1 The escape

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Misa. Misa! Misanthria!

WHAT?! Misa replies, frustrated. She was trying to collect bones for burial.

Fuck sakes, every time with you. You're wasting my fucking time, you can't do anything right.

You didn't properly clean out the ovens, there's ash and un-burned wood everywhere. They need to be clean so they can be stacked again.

You're not getting a meal tonight, instead you can continue cleaning the ovens.

I cleaned them earlier! Someone else must've burned something in them after I was done with them.

I don't have time for your stupid excuses. Those ovens need to be clean. One more word and you're getting whipped. You disobedient rat.

That's what I thought. Misa is furious. She made sure to clean out the ovens properly, and now she gets blamed for it anyway. But she knows if she says anything she'll receive physical punishments. It's happened to her many times already. Anger management is not a strength.

The slavemaster turns away from her. Misa slams his head with her shovel.

Die asshole! She repeatedly strikes his back with her shovel. It feels good to let out her anger, even though this is largely ineffective.

Her blows are too weak to seriously hurt the man. He turns around and pushes Misa over. That's it, I'm done with your crap.

Are you going to take me to the punishment room?

No not anymore, you've been a horrible investment to our company.

I'm going to send you to our jail so they can sell you to some place else. Maybe the mines or as live practise dummy for the army. You'll be wishing you still worked here.

Alright I'm sorry, don't take me to jail, I'll behave! Misa pleas.

But the slave master doesn't care. Misa had never been very productive, even on her best days. In the 15 years she's worked there, she's barely improved. Her constant outbursts are just the cherry on top. It simply makes economic sense to get rid of her. This slavemaster was never humane to begin with, he's profit driven, it comes with the job. He's got no time for pity, he has his own priorities and worries like any other man.

A short time later she gets thrown into a small confinement room with several other slaves. None of them wear burial attire like she does though. They likely had different tasks.

Nobody really speaks to each other. Most of them look sad, like they've already given up on everything. That's what slavery does to a person. Misa actually had a comparatively good task, being tasked with burials and cremation. It doesn't require a lot of physical strength, it's mainly a slave job because Satharak-society does not want to associate with death. It's considered cursed and shameful, even though they value great importance to how the dead are treated. Comparatively, there's far worse tasks out there, like working the mines, or construction. Lots of those die early deaths from the poor working conditions.

The following day they are round up and forced to walk to a nearby ward together with other groups of slaves from different prisons.

There's an enormous mansion, and an even larger yard, with a grassy field where they have to wait. The mansion is huge and must belong to a noble.

A slave-overseer that accompanied them goes inside the mansion along with his guards and a wizard. Hours seem to pass. They wait in the sun and aren't allowed to talk.

The overseer comes back, followed shortly thereafter by a huge, bird-like humanoid figure. It is roughly 3 meters tall, and a dark gray feathery mane in it's neck. Its head is small with a curved beak stretching downwards, and 4 beady eyes.

It looks frightening. Misa has never seen anything like this. Judging from their expressions, none of the slaves have. Those who vocalise their shock are quickly whipped or clubbed so she doesn't say anything. It walks forward and talks to the overseer.

The first of the slaves in line is ordered to step forward. The bird-like demon inspects the man. Misa is too far away to understand what they are saying, but she can tell from its body language that it is not happy.

The bird-demon claws the first slave, ripping off its arm. Then in it's anger it attacks the overseer.

You thought you could swindle me with these low quality slaves? Half of them are old, all of them are underfed weaklings! It yells in anger.

The overseer profusely apologises and gets on it knees. At this point the guards move away from the slaves to step closer.

Enough of your lies! The bird-demon attacks the overseer who in turn tries to fight back. Then the guards join in an effort to separate the two.

In the chaos several of the slaves decide to take their chances to run away, and the guards turn to stop them. They take no issue with using violence to stop the slaves, as one unlucky fellow gets impaled by a spear.

This is my only chance. I have to go now. She runs away, and jumps into the moat. Luckily, it's water level is low at this time of the year because of the heat.

She follows the muddy moat-bed to the pipeline where the water escapes from. It's quite narrow, so the guards wouldn't fit through it. She climbs through the pipeline for several minutes, it ends in a water reservoir in the basement of the building.

Misa is not safe yet though. Certainly they will look for her here. She exits the basement through a door which leads to a stairwell. Climbing up the stairs it appears that most doors are closed. This must be a residential quarters.

After many failed attempts, finally one of the doors is able to be opened. It opens to a large room, filled with books and luxury trinkets, globes, maps, luxurious red golden couches. A decorative sword is hanging on the wall.

She can barely reach it, and removes it from the wall. It's too heavy for her and she can barely hold it. Instead Misa drags it behind her. She steps outside to the other side of the room. An older man is sweeping this hallway and notices her. What are you doing here young lady? These areas are exclusively for guests!

Your trespassing will not go unpunished! He rapidly runs over to Misa, who draws her sword with both hands and stabs the man in his stomach. It doesn't pierce very deeply however, as the blade wasn't that sharp and Misa is lacking in strength. As he is occupied with removing the sword from his body, Misa takes the opportunity to run away. Lots of rooms are open, but they're all filled with people.

She's starting to grow more anxious, it seems like there really is no safety in this mansion. They'll eventually catch her and then they'll torture her. And the groundskeeper is still after her. She enters a room and breaks the windows, to make it look like she jumped outside. Then she makes her real exit through a different room.

Eventually she makes her way to an attic where wheat is stored. She climbs into barrel of grain and hides in it. It's quite dirty, even though this is such a noble mansion, there are rats and insects everywhere. Gross.

The plan is to wait for the cover at night to escape the mansion.

At night she exits through the attics window and climbs over the rooftops. Nothing is recognisable. She has never freely roamed the city. But the outer city walls are visible in the distance, towering over most other buildings.

After many hours Misa makes it to the gates, which are closed at night. But the metal bars are quite wide and Misa manages to fit through them. Then she follows the main road through the slums, out of the Satharak area into a forest.