I mean, yay we found her, and she was alive, but of all the places to be it had to be here. Not to mention this was a horrible time, impending siege and what not. There was no telling what would happen when everything came to fruition. All I knew for certain was that Kala would not accept walking out of here without her.
Speaking of, she was still having what I thought was the combination of a panic attack and a joyful revelation. Her only surviving family member was found alive, and while they may not be exactly healthy, that was something that could be fixed with proper care. For now, she needed to get herself under control.
“Don’t worry Kala, we’ll get her out of here, but right now I need you to get a hold of yourself.” I reassured her in a quiet voice.
She nodded, but it still didn’t stop her from shaking. “I know, and I trust that you will, but I think I need you to do something for me.”
“Do what?”
“I need you to hit me.”
That stopped all of my higher brain functions as the overwhelming consensus from my mind just shouted ‘NO.’ However, the minority of my logic knew she wouldn’t ask something like that unless she had a good reason. “Why are you asking me to do that?”
She held up her hands. They were trembling. “I can’t stop them; I'm trying to even now. I need you to hit me, to clear my mind with pain. Just act like I said something you didn’t like. Slaves are beaten all the time, and they won’t question you about it.”
Again, my immediate reaction was to say ‘no, we’ll try something else,’ but we couldn’t stay here forever thinking about it, and the situation would be turning desperate sooner rather than later. She was firm, looking directly at me in a pleading manner as her body continued to defy her.
I let out a quiet sigh. “Fine, but know I don’t want to do this.”
She smiled at me reassuringly. “And that’s why I don’t mind you doing it.”
“Prepare yourself then.” She lifted her chin, giving me a clear shot to the side of her face. I lifted my hand up, hesitating for a second before opening my palm for the slap. My chest tightened up in revulsion, but I pushed through it and brought my force to bear upon her.
The slap echoed off the confined stone walls of this place, probably audible to everyone. My hand actually stung a little, not only metaphorically with shame, but physically as her scales were a fairly hard surface to be hitting. Doing as she suggested, I started to falsely berate her.
“I asked for your opinion! If I want more than that then I will tell you!” Honestly, this was the hardest thing I've had to do on this whole mission. Kala took a breath as the initial moment of pain faded away. She seemed to be much calmer now, and surprisingly it did help her stop shaking. Now that she was no longer in the midst of a panic attack, she gave me a quick nod to tell me she was ready to continue.
With nothing else left to discuss, and no time for it either, I rounded the corner again while thinking about how to go about buying Kala’s mom. This has got to be the most fucked up day I've had in a while. Vernak saw me and gave me his best business smile.
“So, did you come to a decision on anything?” It seemed Kala was correct. He did not even seem to be thinking about the slap or the berating that he surely heard.
How do I go about this? It would probably be suspicious if I just asked to buy her alone. Should I ask if I can inspect them? Do I need to perform a health check? Fuck, I have no idea what I'm doing right now. How does one even buy a person, and more so, how do they do it without feeling like a total piece of shit?
I was winging it at this point. “There were a few specimens that caught my eye. Tell me, what is your policy on inspecting them before committing to the purchase?”
“We get that request from time to time, and we can accommodate you should you desire so.”
“Yes, I would like a private examination of a few of your stock here.”
Vernak nodded and made a gesture towards all the cells. “Please, select which ones you are interested in, and I will have them prepared for a viewing.”
The first two selections were random members of the other cells who appeared to be healthy enough, a Droln and a Valus to be specific. My true target I saved for last, and when I pointed her out, I could see a flash across her face, a mixture of surprise, panic, and anticipation. I could understand where all those conflicting emotions came from considering the situation.
Vernak instructed the guard to get a few of his buddies to move the selected slaves while I was led to a room that could be used for inspection. The room itself reeked of misfortune and cruelty. There were chains on the wall that were waiting for occupants to be placed into them. Dried blood accumulated from underneath each of these installations. This place was most likely used for punishment, or perhaps just plain torture. Either way I didn’t like it, and it made me feel antsy just standing here.
“I will send in the first of your selections. Would you like me to provide you with some insight into each of them?” Vernak asked.
“I prefer to make my decisions without being swayed by outside opinions.”
He dipped his head a little. “Very well, take as much time as you desire, and if you need help give a shout. There should be no problems, they all know that they are to be on their best behavior.” With that he left the room, and shortly after a pair of guards escorted the Droln into the room and chained their arms to the wall in such a way that they couldn’t move very far. Once their task was completed, they left the room.
At first, I considered maybe reassuring the unfortunate Droln that we weren’t going to be doing anything bad to him and that we were on his side, but I reconsidered. This was not the situation in which I needed to spout off such things without good reason. Kala’s mom would have to know of course, but the others whom I selected could stay ignorant right now for security reasons.
To keep up the story, I had to actually inspect them. It was awkward, but I tried to maintain a clinical mindset throughout the process. I was instructed by Velshi how to treat people, so I just fell back on my training in that regard. What that mostly boiled down to was checking their joints, seeing if they had any open wounds, infections, or other obvious maladies and maybe asking them a question about how they felt internally. The last one was probably not anything I could reliably take their word on. People aren’t good at self-diagnosis at the best of times, throw in an obvious desire to be out of this place and you have a recipe for lies.
I suppose it didn’t really matter in the end. I was most likely going to buy all three of them. The synopsis of his condition was mostly healthy, malnourished and beneath the fur was riddled with scar tissue, but they weren’t about to drop anytime soon. With this checkup done, I sent the Droln outside and called for the next person to be brought in.
Lo and behold my next patient just so happened to be Kala’s mother. I could tell she was trying to act restrained right now, I had seen similar behavior in Kala before. The only thing that really betrayed her act was the occasional flicker of her eyes towards Kala’s current position, a tick that seemed to be almost involuntary. She was chained to the wall the same way the Droln was, and the guards left immediately after that.
Given the situation, it wasn’t right for me to be the first person to talk to her considering how long this reunion had been in the making. I walked over to Kala who I could see was practically vibrating with pent up emotions and gave her a little pat on the shoulder. “Go ahead, but be quiet and quick, we have a lot to talk about and not a whole lot of time to do it.”
That was all she needed to hear as she rushed by me and almost tackled her mother to the ground in a hug. Her mother hesitated for a panic-filled moment as she shot me a concerned look. Understandable since she didn’t know me. I alleviated her of some of the tension she must have had with a small hand gesture which basically said that she should hug her daughter back.
She only needed another second to process after that before she clamped down around Kala like a vice. She wasn’t able to get a full wrap around hug due to her hands being restrained, but it was still a very warm and heartfelt hug. There were tears, naturally, as they both reveled in the pure bliss of the moment. It was such a purely wholesome sight that it almost made me forget where I was for a moment.
Kala nuzzled into the side of her mother's head like she was attempting to burrow into her skull. Of course, her mother was equally affectionate, and it seemed she found her voice first as she spoke soft sweet words into Kala’s ear. “My little river glider, I didn’t know if I would ever see you again.”
“I’m so glad I found you mom. I was scared that you were... that you might have been...”
“Shhh, it’s okay, I wouldn’t leave you so easily. Even if the world decided to try and prevent me from seeing you again, it would only have been a matter of time before I would reach you.”
While cute, it was starting to feel a little awkward with me just being a third wheel in this deeply personal moment. I shuffled a little bit and that was apparently enough to get Kala’s mom’s attention. Her eyes narrowed at me before she pulled Kala a little closer and twisted their bodies, so she was covering her daughter in a defensive manner.
I could hear her mumbling words as quietly as she could into her daughter's ear, and I strained my own to even catch what she said. “What has this Thrainian been doing to you? Please don’t tell me you promised him something in return for this.”
Kala came up from her mother’s shoulder with a look of brief confusion before realizing what, or who, she was actually talking about. “Oh, no, mom, it isn’t like that. This is... uhm...” She hesitated for a second and looked at me, apparently asking if it was okay to use my real name. I gave a nod to her to go ahead but put a finger up to my lips and gestured at the door to tell her to be quiet about it.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
She nodded back and spoke the next part in a slightly lower voice. “This is James, though right now he goes by the name Arkin. He’s not a Thrainian, and he saved my life from my former master. We’re working for the coalition now.”
Her mother’s face went completely blank for a moment. That was a lot of information to process in such a short period of time. “Wait, not a Thrainian? The coalition? But he’s... and you’re collared... I don’t...”
I decided to cut in before she fell too deep into the rabbit hole. “Okay, there’s a lot to explain, and there’s a lot of catching up to do, but now is not the time for all of that. The short of it is that I'm on your side and planning on getting you out of here so just trust me for a little bit. Nice to meet you by the way, Kala talked very fondly about you whenever she recalled the past. Can I have something to call you other than Kala’s mom?”
She looked me up and down, sizing me up and possibly trying to measure my worth. “You can call me Silia, and no, I do not trust you, but I trust my daughter. If she says you are what you claim to be, then I will take her word for it.”
“Good enough. Now, I'm going to send you back out, take a look at the last one waiting out there and then hopefully negotiate a deal for your purchase. Any questions?”
She looked down for a second before her eyes came back to meet mine with an unexpected fire in them. “Did you hit my daughter?”
That made me go rigid as her fury started to pierce me. “Uhm...” I quickly pointed at Kala. “She told me to.” This felt like a situation when you’re a kid and you patsy off something that you did wrong on another sibling.
Silia looked skeptically at Kala who shrugged. “I did.” She thankfully admitted.
She looked at me with a scowl. “If you ever touch my daughter again, I don’t care who you are, I'll gouge out your eyes and feed them to you.” Yikes, that’s a painful one, and I didn’t doubt that she was serious about that.
“Mom...” Kala said exasperated with a roll of her eyes. There was no stopping a mother’s protective instincts though, and Silia continued to stare scornfully at me.
“Yes mam, I don’t ever plan to do something like that again.” It was the truth, and it alleviated the situation all in one shot. Still, she did not relent the severity of her stare, even as she nodded as if to say she was content with my answer.
With everyone more or less on the same page now, I sent her out and called for the next one to be sent in. Much the same as the Droln, I just performed a standard checkup without so much as a word being said by anyone during it. I didn’t know much about the Valus, but this one seemed to have a youthful look. He still had the telltale signs of slavery etched into his body, so he had been here for a while. It was completely possible that he was a kid when he first arrived and grew up in this abusive environment. I didn’t even want to know how messed up his mind might be, and pity welled up inside me even as I sent him back out.
With the end of my selection having been checked, Vernak came over to talk eagerly about my thoughts of the ‘wares.’ Honestly, I thought he was a disgusting parasite of a man who would do this world a favor if he suddenly decided to drop dead, but my opinion of him was pushed to the side as I began to talk about the purchase of these people.
“Yes, I am content with my selection for now and can see nothing openly wrong with them. How might we resolve the matter of payment?” He first tried to gouge me for over two gold coins for them, but even though I would be more than happy to pay that to get Kala’s mom out of here, I needed to negotiate it down to not draw suspicion.
There was some back and forth and a little bit of arguing over the cost of feeding and time for training. The Droln was apparently considered the most expensive of the selection due to their work capacity. Eventually we came to an agreement on a single gold coin and twenty-three silver ones. The price of a life, measured in bits of metal.
The deal was sealed with a handshake as Vernak started to explain the next steps. “We’ll get your slaves cleaned up and ready for you, which includes changing their collars for more appropriate ones for traveling beyond our borders as well. The activation word for these new collars will be parthis, please commit it to memory.”
Yep, in one ear, out the other. No way in hell would I ever use that word for any reason. Those collars hurt, and that’s saying something from the man who had his insides ripped out. I had a brief dark thought about changing their minds by forcing them to wear them for a while, but that was antithetical to the whole goal of stopping slavery entirely.
Alright focus, current situation first, abolishment later. I had to wait about a good ten minutes before a group of guards returned with the three individuals who I had selected. They were dripping wet. I realized that this was probably what Vernak meant by ‘cleaned up’, just hit them with some buckets of water for a quick wash. It looked particularly annoying for the Droln, whose fur was matted and hugging their body now.
We could dry them off later, for now I just wanted to get out of here. Our group marched their way back out of the slave pens and into the open air. There was a little more activity around the area than before. Lines of slaves were moving boxes and crates into a storage shed in one area, while in another a different group of slaves was putting them into the back of carts. Occasionally there was a loud crack that split the air followed by a cry of pain as the unfortunate victim of a slavers whip found their back sliced open. I could do nothing but wince slightly and keep walking, feeling sympathetic towards them.
As we came to the exit of this area and went back towards the common area, it was apparently time for Vernak to part ways with us. “It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Sothalis, but unfortunately my duties call me back to work. I hope that if you are ever in need of more bodies for your business, you will seek us out first.”
“If it is ever convenient, I will.”
“Good day to you then sir.” With that, he turned and left us to our own devices.
I let out a little sigh. One problem seemed to be over with, but there was another to take its place. First of all, what was I supposed to do with the three extras that are now unwittingly a part of our suicide mission? Is it fair to get them involved, or should they just be kept in the dark? I was leaning more towards telling them. If shit did go sideways, then I doubt any argument of ignorance on their part would be believed. We’ll just have to sort this out when we get a moment of privacy.
Kala and her mother were showing restraint when it came to reveling in their reunion, but they were still walking shoulder to shoulder, as close as they possibly could be to one another. Once we got back to the inn, I had everyone shuffle into the little shack which suddenly became much more crowded than usual. I was met with the quizzical looks of my companions as they watched the parade of new faces come in.
Otar shifted towards me with the intent to speak. “Didn’t think you’d actually buy anyone.” The two who were still out of the loop on the whole situation went stiff as a rock, evidently shocked at the casual nature in which he addressed me and probably expected me to commence with a beating.
“Well, at first the plan was going to be just scout and get out, but some unexpected discoveries made me adapt that plan.” Now they looked confused, but still did not question the situation. Perhaps they just thought I was an eccentric who preferred a normal conversation over formalities.
“That’s some adaptation. What in the pits brought it on in the first place?”
With a little bit of a flourish of the wrist I stepped aside and gestured towards the ladies in the room. “Allow me to introduce Silia, also known as Kala’s mother.” That raised some brows across the room. “Apparently, she’s been here for the last year, and you do have my sympathies in that regard mam. While we’re in the middle of introductions, would the two of you care to share your names as well?” I made a small gesture to the pair of clueless and extremely confused individuals occupying a dark corner.
The Droln fidgeted a little before responding. “Morath, sir.”
The Valus was hot on his heels with an answer as well. “Calivir, sir.”
“Pleasure to meet you, now, I need you both to do two things for me. Take a massive breath and relax. This situation is actually very positive for you.” I could see the burning questions written all over their features, but they still hesitated to ask any of them.
Otar tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. “Perhaps they will be quicker to understand if I were to explain it to them?”
“Have at it.” I surrendered the situation to Otar who proceeded to tell the new arrivals exactly what was happening. Naturally he left out some of the more compromising details, such as my real name, but the general situation of us being agents from the coalition and trying to bring this place down was communicated effectively.
There was a long moment of silence before Calivir found his voice again. “I’m... not a slave anymore?” The concept seemed almost foreign to him, a testament to his sad existence up until this point.
“Technically no.” I confirmed, “Though you should still act the part while we are here. That’s the good news anyway, bad news is that it might not last long depending on how our mission goes here. I’ll be doing my damndest to make sure it’s a success, but the odds are stacked against us. If any of you have any insights from your time here that we could exploit, be it from a person, place, or thing, I'll will gladly accept any information.”
They thought about it for a second before Morath apparently came up with something. “I don’t know if this is helpful, but one of the guards for the slave pens is a drunk. He has come to his shift with alcohol heavy on his breath and has even been caught drinking on the job.”
“That could be useful. Got a name and description?”
“Yulvin, he’s a heavy-set man with a dark brown beard and hair.”
“Noted, anyone have anything else to add?”
To my surprise, Silia stepped forward to address my question. “I’ve made a few observations.” By a ‘few’ she meant a whole list of little things she has observed. Guards with physical disabilities like limps or bad shoulders, areas where patrols don’t normally cover, weathering in parts of the walls that could make for handholds in any attempt to climb, certain groups of guards who shirk their duties in favor of being part of a small gambling ring, and other little bits of information.
I raised an eyebrow at her extensive list of things she’s made note of. Some of them were fairly useless tidbits, but others could be worked with given the right situation. She noticed my quizzical stare and scrunched her face up at me in a confrontational manner. “What? You think I've just been sitting here doing nothing while my little girl was out there in the hands of filthy slavers? I’ve been trying to plan an escape from here for a while, but there’s just so much to navigate around that an opportunity never arises.”
Kala rolled her eyes. “Mom, I'm a grown woman.”
In true parental form, Silia seized her daughter in a hug and cooed into her ear. “You will always be my little river glider.” Kala just sighed but still returned the affection with a few nuzzles.
The sight managed to get a chuckle out of me. “You two are quite adorable.”
The mood disappeared as quickly as it had spawned when Silia gave me a very unamused look. “I don’t recall asking you your opinion on my family.”
Jeez, didn’t know Trelnval could be venomous. I knew she didn’t like me, but did she have to bite my head off for an innocuous comment? Just then I came to a realization. Ahh, shit, she doesn’t know I'm dating Kala right now. That was going to be one hell of a conversation, and for once I was actually feeling glad about being immortal because it was rather likely I would be mauled to death once she found out. I wasn’t looking forward to that, but now was not the time or place for such a discussion.
“Well, getting back on topic, your information has probably saved us some time and effort. We’re making decent progress, but don’t let that get to your head, there’s still a lot to get done. Otar, can you make sure these three know the dos and don'ts of this operation.” He nodded and gestured for everyone to gather in one part of the room. Silia hesitated to separate from Kala, but she could understand the gravity of the situation outweighed her own personal desires. “Good, everyone else, we’re going to set up shop for a few hours again. Ears and eyes open, let's get moving.”
Everyone started shuffling around and moving to their tasks. Kala went up to her mother before leaving and gave her a quick nuzzle with some parting words. The tender moment was brief as she quickly hurried to follow me out. Pieces of this puzzle were starting to be found, but the complete picture was far from there. Hopefully, something important will be discovered today.