Chapter eighty one

                 For a moment I considered teleporting right back out of Oslo. The only reason I was here in the first place was to cut down on travel time, because if I started out from Oslo it would reduce the distance by a third of the distance I would have gone if I started out from the Burrows. With flight not really being an option (rudimentary camouflage only works when the sky is clear and the more complex one takes too much mana to sustain while in flight, so if I flew I would get caught) we were talking days of travel. I was considering the longer route to avoid Norway, but I couldn't just let this go. From what I'm seeing all the men were slaves and one of the things I could not ignore other than rape and torture is slavery, so I decided to check out what was going on.

              "Jules, can you analyze the mana around those people and show me if there are any spells keeping the men docile."

               "Here are all the enchantments and spells in the area."

                On each woman were several glowing areas, usually around necklaces, rings, or other jewelry. All the houses around us were glowing like it was the fourth of July, indicating that the houses themselves were being used to channel some kind of magic. The men on the other hand had absolutely no glow, meaning they were not under any active spells or had any type of enchanted item on them.

                "John, from my analysis the behavior of the men is not being affected by any magic, from the analysis I have done based on their body language and mannerisms , the behavior they are displaying is consistent with the results of intensive conditioning, probably starting from a very young age, possibly from the very beginning of their lives. John......I don't think you can help them. I don't think they know any other way to live."

                 "Bullshit, there is magic everywhere, maybe there is some spell that doesn't remain active all the time. Maybe they were somehow manipulated into taking some sort of oath, there are many different things it could be."

               "From what I have observed all the women have magic that indicates that each and every one of them are hearth witches, whose magic heavily relies on minor enchantments and their homes , which they use to channel their magic. The magic that I have analyzed so far is unable to do what we are seeing to the men. John, I know you don't want to hear this but the men are probably trained to be like this since they are born, they think that this is normal. I think as a society where all the women have magic and the men don't ,the men slowly became second class citizens, then slaves. Now this is what they consider normal in their society."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

               "But this is wrong , Jules . This could be one of the worst things I have ever seen, humans that believe they are animals because they are treated that way for their whole lives. We have to do something! We have to put an end to this! "

               "I know , but this is not one of those situations that brute strength can fix, if you try to change them by force they will feel like you are threatening their way of life and their very identity. You have to remember that they probably have been doing this for centuries, this is who they are now. If you try to force them to change they will fight you tooth and nail."

                "Alright Jules , I'll listen to you for now and try to find a way that doesn't involve a massacre, but Jules....I don't care if I have to burn half this country to the ground , this will have stopped by the time I leave Norway."

                "I know John, I know."

                As we were having our heated discussion we hadn't noticed that we had attracted the attention of one of the ladies that were passing by. She , like all the other women on the streets, was a stunningly beautiful woman. She had strawberry red hair falling down her shoulders in waves that looked like she was in a shampoo commercial , her emerald green dress showed off a lot of her pale skin that didn't have a single wrinkle or blemish, if I wasn't seeing her in front of my eyes I would have sworn that she was photo shopped , and her most distinguishing feature were her poison green eyes that seemed to be warning anyone who was watching to be wary. All in all it gave her a very haunting beauty, but it was the sharp kind of beauty that could cut you if you aren't too careful.

               "Well well well, what do we have here? A stray male without his Mistress ? I guess it is my lucky day."

                I was upset at what I was seeing around me and on a knife's edge from losing my temper and lashing out at something, then this woman comes along and gives me a perfect target.

               Today may be a lot of things for you lady, but lucky isn't one of them.