Aragon:

Two nights later, Aragon and his party were still travelling.

By now, the extra party from Manifestoria had passed them on their way up. They had also passed by the large open room but didn't stop. After their communal meal, they all lingered on this night, sitting in a compact group on a landing. Solid rock walls surrounded them since they were equidistant from the previous and the next open recesses. When no one spoke, there was complete silence, apart from slight rustles as someone moved their body slightly.

"How come the air is always fresh and clean, even though we are in a long tunnel?" said Bronsen, "It's very convenient for us to breathe, but how does it work?"

"Hey, that's what we found out too when we lived in the Wall," said Cassy.

Did she imply that they were living inside the Wall? I had better not inquire any further into that.

"Who knows?" said Aragon, "I'm sure that the Voice of the World has arranged something."

Drayden had his [Fireball] active, hovering just under the ceiling. It lit up the seven faces but cast dark shadows above and below them as the stairs went up and down to subsequent landings.

Esther:

Esther was still worrying about why Aragon was helping them. Based upon her experiences as a slave, she could only assume he was aiming to exploit them in some way - but there was that vow.

The whole matter was beginning to bug her. So, when there was a long silence in the conversation after their meal, she forced herself to be outspoken and to say something.

"Ah, Aragon, I am still puzzled about why you are helping us so much."

"Well, as I said, because you need help. So, why shouldn't I help you?"

"Because, because, no man has ever helped us before. If they wanted something from us, they first asked the Master's permission, and then took it. Mainly sex, of course."

There was a mix of fear and disgust and contempt in her expression. Evereena's expression was just revulsion.

Aragon looked sad. He scratched his head and looked reluctant to explain further, but eventually, he relented.

Sigh. "OK, OK. Well, you see, when I was a ten-year boy..."

His voice trailed off to silence before he started again.

"A ten-year-old boy, living with my brother and our mum in Manifestoria, a new family moved in next door: a mother and her daughter. And, well, they were grey-collar slaves. There was a minor skirmish between our guards and a small group of slavers fleeing from one of their intermittent squabbles, which are always happening between groups of high-rank slavers, and they were the only two that survived. Anyway, the daughter and I became friends. Her name was Tanya. And, strangely enough, her colouration was very similar to Esther's."

He stopped and gazed at the blank stone walls for a while.

"And that's it. Except after two or so years, she was killed because she was a slave. I, I, was the one that discovered her body."

He kept on staring at the wall.

"Oh, My brother and my brother's friend and I were the ones that dug her grave, and we, plus my mum and Tanya's mother, were the only ones to attend the funeral."

He stared at the wall some more.

"Her mother died a month or so later. I always thought that she just died of a broken heart."

He sat up straight and looked around.

"So, of course, when I saw you two, that's what I thought of."

So I remind him of Tanya, his childhood friend.

She made an effort to remember back to her childhood. Usually, it was too painful to do so, but this time, she desperately needed to understand his actions.

Childhood friends... Sweethearts? Is that the correct name? Was he, err, 'in love' with Tanya?

The term 'in love' felt strange to her. The whole concept of love and romance simply did not exist in the slave society. Esther could only think about the concept because she had been captured at age twelve.

So, if he is thinking of Tanya when dealing with me... Does that mean he wants sex with me?

I suppose I can put up with that. After all, he has agreed to look after us, and he appears to be non-violent.

"So, does that mean you will look after us, but in exchange, you take me for sex?"

Aragon looked pained. All four teenagers flinched and looked dismayed. Evereena kept on expressing disgust.

Aragon:

Eventually, Aragon scratched his head again.

Bloody hell. This is getting more and more complicated.

I need to work out some reply; otherwise, the Voice of the World might decide that I'm not fully satisfying my vow and start 'encouraging' me.

Let's see; I can make an extra vow that I won't have sex with either of them...

He had a mental picture of Tanya's face, which was nothing unusual for him. Only this time, it was overlayed on an image of Esther's face.

He had no problems working out what his subconscious was trying to tell him.

Yeah, OK, I was in love with Tanya. Which means I suppose I'm sort of interested in Esther. But only if she wants to. But, as a slave, she has no idea how a fully consensual affair is conducted.

He thought about it for a moment.

How about I make two separate vows? One for Esther and one for Evereena. And let's hope that they don't discuss the precise wording with each other.

Here goes.

He made his requests to the Voice of the World and received two confirmations.

Ding! You have made a vow to Evereena, strength 100%: I will never in any circumstances engage in any sexual activity with you.

Only Evereena has been notified.

Ding! You have made a vow to Esther, strength 100%: I will never force myself, in any way, upon you in any sexual manner without your enthusiastic consent.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Only Esther has been notified.

Oh bloody hell, what have I let myself in for? Two more 100% strength vows. That high? I didn't know that vows could get that strong. And there are no time limits, so it applies for the rest of my life.

He gave a sickly grin.

"Anyway, does that alleviate your worries?"

The Misfits looked puzzled.

The mother and daughter looked shocked for a moment.

And Aragon suddenly realised he had made a small mistake.

Oh crap.

Esther:

"Evereena! What did he vow to you?" said Esther.

"He vowed to never have sex with me in any way," said Evereen, "But, what did he vow to you?"

Esther looked hugely relieved.

"Oh, the same, roughly - wait a minute, the vow says he'll never have sex with me - without my consent!" said Esther.

"Mine doesn't say anything about consent - what does that mean, anyway?" said Evereena.

So he does want to have sex with me. But only with my consent.

She did her best to regain the frame of mind she had as an innocent young teenager.

My consent. Doesn't that mean that if I don't want it, he'll not do it?

I guess I will have to keep on talking about this. Assuming he doesn't start complaining.

"Aragon, doesn't that mean you want to have sex with me after all?"

He looked slightly panicked.

"Only with your consent! Only if you want it! I have no intention of forcing myself upon you. It would be against my morals. Not to mention the fact that Tanya would strongly disagree."

Tanya would disagree? Maybe he was in love with her.

Aragon kept talking, "And, of course, you can take as long as you like to make any choices!"

So, I can choose if I want him to use my body?

That is so strange.

He is already committed to looking after me and Evereena.

So, if I 'choose' to let him use my body, wouldn't that mean he will be even more willing to look after us?

"Ah, anyhow, we can discuss this later."

Evereena:

Evereena was also having problems - with the whole idea of sexuality.

"Mum, you still haven't said what 'consent' means."

"Well, things are different in the non-slaver world. Sometimes, you can make a choice and choose not to obey an order."

That's so strange.

"So, if some man orders me to have sex with him, I can, ah, decide not to?"

"That's right."

"And the collar won't just make me?"

"That's right."

Mum and daughter sat right next to each other, leaning into each other's hug. Eventually, Evereena looked at the four teenagers sitting in a row.

Why are they looking so - unhappy? Or maybe shocked?

She didn't understand why the two boys would be looking miserable. But she hazarded a guess as to why the girls were unhappy.

"Cassy and Alice - when you go up or down the stairs a couple of flights to sleep for the night - you allow the boys to sex you, right? But all four of you seem equally strong and have this choice thing, so why don't you stop them? Then you wouldn't look so unhappy."

Cassy gulped and said, "Actually, the phrase is 'to have sex', but, err, the important thing is that, well..."

Cassy wiggled around in anguish, her tail flicking from side to side in agitation.

"You see I, and Alice too, of course, choose to - to have sex - with our boyfriends. It's with our full consent. Oh, and also with the full consent of the boys, of course!"

Evereena looked highly puzzled.

Evereena is triggered. Badly:

"Why would you choose to have sex? I mean, the man jumps on my body and half crushes me; he generally stinks, and it hurts me, and then afterwards, there is a revolting mess which half the time I'm not even allowed to clean up!"

By now, Evereena looked highly disgusted. As in, discovering one has just stepped into a pile of dog poo disgusted. And the horrible stuff has seeped into one's toes because one wore sandals. Then, a couple of flying cockroaches land on one's face. And one gets in your mouth.

That level of disgust.

The Misfits:

Alice sat there, mouth open in horror.

"Evereena, please understand, between consenting adults - err - and older teenagers - sex is supposed to feel good. If it isn't, you're not doing it right."

"If you say so," said Evereena.

Alice looked at the other teenagers.

"How about us Misfits go and have a private discussion? There's a few things I want to get clear..."

Ten minutes later, they were a dozen flights of steps above the others. They sat down in their original order for the first time in a long time. Alice and Cassy, side by side, facing Bronsen and Drayden, also side by side.

Alice spoke first.

“These slave collars have now officially become my worst nightmare,” said Alice.

“Oh bloody hell, what do we do about this?” said Cassy.

“This almost makes me want to apologise to Alice for imposing my vile base urges upon her,” said Bronsen.

"Bloody hell, I thought we could spend a leisurely week catching up with each other's stories. Instead, we are thrown straight into this almost nightmare situation of slaves and slavers, and God knows what we are going to have to put up with once we get to this Manifestoria place,” said Alice.

"Yeah, I keep having flashbacks to the time my sister was raped," said Drayden.

"As far as I can work out, in the slaver society, the concept of consensual sex simply doesn't even exist!" said Bronsen.

"Surely it could, at least between slaves of an equal rank? I mean, isn’t that how it would work? Slaves of a lower rank always have to obey slaves of a higher rank, with absolutely no lee-way at all, but that leaves the option of equality between slaves of the same rank." said Cassy.

"I suppose so. Although, even within the same rank, I would imagine there is not much encouragement for consenting romance," said Alice.

"What can we do for those poor ladies?" said Cassy.

"How can we do anything? We're totally, absolutely ignorant of just about everything in this new world," said Drayden.

"Ahh, but don't forget, we are overpowered!" said Bronsen, "And, Alice, in all of those Isekai novels that you kept on talking about, aren't the overpowered Isekai protagonists the ones to defeat the demon lord and save the world from evil?"

"Ah, yes?" said Alice.

"Yep, that's right!" said Drayden, getting excited, "Obviously, in this case, the slaver system is our demon lord, and we are meant to defeat it!"

Then he deflated and looked miserable, "But how in hell are we supposed to do that?"

Blank looks from the others.

Alice remembered their pledge to each other just before they had saved the children on the bus.

"Everyone, remember how we made that stupid promise about the Misfits committing to each other for eternity? And it somehow, sort of, became true?"

They managed to giggle at the memory.

"It seems such a long time ago. And so far, far away, of course," said Cassy.

"Anyway, let's make another commitment; The Misfits pledge to look after those two to the best of our abilities, just like Aragon has!" said Alice.

"If we're going to make another over-the-top vow, let's go the full hog. Let's pledge to safely remove those collars from their necks and allow them to live a normal life!" said Cassy.

"In that case, why not vow to remove all collars from all slaves?" said Bronsen, "After all, if we are making a fantasy pledge in a fantasy world, we might as well go all the way."

They were beginning to laugh together.

“The Misfits are together again!” said Alice, "OK, everyone! Assume the position!"

With much laughter, they linked their hands, right hands in a four-way handshake, left hands diagonally across.

They made their vow.

Ding! The Misfits have made a vow, 100% strength: They will remove all slave collars and make it impossible to enslave others.

Notices of this vow have been sent to:

Esther, Evereena, Aragon.

Jane (the border post captain).

All other members of the Manifestorian guard.

Eleanor (The Manifestorian King's daughter).

The treasurer (of Manifestoria).

Nimbus ( the prime minister of Crysteth).

Kelper (The gold collar current slaver emperor).

Getting this message acted as a bit of a damper. They ceased laughing and looked very serious.

"Say, what exactly did we just do?" said Drayden.

"Threaten some extremely powerful people, by the looks of it," said Bronsen.

"At 100% strength, too. According to Aragon, that means if we don't carry it out, our lives are forfeited," said Cassy.

"Oh. We might end up regarding saving those kids on the bus as the easy part of our lives," said Alice.

There was a thoughtful silence as they tried to comprehend precisely what they might have set in motion.

"Let's go back to the others, shall we?" said Alice.

They went back.

"Oh, hi! Did you get that Voice of the Word notice?" said Cassy.

Aragon, Esther and Evereena just stared at them.

Nervous giggle from Alice.

"Well, anyway, we're going to have an early night. See you tomorrow!" said Alice.

Alice and Bronsen went up the stairs. Cassy and Drayden went down.

Aragon:

Aragon exchanged glances with the other two.

They don’t have a clue how to react to that.

Those teenagers - are going to destroy slavery?

How the fuck hell do they intend to do that?

But wait, the Voice of the World assigned their vow a strength of 100%.

So, does that mean it's going to help them?

Somehow?

He gave up, wished the ladies a good night, and went to the next landing up to sleep.

Before he drifted off to sleep, he reviewed the vows he had made - all four of them.

The three I have made here don't have any time limits. Fortunately, they are easy. Look after two females, as everyone would expect me to do.

Kepler:

The slaver emperor, the only slave on the Ringworld with a gold collar around his neck, received the notice while writing some orders. It had the vow itself, mentioning the Misfits. But it didn't have any other information; in particular, it didn't mention Manifestoria or any names.

He dropped his pen in surprise. And horror.

What the fuck!

A 100% strength vow?

That can only mean that the Voice of the World believes that these Misfits have some chance of carrying out this ludicrous task.

I need to find these Misfits and collar them! Immediately!

He shouted out to the closest slaves and started issuing orders.