~ Amber ~

As the boat slowed down, anxiety began welling in the gut of both of the captured girls.

Amber, who had just hours ago witnessed her brother falling over the side of the slave boat she was on, was fighting off a feeling of utter despair. With their parents somewhat uninterested in their growth, the first person she would always trust with her problems was Jasper. Though they were only three years apart, the difference in life experience between the two was closer to that of three decades. It made her happy, of course, that her brother made such a concerted effort to be an important figure in the lives of both her and her sister.

Now, though, he was gone. Her protector, her savior, had been left for dead by merchants who simply wanted to turn a quick profit off their lives. Any chance they had at survival was likely gone without their anchor present.

While these thoughts were running through Amber’s head on repeat, she knew that Ruby likely had it worse. While neither twin was particularly self-sufficient, as the middle child Amber had inherited a small amount of Jasper’s selflessness, meaning it was easier for her to put aside her own worries in favor of Ruby’s when necessary. The same could not be said for her counterpart, however. When taking a look at her, Amber could easily see the hopelessness in her eyes. With all that had happened, Ruby’s natural pessimism was coming out in full force.

The ship continued to slow, before a slight jerk brought it to a complete stop. Now, all they could feel were the waves causing a slight instability under their feet.

“I think we’ve reached a harbor of some kind,” Amber noted, “Maybe we can figure out where we are once we get off.”

“Why does it matter?” Ruby returned, “Aren’t we just going to be sold as slaves anyway?”

Amber faked a smile, attempting to calm her sister down.

“We don’t know what will happen until we actually go outside, Ruby. Let’s keep hoping, okay?”

Ruby shrugged with indifference, but her eyes reflected something Amber knew all too well: fear.

A loud knocking sounded from the door outside the room the twins were stationed in, prompting both to look at it with equal parts fear and curiosity.

“Hey, brats! We’re coming in, so I hope you’re decent!” a masculine voice sounded.

Just like that, the door opened, revealing a bulky sailor that neither of the two recognized from their time on the deck. He seemed to be in his forties or fifties, meaning he was likely a veteran of the sea. This was evidenced by his hair, which was showing faded coloring, and his face, which had the kind of beard that only sailors could grow.

“We’ve reached Sage Port, kids. Time to ship you off to our buyer,” he explained, as he began to untie them from the post.

“Our buyer? Who’s that?” Amber questioned, with a nod from Ruby following.

However, the man ignored the question. Instead, he changed the subject.

“Tough luck about your brother, by the way, if that is what he is,” he said, “If it makes you feel better, I was in favor of going back for him.”

“Why would you care?” Amber asked, “Aren’t you just selling all of us?”

“I liked him. Kid had a great imagination. Haven’t had a laugh like that in a while,” the man replied, chuckling.

“What do you mean? Take that back!”

“Look, girl,” the man continued laughing, “He was babbling on and on about some place called, what was it, ‘Erup’? Quite the imagination there! Then he hit me in the face with a chair. Got me good on the head, that one.”

The main pointed to a bump on the back of his head.

Amber shook her head, realizing it was pointless to talk to this guy. She knew her brother better than anyone, and while it was likely that he got physical with the man in question, he wasn’t the kind of person to make stuff up unless it was for someone else’s benefit. Not to mention, the word the man said sounded strangely like Europe, their flight destination. Of course, she didn’t want to give him a reason to think she was crazy too, even if he was just uninformed.

After a minute or so of work, the girls were freed from the posts, though their hands were still bound. The man took their ropes in his hands and began to walk out of the room, causing the two girls to nearly fall over in surprise. The man turned around with a slight frown.

“Word of advice,” he snarked, “When I pull, you follow. You hear?”

Both girls nodded at him, not wanting to repeat their previous embarrassment. They followed him as he pulled on the rope, eventually finding themselves back on the deck they had reached during the failed escape attempt. This time, however, instead of seeing a wide ocean with an uninhabited coast in the far distance, they were docked at what appeared to be a shipping port. From her vantage point, Amber could see hundreds of ships like theirs sitting at various docks running up and down the coast in both directions. There were so many it was difficult to see the city that these docks connected to. From what she could see, it was quite a dense establishment, with a lot of large buildings designed to host multiple tenants, and roads that were quite thin, as if they were all designed for walking as opposed to vehicle transport.

The sailor that had brought them out proceeded to pass them to another sailor, who deboarded them onto the dock in question. The two followed without a fight, not wanting to cause any more trouble or suffer any more knee scrapes from resisting.

Their new captor led them down the long dock leading them toward the city in question. Eventually, they reached a gate at the end of the dock. Amber guessed it was some kind of entrance to the city, but she wasn’t sure why a dock like this even needed a gate. When she looked over to the side, however, she saw what appeared to be a sales counter, which made just as little sense.

“Damn, this wasn’t here before,” the sailor cursed, “I was hoping we could get these two to a secure area or something.”

After he said that, a man walked out from behind a counter. After looking at him, Amber guessed that he was some kind of government official, with a patch on his chest with some kind of insignia and wearing some kind of metal armor.

“Identification, please?” the guard asked the sailor.

“We’re slave traders from the Natril Empire. We’re just delivering, not selling, our buyer has already confirmed the purchase.”

The guard nodded, taking notes on a clipboard he had brought with him, then looked at the twins. He stopped for a moment to observe their actions, before turning back to the captor.

“Are these children? You do know that slavery is forbidden for children under fifteen, correct?”

Amber saw the man’s fist clench behind his back, a sign that he didn’t really have a way out of this.

“Oh, these aren’t the slaves, sir,” the man laughed unconvincingly, “These are, uh, travelers! We offered them the chance to come here, and they accepted!”

The guard sighed, putting his hand to his forehead.

“Well, then, you have no problem with me taking these children off your hands, do you?”

The trader began visibly panicking, and seemed to realize that he was beaten.

“Sure thing! Now that they’re here, they can figure things out themselves!”

His voice obviously betrayed his disappointed tone, but the armored man didn’t push any further. Instead, he took the ropes from the trader, and began walking toward the gate.

“Wait, we can go in too, right?” the trader called.

“No, you’re going to wait right here. I’m going to bring some friends to do an inspection of your vessel to confirm your claims,” the man called back.

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Once they entered the gate, the man immediately untied the sisters.

“I’m sorry for all of that. I must say, you’re quite lucky,” he noted while he worked, “Child slavery was only outlawed in Aurem a few months ago. If you were just a little earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything for you.”

“Aurem?” Ruby echoed, “What’s ‘Aurem’?”

The guard’s eyes widened for a moment, before settling down.

“Ah, that’s right, you were captured in the Empire, weren’t you?” he clarified, “You’re in Sage Port right now, the biggest trade city in the Kingdom of Aurem. Your Empire, by the way, is to the north of here, just north of the Golden Peaks.”

Amber’s head was spinning with all of this new information. She wasn’t particularly well versed in geography, but these were all names and places she had never head of. Jasper had never once mentioned anything like them, outside of empires that existed in the past, such as the Roman and Ottoman empires. This ‘Aurem’ was an unknown land, and that meant that there was likely no way to contact the rest of her family to help her get out.

In the meantime, however, it was clear that the most convenient way to move forward was to play along until she got the chance to talk to Ruby alone.

“That’s good to know,” Amber gratefully responded, “But what are we supposed to do now?”

“Pardon?”

“Well, we’re kids. We don’t know where we are, or where we’re supposed to go.”

The guard, who seemed to realize the problem, ended up lost in deep thought. He was clearly not ready for this kind of situation when he came to work today, and Amber felt somewhat bad that the two of them had thrust this onto him so suddenly.

“I’m honestly not sure,” he honestly stated, “I think there’s an orphanage somewhere in town, but I have no idea where it is. I was only assigned to Sage Port a few weeks ago, and my job is here at the docks, not in town. It’s possible some of my colleagues know where it is, but I’d have to go find them.”

“That’s okay,” Ruby spoke up, “We can wait here.”

“Thanks, kids. Don’t go wandering off, okay? I’ll be right back.”

With that, the dock guard took the two of them behind the counter where he worked, giving them a place to sit while they waited.

“So,” Amber quietly started, “What’s going on?”

“I know what you mean,” Ruby replied, “This is really confusing. First we wake up on a boat, then Jasper, you know.”

“I know,” Amber repeated, hints of sadness in her voice.

“Now we’re in this weird place we’ve never heard of,” Ruby finished.

“I just wish I knew why this is all happening,” Amber continued, “Why did we have to end up in this strange place? Why did Jasper have to leave?”

“Well, if you hadn’t- “

Ruby immediately stopped herself, but Amber picked up on it.

“If I hadn’t what? Tried to save him?” Amber replied softly, unable to make eye contact.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Ruby denied.

“It’s fine, you’re probably right,” Amber admitted, “I did exactly what he said not to do, and now he’s gone.”

At this, Amber found herself unable to hold back her tears anymore. It started with quiet sobs, sounding closer to hiccups than actual crying. However, after only a minute or so, her face was buried in her hands, and her despair was audible.

“Why did I do that? Why?” she continued to sob.

At that moment, however, Amber felt Ruby’s arms wrap around her.

“It’s okay, Amber,” she soothed, “I’m sure he wouldn’t have blamed you for it.”

Amber continued to cry as Ruby rubbed her back slowly in a reassuring manner. Taking full advantage of Ruby’s proximity, Amber buried her face into her sister’s shoulder to dry her tears. This continued for what felt like hours, though in all likelihood it was only a few minutes.

After a little while, Amber finally broke the hug, and began wiping her eyes.

“Geez, I’m the older sister here. I’m supposed to be comforting you right now, not the other way around,” she quipped halfheartedly.

“What, I can’t be the emotional support for my hour-older sister?” Ruby asked.

“Of course, you can, but don’t feel the need to strengthen yourself on my account.”

Ruby quickly looked away, but Amber saw a slight glint in her eyes.

“Hey, Ruby, were you crying too?”

Ruby sniffled slightly, before nodding yes. Amber smiled and made her way over to her sister, before repeating the gesture that Ruby had done for her.

“Amber?” Ruby asked weakly.

“It’s your turn, okay?” Amber told her, “Cry all you want, I’ll be here for you.”

Once again, the next several minutes were filled with crying. Though Ruby often came off as standoffish and defensive when in an environment she wasn’t comfortable with, Amber was one of a select few who recognized Ruby for what she was: fragile and lacking confidence. Of the two, Ruby was more likely to bottle up what she was feeling in front of others. Of course, Amber was often the same way, but she and Jasper both recognized that Ruby was the most emotionally reclusive of the trio. It wasn’t easy to convince her to open up like this, even for the people closest to her, making this moment special for Amber.

“Are we interrupting something?” a voice sounded from behind Ruby.

Amber looked up to see the guard from earlier, who had brought another man with him. From the crest on his uniform, Amber assumed that he was from the same division as the man who had already been helping them, and likely somewhat older, given his graying hair and portly frame. The guard from before gestured to the man with a slight smile.

“This man is my boss, Trifol,” he introduced, “He’ll be taking you to the orphanage I mentioned earlier.”

Amber reached her hand out to shake his.

“I’m Amber,” she introduced, “And this is my sister Ruby.”

“Nice to meet you, young ladies,” Trifol grandly declared, “So, you two are freed slaves then?”

Amber nodded once, and a smile came to the man’s face.

“Glad to hear we got you out of there. Child slavery has been a real problem all over the continent recently. Took a lot of work to convince King Thyme to finally outlaw it, but it seems like we got our point across just in time for you two to arrive.”

“Definitely,” Amber nervously responded.

The man’s open and boisterous demeanor was throwing her for a loop. In her limited social interaction back home, she never met anyone quite like him, and without Jasper as a middleman in the conversation she was left at a loss for words.

“Did you say king?” Ruby asked, even more nervous, “There’s a king here?”

“Well, it is a kingdom after all,” he laughed, “But I guess you wouldn’t know that, being from the Empire and all.”

“Yeah,” Amber laughed, hiding her fear of the truth coming out.

“I’ve never met His Majesty personally,” Trifol continued, “But as a high ranking member of the governor’s board here in Sage, I was heavily involved in the effort to get child slavery outlawed across the kingdom. I’ve seen it too many times, myself: children stolen from their homes being brought in as cargo by traders, then sold to the highest bidder. The law here in Sage Port technically forbids it, but Kingdom Guard soldiers aren’t bound by local rules, and trade in legal goods is considered to be outside their ability to stop.”

“Well, thank you, then,” Amber bowed, “I suppose we’d be in a lot more trouble without you.”

The man let out his loudest laugh yet, scaring both of the twins.

“You know what? I like you! It’s too bad you’re going to be stuck in the orphanage with Opuntia. She’s one lucky woman, that’s for sure.”

“Opuntia?” Amber repeated.

“Yeah,” Trifol replied, “She’s in charge of running the place. Apparently she started it a few months ago as a haven for escaped slaves, particularly children, but with the recent law she gets all of the children we pick up here in the city. She projects a kind and friendly front, but something about her makes me a bit uneasy. Actually, I’ve been trying to get her kicked out for years, but the governor doesn’t believe me when I say she can get abusive.”

Amber felt Ruby start shaking behind her. Quickly squeezing her sister’s hand, Amber looked Trifol in the eye with a decision.

“We’ll go to Opuntia’s orphanage.”

“Amber?!” Ruby shrieked.

“It’s fine,” Amber reassured, “We need somewhere to go, right? Let’s not be too picky.”

“Excellent! Then let’s head over now!”

The guard from before smiled at this display of joviality from his superior.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that it’s all going to work out. Good luck from here on out, you two!” he encouraged.

Amber and Ruby followed Trifol out of the building, while the man from before stayed behind to lead the inspection he had promised earlier. He led them into the city, giving the twins their best look yet.

It was unlike any city they had ever seen. Buildings were densely scattered on the ground, made up of stone bricks and mortar. There was no clear division between multiple buildings from the outside, with the exception of walkways that were barely two meters wide separating the larger complexes. Despite how packed each building was, it seemed like none of them were taller than two or three stories. Given that this was a coastal city, Amber wondered if wind was a problem for taller buildings, as otherwise that would be preferred for the increased density.

As they maneuvered between buildings, Amber also noticed the city getting increasingly labyrinthine. In the commercial area they started in, it seemed like there was a decent amount of order to how the buildings were arranged, and enough space at least to haul cargo to and from different areas. However, she guessed that they were in the residential areas by now, given how many unmarked buildings and roads to dead ends there were.

After about twenty minutes following Trifol, they eventually reached a door with a sign on it that read, ‘Opuntia’s Sanctuary’. It was rather unimpressive, though unlike many of the other corridor-like pathways they had been walking through, they could at least see a slightly more open area just down the road. Amber wondered if there was an easy way to get to the main district considering how confusing that walk was.

Trifol knocked on the door. After about twenty seconds, it opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with dark hair.

“Oh, Trifol!” she greeted in an overly sweet tone, “It’s so good to see you!”

Trifol’s eyebrow visibly twitched, but he managed to return the greeting.

“So,” the woman started, eyeing up the girls, “I assume you’re here because of the two children behind you?”

“That’s correct,” Trifol confirmed, “These two were rescued from slave traders earlier today. I was hoping you would take them in.”

“Why, of course! That’s what I’m here for.”

The woman, who seemed enthusiastic, turned to the girls in question.

“I’m Opuntia, the manager here. Everyone calls me Oppie, though. Feel free to do so as well.”

Amber bowed politely in response.

“I’m Amber.”

“Ruby,” her sister’s anxious voice sounded from behind her.

Opuntia bent down a bit to look the girls in the eyes. When Amber made eye contact, she resisted the urge to shudder, as despite the woman’s kind exterior, there was a hint of predation hiding in her expression.

Is this really such a good idea? Amber wondered to herself.

“Well it’s nice to meet you two. Why don’t you come inside? I can help you get acquainted with the other children,” Opuntia offered.

Ruby took a hard look at Amber, her eyes reflecting the same sense of uncertainty, but Amber managed to nod in affirmation.

“Okay, thank you, Miss Opuntia,” Amber replied.

“Please, call me Oppie,” Opuntia replied.

Despite the smile on her face, Amber had the strange feeling that she was being threatened. She was beginning to feel like her initial impression of this woman was spot-on: it would not be a good idea to antagonize her.

Still, this was going to be their life for the foreseeable future, so the least they could do was to try and make the best of it.