Vitmori POV
Well, that's that then. Between all my beasts, we managed to subdue all six buyers who had shown up. We were able to knock all of them out one way or another. Still, the snake wolves were extremely useful after the matter was resolved, using their venom rather liberally among the six of them as it acted as a kind of paralytic, preventing further resistance while the buyers were dragged off.
While that was being handled, Greed had been escorted to the training room with the other sinners; the medbay was no longer officially being used for now since Cinco had made a full recovery, and Virtisa went back to work in her place at the Haven with the others. I pulled the healer zombies from my storage and deployed them to work on Greed, the dagger in his throat having made a mess of damage, but thankfully it wasn't particularly fatal for someone like him. I did let him keep the dagger since he asked, it was a rather nice piece, if I'm being honest, but he was stabbed with it, so I saw no problem with letting him claim it.
The rest of the sinners got to work bringing the carts up to my mountain, giving me a chance to thoroughly examine things within that twenty feet of open space I managed to gain. The things I found were... Odd, to say the least. There were many creature comforts, things like blankets, rugs, bolts of cloth of various colors and blends, bags of some kind of wool, bundles of treated leather, bags of sea salt, rice, and other grains, and a wide selection of herbs, roots, and fluids. Not to mention a large variety of candles, incense, and a varied selection of wine and what appeared to be rum and a kind of whiskey. All in all, they look like quality goods, but not nearly enough for what seemed to be a consistent slave trade. Though that's assuming they actually place a higher value on lives than what I remember during a literal apocalypse.
The whole thing made no sense to me, and things just weren't adding up whatsoever, that is, until I noticed a false panel in the lead cart under the driver's seat. Peeking inside, I spotted a metal lock box, it wasn't even all that big, but the problem I immediately encountered was that I couldn't look inside the box. It was as if there was another kind of bubble lining the metal chest. The magic itself was rather intense, as if whoever placed the enchantment on it really didn't want any prying eyes on this thing. I even had Oururu give it a look, and he couldn't peer inside, much to his dismay. I could find no memory of similar-looking lockboxes in any of the paladins' or acolytes' memories, so it is likely even they didn't know about it. None of the slavers had any sort of key that would fit the lock box either, so I suppose it'll have to remain a mystery for now.
Since I don't have any particular use for any of the materials or supplies in these carts, I go ahead and call Zasutir over, telling him to bring a few others to collect the carts. No doubt they'll put these things to very good use.
I turn my attention away, looking over at my impromptu jail cell. I am making other, smaller cells just in case I actually need to separate them, but for now, I just watch and wait to see what comes next.
Dhalia POV
She wakes with a start, her gaze unfocused and blurred as she tries to sit up, though failing at first as she soon realizes how sluggish and heavy her body feels. "Where am I...?" She murmured, looking up at the ceiling as she spotted a dimly glowing red orb of light suspended in the air, only just barely illuminating her surroundings. Suddenly, she hears a voice, and her ears perk and twitch at the sound.
"You're finally awake." The Madame says softly, yet her tone carries intense venom as she watches Dhalia, the young woman sitting curled up in the corner with her knees to her chest. "I don't want to be in here anymore... Get me out of here." She ordered coldly, yet Dhalia could hear a quiver in her voice as she spoke.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"Yes, ma'am..." Dhalia responded simply, struggling on the ground as she willed herself to sit up, eventually rolling onto her stomach; she looked around before spotting Rita as she sneered, kicking out her foot before plunging it into the bird girl's stomach. "Get up, make yourself useful, and get us out of here." She ordered before focusing on pushing herself up into a seated position.
The half-birdkin croaked out a pained, breathless grunt as she tried to breathe properly after that kick. However, her shoulder mark burned brightly when she didn't immediately follow orders. Suddenly, as if she were on strings, her body began limply rising as she forced herself to move by manipulating her own body with a form of telekinetic magic. Her whole body shuddered as she breathed hard and shakily, still trying to gather her strength despite her body being already bruised and battered from fending off the birds earlier. She moved painfully slow as her mark continued to glow; her skin faintly emitted a sizzling sound as she whimpered miserably.
"You're taking too long..." Diarosa warned cooly, her head in her knees as she barely decided to peek at the half-birdkin woman.
Rita squealed pathetically as her mark flashed brighter momentarily before resuming its consistent glow. Panting heavily, she managed to fix her stance some more as she brought up her shuddering palms together, focusing as much as she could manage after redirecting her mana from moving her body, conjuring a ball of electricity before blasting the iron bars. A steady, vibrant arc of blue shot out as the bars began to crackle with the electricity that bounced between them. This goes on for seconds, and then a minute as the birdkin woman sobs, the stream of electricity weakening as she fell to her knees at some point, her very flesh crackling from the burning heat of her mark, the damage having now spread to her neck and shoulder-blades as her mana sputters out.
"Pathetic, you couldn't even manage that." Dhalia scowled, having shrugged off the effects of the venom by now as she crossed her arms and watched what was about to happen next, as what usually happens to those who don't obey their betters is about to take place.
Rita shook her head as she looked up at Dhalia, totally spent and unable to move any further. "P-please... Mercy! I-I have always been loyal!" She cried out in a final burst of desperation. "G-give me another chance! I-I just need to rest." Though her words did not reach their ears as her mark flared up, the fires contained within it erupting as she was suddenly immolated, the flames spreading across her body as she screeched out and fell to the ground, rolling and slamming her body into the stone to try and put herself out.
The others watched in passively, unable to muster the drive to react as they knew they were next soon enough.
Diarosa watched on, a smile creeping to her lips as the flames danced in her gaze, finding beauty in Rita's final 'dance.'
Suddenly, a thin spear of stone launches out of the wall, skewering the roasted bird in her head as she goes limp. Dhalia flinches out of reflex as she looks for where the spear came from while moving to defend the Madame. As she looks around, she almost doesn't notice at first when Rita's smoldering body gets sucked into the ground, vanishing from sight. Dhalia tsked as she looked around. "Damn... They must have a druid or another kind of mage of their own. That'll make things difficult." She contemplated aloud, now pacing back and forth in the large cell, her nose wrinkling at the sickly sweet scent of burnt flesh.
Though as she paced, the bars suddenly vanished before their very eyes; before they could even think of stepping out, a trio of spitter wolves rushed in as they began to spit out their venom, spraying the already weakened prisoners with another concentrated dose of paralytics as Dhalia was sent sprawling to the ground.
Vitmori POV
What the fuck... I've seen human cruelty before, and I've certainly seen worse than this. But to see such a thing outside of the confines of an apocalypse sends my blood boiling. For now, I'm going to separate everyone into their own cells. Keeping that cat, Dhalia, and the pink-haired woman... I believe her name is Diarosa... Anyways I'll keep them between two entirely different floors in order to make sure the other marked individuals are completely out of earshot. Hopefully, that'll be enough to keep them out of those two slavers' influence.
For now, I bring up the corpse of a young half-elf, half-birdkin woman. Her name is Rita Melieamne, her mother was an elf, and her father was a birdkin... Her... Her... I'm getting sidetracked... Her life was flashing before her eyes, and those memories were the freshest on her mind as I worked on unconsciously processing her memories within me. Her soul was strong, and I ended up getting a massive amount of mana after absorbing it. I'm not sure if I need to be the one to directly or even indirectly cause the kill to absorb a soul or if that simply dying within my bubble would have been enough. Still, I didn't want to risk it after letting it get that far for the sake of maintaining the act of paladins being the ones to betray them. It's my fault she had to die in such a gruesome way and I'm going to make up for it if it's the last thing I do. I summon my healer zombies once more, the duo blankly staring at the charred corpse before them as they get down to their knees and extend their hands to start repairing the corpse. All the while, I begin circulating my mana between all three of them as the corpse slowly begins to be restored to its original state.