HP + 90 (100/175)

Condition: Concussion (Intelligence and Wisdom stats are halved for the next ten hours)

Fuck that must have hurt, I thought as I came round in darkness, the darkness was comforting as I realised I must have been unconscious for thirty hours if my system was showing I'd recovered ninety health. Slowly I became aware of textures in the darkness, I was in some sort of store room, then, I don't know if I was just too confused to notice it before, excruciating, stabbing pain hit me. My head was swimming and I fought the urge to vomit but I couldn't help myself letting out a loud groan of anguish. I focused on my breathing until the pain became merely agonising and slowly I became aware of another sound that wasn't my own moaning. It was quiet sobbing. I searched the room as best I could from my spot on the floor, moving was absolutely out of the question, until I eventually spotted, in the far corner of the room, a girl, the brunette girl, who was sitting bound to a chair and crying. It was too gloomy to really tell what she looked like but I could tell she was in a mess, her clothes didn’t hang right, they had probably been torn and her long hair was a mess.

“Are you ok?” I tried to whisper but my words came out slurred. The girl looked up at me and if anything she started to cry harder.

“You were out for ages. I thought you were dead,” she said, finally, “so did they, you were covered in blood when they brought you in, I guess that's why you’re not tied up.”

“I’m with the militia,” I said, my breathing laboured, “we should get out of here.”

“Right, why didn’t I think of that,” she said.

“Sorry,” I said, realising she was still bound and I tried to get over to her to see if I could get her loose. My attackers must have really thought I was dead as they hadn't searched me. I was still wearing my armour, my sword and crossbow were gone but they had left the dagger I had strapped to the inside of my jacket. That was good, it was something I could use to cut the girl’s ropes. The problem with my escape plan was the getting over to her part. I tried to get on to my knees at least but couldn't, in the end I managed to slowly drag myself forwards but each pull off my arms caused my vision to darken.

“Give up, you can barely move, you should rest and recover,” she said.

“That sounds good, but the men who captured you could be back any minute, we don't have time to wait."

"They've not come back here since they dumped you here, I wouldn't worry about them coming back anytime soon, I think they're waiting until I'm starving and desperate."

"I'll get you free before then," I said, "and my squad will be looking for me by now."

“You'll get me free?" she said sceptically, and now she had said it I could appreciate why she was sceptical. "Worry about yourself kid. Besides, you’ve been here for ages; no one is coming for you.”

“They will and I’m not much younger than you,” I said, although in this light I was going on the sound of her voice more than anything else. “What’s your name?”

“Seriously?” she said. Eventually, shaking her head, she replied, “I'm Matty, you?”

“Neesh,” I said.

"So," she said, leaving the word hanging.

"So what?"

"How old are you then? I'm sixteen," she says.

"Oh, fourteen," I said, although my birthday was only a few weeks away now.

“Gods I can’t believe you. You’re just a kid,” she said ruefully, “Look don’t worry about me, just look after yourself - they'll be back eventually and they probably really will kill you this time.”

“Don’t worry, last time they took me by surprise, this time I’ll be ready for them,” I said, thinking of my dagger. Ok, I was nowhere near as confident as I was sounding, my head was still spinning and I still wanted to throw up the contents of my empty stomach, but I wasn’t going to just give up. “Do you know why you were kidnapped?” I asked, as talking was helping me stay awake right now.

“Because I was born poor and a girl,” she said, grimly.

“I don’t understand?”

“Of course you don’t Neesh, you're a man, or close enough, and you were probably born with a literal silver spoon in your mouth.” She had me there, I thought.

“So enlighten me,” I said.

“I’m a girl, my family are poor and in debt, the men who took me - my parents owe them money, a lot of money, they want me to work off their debt. Is that clear enough for you or do I need to draw you a picture?”

So they had kidnapped Matty to force her into slavery. That was definitely illegal and the men who had taken her were clearly dangerous and clearly this was bigger than just Matty. It was my duty to the Militia and to Captain Shi to escape and report this.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“That's awful," I said.

“No shit."

"Is the door the only way out?" I asked.

"I don't know, I'm literally tied to this chair. Tell you what, when you can actually stand up you can check."

Argh, she had a point.

"Ok, let's assume it is, we just need to get them to open the door then,” I said, ignoring her attitude.

“I’ll just ask them shall I? Maybe see if I can get them to throw in lunch for the journey whilst I’m at it?”

“Well kinda, I was thinking you could start screaming you’re sick and maybe they’ll come to check on you?”

“They won’t, they don’t care. I screamed plenty after they dumped your ‘body’ in here and no one ever came - even to tell me to shut up.”

“I see,” I said, “well I guess we’ll have to wait for them to come and then make our move.”

“Sure, whatever. Good luck with that.”

“Look, I've got to try. It’s like you said, they’re going to kill me anyway right, and I'd rather go out fighting than just accept it. Besides, how do you know they’re not going to kill you as well?”

“They’re not going to kill me, I’m merchandise.”

“Well how about helping me out then,” I said, “I don’t want to die, my head feels like someone cracked my skull open, which they probably did, and all I've got is a knife.”

There was a long pause whilst Matty thought about what I said. She was frustrating but I could tell she was mainly scared. I definitely didn’t mean to guilt trip her though, if she was going to help me it should be entirely her own choice. Her captors might not be going to kill her for one failed escape attempt but they might for a second, particularly if I succeeded in stabbing my dagger into one or more of them.

"Look I'm sorry, I'll do my best to get out of here and as soon as I'm out I'll bring my squad to come and rescue you," I said.

“Fine,” she said finally, exasperated, “Tell you what if you can manage to get up and cut me free then I'll help you. It's not like what's waiting for me is any better than death anyway.”

“Don’t say that,” I said, shocked, “we’ll get out of this and then Captain Shi will make sure that the people holding you captive are arrested and you’re free.”

“Sure,” she said dismissively, "anyway your first step is getting up."

I collapsed back down for the time being. “So, tell me about yourself,” I said, trying to keep her engaged and well I needed something, anything, to distract me from the pain in my head.

“Really, you want to do this now?” she asked.

“Yes, I want to know,” it was sort of even true.

“There’s not a lot to say,” she said, a bit sheepishly, “I was born here in Northgate. My ma’s a servant to one of the merchant families on Sister’s Street, she works in the kitchen, my dad, he works for the same family, goes down to docks in Bankbridge and works as a banksman loading and unloading stuff coming up the river. Nothing fancy but you know they’re good people.

“We were alright you know,” she said and I couldn’t help but pick up on the defensive tone that entered her voice, “but then my brother got sick, he was just a kid.”

“He didn’t make it?” I asked, when she tailed off.

“No, he didn’t,” she said bitterly, “my parents tried everything, they hired a doctor, that’s how they got in debt, but there was nothing he could do - something about his blood going bad or something - no cure, he could only make him comfortable. Fuck, the doctor didn’t even overcharge us, twenty marks was all we owed, at first at least.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it. I had this idea of Malin as some sort of paradise in my head; and in many ways I still thought it was - in Trieste you’d be hard pressed to find a doctor that would willingly treat a commoner, let alone find a commoner who could afford his fees. Twenty marks was cheap really - a consultation with a doctor in Trieste was usually a few hundred marks. Still it was clear that Malin, despite being a place where a doctor would work for anyone and charge a fair price for their services, was still a place where some people, probably most people, were still too poor to afford all their necessities. I guess nowhere was perfect.

“Don’t be, you didn’t make him sick, you didn’t sink the barge that meant my dad didn’t get his usual hours that month, you didn’t triple the interest on their loan for one late payment. You didn’t…”

“Well in that case I’m angry, angry you’ve had to go through all this,” I said finally, wondering what she had stopped herself from saying.

“Alright, you can be angry for both of us,” did she sort of smile when she said that? It was hard to tell in the dim light, “I'm fed up of being angry, I've been angry for months and it's done nothing for me, it just burns you hollow.” Well if she had smiled she was back to being gloomy now. Still I felt less frustrated with her now I had heard her story at least and it had distracted me for about two minutes from my aching head.

“What about you?” she asked suddenly.

“Um, I’m a Knight Apprentice,” I said, what could I tell her? I had my cover story but she’d been honest with me and I just didn’t feel right lying to her now, besides I was probably going to die so did it really matter if I told her the truth, or some of it at least.

“Yeah you told me that,” she said, “where are you from? You don’t sound like you grew up in Malin.”

“Honestly?”

“I was honest with you,” she said.

“I’m from Trieste. My parents were wealthy, you were right about the silver spoon,” that wasn’t quite a lie although it wasn’t the truth either, “I wasn’t happy back in Trieste, I didn’t really fit with what my parents wanted from me, so I was mainly ignored at home. Then my father decided I had to have an arranged marriage to a foreigner, which I really didn’t want, marriage I mean not that they were a foreigner, but on the way to meet my fate my carriage had an accident, I survived but I was alone, then I was attacked by bandits but I escaped again and well here was the nearest place to head to so I arrived just as they were starting the militia trials and I thought why not give it a shot. I thought up a story about who I was, so no one will suspect I didn't die in the carriage accident, signed up for the trials and somehow passed so now I'm Neesh, knight apprentice, son of a disgraced Triestian scholar turned woodsman.”

“And now you're going to die in a mouldy Malinese cellar,” she burst out laughing, “Gods that’s quite a tale. I kind of hope it’s true.”

“It’s true, so if we get out of here, keep it a secret please!”

“Sure thing, Neesh-if-that-is-even-your-real-name,” she was still laughing.

Eventually, something made me join in too and we were both giggling like madmen.