, potions, enchantments and so on passed them each merchant eager to strike up a conversation but neither Kia nor Iris spotted anything interesting so they continued toward the center.
The center of the trade house was shaped into an oval-shaped yard lined with wooden scaffolding holding up what appeared the second floor. Curious about what was upstairs the elf steered toward a staircase and slowly ascended upstairs.
They passed the large windows basking the ground level in the morning light and stepped into the warmly illuminated upstairs area. Iris wondered merchants trading in what would bother lifting their cargo off the ground. They passed a guard, emerging on the second floor which appeared to be slightly larger than the yard below. Few people walked between the even fewer stands on the floor but the area next to them seemed to be empty. Wanting to see why there were so few people on their side of the floor Iris walked toward the corner.
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In the warm torchlight, the elf could see jewellery shimmering inside glass boxes. Malachite rings, pyrite cups, nephrite earrings, golden brooches and many many more items made from metals the elf couldn't name filled appeared in her vision. She couldn't help but cast Inspect on some of the more bizarre items, her Mark of Darkness allowing her to see the metal's name even if she wasn't a blacksmith.
"Anything I can help with?" Sitting between the display cases an older man stood up from his chair and approached the pair.
"I'm wondering why there is none here, these are truly wonderful crafts." Iris complemented the man as she continued to scan through his inventory, more out of curiosity for the metals rather than a desire to purchase any of them.
"It's still sun in the sky. Those dwarven crafts sell like hot cakes in the evenings when true gentlemen are returning to their lovely flowers." The merchant replied, his allegories bringing him the attention of the devourer nearby. "Is this noble lady in need of anything?" The human said completely losing interest in the elf and pouncing on the mage.
"Grrrr." The porcelain replica of a fair princess snarled like a wild beast as the man turned to her with an annoying attitude.
"Northerner?" Iris could hear the human whisper before backing away from Kia.
"Is there a dwarven enclave in the city or you are sourcing these from outside?" The risen asked as she gazed at the pyrite ring labelled as being golden.
"All of my stock is from reputable sources inside the city I can vouch for that. So are you going to purchase anything?"
Iris found the man with Oriri's accent humourous, she didn't doubt his claims about his sales but rather from how different some merchants were from each other. One could find an honest trader who knew what he was selling and another one who didn't know the difference between gold and fool's gold.
The elf stared some more at the plain jewellery in front of her remembering Dian's words about dwarven pride and that they will pour their heart out for everything that comes from under their hands. Silently the elf straightened herself and led the pouting girl toward the opposite side of the floor. The middle of the floor seemed to act like a storage with crates piled high into the ceiling. Layed on the tables next to them were piles of plain white linen shirts with various tools. Looking past the boxes Iris saw something she thought she would see much sooner.
Kneeling in front of a wall was a line of chained humans. They were all blindfolded with a wooden sign hanging from their necks. On those signs in large black letters were written the reasons why they ended up here.
Murderer- Age 28, Kinslayer- Age 37, Kinslayer- Age 21, Deserter- Age 25, Bandit- Age 44...
In the West slavery of humans was rare. If someone committed a crime such as these which she had read they wouldn't be enslaved but rather hung before having their corpse thrown into the river, left for the ghouls or left hanging on a tree near a road. In Havenfall and other Western nations, actual slaves were even rarer to find with debtors comprising most people chained in heavy shackles. One could end up enslaved for failing to pay a loan for a period of time it took to pay the debt off. The local temples kept a watchful eye that no person got enslaved for longer than they should have been, seeing themselves as responsible in keeping the fractured humanity together. Of course, since the person only became a slave for a period of time they were not branded as one and their levels were taken away by forcing their class to change. The other way of becoming a slave in the West or more exactly becoming one in Havenfall was being the likes of her, a terrible monster whose very existence polluted the world with their talents but who was more useful alive than dead, after all in the former Human Empire ruled human law with human rights.
"Fine ladies, I don't think we have too many things for you to offer today, I apologise. Today we deal in brutes who deserve hard labour in workshops and estates and I can't sell you these with a clear conscience if you are looking for house servants," A man wearing an iron armour guarding the slaves approached them full of concern. "If you looking for house service I can offer these but if these two are not to your liking Master also has a shop inside the Grand Bazaar. In there, we can sell you any slave you might like for sale and if a slave has a problem with your own slaves you can bring them to us and we are going to fix them." He pointed at a man and a woman in a corner before raising his hand toward his neck.
Iris turned her head toward them and noticed they didn't have a sign describing their crimes and were allowed to sit. They didn't look like spoils of a raid either as nothing except a thin metal collar restricted their movements. The risen remembered the girl with an emotionless face alongside one of the Di'archs as she stared at the blank faces of the two.
"We are going." Iris quickly turned away from the man and pushed the mage staring intently at the collar around a man's neck toward the exit.
"Something happened?" Kia's angelic voice echoed inside the elf's head as she stormed outside.
"I simply remembered why I don't like the mages here." The undead ran her fingers through the necromancer's hair.
"They are very sloppy with their spells, how could anyone think those little things are effective-"
"Thanks, Kia," Iris put her finger on the necromancer's lips not wanting to hear more of it. "...Actually, Kia what would be a punishment for taking someone will away?"
"That would depend on the reason why someone did that. In principle, a justified claim wouldn't violate any laws while an unjustified enthrallment of a person would inquire highest of punishments which would depend on the method used and the duration of the enforced thralldom." The master of the dead answered her duel-coloured eyes gleaming in the sun.
"What did I expect?" Iris sighed at the legalistic answer from the necromancer, she didn't know what she wanted to hear but she should have expected this sort of response. "I will buy you something and then we will return to the guild."