Focus snapped into my eyes. Oppressively bright, yellowish-white lights greeted them first, threatening to sear them off my face. I hastily shut them as a sigh echoed off the plain stone walls.

“The contract is molded into your soul, impossible to remove without killing you.”

I turned to my right and took a peek. Stortmili floated toward me. I thought I had not held any hope, but somehow her failure to remove the contract still stung. My eyes returned to the light, embracing the pain.

I would not beg her again, but I could not keep the plea from my voice, “You truly can not kill me?”

“Dalric…” For the mother of giants, her voice held such softness, “No matter the circumstance, no valin could ever murder their own children.”

“Like this, am I even still a giant? Am I even still Dalric? I am not even a slave, I am merely a vessel to act out the council’s whims.”

“You will always be Light.”

He turned toward her, “Your children will never serve a God. It’s only a matter of time before…” He didn’t dare finish the sentence.

She giggled, “The giants are tougher than that, you included. You most of all.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. She’d never giggled before. That was strange. I healed my burnt retinas and truly peered at her.

She looked different. Completely different.

“Who are you?”

She smiled. It was a sweet, soft expression.

It was the last thing I saw.

.

..

…

Dalric stirred awake. His eyes erratically darted to the sides.

What was that?

He quickly noticed that while he had bizarre dreams, he’d also been taken prisoner. Each of his limbs had an enchanted chain clasped around it. They left his neck, but that was likely because the gambeson covered almost all of it. There were signs that they tried to remove the gambeson, the rest of the armor too, but they were unsuccessful. His wings were gone, likely defusing under the stress of whatever they did, but that was the extent of the damage.

Dalric wasn’t sure whether to take that as a sign they didn’t have any powerful ahjerists or they were just confident in the chains.

He took greater stock of his surroundings. The cell he sat in was empty. No furniture featured so he laid sprawled on the barren floor. Beyond the bars that surrounded him, nothing else decorated the room either. The bars were enchanted, of course, as was the door that led into the spacious room, but that was it.

As far as he could sense, they didn’t even have a familiar or viewing apparatus to watch over him. It was just him, enchanted metal, and the compacted earth that surrounded both.

After quickly assessing his situation and confirming its stability, Dalric’s thoughts went back past the dream he just had and to what occurred prior.

The Gods returned.

He knew they would. He still felt their presence, still felt the contract. The only thing he had was respite. Their return was an inevitability, he had simply hoped he’d have more time… and maybe he did.

They weren’t watching him. Their presence had faded back to that of a light blanket.

Dalric didn’t understand. Why? He thought back to the specifics of what had occurred. When the Gods came, they were weak. They fought for control rather than simply commanding it. That had never happened before. On second thought, he realized it could be that it was the contract that had weakened. He could hurt himself now with no interference. At the bare minimum, that was a clear sign the contract had changed from what it was before.

What did that mean?

I need to figure out what’s changed.

He thought he had a golden opportunity before, but now it was darklight. Not only was he unsupervised, his chains were loose? He needed to know how loose. How free was he?

He tried to take a pause once he used the word ‘free’ in his mind. That was getting ahead of himself. He’d only ‘won’ last time because his current body was pitiful. It may take more time than before, but the Gods were still strong enough to take control of him. He merely used a loophole. It was a repeatable loophole, though. It was something.

Even if his power and endurance grew, the fact he had time to strategize and act before he lost his body would make all the difference. Especially, with no limits on casting spells on himself.

He attempted to fight the hope bubbling up within him again, but it was pointless. After all the despair and the touch of madness he felt, he could not help but cling to this moment of victory. By whatever means, he won. It wasn’t a dream or an illusion, it was real. It was concrete. It was…

The dream?

Just as Dalric remembered the most recent in his line of strange dreams, he heard a number of clinks and clanks coming from the door. When they stopped, and it opened, a dark face popped in.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Ah!”

The face quickly retreated, forgetting to re-lock the door. It ultimately wouldn’t mean much as moments later two tanned, robed men walked in.

The first was likely tall by human standards, he bent down to pass through the doorway. There was some burliness to him too. Proportionally wide at the chest, with a thick neck, and arms that pressed tightly against the thin cloth of his sleeves, he matched the part of a brute. Mostly. His well groomed beard and long silky hair threw the impression for somewhat of a loop, but he definitely had the face of a brute otherwise, stern and scarred. The demeanor as well, he stood arms crossed with a sword on each hip.

He had a lighter complexion to him. A fact Dalric noted as the man who walked in behind him, as well as the first face he saw, were both of darker skin. He was now in information gathering mode so he grasped any details he could.

Are you a foreigner or something else?

The second man was far more average; in height, appearance, and presence. His ahjer however, was actually superior. He had a short buzz cut and no facial hair or markings to speak of, but he did wear the same blood red robe that the other wore. It helped hardened his rather soft appearance.

He was the first to speak, “You non-sleep.”

Again… I’ll need to learn this new language.

Thankfully, he was fluent in Hellgurian, but Dalric knew he wouldn’t get anywhere fast if he had to keep guesstimating what people meant. In this case, he figured the man said ‘You’re awake.’

“I am indeed. Clasped in chains was not the most pleasant way to wake up I must admit.”

They both raised an eyebrow and the average one feigned a chuckle, “You talk refined.”

As long as you understand me.

“You go forgave us, Dalric. Had prepare big nicer room, but try unclothe you armor uncomfortable and wings vanish magic. Big concern you impersonate angel.”

You must forgive us. We had prepared a better room, but… you seemed uncomfortable in your armor and when we tried to remove it your wings disappeared. We were very concerned that you were impersonating an angel.

That’s what he got.

How… long range listening or was there a fifth member I didn’t see?

Dalric decided to move past how they heard him introduce himself. It didn’t matter at the moment. What did matter was the third mention of angels. It simply could not be a coincidence or a misuse of the term, these people knew angels. Or at least believed that they did.

Are they not extinct? Is this island where they’ve come to hide?

Before he could delve into that, he wanted to clear up the confusion, “Well, that would be a simple misunderstanding. I never claimed to be anything other than a human, I merely learned to form wings to aid in my travels.”

They were obviously lying about their initial efforts. His wings weren’t as durable as the armor itself, but it’d take a serious beating before dispelling. A little jostling would do nothing to them.

“Learn form wings.” They glanced at each other, “Where learn?”

Dalric smirked, “From a valin.”

The average one looked up to the brute, but he only shook his head in response.

“What valin?”

Huh?

“You don’t know what a valin is?”

“Do not.”

Dalric blinked.

Impossible... you can’t seriously be that disconnected from the world?

“By chance, what would you call a being with two arms, two legs, and one head?”

The brute spoke this time, “Matter not, we be ask questions.”

Do they just not know?

The smaller one walked closer, almost brushing up against the enchanted bars, “Where you origin, Dalric?”

Do I want to keep up this charade? Deciphering their words isn’t overly difficult, but if they’re unwilling to answer my questions, there’s no value. I doubt any response I give could lead me peacefully out of these chains. I desperately need information though… let’s see where this leads first.

“Aonica, though I imagine you don’t know where that is.”

He translated the follow up question as, “You’ve travelled across the seas then. How did you end up here?“

“Is it not the goal of a traveller to see the world?”

“The Akai Ken Jungle is a dangerous place for outsiders.”

Akai Ken! Something. Never heard of that, but it sounds… Surunese. They’re an island people, I believe.

“In truth, I’m more alarmed by my treatment right now, than I was outside.” Dalric dangled the chains around his wrists.

He smiled, “We did find you next to four of our men’s corpses. Care to explain that?”

Odd reaction. Hmm. Now how do I do this…

“I must apologize for your loss, but I’m not sure what happened. One moment I’m flying up the river, the next I’m in a pool of my own blood and sweat.”

The brute’s eyes turned visibly colder.

“We could hear their screams from behind the wall.”

So they didn’t see anything. Or are they keeping their cards close?

“That is lamentable, I imagine anything that could get the better of me would likely be too much for the average… soldier? I don’t know what either of you are.”

That put smiles on both of their faces, “That will remain hidden.”

Not soldiers then. If these are the leaders, surely this isn’t a mercantile group… though who says these are the leaders?

“You say you were flying up the river, were you looking for us?”

“You specifically? No. I was looking for civilization and I spotted your camp and headed this way.”

“Yet no one saw you.”

Ahh. Hmm…

Dalric raised his hand to his forehead. The enchantments within the chains were attempting to interfere with his ahjer, but they were far from capable. He placed his index finger on his forehead and projected some of his ahjer.

Both of the men flinched, the brute swiftly laid his hand on his scabbard. For Dalric, nothing changed, but for everyone else he’d appear completely invisible. The spell was the simplest in the stealth sphere, it didn’t affect any of the other senses. The big one was ahjer sense, but he could be easily heard too.

“As you said, it’s a dangerous place out there.” He released the spell, becoming visible again, “I took certain precautions.”

“You have my interest, Dalric.”

“Now if only I could have your hospitality.”

He smirked, “Maybe in the future. We still don’t trust you.” They both moved towards the door, “But. I’ll have someone bring you a fresh meal.”

“That would be nice.”

They chuckled as they left. The door slammed shut and Dalric once again heard the clicks and the clacks.

That was informative. A little.

He was definitely wrong about the translating. The longer that conversation went, the more of a headache it was. He’d really need to bridge that gap at some point soon.

He effortlessly broke out of the chains and cracked his neck. His entire body still felt sore, but it shouldn’t affect him too much. The bars that made up his cage were much stronger than the chains that held him, but empowering his arms a little made them as malleable as thin gold. Their enchantments tried siphoning the ahjer out of his hands, but they didn’t have enough suction. He pulled them apart with ease.

Only the door remained, but before he opened it he wanted to know what exactly awaited him. He expanded his ahjer sense to its current maximum range. That range equated to a perfect sphere with a fifty fathom radius. He couldn’t actually ‘see’ everything within that range, at his current level even the most lightly enchanted door would block his ahjer sense. Plus, past his base range things got progressively blurrier, the fringes were only ‘visible’ by the most liberal of definitions. None of that mattered though, he saw what he needed to see.

It was worse than anything he had expected.

Rage oozed out from him. His ahjer flared. Lighting zapped around his fingers. First, it was bright and slightly blue in color, but it quickly changed. In the next moment, it crackled across both of his arms in a dark shade of purple. It still wasn’t complete, it continued spreading across Dalric’s whole body. By the time it was done, there was no ‘light’ in the lighting. It was pure black.

He raised his hand to the door and the entire wall exploded. Some parts flew off in chunks, but most of it was immediately destroyed.

When he stepped into the hallway, the brute stood ready. His swords already drawn.

Dalric looked at him with disgust, “Slave traders is it?”