“A…slave?” Thinking I had misheard I ask again, my voice barely a whisper. Within the kingdom slavery was a common practice, of course the only ones who could actually afford slaves were the nobility. I knew of slavery but in my mind it was more of a foreign concept as there was no reason for any to be in a place out here, most were kept in major cities or in the estates of their owners as servants.
“Yes, a slave, you will be sold to a trader where you will be broken down and rebuilt into someone who has no will of their own, whose existence is merely one of subservience to a master. You will never see your family or village again and will most likely be withheld in the capital or the estate of a noble.”
My mother is still frozen, but within her eyes you can see the hatred raging as she looks at the baron. I find myself speechless, my face must have shown despair or some other similar emotion because the baron looks at me and says,
“Oh don’t look like that dear, you will most likely become a maid at some aristocratic estate and will have an even higher state of living than this shit-hole you call a home. Then again, a girl with your looks might just as likely become some rich man's whore whose only purpose is to spread their legs when told to until you’re cast aside for a fresher youth. It’s not a terrible life, at least you would enjoy yourself.” His nauseating smile is ingrained in my mind. My legs feel weak and I fall to my knees on the rough wooden floor. Why? Why had this happened? We were living a peaceful life, just the three of us together, sure it wasn’t a prosperous life but I still cherished it.
“Why…?” For a minute I think my thoughts have escaped from my mouth, but rather it is my mother who has finally regained enough composure to speak. “Why must you keep ruining our lives? First you take away their father and now you try to take away Sarah as well, I won’t allow you to keep ruining their lives!” Her voice began as a whisper but has grown into a shout, her eyes blazing with rage and hatred.
“Mom…”
“Come now Lillian, what happened to your husband was a regrettable accident but I played no direct part in it, the guards simply heard a disturbance and made their own decisions. Besides, I'm giving your daughter an opportunity to be useful to somebody and to move to a place that has better living conditions than she could ever obtain herself. I would think I am being quite generous.”
“Generous huh, that’s what you call this?” My mother laughs but there is no humor in it. “Fine. Then leave her and take me, we are quite similar to each other of course, I just seem like an older version of her.”
“Mom?!” I yell in surprise at what she’s saying.
“My, what a kind mother you are, sacrificing yourself to be a slave in the place of your daughter, I’m starting to see why my older brother fell for you.”
I think my brain stops working at this point. His older brother? Is he suggesting that he is our uncle? My mind is twisting in so many directions trying to comprehend this world shattering information.
“What do you mean by your older brother fell for her?” I decide to ask directly to make sense of this completely delusional idea. He turns his attention to me, clearly enjoying this conversation.
“She never told you eh?” He begins laughing aloud, “Well I guess it wouldn’t hurt to hear it now, but yes your father was my brother and originally the one meant to inherit this territory. That was, of course, until he met and fell in love with a young commoner woman and decided to renounce his title and move to his love’s home village. Does that about sum it up Lillian?” Both our gazes return to my mother who merely stays quiet.
“That can’t be, there’s no way that can be true!” I yell, my voice going hoarse. I can’t accept this, it would lead to too many questions that I could never possibly find the answer to.
“Oh but it is, use whatever common sense you have and think about it girl. Do you think just any random villager would have the guts to go directly negotiate with an aristocrat over taxes? Do you think that a commoner family like yours would be of any importance to a baron such as myself, for me to come directly and even greet your mother by her first name? I can guarantee you it is the truth, although I never understood why my brother decided to throw away his inheritance and dignity to marry some peasant who had nothing to offer.” He chuckles like it is a little jest in his mind.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
I didn’t want it to be true but there is logic to what he was saying, from what I remembered about my father he was always one to stand up for the village when tough times came, normally it would be grounds for execution but that never happened with him. Even still though I couldn’t accept this man as family, someone who would sell off his own niece into slavery.
“Well now that we have had such a touching reunion and reminisced about the past it is about time that I have to get going, the slave trader is set to arrive tomorrow morning. Lillian, as tempting as your offer is, I can’t just leave two young maidens alone without a mother, you must understand, plus you would be too stubborn to break, but she is young and naive, someone whose will is easily broken and molded.” He gives a signal to the guards who have been waiting outside next to the doorway and they enter upon his command.
“Take the girl.” He then turns around offering one last smile to my mother before walking outside. The guards move over to where I am still on my knees on the floor and tightly grab my wrists. I am forcefully yanked to my feet and one of the guards begins dragging me towards the door.
“I won’t let you!” My mother leaps into action and begins to attempt to block the guards from exiting by getting in their way and standing her ground. The guard in the lead merely throws a fist into her stomach and spittle flies from her mouth as all the air escapes from her lungs, and yet she continues to stand her ground, her breath ragged.
“No... you won’t… take her…”
“Get out of our way bitch!” The guard proceeds to use the pommel of his sword and hits mom over the head knocking her to the side. She hits the ground with an audible thud and just lays there, blood dripping down her forehead.
“Mom!!” I scream at the site of my mother laying on the ground bleeding. That scene finally causes me to begin struggling to free myself from the man’s grasp as I tried to reach my mother. The man’s grip tightens on my wrist which begins to throb with pain as I writhe around trying to get loose.
“Listen here you little 一” I put my own punch into the crotch of the guard who proceeds to let go of my wrist. I scramble away to where my mother lays on the floor dodging the reach of the second guard as he tries to grab me. She is still knocked out but I can see the faint rise and fall of her chest so I know that she is at least still alive. I breathe a sigh of relief before noticing in my peripheral vision the handle of a sword flying towards my temple. The world proceeds to go black.
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(Lena's POV)
I am running to the elder’s home just as I was told by sis and mom. I’m running as hard as I can my breath coming in quick gasps as I finally reach my destination. I don’t know who that man was or why he wanted sis, but I know that whatever he was there for wasn’t anything good. I barge through the door without even knocking and the elder and his wife are sitting around their dinner table looking at me bewildered, it seems as if they were in the middle of a conversation before I interrupted.
“Lena? Is something the matter? Why are you out of breath? “ I am too out of breath to immediately answer their questions but I know I need to tell them. I point towards our home and between ragged breaths try to convey what was happening.
“Man… came to our home… said… it involved… sis…”
A brief glance passes between Augustus and his wife before their gaze returns to me, they have a forced smile on their face as they try to comfort me.
“Lena, it will be alright okay, don’t worry about them, your mother is quite the strong willed person so I’m sure they will be fine.” My gut feeling combined with their forced smiles contradicts their reassuring tone and I decide to turn around and go back to help mom and sis. As I am beginning to go back out the door I hear Augustus call from behind me asking me to wait for a bit, but I ignore him and exit their home. As I am running back towards our home I can hear him trying to chase after me but my youthfulness was a bad match for his age and I quickly put distance between us.
When I get back to the plaza that holds the carriage, the scene in front of me causes me to freeze. I see sis, unconscious and bound, being dragged by her hair to the carriage by the two guards who were outside our house earlier. The right side of her face is dyed crimson and some of it has stained her chestnut hair. Mom is nowhere to be seen. I begin to move towards the carriage where my sister is being unceremoniously tossed in, but the time I spent looking allows for Augustus to catch up to me and as I try to move forward he restrains me, not letting me go.
“Let me go, I have to go save sis!” I struggle against his restraint, but with a strength not befitting his age he keeps holding onto me.
“Lena, you must calm down, you can’t do anything about this.” He sounds sorrowful as he explains to me what I already know.
“I have to try…” My voice falters and I struggle less and less. The carriage starts to move, and it begins to speed up as it navigates towards the exit of the village. When it finally reaches the exit Augustus lets me go and I begin to run after the carriage that is quickly fading into the distance.
“Sisss!” I yell out one last time hoping it reaches her, making my voice crack. Tears are streaming down my face.
That would be the last time I saw my sister until years later. On second thought that would be incorrect, that truly was the last time that I saw the sister that I knew.