*Splash*
Woken by a freezing cold splash of water, I slowly start getting up. Once my eyes were open, an armored man I recognized to be the knight who had shown me to my door last night stood right before me. With a gruff, tired voice he responded to my questions.
“I’m here to guide you where the king tells me to. Now, if you’d please follow me.”
Guided by the surprisingly polite knight, I’m lead through the halls past the throne room doors, past even more halls and finally stop in front of another large door. As the door slowly creaks open due to the knights pushing I get a slowly expanding view of something resembling a cafeteria from the real world packed with the crowd of people from yesterday.
‘Come to think of it, isn’t this dream really lifelike?’
After being in this world for an entire day I was starting to question whether or not this really was a dream like I had thought it was. Anyways, once I had realized what everyone else was doing I followed suite and sat in a vacant stool while looking around for what we were all waiting for. After failing to reach a definite conclusion from analysis I decided to ask the elderly woman beside me.
“What we’re doing? I’m not too sure but the kind knight who woke me up said they’re going to make us adjust to ‘our new world’. Whatever that means.”
New world? Suspicious, and I wasn’t going to let this chance slide either.
“What do you think they mean by new world?”
“Do you not know yet? Although most of us were summoned in our sleep, a few of us were straight out sucked into something that they described as a ‘rip in the world’.”
A rip in the world? Interesting but does this mean this isn’t a dream then? Well that doesn’t actually surprise me at this point. The murder and magic from yesterday felt way too real to have been ‘just a dream’.
After a while of just waiting in silence for something or someone to arrive a creaking sound came from the direction of the doors. Turning my head in surprise I was met with a group of grey robed people and the king from earlier in green attire. Slowly the robed people walked over, two of them removing their hoods and just looking at our group that was now scattered across the length of the table. After they had spread out across the room a voice which I didn’t really want to hear talked once again.
“Greetings once again, Slave Heroes. Once again please group up on one side of the table.”
Just like yesterday our bodies were forced into a line with stiff, forced movements. Once I regained bodily control I found myself in a group of people surrounded by the robed people. Suddenly the robed people started chanting in a language that I don’t really understand. If I tried to think about what they were saying a racking pain assaulted my head and made me feel nauseous.
Once they had finished chanting an odd glowing purple circle had formed around us and several people within started falling to their knees with an expression of agony on their faces.
Slowly, one by one the big group of people was narrowed down to about 10 people with the rest writhing in agony on the floor with parts of their body starting to disintegrate into dark grey particles. Amongst the writhing I came to recognize a face that I was all too familiar with seeing before being taken here.
‘Alex’
Piece by piece, as if flaking off, pieces of my friends and many others fell apart, turning into particles of light. Helpless to even speak, let alone move, I could only mentally gawk in horror as the massacre proceeded.
Slowly the circle died down with only the remaining 10 people left behind. Looking around at the now vacant space where many people had stood previously, many emotions overtook me.
Sadness, grief, horror and a bit of anger.
“Well, now that we’ve siphoned out the weak and are left with only the few who arrived with actual blessings; let us proceed.”
With a flick of his hand, wrought metal bars rose to surround us like helpless cattle. Once they all arched towards the centre, the many grey robed people came to the bars and started chanting in that unknown language again. Once the chant had started, another circle surrounded us but was white this time. The bars surrounding us immediately started glowing white but didn’t seem to radiate heat, only light.
After a solid minute of lights and chanting I felt my mind start to muddle and my body starting to feel weird. Like sand beneath my skin a severe case of numbness assaulted me and my vision goes white, knocking me unconscious once again.
- - - - -
Waking up peacefully for the first time in this world I quickly snap out of my drowsiness and look around to see where I was. To my surprise I’m still in the room where the massacre happened yesterday.
Right…
The massacre…
Alex, the kind old lady and all those other innocent people…
With a depressing mood to start off the day I start looking around to see if anyone else who survived yesterday was awake yet. Surprisingly there was someone awake. Someone who woke up and didn’t seem to be having a very good day. With sunken eyes and a face that blatantly revealed how they’d been crying earlier due to dried up tears and puffy eyes. The young boy before me was indeed quite depressed and I couldn’t do anything about it. I’d never been quite that good with children and that wasn’t something that could be improved overnight.
Sitting with the somber child beside me I looked around and finally got a good look at the survivors. The group was almost balanced with six men and four women. Only two in the group appeared to be children: the sad boy and a sleeping girl with brown locks.
After waiting for a good hour for everyone to slowly awaken I had grown impatient. Finally, once most of the group was awake, the large doors creaked open with an extremely eerie sound. Once the large door opened the king and several knights entered. This time though, the king seemed rather nervous and wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Internally writhing in hatred towards this human scum that dared to commit such terrible crime and seemingly regret nothing. If only I could just dispose of him here and now. Yeah… That’s right, I just have to get rid of him. If I want dead, then the best person for the job’s me. But the problem’s how not whether I’ll do it or not. How… Come to think of it, if that king can do that metal magic trick then maybe I can too… Magic, that’s right, this world must have magic for him to be able to conjure metal armor without advanced technology. Now the question is how to perform magic. How indeed…
Suddenly, interrupting my thoughts like a slap to the face, the knights started putting really crude handcuffs around my hands (e.g. http://us.123rf.com/450wm/daseaford/daseaford1203/daseaford120300007/12852454-a-wooden-set-of-medieval-punishment-stocks.jpg).
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“Sorry for the inconvenience *snicker*, but we wouldn’t want you guys resisting in the most important part of the process.”
With just those short, annoying words we were forcefully led through the halls by the cuffs until we were actually outside. Instead of passing through more halls or huge doors we instead went through tight musty passages that were terribly lit, reminding me of home once again.
Once outside, we were led through a wooded area until we were in front of a crude log house with a seemingly innocent feeling to it. Then again, what sort of innocent place would this filth be visiting with a group of slaves in tail.
After a few short moments the door was swung open by a short man with a disfigured face and grey hair. Without a word we were allowed in and led through the empty cabin and to a ladder hatch. With a short chant and a series of taps we were brought down the hatch and into a dirty tunnel that seemed to have been made in a hurry considering it hadn’t been cleaned up at all.
After what seemed to be an eternity we were brought what seemed to be the junction of the dirt tunnel and a stone basement wall with a door installed facing us. Again the short man walked up and did the same things he did with the ladder hatch, opening the door once again.
What we were greeted with on the other sight couldn’t be described as a pleasant sight at all. Walls lined with cages of different sizes. Not all the cages were filled but those that were had people within them. No, not all of them were people, some had horns, some had animal ears, some were half beast and some were even full out monsters.
After a few minutes of walking and gawking at the inhuman sights around me at the moment. Once we had reached the end of the room we finally arrived at another door.
‘How many levels of security does this darned place have, there must be something really dangerous happening here.’
Once the next door was opened we were prodded into the room while the knights stayed behind.
‘Come to think of it, if someone as powerful as this king needs guards then just how powerful are the people of this world?’
In the room there was a putrid stench and a pudgy, balding man sitting behind a desk as if he was already aware that we were to arrive.
“It’s an honour, your majesty.”
“No need for formalities Chester, we’ve known each other for far too long for that sort of conduct.”
“If you insist. Anyways, let’s get down to business. What do you require of me?”
“Well as you know, we recently acquired that summoning spell and succeeded in summoning Heroes right.”
“Indeed, I was quite surprised that it succeeded on your first try but how does this relate to someone such as me?”
“Well, the spell we used was indeed formidable but the slavery spell within doesn’t take into consideration the future growth of the Heroes.”
“Well that’s probably since the creators didn’t exactly want some brainless puppets to be the bastion of their kingdom.”
“That may be true but it doesn’t conform with what we need so I was wondering if you could perform a stronger bond on them so that they can’t resist anything we demand of them.”
“Well, I’ll do what I can but considering they’re Heroes you probably should have consulted someone more qualified.”
“We don’t have the time to get someone better, we need this now.”
“Whatever you say.”
Slowly the man behind the desk got up and fetched a variety of items from a cabinet to his side. After assembling a stack of items including jars of red liquid, scrolls and other odd objects.
“You guys know the drill, get in line and let the kind man over there help you out.”
Shit! Just like last time my body is forced into a line with me in last this time. One by one the old man performs some kind of ritual with the people in line involving a bunch of blood and a flash of red light to finish it off.
Slavery. It was something completely incomprehensible to someone like me from another world that had just a bit too much freedom. I didn’t want to be a slave, never have, never will. Actually, why am I even here, what did I do to incur such misfortune.
First I’m kidnapped from my house and brought to another world before I’d done an of the many things I wanted to accomplish in life. I haven’t done anything sinful, intact I’ve saved many a life due to my line of work. Why did I deserve such a terrible fate?
That’s right, just like before, I just have to kill them to get this over with. If they get in my way I just have to end them. How? I don’t know… What ways could I kill a man while unarmed. Hand-to-hand combat is out of the question, I’m cuffed. Then what other ways cold I do it…
That’s right, what if I could do what the king had done with the metal. Magic, right? What if I could perform magic?
The question is how. Whether it’s the slave ritual or the kings metal magic they’re all related somehow. To figure it out how about I use some science from my world. If nothing moves without being acted upon, what moves his metal magic? Energy has to, but what energy could form metal and manipulate it. It would have to be one that I’m unfamiliar with. Let’s call it magic power. If I used magic power and did an energy conversion, then I could create metal. But if that’s the case then how could these savages figure it out? Right, the chanting.
The chanting’s the key but I don’t know how to do that so I’m limited in choices since there’s only a few people left in line, 3 at best. Maybe if I know the concept behind it, it’ll all work out? No matter how hard I tried though, I couldn’t manipulate the magic power around me at all. No wonder considering, I can’t see or feel it at all.
As my turn approaches I’m limited in what I can do. Fight or run. Wood? Breakable, but the magic fight afterwards is the issue. As time passes he restraints on my body loosen. The muscles on my arms bulge as the wood clamps creak as the strain being placed on them exceeds what they were designed for. Sadly though, I’m still human and my mad delusions of shattering wood with muscle power failed quickly.
Finally, it was my turn in line and all my thoughts on magic, resisting and fighting were all shattered as my mental restraints returned, stronger than before by a large margin.
The man slashed my arm and let the blood drip onto the scroll, instead of absorbing the blood though, the parchment unraveled and the complicated patterns on it shone and a symbol was quickly ingrained into my mind.
That’s when it all went dark.
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This chapter got a bit longer than I had hoped for (444 words longer) but I hope you enjoyed. If you found any errors or have any suggestions, please do tell, thx.