Nine years later…

Throwing himself up in bed, William panted heavily. He had the dream again. He didn't have it nearly as often as before any longer but it still crept up on him at times.

Mom… Dad… , he thought. Lightly slapping his own cheeks he threw off his burlap blankets and walked to the shed door.

Opening it wide he was met by brilliant morning sunlight, a dirt road, and slanted, pressed together houses.

Smiling he ran inside to the small house his shed was nestled against.

“Baba! Niko!”, he yelled, “I'm up and heading into town!”.

A small elderly woman came into the small kitchen area he had ran into with a smile on her face. “Okay William, be sure to pick up some bread on the way back this afternoon.”, she said.

“Alright.”, William replied just as a small boy walked into the room.

“Yes Niko is beginning to get very hungry!”, the child said while patting his stomach.

“Niko stop talking like that!”, William said while chuckling, “Alright I'm off guys!”, he said as he turned to head out the door.

“Thank you William.”, the woman said.

“No, thank you Baba!”, he shouted back as he rounded the corner out of the house and began running.

William was a stable boy, he had become one soon after his mother and father had been enslaved and taken away by the orc slaver. He was forced to find work in order to be able to eat, and slept on the streets for nearly a year before Baba had found him. Lucky she had, the other urchins of the soulless quarters weren’t very kind to those who descended from the “blessed” or the “gifted” such as William.

The soulless lived in a separate quarter outside the central town walls, some say due to “overpopulation”, while others thought it was more as a buffer against enemy armies before they approached the township, essentially using the soulless as a entire class of meatshields.

Baba allowed him the small shed he slept in as long as he was able to provide 2 loafs of bread a week, as she and her small grandson Niko weren’t verily able to work. Baba raised chickens as well, but that in itself wasn’t enough sustenance.

As William ran through the soulless district to the town gates where the stables were located, he suddenly bumped into a large figure and fell back onto his rump.

“Hm-ph?”, the large brute mumbled in a lulling voice, “Oh- It’s little Willy. Where’s you runnin to now lil’ Willy?”, he said as he reach down to pick up William by his shoulder.

“Trying to get to work is all Brusk, sorry I wasn’t watching where I was going.”, he said while peering past Brusk toward the gate.

“Huh, couldna see even with all that blessed blood eh? Lotta good it does yuh! Scrawny and weak I’d say.”, Brusk huffed as he set William down with a huff. “Ah’right then, wouldn’t want you bein’ late to all those guards and get meh’self in trouble now. Hurry along now, and try to grow some spine by this evening, Assignment tonight remember? First one for you since eighteen cycles too, eh?”

Williams blood ran cold, Assignment, what he’d dreaded since his eighteenth birthday. It was a day when the City’s Guard assigned scouting missions as well as others randomly to the soulless in the age group 18-30, in order to preserve manpower and hopefully awaken new Gifted to their own Soul Skills. Today was the first Assignment his name would be included in the drawing.

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“Yes. I know.”, he breathed sadly.

“Seeyah Brusk…”, he said as he continued running past him.

Brusk had always been a little dense. He was 20, only a year older than he was, and was one of the only six soulless to return from a contact Assignment, that is, an Assignment in which the chosen encounters monsters or bandits. Brusk had no Soul Skill, but was still incredibly strong for a soulless, and was able to fight off weaker monsters. Brusk had initially despised William for being the child of two Gifted, as Brusk didn’t even know his own parents, but eventually got over it in the face of William’s personality. Brusk was simple, and malevolence wasn’t in his vocabulary.

Finally William arrived at the gate. “William Crow, Stable Hand, reporting for duty.”, he said to the guard at the gate.

“Go on then shit shoveller.”, the guard said off-handedly.

With his head low William paced quickly through the gate, to the stables and began his daily chores. The chores only lasted three to four hours, and netted him three coppers a day, three days a week, sometimes more. The bread he bought every week costed eight coppers total, so he usually was able to save around a copper a week. Which didn’t seem like much, but was enough to get him what he absolutely needed.

After finishing his chores, which he mostly tuned out, he went to the market to pick out a loaf of bread.

He paced up to his favorite store and approached Solomon, the merchant he had dealt with for nearly eight years.

“Ahhh, William, my boy, oh, no, my man. What can I do for you friend. Bread? As usual?”, Solomon said as he paced behind his counter arranging and moving things he’d bought and was selling.

“That’s right Solomon, did you pick the best piece yet?”, William replied with a grin.

“Hmmmm, let me think… I did! Here it is.”, he said as he pulled a long loaf from under a wide, long leaf.

“But Solomon, that’s a pretty large piece! I only have three copper you know!”, William said worriedly.

“Yes, yes, I know. Three coppers a visit for eight years friend, I know. This I’m giving to you at a discount, in light of… Assignment. It is a hard time for you, as a friend this is what I can do.”, he finished with his own worried look.

“Oh… Solomon… Thank you. Baba and Niko will be able to eat much better this week thanks to this. Here.”, he finished as he dropped the copper into Solomon’s hand and picked up the bread. “Thank you very much Solomon, really. But, I have to go. The Assignment pulls will start soon…”, he finished quietly.

“Yes, good luck William. As you already know, come see me should you ever need help.”, he finished with a nod as William turned to leave, placing the bread under his shirt.

Quickly he raced back through the town gates and into the dusty Soulless district. He had to keep the bread hidden and stick to the fastest route so it would not be stolen. Assignment or not, Baba and Niko needed to eat.

He soon arrived back at his home and quickly pushed open the door. “Baba, I’ve brought the bread, I’ll leave it here on the table, I need to attend the Assignment.”, he said loudly while he gripped his hand tightly.

“Okay. Good luck Will. This, I know, cannot topple you.”, she said with a confident smile as she crutched into the room with her cane. “See you soon. And of course, thank you for the bread.”, she finished with a tear in her eye.

Tightly balling his fist, William paced out of the house and into the Soulless District center nearby, where the small stage had already been set up, and several teens of William’s age were waiting nervously.

Finally, from out of the small house next to the stage, the guard captain, Elianne Rush, stepped onto the stage with a small box full of notes.

“Okay!”, she announced in a loud voice, “The drawing will now begin! We will be drawing five names this year!”, she continued as she thrusted her hand into the box.

Five! There are only around 100 people in the clearing!, William though hopefully.

As Elianne pulled her hand out of the box, William’s heart began beating rapidly. She looked down at the note, and, widening her eyes, slowly swivelled her head toward him.

Oh no…, he thought. He was known by some of the guard and nobility of the town due to his father and mother.

“William Crow!”, came the edict in Elianne’s authoritative voice. As soon as her attention came to him it just as easily passed, “Oru Einsh!”, came the next name.

By this time William had already tuned out, only hearing a loud ring in his ears. He hit his knees, dread filling his face.

This is it, he thought, I might have to face monsters once again.

His thought ended as his vision faded.