ã€ŠCurse of the Forsakenã€‹


 Prologue - In an unremarkable hovel

    In an unremarkable hovel, in a land of near perpetual twilight, a woman by the flickering light of a linseed oil lantern read a morbid story to a young child. The hovel was one you¡¯d find in a slum anywhere, made of bits of discarded wood, mud, hay. The smell of waste was permanent in the slums of Darniuston. The woman was unremarkable, her once blonde-grey hair now almost completely grey, her hands with arthritic joints showing signs of years of hard work aging her well in advance of her actual age. Her face was careworn, she had a dark moon shaped tattoo on her forehead, clearly visible even in the pale, low light. Critters scurried in the dark, something could be heard chewing on the walls of the hovel. She spoke quietly while her only surviving child listened.

    "In a sparkling silver and white castle sprawling across a large mess an elderly appearing man sat upon a silver throne. His silver hair cascaded down to his shoulders, his trimmed silver beard was worn neatly by his handsome and wrinkled face. His blue-purple eyes were dull, resignation filling them as he watched the scene play out before him. His empire, his family and his dreams had reached their end after a 10,000-year reign. He was the Great Dragon Emperor. The Silver Dragon who ruled the world in a time of peace and greatness.

    Before this ancient emperor was his court, on their knees, while men held blades to their throats. His family, his wives, his children, all waiting on their knees for the emperor¡¯s words. The works and evil of man had betrayed the great emperor, and using forbidden magics had captured the court, sealed their powers and would bring about ruin. Standing slowly the old man spoke to the leader of the armed men

    ¡°It is not necessary to use a blade Darius¡± pain could be heard in the old man¡¯s voice as he gazed upon the usurper Darius. ¡°For I would kill myself if it was my time to die.¡±

    Darius¡¯s fat lips quivered in excitement, as he toyed with a blue crystal sword, taping the tip of the blade against the white marble floor tiles. You see Darius was a fat old man, deeply steeped in the dark and evil of the world. His voice was unmanly, his plots numerous, he would be the usurper that doomed MAN. ¡°Grey Worm, don¡¯t think you can talk me out of this today. Your line has enslaved this world long enough.¡±

    The old Grey King spoke in a deep enchanting voice; ¡°Peace, Prosperity, Freedom from oppression. I wonder in what way the people are enslaved Darius? Slavery isn¡¯t even legal in this world. Men and women do not die to plagues, as they did before me, dangers from the wild have been pacified, the roads are so safe a child could carry a thousand tals of gold from one end of my empire to the other without fear of robbery. There is no starvation, no war, and the only death in this land is accidental or thanks to a long life. Where is this Oppression?¡±

    Darius sneered, ¡°Can I be king? Emperor? Can I take a wife I desire? I desired your granddaughter once. Yet the great Grey Worm of an Emperor wouldn¡¯t deign to allow his 129th heir marry a common man like myself. My people live too short for your kind you said. Humans and Dragons cannot be wedded you said.¡± The fat craven man Darius spat on the floor of the hall, and cast a murderous glare over everyone there. ¡°What about this castle? Can anyone live here? Of course not, the humans who put food on your plate and paid the taxes for this castle to be built cannot live here, or even enter here without your leave. What about magic? You¡¯ve forbidden man from learning it. Even the most talented of children who learn a little magic on their own without a tutor are taken away by your traitorous family. Never seen again. What do you do to them? Eat them? Steal their mana?¡±

    The old Grey King sighed again and looked up toward the sparkling transparent dome in the throne room, looking at the sun above then looked down at the man Darius. ¡°Elis will not stop you Darius. He has told me that the children of man are beyond salvation. With Elis¡¯s blessing, your own patron god chose me to protect, guard and educate his wards. You are a querulous race, given to slaughter and savagery. In many ways you are similar to my kin. But where my kin typically are content with their homes, humans are not even content with their neighbors¡¯ homes. I¡¯ve said my piece Darius. And I know it will not turn your heart. Just know when I die, be it at your hand or not it will be at the will of Elis, not you. I am tired. Very very tired of this life. I ask only, if you must take my head, to not take the heads of my family. Allow them to travel to Erindalle in the Sky. They will never return to this mortal world or covet the wicked works of your hands.¡±

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    Laughing, Darius stepped forward ¡°You want me to think that Elis, the god of humanity is your patron? You may have been able to fool my forefathers when you took over 10,000 years ago with that nonsense but I do not see any of Elis¡¯ works in you. Now that I own this CRYSTAL WARD SWORD, you have become powerless to oppose me. So stop pretending to be in control.

    The old Grey King shook his head. And for reasons lost to time he even had a humorous look on his face as if he found this situation hilarious. ¡°Kill me then. But allow my family to leave¡±

    Darius thought for a long time then answered in a tone dripping of deceit¡°I will spare your family.¡±

    The old man descended the steps of the marble platform the throne rested on, leaving the silver and diamond crown resting on the throne. He knelt before Darius and bowed his head. Then he closed his grey eyes for the last time and spoke in a voice which echoed out across the city. ¡°The children of man are all cursed. With this death man will know pain, suffering, and want. All creatures who shield them from this fate make war with Elis. All gods which take pity on them make war with Elis. All who have or will aided the Usurper and his allies, and their children will be cursed a short life their line tainted for 100 generations. Those with the curse are to be slaves to the virtuous. The cursed shall be marked with a MOON on their foreheads, for they have turned away from the Sun. Be warned children of man. If blood of my lineage is spilled after mine, I will return for blood.¡±

    Not long after those words were spoken, echoing across the continent, the sun turned the color of blood. And mankind lost the grace of the gods.

    This is why the Sun remains red and dark, and why man suffers child. "

    She paused a long moment then continued. "But there is hope child. For before the blade descended and doomed man, a last sentence was spoken by the Grey King; ''When man has suffered enough a savior shall come. And he shall be like a sun, and shall lift the cursed veil on the sun, and shall become king. However, his reign shall be bloody, and the foes of the gods will greatly suffer his rise. Weep for your savoir will come. Weep for yourselves for he shall come in blood and carnage.''"

    After a long pause the high voice of the child broke the silence. ¡°Did the bad guy spare the Grey King¡¯s family?¡±

    The mother was quiet then replied ¡°It isn¡¯t clear, though I have heard tell that Darius did not spare them.¡±

    The child spoke in a high clear voice ¡°Mommy when will the King come back? I don''t like the red sky¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Rest up child, and speak not of a savior, or hopes of the king returning to kill the wicked. I pass this story to you as it was passed to me when I was your age. This story is heresy. The lords of this land will kill you if you speak it. Remember this tale well, and if you learn of a great man rising, one blessed by the gods, serve him. Serve him for all the generations which suffered before you. Rise up against those who would stop him. Join him, aid him. Give your life to him. For if there is one thing which this world has made clear. Those of us with this mark of the moon are trash. We are worth less than nothing.¡±

    Silence descended upon the dark hovel on the edge of town, the only noise being the creatures chewing on the walls.

 Chapter 1 - The summons

    In a small town in upstate New York just outside of Buffalo a young man was hanging his head in a locker room. The locker room had all the smells of sweat, body odor and wet leather you¡¯d expect in a locker room. The room was quiet except for the hum of the florescent lighting and the young man simply stared at the rubber floor in front of him, tears in his eyes.

    He was 18, moderately tall by American standards at 6¡¯, with an athletic build; wide shoulders and big muscular thighs, with a strong middle. He had dark brown hair with a little wave to it, long enough to reach his shoulders, it was tied back in a ponytail. While no woman would ever write sonnets about his face, his eyes, he knew women did find rather attractive, they were green with a little grey in them. Now clouded over with tears, his teammates long gone, he still sat in the locker room, grieving in his heart. This was his last time playing hockey.

    He was rather good at the sport, but never was good enough to make a career out of it. A fact he knew quite well. He had played club hockey, high school hockey, but failed every junior hockey tryout he had tried. He remembered the words of one of his goaltender coaches, who once said ¡°everyone has a ceiling, they can get really good at a level, then they stop getting good, only the truly great players can break through those higher levels.¡± At the time he had dismissed that talk as the talk of a defeatist. Unfortunately, he now knew how true it was. No matter how many camps he went to, no matter how many hours of practice he put in, he hit a ceiling at the age of 17, and never got better. There were players on his team he knew were going on to play Division I hockey for such powerhouses as Cornell and Brown, even Niagara. None of them as important or as comparatively good in their position as he was at Goal. Yet while colleges came and recruited them he was left as an afterthought. It didn¡¯t help one of his best friends was a highly recruited Basketball player. Or his own brother was a highly recruited Lacrosse player. Heck his brother didn¡¯t even LIKE Lacrosse.

    Staring at the florescent lights, choking back sobs, he slowly stood up. He took some time in the shower composing himself. Dressing was mechanical. Boxers, Jeans, white tee-shirt, flannel long sleeved shirt, a hat bearing the logo of his favorite hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres. He knew his girlfriend and father were waiting so he couldn¡¯t take much longer. Thinking of Jenn, her bright smile, those nerdy glasses she sometimes wore, her great figure, most of his depression was blown away. She was easily one of the most beautiful girls he had ever met. Way out of his league was what he thought when he first met her. That they quickly started dating still was almost magical to him. Before meeting her he had laughed at all those love songs on the radio. Now he sort of got it. They hadn¡¯t been dating long, but she had become a very important part of his life. With Jenn his father was also waiting, his mouth turned up in a small smile. His father was the only parent left to him, his mother had passed away years ago, he wasn¡¯t even a fan of hockey, yet he never missed a game. He had friends in high school who complained about their parents, he felt nothing but gratitude for his. The immense sadness of the prior half hour, his mournful goodbye to his favorite pastime was not fully washing away, however it was a bit muted after thinking about the two waiting for him. Picking up the now useless equipment he slung the heavy bag and pads over his shoulder, then picked up the wooden stick and walked out of the dressing room, into a blinding white light

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    His right foot hit the floor and he staggered, feeling stone under his foot now bare foot, the weight of the equipment was gone and the cold breeze told him he was now fully nude. His eyes cleared after blinking them a few times and took a few moments to adjust to the low torchlight in the stone chamber he was now in. There were short bearded men all around him 8 or 10 of them, all with dark crescent moons on their foreheads. They wore dark brown cloaks and blue light was shining, linking all of them together, yet strangely that light cast no shadows and did not light up the dim room. It was more of an illusionary ¡°fake¡± light then real. His mouth tried to twitched into a frown. His green eyes looked left to right, as he scanned the faces of the men, they all had their eyes closed and seemed to be straining; just as he was about to try to move he noticed he couldn¡¯t. He was sealed in place and the reality he was seeing faded out back to the hallway, equipment he was carrying again weighing on his shoulders, he was now dressed again and seeing what he should have been seeing all long, the stone well-lit wall of the hockey arena.

    Flicker, now he was back in the small stone room surrounded by short men

    Flicker, now he was back in the hallway

    Flicker, flicker, flicker

    Light became blinding, the sensation of crossing back and forth occurred rapidly, too fast to count, then the frozen locked sensation vanished and he moved forward a step, staggering and collapsing nude on a cold filthy stone floor at the feet of the robed men.

    ¡°Elude nep er din DAJAH!¡± One of the robed men shouted out in a strange language, and a clamber arose around him. He tried to stand up, but the ringing in his ears and the blinding light from the ¡°portal?¡± made it all but impossible to coordinate. The nonsensical words of the others around him, the horrid smell of the pitch torches and the buzzing ¡°fuzzy¡± feeling in his head mostly rendered him unable to function.

    Rough hands seized him under his arms and lifted him to his feet. Not easily, as he was much larger than the other men around him. All of whom seemed to top out at around his mid chest, which put them in the low five-foot range for height.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± the voice was a bit slurred as he still was working through the pins and needle feel to his body.

    These words set off another cascade of jabbering in that strange language, before he felt something like icewater splash into his head. His thoughts froze for a long moment, the world stopped, it didn¡¯t go black, just everything ¡°stopped¡±.

 Chapter 2 - Crawling bed companions

    Slowly everything came into focus, his thoughts were unfrozen. He was in a new room, it looked like it was in the same building, the same style dark stone walls, the same style dark wood door, he was laying on a small bed, his feet dangled off the end, the ¡°pillow¡± under his head felt like a bundle of rags, the atrocious smell of pitch torches was still lingering in the air, the room was small, perhaps 10¡¯ by 14¡¯ there was a wooden cabinet which took up most of the rest of the room. The bed spread was itchy, and he felt bugs crawling on his skin. Flees? Bedbugs? He wasn¡¯t sure, but he knew it was disgusting.

    Jumping out of the bed he found he was dressed now in a long course ¡°hemp?¡± like robe. The feeling of bugs on his skin did not depart after leaving the bed, causing him to strip off the robe and cast it aside.

    A small ¡°eep¡± made his head snap around and his cheeks heat. He had thrown the robe on a kneeling girl, near the door. The girl was rather plain, small and of undetermined age, though he suspected she was younger then him. She was nude with a metal and chain collar and bracelets, his embarrassment leaked away as he studied the girl (slave?) in front of him. There really was nothing attractive about a girl with matted dirty hair whose original color was impossible to determine though he suspected it to be blonde, filthy slug pale skin, hands and feet almost black with dirt and a moon tattoo on her forehead above pale blue almost grey eyes, the nakedness only made her look savage, not alluring, the chains made her look pitiful taking the edge from the animalistic appearance of the girl. He was a healthy young man, who liked looking at girls, and yet his manhood didn¡¯t even twitch. There was absolutely nothing attractive about the girl stinking up the room.

    His embarrassment forgotten he tried to speak to her but she clearly didn¡¯t understand him, as she laid on her back spread eagle, obviously expecting him to fuck her as she pulled her heels up to her bottom. His mouth twisted in distaste, setting aside the strange location, the questionable reasons he was here, the potentially devastating (for him) consequences of this journey, the unknown motives of those who took him from his life, even setting aside his lovely girlfriend, he wouldn¡¯t touch this girl except perhaps with a stick attached to a sponge to bath her. She was filthy, pathetic and likely a slave judging by her outfit; everything felt off about her and her dead lifeless eyes. If anything he wish she wasn¡¯t in this room, and were well out of his sight. He wanted to run away, and quickly. Those dead eyes, combined with that lewd behavior twisted up his conscience with his desire to flee until he realized he had been staring in disbelief at the spectacle, frozen like a deer in the headlights of a car. Seizing the blanket on the bed he gave it a mighty shake as yet more of those roach/beetle bug-things fell out. He couldn''t do anything about the girl, or the flees, from her look she probably had them in her hair too. But he could do this much. He tossed the blanket out over her, covering her nakedness, and hiding the lewd position from his eyes at the same time.

    His conscience was still flagellating him, but his disgust at the filth of this cell (?) and the people who''d reduce a girl to that state was warring with his fear at the moment. Ignoring the girl as one more concern he couldn''t afford to have right now he picked up the robe that he discarded and shook it out. Some small mini cockroach like creatures fell out of the robe, their shinny brown/black shells sporting red markings that looked suspiciously like they were painted on them, the idea these weird bugs with their weird appearance were crawling all over him made his skin crawl, as he tossed the robe back on and strode to the door of the room.

    Lifting the latch, he found it was unlocked. However, his excitement at it not being locked in a cell vanished when he spotted the armored guards outside of the room. The guards were as short as the men with the moons on their foreheads. Both guards wore metal armor of some sort, chain and leather, the metal was rusty the leather smelled worse than wet hockey equipment. The men wore metal helmets with a bar designed face guard, allowing him to see their unwashed filth under the helmets. He wasn¡¯t surprised when they started to yammer in a that language again, nor was he surprised to note that neither of them had all their teeth. One guardsman pulled a rusty sword, and stopped his advance, the other ran off in a cascade of metal noise to deliver a message (he presumed).

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    He didn¡¯t see a moon on these men¡¯s foreheads like he did on the robed men or the filthy slave in ¡®his?¡¯ room and started to wonder about that marking. Was it a clan mark? He looked around at his surroundings and wasn¡¯t stupid. It was clear this wasn¡¯t Earth. It probably wasn¡¯t Earth. Not unless Earth devolved into this pigsty and magic became a reality. It wouldn¡¯t be Earth in the past either, unless stories of magic were real. Something he wasn¡¯t willing to believe. Furthermore, he was pretty sure those quasi cockroach beetle things weren¡¯t native to Earth, though to be honest he wasn¡¯t particularly strong at biology. That left another planet? Maybe another reality? Parallel world? Were these filthy small people really humans? Or were they just human appearing when they were around him?

    He examined the rusty blade in the man¡¯s hand. It was an ugly thing, so dented and abused it looked almost like a thin metal club. Either these people didn¡¯t take care of their weapons or he was too slovenly to. He scratched a random itch under his arm as he waited, trying to stamp down the feelings of hunger and a bladder that needed release. He was pondering deep questions about how to pantomime needing to use the john, or bush or pit or whatever these people used. Right now questions about where he was or why he was here where becoming quite secondary to the need to release his bladder. He suspected those other answers would come in time if he was lucky. Where the bathroom was, was much more pressing.

    He noticed the filthy man glancing at the nude slave behind him with lust clear in his eyes. Glancing behind him he saw the slave (?) kneeling with the blanket from the bed folded up next to her; and for a moment toyed with the idea of taking the sword away from the man. It didn''t look like it would be hard to do. The man was barely up to the bottom of his ribcage. He looked like he was all skin and bones, the sword looked so damaged he wasn''t even sure how badly cut he''d be if he seized the blade. Though tetanus would be a concern judging from all that rust. Of course he didn''t want to take the blade away from the man because he was looking at a nude girl (slave? prisoner?) in a way that would get him punched anywhere on Earth by anyone with a heart and a sense of shame. Not at all. Of course not. Nor because he felt the need to take away a weapon pointed at him, but because he felt ignored, and even more then ignored, he was being ignored for one of the most unattractive women he¡¯d ever seen; somehow his sense of pride felt just about as squeezed as his bladder did. At least those were lies he told himself as he pondered if he''d get stabbed if he peed on the shoes of the man holding the sword.

    While he was considering the different ways to take the weapon away from the lusty man in front of him several pairs of footsteps echoed down the hall toward him. He turned his head and saw a grey haired old man in a hemp robe similar to what he was wearing followed by the other filthy guard who went to summon him.

    The old man was cleaner than the guards, though he still was short, thin and old and ill looking. His eyes like everyone else was pale grey to pale blue. His skin so pale as to almost be see through. His teeth looked like ill-fitting fakes, made out of ivory or wood (it was brown). The old man stopped his fast walk and clearly frowned as heexamined the younger man and the guard in the hall. If his bladder was more patient he probably would feel more unease at the situation.

 Chapter 3 - The Sage

    The former Grand Wizard Eldridge (now mostly known as the Great Sage, or Sage Eldridge) had been overseeing the project proposed by one of his students for almost 20 years. It was an ambitious project, based upon an interesting interpretation of prophecy. It took almost 10 years just to assemble the catalysts needed to perform the ritual. Then there were the trials, as one attempt after another were made and the ritual was tinkered with. Their race was doomed. He knew that.

    It had been prophesied a little over 2,000 years ago when the Usurper, who¡¯s name shall always be cursed, Darius took the head of the Silver Dragon King. Making the Sun God and Patron of Humanity Elis turn his face from the race of man. Man alone lived in a perpetual world of shadow. The sun which rose on the other races and creatures was not the sun that rose on man. Man lived under a deep blood red orb, it did not provide enough light for agriculture, nor for heat, nor for much of anything; somehow the curse seemed to know which crops were being grown by man as those crops grew withered regardless who cultivated them.

    Man grew feeble, diseased, short lived. Most humans faded out from assorted reasons by their 30¡¯th birth year. Humanity was dying. The monsters which once served man now eat him. Or would if humans had enough meat or weren¡¯t so diseased for it. The races which once lived in harmony with man now enslaved him. Not that men made great slaves, but the edict of the gods was clear, and no one was to AID mankind. In a way slavery was actually a boon, and insured humanity would not be extinct. Many slaves to Fairies or the Kindred or the Gnomes under the ground were healthier and lived longer lives then the free humans. They got to eat filling food, even while they were worked to the bone.

    While the humans enslaved by other races maintained some dignity those free or those enslaved by other men were little more than animals. With a sky high infant mortality rate humanity was forced into a race against extinction, with men encouraged to sire as many offspring as possible whenever possible and women encouraged to bare as many as possible. The result of course was women being treated as a quasi-slave population whether they were slaves or not. The value of a woman being how many healthy children she could bear before her body collapsed. Lifewas adehumanizing hell, that was being suffered by humans over and over and over again as the years marched on.

    So when his disciple proposed a solution to the curse of course he had listened. The solution was bold. The prophecies left behind from that time spoke of a hero or king who would return. Potentially the grey king himself, reborn. Though there was a lot of debate on that point. The key riddle was the lines in the prophecy which spoke about the champion being ¡°untouched by the curse¡±. This lead to conclusion that perhaps a human from another world could be summoned to this one. A human who grew up without the curse, who might be immune to the curse after the summoning. This type of human might be what the prophecy spoke of. Then the human who was not in the disfavor of Elis may be able to convince Elis to remove the curse from humankind.

    There were many problems with this theory; even Eldridge knew that. There was nothing which guaranteed that there even were other humans in creation, born away from this cursed place. Years were spent scrying to find more humans on a plane or planet SOMEWHERE. And once it was certain they lived without a curse from Elis, then it was more years designing a ritual and accumulating the required equipment and focuses for it. Finally, while the last years of the project wore on, and his disciple passed due to poor aging, Eldridge took over the project, and added his own touch to it. A picture encyclopedia, and a slave. The slave would be the key to the encyclopedia, as long as the summoned human was relatively smart (and they took precautions to insure he was) he should learn the language quick enough.

    He had not been present during the summoning, he no longer had the strength for such types of magic. As the body aged man¡¯s connection to magic usually withered as well. It was believed this was the result of the flame of life within a human being finite. And the smaller the flame the smaller mana they could channel. ¡®Well that is one theory anyway.¡¯

    Rounding the corner his hurried stride slowed down as he took his first look at the man they summoned. He was like a living god. A full two hands taller than any man he had ever seen, ¡®dark hair! Green eyes!¡¯ colors which did not exist here. He was muscular too. The robes couldn¡¯t hide it, the man had a strong chest, broad shoulders. His skin wasn¡¯t pale white, but had color to it. The man seemed strangely tense, looking for the cause he finally noticed the sword blade pointing at his chest.

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    ¡°Put that sword down you fool!¡± He shouted in a rush, panic on his face.

    The guardsman jumped and looked over at the aged mage, then sheathed the blade and quickly saluted fist to chest.

    The young man didn¡¯t seem any less tense and was rocking back and forth on his feet as he watched the old man close the distance

    Eldridge looked at the slave kneeling on the ground behind the young man ¡°quickly tell me what has happened, did he give you his seed?¡±

    The young woman shook her head

    ¡°Slave, did you offer yourself to him?¡±

    ¡°I did master. He didn¡¯t even get within arm¡¯s reach¡±

    The old man frowned and looked at the young one. The young man seemed to be trying to pantomime something to him. Frowning, Eldridge studied the hand motions. First the man made a serpentine motion with his hand then he squatted down, then he ran his hand over his rear end, before standing up. Frowning at the almost clownish behavior he was a little worried that despite all their precautions they summoned someone insane. The boy, despite his undignified actions seemed to be fairly insistent. Watching the body contortions with growing concern the young man with a frustrated look on his face grabbed his manhood through his robes and holding with one hand seemed to stretch with a happy look on his face and pelvis thrust out. A light of understanding seemed to alight in the old man¡¯s eyes, then the old sage spoke slowly. ¡°Do you think you can show this young man to the privy?¡± He directed the question to the slave girl.

    ¡°Yes master.¡± She stood up then tried to guide the tall man with her hand.

    He actually flinched back from her touch, a very disgusted look on his face. She made some hand motions and the man seemed to understand something then followed her down the hallway. The look of disgust on the young man¡¯s face was stamped in the old man¡¯s mind as he pondered.

    This could be bad if his language teacher was unacceptable to the man. It took almost two years to teach her everything he could think of she might need to know to teach him the language. He taught her every language on the continent, he taught her every ancient tongue and the standardized writing style of the continent, he taught her non-verbal language skills, and taught her how to teach others to write without SPEAKING a word. Of the 20 slaves he purchased for this task she was by far the best. Better still she was fertile and untouched. He thought she would make a fantastic present to the man. Yet the man seemed very unhappy with the present.

    Speaking absently to guardsman who had the sword out at some point, Teral he thought he was called, he asked a question ¡°Do you think that young man might not like her? He seemed rather ill disposed toward her?¡±

    The guardsman grimaced ¡°you¡¯re overthinking it sage. You see that boy¡¯s teeth? White. I mean white like¡­ white. He has them all too. His nails were like a lady Fairy¡¯s perfect, just like a fairy he smelled like some sort of scented flower or something. That man ain¡¯t like the rest of us Sage. I think he doesn¡¯t like how us humans live here. He looks like he baths daily like some noble fairy.¡± Snorting back a laugh the man then added ¡°He even had the skin cut on his manhood like the fairies do it. You sure he¡¯s human? I mean he¡¯s as tall or taller than a fairy lord though might even be stronger and heavier than most Rock Devil I¡¯ve seen. All he¡¯s missing is the pointed fairy ears. My guess is you¡¯d need to make that girl attractive to a fairy before he would be willing to be within 10 spans of her. Good luck with that one.¡±

    The sage frowned at the guardsman¡¯s comment. ¡°I¡¯ve overlooked something big haven¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°Seems like it. Not all plans work perfect¡±

    ¡°I should have thought about what a human not living under a curse might look like. What that might mean for his tastes. Well can¡¯t do anything about it now. Just going to have to see how clean I can get her. Then keep her clean.¡± The sage felt a headache building. ¡°I hope this human is worth it; 20 years. And remember, your job is to keep him alive not kill him. If I hear you harmed a hair on his head, I¡¯ll kill you and enslave your family for the next 10 generations. Don¡¯t think I can¡¯t do it. Make sure the other guards know it as well¡±

    Fist to heart the guardsman paled about the threat. Usually the old sage was a genial fellow, but he heard tales about some of the things he had done to those who displeased him. Genial fellows don¡¯t often live long enough to have grey hair anymore.

 Chapter 4 - A bath, white robe and sandals

    The young slave girl¡¯s name used to be Dehlah. Or it was before the Sage purchased her. She had the misfortune of being born female in a family in need of a male heir and with too many female mouths to feed. She actually had little memory of her family¡¯s home, and only a vague idea of her parent¡¯s motives, she reasoned them out AFTER she was sold, and assumed it probably was true. Truth was she wasn¡¯t even sure how old she was. She thought she was sold when she was 4 or 5, though in reality it might have been when she was 6. She thought perhaps 10 years had passed since she was sold to the Sage.

    Dripping wet, she looked at the sage in confusion as he directed her to scrub her hands and feet raw with a pumice stone. She had been scrubbing her skin raw for what seemed like half a day. The Sage had even brought a strange fairy slave girl. The fairy slave girl was pretty, and far cleaner than any human she had ever seen before that new young man had been brought here. She still didn¡¯t know what the fairy girl¡¯s purpose was. She had seen a number of Fairies, they were living in a Fairy kingdom, but the girl was a bit different than most. Her skin was not fair but dark, a deep tan, her hair was gold, not the pale straw like hair of a human''s but rich and thick almost like liquid metal and her eyes were a beautiful lilac purple. The fairy must have cost a small fortune, and she looked like she knew it, because she kept looking at her with a very offended or even disgusted look.

    The look in the fairy¡¯s eyes actually mirrored the eyes of that young man. She had never seen a person quiet like him. In fact she wasn''t even sure he was human. Part of her was terrified of him. The look of disgust he cast her way was not something she was used to. She had been prepared for this for years, most of her life really. But it always seemed so unreal to her. She wasn''t stupid. In fact had her situation been different she probably could have been a success at most things in this world. She was the smartest of the slaves the Sage, master, had trained. This training sidetracked her from a fate she had always been told to accept, motherhood. She already was the oldest slave without a child. The only girls herewho didn''t have children were those too young to have them. She had passed the point where she should be having children a couple of years ago. She knew she was an important part in this project. Not just to teach the summoned man the language but to help him with a lot of other things as well.

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    After what seemed like another hour of washing and scrubbing, chilled to the bone, the young women¡¯s hands and feet were no longer black with dirt. Her skin, while so pale as to be nearly see through, was no longer grey with dirt. The transformation was shocking, and the reason for it was puzzling to her. As she couldn¡¯t figure out the purpose for her to be made this clean. ¡®Wasn¡¯t it just going to get filthy again?¡¯

    To her amazement the fairy then proceeded to instruct her how to comb her hair, and another wonder appeared, an ivory comb, which the sage was now hers.

    This stunned her to silence as slaves didn¡¯t own anything

    ¡°Why?¡± She mumbled.

    ¡°It is probably pointless, making a frog into a dragon is impossible. But the boy doesn¡¯t like you. You need him to like you or we wasted 20 years on this project. This is the hope of mankind here. So the comb is yours, this washroom is yours, this fairy is yours to use. She is to help you keep clean, until you know how to do it yourself. You¡¯ll need a name too. I know I told you to lose the one you had, but you¡¯ll need one if you¡¯re to deal with the boy. You¡¯ll be his slave when he agrees to take possession of you, so the quicker you teach him the language the quicker you escape me. And you know what I¡¯ve done to the slaves that fucked things up right?¡±

    She nodded quickly, then following what the fairy girl showed her, combed her hair for the first time since she was sold. The snags hurt worse than the pumice stone she scrubbed her skin with, and with tears in her eyes she pondered different names to call herself. While the old sage prepared her last surprise. A white, nearly opaque robe and a pair of sandals.

    ¡°Those, why are you giving me THOSE?¡±

    ¡°Because we need the boy to work with you, and I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s your dirt, or nudity that¡¯s got him on edge. This is all we can do legally. You know what those robes mean of course. You can explain it to him if you want. It¡¯s a forgivable lie anyway.¡±

    She stared at the clothing with some trepidation. Those robes and sandals represented a presumption no slave would dare make. After hesitating a little too long she shivered at the fear of what punishment her hesitation might bring and quickly snatched the clothing from the Sage. Then she quicklydressed herself and walked into the hall, walking awkwardly, as it was the first time in her life she ever wore any type of footwear, it almost was enough to distract herself from her worries over a name.

 Chapter 5 - A filthy room

    The young man was sitting in his room, surrounded by loud guardsmen. He felt rather pleased of the chaos he had unleashed, though the path he took to get here was a bit weird considering it was a trip to the bathroom which started him on it. Of course the shit hole (literally) was probably the filthiest locations in this horrid dungeon. There were squishy things underfoot that when stepped on convinced him the ¡°humans¡± which inhabited this dank open sewer couldn¡¯t be bothered to actually defecate in the hole in the floor. He knew animals more concerned about their bathroom locations then these creatures. The stench was on another level of hell. It was so bad he actually vomited when he caught a whiff of the place down wind. Of course the smell and taste of his stomach acid were huge improvements over the stench coming from the shithole. He tried to breathe through his mouth but all that managed was to make him TASTE the stench as well.

    After doing his business he wondered why he even bothered to go to this shithole. Squatting in the corner of his room probably would have been more hygienic than entering this horrid room. It might even have given the crawling creatures something to eat, and keep them away from him.

    Of course his hosts were quite sympathetic to his plight. He tried to mime to the filthy nude girl that he wanted someplace to clean up, and she misinterpreted it to think he was hungry. As if it was humanly possible to be hungry for anything with feet covered in human waste, and that stench clinging to him. He couldn¡¯t keep himself from lingering on the horror of that bathroom.

    After depositing him at the mess hall the slave girl saw the old man and left with him. With nothing better to do, and a nice and empty stomach he decided to force himself to eat though he didn¡¯t really want to. The (possible) dinner was a thin stew of some vegetables, which he couldn¡¯t quite place, likely nothing like it existed on earth. The vegetables were mostly flavorless, and while the portion was large and he was hungry the lack of spicing or really flavor combined with the fresh memory of his earlier ¡®stop¡¯ made it almost inedible. Served with dinner was some sort of fermented drink, which tasted sweet. It had a flavor similar to apples, though far sweeter, and unlike the stew he could drink as much as he wanted. Something he took advantage of. He used the alcoholic drink to wash his feet and hands in the corner of the mess hall. He was too young to legally drink back home, but that didn¡¯t mean he hadn¡¯t drank or been drunk before. The stress of the prior hour or three put him in the mood to see how drunk he could get.

    After dinner(?) he strode a bit around the castle (at least it seemed like a castle, though he hadn¡¯t seen any windows or ways out, no one seemed to restrict his wandering). Frankly the place was oppressive. The ceilings were too short, the walls too close together. The air was stale, though he had long ago stopped smelling the pitch torches, somehow he knew the smell was rancid no matter where he wandered. Worse his feet were hurting. The bare stone floor was not smooth enough for feet which had always wore shoes. The cold stone was making his toes ache and was giving him a chill.

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    He had been suppressing his panic at the situation rather well to this point, though he now had the assistance of the alcohol. He wanted to go home, nothing about this place was attractive to him. The people and smells were filthy, it was cold and stale, there were slaves everywhere, all of whom were naked, men and women, girls and boys, grandmothers and grandfathers, though very very few of those. Most of the humans had a dark moon tattoo on their foreheads. Only a handful did not. NONE of the slaves were missing the moon mark. So he began to wonder if it was a clan marking. ¡®Maybe a losing clan?¡¯ That wasn¡¯t to say none of the freemen bore the mark. Many of them did as well. ¡®Perhaps it was a religious marking?¡¯

    By moving around, noting the weird and new sights he didn¡¯t have to think about home too much, and his worries of whether he could go back could be buried a bit. He really hoped there was a way back. But even if there was one, he couldn¡¯t ask for it while he couldn¡¯t talk to them.

    One thing he didn¡¯t miss was the eyes of EVERY human (TBD) he passed. They all looked at him like he was a rare and endangered animal in a zoo. There was curiosity, hope, fascination, even some fear in those gazes. The eyes of all of those filthy people on him made his skin crawl worse than the flees he thought he could see crawling and leaping on them.

    Eventually his wandering brought him back to his ¡°room¡±. One of the guards shot him an almost challenging glare. He almost was happy to see that; it was better than being stared at like a rare animal. No that man saw someone he didn¡¯t like. ¡®I don¡¯t know what he doesn¡¯t like¡¯ but at least he wasn¡¯t looking at him like some weird mythological treasure. In his alcohol enhanced mood he decided he liked this guardsman.

    Stepping into the room, or maybe he should call it an open cell, he was a little upset that his memory of this place was still accurate. He imagined he could see things moving under the blanket on the bed. No amount of cleaning and beating on the mattress would ever make less filthy or infested. This place with too filthy. So he turned around and returning to the mess hall, passing the guardsman giving him the evil eye he grabbed a pitcher of the alcoholic drink, and brought it back to his room. No one stopped him. He was starting to muse that the lenient treatment meant that he was important to these people for some reason and not just a curio from a magic trick gone wrong. He sat down in his room at the small wood-like table and started to really try to get drunk. Hoping that if he was drunk enough perhaps he could ignore the bugs crawling on him when he went to bed.

    Thinking darkly wasn¡¯t really something he liked to do. He knew other students at his school that were ¡°Emo¡±, and never quite could get where they were coming from. He realized he was focusing on the problem and not the solution. So he started to ponder some way to feel better about his situation. Thinking about those challenging eyes in the hallway, the pure loathing in them he found he had a bit of a smile start to form.

 Chapter 6 - The Kindred game

    Teral was sick of living in this hole. He knew this was an important project. And he knew that he was getting paid well for it. He also knew that if the Fairies ever learned of this he¡¯d die alongside everyone else. As one of the few humans left without the moon curse, he had a long life yet to live. Those with the curse of the moon were doomed to die before their 40th year. It was like the curse all of humanity suffered only worse. Those with the moon were those who¡¯s ancestors directly helped or assisted the cursed usurper Darius. Of course it was an inherited curse, passing directly whichever parent had it.

    Unlike most of these people here, he had a future after his 30th year. He had plans. And those plans didn¡¯t include dying under a Fairy¡¯s sword. He knew when he joined the project that the pay would be great, and the risk high. But his sense of purpose was harmed recently; with the appearance of that soft tall young man.

    He remembered the hope of everyone for this project. Apparently they were working to cure the curse on mankind. He really wanted that to work. But instead of the Grey King, with silver hair and blue eyes, they got this strange young man¡­ Rock Devil hybrid. He never saw a being other than a rock devil his height. The man towered over all of them like some being from another world. He had a stupid look on his face. Not majestic. He smelled of flowers. What man smells of flowers? Fairies smelled like them. But men? Was he human?

    The man was well muscled, but he looked like a woman fairy. His face was shaved, his dick had the skin cut back on it like the fairies like to do. His hands had no calluses, his feet were soft and pale as if he never walked a mile in his life. He knew 8-year-old children who were harder than this soft man. In fact, this man reminded him of a male slave he once saw in one of the Fairy capitals of Khavar. It¡¯s a known fact that the fairies had some male deviants who like using the human slave boys and men for sex. He knew of human men who preferred men too, but the Fairies flaunted it. This human male slave was dressed up and made to look like a girl. It was a shocking sight for him. That boy-girl was more manly then this young man.

    He knew he was being a little unfair. He also knew he was jealous. The slave girl they gave him was the one he wanted himself. He was even forbidden from plucking that fruit. The girl-boy was supposed to mate with her. It enraged him. What was the point of earning all this coin (the project paid well) if he couldn¡¯t buy the slave girl he wanted to buy? She had the beginnings of what could be in a few years great birthing hips and small perky breasts which had not started to sag yet. She came from a family with a number of living children, meaning she could bear him a living son. She was young, untouched and could read. She was underfed but perfectly docile. Fuck he¡¯d been dreaming about plucking that flower since he saw her two years ago for the first time. Back then she was just one of 20 girls, of whom only one would go to the project and be untouchable. He saved his coin, even cut back on drinking to work extra shifts to insure he¡¯d have the coin to purchase her when she became available. But she never did.

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    Now he could only look and not touch. It made him so mad he was half tempted to kill the boy-girl and buy her after. If he could do it without anyone knowing he¡¯d do it. Unfortunately, the mages could learn what happened in the past with ¡°past sight¡±. He couldn¡¯t afford a talisman to shield their eyes from his actions. Those talismans were far more expensive than any virgin slave girl. He started to fantasize of how he could kill the boy-girl and then pluck the flower on top of the boy¡¯s corpse while she mewed under him. He was growing stiff just thinking about it and let his eyes drift closed just picturing the whole scene

    He was woken from his dark thoughts when the door to the girl-boy¡¯s room opened. The girl-boy waved with a smile for the two guardsmen to enter.

    Entering cautiously, remembering the Sage¡¯s threat, the young girl-boy pointed to the small table and indicated they should sit down. It irritated him that his instructions were to be ¡°friendly¡± with this prissy faggot, so he put a fake smile on his face and sat down. Then thinking of something fun he pulled out his dagger and drove it down into the table. He wondered if he could sucker this stupid fuck into a game of Meri¡¯ack.

    Meri¡¯ack was a barbaric Kindred ¡®game. It involved taking turns pulling strips of skin off your own arm. It was rather easy to cause permanent harm. But the main joy of playing it was the tears of your foe. It was almost impossible to play without crying out in pain. Yet the punishments for crying out were horrendous. The existence of healing magic made it a bit less deadly of a game then it probably used to be. Still, very few humans could play even a round of it without taking the penalty.

    Just the idea of his tears of pain brightened his smile. The man across from his smiled broadly as well and tapped the dagger with his finger then placed his elbow on the table and started to motion for something. Puzzled he simply looked back at him wondering what he trying to do.

 Chapter 7 - Mop up operation

    She decided to call herself Sa¡¯manatha; after the goddess of flight, Manatha. It was an absurd name for her to hold, she knew that. Slaves holding names was weird enough. But it was an order, so she decided since she got to pick she¡¯d make it something really different. Not many people were named after the gods after all.

    After storing her things, she made her way to his room. She had been trained for years how to teach languages to people who could not communicate with her. She had been around this magic ritual long enough to guess at the young man¡¯s origins. He was supposed to be born without the curse. From another world even.

    She was even surprised at how accurate the ritual was. One of the great debates was what type of traits they should try to summon through the portal. The list of traits was long. High elemental attunement, sexually mature, healthy with no inherited curses or diseases, physically fit, smart as the great sage; the list went on and on. She was worried the conditions were too exacting, as she was uncertain there was a human like that anywhere.

    However, something nagged at her amongst all the prep for this summoning. Something about bringing someone unrelated to mankind¡¯s problem into the middle of the problem, against their will, taking them from their life always made her feel like they were turning this savior into a slave just like any other slave. She was young when she was sold into servitude. But she remembered the hurt being torn from her family and even her name; it hurt even though it was the family that sold her. She thought the Sage probably had thoughts along those lines when he was training her and the others to teach him the language. All the slaves were young girls. She came to realize part of her role was to help distract him from those types of thoughts with her body. There was even some talk in the project that even if this not-cursed man couldn¡¯t save them from the curse, perhaps his children would be curse free.

    It was middle of the day, so he should be wandering somewhere, she figured she could wait for him to return in the room. She made her way through the corridors with slippered feet, and hoped he wasn¡¯t in the room sulking when she got there. It would be hard to start over and start teaching him the language if he was crying.

    Turning the corner, she heard a low rumble of voices in the distance. It sounded like a lot of people, which made her feet slow down. Puzzled she turned yet another corridor and came to a dead stop. This was the passage his current room was located in, however what she saw puzzled and surprised her. What surprised her was the commotion outside his room. There was a large number of guardsmen cheering and clambering, while watching something in the room. She had a bad feeling about this-

    ¡°YEAAAAH!~ ¡° Flexing his right arm, he pulled a few coins over from the middle of the table, to join a growing pile on his side of the table.

    [Gha¡¯relle!] He shouted, it was one of the first few words of this stupid language he had learned. It meant ¡°next¡±. Too many ¡°H¡± or ¡°K¡± sounds and ¡°L¡± sounds, it reminded him of the Klingon his one friend tried to learn in middle school. A group of people speaking this tongue sounded like an animal dying. There was no charm to it. He remembered learning French in high school, in part because a good chunk of hockey players spoke it, in part because he HAD to take a foreign language, and in part because the French teacher was hot as all fuck. That language was romantic when you spoke it. Everything sounded like pillow talk in French. Of course it was a brutal language to learn for an English speaker too. He wasn¡¯t particularly good with it, though he wasn¡¯t bad with the pronunciation; the sentence structure and vocabulary was too much. This language was on another level. He was having difficulty hearing where one word ended and the next began. Maybe it was an accent? Where the people here just slur their words together like southerners?

    His mind was drifting, rather affected by the liquor as a large man with a vivid red scar across his forehead sat down across from him. The man was cleaner than most of the people here, which was interesting as he was also the first man he saw who was a bit overweight. He had a strong looking build was missing a few yellow teeth, and an evil grey eyed glare that would have scared him silly back on earth. Of course he wasn¡¯t unarmed now, which was why he didn¡¯t get too worried.

    The room was packed, so packed he only now noticed someone in an almostsee through white robe. She was an almost cute girl, probably 15 or so, so of course she was way too young for him, he always liked older mature women, or at the worse, women his age. He had been asked out by some of the younger girls at his high school and never even looked twice at them. They always seemed like little kids. THIS girl had pale blonde hair and eyebrows, and a cute pink flush to her pale skin. She was short, like everyone else, and he noticed she had a metal and chain collar and bracelets, just like the prior slave girl. Of course this one was clean, and dressed, the fact her robe was clean was in itself remarkable. He thought the people of this world lived in their own waste. Despite looking as cute and harmless as a little kitten (and about as sexy, seriously, nothing sexy about cute little kid in an almost see through robe). Still she was easily the best looking girl he had seen since coming to this world. At least this one didn¡¯t look like a savage beast like the one in his room.

    Turning his attention back to the large man he grabbed his right hand with his own.

    She forced her way through the throng, surprised at the heavy smell of alcohol in the air. Inside the room was a strange sight. The young man was sitting at a table, with his right hand locked with a larger guardsman, there was a pile of coins on the table by the young man, and he even had an assortment of goods lying in a pile next to him.

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    The young man¡¯s face was flushed, his eyes were watery and he held a pitcher of what smelled like Curran in his other hand. A third man was standing in between the heavy guardsman and the young man holding both their clasped right hands straight up, elbows resting on the tables, and muscles flexed, she could hear guardsmen gambling on the outcome in the crowd. Suddenly the 3rd man at the table released their hands and the two men started struggling, elbows on the table, the large guardsman started grunting heavily, as his arm was forced down toward the table. The third man crouched down and watched closely as his hand was forced down, checking their elbows, and then as the guardsman¡¯s hand touched the table he jumped up and proclaimed the winner to a large cheer from the guardsmen watching.

    She wasn¡¯t sure what to make of what she was seeing. She had never seen this type of contest before. The big man laughed even louder than the crowded and slid a dagger across the table toward him, dagger plus a belt and sheath. Then the young man tossed it into the pile of things behind him, and said a word ¡°Next!¡± before taking a drink of the Curran. What made her eyes pop out was that was THEIR language.

    Laughing, one of the guardsman walked up to the table and took off a cloak he was wearing and offered it. The young man, examined the cloak, then said ¡°Good! What fair?¡± the guardsman split the pile of coins on the table and said ¡°This,¡± he enunciated clearly, the young man listened and repeated the word, ¡°Thahhis?¡± the guardsman laughed and corrected him ¡°Th-is¡±, the young man laughed again and repeated the word, a few more times to the general approval of the guardsman. Then the guardsman sat down and the started another contest of strength. Most of the guardsman lost to him something. He seemed tireless, and bottomless too. He kept drinking all throughout the afternoon. Taking items, coin, and words out from them.

    One guardsman came for anothertry. He had a heated look to his face and said a few rude things which the young man didn¡¯t seem to mind. She thought it might be the guardsman Teral. As she thought about it she seemed to think it must be. He had a dark reputation among a fewof the female slaves, apparently he liked to hurt them when he mated. She never liked the look in his eyes when he looked at her. Since she was always naked she never really cared about the looks of lust men directed at her. It was normal. But there was something dark and unpleasant about him.

    He was calling the young man a ¡°boy-girl¡± and ¡°fagot¡± and challenged his manhood. She was a little worried that it would escalate but of course the young man didn¡¯t even blink and of course didn¡¯t understand the words spoken to him. To her dissatisfaction the young man mimed and offered ? his winnings on the contest. The whole crowd had grown quiet when Teral started his insults. The festive mood evaporating. A tension settled in as the young man separated out about half of his winnings for the gamble. Then he looked at Teral. Teral seemed intimidated by the bet. For a long moment he seemed to hesitate then took out a silver Tal. It might have been worth half of what the young man was betting. The young man smiled, though instead of the easy one he was wearing before he seemed to be smiling slyly now. He waved away the silver and said "What words boy-girl, fagot, that be bet." His eyes were sharp and Teral froze. Half his winnings wagered forthe explanation of the words ¡°Girl-boy¡± and ¡°fagot¡±. When she realized the terms of the bet she realized the mild smiling young man clearly understood the insults were insults. Teral enraged agreed to the terms and promptly lost. Apparently this was his third loss fromwhat the audience said.

    Eventually the young man grew tired, and called for an end with a ¡°enough¡±. It was even pronounced properly, despite his state of inebriation. He then started sorting the winnings, and shouted out ¡°Trade¡±. This of course only increased the traffic through the room.

    As Sa¡¯manatha watched from a corner of the room, he proved to be an active if drunktrader, manyof the things he was interested in puzzled her. He traded away most of the clothing and armor for other clothing and armor, he stopped drinking though he kept the jug of Curran by his elbow. He traded for raw goods as well; and his pile of weapons shrunk too, down to a hunting knife and a woodsman axe. Both of which were arguably tools not weapons. Amusingly he even traded for some wood, rags and other odds and ends.

    After he called an end to the trading, she watched as he quickly started to process the wood and rags into something similar to a rake, though without the teeth. He vanished from the room then returned with water and started to clean with his strange contraption. It was a strange thing to watch, as he fanatically cleaned the walls and floors. She never quite seen anything like it before. He spent hours cleaning, deep into the night. Tirelessly wearing nothing but a strip of cloth over his manhood. He¡¯d clean from one side of the room to the other, one wall to the other, ceiling as well, then change the rags and water with clean ones and do it again.

    He barely glanced at her twice, excepting to make her move out of the way. While he no longer had the look of pure revulsion on his face, he clearly wasn¡¯t particularly interested in her either. What was puzzling though was this type of cleaning should have been done by a slave. She never saw a freeman clean for himself while make his slave watch. Granted she¡¯d never seen this type of cleaning before but the principle was clear.

    The black stone become grey. Eventually he turned to Sa¡¯manatha. Leaning on the pole he examined her. Then he walked over to her and seized her wrist, turned her hand over and tapped her palm. ¡°What is word?¡± Then he pointed to the floor.

    ¡°Wash¡± She replied

    He nodded and repeated the word, then grabbed the clothing piled on the bed. ¡°Where wash?¡±

 Chapter 8 - Stressed in Sweden

    The new girl was called Sa¡¯manatha (it was a little long, so he ended up calling herSam, much to her apparent amusement), she apparently was supposed to teach him the language. It was strange to have a younger girl about half his size in ¡°charge¡± of him. But it seemed to be the wizards or mages or whatever they called those magic people¡¯s main intention to leave him in her hands. He had started to lose faith in the ¡®humans¡¯ (TBD) of this place until he met her. She had a large, multivolume set of books she had moved into his room which she used to teach him the language. The books were all expertly illustrated, making the process much easier. Of course that was for the simple items and things he could identify. There were a number of illustrations of things he¡¯d never seen before.

    He was supposed to study all day every daywith her the language. However, he had already cast off the chains imposed on him by the lack of knowing the language before she even started to teach him. He had learned a number of crucial words that could make his intentions clear. Furthermore, while he was not a poor student, he also wasn¡¯t made to sit in a cramped room all day. He needed to stretch his legs. The oppression of living in this cave with the close ceiling made him feel moderately cluster phobic. The fact he had to wear a handmade mask soaked in alcohol just to use the crapper, bringing yet more liquor with him to wash his feet after was no comfort. As a result, he ended up spending a fair amount of his free time working out in the large cavern that the guardsmen used for training and meeting point.

    It actually took him almost 10 days to realize Sam was the same slave girl he first met in his room. She ended up telling him of course. He felt like an idiot not noticing it on his own, but the change was so drastic he thought for sure she was someone else. It only took him a couple of more days to learn that she was cleaned up special for him when they realized he wanted her clean. She wasn¡¯t the only one who got cleaner. He noticed most of the people he interacted with on a somewhat regular basis were forced to ¡°transform¡± into a cleaner version. Obviously someone here wanted him happy.

    He kept his resentment at his abduction bottled up. Getting mad at Sam or even the guardsmen got him nowhere. They weren¡¯t at fault. The wizards and the sage got the full power of his displeased glare. He made sure they saw it every time he saw them.

    The dehumanizing (all too prevalent) slavery was a bit of a culture shock as well. He could turn a corner and see some bony ass pumping away on top of a filthy naked woman in chains. The first time he saw it he had to turn around and walk away. It was too much of a blow to his conscience. He felt like he had died and went to hell. It was at that point he started to call this place [HELL] in his heart. This was no purgatory; it was [hell]. In fact, the more he thought of it as hell, the more it started to match. There was a surprising lack of humanity in almost everyone he dealt with. Even Sam, when he first was speaking with her had a quasi-dead look to her face. As if she were playing a part she had been trained in, with little to no interest in the conclusion or success in said part.

    He missed home badly. Even with working out to the point of exhaustion he couldn¡¯t take away the poison of resentment that was growing daily in his heart. If things had continued in this fashion for much longer he might have done something drastic.

    The change came when he finally lost his temper. For what he assumed was around 20 days Sam had slept on the cold floor of his room. Every day he would spend some time before going to sleep trying to clean the room. Mostly to work out his stress. And before the floor would even dry she would drop a blanket on the cold stones and curl up to sleep. The scene was a bit too much for his heart. He felt like he was using her like everyone else used these slaves. The more resentful to the hell he was living in he got, the more uncomfortable he got about her sleeping on the floor. So when he learned enough words to make his intentions known, he asked to speak with the sage.

    The Sage made time for him, and while he had issues with most of the conversation the sage refused to answer questions about why he was brought here, though he did promise to tell him when he learned more of the language. Thwarted in one desire he asked for a bed for Sam. The sage refused on the spot. Slaves don¡¯t get their own beds. They sleep under their master in their master¡¯s bed or they sleep on the floor, he was told. Well it took Sam 3 times to explain it in a way he could understand. Once he understood the rejection he changed the demand. He wanted a bed 3 times bigger than his current one. His current one was far too short. It also was infested with bugs, so one without bugs would be nice too. He also wanted a larger room for the bed. Finally, he wanted the room to be clean. Cleaner than his current room.

    The sage actually agreed on all demands. He only needed another 10 days to deliver on the promise. He had been in this Hell for a month when he finally got a bed free of bugs and a room clean enough he almost thought he¡¯d risk eating off the floor. For months afterwards he regretted trading up.

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    When he got thelarger bed he was surprised to note that they built it new exactly as he requested,large enough for 3 of him, which of course meant his new room was large as well. The new room had been scrubbed clean even better than his first cleaning of his old room. Of course his main purpose for the large bed was to ease his conscience about the slave sleeping on the floor, so he ordered her to sleep on the bed. She happily complied when he ordered her into it, her robe dropping to the floor in a puddle before jumping in, only to stare at him puzzled when he turned his back on her and try to convince her he wanted her to SLEEP in the bed not mate with him.

    The way she reacted to his attempts to convince her it was ¡°sleep¡± he wanted from her, made him think she didn¡¯t believe a word he said. So every night she would hop into bed nude and snuggle up next to him. While he would promptly lay down and turned his back to her, pretending to go to sleep.

    It was much worse than he expected. The knowledge there was a nude sorta cute girl in his bed every single night, almost eroded his self-control. He found himself getting sexually frustrated. It was hard to sleep, worse would be the mornings, because every morning she would be wrapped around him, inevitably some part of her rubbing against his dick. He almost gave in a few times. The memory of his girlfriend back home almost fading from his mind. What was amazing was how objectively she wasn¡¯t really all that attractive, she had the gangly teenage girl thing going, combined with malnourishment, skin that probably never seen the sun, and if he had seen her on earth he probably never would have even given her a second glance, but as time went on and he got more and more backed up he started to find her positively alluring. If he didn¡¯t know better, he thought there might be some sort of magic affecting his mind. Yes, she was plain, but she had a cute butt¡­. Yes, she was plain but she had a pretty smile¡­ yes she was plain but she was witty and actually sort of funny.

    After she started to sleep in the bed her cold detached look faded away, and life started to return to her eyes. The change only made her look more alluring, and more human. It was easy to keep people at arms length when you doubted their humanity like he had been doing. It was a lot more difficult when they started to worm their way into your heart bit by bit. It may not have gotten so bad for him had he not already been suffering from extreme feelings of loneliness and isolation due to the language barrier. Soon he started to think of her fondly as a friend. To an outsider, they might consider the whole process to be textbook Stockholm syndrome, however his ravaged and strainedmindset was such that even had it was pointed out to him, he probably wouldn''t care. It had been years since he had a close friend who was a girl (and never with a girl 3 years younger than him). He grew up with a tomboy who he used to play touch football with, and he considered almost a sister, but once they reached high school they drifted apart. Remaining distant friends but nothing else. With Sam he felt like she was a close friend. Of course she was also a slave. One who was ordered to do the things she did. It was this wall (in addition to the girlfriend back home) that kept him from fully opening up to her. He suspected the friendship and advances for a baby were under orders.

    Still the constant blue balls were too much, the fact she was always with him was too much. He needed some alone time with himself. It had been months since he could ¡®take care of business.¡¯ Every time he thought he had slipped away from her, she¡¯d always seem to pop up with a big cheerful smile on her face just before he could take care of business. Almost as if she was intentionally keeping him from relieving himself. As a result, he was forced to work off the building stress with exercises, and turned to working out like he never had before.

    As for the daily exercising he engaged in; at first the guardsmen would watch his workout, sit-ups, pushup, pullups, jumping jacks, sprints, even lifting with some weights he had created, and puzzle at what he was doing. Soon some would join him, eventually half the guardsmen joined him in his morning training. Some of the more competitive trying to do more than he was doing, which in turn spurred him to work even harder. He suspected had there been more protein and calories in the diet he would have put on some muscle mass. Huge muscles were a hindrance in hockey, so he usually worked out only for endurance, not weight training. Now that was over and he was in a world of armor and swords he wanted to add to his already large advantage in physical strength he had over the natives. Unfortunately, all he really managed to do was lose a few pounds of whatever remaining fat he had on him. He now sported a six-pack and very defined muscles. But he didn¡¯t really get stronger.

    His exercising took on a FRANTIC pace once he moved into the larger room. He had a lot more stress to deal with.

 Chapter 9 - Two steps back, One step forward

    He made a few friends in the guards outside of Teral, but they wouldn¡¯t talk to him about anything he wanted to hear. If they knew why he was here they certainly weren''t talking. They all seemed to have been informed beforehand to not speak about certain things. He didn¡¯t blame them for their silence on the issues, as Sam was nearlyalways with him, and he was sure that was the biggest factor for their silence. About 15 days after getting the larger bed, his level of stress had reached an extreme point. He was a healthy 18 year old young man. Under normal circumstances it wouldn''t have taken much to get his engine running. The inability to deal with his sexual frustration was almost driving him insane, and starting to overpower the overwhelming loathing he had for this place. This morning he felt like he could explode and really wanted to hit someone and have someone hit him until he couldn''t stand up anymore. Todayhe decided to start to train with the guards in sword fighting.

    What made his mind was waking up entwined with Sam. He had been having a seriously erotic dream about him and Jenn, and the dream was really getting good when he woke up. For a moment he was disoriented and confused Sam for Jenn, and the waking world for a dream. He nearly crossed a line before coming to his senses, the shock of what almost happened was like a bucket of ice water poured over his head. But while he felt shame and disgust and embarrassment at his near tragic mistake, part of him, the heated hormone driven part was screaming in the back of his mind in an ever louder voice to keep going. ''Don''t stop''. That ''she wants a baby anyway''. ''Who cares what you do to her, she''s a slave.'' The horrible thoughts running through his head didn''t seem so horrible this morning, ''I mean what would you expect falling asleep naked in a man''s bed''? ''Even if she cries rape she''s just a sl...'' It was at this point he really woke up.

    His horror at the thoughts running through his mind nearly turned into a self hating spiral of despair. He gently left the bed and tucked the blanket up under her chin. Dressed quietly and left the room. He never hated himself before, but shockingly he was starting to find he hated himself and who he was almost as much as he hated this horrible place. This truly is [hell].

    What really made him ill was even while making his way down to the large hall, he was still rock hard. Part of him still wanted to go back and wake her up. So he changed his destination andfound his way to the toilet. He didn''t bother with the mask of liquor. He wanted the atrocious smell to flagellate his mind. He emptied both his stomach and bladder, then made his way to the mess hall. He used the liquor to wash his feet, hands and mouth, then headed over to the main assembly hall. His head was in a daze but he knew he needed to do something.

    The gathering/training hallwas well lit, there was a type of crystal on the ceiling which seemed to catch and reflect the torchlight in a way that brightened the room up fairly well. He had spent a lot of time in this room working out and watching the soldiers train with swords. The air was just as foul here, if not worse, thanks to the fact the ventilation was poor, and this was a place a lot of sweat was shed. This room also tended to be rather hot and loud. Still it was one of the few places he didn¡¯t feel claustrophobic. It was also one of the few places Sam rarely followed him to. Right now he didn''t want to see her. He felt dead in his heart.

    Looking at the men sword fighting, he spoke up with words he put together into a sentence. ¡°I want learn um¡­ fight with sword. Help?¡±

    A number of the men stopped fighting, and turned to look at him. He knew his accent was poor so they probably knew who spoke. What he didn¡¯t expect was the number of enthusiastic smiles which greeted him.

    Before he knew it 10 men volunteered to help him. Figuring more was better than none, he accepted them all. He was shown to some practice blades to pick out. They didn¡¯t use wooden or padded weapons just blunted. Which meant some type of armor as well. Learning to put on the layers of armor took almost an hour by itself. It didn¡¯t help that nothing really fit him well. He was simply far too big for the armor. Finding a sword was easier, he wasn¡¯t sure about a shield but they convinced him to use one, so he soon had a shield as well.

    The shield was heavy, and he realized quickly it used mussels he did not normally train. Being a bit of a history buff he had some assumptions from their equipment that the men were primarily mounted soldiers. The shields were large kite shields, from what he remembered of history, this was mostly a mounted design. Foots soldiers preferred long rectangular shields that could reach their feet, and short weapons for stabbing, or no shields and pikes or other long arms; if not that they tended for lighter shields because footsoldiers had to walk everywhere, caring a huge heavy shield would not be fun.  Heavy curved shields with tapered ends were for directing away blows when on a mounted charge. They had limited utility in a line of battle for foot soldiers. The swords were designed like medieval longswords, they had a thin double edged straight blade, and like the name suggested were long; a solid 30¡± or so. Too long for a regular foot soldier with a shield, long enough for horseback.

    There were other weapons but for now he needed to see what felt right. Taking a few swings with the sword he frowned, and thought back to the last time he held a weapon.

    When he was a young kid his favorite and youngest uncle came back from Okinawa. His uncle was a bit flaky, and left for japan after graduating college to learn martial arts and how to fight with a samurai sword. The rest of his family disapproved of the uncle, but he remembered being just a little kid in love with cartoons and action heroes. The idea that his uncle was studying to be a samurai just was too cool to his 2nd grade self. So when his uncle came back from japan and opened a dojo he simply HAD to join. He begged his parents and they relented.

    So he studied martial arts for 4 years until his mom got sick with cancer and his uncle closed the dojo. Part of the instruction was fighting with wooden sticks. The sticks were sized about the size of a long knife, and he was taught to fight with two of them. His uncle liked calling his style Okinawan karate. But the truth was, his uncle¡¯s master took and created the style from a number of different martial arts.

    He liked watching MMA too, yet he never seriously considered trying it. He was too much into hockey and frankly, he wasn¡¯t close to his uncle¡¯s best student. Having failed promotion exam after promotion exam. He got discouraged and mostly half assed it. What he knew was enough to destroy an unskilled bully, but not enough to threaten a real fighter. A truth he learned painfully when he was 16 and stupidly fought a drunk college student. The college student was 5¡± taller and 60lbs heavier then him. Worse, he was a trained and serious boxer. The only reason he didn¡¯t lose his life in that fight was because the boxer was too drunk to see straight, and he wasn¡¯t beneath fighting dirty. A knee to the groin gave him the win, though that ¡°win¡± came at the price of a broken nose, orbital bone and a trip to the hospital.

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    Coming out of his reverie for a moment he knew what he learned from his uncle would probably be a detriment. He never learned to fight with armor. And he never learned to fight with a long weapon; having never advanced to the level necessary for classes on the katana. He was also really out of practice. After the dojo shut down he simply never practiced martial arts again.

    Clearing his mind, he looked to the crowd of filthy small armored men and forced agrin. ¡°How to fight?¡±

    The thin asshat Teral said ¡°FIGHT!¡±

    Frowning, he suspected what Teral meant. And sure enough, the first man approached with his shield high, knees bent and shield leading, sword down and out of sight behind the shield.

    Bending his own knees, he squared off with the man, trying to copy his stance, though he couldn¡¯t see the sword arm well enough to know how it was held, he figured the point would be pointed toward his foe, as holding it point down would make for a rather long slow swing. Jerhal, he thought the other man¡¯s name was, suddenly swung the blade, stabbing out from behind the shield. He raised his shield in defense and managed to ward the sword off, though it broke his stance badly. The stab had hit his shield awkwardly, and twisted it in his grip badly.

    The sword swung horizontally before he had a chance to rebuild his stance and cracked him up alongside the helmet he was wearing. The ring of metal and the sharp blow, staggered him. The men were laughing, as he staggered to the left, as another strike came in stabbing straight for his throat, at the last moment he jerked the shield up and knocked the sword away. [FUCK] he cursed in English, and started swinging his own sword as he rebuilt his stance, it was a simple overhand blow, but it was performed as he learned with the wooden stick all those years ago, a blow aimed right for the foes left temple, right above the ear. He missed as the man smirked and jerked back away from the strike.

    However now that he got him to take a step back he pressed forward and slammed his shield into Jerhal¡¯s shield and swung the blade again. Soon he had taken charge of the pace of the fight. His superior reach, height and strength really gave him some natural advantages in a sword fight, though his foe was crafty and slippery like an eel. He also was infinitely more familiar with the reach of his own weapon. The look of surprise faded as Jerhal seemed to begin to get a good feel for how he was fighting.

    The battle was decided when he tried to bash shields again to muscle Jerhal back against the wall, at the last moment Jerhal took the blow with his shield but spun out from behind it causing him to stagger forward half a step and overextend, quick as a cat Jerhal¡¯s blade came whistling for his exposed back, it was pure instinct that stepped in and saved him from a bad injury to his back, as he dropped the heavy shield and continued the spin toward his right and brought the longsword up to parry the blow.

    However, while he did succeed in blocking the blow, it went poorly, as the parry was performed mostly blind, he misjudged the height of the blade and took it flush to his sword hand, shattering most of the bones in his right hand. His sword hit the ground in a clatter of metal as he screamed in pain and doubled over the ruined hand. The men there were all trained soldiers, and had seen what happened. They all knew the injury was serious. It was a horrible mistake made by an amateur. The blood soaking through his gauntlet told him all they needed to know. He was horrified by the extent of the pain. It shot straight through to his shoulder, telling him bones were shattered. The amount of blood was no joke either. He simply couldn¡¯t feel his fingers apart from his thumb.

    He couldn¡¯t keep the cries of pain stifled, and tears were streaming down his face. It hurt so badly. Worse than anything he had felt before. Worse than spraining his ACL. Worse than breaking his ribs. Worse than breaking his foot. This was on a whole other level. The pain pounded with his heartbeat. It shot up his arm with every small motion. It seemed endless. He feared very much he had just become a cripple. This type of injury probably would be hard for a modern hospital in the USA to repair. Just thinking about how his hand was hit he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if every bone in his right hand was shattered.

    His adrenaline was starting to kick in, objectively he knew that, when the pain started to fade a bit. It was still horrific, but it was no longer mind numbingly terrible. He saw a shadow approach, glancing up with tear filled eyes, he saw it was one of the mages with the moons on their forehead who had summoned him. The man was wearing a brown robe, and hand grey in his hair. While he was filthy, he was far cleaner than most of the humans here. He reached out and placed a hand on his head. And closed his eyes. A blue light suddenly sprung up around him, and the feeling of being dipped in icewater spread throughout his body. As the feeling passed a strange sensation over his right hand hit like a wave. It felt like the hand had been dipped in lava then ice, then the pain was gone before he could even tense.

    Deeply fearing the crushing pain returning he actually didn¡¯t move for 10 or 15 seconds, then he very cautiously moved his fingers to find no pain at all. Ripping the gauntlet off his hand he stared and the hand, smeared in blood yet perfectly intact and functioning.

    He had a stunned expression on his face. He knew he must look like an idiot, as he looked at the mage in surprise. The mage spoke in the native language, ¡°If you are learning the sword, I or another will be here in case of accidents from now on.¡± Was what was said, though really he barely caught the words.

    Standing up, and feeling sick to his stomach at what just happened. He walked over to the armorer and looked for better gauntlets. Protecting his hands would be a priority from now on.

 Chapter 10 - Terals Interlude

    Teral was thrusting himself into one of the younger pregnant slave girls. She was crying which only lit his fire more. He couldn¡¯t get the tear streaked face of that boy-girl out of his mind. He laughed like a madman pounding away mercilessly at the girl under him. That scene the other day was amazing. When Jerhal was the first to spar against that fag, he was hoping something like that would happen. Jerhal didn¡¯t know how to hold back when he sparred. He saw Malak and his group of sycophants almost stop Jerhal from heading up for the spar. They just were a step too slow.

    They clashed shields, the giant started to take charge of the flow of the battle, then they clashed shields again. He could see every drop of sweat on his face, as Jerhal abandoned his shield and spun away from the charge. The big dumb animal knew he was had and instead of diving forward which might have extended the fight another swing or two he turned his back to Jerhal in order to bring his sword around to intersect the incoming strike.

    Had he pulled it off it might even have been an impressive desperation move. His own breath caught seeing he was going to get that blade around. But how could an amateur pull off something an expert would never manage? His fear was unfounded he saw Jerhal¡¯s sword and knew where it would intersect. He almost could hear the screams before the blade connected.

    That child, oh the screams of that child they almost made the last two years¡¯ worth every minute. He sounded like a stuck pig. It was amazing. What a weak boy.

    He shot his load into the pregnant girl reveling in the memory. Then slapped her face, sneering, ¡°I don¡¯t like it when you cry. That might be my bastard in your belly.¡± He slapped her again, almost absently. ¡°Slave are you listening? That bastard might be mine. I won¡¯t have my son raised by a crying bitch. Stop sniveling.¡± He actually loved it when they cried and screamed. He was very careful not to harm them in a way that left a mark, they were expensive property after all, but the cries just made him more excited. What usually got his engine going again was when he played this game afterwards. He¡¯d tell them he doesn¡¯t like them crying. Of course this only made them cry harder, or if they were stupid they¡¯d try not to cry, which fit his needs just as well. He¡¯d just pinch or slap until the tears flowed again. There was nothing quite so fun as a living sniveling plaything to take out his anger on.

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    He could almost taste the pain, his memory of that fight replaying over and over again, the sobs of the girl under him starting to merge with his memory of the sobs of that boy-girl. He needed to hear that noise again. He wanted, had, to hear that noise again. He had to draw that idiot into a contest that would give him a chance to make him make those noises again.

    He needed to hear that noise again

    He needed to hear that noise again

    He needed to hear that noise again

    He needed to hear that noise again

    He needed to hear that noise again

    He needed to hear that noise again

    He came again. The release was the best one yet. He was so happy with the sensation he almost felt like praising the girl. Then he opened his eyes and noticed the girl was nowhere to be seen. Gone. His right hand was holding his manhood. His release came from himself. Not the slave girl. He scowled and pulled his pants up, not bothering to clean himself. And went searching for another girl. His mood was still good, the sounds of that boy-girl¡¯s screams cleaning the scowl off his face. He needed to hear that noise again.

    The girl noticed the evil and insane look in the eye of Teral growing far stronger. He was laughing with an insane laugh while tears poured down his own face, the twisted m¨¦lange of pleasure and pain crafted a horrifying mask of insanity as he started to jerk his own manhood a singular memorythat would give her nightmares for weeks. The scene was so terrifying she did something she hadn¡¯t done in years. Her survival instinct was shrieking at her, and she gave in to the terror. While Teral was staring at nothing, laughing like a lunatic, she escaped from him, cursing the slave¡¯s chains for making noise when they scraped against the stone. She fled through the corridors, panic giving flight to her feet. She eventually hid herself in a distant dark corridor trying not to sob, and quietly prayed to every god she knew of for help.

 Chapter 11 - Bloody sack

    Sa¡¯manatha hurried through the halls. Her hair was dripping wet, she had been bathing with the help of the fairy girl while the young man had been training with the soldiers. He still had not given his name, considering how he was brought here she did not blame him. She had heard about a number of the injuries he¡¯s taken in the fights, some of the other slaves had been watching him for her when she was bathing, since she usually chose to bath when he was training that meant she mostly heard about the sword fights second hand. Some of the injuries he took over the past 15 days were bad enough to require one of the wizards to heal. Still, he apparently was starting to hold his own. She was surprised to learn there were no swords and bows in the wars of his home. Apparently he was almost a complete amateur.

    Yet here he was, just 15 days fighting with a blade and he was holding his own against professional soldiers. She knew several of the male slaves who knew what they were talking about said that some of the soldiers lead by Teral were trying to bully him on the training field. Strangely he seemed to seek them out for training, and even thanked them for their efforts if they harmed him.

    She wondered why he¡¯d do that.

    The reason for her hurrying now was she was informed of an argument that had sprung up. Apparently a number of soldiers were at arms against each other over something that occurred. But she didn¡¯t understand what the slave had tried to tell her about it. She just was worried about him

    This was the strangest part, she actually was worried for him, not worried because she was supposed to watch over him. Not worried because of the project. But worried for him. He spoke the language well enough to demand some answers from the sage. Frankly all she had to teach him now was more of the writing and any uncommon words that might not be used in normal conversation. She expected this process to take much longer. When she reported this to the Sage he explained to her that he actually expected it to take less time. Apparently one of the requirements for the summons was a natural talent for languages. He had hoped the boy would have improved enough to ask his questions a month ago. Instead he asked for a bed in half broken speech.

    She didn¡¯t like the sage¡¯s impatience. She thought his demands that she keeps him in the room until he either gave her a child or could speak the language unreasonable. It wasn¡¯t a cage; they already had harmed him enough taking him away from his life. Would they take away his freedom as well? Was his body no longer his as well? Was she supposed to rape him in his sleep for his seed? When she made those very arguments with the sage he got very mad with her. It terrified her when she saw the look on his face.

    Hurrying through the halls she found the assembly hall and saw a large crowd. Teral was walking out of the hall. His eyes found her¡¯s and he brightened into a smile. Changing direction, he moved straight for her, she paused not really seeing the crowd and the argument happening in the hall.

    Teral closed in on her and using his body to shield his hand from sight of the men behind him and brushed his hand over her crotch, a wicked grin on his face, as his hand slid off her hip, he brushed past her and whispered ¡°you¡¯ll be under me crying soon enough¡±

    Before he could take another step a voice cut through the echoing voices. ¡°TERAL!¡±

    Teral¡¯s snake like smile grew larger, then turned around, Sa¡¯manatha used the opportunity to step away from him, her skin crawling and unable to hide the revulsion on her face.

    The tall young man stepped out the crowd and said ¡°I accept, weplay Meri¡¯ack¡±

    Terals smile took on a gleam of glee. ¡°Of course of course. But what are the stakes?¡± He looked over at Sa¡¯manatha and licked his lips.

    ¡°Not mine forbet Teral.¡± The young man¡¯s face looked a bit red, she started when she realized he was furious. Something clearly had happened earlier to enrage him.

    ¡°Oh? Then why is she wearing that? She certainly is yours to bet as long as she wears that she is anyway.¡±

    ¡°Your Balls.¡±

    ¡°what?¡±

    ¡°Iclear. Ifbet Sam, you bet balls.¡± He smiled viciously. ¡°Well? Or can you only rape?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not worth my balls¡±

    ¡°Ooooh? You say I was boy-girl fagot? Have you not been raping girls to prove you¡¯re a ¡®tough¡¯ man?¡±

    ¡°Lies, those bitches lied. But you are a fagot. You cry like a little bitch bleeding for the first time too whenever you¡¯re hit by a blade.¡±

    ¡°Then what you afraid? How could you lose?¡±

    ¡°Fuck you.¡± Teral snarled

    ¡°You not my type [sweetie]¡±

    "I will hear you scream for mercy. Fine! My balls vs this slave cunt. I get her till she¡¯s pregnant if I win, you get my balls if I lose.¡±

    Sam had the strength leave her legs and sat down hard on the floor after hearing the wager. The young man looked over at her, a look of apology on his face, almost embarrassment. She wasn¡¯t sure what that look meant. She did know she had suddenly became a wager. The problem of course was this stupid white robe the sage had pressed her into. An innocent lie he had said. But a lie that made this wager possible.

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    Why he was so hung up on this ¡°rape¡± however was something that puzzled her. Was it worth it to get this mad? She had heard rumors Teral had been treating the girls very poorly recently. But nothing that would endanger someone¡¯s life. He tried explaining it once to her, but it sounded sort of absurd to her. A woman¡¯s having a choice in who she lay with? Maybe for a married free woman. She didn¡¯t know what a marriage was like and never would. It sounded strange and went against even the laws humanity lived under.

    The two men sat down facing each other. Both removed their shirts, exposing their chests. Teral drew his ragged edge dagger, and started carving his own arm. Two long vertical slices, followed by him wiggling the knife under the skin, then ripping it off in a long thin strip. The whole process was completed in seconds, his face didn¡¯t even twitch.

    The young man¡¯s face paled. And he drew his hunting knife. The edge was sharp and the knife looked well maintained. It should cut easily.

    Then he suddenly smiled, and looked to the man next to him. ¡°Jerhel? Meri¡¯ack doesn¡¯t actually specify when I have to cut myself correct? Just that I can¡¯t stand up until the match is over right?¡±

    Jerhal nodded.

    ¡°Perfect. Sam, I¡¯m thirsty, can you get me some Curran? Take your time¡±

    Teral¡¯s face turned green when he heard those words he opened his mouth but no sound came out. The rules of the game were clear. Once a cut had been made no noise could be uttered.

    Sam took her time getting a pitcher of Curran. She also let other know of the kindred game of Meri¡¯ack being played. It was an unpopular game to play, conversely it was a VERY popular game to watch.

    She handed the pitcher to him after taking the long way back. He smiled and drank most of the pitcher in one go. Then he washed the dagger in the alcohol and washed the back of his arm with the rest. He simply sat their watching Teral sweat and bleed as time passed slowly.

    Finally, his face started to flush, she figured the alcohol was finally kicking in. He took the knife and carefully drew it along his arm. He made a second cut as well. Sweat beading on his forehead. He paused a long moment then worked the blade under the skin and with a quick pull yanked the strip of skin off his arm. The only sound was a long exhale of air.

    Teral picked up his knife. His hand was trembling. The knife caught on his skin causing a brief intake of breath. It wasn¡¯t enough to lose. But it was close. His hands trembling grew worse, as he made a jagged cut. Then he started to wiggle the knife under his skin. He tried to rip the strip of flesh off but it slipped out of his bloody fingers, he then pulled the strip made a small noise. As the strip ripped halfway through the pull.

    It was enough noise to lose. You could see it in Teral¡¯s face that he knew it. However, you can¡¯t lose in this game if your foe can¡¯t make a clean cut either. He watched as the tall young man picked up the knife and washed it in the dregs of the jug. Then he lay if on his skin and with a swift pull, created a clean cut. He wiggled the blade under the skin and pulled a flap of skin, tearing down he pulled off a second flap of skin, and dropped it on top of the first one. He smiled and calmly stood up and walked over to Teral, the bloody knife still in his hand.

    Teral turned green in the face. ¡°Impossible¡­. Impossible. You¡¯re a crying bitch. How?¡±

    The young man actually laughed. Two strips of flesh flayed from his skin by his own hand and he laughed. ¡°I tell you the trick but you no have anything I want for secret.¡±

    Teral reached for his knife, hand moving light lightning. The young man looked like he had been waiting for that moment. He pounced on Teral and punched him in the face. While stomping down on the hand holding the blade, he grinded the hand into the stone floor causing Teral to let out a clipped scream. Still smiling he rested his blade against Teral¡¯s pants. ¡°Want to expose your balls to me now, or you want me play ¡®round with knife without sight until I find your balls?¡±

    Teral was sobbing now, whether from the pain of his hand being ground into the stone, or from the pain of the flayed arm¡­ or fear of having his balls amputated she didn¡¯t know. Surprisingly he actually unbuckled his pants with his free hand, and worked them down exposing himself. Reaching down with both hands he seized his balls in one hand and with the knife made a cut.

    Teral¡¯s shrieks echoed in the hall

 Chapter 12 - Bedroom confession

    Cutting off another man¡¯s balls was a deep step into the abyss.  He actually had nightmares about it for days after.  Still their wounds were healed by a wizard in the end.  Apparently Teral¡¯s were only healed so he wouldn¡¯t die.  His balls weren¡¯t regrown.

    He continued to train, he figured this was probably good enough for now.  He was able to match with the other soldiers well enough he didn''t feel embarrassed to call himself a soldier, at least by the standard of these guys.  He could speak the language and read it to a point.  He figured if he asked the Sage his questions the sage would finally answer them.  Part of him dreaded those answers.  He was in [hell] after all, which meant it probably was an impossible request.

    His walk back from the training hall found ended at his room, the slightly nauseous feeling he had in the pit of his stomach vanished as he saw Sam waiting for him like usual in the room.

    Sa¡¯manatha waited alone in the room for him to return from practice with the guards.  If he wasn¡¯t learning to read with her he was always working out, moving his body, learning fighting skills.  She knew this was a good thing, and most of the time she watched him do it.  But lately she started to feel a little off when watching him work his body.  He was built like one of the marble statues of the gods.  She never really thought about how dirty most people were until she spent time with him and took to washing all the time.  He was always clean.  He¡¯d wash in the morning and before coming to bed.

    He slept in the nude.  She knew that he didn¡¯t want to have a child with her, so she honored his request.  But she did indulge a little in his body when he was sleeping.  She would run her hands over his taught stomach, caress his strong shoulders.  She was tiny compared to him, even taking hold of his hands set her heart racing.  She flushed thinking about how she would sometimes brush against his manhood when it was erect and he was asleep.  She felt a strange yearning deep in the pit of her stomach and had a great deal of trouble sleeping with him.  She talked to some of the other slaves about it, and was embarrassed to learn it was sexual desire she was feeling.  A few of the other slaves, including some of the older women admitted to fantasizing about the huge young man taking them; while some faceless freeman pumped away trying to create a child.  Rather than feeling jealous or possessive when she heard the others talk about him in this way, she felt oddly proud of him.

    His name he actually never said.  Nor would he introduce himself to others.  She wasn¡¯t sure if it was cultural or not.  She suspected it was because of his irritation at his situation that he refused to speak even a little bit about himself.  He never did.  He never talked about the home he came from, or people left behind.  He never talked about the magic or gods of his land.  Nor did he ever explain how he was an adult and never held a sword before beyond saying his land did not use those for war.

    She did wish he would simply take her and make a child already.  She never thought of the act of making a child to be one to enjoy.  It was just one more duty.  But now she felt this urge and found fantasizing about it.  She might have been a virgin, but she wasn¡¯t ignorant to sex.  Slaves were nude for a reason, the only way she could have remained ignorant this long would have been had she been blind and deaf.  Humanity was dying.  They needed as many babies as possible to keep the species alive.  So men were encouraged to mate with female slaves whenever they felt the desire.  Free women were little better off, only a half-step above slaves themselves.  If they were married they didn¡¯t have to worry about some random man mating with them.  But if they were of age and unmarried, they could be claimed; unmarried pregnancies carried no stigma, humanity was that bad off.

    Still none of this elevated her desire.  A couple of weeks ago she even had the fairy girl teach her how to satisfy her own desires.  Instead of helping it seemed to have made her even more turned on when she was around him.  Nights became even harder for her to sleep through.  She was glad he slept like a log, else he probably would throw her out.  She knew for some reason he refused to mate with her, and her taking liberties with his body were crossing a line.

    Today she crossed yet another line.  He liked Curran, he would drink it over any other drink, even water.  This wasn¡¯t strange most people drank liquor over water, water could make you ill to drink, it was much safer drinking liquor.  This was a known fact of the world.  Still she had brought a pitcher into the room unasked and left it on a table for him.  She had heard for one of the other slaves that men sometimes become amorous when they¡¯re drunk.  She hoped that was the case.

    She almost jumped when he entered the room.  He glanced at her and greeted her.  ¡°Good morning Sam¡±.  She liked how he called her Sam.  She never had a nickname before.  She barely had a name at all.  She had once asked him what it meant and he simply shrugged and said he simply shortened it.  Raising her eyes to look at him her heart quickened.  He wasn¡¯t wearing a shirt, when he first came to this land he was already rather well built.  But the constant working out had trimmed what little flesh he had on him away.  His mussels were well defined; his waist was thin and small.  He now had hair on his face, in the form of a well-trimmed beard.   Between the dark thick beard the hair hanging loosely to his shoulders and his green eyes he was a sight which took her breath away.

    She smiled to his greeting, blushing bright red, and pointed to the pitcher.  ¡°I got you something to drink if you''re thirsty after all that work.¡±  She tried to keep her tone polite and neutral.  Hoping he didn¡¯t think too much about it.

    He smiled and nodded to her, his torso was covered in yellow and purple bruises.  The layers of bruises caused him some trouble sometimes, though tonight he seemed fine with it.  Standing there in his pants he took the leather boots off and set them by the door (this was a rule in this room; Footwear prohibited past the door), and sat down with a sigh at the table, drinking straight from the pitcher.

    ¡°You know it¡¯s not [Molson], but this Curran isn¡¯t too bad.  What did you say it was made of?¡±

    ¡°Currah fruit mostly.  I don¡¯t know everything that¡¯s in it.  Want me to look it up for you?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Silence¡­ as he drank front the pitcher then offered the pitcher to her.  She took it and took a drink.  Not too much.  She wasn¡¯t able to drink strong liquors like some of the men could.  She needed to be alert in hope today will be the day.  She handed the pitcher back and he drank again, then closed his eyes, for a moment.  ¡°You know, I guess it is entirely possible to get used to living in [Hell], as long as you can get used to the crushing immorality here, this isn¡¯t as awful a way of life as I feared.  I guess that means you can get used to anything.¡±

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    ¡°What could we do to make it better?¡±

    ¡°Let me see the sky, feel the wind on my skin.  Let me return home.  Find me a place with no insects, [bedbugs] or crawlers.  A [computer] with [internet] access would be nice.  A six pack of [Molson Canadian].  Could you tell me if I can see home sometime in the future?¡±

    She hesitated.  She suspected the answer to this question, but she didn¡¯t know it.  She wasn¡¯t technically his slave yet.  She hadn¡¯t told him about the white robe.  She still was under orders not to talk about these things.  ¡°I cannot talk about it¡­ but.¡± She held her hand out for the pitcher.  ¡°He handed it to her, he didn¡¯t even look disappointed in her answer.  He knew what it would be before asking.  She drank deeply of the pitcher then passed it back to him.

    ¡°I can answer something else you once asked.  You asked about this white robe.¡± He looked at her curiously.  ¡°First let me apologize.  The robe was not my choice.  I was ordered to wear it and ordered to tell you about it when you were ready to own me.¡±

    ¡°Wait¡± His curious expression had dissolved on those words.

    ¡°Please let me finish¡± She stopped him from saying more.  He looked torn as to whether to comply for a moment then nodded.

    ¡°The White robe means YOU are in LOVE with ME.  And want no other man from touching YOUR property.¡±

    He closed his mouth, then closed his eyes and tilted his head back rocking back in the chair.  He was silent for a moment, then spoke.  ¡°So now I own you?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡±

    ¡°What are the rules of this white robe?  There is more to it than that?¡±

    ¡°Not really.  Though it¡¯s implied I am pregnant or about to become pregnant by you.  It¡¯s a sign you acknowledge the child as yours.¡±

    ¡°But I¡¯m not in love with you and I do not want a child with you.¡±

    She sighed feeling a pang of pain in her chest at the words she knew he¡¯d speak.  ¡°I know.¡±  She then took the robe off and placed it on the table.  He had seen her nude enough, so he barely blinked with the action though he seemed to be thinking something.  Suddenly some sort of understanding flashed in his eyes.

    ¡°Put it back on.  You can continue to wear it.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ if you aren¡¯t trying to make a child with me this is technically illegal you know.  This is only for making heirs.  Making more children is¡­ ¡° She clamped her mouth shut.

    ¡°Continue the thought, I¡¯m your master now right?  The orders you were under before no longer count¡±

    She nodded feebly then continued speaking ¡°Making children is a required duty of all humans.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±  He seemed much more interested now he knew he would get some answers.

    She thought a moment then spoke slowly.  ¡°It was supposed to be the Sages job to tell you but you will learn shortly anyway.  Mankind is cursed.¡±  She tapped the crescent moon on her forehead.  ¡°This is part curse.  Though ignore that, only some of humanity is cursed like this.  ALL humans are cursed with or without this moon sign.  We cannot enjoy the light of the sun.  Nothing we cultivate will enjoy the light of the sun.  There is a red veil over the sun.  We are further cursed as the gods have threatened all other races of this world with similar retribution if they were to help mankind in anyway.  With no sunlight, no crops, the free population of humanity plummeted.  Some of the elders made the choice 1500 turns ago to sell most of humanity into slavery.  Being a slave of another race would ensure the survival of humanity as a species.  The remaining humans instituted laws to insure the continuation of the species.  Humanity has scrapped by since.  Somehow.¡±

    She watched his face.  He simply listened to the story, then he spoke ¡°why did you summon me.¡±

    She took a deep breath then spoke ¡°There was a prophecy given.  Understand humanity teeters on the edge of extinction.  We¡¯re a dying species.  The prophecy spoke of our salvation and forgiveness coming from someone who was untouched by the curse.¡±

    He sighed and laughed  ¡°Wait, that¡¯s me right?¡±  When she nodded he laughed again ¡°So you summoned me here because I¡¯m not cursed and some prophecy said someone like me would save these people?  How am I supposed to remove a curse on a whole people?  We don¡¯t even have magic in the world I come from.¡±

    She blinked at that ¡°what?!¡±

    ¡°Yes, you heard me, no magic.¡±

    ¡°But one of the reasons why you were summoned was for your compatibility with elemental forces.  This is the basics of being a good arch magician.¡±

    He shrugged and with something akin to a bitter smile on his face he took a long swig of the jug.  ¡°And I guess there is no way to return me.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.  I don¡¯t think they¡¯ve investigated that¡±

    ¡°Of course.  So you people ripped me from my life and world, my family, friends and future, on the words of some loon calling himself a prophet, hoping this is the way to make the prophecy real.  You know, [cheat the system].  All you have for me is a cell with bugs and filth, and you can¡¯t even reward me for saving your pathetic lives with a trip home?  Have I summed this one up right?¡±  His anger was obvious, his hand holding the handle of the jug was trembling, his eyes had a wild rage in them, that took her breath away.

    Then the anger passed and his rage turned into a sad sounding laugh.

    ¡°Sorry Sam, I know this wasn¡¯t your doing.  There is no reason for me to be furious at you.¡±  He finished the pitcher and then stood up holding out the white robe for her.  ¡°Wear it.  You can claim my heart is yours for a little longer.  Without it some other guy would be sticking his dick in you with or without your permission I¡¯m sure.  Afterall it''s your duty¡± He said the last line with a voice dripping with sarcasm

    Ignoring the robe in his hand she stood and hugged him burying her face his taught stomach.  ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    His big hand rested on her head.  ¡°Nothing to apologize for.  Someone else played with both our lives.¡±

 Chapter 13 - Planeswalker

    The next day he was standing in front of that ¡°someone¡±.  His meeting with the sage went about as he expected.  He heard much the same stuff as he heard from Sam last night.  Thought the sage couldn¡¯t be bothered to be honest about the chances of him going home.  He got a more honest answer from Sam.  The sage¡¯s vague ¡°The rewards will be beyond those desires.¡± For saving the humans here.  He did learn something though.  In 3 months he¡¯d be leaving this place and heading to a magical academy of sorts.  It was a hidden, strictly human academy.  When he asked the Sage about whether or not he could even learn magic, the sage laughed and said he was CERTAIN he could.

    When he asked how he was supposed to lift the curse the sage simply told him to not worry about it.  That if he was the chosen one, spoke of in prophecy he¡¯d simply ¡°know how¡± when the gods chosen to tell him.

    He spent most of the rest of the day after talking to the sage contemplating what to do next.  Part of him wanted to tell them all to go fuck themselves.  But that didn¡¯t solve his basic problem.  They clearly never thought about sending him back.  He got here with magic.  Which meant if he wanted to return he had to learn magic and figure it the fuck out himself.  It was good that they meant him to learn magic.

    From what he had learned it sounded like a world extremely hostile to human life.  He didn¡¯t even know if he was immune to the curse or not.  One thing he was certain of was if he was not immune then he could NEVER let them know.  The moment they realized he wasn¡¯t immune he lost the last leverage he had.  If he was immune.  Great.  If he wasn¡¯t then fuck them, they¡¯ll never learn otherwise.  Since this world was hostile to human life and he planned to go home, he suspected at some point he¡¯ll become the enemy of most of this world.

    Which meant he needed to play nice, furthermore it meant he needed to EXCEED.  They had already summoned him.  He didn¡¯t know how easy or hard this was.  If he didn¡¯t exceed then they might dispose of him and summon someone else.  He also needed to exceed for his own good.  When he tried to go home he was sure he¡¯d get resistance.  So he had to know how to protect himself.  It also sounded like humans were basically the enemies of this world.  If he didn¡¯t and couldn¡¯t protect himself he¡¯d probably end up in a ditch with his throat cut some day.  He suspected if the Fairies of this country discovered what the sage had planned they¡¯d kill him without mercy.

    The most important thing was he had to do something he never did in his whole life.  He had to become the best at something.  Everything if at all possible.  Even if he wasn¡¯t some chosen one, his situation was such that he needed to look like a chosen one.  The ghosts of hockey still clung to the back of his mind.  He had tried, tried very very hard to be the best at hockey.  But he had failed.  There was always someone better then him.  In fact, he probably gave up at some point because of that.  He knew it somewhere deep inside, that he always never really believed he¡¯d become the best goaltender in hockey.  He always expected there to be someone else better.  He had done the same with most of his hobbies.  Karate, Soccer, Swimming, school.  you name it he had done well enough to be praised, and only just.  He then half assed the rest.  He was even starting to do the same with sword fighting.  Just 15 days of it and he was already happy with being as good as everyone else.

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    He had to be honest with himself.  Because his very existence was dependent on this.  But he needed to be the best.  And he needed to train like his life was on the line.  Dangerous.  Fearless.  He had to exceed.  Or he would die.  Either die trying to exceed, or die from a knife in the back when they decide the project won¡¯t work with him as the key.

    He couldn¡¯t expect mercy when they turned on him.  He was nothing to them.  He knew that.  You didn¡¯t kidnap someone from their life if you respected them.  They were a desperate people looking at the extinction of their kind.  There probably was nothing they wouldn¡¯t do to avoid that fate.  So he had to match their desperation.

    It took him a whole day by himself to harden his resolve.  He locked himself in his room and forced Sam into the hall.  Normally he let her come and go as he please so the no-nonsense request took her by surprise.  However considering the conversation with the sage she understood some of what he was thinking.  She just waited quietly in the hall for him.

    Hardening your resolve is an easy thing to talk about but what he needed was to confront himself.  He spent a long time just thinking about why he did the things he did.  He considered his life.  He hadn''t lived long and really he wasn''t sure if he could examine himself honestly enough to really harden that resolve.  However one thing he was clear on.  Half assing it won''t work.  He would NEVER see home if he half assed it.  The collective geniuses of this world spent some 20 years on the effort to summon him.  Not one of them thought about returning him.  The challenge was IMMENSE.  He didn''t even know Magic.

    The more he thought about his situation the more he realized just how fucked he was.  Still there was a saying he remembered hearing once that sorta applied to it.  Marv Levy liked to say, ¡°When it¡¯s too hard for them it¡¯s just right for us.¡±  He had to make his whole existence a dangerous walk on the edge of destruction.  He had to walk where no one else dared.  He had to go where no one else dreamed.  His life was already over.  That cozy life in Buffalo New York was done.  That kid about to commit to a college in his senior year of high school is dead.  His old name, the mediocrity failure and laziness attached to it was gone.  He even spent some time thinking of a name to take for himself, then a thought crossed his mind, and he started to laugh.

    ¡°Yeah.  I think that¡¯s perfect.¡±  He suddenly opened the door to the hallway, Sam looked over at him so he smiled and said ¡°Call me Jace¡±

 Chapter 14 - Glyph

    While the conversation with the Sage was largely information free, it did mark a change in his daily life.  As now Sam and the Sage insisted he study a number of other subjects in addition to reading.  From math (which was primitive to the point he needed no study, shocking them), to other languages, cultures and history.  He learned about the geography of this world and even the flora and fauna.  He even learned that much like he already suspected that this research facility was actually underground without an exit to the surface.  What they were doing was technically illegal, and if the Fairy controlled nation above their heads of Sha¡¯hera learned of it, they would all be put to death.

    He even received basic instruction in magic.  Though it amounted to little more than breathing exercises to get his ¡°mind and body¡± in tune with the ¡°pulse¡± of the world.  It sounded all vaguely Buddhist to him.

    The visualization and breathing exercises were strange.  He was to breath with the cadence of the world, while visualizing a strange 3-dimensional glyph.  The glyph was shown to him as a wire model.  It was 3 dimensional and very complex.  Something about its shape made him feel almost a vertigo as if the object itself existed in defiance of reality.  His first job was to completely memorize the construction of the glyph, then to study it for enlightenment in his mind.  He was warned NOT to search for enlightenment with the physical model.  Apparently that did not work.  So he worked hard to memorize the structure, until he could draw it from multiple different angles perfectly.  Then he returned the object to the sage and proceeded to meditate on its heaven defying shape.

    His first epiphany came when he realized the 3-dimensional Glyph was constructed out of 8 words.  The Glyph was constructed out of the glyphs for sky-spirit-earth-death-fire-life-water-mind.  Those 8 glyphs represented the 8 MAIN types of magic or world energy.  It took him almost 3 weeks to notice the 3-dimensional glyph contained all the glyphs of the main types of energy.  Once he realized this he started to study the way the separate glyphs crossed and interacted with each other.  For some reason he felt there was something profound in the design.  It wasn¡¯t until he started envisioning the shape from separate angles he realized that depending on the angle you looked at it, other glyphs became visible in the interlacing lines.  Glyphs for Ice, Light, Darkness, Fear, Dreams, Future, Past, Body, Male, Female, Birth all were contained inside the main glyph, depending on the angle you looked at it.  More so he noticed that within the glyph the lines making up these new glyphs seemed to be related to the them.

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    For example, the lines creating the glyph for Ice were made up entirely of fire and water.  Now this might not make sense for the locals of this world, but to him, he knew that heat was energy, and its absence created ¡°cold¡±, cold plus water would equal Ice.  Since he knew this was the process he studied the glyph for ice in detail and noticed the interaction of DEATH with the glyph of FIRE.  While Death was not in the glyph for ice it did intersect with every single line of fire which was inside the glyph of ICE.  Life was nowhere visible and not at all in contact with any of the lines of fire making the glyph.

    He knew this was something very important.  He just wasn¡¯t sure in what way since he still hadn¡¯t learned the basics of magic yet, just some breathing and visualization trick.  He studied the other glyphs and found similar structures in their creation.  Male was made up of Earth and Spirit, Female was made up of Life and Sky.  Both had supporting glyphs that further accentuated their types, male had marks of fire intersecting with the spirit, while female had marks of water intersecting with life.  It almost felt like the Ying-Yang of eastern philosophy.  It became even more profound when he noticed the CONSTRUCTED glyph of darkness symbolically intersecting with Male, while the glyph for light did the same for female.  When he realized the CONSTRUCTED glyphs he discovered also were part of other glyphs his mind started to hurt.  He had a sinking feeling that you could spend your whole life learning this Glyph construct.

    He also realized it probably wasn¡¯t a mistake that the writing system of this world was standardized.  It was probably all due to how this magic was supposed to work.  Which raised another question.  Why weren¡¯t there more magicians?

    He asked Sam that.  She could read, in theory the secrets of magic should be accessible to her.  She shook her head no to the question.  Apparently the old Grey King, killed or took away all human mages.  It was the only negative he ever heard of the old silver dragon that once ruled.  It was believed that perhaps once humans all were born with the potential for magic.  But due to this action, the trait for magic was bred out of the population over the 10,000-year reign of the grey dragon.  Little was known about the world prior to the grey king¡¯s reign so this was mostly theories.  But legends did imply magic was much more prevalent.

    Either way his urgency to learn as much of the written language as possible reached a new level once he started to sink into the mysteries of the glyph form he was shown.

 Chapter 15 - Sharp steel interlude

    Author''s note: Thank you all for reading Curse of the Forsaken.  We are going to be leaving the "research" facility in the next couple of chapters after a bit of a training montage coming up, and a bit of a time skip plus a few more things to look forward to.  This chapter, or almost half a chapter was something I decided I wanted to add "somewhere" to the story around here, I just couldn''t find enough "other" stuff to add to it to make a full chapter out of it.  So I apologize if it seems short.  It''s mostly just filling out the MC''s daily activities as we start to move into the training montage/time skip.  We should be through with this dark dungeon soon, so look forward to that when I return from work tonight with a number of new chapter releases coming up.

    While his studies took on a new urgency his physical training wasn¡¯t neglected either.  It was pointless to ¡°exceed¡± with an unknown like magic and simply settle for average in other interests.  He didn¡¯t have enough time in the day and while he knew sleep was important he simply couldn¡¯t afford to take it easy anymore.  He had to live in a way no one else would live.  Glancing at the wizard in the training room he made a calculation.  Time was limited so¡­

    He had to walk a path of insanity.

    He had to walk a path no one else would walk

    He had to exceed in everything

    No one was his ally, but as long as they thought he was necessary he could count on them to keep him alive.  It wasn¡¯t insane.  He could expect them to be concerned.  It wasn¡¯t insane.  He could count on them for now.  This was a calculated risk that only looked insane.

    He walked over to the weapons rack and started trying out swords.  One sword after another.  Some weapons were clear one handed sword designs with a short hilt and blade.  He spoke with the others there, they said there were three types of blades, much to his surprise.  He had always thought of swords as being more complex than that but the locals seemed to think differently.

    The first type was a one handed weapon.  These were the shorter blades.  Nearly no one used them.  The next type was the ¡°long sword¡±, which was a category which seemed to encompass pretty much every sword they had.  The main difference between the one handed blade and the longsword was the one handed blade had a very short hilt, literally only as wide as a palm.  With an edge that was no longer then the leg of the man holding it.  If the blade tip reached the ground apparently it was too long for the man using it.  The long sword of course was longer than the 1 handed blade, with a hilt long enough for one or two hands.  After hearing that definition it would put a katana (if they had a weapon like that) easily in the classification of a long sword on account of the long hilt.

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    The last type was called a two handed sword.  The point where the long sword and the two handed sword diverged was when the sword was no longer wearable on the hip.  They felt the main point of the two handed sword was to kill the mounts of mounted troop; power through armor of heavy armored foes, or to fight some of the larger monster and creatures of the world such as dragons, land worms or something called a Stone Devil.  Though when talking about ¡°fighting¡± and stone devils, most people made a face like that was insanity.

    He tried almost all of the long swords.  But none of them were long enough for what he wanted in his hands.  So he started to play with the two handed swords.  Of course most of these blades were too large for what he had in mind as well.  Eventually he zeroed in on a type of one handed weapon.  It was basically untouched, probably because the blade was far too long for the locals to use.  It looked like the sword had been made originally to be a long sword but at some time the smith decided to give it a short hilt.  Either way the part that attracted him to the sword the most was the full hand guard, which wrapped around the hand

    In a lot of ways this sword felt like a natural progression over the wooden stick he was taught to fight with all that time ago.  He already had a great deal of reach advantage over the locals, and a lot more strength.   This opened up a lot of possibilities to him.  He spent several days familiarizing himself with the weapon and had the men walk him through the process of using true one handed weapon.  He learned the different guard stances.  Finally, he walked out into the floor for a spar without any armor on.

    He could see the hesitation in his opponent¡¯s face.  No shield, no armor.  New sword.   They must have thought he was insane.  It took almost ten minutes convincing them to fight him like normal.

    He took a deep breath and watched the blade tip of his foe and started to parry.

    He was hurt badly of course.  In just two hours of sparing he had to be healed 3 times.  Two times due to nearly being killed.  Once he took a thrust to his chest, creating a bloody mess.  He seriously thought he was going to drown in blood.

    The Wizard was not happy.  He could see the man was reaching the end of his patience.  Still he felt he had found his path forward.  He had failed over and over again.  Nearly died twice, and been seriously injured three times.  Yet he felt like he had taken large strides forward.  He didn¡¯t know what weapon he¡¯d end up settling on long term, but he knew this was the first time he felt comfortable with a sword in his hand.

 Chapter 16 - Sixty

    Days rolled by, his efforts to get better grew more and more intense.  Once he was able to dual with the other soldiers without taking injury with the 1 handed sword, he started to search for a heavier longer blade.  He moved on to one of the largest long swords they had available, it was almost 4 feet long from tip to pommel, and in fact had to be used as a two handed blade by pretty much all of the men.  Two handed guard stances were pretty similar to one handed guard stances and longsword guard stances.  So the learning curve wasn¡¯t as steep as he feared.

    Of course that didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t pay for his progress with blood.  One particular bloody day started off just like the others.  He trained in the morning with physical exercises.  He thought he¡¯d have to wear a belt if he went back home, he clearly had lost a few inches from his waist, inches he didn¡¯t think he had to lose.

    As a kid in grade school he had a best friend whose older brother played high school football.  His friend, being an impressionable 3rd grader started lifting with his big brother and actually developed some biceps.  Being very impressed with his friends muscles he begged his parents for a weight set, only for his mother to turn him down.  She was a nurse and knew that putting that much strain on a developing body would never result in anything positive.  She drilled into his head he wasn¡¯t to do any serious weight training until he stopped growing after his teenage growth spurt.

    In exchange his mother got him into bicycling and swimming.  Bicycling never really appealed to him as a child, but swimming was something he grew to love.  He had learned to swim when he was young, and took to it like a fish to water, with his mother encouraging it, he took more and more advanced swimming classes even learning racing.  He would win races after races as he grew up.  He knew some people thought he would continue swimming straight on threw to the Olympics, but his heart was never in the racing, just the swimming.  At some point in 8th grade he had simply stopped racing.  Still the foundation for a lifetime of high energy cardio activity had been planted in him at a very young age.

    So his physique was never one of a weightlifter, ignoring the obvious demerits of large muscles in ice hockey, he just never got into religious weightlifting.  This had changed, and the increase in muscle mass which he had missed for months became more and more obvious.  While the diet was thin on taste, apparently something they were feeding him in that tasteless stew of vegetables was positive for muscle growth.

    He suspected it might have something to do with some of the animal meat they ate once every 10 or so days.  Since magic and gods and curses existed in this world, it was possible some animal meat was very beneficial to human muscles growth.  His questions were met with shrugs.  No one else ate enough to get healthy in this place.  He knew his portions were larger, pretty much bottomless.  No one else got close to the portion size he was fed.  Most of the people here were lucky to get a small serving of meat once every 30 days, let alone once every 10 days.

    He felt guilty about his large servings whenever he saw the hungry gazes from those gaunt faces in the mess.  Or he did before he finally had that conversation with the Sage.  Now he could care less.  If they were going to feed him well, he was going to eat well.  Eat well for the times he wouldn¡¯t be able to.  Eat well for his growing strength.  Eat well for his health.

    As a result, on this particular day he was abusing the weighted equipment he used to build muscle mass, and had been for almost a solid hour before grabbing ¡°his¡± practice sword, and starting to fight.

    This was a rare day, as Sam had come to watch his training.  She usually didn¡¯t.  Today she did.  He felt a completely unnecessary urge to show off for her, as she had not seen him fight with this sword yet.  There were 3 guardsmen who were easily the best swordsmen here.  He could fight about on par with them one on one.  However, he couldn¡¯t win a fight with one quickly, the best he could manage was wearing their stamina down and winning when their arms grew weak and stance got shaky.

    If there was one thing fighting without armor did for him, was force him to develop an air tight defense.

    Sitting with Sam was someone who had to be a Fairy.  While he had never seen a fairy before, she matched what his studies said about them.  She had large purple eyes, sun dark skin, golden hair, an impossible golden color that appeared to have been liquid gold, only lighter than air, in fact her hair moved through the air similar to how you¡¯d expect someone underwater to look, her hair simply floated.  He couldn¡¯t say if she was pretty or not; what she was, was very exotic.  She wore slave chains and iron like the human slaves, only unlike the human slaves she wore clothing.  Her clothing was just as ethereal as the rest of her, oddly shaped, brightly colored bright fall colors of reds, browns and gold which made her dress appear to be made of leaves not clothing forming sleeves and a long dress that both seemed to float in the air.  She looked light enough to be blown away by a strong gust of air.  Her wings were basically see through; he could catch a little rainbow of color akin to soap film on water where he supposed the butterfly shaped wings were.

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    He had heard about the fairy slave girl before.  But he had never seen her.  She did have a very haughty look on her face, and seemed to be holding a handkerchief over her nose and mouth.  Being a slave to humans she sported the dark crescent moon tattoo on her forehead like all the other slaves.  He heard from Sam that Sam never was able to get her story out of her.

    With two clean women in the training hall the men all seemed to be preening a bit.  Even if they didn¡¯t realize it, they all seemed to be trying to show off a little bit.  Jace noticed the strange air as well as there were already half a dozen serious injuries from whether sparing or simply training as the men pushed themselves a bit too hard.

    ¡®Idiots, nothing to do with me.  This is training.  Always training for the way home.¡¯  Jace thought to himself thinking the others around him were idiots.

    ¡®Anyway I need to show Sam how good I¡¯ve gotten with the sword and win in a pretty way today¡¯ his mind was drifting in a dangerous direction, as he challenged two of the best swordsmen to a fight.  He could barely hold his own against one of the top 3, let alone two.  But there he was, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Sam and the elf like fairy girl, with motives pure as snow, challenging two of them at once.

    It went about as he probably should have expected.  He was only able to dodge and parry, striking back was basically impossible.  He probably should have conceded, however he was stubborn and ¡®convinced¡¯; that he was wearing them down.  It was just as he was spinning out of one entrapment, he lost track of the 2nd man, something screamed in the back of his mind a sword was coming, so he changed his guard and warded against the slash.  It was a stab, as his eyes found the blade streaking toward his heart.

    Time seemed to flow to a stop as he watched the blade get closer and closer.  His own momentum pulling him into the blade.  He started a desperation twist in hopes he could get thin enough for the blade to miss.  Though these blades were blunted practice weapons, the point and shape of a sword was weapon enough.  Unfortunately, it was the twist that ruined him.  Had he spun to the right he could have avoided her blade entirely, he spun to the left, and took the blade right into the soft flesh of the arm, punched through and buried itself in his left chest.

    He thought he¡¯d die drowning in blood, as he felt the immense pain crashing into his chest.  Breathing was almost impossible. He collapsed to the ground and yanked the blade from his chest/side.  The pain was crushing.  He could see the wizard making his way over in the corner of his eye, though somehow his eyes noted the look of complete panic on the face of Sam as well, the Fairy was actually holding her back from charging out toward him, and pointing at the wizard making his way over.

    At that moment he was taken with the most terrible coughing fit of his life.  As he spewed dark blood from his mouth, the pain of wave after wave of coughing wracked his body, as he collapsed forward, he could hear a sucking sound coming from his side as his body convulsed involuntarily with those coughs.

    It seemed like the pain for the chest wracking coughs would go on forever when he felt the splash of cold and piercing heat of the healing magic wash over him.  He kept coughing, though now without pain, spitting up blood.  He finally was able to take a deep breath of air, which only lead into another bloody coughing fit.

    Except for injuries like that one that occasionally occurred, his training actually progressed at a rapid pace.  His study of languages reached a point where he could at least make his intentions known roughly in the Fairy, Kindred (both northern and southern clans) and Dragon tongues.  He could even speak a little of the ancient human tongue which was once rather popular during the reign of the old Dragon king.

    Eventually 60 days passed since his talk with the sage; it was now nearly 120 days since he had been summoned.

 Chapter 17 - Surrender

    Sa¡¯manatha was watching Jace spar against three of the guardsmen.  He wasn¡¯t wearing practice armor, and while the swords were blunt they could break the skin or break bones.  He stopped wearing the gear right after his conversation with the Sage a little more than 60 days ago.  He said he needed to get better before they left this place, and the armor was making him get hit.  Or something like that.  At first he was almost killed accidently, repeatedly.  Much to her displeasure, he almost died a number of times some of which she heard about on the day he was training, some of which she heard about much later.  If it wasn¡¯t for the quick healing of the Mages, he definitely wouldn¡¯t have made it through to today.  While he often needed healing that first 20-30 days he soon started to improve by leaps in his fighting technique.  He stopped using the shield as well, focusing on two handed use of the sword.  His improvement in sword play was stunning.  Frankly, while she knew little about the sword, when she watched him fight now, she found him beautiful.

    He was like a king amongst children.  These were the three best of the guardsmen, and all three of them were being forced back by a storm of swordplay.  He dodged blades by the barest of distances, slid between their ranks and one by one overwhelmed them with his strength, speed and reach.  She could see the sweat streaming down their faces, the stunned gasps as he quickly almost as if he had eyes behind his head met every blade heading toward him.  His sword was at least twice the size of the others.  He kept trading up to bigger and bigger swords and this was genuinely the largest sword they had.  In addition to the long reach the huge blade afforded him, he was also, impossibly much faster than them.

    They almost seemed like they were moving in slow motion as he spun out of an entrapment, parried a horizontal slash with such force the other sword bent and fell out of the hand of the man wielding it, and continued, the blunted tip of the blade dipping under the shield and crashing into the thigh of the man who dropped his blade, causing him to fall with a curse.  With one man down he showered blows upon the shield of the next, while the 3rd tried to get behind him.  He kept moving away from the 3rd man while circling the 2nd, eventually his sword hit the man¡¯s shoulder, not the shield, dropping him to his knees, then changing direction and with a beautiful thrust of the blade hammered the last man¡¯s shield so hard drove him back 3 steps, breaking his form.  He charged after the guardsman not giving him a chance to recover and with two more swipes of the blade broke his wrist for the arm holding the sword and rang the man¡¯s helmet hard enough to cause him to fall onto his backside.

    Laughing, the one who took the blow to the leg said ¡°You¡¯re a natural Jace.  Never seen someone master a sword this quickly.  You¡¯d give my old teacher a run I¡¯d say.¡±  The man on his knees holding his broken wrist barked out a laugh ¡°Fuck my mother.  I think he could go toe to toe with a fairy blademaster.  Got a chance to spar one once.  They¡¯re nimble and accurate but I think Jace is faster and stronger.  Think he could give one a surprise.  Can¡¯t believe you never held a sword less then a third of a year ago.¡±  The other one was regaining his feet as the mage healed his injury.  ¡°I won¡¯t kiss your ass, but I got to say you¡¯re better than my teacher.  Don¡¯t know about a fairy blademaster.  Think one of them could kill you.  But you wouldn¡¯t embarrass yourself with one.  Those fairies use light swords and long reach to make it impossible to deal with.  You¡¯re bigger than them.  And your strength is unnatural.  It¡¯s like you¡¯re a Rock Demon with that blade.¡±

    Setting the blunted sword aside he shook his head, then looked to Sam.  ¡°Sam, grab my shirt.  I need to wipe down.¡±

    After meeting with the Sage he became a driven person.  She thought he was hard working before, but she realized compared to now the person before that meeting was aimless.  She was there during the meeting and didn¡¯t hear anything to explain why he was so driven.  She never saw someone with so much sense of purpose to them.  Life was hard so most people just did what they could to get by.  There were slaves who could do hard work for the freemen.  And slaves themselves weren¡¯t working for themselves, there was no sense of purpose.  She saw it in herself.  If she was half as driven as he it wouldn¡¯t have taken her anywhere near 10 years to be ready to teach him how to speak the language.

    After meeting the sage, he started giving the name ¡°Jace¡±.  She asked him if it meant anything where he came from and he laughed saying Jace was the name of a powerful wizard, a ¡°Planewalker¡±.  The answer puzzled her since she knew he said there was no magic where he came from.  So she asked him about the contradiction.  He simply laughed and said ¡°in Magic, Jace is an asshole.¡±

    ¡°But you¡¯re not an asshole¡±

    ¡°True, but sometimes the world needs an asshole more than it needs a savior.¡±

    A small frown on her face she pouted cutely, ¡°Are you making fun of me?¡±  She never knew him to tease her but it sounded like he was, he had a strange look on his face as if he was trying not to laugh.  Then he reached out and patted her head.

    ¡°Sorta.  Listen I¡¯ll explain.  There is a game on my planet.  In it there is a wizard called Jace.  He is what the game called a ¡®planeswalker,¡¯ a powerful wizard.  Since magic is real here, I¡¯m going to make Jace my goal.¡±

    Thinking back on that conversation and the really awkward way he tried to convey whatever it was he found funny about the name Jace and why he thought being this Jace fit his life here, she found his bad explanation rather endearing now, especially how earnest he was in trying to help her get a joke she simply didn''t understand no matter how hard he tried to explain it.

    She followed behind him through the passages toward their room, her heart thumping out of control as it sometimes did when she was alone with him.  In the last few months they had grown very close.  Though it never blossomed into a physical relationship.  She had learned a little of why.  It seemed he was in love with a girl back in his world.  He spoke about her once, only saying he missed her and wasn¡¯t worthy of her.  She outclassed him apparently.  She was smart, athletic, and breathtakingly beautiful.  He was completely smitten about her.  Her heart ached for them both because they were separated from each other.  It also ached for herself because she knew he¡¯d never feel that way about her.

    That didn¡¯t stop her from yearning for him.  She wished he¡¯d look her way once.  She knew she excited him sometimes.  She knew he struggled not to lay his hands on her.  Sometimes she felt like they were a hair''s breadth away from crossing that line.  But they never did.  It didn¡¯t stop her from using him as a body pillow at night.  Nor did it stop her from running her hand across his stomach and down to his manhood while he was asleep.  Nor did it stop her from relieving herself with fantasies.

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    She started to feel flushed as her cheeks turned pink just thinking about it on the way back to the room.  When he reached the room, he sat down on a stool by a bucket left here for this purpose.  He stripped and started to wipe himself down with a rag from the bucket of water.  She removed her robe and grabbed a cloth, dunking it in the bucket she started to wash his back.  This was something she started to do on her own about 30 days ago, she knew it sexually aroused him, but he never told her to stop.  If anything he seemed to secretly look forward to this skinship, never once bathing without her assistance since she started this service.  Tonight she wanted to try to push it further.  Her heart was thumping in her throat as she slowly washed his muscular lower back, then she bravely swallowed her nervousness and pressed her chest into his back.

    As he wiped his chest down she suddenly reached around and started to wash between his legs.  He froze ¡°Sam¡± he spoke quietly, urgently as his hand grabbed her wrist.  Stopping the motion of the cloth in her hand wrapped around his erect member.

    She ignored him and gently kept moving her hand, and brought her lips close to his broad muscular back she stuck her small tongue out and lightly licked a bead of sweat from his spine.  He shivered and twisted a little, a light moan actually escaped his lips, she lightly brought her tongue back to the middle of his back and licked and kissed her way up his back her hand gripping him and pumping gently, his hand on her wrist growing slack as his breathing became more and more ragged.  She nibbled on his neck while pressing her breasts against him, her other hand going down under the shaft and lightly fondling.  His muscles spasmed and he grunted she felt his member start to jerk and throb.

    His hands closed on hers and pulled them away from his manhood.  Holding her small hands engulfed in his, he spoke quietly.  ¡°Is this what you want?  Or what the sage wants?  Answer me truthfully.¡±

    ¡°I want this¡± was her whispered reply.

    He took a couple deep breaths then stood up and carried her to the bed.  Then laid her down on it.  His eyes almost mad with lust.  ¡°I don¡¯t love you.  Not romantically.¡±

    ¡°I know¡±

    He stood there over her, studying her naked body lying on the bed.  Actually looking at her body.  His manhood was standing as well.  He was as large as a bear, and gorgeous, the long hair dangling loose, that trimmed beard that dark hair.  His chiseled body.  She knew she wanted him.  ¡°Please¡± her voice leaked out.  He descended on top of her, the last wall between them fell, and from that night on, they worked to create a child.

    The prior night was a blur.  He woke up in the morning with Sam wrapped around him.  He felt like a tank next to a bike.  She was so small and light, she also was pretending to sleep.  He had slept next to her for what on earth would have been 3 months, he knew when she was asleep and when she wasn¡¯t.  Looking at the tangled mass of blonde hair splayed out on his chest he pondered if he should let her know he woke up.

    He never really expected he¡¯d ever fuck this girl.  But last night 4 earth months of blue balls finally overwhelmed his reason.  At first he was able to hold on to a slight thread of reason, he suspected this was supposed to be her first time.  He didn¡¯t want to ravage her and hurt her.  However, he quickly realized while it could have been her first time she wasn¡¯t bleeding from it and didn¡¯t seem to be in any pain.  Her urgent pleas for him only melted whatever reason was left and soon he forgot all about his concerns about harming her as they engaged in a workout with an intensity unlike any he could ever recall.

    He didn¡¯t dislike her.  She was as close to him as any friend back on earth.  If anything she was probably a closer to him then Jenn was.  It was strange how she had wormed her way into his heart.  He couldn¡¯t reason out why he had grown so attached to her.  Even though he intentionally tried to keep walls up between them.  She was just so comfortable to be around.

    He disliked the fact he legally owned her.  There was something ¡°wrong¡± with that power structure.  But slavery was for life on this world.  There was no way to undo it.  He couldn¡¯t free her if he wanted to; at least he couldn¡¯t yet.  Some things he could fix some things he couldn¡¯t.  The crushing inhumanity of this planets humans was something he figured he¡¯d never be able to correct.  Nor did fixing it take him one step closer to his goals.

    The interesting thing was he actually didn¡¯t feel particularly guilty about it.  He still loved Jenn, but the reality was, his life on earth was over.  He wouldn¡¯t be going back anytime soon.  He wasn¡¯t a virgin before he came here.  He wasn¡¯t particularly experienced but he had had sex before, so he didn¡¯t attach any mystical attachment to it.  For the same reasons he couldn¡¯t expect Jenn to hold faithful to him.  Furthermore, he might NEVER leave this place.  When he had that discussion with the sage all those months ago he decided to bury earth.  It was his goal but that was WHY he had to bury it.  In order to get back he had to stop looking back at it.  He had to completely immerse himself in this world and play the farcical role of savior to a ¡°T¡±.  If he kept thinking about what he left behind he¡¯d never do it.  Who he was on earth was NOT a savior.  What he was and what he dreamed on earth meant nothing here.  Until he fully buried those things he¡¯d struggle here.

    So he quietly apologized one more time to Jenn in his heart, and buried the conflicting feelings he had for Sam.  She was his slave.  This was reality.  She was here to bear him children.  To deal with his sexual frustration, to help educate him, and make his life easier.  He was here to provide her food and shelter.  This was how this world was.

    He wasn¡¯t happy about it, but this was life now.  At least he probably wouldn¡¯t have to wake up anymore in the middle of the night and pretend he didn¡¯t notice a very sexually frustrated girl rubbing his dick.  She still had her small hand wrapped around his morning wood.  Debating how to get her hand off his member, she stopped fake sleeping and ¡°woke up¡± probably noticing him shifting slightly and started to slowly pump it with her hand.  Sighing in an exaggerated manner to himself he found he was happily wondering if they¡¯d get out of bed today.

 Chapter 18 - Fresh air, and a starry sky

    The last few weeks passed and it was the day of departure.  Jace would have been lying if he said he wasn¡¯t excided to leave.  The stale air, the permanent stench of pitch.  The cramped rooms.  He half suspected he spent so much time training the sword because it was the only room apart from the mess hall that didn¡¯t feel like a coffin.  He didn¡¯t get a chance to talk to the mages about their impression of the Glyph they wanted him to study.   So he wasn¡¯t sure how far along he was compared to where they wanted him to be.  This made him a bit nervous.  That said, his progress with the sword jumped forward by leaps and bounds.  He even started training with real blades, just to get used to having to fight/spar against someone who could kill him.  He had taken a few cuts in those fights, most of which were minor and did not require healing.  Of course they left scars on his body.

    The exit turned out to be a teleportation portal.  They were transported to a nondescript stable on the edge of a city.  It was night, no there was some light on the horizon.  It felt like dawn.  The light was pale blue in color.  From what he knew of the curse this probably meant he was not subject to it.  One concern down.

    He stared at the night sky breathing deeply the clean air.  It was cool, it was clean.  Blessedly clean.  He was surprised to feel a tear roll down his face.  He never expected to be this moved by clean air.  Yet here he was nearly sobbing with joy.  In the light of the false dawn the ragged and filthy state of the humans looked more like some sort of demonic invasion from hell, here to taint the pure clean surface of this world.  The night sky was illuminated by a breathtaking starry sky, there was even a white splay of light drawing across the sky.  It took him almost 3 minutes staring at it before he realized he was looking at was most likely a ring of asteroids which surrounded this world.  Two small moons were in the sky; he had heard of those.  They looked about 1/5 the size of earth¡¯s moon, the pair of moons apparently spun around each other, beyond the belt of light.  The locals called the rings "god¡¯s tears" because they were supposed to have been formed by a god¡¯s tears.  He couldn¡¯t recall what god supposedly cried so much that they left this trail of light.  But he was pretty sure now that he saw it illuminated by the sun beyond the horizon, that it was a ring of asteroids.

    This might explain the prevalence in the histories he read, about stars falling to the ground being a common augury of prophecy, disaster or war.  With a whole belt of those stones surrounding the planet, he wasn¡¯t surprised meteor showers and asteroids falling to the ground would become common omens.

    The small group of 20 people loaded into carriages which were waiting for them, the guards took mounts that looked like reptilian bears.  He really had no other way to explain what they were.  He knew the locals called them Harkan, but they looked like a giant lizard crossed with a bear no matter how he looked at it.  Frankly he thought they looked terrifying.  He almost wished the men were riding bears.

    Soon they started moving down the road just as the sun started to crest.  What greeted his eyes was an alien world.  The sun was more white than yellow, it also felt a LOT hotter than the one on earth.  It was smaller in the sky too.  The sky was blue, nothing strange about that or the clouds.  The landscape however.  Blues, purples, reds.  Unlike on earth where green was the predominant color blues, reds and purples were here.  The fauna was odd.  He didn¡¯t see anything like a tree as he knew it.  The plants looked like giant ferns, purple and red ferns.  He was starting to wonder where the ¡°wood¡± came from until they passed some slaves working as woodsmen.  They were cutting down the giant ferns, when you cut away the branches and skinned the furry and colorful bark off of them the inner core was a wood-like material.

    There were flying lizard looking creatures of all shapes and sizes.  He called them lizard like because they had leathery skin not feathers, and long tails.  The colors of the membranes that made up their wings were gorgeous.  Some even had comb like colorful skins on their heads.  He had heard that there were some lesser dragons which were big enough to eat children, but he never saw one during their week long trek.

    There also were ground worms.  At least that¡¯s what the locals called them.  He wasn¡¯t sure why they were called worms.  They looked like giant monitor lizards; if someone said they were land dragons he probably would have believed them.  However, when he asked Sam if they were related to dragons she simply laughed.  Dragons were smart.  Those land worms were dumb.

    5 months underground had an unintended side effect for him.  His skin had become rather pale in all that time.  As a result, he suffered from serious sunburn at the end of the first day.  He also was sun sick, which puzzled the humans, they thought he was poisoned by a plant.  He had to explain to them about sunburn and sun sickness, and while they were dubious, they took his word.  One of the wizards healed the burns for him.  His skin started to darken pretty drastically under the harsh sun.  That was always the way with his skin.  He often would get one bad burn early in summer, then his burn would fade into a deep tan.  This was no different as his skin took on a healthy bronze.

    The others were fascinated to no end by this transformation.  The never heard of such a thing as a sun tan, fairies were nocturnal, and humans¡­ needless to say they found his efforts to get an even tan rather funny.  Sam on the other hand kept looking at his bronzed skin with hungry eyes and running her hand along his skin as if expecting it to feel different.  Apparently tanned skin was attractive to her.  The wizards however got more and more excited by his tanning skin, and explanations about it.  It seemed to be taken as physical verification that he was immune to the curse.

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    On the road he got to see a free fairy for the first time.  They were similar to the one who was a slave, though the clothing was more regal, and almost ethereal.  Tall and thin, with pointed ears and big eyes, impossible hair and eye color as well.  They wore whimsically impractical clothing and in the sunlight he thought he could see faint wings behind them.  The males and females were almost impossible to tell apart.  He had heard that the fairies were the most populous people on this continent.   Though the fact they were a tribal people who stuck close to others of the same bloodline prevented them from ruling the continent, mostly their control of the continent rarely spread beyond the walls of their cities, leaving the world a fragmented feudal mess.

    Looking at them they reminded him more of Tolkien style elves as depicted by Peter Jackson then tinker bell.  Well apart from the wings anyway.  From what Sam told him the wings of a fairy were far more visible at night under direct moonlight then they were during the daytime.

    Another strange thing he noted was that daylight and nighttime were almost symmetrical.  According to what Sam told him this was the case year around.  He thought he noticed it when he was underground but now that he was above ground he was sure of it.  He was pretty sure this planet had more mass then the earth, as it felt like gravity was a bit heavier here.  It wasn¡¯t enough to really inconvenience him; he had been living with it for months now.  It was just enough to make you feel a little bit heavier.  To make objects weight just a bit more then they looked like they should.

    He noticed in the fields and farmlands all the work being done by small grey and brown people who were enslaved.  No humans were ever seen in the fields.  From what he had heard if a human so much as touched a cultivated crop, every single grain within 100 yards would wither.  The small grey and brown people were apparently a type of Rock Gnome.  They were intelligent, and rarely seen on the surface.  However, since the Fairy¡¯s don¡¯t farm, and humans no longer could, a very vibrant slave trade started up between the rock gnome kingdoms and the fairy kingdoms.  Rock Gnomes apparently are excellent with plants, and rather tireless.  Even if humans could cultivate plants, from what he heard about a rock gnome¡¯s agricultural skills he thought it likely the gnomes would still be enslaved to do the work.

    When Sam was explaining to him about Gnome agricultural skills he actually started to laugh.  He tried to explain about garden gnomes on earth and while she was attentive to his explanation she didn¡¯t seem to find it as amusing as he did.  It made him feel a bit lonely.

    The state of the free humans was deplorable; if anything they lived in a worse squalor then he expected.  They lived in horrid squalid little shacks.  Little better then animals.  The crushing poverty was painful to see.  The squalid animalistic lifestyle had reduced the people to little more than rutting animals.  He saw a young woman, probably a girl, but she was so ragged looking it was impossible to tell her age.  She had a baby with her either way, forced down in the middle of the street by an old sack of bones of a man.  She simply stared at the sky ignoring her child¡¯s screams next to her while he pumped away between her legs.  He was stopped from jumping out, to stop the obvious rape, by several people.  Somehow the sage had guessed he might act like that.  He wasn¡¯t sure how much Sam told him about him.  But the old man seemed to guess a lot about him.

    After the 8th time he saw such a scene he stopped paying attention like everyone else.  Even if he wanted to stop this there was too much of it going on.  This was simply how life was lived in the slums amongst the ¡°free¡± humans.  The Fairy rulers of the land seemed to have zero interest in keeping law and order in the slums.  He realized quickly it was the guards that kept their small convoy traveling through the edge of the slums without being attacked viciously by the wild bands of criminals.

    Despite all of this, He found his mood starting to soar.  It was amazing how depressing living in a dark cave was all day every day for weeks and months on end.  Of course the locals didn¡¯t measure time quite the same as he did, to them it was 10 days in a week.  There were no months, just weeks.  35 weeks added up to be a year.  He wondered about the years being shorter then earth, but he figured the days might actually be longer here.  So a year here might not be that much different from a year on earth.  When he was in the cave day and night were actually marked by the meals.  He didn¡¯t know how they knew what time it was outside, but he figured it probably was timed in some way.

    In this way they made their way steadily west.  He asked one of the mages why they didn''t just teleport straight to their destination and the mage started to get into a long winded explanation about ley lines, seasons and moon and star positions, which made his head spin.  Basically it sounded like teleportation portals could only be opened at certain times to certain places depending on the date and location without huge expenditures of effort.

    It sounded like he was shining him on, but in the end Jace just nodded his head and accepted the explanation as if it was true.  He would find out more about this in due time anyway.

 Chapter 19 - In a certain academy on a certain island in a certain sea

    Drawing on the energy flowing through the world pulse Karius cast his hands out in front of him, and a giant plume of fire came into being, killing the captured Arc Jumper instantly.  A laugh escaped his lips and he stood up tall.  He was the number one pupal at the lone academy left to humanity.  Karius was a famous figure at the academy, something he knew would change shortly.  If rumors were to be believed.  He was actually looking forward to it.  He had pale skin, grey eyes and almost pale blonde almost grey hair like most of the humans of this world.  He worked hard to keep himself clean like most of the male students here.  The female students, however, tended to be filthy, as if hoping their unkempt appearances would help discourage the attention of the male students.  All female students at the witch level were subject to the same laws of females everywhere.  He wondered if this policy was to help birth more children with magical potential, that those same girls became "men" in the eyes of the rules here if they reached channeler, probably was meant to be a carrot for the female sex.  A sex which had miserable magical potential among humanity for reasons unknown to him.

    The location of this academy, it''s existence even, was secret.  It was actually an ancient fortress built on some island in the middle of a sea or ocean somewhere on Althos , a frontier palace and fort once held by the long dead Grey King.   When humanity was cursed and mankind realized it¡¯s ramifications, before they lost control of the known world, they made preparations for humanity¡¯s collapse.

    This place was intentionally left nameless. It once had a name, under the reign of the old king, but that name was removed and mankind erased this island from every map they could locate.  It was the work of decades to hide this place from the rest of the world, and to set up the ¡°academy¡± to rebuild man¡¯s now dead knowledge of magic.

    During those decades¡¯ humanity gathered all magical knowledge that existed in the falling kingdom and stored it here in the academy.  That was how it was learned about what happened to the human wizards the grey king took away.  When the grey king lived he actually didn¡¯t kill the human mages.  He had sheltered them in Erindalle in the Sky, the sky castle of the Dragon King.  The reason for this action wasn¡¯t revealed in any documents so it become one of the biggest subjects of debate for the students and faculty here.

    He was actually trying to work out his excitement.  He had heard a little something from some of the teachers that lead him to believe that something life changing might be happening soon in the academy.  They were supposed to be getting new students soon, and one of them was supposed to be immune to the curse.

    He was actually thrilled just thinking about it.  He knew what it meant to be immune to the curse.  It could mean the student was the reborn dragon king.

    He looked around the courtyard.  There were plenty of sycophants smiling and watching his training.  He had no time for these people, if they were so interested in his excellence they should be training to match him not praise him.  Frankly he had to admit a few of the witches in training were turning his head today.  Usually those miserable girls were too busy scuttling around in the corners and huddling away from the main student body, or squealing under one of their fellow students.  He didn¡¯t like their lack of spirit, so he usually had nothing but ill thoughts about those failures.

    However, it seemed that word must have leaked out about someone important coming because those miserable wretches were braving the pale daylight with their faces uncovered and hair done as if hoping to catch a husband.

    If the witches knew then that meant pretty much everyone knew.  He was a little miffed about that.  He wanted to slip his way into the greeting party with the faculty, and make a positive impression on the Grey King.  He wanted this curse gone, if the price meant living his life in Erindalle in the Sky he¡¯d pay it gladly.  Actually considering what life was like for humanity outside this academy, he would prefer living in Erindalle in the Sky as a slave over leaving here when his training was done.  Before learning the Grey King might be returning he had worked himself half to death trying to impress the faculty so an offer of a permanent professorship might be offered.

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    It might have been wishful thinking, he would never reach the level of a Grand Channeler, which seemed to be the cutting off point for faculty.  His elemental affinity just wasn¡¯t good enough.  No matter how deep his insights into the glyph, no matter how high his knowledge became, he was probably going to top out at Channeler.

    The school ranked magic potential in how you could manipulate the energy of the pulse of the world.  The lowest levels were the warlocks and witches.  They could manipulate the energy only in themselves, or with complex rituals others to a limited extent.  Once someone could manipulate the energy in something or someone else, either by touch or without touch you were a Channeler.  Grand Channelers were people who could affect areas.  Wizards could affect cities, maybe even destroy one on a limited scale with a big enough ritual.  Grand Wizards could DESTROY a city with a flick of a wrist.  Or affect the area of a continent with a ritual on a ley line.  This was typically the maximum potential for a human.  Other races could produce yet more powerful individuals.  Fairies and Kindred both could reach the next level of ¡°Sorcerer¡±.

    Something happens to the magic channeled by a sorcerer, from what he understood the actual area a sorcerer could affect isn¡¯t really all that different from a grand wizard.  However, the magic of every single magic user under the level of sorcerer no longer affects a sorcerer or the magic the sorcerer casts.  He heard it described as the difference between a grand wizard and a sorcerer was the sorcerer was ¡°accepted¡± by the pulse of the world, where as the grand wizard was not.  As a result, a sorcerer could do things with magic that a wizard cannot.  There had only been 3 acknowledged grand sorcerers in the world¡¯s history.  They had all been dragons.  The lone surviving one is the Dragon king, ruling in Erindalle in the Sky.  Grand Sorcerers were creatures who existed beyond comprehension.  Close to the existence of a god.  Calling them demi-gods would not be inaccurate.  Even the grey king never reached the level of a grand sorcerer.

    Of course even thinking about becoming a Grand Channeler was likely wishful thinking for him.  He might have had unmatched knowledge of the glyph form; he might have had a lot of theoretical knowledge of magic.  But he simply didn¡¯t have the right ¡°affinity¡± with the world.  The pulse of the world would not merge with him enough to reach that level.  It was frustrating that such a thing be depended upon birth.  Still, he was luckier than most.  Maybe 1 in 100 humans could even become a warlock or witch.  Of those who could get to that point only 1 in 10 could reach each level beyond that.  Meaning he was one in 1,000.  Which meant he was one of just 8 channelers amongst the students here in this academy.  While the faculty was at least at the grand channeler level.  Of course those numbers were only accurate for males.  Females on the other hand had terrible potential.  if 1 in 1000 witches became a channeler that might be considered a good result.  As a result there were no women among the faculty here.

    There was just one grand wizard amongst all of humanity.  He was the headmaster of this facility, though his flame of life burning out had robbed him of that level, he was now known as the Grand Sage Eldridge, the title of sage was only given to Wizards or grand wizards if their life flame burnt down and they lost touch with the pulse of the world.  It was believed that their insights in the glyph were unmatched so they still carried the respect of their former power.

    It was the Sage who was bringing the grey king.  The sage held an important position in Karius¡¯s heart.  He had been struggling to make the leap from Warlock to Channeler when a single lecture given by the sage helped enlighten him enough to make that leap.  A small part of his heart still hoped some further enlightenment might help him reach a level beyond his potential.  He knew it wasn¡¯t impossible.  Eldridge¡¯s own potential had only been that of wizard yet he found a key of enlightenment to leap a level beyond his birth potential.

    Glancing at the blood red orb in the sky, he gave up on training and made his way to the entrance hall.  Soon the sun would be aligned with moon and the ley lines would swell and allow transportation to this academy.  He could barely conceal his excitement.

 Chapter 20 - Winds of Fate

    Bravre was a full-fledged wizard, one of the few human wizards not involved in the ritual that Eldridge had created.  He found the whole idea of ¡°summoning¡± a ¡°hero¡± to ¡°save¡± the world preposterous and simply prayed to Elis that the poor kid Eldridge ensnared in his lunacy found this Althos a step up from wherever he was taken from.  Else it would be yet one more life ruined by Eldridge¡¯s schemes.   One of the main contradictions of this mad plan was this curse wasn¡¯t just inherited.  It was ongoing.  He had argued against this plan when it was first proposed 15 years ago.  But at the time Eldridge was infatuated with his new wonder child prodigy and ignored his warnings and arguments.

    He tried to make Eldridge see that even trying to remove the curse probably would trigger the curse on the poor fool he dragged into this world.  It didn¡¯t matter if the kid was not born with the curse.  It didn¡¯t matter if his world was free from the curse.  And it didn¡¯t matter if summoning him would bring a human into this world without the curse.  The curse has a VERY clear activation condition even to this day.  Anyone helping mankind would share the curse with them.  Removing the curse or trying to, would count as helping mankind as far as he was concerned.  He couldn¡¯t imagine the curse wouldn¡¯t function in that condition.

    The only chance for this poor child taken from his world would have is if the prophecy ACTUALLY does talk about him.  Protection by fate is nothing to be laughed at.  In which case he would owe Eldridge an apology.  He¡¯d much rather owe him an apology then for this to have been just one giant waste of resources.

    While Eldridge was chasing his prot¨¦g¨¦¡¯s shadow for the past 15 years, he was searching for clues to the future of mankind in the winds of fate.  If there was one glyph form he had the most insight into, insight that surpassed Eldridge in his prime, it was with the glyph of FATE.  Over the past 15 years he had followed its flows across the world.  Roaming, and searching for the key.  He knew Eldridge¡¯s project was a fool¡¯s errand because in the 15 years of his wandering he never once went near it.  Eldridge¡¯s project was functioning in OPPOSITION to fate at worse, or outside of fate¡¯s plans at best.  If there was one thing he had learned in all these years of insight, it was that being in opposition of fate¡¯s plans was far worse than being outside of them.  Fate had a habit of breaking things which were in defiance of it.

    Following the winds of fate, his feet lead him to a small human town hidden away from the Fairy kingdoms and far from the Kindred.  The town actually lived in harmony with the world pulse to such an extent he could feel fate wrapping around it and protecting it.  This was the first human place of life he had found which fate didn¡¯t seem to reject the people, where the world pulse protected and guided.  He never had been to such a place before.

    In this town he found a dozen children who all had immense potential with the pulse of the world.  Every single one of them could reach Grand Wizard.  He wanted to bring them all back to the academy, however he had been stopped.  Not by the people but by fate.  He could tell this was against fate¡¯s purpose.  He didn''t understand why.  Any one of them would be a benefit for mankind.  Yet when he thought about taking them away he could feel fate''s flows turn against him.

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    Instead he had been lead to an unremarkable hovel.  It wasn¡¯t a filthy hovel like most, but it was certainly the poorest house in the town.  Living in the hovel was a young child, perhaps 10 years old or so.  The child was malnourished small and silent.  Grey hair and grey eyes, he knew this was what he was supposed to find.  The child was alone; he didn¡¯t know how long the child had been here surviving without a parent.

    When asking the people of the town they said the child was mute.  The parents abandoned her the prior year.

    Yes, her.  He was troubled with why the world pulse would lead him to some 11-year-old female mute in the middle of nowhere.  Typically, potential with the world pulse was something you were born with, however but it was also something that deepened and improved as you aged.  Children that old even if they had tremendous potential of a grand wizard often would only show that of a warlock or witch at most, their full potential would not be revealed until they were older.

    Curious, feeling this was what fate wanted, he tested the girl for her potential and gasped in shock.  He now knew for a fact that he had found something almost as good as a ¡®savior¡¯ or the grey dragon king reborn.  He had found the first human born with the potential to be a sorcerer¡­ his thoughts came to a stop at that.  With her age perhaps grand sorcerer was possible.

    His mind started working quickly, he had something far more valuable than a palace full of gold.  Worth almost as much as a cure to the curse.  He knew she couldn¡¯t be the chosen one or king returned.  She was definitely not dragon-kin but pure human.  He knew she couldn¡¯t be the hero of prophecy because she was just as affected by the curse as everyone else, even if she couldn¡¯t tell him about the red sun in the sky the crescent moon tattoo said all he needed to hear.  But he also knew she was going to be some of the best fortune for humanity from the strong pull of fate he felt from her.

    He almost was surprised that this girl was half starved in this hidden town.  The waves of fate buffeting her cried out about a tremendous future for her.

    It would be a long journey back to the academy, and he couldn¡¯t let this girl be treated like any other woman.  With a wave of his hand he cut her long grey hair short into a bob cut like any other little boy.  He then forced her into men¡¯s clothing.  She actually cried when forced out of the skirt.  But he knew he couldn¡¯t let anything happen to this child.  This was what he was born to find and protect.

 Chapter 21 - The Kindred

    The reclusive Kindred had a difficult relationship with humanity.  It wasn¡¯t that they were antagonistic, per say, it was that their interests were so different from what a human might find important it was almost impossible for the two people to communicate in a way that would be seen as productive.  They might speak or write identical languages, yet when it came right down to it, the Kindred saw the world in a way humans simply couldn¡¯t grasp.  It caused conflict.

    The Kindred were a race of dragon-human hybrids.  They actually are one of the newest races on Altos.  They also are one of the most blessed.  Currently the dragons were in immense favor by fate, Elis, and many of the other such as Manatha and Ssaras.  The blessings trickled down to the kindred.  So humans had tried and tried to get the kindred to intercede on behalf of them with the Dragon King.  It was a long held belief among the falling human kingdoms that the Dragon King could have saved them from the curse.  However, it was impossible for humans to travel to Erindalle in the Sky without a dragon or dragon-kin to let them in.  As a result, the close if awkward relationship between humans and the Kindred was shattered when the last human kingdom fell.

    There were a number of tragic misunderstanding over the years and though the Kindred shared ancestry with humans, they actually pulled away from contact with humans and resigned themselves to let humanity wither and die.

    As a result, the Kindred were known by humans but never really seen.  It had been a hundred years since the last time even RUMOR that the kindred were seen by a human.  Some people began to believe the Kindred had moved to Erindalle in the Sky and abandoned the surface of Althos.  Still one of the Sage¡¯s greatest hopes was to one day meet some Kindred.  He had questions that only they could answer, and he thought he had an idea of what they might want in trade for the information.

    Because of the prior 20 years submerged in the project, he hadn¡¯t had a chance to investigate the Kindred, but he still hadn¡¯t given up humanities old dream of pressing upon them to appeal to the Dragon King.

    It was of course ironic that with all his desires to meet with the Kindred over the many years of his life, he would have his wish fulfilled when he had stopped looking for them.  Blocking the path of advance of his little caravan just hours from his destination were 7 armed Kindred.

    The Kindred, did not inherit the shape shifting magics of dragons, nor did they look particularly reptilian.  If you didn¡¯t know what to look for and couldn¡¯t see their nude bodies, they simply looked like tall humans, though often with hair color that harkened back to the scale color of their dragon ancestors¡­ and of course the vertical slit in their pupils which tended to make most normal humans rather uneasy.

    Though his caravan outnumbered the kindred, he held little hope they could power through them if the kindred meant harm.  They had monstrous strength, and skin which was almost as hard as a dragon¡¯s hide.  and they did maintain a strange native ability that made fighting them very difficult.  Even for a true wizard a single kindred could be a dangerous encounter if for some reason the Kindred decided to be hostile.   In addition to those physical skills, most kindred were at least at the level of a wizard with their magical skills as well, making them a bad matchup for pretty much everything in Althos.  As a result, a small caravan of 22 people, 8 of whom were wizards would not match 7 kindred.  Not unless they had more luck then they had any right to possess.

    Calling a halt to the caravan and ordering the soldiers to keep their blades sheathed he examined the 7 kindred in front of him.  They were an odd group.  5 adults and 2 children.  All 5 adults appeared to have been all descendants of fire dragons, fiery red hair, their eyes were like rubies.  Of course he couldn¡¯t peg an age to them.  The Kindred were the third longest living race in Althos, behind only the Dragons and Rock Devils.  What was strange was the children.  Well young adults.  The male child was clearly related to the adults.  He had a haughty look on his face as if he were displeased or simply looking down on the human caravan, and fiery red hair.  Standing in the male¡¯s shadow was a girl, who wore a black cloak and hood pulled up to hide the top of her face.  Her posture was one of subservience, then he noted the chain running from her neck to the young man¡¯s belt.

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    A slave?  The kindred didn¡¯t make slaves of their own kind, and they¡¯d never take a human as a slave.  He never heard of such a thing.  His sense of danger was rising rapidly, the Kindred were hard to deal with when both sides wanted to talk, they were positively overbearing and unpredictable when they were trying to make nice.  This group clearly weren¡¯t trying to hide their hostility.

    The leader of the Kindred stepped forward when the caravan stopped and swept his gaze across the traveling group as if inspecting a particularly filthy bug that stepped out in front of him.  He had a hand resting on the hilt of his sword and a sneer that looked like he was trying to pass off as a smile etched on his face.  He was at least as tall as Jace, though he looked less physically imposing, he wore what looked like black and red scaled armor, that glittered even in the dimmed red light of the sun.

    HUMANS!  I TERANI HAVE DECIDED TO SPEAK TO YOU.  COME OUT AND KNEEL.

    Grimacing the old sage hurried out of his carriage, and quickly motioned everyone else to do the same.  He knelt on the ground, much to the surprise of everyone on the human side.  He thankfully wasn¡¯t alone long, kneeling in the dirt in the middle of the road as the smarter humans quickly realized this might be a situation to kneel when ordered to.  His joints felt his advanced age, and his knees were certainly arthritic, so this was a bit unbearable, to say nothing for a life filled with pride, this posture was unbearable.

    The leader Terani, actually took a long time moving from one side of the human line kneeling in the dirt to the other, carefully examining each one, pausing when he got to Jace, the look on his face seemed contemplative.  Then he smirked.

    OLD SAGE ELDRIDGE.  WE HAVE RECEIVED AN AUGERY. ELIS SPOKE TO A SEAR THROUGH THE MOVEMENT OF THE SKY, A STAR FELL.  He spoke loud enough someone half a mile away could easily have heard him.  He seemed amused by the look on Eldrigde¡¯s face and discomfort.

    WE HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO BRING ELIS¡¯S MESSAGE TO THE SAGE.

    One of the females strode forward, she was similarly armored and looked enraged, she shouted out in a much less impressive voice.  ¡°Bow down!  We are heralds of Elis, the Sun God.  We bear his message to the wayward and evil race of man.  Your race is not worthy of Elis¡¯s messengers, so plant your faces in the dirt and await the message with shame in your hearts.¡±

    ¡®Overbearing¡¯ He knew the Kindred could be overbearing in the extreme, but he didn¡¯t expect them to be THIS overbearing.  His proud heart loathed what he was doing but he couldn¡¯t argue.  If Elis had come before him he would have licked the ground, he stepped on if it would lift the curse.  He couldn¡¯t argue with a simple pressing of his face to the ground.  Acting quickly, knowing the other humans were following his actions, he bowed his head to the ground, and squeezed his eyes closed hoping against hope that the others followed his action quickly.  They must have because this Terani continued talking.

    YOU HAVE SINNED ELDRIDGE.

    It was the last words he would ever hear.

 Chapter 22 - Powerless

    Jace was bowing with the others, but unlike the others who were squeezing their eyes shut as if expecting the sun to fall from the sky and their world to end, he was watching these strange people (?).  He knew the woman who demanded they bow saw him looking, however she didn¡¯t seem to be upset by it, so he kept watching.

    They were a strange people.  The way these humans were acting they didn¡¯t know who they were any more than he did.  However, Eldridge certainly did seem to know.  He was acting as if these 7 people could destroy the caravan.  Jace carefully studied them.  Unlike the humans of this world, these people were clean, clean shaven their hair color wasn¡¯t some variation on grey or blonde, and their armor looked like something out of a high fantasy story.  It looked like what he imagined scales of a dragon might look like, though clearly they were liquored metal of some sort.  These people were taller then the humans too.  Combined with the strange eyes these people should be Kindred.

    The kindred were not a large topic in his studies.  It mentioned they were nearly impossible to talk to, and were the result of men and dragon copulation.  Not much information about the mysterious people.

    He was jerked out of his memories when this Terani finished the word ¡°sinned¡± as the woman who was standing at his shoulder dematerialized in front of his eyes.  He struggled to make sense of what he saw.  She simply vanished into a black cloud of smoke, living smoke, because that smoke then moved at an impossible speed next to Eldridge, and rematerialize as the woman, a blade in her hand as it cut Eldridge¡¯s head in half.  Straight through his brain, his body collapsing to the ground twitching as blood shot out of what was left of the head.

    Several of the wizards leapt up followed by most of the guardsmen and started to attack the woman, Jace himself jerked out of his kneeling position and seized Sam¡¯s hand dragging her behind him.  The other kindred then moved and started slaughtering anyone who opposed.  It was brutal and efficient.  All of them could move around almost as if teleporting.  Blink and they were there, blink and they were somewhere else.  You could sort of track them if you watched the clouds of black smoke, however they moved from one place to another so fast as to make even that telltale impossible to use reliably.

    That ability was already a cheat like skill.  What really terrified him was how inhuman their battle skill was.  He saw Teral actually land a blow on one of the Kindred, not because he caught the kindred by surprise, but because the kindred obviously felt no danger from that poorly maintained sword Teral carried around. He actually caught that blade in one hand, before ripping the blade out of the Teral¡¯s hand.  Then jammed it down Teral¡¯s throat.  Simply monstrous.  So monstrous he felt the overwhelming desire to flee.  Fighting these things was not possible.  He didn¡¯t even have a sword.  The sword he had been using to train was a practice blade, and he didn¡¯t take it with him.

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    He was about to run, when he noticed the sly young man looking straight at him.  His snake like face his eagerness, was screaming a warning in Jace¡¯s mind.  So instead of running he stood still watching as the slaughter came to an end.  Most of the guardsmen were dead.  It was hard to see, frankly he felt rocked emotionally as he had gotten to know all of them fairly well over the past few months.  Seeing them torn apart without really able to fight back was horrifying.  Far more then he thought it would be.  Of the wizards only one was left.  He was the oldest one apart from Eldridge, his hair silver and face careworn.  He never left his knees, nor raised a hand.  Of the once 22 people just 5 were left including himself and Sam.

    Through it all Terani never moved an inch.  He wasn¡¯t touched with any of the blood or carnage, nor was he injured in the brief exchange of spells that occurred right before the resisting wizards were butchered.

    The woman looked at the five remaining humans then shouted out in a loud voice.  ¡°What are you doing on your feet vermin?  The herald of Elis is still speaking.¡±

    Dropping to his knees, the ground was now covered in pools of blood, he was kneeling in one caused by the still bleeding, bisected corpse of the carriage driver who had knelt next to him and tried to run when the violence started.  Then he pressed his forehead into the ground, feeling more powerless then at any point since his abduction to this world.  He didn¡¯t even think he could put up token resistance if these kindred decided to kill him.  He would probably just die in that preverbal ditch that he imagined would be his fate if he couldn¡¯t defend himself all those months ago.  The numbing horror of all those people dead was being overwhelmed by the growing obsession with his own life ending arbitrarily here in some forgotten place for reasons he didn¡¯t understand.  It was a type of unbridled terror he simply wasn¡¯t ready to face so it started to affect his thinking¡­ or stop it to be more exact.

    Terani started to speak again in that commanding otherworldly tone ¡°ELDRIDGE DIED FOR PRESUMPTION.¡±  Then stopped speaking.

    The woman smirked, looking at the still bleeding and in some cases, twitching corpses.  Then spoke up.  ¡°The augury is at an end.¡±

 Chapter 23 - Trapped

    The snake like young man strode forward and spoke up.  ¡°What of these other worms?¡±  Jace straightened from his kneeling, and watched the young man as he approached, the girl in black following close behind.

    ¡°Child, Elis spoke naught of them.  Though it looks to me as if that large one is not affected by the curse.¡±  The woman spoke again, no longer in the venomous tone from before but like that of a doting mother.

    ¡°May I take that slave?  I would like very much to see how much pain a human female can take before dying.¡±  Something atrocious just left the foul young man¡¯s mouth.  Jace pushed Sam behind him again, knowing it was futile but not knowing what else to do.

    His mind was racing in circles.  He knew he couldn''t win a battle against these people.  He didn''t even know where to start.  But he really couldn''t believe his life would end here.  It all seemed so pointless.

    ¡°Torturing pets to death?  Disgusting.  What have you taught this boy of yours Verna?¡±  Surprisingly one of the other blood splattered Kindred spoke up in objection.  The woman Verna looked irritated at the comment and who it came from, then looked at her son.

    ¡°If you want something child you must pay for it, I did not raise a thief.  Talk to the slave girl¡¯s master and reach a compromise.¡±  More horrible words came from the horrible redheaded woman¡¯s mouth.

    Jace¡¯s mind kept running and running around in circles trying to think of a way out of this situation with his life in tact.  He even for a brief shameful moment had a thought about abandoning Sam to these monsters if it meant he could live through this.  However that was only a moment, it wasn¡¯t until this moment he realized there were some things that were worth more then his life.  Pride, he¡¯d rather die as a good person then as filth.  If his journey was to end here, then he¡¯d do it with his head high, not begging on his knees.

    ¡®Of course if begging would keep me alive...¡¯ he thought. It seemed there were some limits to his pride.

    The Kindred youth strode forward and looked at Jace, then he pulled out a single coin called a ¡°Tal¡± after ¡°Talon¡± for ¡°dragon¡¯s talon¡±, even with the old king long gone the currency was still named after him.  His mind ran in circles on some irrelevant trivia, which he didn¡¯t fully remember, as he couldn¡¯t recall why exactly it was called a dragon talon, or how that related to coins.  The coin of course was gold.  And from what he knew of the world¡¯s currency, 10 human slaves wouldn¡¯t be enough flesh for a single tal of gold.  So the boy was technically and massively overpaying for her.

    He shook his head.  ¡°She¡¯s not for sale.¡± This time he purposefully spoke those words in the dragon language.  He wanted to change the situation, and the eyes of these Kindred didn¡¯t see him as an equal.  As long as they saw him as a creature to be trampled he probably would be trampled if they got irritated enough.

    The kindred boy scowled.  ¡°Everything is for sale.  This is far too much for a human slave.  Are you an idiot?¡±  He spoke back in the dragon tongue.

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    Truthfully this was a poorly considered course of action, entering into negotiations in a language he couldn¡¯t say he was proficient in.  The mother stepped in at this point.  ¡°Look at the humans, see how he is shielding her and that white robe?  He is in love with this slave, my child.  Of course he¡¯d reject an offer of a single tal.¡±

    The young man smirked and nodded.  ¡°Everything is for sale.  I want to know what your price is for this woman, at what point does a human sell his love?¡±  He took a pouch of coins off his belt and upended it into his palm.  20 or 30 Tals of gold were resting in his hand.

    It didn¡¯t take Jace a second to shake his head. ¡°Not for sale.¡±

    ¡°Nonsense.  I¡¯d sell my own sister for this amount of gold.  My slave isn¡¯t even worth this much gold.  How stupid do you sound?¡±  The boorish young man complained.

    The woman had a look of irritation on her face.  ¡°Forget about it.  I will buy you a slave girl so you can torment to death later.  Leave it be.¡±

    ¡°But I want this one, I want to do it here.  I want to pull her arms off and watch her scream while this worm watches, a bag of gold in his hands¡­ ¡±  Monstrous young man started complaining.

    Jace¡¯s nerves were on edge, he noted that the other kindred were going to be no help, they mostly seemed like they saw the whole thing distasteful.  But what really bothered him was the mother¡¯s eyes when the kid started whining.  He had a bad premonition that she was the type of mother who gave in to her little monster¡¯s every selfish whim.  He knew the only reason the young monster was even talking and not simply taking her was because of his mother.  If she decided talking was pointless she might kill him herself.  Still he couldn¡¯t see a good way out of this without selling Sam.

    Shaking his head, he spoke quietly.  ¡°You¡¯ll have to kill me if you want her.¡±

    The young man looked at the mother pleadingly.  The mother glanced at the other kindred.  The young man seemed to have an idea and grinned viciously.

    ¡°I know a way to solve this.  We can play Meri¡¯ack for her.  If I win, I get your slave, if you win you get this gold.¡±

    Jace made a face.  Meri¡¯ack was not a game he could win against a Kindred.  It was a kindred game after-all.  He beat Teral before by relying on alcohol and waiting for Teral¡¯s adrenalin to wear out and shock to set in.  When shock starts to set in it becomes hard to hold your blade steady, your hands shake too much, furthermore your will erodes.  He was relying on some very amateur understanding of human biology to defeat Teral.  He had no knowledge about kindred biology.  While they were human-dragon hybrids, he knew their bodies were nowhere near as weak as a human.  Still he needed a way out, a path to victory before the mom just slaughtered him.

    Unfortunately he couldn''t figure out what that might be.

 Chapter 24 - Talking Sense to the Kindred is Impossible

    ¡°How is that fair to me?  I already turned down selling her for that bag of gold.  Now you want me to flay my own skin for it?  Furthermore, I¡¯ve never played that game.  But everyone knows it¡¯s a kindred game.  So you want me to play YOUR rigged game?  For all I know your people don¡¯t even feel pain when your skin is torn off.  No, I would only play your game if the stakes were much much higher.  You¡¯d have to put up an equally painful to lose bounty.  See I own next to nothing except for this slave.  You¡¯re asking a man to put up everything he owns on a suspicious game.  The only way the wagers could be equal is if you put up your slave there that sister you mentioned and your mother and father if you have one still breathing, for stakes in this bet.¡± He made the demanded stakes as high and absurd as possible rather than outright rejecting it for fear the mother would simply kill him.

    His heart sunk when he saw the look on the young man¡¯s face.   ¡°Mother, sister and my slave plus this gold? Bold.  But now we¡¯re talking.¡±

    Jace couldn¡¯t believe his ears and looked at the mother, who seemed completely happy with the fact that negotiations were progressing.  He started to realize that these kindred were simply not logical creatures as he knew of it.

    ¡°Wait, before you say yes, I need guarantees.  If I made this bet with another human I wouldn¡¯t trust him to keep his word.  What says you and your mother or sister or slave just kill me if I win?  How would I control the kindred slaves, they¡¯d be my property, but I have no guarantee they¡¯d do anything I want.¡±  He was speaking rapidly hoping his additional concerns were insulting enough to shatter the negotiations that suddenly started.

    The mother actually looked insulted at the suggestion that they¡¯re renege on the bet.  Either they were one hundred percent certain they¡¯d win or they were an insane people.

    The young man then spoke ¡°A dragon never goes back on his word.¡±

    ¡°Yes but humans do all the time.  And, honestly, you¡¯re half human too.¡±  They looked disgusted at what he just said.  Even the group standing to the side.

    ¡°No kindred would break his word.¡±  The man Telani spoke up.

    Seeing nothing but a tragic end for him and Sam, he knew he probably had dug his own grave on this one.  Because even if he lost the game, he had no intention to give her up and watch her die in front of him.  He¡¯d never forgive himself.  Had he lost to Teral in that prior contest he planned on killing the man regardless of the consequences.  He never had the intention to bet another human life on a stupid torture game.

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    The young man suddenly smiled a wicked smile and said ¡°I accept, though only for my slave and mother.  My sister is not mine to give.  She¡¯s married.  When I said before I¡¯d sell her for these coins it was hypothetical, ¡®if I had ownership I would.¡¯ Type of thing.  Good?¡±

    Jace stared at the horrible young man and sighed, knowing he was looking at an open grave.  He looked at the young man and spoke quietly, aiming for one last attempt to shatter negotiations.  ¡°Plus your sword and armor.  Since you cannot bet your sister, your armor and sword will do.¡±

    ¡°DEAL!¡±

    Jace simply couldn¡¯t look at the young man and looked sadly at Sam a long moment.  She had sort of a hopeless look on her face, she probably was thinking about this as a ¡®bad¡¯ end as well.

    Then he looked back at the young man.  ¡°Well where do you want to do it.  I¡¯d rather not sit in a pool of blood smelling corpses while we flay our flesh.  Since you¡¯re the challenger in this one you go first correct?¡±

    The young man nodded and said in a patronizing tone ¡°My name is Varngus.  Show me what a human is worth¡±

    ¡°Jace¡±

    Surprisingly, despite Meri¡¯ack being a Kindred game, the other kindred didn¡¯t seem to be interested in it.  Unlike the humans of this world, the Kindred seemed to find the game to be something other than entertainment.    They moved 20 yards off the road, the surviving humans followed to watch.  Likely because they were afraid to do anything that might upset the Kindred around them.

    Varngus suddenly started the game, pulling out a shining silver blade and flaying a thin strip of skin from his chest.  Being the challenger, Varngus got to choose where the skin came from and how much was peeled.  But of course he had to go first too.

    Jace decided to see if Varngus would suffer similarly to a human if he waited and simply sat there and watched him bleed.  Time passed and to his horror he realized he could see the skin knitting closed after a while.  Yes, Kindred would never lose this game.  Varngus only watched him with an amused expression on his face.  Yes, Kindred would never lose this game.

    Jace felt dead inside.  It was like he was drowning in the dark and couldn¡¯t tell the direction the surface was in.  He could see no possible course of victory for him.  He had no confidence he could flay his own skin without making a noise of pain.  He was no superhero, or fictional film hero.  When he was cut, it hurt.  With no other options before him but to try, fail and die, he really wanted to just launch himself at Varngus¡¯s throat and get cut down by one of the kindred, or Varngus himself.

 Chapter 25 - Meriéˆ¥æªƒck

    Sam¡¯s hand on his back didn¡¯t make him feel any better.  It only made it worse.  He then thought about all of the effort he put in to not end up dead in this place and make it back to Earth.  Exceed.  How easy is it to say that word?  He tried and exceeded.  And then ran up against reality.  There was always someone better in this world.  He was no match for these monsters.  5 Earth months in a dark cave honing his will to ¡°exceed¡± and it¡¯s shatter the first real life threatening situation he finds himself in.

    He hated that

    He hated the powerlessness

    He hated his weakness.

    He hated how he ALWAYS half assed everything.

    His self loathing reached a peak as he stared at the hunting knife.  The man he won this off of was dead on the road.  He twirled it in his fingers and pondered that for a moment.  He had been forced to watch all those people die.  And now because he was weak he''d be forced to watch Sam die, or die in a ditch right along next to her.  He didn''t want to die on this alien world.  Seizing his knife he cut into his flesh on his chest and cut and ripped a strip of flesh off.  It hurt less than he feared.  Though he still didn¡¯t see how he was going to win, at least he started the game.

    Varngus quickly cut away another strip on his chest, right next to the first one.

    Jace, seizing the momentum and no longer thinking about what is going to happen shortly, made another cut and ripped another strip of flesh off.

    Varngus cut another strip, this one from his arm

    Jace cut a strip from his arm.  The pain was blinding

    Varngus cut another strip from his stomach this time

    Jace cut a strip from his stomach, then stopped his hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold the knife any longer.  He no longer was thinking about anything.  All his mind was focused on was the blinding pain of ripping flesh off his body.  He was flinching from it, and was getting very light headed.  He still hadn¡¯t made a sound honestly he wasn¡¯t really conscious of making noise or not anymore.

    Varngus removed his pants and boots, and sat back down nude, then circumcised himself.

    Jace stared in disbelief.  He almost laughed, he felt an insane laugh bubbling up after seeing that.  This was insanity.  He might not have been in that cave anymore but he still was in [hell].  He wasn''t even sure what he should do anymore, but then figured dying naked was no different then dying with clothing on.  So he stood up and removed his pants and boots and held his own dick, which already was circumcised.  He looked at Varngus, by the rules of the game, unable to ask the question.  Varngus seemed to understand the question and simply cut off a strip of flesh from the sole of his own foot.  Jace was shaken at how Varngus not only circumcised himself without a peep, but then CREDITED him with the cut for free.  How confident can you be you¡¯ll win?

    Mechanically, Jace peeled the flesh from the sole of his foot.  This cut turned jace¡¯s sight red with pain.  All he could do was shriek soundlessly at the pain of tearing this flesh.   Time seemed to stop.  Part of him, in the deep dark recesses of his mind was shrieking silently ¡®stop, just stop, no more, I can¡¯t handle anymore, just let him kill the slave, what does it matter anymore.  Stop just stop.  If you stop you can be healed, stop.¡¯  The small voice was eroding his will badly, not that he had much will beyond a keen sense of self-loathing.  He knew he wasn¡¯t doing this anymore to live.  He was doing this to punish himself for how weak he was.  A solitary act of defiance before his life came to an end.  He knew he was crying.  He could feel tears on his face.

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    Yet somehow no noise came from his lips and he was able to see that Varngus was making another cut, on the other sole of his foot.  He was terrified of that pain, yet he couldn¡¯t stop his trembling hands from making the cut.  It took him 4 tries to make the cut.  It took two more to rip the skin off.

    His own blood was starting to make a pool on the ground under him.  The bastard across from him was barely bleeding.  He looked cool and calm as if these cuts were happening to someone else.  Just before he gave in to despair, he noted a bead of sweat on the forehead of the young man across from him.  That single bead of sweat.  It wasn¡¯t hot enough for the sun to cause that.  It cleared his mind.  Like an oasis full of water in the desert to a man dying of thirst, he felt hope spring into his heart, just a glimmer.  ¡®That¡¯s right, why would the Kindred play this game with each other if they could never lose?¡¯  He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm his breathing.  The only thing he could think of was the ¡°pulse of the world¡± breathing so he used that to calm himself, he found his mind drifting to the spell form

    The intricacies of the form seemed to separate his mind from the pain in his body, his shaking came to a stop. He gripped the dagger in a firm hand, and waited for Varngus to make another cut.  All the while for some reason he kept spinning the spell form in his head as if he was looking for a glyph.  There was a glyph he had never seen but for some reason he knew was there.  He started narrowing down his search toward glyphs he suspected were related.  Life, definitely life.  Suddenly he stopped spinning the form, and sure enough right in front of his eyes was the word ¡°courage¡±.  Turning the glyph again he found more words related to the mind, as well as the glyph for blood.  He was right.  There were a LOT more words hidden in the design.

    Heading back to courage he studied the design absently while watching Varngus make another cut.  This time he winced.  It was under his arm by his armpit.  With the glyph in his mind and breathing settled he made the cut without even a flinch on his face.  He wondered if he had lost his mind.  He had to have lost his mind, he was flaying his own skin.  So this meant he might have been dying, because it simply didn¡¯t hurt anymore.

    Varngus started making a cut down on his hip next to his manhood, and a yelp escaped from his lips.

    Looking at the Kindred youth he pulled what little skin he had left from his circumcision up, it wasn¡¯t really enough for a cut, and cut that remaining skin off his dick, then he made the cut on his hip, assuming the length and design of the cut based on the cut Varngus already attempted.  He made both cuts with steady hands and a broken mind, while a glyph form spun absently inside his mind.  He had to be insane.  Could he be insane?  When did he become insane?  his thoughts were scattered, his head still felt light.

    This endless contest was at an end.  Now he¡¯d find out if Kindred really kept their word.  For some reason he didn''t really care anyway.  As long as they could leave and someone would heal these wounds.  The blood loss was a bit much and made his mind swim.  And he supposed it was supposed to be hurting too.

 Chapter 26 - Hero worship

    Sa¡¯manatha was silently awaiting her fate next to Jace.  The moment the caravan was attacked until the end of the game of Meri¡¯ack she hugged to his side and tried to stay out of sight.  She was surprised during the attack that Jace didn¡¯t make a run for it.  She wanted to flee the moment the killing started, but he just stood there and watched.  When she saw the driver of their carriage get cut down right in front of her face when he turned to flee she nearly collapsed on the spot.  Had it not been for Jace standing still as if everything would be ok, she probably would have broke down into hysterical crying.  She was surprised about her keen need to live.  She never really had all that much interest in living before.  Before meeting Jace.  She made plans in her head, fantasies really of casting herself in front of a kindred blade to save Jace''s life.  It was a brief morbid fantasy, which she couldn''t say why she entertained.

    When that young Kindred man Varngus demanded her for a tal of gold she actually feared Jace would sell her.  That tal was worth far more than she was.  When he upped the price to 30 or so, she had already made peace with her life.  Jace could have lived a life of comfort with that type of coin, what did he owe the people of this world for dragging him into their troubles.  Yet he turned it down instantly.  She didn¡¯t know why he did.  Her life wasn''t worth a fraction of that amount.  She could tell the woman was looking for a reason to kill him.  If he didn¡¯t sell her he probably would die.

    Then he led that young man into a game of Meri¡¯ack.  At first she thought it was the Kindred¡¯s idea but as they started their face off and she went back through the conversation up to that point, she felt like Jace had intentionally lead Varngus into suggesting a game of Meri''ack.  Once that thought bloomed in her head, she started to review how expertly he angled the conversation.  She wasn''t sure if she was right until the third strip of flesh was ripped off.  Jace had tears in his eyes, and clearly in excruciating pain, yet not a hint of noise came from him.  With every strip of flesh ripped out her heart soared higher and higher.  She grew more and more confident that this had been Jace''s plan all along.  There was nothing he couldn''t do.  The death sentence she thought was guaranteed was removed from their heads.

    Not only did he valiantly outwit a Kindred but he beat one at a game of Meri¡¯ack.  She thought she¡¯d explode with excitement at the turn of events.  Her mind went over the last turns of the battle again and again, there Jace was sitting like a god, his chiseled muscles barely flinching as he ripped one stripe of flesh off after another.  It was an awe inspiring scene.  She almost thought she should worship the sight.  A glance at the other humans showed a similar look of respect and awe.  A glance at the kindred showed, approval.

    From start to finish every single step he took was treading a narrow path to survival.  She never felt so safe around someone as she suddenly felt near Jace.  He clearly was chosen by prophacy to save mankind.

    Sa''manatha watched the beautiful kindred woman walked over to their bloody bodies and rested a hand on each head, when she took it away both men were healed as if they had never been injured.  It was strange but she felt no danger from the woman, no fear she''d suddenly try to kill Jace.  After the past hour''s events she was certain that Jace was guided by the hand of Elis through this danger.  The beautiful woman then knelt down and pressed her forehead into the ground and spoke.  ¡°This slave pledges herself to follow her master.¡±  Sa''manatha felt those words were right and felt pleased at hearing them.  She was proud for Jace.  The woman in black also stepped forward and duplicated the gesture and said the same lines.

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    Jace stood up and snagged the bag of gold then looked at the two women with a complicated expression.  He was nude, but rather then looking akward or ugly, he looked like a God judging mortals.  He then looked at Varngus for a moment, and walked over the young man¡¯s armor and weapons.  He dressed in his old blood stained clothing and gathered the won goods, and walked back to the carriage depositing them.  He then walked back to the prostrating women.

    He looked at her and gave her a one armed hug, the feel of him pressed against her set her heart aflutter, then looked at the two kneeling women.  For the first time all day he looked unsure.  Then he looked at the young man left with just his small cloths and spoke.  ¡°It seems I have some slaves for sale.  Two kindred women.  I¡¯ll take one copper tal for each.¡±

    Varngus did a double take then immediately smiled, though instead of the cruel smile from before it was a much more genuine one.  It was the first time he smiled honestly all day, he walked over to one of the kindred men, and spoke with him.  It looked like the one who admonished his mother about his behavior.  The kindred man handed him something.  The young man returned and said ¡°I¡¯ll buy the one in black.  But I must warn you that her market value is far higher than a single tal of copper.  When she was purchased it was for 8 Tals of silver.  I would feel guilty taking her for a tal less then 8 silver.

    Jace looked perplexed.  ¡°I said I have two slaves for sale.  Not one.  Your mother I think you¡¯d want your mother as well correct?¡±

    The young man replied ¡°We don¡¯t enslave out own tribe.  Even if I wanted her free I cannot buy it for her.¡±

    Jace smiled then took the 8 silver.  Then he turned to the woman Verna (?), and said ¡°Stand up, you I now free of your slavery.¡±  He looked rather amused with himself and offered the 8 tals to her to ''start a new life.''

    The woman stood gracefully and smiled and replied ¡°Kindred do not dispose of their oaths so easily.  I swore to serve you as my master, and so shall I do so.¡±

    The words brought almost a look of panic from Jace face as he glanced at Varngus a moment, the looked back at her, ¡°you know you¡¯re disobeying me right?¡±

    ¡°Some orders I can¡¯t follow.¡± Her answer was smooth as silk.

    Jace looked at Varngus helplessly.  Varngus simply shrugged and replied ¡°What do you want me to do, you won her now she¡¯s your problem.¡±

    For the first time that day, she felt that Jace had been defeated.

 Chapter 27 - End of a journey

    Jace would have been disgruntled if his heart had not been so heavy.  Working with the other 4 living humans, they cleared the road of the corpses, the humans of course mostly spent their time looting corpses, while he mostly wondered why he was bothering to bury them when the other humans didn¡¯t understand why he would waste so much effort over their bodies.

    The kindred left right after Verna refused to leave his side.  He was worried about that one.  She might have been playing the role of the loyal slave but she seemed to only play it when she felt like it.  Furthermore, she continued to look at the other humans as if they were filthy beasts destroying the scenery.  Of course he felt a bit sympathetic with her point of view.  The filth humans typically lived in could make you feel like you¡¯d need a bath just looking at them.

    He almost laughed when he asked her to help bury the bodies.  The look on her face was priceless.  Almost as if she wanted to say no, but since his order was reasonable for a slave she couldn¡¯t decide how to turn the question around.  For the first time she was shooting a very displeased look at him.  The turnaround made him feel a little better, though it did nothing for the overbearing feeling of helplessness he had at burying people who, were companions at the least.  Friends even in some ways.

    When the bodies were buried (it went faster than he expected thanks in part to the magic from the wizard), they transferred goods between the different carriages, roped up the now riderless Harkan, and continued down the road.

    Jace was doing his best to not think about the contest he won.  That was a hell he¡¯d never enter again if he couldn¡¯t help it.  That was a pain and terror he¡¯d never face again.  He vowed over and over again in his heart.  He also noticed the look on the face of Sam whenever he caught her looking at him.  The looks of longing and desire were gone, now the stars were in her eyes.  He couldn¡¯t understand why that look so unnerved him and made him feel so guilty.

    A few hours later they reached their destination.  Yet another shed on the edge of some field.  He could see the farm in the distance.  The crops here had a very unappetizing look to them.  It looks like a type of meat, oozing with puss and blood, growing out of a purple stalk.  The smell was strangely familiar.  Staring at the grotesque plants he pondered for a moment then his face paled.  Turning to Sam he asked a question he dreaded the answer to.

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    ¡°Are those Curran fruit?¡±

    She glanced at the field and nodded.  ¡°Yes, that looks like it.  How did you know?¡±

    ¡°The smell.¡±  His mouth twisted.  Of course, that is just how this world of Althos works.  He finds one thing good about it.  Then the more he learned about it the more monstrous it gets.  He was beginning to dread what type of meat he had been eating as well.  And decided never to ask.  He had a growing dread that it was the flesh of something that could talk.

    He turned to the Kindred woman Verna.  It was time to get rid of her.  ¡°Verna, Go home.  This is an order.  You can¡¯t come where we¡¯re going.  No non-human can.¡±

    The Kindred woman looked amused then spoke ¡°You mean I can¡¯t go to your academy in the middle of that lonely sea?¡±  The other humans froze on hearing her words.  ¡°Of course I know about your accadamy.  All the dragons and kindred do.  You¡¯ve done a good job hiding it from the Fairies and other ¡®lesser¡¯ races but remember, your former king was a dragon.  Why wouldn¡¯t we know?  Besides.  I haven¡¯t been to a beach in ages.  So you can¡¯t send me back now, when I¡¯m one teleport portal away from one.¡±

    He shrugged his shoulders.  His spirit and will to fight had been drained from him earlier.  Right now he just was hoping this academy wasn¡¯t some cave buried under the ground, and the bed critters weren¡¯t too bad.

    It took almost an hour moving all their goods into the circle.  They really should have left something behind with the bodies.  It was just too much for 5, no 6 people to carry.  Of course the Kindred woman didn''t carry anything either.  Apparently she didn''t want to catch the curse herself.  Helping humans could be dangerous.  Too much help or the wrong type of help and you''d be marked with that moon, loose the sun and your longevity, and be a slave in the eyes of the world.  He found himself wondering if that would apply to him if he tried to lift the curse.  Apparently bleeding and cutting himself for some slaves wasn''t enough "help" to get him cursed.  Perhaps he was fully immune from it.  It was something to worry about.

    They stepped into the blinding light of the opening portal.  Before his eyes could clear from the bright light of the teleportation, his nose was assaulted by the clean smell of the sea.

 Chapter 28 - New home

    Jace¡¯s eyes cleared and he took in his new temporary home.  This location certainly looked idealic.  They were standing on a cliff bluff, stretching out into the bay he noticed almost a ring of hills connected to the cliff like a cup.  The edge of the cliff was ringed with white stones near the portal to prevent accidents.  A vibrant orange type of plant life akin to a miniature tulip covered the ground giving off a nice clean floral scent.  After the trauma of the Curran fruit part of him mussed that the flowers must be poisonous in some way, though when he considered they lined a path to the front gate of a huge white fortress, he figured he probably was being too paranoid.  Probably.

    The fortress looked like something out of a fantasy art book.  It was white, with huge hundred-foot-tall walls that stretched for miles, purple stone lined the portcullis and crenellations, in fact all the battlements were purple stone.  The lines were simply impossible.  He knew a little of architecture.  He had toyed a little with the idea of becoming an architect when he was in his junior year of high school.  He had seen all the grand buildings in Washington DC, and even been to some civil war era forts.  He had some idea of what a stone building should look like.  These buildings were organic.  The walls had a curve to them that looked impossible.  The towers had bowed walls.  There wasn¡¯t a straight line in sight.  He couldn¡¯t figure out if what he was looking at was an illusion or some sort of magical building technique.  Behind the keep maybe 15 or 20 miles from here on the side of a volcanic mountain (the mountain was cone shaped with a caldera looking top high in the clouds), was a huge white palace carved into the side of the black volcanic stone.   It had to be huge for him to make it out from this distance.  Judging by the smoke from the top of the mountain it was still an active volcano, but he saw no signs of damage from a recent eruption anywhere.

    The island itself looked like the creation of two volcanos.  Once he had noticed the main one, he realized the teleport portal and this cliff face behind him might just been the edge of the caldera of a second volcano.  The beaches were curious, on the right hand side was a long thin black sand beach.  On the left hand side of the island appeared to be a white sand beach.  The water was a blue that almost stole his breath away.  The air felt clean and cool.  The volcano with the palace on it was gigantic.  It¡¯s top was shrouded in clouds, and clearly had snow on it.  There was a river of water that formed from the snow melt and took shape partway down the mountain, which looked like it winded its way in and out of the purple and red forest of these weird fern-trees, before passing through the back side of the fort and existing under the wall and into the sea at the white sand beach.

    Plenty of those flying lizards were in the sky, and he thought he saw something long and sinuous move through the shallows on the black sand beach.  Some sort of sea serpent maybe?  A type of dragon?  Definitely larger than any whale he ever heard of on earth.  His heart was lifted looking at the water.  He knew he would have to learn about the dangers of the sea here.  That thought tempered his excitement.

    Still his maternal grandfather was a sailor.  He actually had some sailing trophies named after him.  It was sailing that lead to his parents meeting.  Part of his love of swimming was seeded by his parent¡¯s passion for sailing.  He never was more than an amateur sailor on Earth, unlike his parents he had never sailed competitively, though he had crewed on his parent¡¯s boats while they sailed competitively.  He loved being on a sailboat many time more than being on a motor boat.  There was a romance to sailing that was probably planted deep in his heart when he was just a toddler being taken out sailing on his father¡¯s Lightning.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Seeing those beautiful sapphire seas, he hoped not everything about this world was hell.  He found he was desperately praying to the many gods of this world who¡¯s names he only half remembered, just thinking about that desire.

    There was a group of people dressed in brown and black robes hurrying from the gate of the immense fortress.  They were wizards or mages or whatever they called themselves, and it looked like they were all men.  Idly he wondered about the lack of female mages.  Considering the value these people were putting on magic (understandably), he couldn¡¯t imagine they would treat females with a talent for magic in the same inhuman manner they treated females everywhere.  That seemed counterproductive.  Though judging by how these humans acted, he also probably wouldn¡¯t be too surprised to find a breeding farm inside those walls with all the magically capable women chained down for breeding purposes to make more wizards.  He was surprised at how dark his mind had gotten since coming to this place.  Dismissing those dark concerns, he paid attention to the wizards who started talking to the older wizard who survived the journey.

    In the group of wizards at the back was a young man with pale grey/blond hair who looked like a student.  He only assumed he was a student because of the red hooded cloak he was wearing.  He was looking at the portal as if expecting someone else to pop out. From time to time his eyes traveled over the small party lingering longest on Jace.  Though what he was expecting to see, Jace probably wasn¡¯t it, because he kept glancing at the portal restlessly.

    Suddenly the portal behind them ignited, cutting off the quiet conversation the wizards were having and drawing the eyes of the young man in back.  Jace himself looked back at the portal and examined the newcomers.  It was an old wise looking wizard with a small pack on his back, with a young man (?), with short grey hair and feminine features.  The young man looked far too delicate for masculinity, had you put a wig on him (?) he wouldn¡¯t have doubt it was a pretty girl.  The young man was as clean as the wizard he was traveling with, which meant he was cleaner then Jace in his blood stained and dusty clothing.  There was almost something regal about how the young man held himself, almost as if he was the son of privilege or something.  He was definitely a lady killer.  He could imagine that young man (?) would be very popular with a certain subset of the female population which liked delicate looking men.

    The wizard quickly hurried forward, and then stopped when he noticed Jace, a look of surprise on his face.  He studied Jace closely then, then continued on toward the small group of wizards.

    After a few minutes of quiet conversation, the wizards broke up and an emissary stepped forward.  ¡°Jace, Kay¡¯rin?  Please step forward.¡± Jace stepped up, followed by the grey haired boy.

    ¡°We welcome you to the academy.  We will be performing a full elemental affinity assessment test in the main hall.  Please follow us.¡±

    Glancing at Kay¡¯rin for a moment, up close he looked even more feminine, Jace spoke up.  ¡°I have slaves; they¡¯ll need a place to stay.¡±

    The old man who was speaking for the group smile and said ¡°Of course, well you¡¯ll have your own room.  All students here can keep their slaves in the room.  How many are there?¡±

    Wincing at the answer he half expected he had a premonition that he might go grey like everyone else before he turned thirty, he said quickly said ambiguously, ¡°My bed plus two more beds.  No less.¡±

    The old man looked at the white robed Sam behind him with a look of surprise, then he smiled as if the request made sense.  Jace had a bad feeling that something had been misunderstood.

 Chapter 29 - Sometimes retreat is the only option

    Jace cursed silently.  He was pretty sure after the show this afternoon he could get this issue resolved, but right now he was looking at a naked kindred woman and a naked human girl, and bed barely large enough for 3 with two baby beds next to it.  Verna was posing like a cool beauty, she easily could have had a centerfold in playboy.  With long legs, perfect skin and nice womanly hips and breasts.  Her straight flame red hair had a little orange in it to almost give the illusion of liquid fire, while the small patch of red scales at the small of her back and the back of her ankles only accentuated the cream color of her skin.  Sam was sitting on the edge of the bed, was posing in what she probably thought was a provocative way trying desperately to compete with the fire haired beauty on the other side.  However next to the kindred woman she looked like a candle next to a bonfire.  While part of his heart, the deeply perverted part of every man¡¯s heart, was crying with joy, the predatory look in the eyes of the kindred woman, and the uncertain lost puppy dog look in the eyes of Sam, was all the warning he needed to know this would be a horrible mistake.  This was a dangerous moment as he had to admit the vicious kindred woman was definitely in his strike zone, and against his will his little man definitely was betraying him.

    Pondering how to fix this situation before he did something he would certainly regret later he escaped into his memory of the ¡°welcoming ceremony¡± in the central hall.  Apparently they were rather late in arriving as almost 30 would be students were waiting in a grand hall made of white stone.  The ceiling was a huge dome, with a beautiful painting on it.  The painting depicted the night sky, and a number of constellations were depicted as the gods they represented.

    He had to admit the scale of the building surpassed his expectations.  He could easily imagine a full grown dragon (as described to him) easily and comfortably resting under the dome.  There was a raised platform and a dull stone in the middle of it.  Apparently, as he had heard months before, that stone would shine in the color of your potential.  Potential was important for magic.  Generally speaking most magicians would reach their full potential within 5 years of starting their study of magic.  Occasionally a magician could surpass their potential, but only by one level, but those were rare events.  It was much more common for students to fall short of their potential.

    He was actually starting a little later than most.  Most people started studying here around their 15th or 16th year, though some started later.  Glancing at the group of potential students he only saw two or three who might have been his age or older.  It was hard to tell, as most of them looked as filthy as most outside humans tended to do.

    Eventually they started to be tested, one at a time.  Someone was orchestrating this testing, as he was last in line, with Kay¡¯rin right next to him.  Sure enough one after another went up and the only one with more potential then something called ¡°warlock¡± was one person who qualified as a ¡°channeler¡±.  It was one of the girls, and she actually started crying tears of relief when she saw the rock turning orange rather than the red all the warlocks tested at.  Those tears would have puzzled him if he hadn¡¯t noticed the appearance of all of the female disciples in this ¡®academy¡¯ tended toward ragged and frightened.  He had a sneaking suspicion the ¡®witches¡¯ were in for a hard time.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Eventually it was Kay¡¯rin¡¯s turn.  He strode up to the stone, placed his hand on it, and it instantly turned a golden white.  The eyes of the professors looked like they fell out.  They all kept looking at the travel worn wizard with looks of disbelief, and he was looking rather smug.  The proctor suddenly explained the judgement as ¡°Grand Sorcerer¡± level potential.  Which caused an explosion of noise.  Jace only had a vague idea about the levels of magic.  But from what he remembered humans topped out at Grand Wizard.  The only grand sorcerer alive was the dragon king.  He was studying Kay¡¯rin¡¯s face and noticed he didn¡¯t seem surprised at all.

    After the clamor died down Jace¡¯s name was called.  He had no idea what his potential was.  The sage seemed quite satisfied with it, but that meant little.  He pressed his hand on the stone and waited for it to light up.

    Nothing happened at first then it lit up in the dull red of a warlock.  He was a little worried that he just made an ass of himself, worse he had a moment of panic thinking about his need to get home, if he only had that much potential then he would never be able to do it, but he felt something resonating within himself and the stone.  Something that probably had always been there but he had never used.  Calming his breathing time seemed to slow down, as he used the one with the pulse of the world breathing, he merged with that irritating feeling that was rising up within him.  Soon he felt a trickle of something that felt like ice water flowing into his veins and the stone started to rapidly change color, orange, green, yellow, yellow-white, white, white-gold.  The same bright shining white-gold light that was shining when Kay¡¯rin was on stage was shining now.

    In all of human history not once had a human reached Grand Sorcerer.  Now the school had two students with the potential to reach that stage.  Of course there was no roadmap left behind for training to that level.  They would have to reach it on their own.  Still the noise was even more explosive then when Kay¡¯rin was on stage.  It seemed Jace¡¯s huge frame, and bulky build really made a lasting impression on the students.

    After some other formalities he was shown to his room.  Upon entering he had found himself in this situation.  Unsurprisingly, escaping into an unrelated memory didn''t help resolve the growing crisis.  So he grasped onto the first flimsy excuse he could think of.  Getting a stern look on his face he said.  ¡°Looks like those idiots have no idea who we are.  I¡¯ll go talk to them about these impossible quarters.  At the very least I need a window view of the ocean.¡±

    Using that flimsy pretense, he fled, all the while that deeply perverted part of his heart was screaming at him that he was an idiot.  His dick certainly seemed to agree.  But that lost puppy dog look in the eyes of Sam all the memory he needed to silence the conflict in his heart.  He needed to get a separate room for Verna quickly.  She was too close to his ideal woman (in form) for him to trust himself alone near her.

 Chapter 30 - A dressing down and dressing up

    Author¡¯s note:: We are entering into the an arc which will set up the main story arc for the first book.  This launching point will be far less dark than every other part of the book, so for those of you who were enjoying the oppressive atmosphere just know this is a small ¡°reprieve¡± from it.  If you don¡¯t like the slight tone shift just hang with it.  I¡¯ll keep it interesting in its own right, we¡¯ll be back to doom and gloom soon enough.

    When I was storyboarding this plot out, I originally didn¡¯t have them make it to this island, simply had the kindred attack keep them from matching up with the teleportation time.  Ultimately I actually grew a bit depressed and found the story ¡°too dark¡± to finish storyboarding and went back over it to figure out how to give the audience some breathing room.  This is that breathing room.  After I storyboarded in this arc, and changed how certain characters met (Verna was supposed to show up later, but she worked better attaching to them after the kindred attack) I was able to rework the whole story in a way that I think turned out much more interesting, and far easier to read.

    I am very interested in feedback about the tone of the series thus far, and if you find this mini arc too much of a mood whiplash or not.  I tried to keep it from being one, but we are over 43,000 words and 65 pages into the word document I started writing this story in, and I think everyone could use a little break from that oppressive atmosphere.  If you¡¯re curious how far we are into the story.  Know this is the setup for the first of the 3 major arcs.  I figure the arcs probably will all be their own books when it¡¯s all said and done.  I¡¯ve already reached the end of the contiguously pre written material, while I have many scenes written later in the story, and the rest of the story fully storyboarded, we¡¯re now into a situation where I will have to slow down releases a bit.  Everything I release today was written in the past 5 hours or so.

    Enjoy :D

    Standing on a marble balcony with purple stone guard rail, looking out over the black sand beach, he was actually rather happy about the room the staff prepared for him.  The commute was terrible to everywhere.  But that couldn¡¯t be helped.  They had leapt to fulfill his absurd request to a T, and located an old unused room in the central keep which probably was the bedroom for royalty a few thousand years ago.  This room despite the view had gone unused since the death of the old king and his kin.

    Of course the reason for that was the 10 or so story climb up a small circular staircase with an unfortunately open view of the heights you¡¯re scaling.  It was a bit uncomfortable for him to do because the steps were a little bit small for him, for Sam however it became a trial which left her in tears.  Apparently she¡¯s terrified of heights.  He still was thinking about a solution to that problem.  A basket and pulley maybe?

    This world didn¡¯t seem to use pulleys that he¡¯d seen.  It¡¯s one of the 6 basic machines on Earth, and a key point on any sailboat or pretty much any man powered device.  With a good counterweight perhaps he could create a basket and pulley system which Sam could use.  Verna was actually a huge help, when Sam broke down sobbing.  She held her and rocked her and sung to her a haunting and pretty sounding tune without words.  ''The instincts of a parent'' he figured.  Either way he was thankful for her help.  Even if it meant that Sam now followed Verna around like a chick with her mother.  He had a troubling premonition that Verna just made herself a valuable ally in whatever scheme she¡¯s playing at pretending to be his Slave.

    After they had got to the room he had taken Verna aside and tried to speak with her about that little stunt she pulled earlier in the old room.  Explaining that while human female slaves had rules beaten into them to insure the survival of the species, there were no such rules demanding the same from females of another species.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t help mankind¡¯s survival if we¡¯re making more Fairy-human hybrids, if such a thing exists, nor would it help if we reproduced with kindred.¡±  He had said thinking he was settling the problem

    ¡°Is that what you¡¯re doing?  Reproducing to aid humanity''s survival?  Then why are you not down among the students putting your seed in as many of those witches as you can see?¡±  Her reply was made with a taunting tone.  And left him speechless

    ¡°What I see is a human male doing what a human male does.  Stick his dick in whatever is convenient.  Don¡¯t tell me you have some greater purpose for your meaningless rutting.  And what about poor Sa¡¯manatha?  She clearly is completely smitten with you.  But here you are, not telling me that you¡¯re in love with her and would like to respect her by not inviting another woman into your bed.  But instead talking about breeding as if you do not enjoy the coupling in any way whatsoever, but rather are a dutiful and hardworking human trying to keep the population up.  I wonder if Sa¡¯manatha knows she¡¯s being used as a masturbation tool?¡±

    Jace was simply standing there listen to her hammer away at his conscience, he couldn¡¯t find a word to argue back.  What Verna said was completely true.  If he was truly interested in helping humanity survive he¡¯d be fucking every human girl he could legally fuck.  And if he loved Sa¡¯manatha his conversation with Verna would certainly have started there.  He wasn¡¯t sure what to say and felt a great degree of self-loathing rise up inside himself.  So he spoke the truth.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to hurt her.  She¡¯s my friend, of course I know she loves me.  Mating, Fucking, making love to other women would harm her heart.¡±

    ¡°But you already hurt her by not returning those feelings.¡±

    ¡°I know.  But I already told her my heart would never be hers.  I do love her.  I think.  But not in a romantic way.  She¡¯s important to me.¡±

    Verna studied his face then smiled ¡°At least you¡¯re honest with yourself.  I would have been very angry had you denied it.  I¡¯ll not make any more advances that would harm Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s heart.  That is what you want me to say correct?¡±

    He nodded silently.

    ¡°See?  Just be honest with yourself and others.  You¡¯ll be a fine young man, and perhaps you¡¯ll get what you¡¯re looking for.¡±

    ¡°Are you really the mother of Varngus?  I have trouble believing someone as vicious as that has a mother who¡¯d say those last words.¡±

    ¡°Oh?  But it¡¯s a vicious world child.  What type of mother would I be if I did not teach my child how to be even more vicious than this world.  Besides, he¡¯s an honest boy.  If he were so cruel as you seem to think he would have killed you in the melee, even though we were only to kill the resisters and runners.  Instead he waited to ask for PERMISSION, and then negotiated for her.  He was much more honest and forthright then you were.  You had no intention of letting him pull Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s arms out and watch her scream to death did you?  I think you could learn a lot about how to survive in this world if you listened to me.  I think I am an excellent mother.¡±

    Jace now had a bitter and defeated look on his face but couldn¡¯t help to add ¡°Who tried to fuck me today.¡±

    She grinned and ran a hand across his chest.  ¡°But you¡¯re simply delicious and why shouldn¡¯t I want to do as you are doing and use a luscious young man such as you for masturbation purposes?  If you put a baby in me, that¡¯s fine as well.  My husband has been dead for almost 10 years now.   Not just men have needs.  Ah, but I just promised not to hurt Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s heart.  What am I to do?¡±

    ¡°You have a hand.  I¡¯m sure you know how to use it.¡± Jace almost laughed at the startled look on her face, and the pink blush on her cheaks was devastatingly cute.  Turning around he made his way to the balcony to enjoy the breeze and sights while the servants, slaves and staff prepared the room.

    The whole oceanside wall of the room was a giant segmented window, with doors onto the balcony.  It was a tremendous view.  After some time had passed, he had spent probably several hours staring at the sea and living in his memories of his parents and sailing on Lake Erie, he turned around to find dinner, only to see a nice spread of hot food on a nice wood like table, with Sa¡¯manatha and Verna in something he could only describe as lingerie.  He had no idea where they got those.  He never even knew nightwear, provocative nightwear existed in this world.  Sam had clearly washed up from the journey and he suspected Verna had done her hair, to this point he¡¯d never seen Sam¡¯s hair as anything but straight, now it was done up in a way to accentuate her neck.  He had to admit, she was very alluring, even the almost see through nightwear was wispy enough and form fitting enough to really accentuate her long legs and thin figure.  Sam¡¯s clothing gave off a very virginal and pure aura, which fit her almost kid like romantic side well.  Verna of course was breathtaking as well, though if Sam was virginal and innocent appearing, Verna looked like a walking crime.  Slutty would be wrong.  Verna was an elegant woman, too elegant to come across as slutty.  However, she certainly looked like a devil up to no good.

    He winced and gave up thinking about the clothing.  He complimented Sam as looking ¡°beautiful¡± which of course made her blush, while ignoring Verna¡¯s seductive state of dress completely.  The food was better spiced, but still lacking.  He had long gotten used to these people¡¯s weird attraction to bland flavors.  Of course he grew up in the home of Buffalo wings, so spice wasn¡¯t something he was scared of.  He found himself wondering if the fish were edible or not here, as he didn¡¯t see any meat in the food.

    After dinner he chased Verna back to her ¡°room¡± though it was more like a section of the larger room divided by a paper screen wall, after she offered to help give him and Sam pointers in bed.  Then took Sam to the large master bed and turned in for the night at their new home.   Out of consideration for Verna, he did make sure they were plenty loud, so she could take care of business.  He wasn¡¯t sure why he was enjoying taunting Verna like this, either way he was almost fully satisfied by their new quarters.

    There were no fleas or small bedbugs, that said he was disturbed sometime in the middle of the night by a rather large bed crawler, which he did have to kick out of the bed.  He ignored the ¡°ouch¡± it made in complaint when it hit the floor.

 Chapter 31 - A quiet morning workout

    The next day he got up in the false dawn so he could leave early in the morning to make his way to the main hall.  It was several miles away and he was supposed to be there right after sunrise.  Washing his face in a bucket of water, he found himself wishing for some toothpaste and brush.  Apparently they didn¡¯t have anything like that here.  While he wasn¡¯t worried too much about 5 months without a toothbrush, he was worried what he¡¯d do if it was for an extended period of time.  He didn¡¯t want to go back to earth with a mouth of rotten teeth.  While pondering it, he realized Verna had a full mouth of white teeth.  All the kindred do.  He¡¯d have to talk to her about their dental hygiene techniques.

    After quickly washing, he examined his beard.  It itched when it was growing all those months ago.  But he simply didn¡¯t have a blade worth speaking about to keep his face clean shaven.  The most he¡¯d trust a blade was his hunting knife, and that was for a beard about this length.  He thought he¡¯d hate it, and for a while he did.  It itched horribly.  It was brutally tough to keep clean and neat too.  But after a couple of months he was used to its maintenance.  It didn¡¯t need a cut yet.  The hair on his head was growing unreserved.  Now falling down to the middle of his back.  He wore it long back home mostly because he was a huge fan of metal and rock music.  That and it was different.  Like all teens he liked being different.  Growing up everyone was wearing skinny jeans with Justin Bieber cuts.  He was wearing flannel and baggy jeans with long hair.  He figured it was due to the influence of his uncles who were all huge fans of grunge music.  He grew up on grunge.  He remembered watching YouTube for Pearl Jam concerts.  Music was definitely something he missed about home.

    He dressed in the new school uniform which was provided to him.  There were white pants and a long black shirt that was almost long enough to be called a robe and cloak.  The ensemble looked vaguely like what those practitioners of Tai Chi wore back on Earth, only with an open collar instead of a high one.  It was very baggy and loose, with buttons up the front.  The shoes were basically slippers, though they had an ankle wrap to them that looked like it went over the pants.   Finally, he grabbed the sword he won from Varngus.  Varngus¡¯s sword was a long sword, and was worn at the waist, after buckling it on.  The uniform also came with a black hooded cloak, which made sense, it seemed like a fairly poor outfit to wear if the weather turned badly.  He grabbed the cloak, tossed it over his shoulder and resolved to make the journey to lessons part of his daily exercises, started hustling down the stairs.

    Sometime later he shot out of the main keep and maintaining a steady pace jogged the several miles to the main hall, passing a number of other barrack halls and assembly halls, winding around something that looked like an arena or perhaps an open air amphitheater?   Either way it was nowhere near on the scale of what the romans might have built, so he wasn¡¯t sure if it was for games or plays.

    With the rising sun rising in the west he was able to finally place a name on the beaches, the black sand beach would be the west beach, the white sand beach was the east.  The island seemed to run almost north-south.  Though he was applying his own understanding of magnetism to directions.  These people didn¡¯t seem to know what magnets were.  They had a north-south-east-west, direction on their maps, though the ¡°north¡± was judged based on stars in the sky, east and west by the path of the sun.  So it was entirely possible magnetic north did not match their stellar north.  For all he knew he could be in the southern hemisphere, and what they thought was north was really magnetic south, and the sun was really rising in the east, not the west.  Either way per the natives, the sun rose in the west.  So he stopped worrying about it.

    Eventually he found himself entering the hall he was directed to before anyone else got there.  No, that was wrong, two people were already here.  He did a double take when he recognised who it was.  Verna and Sam were both in the hall looking clean and relaxed.  He stared stupefied for a moment, then he looked at Verna narrowing his eyes.

    ¡°Out with it.  How¡¯d you do it?¡±

    ¡°Do what?¡±  She clearly was going to have fun playing dumb.

    ¡°Did you teleport here yourself or is there a teleportation portal somewhere in that room?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Oh, you mean how did we get here before you.   You do know it¡¯s not polite to expect a woman to expose ALL her secrets correct?¡±  Next to her Sam giggled.  Looking at Sam, she was hiding her mouth shyly behind her hand and trying to look like she didn¡¯t just giggle.

    Jace pondered the situation for a moment, then decided, ultimately it was a good thing (whatever it was they used), and not to let his irritation with Verna ruin the morning.  ¡°You¡¯re right, my apologies.  So Verna, Sam, to what do I own this pleasure this morning?¡±

    Sam piped up, ¡°Verna wanted to see your classes, while I didn¡¯t want to be trapped in that tower all day alone.¡±

    He looked at Sam and placed a hand on her head, her hair was done up in a pony tail, again a hairstyle designed to emphasize her elegant and thin neck.  He had to approve, she looked rather cute.  Verna looked like Verna.  Up to no good.  She was dressed in armor as if expecting a war to break out.

    Picking out a stone bench near the front for his seat he dropped the hooded cloak to mark his space and ignoring the two girls, he moved into the middle of the hall and he started familiarizing himself with Varngus¡¯s sword.  It had a long hilt, with some sort of leather that was easy to hold; it felt like it wouldn¡¯t slip in his hands.  Drawing the long blade, he examined the metal curiously.  It was a strange blade.  It was long.  Very long.  Nearly as long as the final practice blade he was using, at a little almost 50¡± from tip to pommel.  The blade itself was made out of some sort of metal that looked foreign to Earth.  It was shiny as if lacquered like the scale armor, the metal was a dark red in color, not rust but almost a blood color.  He almost felt like he could feel some sort of resonance with the blade itself.  The edge looked incomparably sharp, he had a feeling this blade could cut through almost everything, and had a weird desire to try.  It also was heavy.  For such an elegant looking blade it was far heavier than it looked, much heavier than the two handed blade he was working with.

    So he worked through different guard stances and strikes, in the quiet dawn light.  Due to the weight of the blade he was starting to work up a sweat so he removed his shirt and continued working through the different forms, trying to get faster and faster.  He tried to visualize fighting kindred, because they were easily the pinnacle of sword fighting he had seen.  It wasn¡¯t successful.  He felt too slow, too weak.   After almost an hour of sword work he sheathed the blade with a troubled look on his face.  He needed to get much stronger if he was going to be able to survive.

    His chest was matted with sweat, he looked around and saw 15 or maybe 16 people from the gathering hall yesterday.  All of them the new students.  Most of them were staring at him like he was some sort of strange or mythical creature.  The eyes a few of the girls were making him made him amend that analogy, to include the word ¡°beautiful¡± between strange and mythical.

    He glanced over to Sam and Verna, and noted that Sam was looking at him with stars in her eyes again.  That look was so intense he felt a great discomfort with it, almost as if some great misunderstanding was growing up in her mind about him.  It had to be a misunderstanding.  He certainly wasn¡¯t someone to be held in awe by anyone.  The words Verna spoke to him yesterday ran through his head.  He started wondering what Sam thought about him using her out of convenience.  Loathing and guilt warred in him.  It made so much sense at the time.  His eyes drifted to Verna, she had that hungry predatory look in her eyes again and was whispering to Sam.  Sam actually started giggling again after hearing whatever it was Verna was telling her.

    He quickly put his shirt back on and sat down to wait for whatever this lecture was going to be about, Sam he would have to seriously think about.  If they kept at this he''d create a child with her, if he had not already done so.  The nagging guilt was only growing greater.  He felt for the first time that what he was doing with Sam was going to get in the way of getting home.  If they made a child how could he leave this place?  Abandon a child?  Abandon the child and mother of the child to this horrible world?

    So he took a deep breath to clear his mind and wondered if he¡¯d learn some magic today.  He looked around the room one more time, and noticed one more person entering.

 Chapter 32 - Tossed head first into the deep end

    The grey haired boy, Kay¡¯rin strode down the path between the stone benches, with a haughty look on his face.  He had a way of holding his head as if he was looking down on everyone else.  But then he also looked like he came from a lot of wealth.  He was healthy for one, his grey hair was more a silver color then that pale flaxen blonde-grey everyone else had.  His eyes were a grey with a little blue in them too.  He was also clean.  Very clean, definitely not the same quality of human as most of the rest of the people of this world.   He also had a bit of height to him.  If Jace and Verna weren¡¯t in the same room he easily would have been the tallest person there.

    Kay¡¯rin made his way down and as if where he wanted to sit was predetermined sat down next to Jace as if it was only natural, despite all of the other free spaces around them.

    Jace smiled suddenly, part of him rather liked this decisive and straight forward type of character and he initiated conversation with him.  ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Jace.  18, from Buffalo, NY.  Planet Earth.  You?¡±

    Kay¡¯rin blinked and looked at Jace curiously as if he had just said something strange.  The look almost made him laugh.  Then Kay¡¯rin gave him a little salute fist to heart, and looked forward.

    ¡®Well that was awkward.¡¯ Jace wondered about that weird little action.  He wondered if Kay¡¯rin just was a shy and awkward character who didn¡¯t like to talk.  Or wasn¡¯t good at talking.  He could sympathize a bit.  He spent weeks not really talking to anyone while learning this language.  He remembered not wanting to embarrass himself by sounding funny.  Then as time passed he found he was just used to not talking much.  He wasn¡¯t a naturally quiet person, but the language barrier was definitely a steep one.

    Two people entered the hall.  One was a wizard in brown, the other was that young man in red he saw the prior day.  The young man was following the wizard as if he was some sort of aid.

    ¡°Welcome everyone, I see you¡¯re all not here yet.  I understand ¡°after dawn¡± is a bit vague, but generally if you¡¯re told to be anywhere after dawn, try to be there around dawn.  Today we are going to see how far you can go and place you in the proper classes.  We don¡¯t believe in wasting anyone¡¯s time with periodic regular tests.  When you are able to do the work of a higher level of magic, you will be put into the higher level class. ¡°

    ¡°Now then, the first level is called Warlock, and if you¡¯re female, Witch.  This is basic magic that can at most affect yourself or something you touch.  With a ritual you may be able to affect a single target at a limited distance.  This is the very lowest level of magic.¡±

    ¡°Ladies, I hope you are aware you are not exempt from the laws regarding unmarried women if you are only at the Witch level.   If all you ever amount to is a witch, then the least you can do is give birth to a grand wizard.  Men, I expect you to help them do that.¡±  This line made Jace shift uncomfortably.  It was one thing to see how the humans lived in those slums, but to hear this matter spoken of so plainly by a kindly old grandfather in a beautiful fortress on a beautiful island seemed a bit cold.  Yes, it was this inhumanity the ability to treat half the species as mobile baby making machines that just always rubbed him wrong.  The people here are just lacking something important, he didn''t know what it was but whatever was missing seemed to always gnaw at Jace¡¯s conscience the longer he interacted with them.

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    ¡°Now then, you aren¡¯t even a warlock if you can¡¯t do the basic magic.  So we will explain how you can reach this level.  Karius is the senior student.  Just this morning he broke into the Grand Channeler level, making him the only Grand Channeler amongst the students here.  He shall walk you through performing your first magic.¡°

    Karius stepped forward and a flash of blue light surrounded him for a moment as an ethereal illusionary glyph form appeared before him.  The form very slowly rotated and looked identical to what Jace had been shown back in that cave.  Karius then spoke up.  ¡°This is the ¡®glyph.¡¯  This shape is the key to all magic.  Within this glyph is said to be 1 million secrets.  Your study of the glyph shall take a lifetime.  Some of you have seen this before so for you this part means nothing, for those who have not, you are behind.  All of those who wish to become a warlock must memorize this form and be able to reproduce it perfectly.  Raise your hand if you are at this stage.¡±

    Jace and Kay¡¯rin¡¯s hands went up, as did 2 or 3 others.  Karius looked a little annoyed by that low number and spoke again ¡°You five, please come over here.  The rest of you will sit there through the end of this class.  We will provide you with a physical model of the glyph.  Men, you cannot give your seed to any of the females until you can become a warlock.  This includes your slaves.  This is our punishment to you for being slow.  Women, you no longer can wear clothing and must submit to anyone like a slave who wish to give you their seed.  This is your punishment for being slow.  When you become a witch you can wear clothing again.

    The five strode up to stand next to Karius, He had them each draw the glyph once from any angle they wished, perfectly to prove they could.  One of the males in line was sent back for failure to do this.  Then Karius asked them all to follow his instructions.  They were to close their eyes, imagine the glyph, find the glyph for ¡°light¡± and merge with the pulse of the world.  Then they were to force the pulse of the world through the glyph for light and direct the energy to their fingertips.  Karius then made his index finger glow with a white light.

    "Now start"  He said.

    Jace had heard about tossing a child into water to teach him to swim, he wondered if that''s what this felt like.

 Chapter 33 - Magic and a brown dress

    Jace did as he was told, he seized the irritating feeling and with a great deal of effort wrestled it into him.  Then he tried to force it through the glyph.  The whole process felt wrong.  It was difficult to do.  EXTREMELY difficult.  He felt like he was ripping out parts of the world around him, or trying to fly by holding himself up in the air.  The strain this put on his mind was immense.  He released the pulse and thought back to the other time he had touched it.  That was at the testing rock just yesterday.  That time he had done something different and it felt much easier then the way he had just been told.

    Taking a deep breath he started his world pulse breathing.  Using the breathing as the medium he matched up the breathing with the pulse he simply sensed in that irritation in the back of his mind.  Carefully and slowly breathing and holding to the cadence of the pulse of the world, he felt that irritation sensation and quietly merged with it, maintaining his breathing to the actual pulse of that irritation sensation, then instead of forcing it, he simply guided it to the glyph.  This felt a lot more natural then the process Karius suggested, once the energy merged with the glyph of light, he felt the power flow naturally through his body to his fingertip.  He didn¡¯t have to guide or force anything, it just happened organically.

    Opening his eyes while holding that feeling he looked down at his index finger and noticed it was bright white, nearly blindingly bright, glancing at the others in line, Kay¡¯rin was standing there looking bored with his finger shining brightly, as was that girl who was crying the prior day when the stone was turned orange.  She looked rather young now that she was cleaned up.  Maybe 12 or 13.  The last man in line seemed frustrated and was unable to make his finger glow.

    Jace cut off the flow of power and his finger stopped glowing.  Then, remembering the feeling he made the finger glow again.  This whole process was so simple he was surprised anyone could have problems doing it.  While waiting for Karius to declare and end to the test he experimented with changing the finger which light up, to lighting up his whole palm.  He found all of those simple.  Then out of curiosity he thought of making a pillar of light on the floor.  He felt the flow of power increase and suddenly a pillar of light appeared on the floor.

    Kay¡¯rin looked at him curiously, watching him experiment with the light, then made a pillar next to his.  Kay¡¯rin didn¡¯t stop at making a white bright pillar, he then added colors to his.  Jace pondered and tried to ¡°imagine¡± adding colors but couldn¡¯t make it happen.  Whatever Kay''rin had grasped in the glyph of light was obviously more profound than what he had grasped.  He gave a small silent applause to Kay¡¯rin in his heart and slapped him on the back to congratulate him.  Kay¡¯rin¡¯s pillar faltered and then stopped.  Jace cut off his own as well.

    Karius had been watching the both and said nothing to stop them.  Then he spoke up again.  ¡°Alright, you, head back you¡¯re under the same punishment as the other men.  Until you can make this light you¡¯re no warlock.  Then he looked at the three remaining and said.  ¡°Normally I¡¯d congratulate you all for becoming warlocks or witches.  But it seems like two of you already jumped the gun on the channeler test and become channelers.¡±

    ¡°Let''s give¡­ um.. Khana some time to try to make the same leap.  Khana, close your eyes, feel the same sensation as when you make the light.  I want you to draw deeper and force more of the power through and direct it somewhere away from your body.  Like the middle of the floor.¡±

    The small girl nodded and closed her eyes, she looked desperate to succeed, but try as she might, he almost could feel the pulse fighting against her when she tried to direct it outside of her body.  The look of growing desperation on the young girls face pulled at his heart.  Jace couldn¡¯t help himself, he knew he couldn¡¯t save everyone in this world.  There was so many terrible things happening, being done from one human to another he sort of become blind to it to keep his sanity and sense of purpose.  But this small girl probably had been sheltered well when she was growing up.  Those tears when she saw the stone turn orange were real tears, shed by someone who really really did not want to be subjected to that inhuman treatment.

    Glancing at Karius he spoke a quick question.  ¡°Senior Karius.  I think I can help her overcome her block at this stage.  Will you let me speak to her briefly?¡±

    Karius looked surprised and seemed about to object, but the old wizard next to him rested a hand on his arm.  It was the old wizard who spoke.  ¡°I would like to see this.  Please speak with her.¡±

    So he knelt down next to her and whispered in her ear.  ¡°Relax.  My name is Jace, you just saw that white light I cast remember?¡±  The small girl nodded.  ¡°Just relax¡­ listen to my voice.  I want you to relax your hold on the pulse.  Stop forcing.  Listen, can you feel it?  He was intentionally breathing with the pulse, he noticed no one included matching the pulse with your actual breathing in any instructions he had heard before.  He wasn¡¯t sure and it was just a theory he was starting to form, but he suspected this was the difference in talent.  Those with the talent could detect the pulse itself, they didn¡¯t need to force anything because they could merge with it.  Everyone else was deaf to the pulse.  As a result, they wrestled with it.

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    ¡°Do you feel my breathing?  Match your breathing to mine.¡±  The girl seemed to fidget a bit but eventually started to match her breathing with Jace¡¯s.  ¡°Very slowly, I want you to embrace the pulse.  Don¡¯t pull it, just embrace it.¡±  He could see the blue light spring up around her, then he spoke again ¡°now, gently guide it toward the glyph, you don¡¯t need to force it, let your breathing move your mind and the pulse to the glyph, the power will flow through the glyph on it¡¯s own, then direct it the power that comes out of the other side of the glyph.  You are simply guiding it to where it wants to go.  Open your eyes and pick a spot.  There you go¡­ good girl.¡±  He stood up, looking at that small pillar of light she created, and rubbed the top of her head.

    Unsurprisingly she broke down in tears of joy at seeing that feeble pillar of light she just created.  He looked over to the wizard and Karius.  Neither could hear what he had whispered to the girl.  They both looked like they wanted to ask though.  He gave them a helpless shrug, and rejoined the line where he had been standing.  Kay¡¯rin was looking at him curiously, as if he had never seen someone like him before.

    Clearing his throat Karius spoke again ¡°Yes, well the test for grand channeler is a little different and might be beyond all of you as you¡¯re all new to magic.  You¡¯ll need to expand that pillar of light to encompass the whole hall.  At least the hall.  The larger the better really.  Because this is basically the test for Wizard and Grand Wizard.  The scale of the light you make will determine where you top out today.

    Listening to Karius¡¯s comment Jace simply went first and began to create the pillar of light; he quickly was able to increase the size of the pillar to encompass half the hall, but then he started to feel a pain in the back of his head, and center of his chest.  The ice cold sensation of the magic flowing through his veins now started to feel like his veins were beginning to burst.  He knew somehow that he could get no greater flow than this.  He released the pillar and sighed.  Karius and the Wizard actually looked impressed with what he had managed for a first time.  So he felt a bit better about it.

    Kay¡¯rin went next and effortlessly bathed the whole hall in light.  It happened so quickly it actually shocked him.  He could tell just from the feel of the air that Kay¡¯rin probably could make it even larger than the hall.  He looked at Kay¡¯rin and wondered why he was holding back for a moment.  Then he felt the power surge out of kay¡¯rin.  The light was blinding.  Jace didn¡¯t know enough about magic or have anywhere near the experience to judge what Kay¡¯rin managed to do.   But when his eyes cleared and he could make out the look on both the faces of the wizard and Karius, she likely just displayed enough power to be classified as a wizard.

    He was right.  Because that was what Karius said next.  ¡°Wizard.  Straight to wizard on day one huh?¡±

    Everyone looked to Khana, she had beads of sweat on her forehead as she made a pillar of light a little bit brighter than it was then sat down with an exhausted sigh.

    Karius then strode before everyone ¡°Ok, now then everyone else you¡¯re going to study these Glyph forms.¡±  He waved his hand and a bag swept over their heads dropping the glyphs on them.  ¡°You¡¯ll only be a warlock or witch when you can draw these glyph forms flawlessly, then produce that light.  Girls remove your clothing you¡¯re no longer allowed to wear them.  Men you can¡¯t touch them, until you are warlocks you¡¯re banned from reproducing.  Dismissed.¡±

    The girls seemed rather put out about the situation, some of them were actually crying which only made Jace feel worse.  A few seemed resigned as if they already knew this was what their fate was going to be.  He helped one girl avoid this fate and left another dozen to it.  He wondered why he bothered.  At the same time, he wondered how any of this concern for these people helped him get to Earth.  He thought for a moment about that, and in the end decided that though he wanted to get to Earth, he didn¡¯t want to ¡°die¡± as a compassionate human being before returning home.

    But where did that leave Sam?  Was he treating her like a human being or a playtoy?  The question bothered him on a lot of levels.  Sam or the other humans on this planet might not see the point in this line of questioning.  But he did.  He didn¡¯t want to become dead to other¡¯s pain like it seemed most of the people here were.

    He was given an orange shirt to replace the black one he had been wearing, and a red cloak.  The combination of the red and orange and white really wasn¡¯t him.   He simply changed on the spot.  The small girl Khana after a moment''s thought, tossed the red cloak around her shoulders, and changed her shirt under the cloak.  Jace intentionally did not watch that.  The strangest moment of all was when Kay¡¯rin received a brown hooded cloak and brown shirt.  He looked at them both for a long time then spoke for the first time in a very high, quite feminine voice.  ¡°Dress¡­ I want a brown dress.¡±

 Chapter 34 - Take what you want, and pay for it

    Ignoring the uproar it caused when people realized Kay¡¯rin turned out to be a girl, Jace actually found himself pondering the plight of the crying girls who were still gathered in the back of the hall, stripping.  He hated the useless feeling it gave him to know he wasn¡¯t making any marked difference despite being some stupid ¡°chosen one¡± who was supposed to cure all of humanity''s ills with the gods.  A singularly absurd proposition in and of itself.  Here he was, living in this beautiful place and it still felt like he was back in the dungeon underground.  As if all this beauty in the architecture and scenery were just a lie.  Half of humanity was being treated worse than dogs, and worse the perpetrators had all sorts of reasonable sounding justifications for why they could treat them like that.

    He hated it.  He wanted to leave these people to their fate, but what he hated the most is how he hadn¡¯t once actually tried to do anything for all the people he saw suffering.  Oh sure he helped Khana, and he didn¡¯t particularly go out of his way to hurt anyone, or take advantage of anyone, and he castrated that bastard Teral for the acts he heard about him perpetrating on some of the slaves.  But nothing he had done had made an impact anywhere.

    He didn¡¯t even know if he SHOULD do something to assist these people.

    ''Would it hurt his path home?''  Was that question too selfish?  He looked at the ceiling above, and seeing nothing in the rafters to answer the question he closed his eyes and thought of Jenn, what would Jenn say if she saw him now?  That question turned his stomach over and he almost vomited.  She probably wouldn¡¯t even want him to return if she saw him now.  What about his father?  He was pretty sure his father would hit him.

    ''How did I talk myself into treating these people like their lives didn¡¯t mean anything?  None of these girls summoned him.''  He thought angrily to himself.  He had simply transferred his anger from one source to another.  He treated the slaves like a problem he couldn¡¯t solve because he simply couldn¡¯t solve it.  But he treated the free girls the same way because some soldiers stopped him from stopping a rape in the streets of some slum?  Where had his head become so twisted?

    Now that he knew he had to take action he had to decide how before they left the building.  Without an idea of what to do he turned around and looked at the wizard.  Would these people understand him trying to keep these girls from being raped until they wished for death?  No, even the girls being raped who didn¡¯t like it and felt themselves die a bit at a time probably couldn¡¯t explain why they felt that way.  This society had gone so far down the wrong road that the oppressed don¡¯t even have words to explain why they¡¯re being oppressed.

    If the oppressed don¡¯t know they¡¯re being oppressed was it his job to save them?  No, he couldn¡¯t do that.  But he could open a path to salvation.  It just mattered how many would take it.

    What about the men?

    The men¡¯s souls were being devoured by this heartless and cruel treatment of their fellow man just not as obviously harmed as the girls.  Shouldn¡¯t he be just as concerned about the men?  Yes.  If he didn¡¯t give the men another way, then nothing would change when he left.

    For the first time in months he actually felt his heart clear of conflict.  He walked over to the wizard and spoke confidently.  ¡°Sir, may I have your name?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, I am wizard Gharen.¡±  The old man looked at him, obviously liking being called sir.

    ¡°Wizard Gharen, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d like to know what I told Khana.  Correct?¡±

    The old man was already nodding.  ¡°Yes I was wondering how you were able to in just a few seconds direct a student to break through to their max potential.¡±

    ¡°Yes, well it¡¯s actually part of what I want to ask you.  I suddenly felt a moment of enlightenment toward magic.  It is in direct opposition of everything I heard from the Great Sage Eldridge, you know he used to teach me about magic before I came here.¡±  He wove truths and falsehoods together as fast as he could think about it.  He knew what he was going to request would cause problems, so he needed to make them think it was important.  He hoped he had enough cache with his unusual arrival to this planet to make this happen.  He had to try.

    ¡°MMM yes, I assumed as much when I saw you immediately leap into the Channeler level.  It can take weeks or months of practice for people to make that leap.¡±

    ¡°Well you know of the¡­ unusually circumstances of my arrival correct?¡±  He waited for the old man to nod, ¡°I think I received a little divine inspiration with Khana.  However, I can¡¯t be sure.  I might have been lucky.  So I¡¯d like to test it in a way that would leave no doubt about this theory.¡±

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    ¡°Oh, you have me interested what is it you theorize?¡±

    He shook his head, knowing that question would come eventually ¡°Actually it¡¯s almost too preposterous to believe.  Listen.  If you heard a voice tell you to say, that clothing robs you of the god¡¯s blessings, how could you easily spread this message without testing it?   You¡¯d feel like a fool without proof.  This is much the same.  I¡¯m ashamed to say it¡¯s not some great amazing thing.  But something so foolish I have trouble speaking of it.  I would rather test my theory.  And it occurs to me there are 26 people who are failures in the eyes of this school right behind me.  How long do you think it would take for all of them to become witches or warlocks?¡±

    The old man thought a moment then answered ¡°probably 18 or 21 weeks, maybe 35 or 50 for the slowest.¡±

    ¡°If I could borrow them for 3 weeks, I would like to see if I can get them past the test in just 3 weeks.  All of them.  I also suspect I might be able to get a few to test out as a channeler.  Though that¡¯s just a theory.  If I¡¯m wrong, no harm¡­¡±  he paused then added trying to make himself sound a bit lecherous hating himself for the lie ¡°in fact a number of those girls might be carrying my seed after that month, you know the seed of someone immune to the curse?  Someone with the potential to be a grand sorcerer.  I think if you object to me taking everyone, leaving the girls in my care is in the best interest of humanity don¡¯t you?¡±

    Not many people heard what he had just said, but he knew Kay¡¯lin had.  Because she was looking at him with an appalled expression.  Right next to her in outrage was Karius, surprisingly.  He regretted the misunderstanding but right now there were a number of people who needed someone to step out for them.

    The old man got a cunning look in his eyes at that comment and chuckled.  ¡°True true.  Really I think we should start sending the girls who aren¡¯t pregnant to you.  You really are too valuable in so many ways.  I¡¯ll give you all the girls and any of the guys who want to go as well.  I look forward to the results.¡±

    He sighed when he realized the old man could care less about the ¡°magic inspiration¡± but was definitely all for the babies he was supposed to be making.  Well he had played all his cards.  He was ready pay the price and look like a piece of trash if necessary.

    Wizard Gharen raised his voice.  ¡°Change of plan, no one leave.  All of you who failed come down before me.  Girls leave your clothing where you took them off.  Channeler Jace here has a request for you all.¡±

    Jace waited for them all to line up in front of him, and spoke.  ¡°I need assistants for an experiment.  The participants have what I believe a significant chance to become a warlock or witch within 30 days.  Furthermore, some of you might be able to reach Channeler.  Understand nothing is guaranteed, it¡¯s just a theory.  But I believe the chances are fairly good.¡±

    He hoped his pitch made an impact but surprisingly no one volunteered.  He sighed then spoke again.  ¡°Since it¡¯s this way.  Girls, the Wizard has ordered you all to serve me for these 30 days.  Toss those hooded cloaks on, I¡¯ll not have you carrying a baby yet.  You¡¯re moving to the keep, there is a large room bellow mine.  Move out of your current housing and be there by nightfall.  You know you¡¯re all under slave rules until you become witches.  These are my direct orders.  My orders are for you to NOT mate with anyone else but me for the duration of the next 30 days.¡±

    He knew he sounded like a piece of trash.  However surprisingly most of the girls looked a bit less miserable after his speech.  It made sense, he just told them they had to serve one man rather than every man who felt the whim to stick it into them.  It just was appalling to him that a threatened rape by a stranger was considering an IMPROVEMENT in their situation to these girls.  Several girls did not see it that way of course.  He was being glared at as if he was the scum of the earth by both Kay¡¯rin and Khana, plus two of the naked girls in front of him.  He glanced at Sam and Verna, Sam looked confused, not hurt, she just looked puzzled.  Verna looked.  Amused.

    For some reason he found that look of amusement even more stabbing then the looks of outrage.

 Chapter 35 - Fallout

    It seemed his actions in the morning gathering had spread throughout the academy before his next class.  When he tried to enter his next class, his first class with the other channeler level magicians, he was met by a small group of very ragged looking girls in black cloaks.  They quite publicly begged him to take them as concubines like the other 11 girls he had claimed that morning.

    He had a sinking feeling where this was going to go, but in the end decided it didn¡¯t matter much, 5 more girls, witches this time, were sent to the tower to hide away from grasping hands.  Before he separated from Sam and Verna he passed on instructions from Verna for the girls, to work on the glyph, he could do nothing for them if they didn¡¯t know it inside and out.

    His first channeler level class was on something called melded magic.  It was a fascinating study about melding multiple runes to make a new effect.  It wasn¡¯t easy, most preferred to find a single rune which gave a similar effect then find enlightenment on it.  However, Jace found the concept of melded magic fascinating because he could see how Kay¡¯rin had made those colors appear in her light pillar.  It made him ponder other effects he might be able to cause with melded magic, and he started to grasp that it was at the core of magic rituals.  In the end he had to set it aside because he simply didn¡¯t know enough about regular magic to really grasp it¡¯s use.

    Several men approached him during class to see if he¡¯d let them use his seized harem.  Jace turned them down immediately, earning him a bit of enmity right off the bat.  This really was going to blow up to be something he couldn¡¯t control he knew.  He just wished he didn¡¯t feel like he had knocked a bolder off a cliff.

    His worries grew when he saw almost twenty girls in black robes waiting for him outside of the class after it¡¯s ending.  All of them appeared to have tried to make themselves look as attractive as possible for him in this brief meeting.  In the end he accepted them into his ¡°harem¡± as well.  Though he was noticing the looks of the ¡®fellow¡¯ male students were starting to get a little ugly.

    He was ambushed again by a group of girls when he reached his last class of the day.  This group included a number of the girls with children.  Of course raising children was detrimental to their studies and making new ones, so the duty was often given to slaves.  These girls had all taken back their children in something that looked dangerously close to a revolt.  He had no choice.  He had decided to walk this path so he would accept them as part of his ¡®harem¡¯ as well.

    He knew this was going to draw some terrible attention which he was correct.  He was pulled out of an interesting class on the practical application of magic to speak to a cadre of wizards in the faculty.  He was threatened mildly about the situation, but after he convinced them he had a huge sex drive they simply let it be, though he could almost hear the veiled threats to tone it down.

    ¡®I would if I knew how.¡¯  He muttered under his breath after leaving.  He made his way back to the keep tower he lived trying all sorts of different magic along the way, It was a fun sensation to think about it and suddenly create a snowman with a wave of the hand.  He had to admit that magic was very interesting.  He had picked up an interesting tidbit that your magic strength was basically tied to how much you used it and your potential, so he was going to use it as much as he could.  He needed as much strength as he could get if he was going to survive.  He also thought he might have found a key to wielding the kindred blade a bit better in all those lessons.

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    Unfortunately, he still didn¡¯t know exactly how to deal with the horde of women he was gathering.  He had made some pretty audacious promises about their ¡°growth¡± and wasn¡¯t sure how to actualize it.  He climbed the stairs, using them for training he actually jogged up them, and was forced to stop one floor short of his destination by a horde of naked girls offering to serve him in any way he desired.

    Since most of these girls were witches he thought he detected Verna¡¯s hand in this event and told them to dress how they pleased, and make themselves comfortable, and learn the glyph!

    He entered his quarters to find Verna and Sam again dressed provocatively.  This time they wore see through robes of some white material.  Again he didn¡¯t know where they got those, and they were erotic as all heck, but at the moment he had seen enough naked girls to last him a year.  He was more worried about how to make good on his promises.

    He was sitting on the edge of the bed when Sam stripped off her robe to cuddle up against his arm, the Sun had set and he had been taciturn all night wondering what he should do.  Sam simply cuddled up against him, his eyes were wandering over her, and a random thought wandered through his head.  He realized she probably had put on a couple of pounds.  She was no longer that skinny drowned rat of a girl who was all ribs and bones and who looked like she was headed for an early grave.  She looked like a healthy girl, one who was downright sexy in her own right.  Not quite his type, he did prefer a more mature look and she still looked like a skinny teenager, but he probably would have turned his head had he seen her in a swimming suit on earth, as she now had a hips and her bust had grown rounder.

    She was tracing a finger along his chest and then she spoke.  ¡°You aren¡¯t going to try to make children with those women?¡±

    ¡°No¡±

    ¡°Then why did you take them in.¡±

    He looked at her with a deep sadness in his heart that she still was asking that question.  ¡°Doesn¡¯t anything about slavery seem wrong to you?¡±

    She looked at him questioningly.

    He sighed and started to talk about earth, slavery and human rights.  The confusion only grew in her eyes; he knew he wasn¡¯t getting through to her.  Then he spoke.  ¡°That you don¡¯t get it is what makes me saddest of all.  You don¡¯t even know the value of your lives.  This world is sick.¡±  He stopped speaking before he got angry.

    ¡°Sorry Sam, it¡¯s not your fault.  Let¡¯s sleep.¡±

    That night he fell asleep holding onto her, Sam thinking deep into the night about what he spoke about.  She knew he was sad she didn¡¯t get it.  It broke her heart to know she was hurting him.  And hoped to figure out a way to resolve it.  Sometime deep in the night he started to thrash in his sleep.  It was a nightmare.  He was having those more and more often in the middle of the night.  Oftentimes it woke her and she would hug him tight until he stopped thrashing.  He was huge, and his skin was very hot, sweat soon covered him and she hugged onto his back hoping to help calm him.  She heard him call for Jenn as he sometimes did and kissed his back, her heart breaking for him.  Sometimes he called for her, strangely enough that didn¡¯t make her happy, but sadder because all he had was her, Jenn he might never see again.

    He had done so much for her.  She had to find a way to do something for him as well.

 Chapter 36 - Samanathas Day

    Sa''manatha awoke with Jace, but pretended to sleep.  She enjoyed watching him get dressed in the morning.  But what she most enjoyed was him tucking her in after he got off the bed.  There was something so gentle and heartfelt in that action.  This morning threw narrowed eyes she noted the morose troubled air he had last night was lingering.  Something really was bothering him, and she feared she was part of the problem.

    The moment he closed the door she hopped up herself, and quickly washed her face, hands and hair.  Verna was up, she had noticed the woman peaking at Jace when he was dressing.  She rather liked Verna.  She was like a big sister or maybe an aunt.  She had been teaching her all sorts of beauty and seduction tips and it seemed to be working, because Jace actually called her beautiful.  She almost thought she had misheard him when he said that.  He never complimented her looks.  For those words alone she knew she owned Verna more then she could pay.

    Verna joined her at the wash bucket and started to play with her hair.  When she tried to stop her Verna pinned her in place by wrapping her waist in her nude legs, locking the legs to keep her from standing up and continued to tug at Sam''s hair.  She didn''t know what she was doing so she struggled futilely before complaining.

    "Verna, please stop that hurts" She whined with tears in her eyes.

    "Lots of things that are worth it hurt.  Your first time I think.  For example.  Childbirth.  Not as you humans do it, but keeping the child and raising them, that hurts but it is worth it.  And i think you''ll agree when you see it, what I am doing to your hair is worth this pain.  Now stop whining like a little kid.  You''re too old for that.  Mmmmm, have you told him that you carry his child yet?  You''ll be a mother in time.   I think you should be more adult."

    "Don''t tell him.  He wants to go home.  I don''t want to stop him.  He''d never leave me and the baby if he knew."

    "And where is your heart in those lines of nonsense?  What are you?  A masturbation tool?  Is that all your life is worth?  To help some man relieve himself of his seed?  To host it, and birth it?  What will you do if he leaves?  MMMmmm?  Have you thought of that?  Will you then submit to being the masturbation tool of every man who desires you for the rest of your short years?  What of your child?  That will be his child too.  What if he had a strike of fortune tomorrow and found a way to leave.  Will you let him go without seeing his child and know it is his?  Will you let him leave his child to slavery like yours?  That mark is already inherited by the boy.  I told you this.  Your boy will be born to a world with this curse.  He will be born into slavery, and he will die with all the potential he may have carried gone forever.  Can you carry a child for 25 weeks and not care about the life it will live?"

    Verna''s words crashed into her, they were similar to the questions Jace asked her last night.  She could hear similar frustration in Verna''s voice to her inability to understand something so simple to both of them.  She closed her eyes, she could feel this inescapable sadness, it was almost like she couldn''t breath.  Tears fell from the corners of her eyes.  She didn''t know why she cried so much around Verna, the woman just seemed to pull it out of her.

    "What is it I am missing that makes you and Jace so upset?"

    "Don''t you have dreams child?  Hopes?  Do you never think about what might be?  What if Jace was the one chosen by the Gods to lift your curse?  I want you to close your eyes and think about this.  What would you want to do if you were not a slave?  If Jace did not own you.  Where would you go?  You have an education.  This makes your skills valuable.  Or it should.  What if you could live a life providing for yourself and making the lives of others better?  You have no answer because you have no dreams.  You decided a long time ago that your life was no longer your own to live, so you''re happy to let others make the choices for you.  Did you taunt jace into bed?  Did he take you because you were a slave and his propperty?  Did you want him to take you?  You wanted it right?  You wanted him.  Why does this want only apply to "now".  Why only for a child?  Because you were told that''s your duty?  Is Jace your masterbation tool or your love?"

    "I love him."

    "Then why don''t you dream for him to love you?"

    Sa''manatha was stunned by the question.  She did want him to love her.  But she was a slave.  But she... Why couldn''t she want him to love her?  It felt like something that was blocking her thoughts was moved out of the way.  She started to question why couldn''t she hope he''d love her?  Why couldn''t she not want to be a slave?  Why couldn''t she want to have Jace to have him stay here with her and the baby?  She had received almost nothing in this life.  Was her life only to be one in which she gave and gave and gave and never received anything in return?

    "Verna... I want him to love me."  Her voice was quiet almost as if she expected to be punished for speaking her desires.

    "I know child." Verna gave Sa''manatha a hug, then kiss on the top of her head.

    "But he doesn''t love me."  Her voice broke a little at that.

    "That''s not entirely true child.  He loves you, just not as a man would love his wife.  Perhaps as a man would love his friend.  or perhaps as a man would love his sister.  He needs you, and loves you.  you''re important to him, Very.  It isn''t a heart racing love and many people marry with less feelings between them for life.  He is not as far outside your reach as you think."

    "Verna, why are you following him?  Can you tell me the truth?  I don''t believe you want to sleep with him.  And I don''t believe its for some oath."

    Verna was quiet a long moment then sighed.  "I had recieved an augery.  Did you know I am a preistess child?  No I did not think you knew.  The augery was unclear.  I wasn''t even certain it was about Jace until he won that game against my boy.  Every day since has made me more and more convinced it was about him.  The words... were riddles, so do not take them too much to heart..." Verna trailed off

    "What were they?"

    Verna sighed then spoke quietly in draconic, it was a language Sam knew, the words sounded lyrical almost as if Verna was singing them.

    "A storm is rising, war is is coming hold your children tight;

    The sun and moon shall break each other the heaven shall shatter from fright,

    the dragons shall die in this war unless you heed my call,

    humanity shall die in the war unless you listen well,

    Seak salvation in the seed of the outlander, Protect not those who harm his son

    Seak salvation on knee before the outlander, Prepare for he shall blind the sun.

    Seak salvation for the soul of the outlander, Weep for his throne may be made of blood and bone above a wold.

    Seak salvation for the heart of the outlander, Weep for his rage may break the world.

    Beware the begging Outlander, for he returned gifts of scorn with the blade

    Guard the sleeping outlander, for if he does not wake neither shall you.

    And the Gods may die under his feet.

    Sa''manatha was quiet a long moment.  "You believe Jace is the outlander? and our son is the son in this prophecy?"

    "I believe Jace is the outlander.  I do not know about your son.  Your son is too young.  I cannot tell his future.  I have received no new augeries.  This one came from my goddess.  Ssaras.  My sister received a different message from Manatha, I did not hear what those words were but she told me to find the outlander in my augery and lay with him to create that child.  She claimed to be convinced I was to be the mother based on her augury, but she would not tell me the words.  She has been known to misinterpret auguries."

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    She thought quietly, then spoke "I don''t know about prophecies, but I think Jace won''t sleep with you unless he feels something for you.  I don''t think you can convince him with a prophecy.  I heard him talk about them being nonsense before."

    "You''re right, he won''t sleep with me child.  Not for a prophecy.  Not as long as you hold that piece of his heart.  You probably could beg him to sleep with me and I don''t think he will.  He''s a bit faithful in his way.  Still I worry about the world and future child.  If that prophecy is true then he will not be returning to his world, and the gods are preparing to war with each other.  So tell me child.  Do you still wish to hide your pregnancy from him?"

    "No.  I don''t."

    "Then lets not worry about prophacy or that ape Jace, did you know if you used some Curran fruit and mixed it with some of those pretty orange flowers on the hill outside, then washed your hair in it, your hair would lose it''s grey and turn beautiful blonde?  Now imagine your hair a beautiful blonde and look at this."

    She turned Sa''manath''s head toward the one mirror, in it she saw her hair done up in the most beautiful pattern.  It was a knot style that the Fairy girl called a braid.  It looked beautiful.  She grinned looking at the beautiful braid made out of her hair.

    "Pretty good, now you need some gold ornamentation and that dye.  What do you say we go hunting for some fruit and flowers?"

    ¡°But didn¡¯t he seize 11 or more girls to serve as his personal concubines?¡±  It was an old naked man in chains that asked that.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, he actually seized at least 11, I think he was taking concubines all day yesterday.  I don¡¯t see why you¡¯re saying he¡¯s so noble.¡±  Another voice spoke out to general agreement of a number of others.

    There was at least 30 nude slaves listening to one clothed one in this deep dark basement.  The clothed one was clean, and almost otherworldly in her beauty.  They had never seen a human slave girl look so healthy, well fed and clean.  Her hair was even done up in braid, a small gold chain around her brow as if she were a princess, her hair golden, of course she was wearing the chains of servitude, and wore a plain almost see through white robe.  The only clothing a slave could legally wear.

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand.  He hasn¡¯t touched them.  He¡¯s teaching them magic.  He¡¯s protecting them from serving men¡­ in that way.¡±  Sa¡¯manatha still had difficulty explaining why this was wrong.  Because it was central to how women were raised.  This was just how it was.  After her talk with Verna the things Jace talked about love and doing this with someone because you wanted to, it sort of made its own sense.

    The slaves all looked at Sam with a puzzled expression as if not getting the problem.

    So she tried to explain it as she knew it.  ¡°Listen, why should we do things that hurt?¡±  She pointed at a dirty girl who had enough of a figure developing that Sam guessed she was probably fairly popular.  ¡°When men do those things to you do you ever just.  Wish they¡¯d stop?  How about after several in a row? How is several in a row going to make you more pregnant then the first one?  How does 10 men fucking you when you ARE pregnant make more babies?¡±  She wasn¡¯t sure if she was getting the point across at all.  She barely understood it herself.  But it was a growing sense that this way of living was wrong.  Somehow Jace and Verna were waking her up to something about it that doesn¡¯t make much sense.

    A number of the women surprisingly to Sam were now nodding in agreement.  They were slaves but that didn¡¯t mean they stopped feeling.  Stopped thinking.  It was hard to tell a woman all her life that her job was to take a man¡¯s seed to make children, then force her to keep taking seed even when she was pregnant with a child.

    ¡°Jace would say you¡¯re being used as a tool for masturbation.  Not for any duty to make children.  Oh sure that¡¯s some of it.  But mostly it¡¯s just about self-satisfaction.  You¡¯ve seen the look right?  They¡¯re enjoying hurting you right?¡±  She was starting to get on a roll.  She could tell the women at least were starting to get what she was trying to say.  She then looked to one of the male slaves she ¡°knew¡± was involved with one of the women slaves.

    She pointed to him ¡°Tell me, how can some other man impregnate your girl better then you?  Why should other men have right to touch your girl?¡±  A number of the male slaves were now nodding.  ¡°What about your daughters?  I know a number of you have daughters and sons.  Bright young children who don¡¯t understand why they must be naked.  Why they must wear chains.  Bright young children who sometimes are played with by free men or women.  Children too young to give children to anyone.  How does that increase the number of humans?  How is that living?  Should any child have to face that?  I know many of yours have.  Boys and girls.  Many of you men have had it happen to you.  When a pervert demands your body for their desires.  WHAT CHILD CAN BE BORN FROM THAT?¡±

    All of the slaves were now nodding, some of them were crying.  Sa¡¯manatha spoke slowly.  ¡°Jace was taken from his life.  He lived on a different world, did you know that?  In that world men and women were equal, with the same rights.  There were no slaves.  No man could own another man there.  They imprisoned or killed people who did what has been done to us.  He finds slavery disgusting.  He hates it.  It breaks his heart.  You should see the sad look he gets in his eyes whenever he looks at my chains.  Sometimes tears well up in them!  What type of man is Jace?¡±  She paused.  ¡°He is a chosen of the gods.  He is a great man.  I¡¯ve seen him act divinely inspired to navigate sure death situations.  He cares so much for me.  A slave.  That he turned down 30 gold Tals for me.  He then played AND WON a game of Meri¡¯ack against a Kindred man.  All for ME!  Don¡¯t believe it?  Look at the woman Verna who serves him as a slave.  She is kindred.  Look at his sword.  It is a kindred weapon.  Won in that game.  He does not see slaves as property but as people.¡±

    She paused, you could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet, the eyes of the slaves were wide.  No longer where they doubting what she spoke of.  It all matched information they knew.  She continued to speak.  ¡°Why was he brought here?  I happen to know why the wizards ripped him from his peaceful world his family, friends and love of his life.  They kidnapped him to save us from our own problems.  And despite having all that reason to hate us, he saves those of us he can.  Now it is 11 girls from being used as masturbation tools.  As he saved me.  He was kidnapped and forced to help us.  He is here to cure the curse.  That is why he was summoned.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if the prophecies are true.  He does not look like the old grey king.  But what does that matter to me?  Nothing.  I wouldn¡¯t want anyone else to become king.  I wouldn¡¯t want anyone else to become our savior.  No one from this world could think of slaves like he does.  What does it help us if some king reborn comes through and cures the curse if our chains stay on?   We would get to live long lives of servitude instead of short.  We would get to be fucked under the true light of the sun instead of in the shade so all could see our servitude.  I don¡¯t know if Jace can free us, and I don¡¯t know if he can remove the curse.  But I¡¯m willing to help him try.  What of you?¡±

    Many of the slaves remained quiet.   A few left quietly.  But a sizable group came forward to speak with her more about this.  Deep under the keep in a dark cave which only the slaves knew about, a place which had known nothing but lament, a new sound was starting to rise.  Hope.

 Chapter 37 - Inspiration found in art

    Jace left the tower in the morning still pensive from the events of the prior day.  He tried to clear his mind by jogging the stairs down the tower, then exited the keep.  As he shot out of the keep, he stumbled to a stop to avoid crashing into a large group of women in black robes.  He could easily guess why they were waiting there.  Most of them carried their possessions.

    When the women started talking he cut them off and said ¡°Yes you can move in.  work on the fundamentals.  I¡¯ve class to attend.¡±

    The truth was he knew he would be in a great deal of trouble with the faculty, as he probably had almost half of the women in this academy living under his roof now.  Judging by this group¡¯s level of enthusiasm to join his ¡®harem¡¯ he chose not to go to class, for fear of a repeat of the prior day.  Instead he left the keep on the west side and made his way down to the black sand beach.

    The walk was pretty, but did little to calm his mind.  He was just a regular American kid.  He played a lot of sports.  He had a number of good friends, a few childhood friends, no one he would ever consider an enemy.  He never really envied anyone before.  Even when his mother passed on from cancer he didn¡¯t look at his friends and envy them for their mothers who were still there.  He never saw a friend date a girl he was interested in and got envious.  There was always someone else.  He lived a care free, responsibility free and comfortable life.  One in which he could pursue whatever future he wanted.  He never had anyone else counting on him in any real important way.  His teammates wanted him to do well so they could win, but it wasn¡¯t life changing if they didn¡¯t.  He had been flagellating himself endlessly for seeing these horrible things people did to each other here without saying anything against it.  Then unable to bear the weight on his conscience he decided to step out.

    It was only now he fully understood what it meant to take responsibility for your actions.  He had said some outrageously nonsensical things to those men, and then alienated himself from all the men in this place by taking the women.  And then as if to further compound it, if he wants to do ANY good, he has to make good on those promises.

    He knew how he had helped Khana pass that test.  Yet his action had been smoke and mirrors.  A parlor trick.  He suspected even now Khana could not cast that spell again.  He had cheated the system by showing an untalented person how to sense the pulse, by becoming the pulse for them.  He can¡¯t do that for all 30 or 40 women.  The staff might not have noticed that Khana couldn¡¯t cast anything outside of arms reach, but he noticed it in class yesterday.  He noticed that clever girl knew better then advertise it, and pretended just to be REALLY weak.  No one doubted it.  However, if 40 women suddenly pass the test for channeler and none of them can cast anything beyond their palm, someone will put two and two together and realize he had been cheating them through the test.

    Jace, what an inspired name.  He wanted to laugh at himself.  He wasn¡¯t much of a fan of fantasy stories.  When it came to fiction the types of books he liked were things about spys and military operations, not witches and warlocks.  So when he decided to cast of his old name and take on a new one for this place the only fantasy character he could think of was the most irritating character in Magic the Gathering.  Jace the ¡°asshole¡± some of the players would call him.  There were a number of different cards sporting that name, released over the years.  Almost all of them with absurd cheat like abilities and low cost to play.

    His cousin Kelley, had taught him how to play that game when he was in middle school.  She was huge into fantasy stuff and a giant nerd, being a senior in high school at the time and playing a game like Magic.  He knew she never really grew out of it as she got older.  That said she had this huge love for fantasy art, and was a rather good artist in her own right.  Even if she was always reading forgotten realms books and talking about old versions of D&D.  He smiled thinking about some of her rather good drawings of unicorns in purples and pinks and dark skinned drow with white hair, and wise wizards with floppy hats and staffs.  He remembered being in middle school and loving looking at her art.

    His reminiscence ended at the beach.  He could hear the waves crashing against the shore, the croaking calls of the colorful lizards flying between the giant fern/trees.  There was some sort of weird crustacean like creatures slowly moving around on the beach.  Not a lot of them.  They looked like overgrown pill bugs, shells as black as the sand.  They didn¡¯t seem to do anything except slowly crawl around near the edge of the ocean.

    He really wanted to try sailing.  Of course that was ignoring the problem.

    He needed a permanent solution to those girl¡¯s problems and fast.  He needed something that would allow them to always allow them to always feel the pulse.

    He frowned.

    He stopped where he was standing.  He suddenly had an audacious idea.  He didn¡¯t know if it was possible, but from what he knew of magic it might be possible.  Blended magic.  Magic circles.  Enchantment.  He didn¡¯t know enough about those things, but he thought he might have a solution somewhere in it.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Turning from the edge of the beach he knew he had to bother someone he had already irritated but he couldn¡¯t think of anyone else who might know the answers to the questions he¡¯d ask.

    He ran the whole way, trying different glyphs he thought he might be able to enhances his body¡¯s function a bit with.  To his surprise the ¡°strength¡± glyph could actually increase his physical strength, however it took a tremendous amount of power to use.  He suspected his own understanding of the glyph was probably inadequate since he was just trying something on a whim.  The ¡°speed¡± glyph on the other hand did absolutely nothing when cast on himself.  He wasn¡¯t sure if he was using it wrong, didn¡¯t know enough about its composition, or it simply didn¡¯t mean ¡°speed¡± like he was thinking.  It¡¯s possible it was a glyph which meant something else, and it¡¯s real meaning was lost in time.  Energy, however, worked exactly how he imagined as he was able to wash away any weariness or exhaustion and even feel a bump of energy with a fairly minor expense of magic.

    He searched through a number of courtyards, at first he was being careful hoping not to be seen by groups of witches, but it seemed an unfounded worry.  He saw no witches anywhere.  Eventually he found who he was looking for.  Unfortunately, the person he was with was another person he had irritated.  Perhaps he could resolve a misunderstanding.  He strode up to both Kay¡¯rin and Karius discussing something under a tree while sitting on a bench.  Now that Kay¡¯rin was wearing a dress she looked like a rather pretty girl with an unfortunate haircut.  He could see just looking at Karius, he was infatuated regardless.  Heck, Karius didn¡¯t even notice his approach, it was Kay¡¯rin¡¯s glare that notified him something unfortunate was approaching.

    ¡°Good morning Wizard Kay¡¯rin, Grand Channeler Karius.¡± Jace figured there was no point returning the open hostility with hostility.  Besides he didn¡¯t dislike either of them.

    ¡°Channeler Jace.¡±  Karius spoke quietly, with a flat tone.  ¡°What can we do for you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s actually about the¡­ um¡­ experiment I¡¯m conducting.  It seems somehow a rumor got started and now a number of witches seem to believe I can help them jump up to channeler.¡±  He laughed weakly.

    If the mood of the other two was cold beforehand, it turned glacial the moment he mentioned the ¡°experiment¡±.    Knowing he had to move the conversation past that he kept speaking.  ¡°The thing is, while my theory for getting those girls past the test for witch is fairly solid, and I suspect inspired.  I have little hope to pull the same miracle I pulled with Khana for all of those witches without knowledge of things I do not know.  I would normally, be willing to take classes until the relevant information came up, but I only have 3 weeks.  I was lead to believe if I had a question about magic, short of some of the greybeards here, you Karius were perhaps the best person to ask.¡±

    Karius stared at him a long time then spoke slowly ¡°You can ask your questions, but I cannot promise I¡¯ll answer.  I don¡¯t know what game you¡¯re playing at this morning, but it sounds like it will be in bad taste.¡±

    ¡°I would like to know if there is a library.  A central deposit of information.¡±  Jace knew he was being circumspect, but the last thing he wanted to do was actually talk about his theory.  He didn''t need people telling him why it wouldn''t work.  It was better just to make it work and worry about explanations later.

    ¡°I see no harm in this question, there is.¡±  He raised a hand and pointed at a domed building to the north.

    ¡°Are there any experts on Artifice or enchantment?¡±

    ¡°There are.  I¡¯m fair at it, but if you want to speak with the best, speak with Wizard Bravre.¡±  That was the name of the wizard who traveled here with Kay''rin.  Jace glanced at her a moment then continued.

    ¡°What about experts on magic circles?¡±

    ¡°No one is a master of them.  The closest you¡¯ll get is some of the writings of a long passed Grand Wizard known as Ghalus.¡±

    ¡°Those are my questions, thank you Grand Channeler¡±

    At this point the quiet Kay¡¯lin spoke up ¡°Jace?¡±

    ¡°Yes Wizard Kay¡¯rin?¡±

    ¡°What is your goal gathering all of the witches in the fortress?  This morning there are none attending class, and the whole place is in an uproar claiming they¡¯ve moved in under you.  They even took their children.¡±  Kay¡¯rin was looking at him with a slightly hostile look on her face.

    ¡°I just want to help them Wizard Kay¡¯rin.  Help those who couldn¡¯t dress up like a boy to avoid getting a dick stuck in them.¡±  She sat back as if slapped, a puzzled look on her face.

    Jace smiled and waved at them and started running toward the library, not giving them a chance to respond.  He was getting rather excited and almost started to laugh when he thought about his cousin''s reaction if he told her what he planned to make.  Sure he probably could make the item anything, but if it''s required for a mage, it had to be that.  If he could pull this off, that classic symbol of a wizard on Earth was going to become very popular with human mages on Althos very soon.

 Chapter 38 - Verna

    Author''s note::  quick edit, I forgot the first 4 paragraphs when i initially posted this chapter.  I just added them back.

    Jace spent the rest of the afternoon buried in paper scrolls in the depository.  It was stunning how much he learned in such a short period of time.  He ended up losing all track of time and realized the sun had gone down by the time he pulled himself away from them.  Instead of heading back to the keep, he spent another couple of hours trying different magic circles out and studying the effects.  He felt like he had found a spark of inspiration and decided to skip returning to the tower for now.

    By the light of his finger he studied straight through the night, and deep into the next day.  With the sun setting on the 2nd day in the tower, he put away all the scrolls he had been studying and drew a magic circle on the floor using a piece of chalk like stone he found outside.  He stepped into the circle after finishing it and fed a little power into the structure.  This one was designed to burn up after being used, he could see the circle ignite, and in a flash he was standing on the bottom step of the staircase to his room in the keep.

    He let out a little laugh and jogged up the stairs, he felt exhausted but exhilarated, for some reason magic circles just made sense to him.  He had actually successfully calculated a teleportation circle to an exact spot.  Apparently that was not easy to do, but it seemed so simple when he was doing it.  When he considered all he could do with one, he felt a little giddy.  If his life had been miserable back on earth he¡¯d probably want to stay here just for all the crazy things he wanted to try with those circles.  The way they allowed tremendous feats with almost no power output was their strongest feature.  Their ability to allow blending of glyphs to create specific effects was even more interesting.

    He sprung up the stairs and passed by the girls milling about on their floor.  He didn¡¯t even look at them, he wanted to eat something and go to bed.  He opened the door to the room and stopped as Sam barreled into him with tears in her eyes, she hugged him and sobbed into his chest.

    Jace felt a bit stunned at this welcome, then a bit guilty.  He was so wrapped up in those scrolls he never thought to send word.

    Verna was fairly upset at that young man, so she chose not to speak while Sa''manatha cried clasping to Jace¡¯s shirt.   He had slipped out the prior morning and simply vanished into thin air.  The last anyone saw of him was a large group of witches who showed up not long after he left, they saw him at the entrance to the keep, heading west.

    She wasn¡¯t worried initially.  The boy was important but to this point had been fairly predictable.  He didn¡¯t wander far from Sa''manatha, nor did he seek out trouble that she had seen.  Humans were very hard on those who murdered their own, so she figured no matter how irritated the other men might have been with him he was probably fairly safe.

    It wasn¡¯t until sundown yesterday that she started to look for him.  She had spent most of that day with Sa''manatha, helping her dye her hair, and find a matching piece of jewelry for her new look.  She even helped the beautiful girl put together a romantic little dinner for two, and was going to make herself scarce so she could have some time with Jace and tell him about the baby.  What she didn¡¯t expect was Jace not showing up that night.

    Sa''manatha grew more and more frantic as the night got darker and darker, so Verna gathered up the child and went out looking for him.  They split up, Sa''manatha going to talk to the slaves while she went to question whomever she could find.  In reality she expected to find him pretty quickly.  She was not poor with magic like these humans who called themselves Wizards here.  What she didn¡¯t expect was tracking spells did not work inside this keep.  It was stunning.  She knew that as early as yesterday they worked fine.  Which meant someone had laid a magic circle that prevented scrying locations which covered most if not all of this island.

    She ended up trying every single tracking spell she could think of.  She even tried a number of magic circles.  It was inconceivable that a human Wizard, even a Grand Wizard could lay a circle which could blind her.  She was starting to get frantic, wondering if perhaps someone extremely dangerous had showed up while she was playing house with Sa''manatha.  In the end the best she could do was attempt to commune with Ssaras, only for Ssaras to ignore the communal.  It wasn¡¯t often Ssaras would ignore a communal, but when she did it was either because the question was frivolous, or she felt it important not to answer.  Since the last augury, she was sure Ssaras would not consider issues regarding him frivolous, however that meant whatever Jace was doing was important enough not to disturb him.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    An answer she was sure would not calm this foolish child''s heart, nor did it calm her heart about the hidden expert who was in the neighborhood.  What almost drove her to distraction was how late Sa''manatha was in returning.  The girl had forgotten her caution.  She had been so long wearing that white robe and around enough people who knew her all the time that she had forgotten how dangerous it was for a human girl to be wandering about at night no matter what she was wearing.

    So by the time the idiot girl finally showed up Verna was nearly a nervous wreck for the girl.

    ¡®If there is anything more precious than Jace it might be the child she is carrying.¡¯ Verna worried.  She of course she was also trying to lie to herself and tell herself that she was only worried because of the augury and the possible hidden expert and not because Sa''manatha was quickly becoming like the daughter she never had.   The child was fine, but whatever had caused her good mood was shattered when she heard that Verna hadn¡¯t been able to find him.

    That night she slept with Sa''manatha, though she wasn¡¯t sure how much sleep the girl got, she kept waking up at every small noise.  So of course Verna would hug her tight and stroke her brow and sing a quiet lullaby, so that girl would be able to drift off to sleep.  In all her years, Verna never imagined she would miss a night¡¯s sleep over worry for a human.

    The next day after the sun came up, she was able to track Jace down to the shore.  But he did something, and the tracks vanished right at the sea shore.  Of course that''s assuming Jace did something to erase his tracks.  She still was concerned about whomever it was who was masking scrying spells.  Without being able to track him she couldn¡¯t do anything but search the island for him.  Her people can move fast when they need to, so it only took her half a day to search from one side of the island to the other.  No one she spoke to had seen him.  Eventually she ended up searching through half the buildings in the fort.  It was only when the afternoon wore on she decided to head back, she was worried about leaving that girl alone too long alone.

    Sa''manatha, it turned out had spent all day among the witches and females who sought shelter in the keep talking to them.  Verna was so surprised she ended up listening from a doorway, to what they were talking about.  Sa''manatha was talking about hygiene, children and how Jace didn¡¯t expect them to sleep with him in exchange for shelter.  Verna noticed a number of tubs of water, and a number of slaves, clean slaves helping the women and children clean up, wash clothing, and prepare food.

    It was a lot of food.  She didn¡¯t know where they pilfered it from.

    The women were talking to Sa''manatha as an equal, which really surprised her.  In her experience humans were brutal toward slaves.  Not just the males, but the women were just as harsh on them.  When your whole life is being trodden upon you tended to trod upon anyone lower then you.  To see free women and slaves talking like equals, was a strange moment.  So strange she started to wonder if Jace knew how special this child really was.  In half a day this had happened.

    Eventually Sa''manatha noticed Verna and turned back into a little kid.  That couldn¡¯t be allowed.  She was so irritated at the child showing that much dependence on her in front of these women she chopped her on the head when she tried to hug her.  Then snagged her by the ear and dragged her back to the room for a lecture about leadership.

    Of course Jace ended up interrupting that lecture.  The bastard looked fine too.   She was tempted to harm him for robbing her of a night¡¯s sleep.  But then changed her mind when she saw Sa''manatha sobbing into his shirt.  She had a feeling the girl would make him pay far worse than any physical harm she could do to him.  After all, if she stabbed him then he¡¯d get babied by the child.  That wouldn''t be punishment.  Letting her pleasure show at the idea of how Sa''manatha might tattoo the guilt of the past two days on his heart, she strode past him and out of the room to leave them alone.

    There was someone powerful marking this island as their own and the so called wizards here didn''t seem to notice it.  She meant to make sure her little corner of of this place was secure.

 Chapter 39 - Five Troublesome Things

    Jace was laying on his back, staring at the blue sky, as a wooden sailboat, a yacht, rocked under him. He had created the yacht out of 3 large fern/trees. The actual name for the plant was something like a ¡°Wollamba¡± plant. But he found the name so silly he called them fern/trees in his head. The plants created a strange type of wood. It felt a little like cork or bulsa. It was light and almost springy. However, when it was dried out it became solid and strong as oak, without any of the weight.

    Processing the trees was simple. Now that he grasped magic circles it was simplicity itself to transform the giant fern/trees into workable materials, then form those materials into a boat. He ended up transforming the fronds/leaves into a heavy canvas like material, for sails. The bark/fir on the plant was simple to transform into lines. He actually formed the boat¡¯s main hull out of one single tree, simply carving it into shape with air blades. He designed it on the model of a J/24. Well that was his intention, ultimately he didn''t have a model or diagram of one so it was mostly memory. Without a way to make accurate measurements he was fairly sure his yacht was a bit larger then a real J/24. Making the ballast on the keel was simple, stone did a solid job for that, in fact he felt he had improved on the design for the J/24 by lowering the center of mass on the keel. One of the most well-known problems with these boats was the counterweight was too high, making them capsize if handled wrong. By lowering the weight to the bottom of the keel he figured he probably massively improved stability.

    He experimented with the wood and pressure treating before creating a circle for his needs. He found if he pressure treated the whole thing by encasing it within an area of pressured air 10,000 x current air pressure transformed the wood into a strange thin material which was almost as hard as steel, pretty much waterproof,andinexplicably maintained its absurd levels of buoyancy. Of course this transformation was probably due to some other circles he made with the intention of preventing damage from the pressure treating to his boat''s hull. It was only afterwords he realized he might have accidently transformed the material into something boardering on a magic item.

    He created his own pier moving stones about into the bay, he carefully formed it and then used some magic circles to reinforce it. Then moved the boat into the water. He assembled the rigging and mast/boom when it was in the water. Overall he was happy with his new boat. If he had any complaints it was that he couldn¡¯t figure out how to create windows which he¡¯d trust to keep water out from the cabin under the deck. He was able to make a foot pump for water, but he really didn¡¯t think he needed it. He was pretty sure the boat could be filled with water and continue to float. This wood was incredibly buoyant. So buoyant he had to increase the weight of the keel to make it float right.

    His anchor was basic. He remembered seeing a history channel show about old Chinese naval technology which showed their anchors as being donut shaped stones with a rope through the hole. He made two. They did a great job keeping the boat in place. He also made a small rowboat out of the extra materials, it was little more than a large dugout canoe

    He was surprised it only took a day and a half for him to have everything ready and take it for a sail. He even used spell circles to reinforce his new boat and make it mostly impervious to real or imagined threats. The whole process was incredible training for his magic use. The amount of power he controlled leapt by leaps and bounds. He figured he had made the leap from channeler to grand channeler to wizard level in the two days spent making the boat, he remembered how much power Kay¡¯lin had let out when she tested at wizard, he was at least that level now.

    Though to an outsider he might look like he was taking his ease, laying on the deck, staring at the sky, he was actually working on a small black stone in his hand. It had taken 10 separate magic circles to make the stone create a resonance with the pulse within him. That was only the first part of what he needed to do. It wasn¡¯t enough to help these girls FIND the pulse so they can use it. They needed to feel the pulse as well. That step was proving problematic. He had tried layered timed magics to simulate the pulse, but in the end human perception isn¡¯t that accurate. Within a few hours the object he was working on would no longer be in time with the pulse.

    As a result, he was working on increasing the resonance. He wanted the resonance to be so strong that they could feel the pulse themselves. This was troublesome.

    There were a lot of troublesome things lately. Sam¡¯s pregnancy for one. That created complicated feelings in his heart. He knew this was coming. Yet he¡¯d be lying if he said he wanted it to happen. When he left Earth roughly 6 months ago having kids wasn¡¯t in his future plans. He wasn¡¯t even sure he wanted kids at any point in his life. They seemed like they were loud, messy and basically dominated your life for 20 years in your prime. He wanted to go to college, get a degree and job, buy a house. Marry the girl of his dreams, Jenn at that time. Build up some wealth, then maybe start having kids when he could afford it.

    When he started having sex with Sam, he was half out of his mind from being backed up sexually, and frankly, he was pretty lonely. She was warm, nice, human companionship. He still felt a dependency on her. Really he still hadn¡¯t found anyone he could trust like he learned he could trust Sam. There was no one else he was comfortable talking to and be himself. He certainly loved her in a way. But it wasn¡¯t romantic love. At least he was pretty sure it wasn¡¯t. He knew the longer he kept doing that with her the more likely she was to be pregnant. He had worried about what a pregnancy would mean.

    Of course now he was confronted with the reality he realized how much he was lying to himself these past few months. At the time he told himself easy lies, like he would take her and the baby with him when he went back to earth. Or if it took years to go back, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a family. That excuse was his dependency talking. He even had darker thoughts that the high infant mortality rate here made it unlikely she¡¯d carry the child to term. He hated himself for even having those thoughts.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    When she told him she was carrying his child he wasn¡¯t too surprised. He did a good job at the time grasping onto the small strings of happiness he felt. Most of it was happiness she was beaming at him, to Sam having a baby was verification she was a woman with value. He knew that was how human girls were raised here, so for Sam this was huge. He was sure she was conflicted about it too. He knew a little of what happened to unwanted babies, or babies birthed by young slave girls without protection. He never hid his intention to go home to her. It was pointless to hide it. She wasn¡¯t stupid, she was probably smarter than he was. Trying to hide his desire to go home would have been pointless. So he was touched knowing how hard it must have been for her to tell him. While tightly grasping on to whatever thin positive feelings he had for this unwelcome event, in order to share in her joy and calm her fears he realized he would now have to figure out how to go to Earth with Sam and the baby. A boy. For a moment while he was standing there, holding Sam in his arms while he forced himself to be happy about this news, animage of his father came into his mind. The image was of him standing in front of his father holding a baby son, with Sam at his side.

    His knees buckled at the emotional impact carried by that one stray random thought. He was surprised to realize he had buried his face between Sam''s breast with tears falling from his eyes. There was a crushing pain in his chest, all that pain all that fear he¡¯d never see home seemed to have been unleashed in that moment, he was forced to look straight at everything taken from him and it was soul crushing; however, it wasn¡¯t just fear and pain he was feeling, he felt an urgent desire. He realized just how much he wanted to hold and protect this small child. How much he wanted to show the child to his father. After the tears started to fall he didn¡¯t have to try to look happy in front of her. He really was happy.

    Of course he was also frantic and terrified. This was not a safe place to have a child. Verna told him the baby would have the curse. She could tell it had the curse even though the child was too small and young to even show. He needed to learn what the curse was. How it was. He never really put any serious thought into curing the curse. That was a task well beyond him. But now that he knew his son would be born with it, the curse itself was something he needed to know about.

    That was how he learned about the moon tattoos. Yet another troublesome thing. The moon tattoos were the mark of those people ¡°truly and seriously¡± cursed. The first people with the mark were those involved in killing the old Grey King. The mark apparently halved something called the ¡°life flame¡± inside people with it. Your life¡¯s flame as he had learned was your vitality, and longevity. Basically people with the mark were twice as susceptible to pretty much every disease and plague. They also were half as likely to get better. On top of that they were half as resilient to injury, and took twice as long to recover. Finally, almost no one with the mark lived past the age of 40, most passing around 30. When he heard about the mark of the moon (It was Verna and Sam who explained it) he couldn¡¯t help but feel a distinct panic rise up inside of him about it, the idea that Sam was already basically halfway through her life was horrifying to him. The mark was even more terrible then that. Apparently it affects anyone on this world who render help to humans, for immortal races like the Rock Devils and Dragons the mark would mean an end to their immortality and a swift race into the grave. He now had a greater understanding why Vernawas so careful about what commands she''d follow and which ones she would not.

    The fact the moon mark wasn¡¯t just for this life but for your next 100 generations of kin made it imperative to the other races to cut those members of their race off from the rest. So they made laws which cut those people out of their population by selling them as slaves to other races. When he learned all of this in total, he felt an almost overwhelming and numbing sensation of hopelessness. This was a curse so powerful even the dragons dared not interfere. It had been shattering families and friendships for centuries. It had corrupted humanity into this almost unrecognizable existence just a half step above being animals. All because one dragon was killed.

    What kind of God would be so petty as todo that?

    He hadn¡¯t just been working on making enchanted objects, and boats in the past few days. He was also studying the gods of this world. A fourthtroublesome thing. He was surprised by how little anyone knew about them. At least the human sources seemed to think the gods ¡°popped¡± into existence some 20,000 years ago. But there are almost no records of how they came into being or why. He spoke with Verna about them and received some nominally useful information. In Verna¡¯s approximation the gods were incredibly powerful beings, roughly twice as powerful as a grand sorcerer. At least that always seemed to be the way the dragons saw it. Killing a god was possible, at least the dragons seemed to think so, as there once were far more than the current 8 gods. Of the 8 gods currently in existence Elis the ¡°Sun¡± god was considered the most powerful. He was supposedly stronger than the next two strongest gods combined, but Verna admonished him not to worry about that. Because the next two strongest gods were Elis¡¯s strongest allies. They were the moon goddess Vigelliand the god beneath the earth, the patrons of the gnomes Gnash. The gods themselves generally did not get along with each other, and with the 3 strongest gods on one side and five unaffiliated gods on the other, there was no power struggle in the heavens. Everyone basically followed Elis¡¯s lead.

    He gave up on the stone he was trying to enchant and tossed it into the ocean. Obviously that method would not work. He hopped up and pulled up the anchors. Pulled in the lines from the fishing poles, not a single bite. Maybe the fish or serpents or whatever lived in these waters were too smart for Earth style fishing? Maybe it was the wrong bait? Or maybe it had something to do with a certain watcher he had today. The fifthtroublesome thing on this beautiful sunny day. He raised sail and made his way back toward the shore.

    On his way back in he noted the large dark shape a few hundred yards pacing him, like it had all day. He wasn¡¯t sure what that thing was, but it wasn¡¯t aggressive. It showed up not long after he dropped anchor and had lingered just on the edge of his notice all day. He remembered that huge dark shape he saw on his first day in these waters. He wasn¡¯t sure if this was the same creature, but whatever it was, it didn¡¯t seem hostile. Something hostile with that much size probably could have swallowed the boat whole, like something out of that bible story.

    In the end he lost track of that shadow after he anchored and secured the boat for the night. He rowed in to the pier almost putting those troubles out of his mind, and made his way back to the keep. There was just two weeks left till those girls would have to return to their lives of fear.

 Chapter 40 - Sometimes you need to be unreasonable

    Karius was pacing back and forth. He suspected he knew what was happening. Kay¡¯rin had broken through to Grand Wizard level just the prior night. She was now the only Grand Wizard humanity had. It¡¯s foremost magician had spent just two weeks at this academy and already reached the pinnacle of magical ability for the human race. Had it just been about power he was sure this meeting this morning would not be happening. However, she also proved to be a prodigy with pretty much everything. No matter how complex the concept, how difficult the topic, how esoteric the magic, she mastered it. At first she learned everything he knew, it took her just a day and a half to question him dry. Then she made her way thought the faculty.

    She made the impossible possible. Solved hundred-years-old puzzles about magic with a glance. She was an inhuman prodigy to match up with the judgement of that old stone. He had suspected that Bravre had spent the 5-year journey from the hovel he found her in to this academy teaching her magic. He hadn¡¯t. According to Bravre all he taught her was reading, writing, the glyph, and the breathing.

    She was completely different from the ¡®other¡¯ prodigy. While she studied magic tirelessly he played around on the ocean and experimented with wood and different rocks. Except for that 2<sup>nd</sup> day when he went to the depository he never was seen among the other students or going to class. He still was a Channeler too. Or at least he never tested for promotion. When he wasn¡¯t playing on the beach or playingin the water with his slaves, he was back in his tower with that horde of women.

    He had learned through a couple of slaves that he wasn¡¯t mistreating those womenin the least. It was good to hear he wasn¡¯t keeping them for personal gain of some sort. Though he wondered what the faculty will do when in another week none of those girls are pregnant. He knew that was the only reason why they had turned a blind eye to this that long.

    He hated people who wasted their talent. He would kill to have the power and potential that Kay''rinand Jace were born with. He had worked himself half to death to reach his current level of skill. When he saw Kay''rinwork equally hard it was validating to him. When he saw Jace lazing about or playing with a sword he felt his teeth grind. How could someone with so much talent squander it away in such a lazy fashion?

    He could forgive him if he was actually doing something productive for those women. Every single female student in this academy had went to him. He had made some audacious claims about getting them to test as channelers. Yet he saw no training. By all accounts the women do little more than study the glyph all day, while he plays in the surf or with a sword, or runs around the walls of the keep, or spar with the Kindred woman. At least this ¡®Jace¡¯ wasn¡¯t a lay about. He couldn¡¯t say he was doing nothing. Just the stuff he did made little sense, and had nothing to do with magic. Had this Jace been more serious he probably would have been in this meeting right now as well. However, when it was suggested by wizard Bravre of all people that he be included, no one saw the point.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    The doors to the hall opened and a number of wizards filed out looking troubled. There were no smiles. He spotted Kay''rinwalking out, he was curious how someone born in a hovel, with little to no education could give the impression she was in charge of everything, she was the only one who looked composed exiting the hall. He met up with her and started walking by her side.

    ¡°Did it go as you hoped?¡±

    ¡°Not quite.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t possibly agree to their suggestion¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you mean command?¡±

    ¡°Kay''rin, why are you playing word games?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t talk down to me too.¡± Her usually quiet and timid sounding voice turned cool.

    ¡°You know I. Argh. I know why they would suggest it. But command? Its overbearing. That they didn¡¯t even include Jace in this meeting proves they don¡¯t care what either of you think.¡±

    ¡°Humanity is dying.¡± Her voice was quiet again.

    ¡°So tell me how it went.¡±

    ¡°Simple. I told them that I would destroy this island and kill everyone on it if they suggested it again.¡±

    He came to a dead stop and stared at her in disbelief. She came to a stop when she realized he had stopped walking.

    ¡°Then I told them that not only would they never speak that ¡®command¡¯ again, they would recognize me at their leader and do as I command.¡±

    He almost laughed at that line thinking she was joking. He never heard her tell one but then he never could imagine she¡¯d threaten to kill nearly every last human mage in existence either. She was a quiet, dutiful and honest girl. Not a blood thirsty killer. But there was a look on her face that made him think twice about laughing. He cleared his throat. ¡°I assume that is the part they didn¡¯t agree to?¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Well then I guess I don¡¯t need to ask Jace for a seat on his boat, since they didn¡¯t renew the command. Though, if they¡¯re stubborn on this one, they¡¯ll probably go to Jace next and try to make him force you.¡±

    She nodded again.¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°I think you can probably ignore that worry. Something tells me he will object to their idea even more violently then you.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± She looked at him curiously. ¡°Why do you think that?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m starting to get a feel for who he is. I don¡¯t think he¡¯d agree with their idea at all. He doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯s all that interested in magic. I would be surprised if he had many plans beyond returning to wherever he came from. He looks like an Arc Jumper in a cage. As if he is just pacing back and forth trying to figure out how to get out. He¡¯s not the type who¡¯d be happy being tied down.¡±

    She listened quietly to his opinion. Then spoke, ¡°Then we should meet with him before the old men do. I would rather know if he will be my enemy or not, and not guess it.¡±

    Karius sighed. He never knew a woman as proactive as she was. He wasn¡¯t sure if this was a good thing or bad.

 Chapter 41 - Two tests passed

    Jace watched the sun rise over the ocean. 6 days remained in the 3 weeks he bought for those girls. Finally, he felt like he could see the light at the end of the tunnel on this project. He was standing at the end of the pier with Verna, Khana and Sam. He had made Khana something embarrassing looking, that the girl seemed to love it only made him wonder a bit about her head. That the other girls thought it was cute really made him question his sense of aesthetics. He hadn¡¯t intended to make it cute when he started. At the start of this project he was focusing solely on staffs. However, as his studies progressed, and his experiments increased, he struck onto a solution to the problem, if what was needed was to increase the resonance, then he¡¯d use multiple devices to manage it.

    It was actually not his original idea. It was an idea given to him by a certain aquatic friend he made recently. He had grown used to the huge dark shadow after his 3<sup>rd</sup> time heading out on the boat. So he figured it was safe enough to bring Sam and Verna out on the boat. On the whole Verna was far more excited than Sam. Sam seemed to be terrified of the ocean. Well that wasn¡¯t true. She was terrified of drowning. Those chains weren¡¯t exactly made for ocean survival; she¡¯d probably sink like a rock if she fell into any water too deep to stand up in. In the end he enchanted the metal to float on the water. Then he helped her get over the fear by taking her into the water and teaching her how to swim.

    He seriously considered just cutting the chains off her, but Verna stopped him. Telling him every single person who forcibly freed a human slave was hit with the curse. He almost risked it anyway, however it was Sam¡¯s begging with tears in her eyes that convinced him not to. Ignoring her worry for him, apparently the punishment for escaped slaves was brutal. So after cooling his head he ended up giving in to reality and leaving the chains on.

    They were half a mile out from shore when he noticed that dark shadow was nowhere to be seen. That made him a bit nervous. He only made this trip because he was getting used to that thing shadowing the boat. He didn¡¯t know if it was protecting him or simply curious, either way it became ¡°normal¡±, the shadow not being here was no longer ¡°normal¡±. Just as he was contemplating turning back, the shadow returned, only this time it didn¡¯t stay far away, it swam straight under the boat.

    It was Verna who recognized what it was. She cried out in alarm it was a dragon, just as thedragon¡¯s head broke the surface of the ocean and closed in on the boat.

    Jace had been hoping to see a dragon at some point so he probably was a little too excited when the head closed in, and stared at the sapphire blue scales yellow eyes, and whiskered face. He was actually rather surprised that the dragon seemed to look more like Chinese new year¡¯s paper dragon puppet then a western dinosaur styled dragon. Still, while the head was not quite what he expected, he couldn¡¯t help exclaiming ¡°So beautiful¡± as it truly was majestic, with those sapphire like scales glittering in the sunlight while the monstrously large dragon¡¯s head closed in on the Yacht.

    Verna, unlike Jace was prostrating before the dragon while Sam was cowering and prostrating next to Jace. The Dragon examined the three then snorted, and shape shifted right in front of Jace¡¯s eyes. It was a blue haired long legged beautiful woman wrapped in a misty dress. Literally misty, it looks like mist forced into the shape of a dress for the dragon.

    ¡°Beautiful? What a strange human you are.¡± She then turned and spoke in Draconic to Verna ¡°Arise priestess, does this human mistreat you? You seem to be his slave perhaps? It is unclear with what I¡¯ve seen.¡±

    Jace said faintly in draconic ¡°Priestess?¡±

    This made the beautiful sapphire haired woman look in surprise at Jace. ¡°You also speak draconic?¡±

    ¡°Yes, as does Sam here. In fact, she taught me.¡±

    ¡°Interesting. Well then daughter, can you answer my questions?¡±

    ¡°He does not mistreat me, and I am his slave. I said the oaths.¡±

    ¡°A bad slave then. If you plan to hold to oaths priestess, then at least do a good job. Especially when you pick them yourself. But you are not why I¡¯ve come. It is this man.¡± She turned from Verna and walked over to Jace and held out two of the small stones he had been working on that he tossed into the ocean. ¡°Take them. This is an interesting toy you are making. But I think the part you do not grasp is to use more than one. Try figuring it out before your deadline. And watch your back little man. There is someone on the island who I suspect is here to kill you. Ask your ¡®slave¡¯ about what I mean. By the way, I am called Alayah. In all my years, I have never had a human call me beautiful. The reaction I usually get is like that.¡± She motioned to Sam cowering prostrate on the deck.

    ¡°I am not really praising you ¡®Jace,¡¯there are many dragons, myself included who have slaughtered humans who did not pay proper respect to us. But today I will let it pass. You have hard enough times coming shortly. You do not need me to add to it as well.¡±

    ¡°Wait, Alayah. What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I have said enough. Speak with your priestess. The problem is not unknown to her. Oh, by the way. I like this boat human. If you have difficulty finding a name for it, come to me. I will give it a blessed name.¡± Then she dove in to the water. He used the term ¡°her¡± loosely for Alayah. Verna later said that Alayah styled himself king of the sea.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    When he asked her about that one, Verna replied ¡°He probably liked being called beautiful and just thought to preen a bit as a female in front of you.¡±

    With Alayah¡¯s clue, Jace made immediate progress toward resolving his biggest issue. As for what it was Verna had to say, apparently an expert of some sort, likely a Kindred had arrived on the island sometime in the past week. With this hidden threat and Alayah¡¯s clue, Jace made a lot of progress under a deal of pressure after that.

    As for the unfortunate Khana he made a large wizards hat which looked a lot cooler in his head when he was making it then it did on the diminutive 12yo girl. What surprised him most was Sam and Verna crooning that Khana was ¡®adorable¡¯. He thought she looked silly, but he was wise enough not to say it. He also made a staff which was a bit taller than her, inserted into the staff was a 3<sup>rd</sup> focus, a black stone, and ring. The ring, staff and black stone all made an array of sorts, amplifying each other¡¯s effects. He figured this was probably overkill, but he wanted at least one successful test before he went into mass production, with the most likely to succeed student before going on to more difficult cases. In reality he was willing to bet Khana could get away with just one of the focuses.

    He held his breath as she attempted to find the pulse, he saw her control her breathing, and noted that she started to breath in time with the pulse. It happened pretty quickly, then she threw out a small fireball just for good measure. Seeing that ball of fire fly out over the water he felt like a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. It looked like this plan was going to work.

    ¡°Khana. How was it?¡±

    ¡°Not as distracting as you breathing on my neck. Jeesh, I thought I was going to die from embarrassment.¡±

    ¡°Right, right, fragile maidens heart and all that. Moving on, can you try without some of those focuses. First try without the staff.¡±

    She pouted then stuck out her tongue at him when she thought he wouldn¡¯t see it. She handed him the staff then tried again, it took her a moment then another ball of fire flew out.

    ¡°Now without the ring¡±

    She removed the ring and tried again, with the same results.

    ¡°How faint did the feeling of the pulse get with just the hat?¡±

    ¡°It felt about half of the rest. I think the hat being on your head makes the sensation clearer. I could try without the hat and a ring, it would probably be a better test.¡±

    He nodded, and took the hat from her and handed back the ring. It didn¡¯t take her long to make yet another fireball.

    ¡°Then this is the way it looks. You can keep all 4 if you want them.¡±

    She shook her head and kept the ring, then took the hat. He was flabbergasted. Then just let it drop.

    ¡°It looks like we have a solution to the problem then¡­¡± Jace trailed off as he noticed two people making their way down to the beach. He suspected he knew who the pair was and suddenly had a desire to hop into the dugout, and paddle out to the still nameless yacht. The problem was he suspected it would only be a temporary escape.

    Several days ago this pair bothered him all morning with a nonsensical proposal. They had returned every day since, with the same demand. At first he thought they were kidding. Now he figured they just caught the same stupidity that everyone else seemed to have around these parts.

    He waited for Karius and Kay''rinto approach. Once they got into earshot he called out to them. ¡°We were planning on heading out onto the ocean. I hope you¡¯d like a trip on the water, and don¡¯t plan to renew that rejected proposal.¡±

    ¡°But there is no logical reason to turn it down.¡± Kay''rin''s cool voice cut him off.

    ¡°I can think of several reasons. Karius talk some sense into her.¡± When Kay''rinspoke that nonsensical proposal the other day he knew Karius wasn¡¯t expecting it, the look on his face said it all. So he knew he had something of an ally in the man.

    ¡°I¡¯m here to support Grand Wizard Kay''rinin this matter Jace. Perhaps you could stop rejecting it outright and explain clearly why you say no. Convince us you mean it.¡±

    He wondered a little if that was a hint. So he spoke clearly.

    ¡°One, I¡¯m not marrying Kay''rinand impregnating her.

    Two, I think it¡¯s stupid because I have a girl, who is pregnant, I¡¯m not in the mood for a second.

    Three, nor will I become the new leader of the human wizards. I don¡¯t care that they won¡¯t take a woman as leader, frankly, I don¡¯t see what any human wizard can even do to force Kay''rinto do anything.

    Four, I will not proceed to take on all the women in this place as concubines to spawn a new race of magically skilled humans. From what I¡¯ve heard the magical talents of the babied born here from the unions of wizards and witches is just about as mediocre as if two regular humans mated. Me knocking up a bunch of women for the rest of my life sounds terribly boring. I already sympathize with women forced to mate their whole lives until they die in childbirth or old age, I don¡¯t plan to share their fate. Well as much of their fate as I could share.

    Fifth, marrying a girl without love isn¡¯t really something I want to try.

    Six, If I were forced to marry a girl, Kay''rinwould be way down the list, as I¡¯d rather marry Sam if it came down to that. Though from what I understand it¡¯s not legally possible to marry a slave. Heck, I¡¯d rather marry Verna, and she drives me crazy. Could you live as a 3<sup>rd</sup> wife? I thought not.

    Seven, what type of scum did you think I was to come to me with that proposal in the first place?

    Eight, just talking about it this long is making me angry just thinking about it. Clearly not something I¡¯ll ever concede to.

    Is that clear enough for you?¡±

    ¡°Perfectly.¡± Cool and smooth as ice, Kay''rinnodded her head. ¡°Then my apologies. I¡¯ll not bother you again about this matter. Keep that resolve. I¡¯m sure the old men that run this place will make the same offer to you, and they might not take a no for an answer.¡±

    Jace sighed. ¡°I really have more interesting things to do today then talk about some stupid tribal politics with someone who was testing me the past few days. Way to waste both of our times.¡± Jace hoped that really was the end of this stupidity. Though her last words certainly set him on edge as he suspected he¡¯d hear about this silly proposal again shortly.

    As if he didn¡¯t have enough things to trouble him.

 Chapter 42 - The first shoe drops

    Verna was hurrying through the wild on the northern side of the island. Pursuit was on her heels. She flickered between the Wollamba plants like a shadow in the pale false dawn light, teleporting short distances at a time, changing her location as fast as she could spot a good place to place her feet, it was this type of movement that had kept her in one piece as spells flew fast as thought after her. Her own armor was torn at the shoulder and her right arm dangling, all from the blow of a sword she misjudged. She had lost her sword at that point as well. She wasn¡¯t even sure where she was heading. Blood was obscuring her vision from a bloody gash on her forehead. Considering the situation, she was thankful it was just a bloody gash.

    She had been searching for the hidden expert on the island ever since Alayah¡¯s warning. She knew the Ocean King wouldn¡¯t have mentioned it if it wasn¡¯t dire. She even performed a communal and received warnings from Ssaras of a deadly danger drawing near.

    Verna wished she had taken Ssaras¡¯s warning more literal. While searching for the hidden expert she had grown a little careless. She thought she had found sign of someone in a remote northern section of the island. And rather than stalk closer, teleported right into a clearing in their line of sight. The trails had been old, so she didn¡¯t expect that she¡¯d stumble upon some of the group by accident. Two Kindred, both of whom she knew, Carish and Johna which made the identity of the expert clear in her mind. She always rather liked Carish and even had taken his proposal for marriage seriously after her husband was killed. He was a good and honest man, that said, he was on the wrong side today. She could tell a tragedy was about to unfold and wished bitterly in her heart she had taken Ssara¡¯s warnings more seriously.

    She wasn¡¯t a poor fighter by any means, against most kindred she was a step above. However, this pair was on another level. She would have been hard pressed to defeat either alone, both together? It would probably be almost impossible to escape let alone kill them. When presented with an unwinnable situation she always had one instinct, attack. So she lept and struck at nearest, Carish. She had recovered from her shock faster on seeing them; and unlike them, she had no doubt they were her foe, their uncertainty turned out to be a fatal. Her first blow struck true and killed Carish, nearly separating his head from his shoulders. She hoped she killed him. Thus far he hadn¡¯t joined the pursuit. The problem was their leader did.

    If she thought she might be able to escape Johna alone she definitely couldn¡¯t escape him. Frankly it was taking all her skill not to be killed by him. Nothing worked to shake him either. Of course it wouldn¡¯t. He was a sorcerer. Sorcerer¡¯s were fundamentally different from grand wizard level magicians like herself. Magic didn¡¯t work on sorcerers. Not magic from a grand wizard or lower. Furthermore, the magic of a grand wizard or lower couldn¡¯t stop or affect the magic of a sorcerer either. She had her suspicions about who it might have been when she realized scrying was dead, and nothing she cast could make it work again. She wished she had been wrong. This one had as much compassion of an enraged Rock Devil. Which is to say, none.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Several more jumps took her out of the Wollamba grove and into a field of orange flowers called Elis¡¯s Dawn. Not that she ever would call it by that name. She was after all a priestess of Ssaras, the patron goddess of Dragons.

    She had taken Sa¡¯manatha out this way to find appropriate flowers to take the grey sickness out of her hair that the curse had put in it. No girl her age should ever sport grey hair. Yet the curse seemed to drain all the color out of humanity. Especially the ones born with the moon tattoo. It wasn¡¯t uncommon for those children to be still born, those who do survive birth, often being sickly and weak their whole life. Some like that monstrous girl Kay¡¯rin even sporting grey hair from childbirth. The curse always twisted her stomach, but what humans then did to themselves because of it made it far worse. Most humans scratched and clawed at survival like animals. Squeezing out just enough of an existence to reproduce and die. Little more.

    Hurrying across the field of flowers, with jumps fasters then the eye could track, she flickered across the field, making her way around the lip of the northern volcano, she knew she was getting close to the teleportation array, and hoped some eyes somewhere were watching this location. No matter how she fled she couldn¡¯t get around the pursuers and back to the keep where her defensive arrays, Jace and perhaps with luck that monster Kay¡¯rin, would have turned the battle or at least forced a stalemate, not that they two could actually stop him but at least he might not be willing to kill Kay¡¯rin. She suspected that child to be blessed by fate, Elis always liked disciples blessed by fate, and rarely would confront Fate in such a way as to take one of his chosen children.

    She was just about to leap past the teleportation array when an explosion tore up the ground in front of her, timed perfectly with her brief materialization a sealing spell was contained in the explosion cutting off her teleportation and combined with the explosion, flinging her off the bluff. Her heart was in her throat as she realized this might be the last few moments of her life as she fell rapidly within a shower of debris toward the dark waters and jagged cliff face below.

 Chapter 43 - The calm before the storm

    Jace rose before the sunrise. One of the weird side effects of living without electricity is he found himself going to bed not long after sunset. Two or Three hours after sunset at most. Of course with day/night being almost equal, and the actual day probably a little longer than an earth day, this meant he not only got a great night¡¯s sleep, but he often was up an hour or three before dawn. Of course back on earth he was always a bit of an early riser. He just never liked sleeping in much.

    He hurried down through the tower and made his way to the beach, he only had a short time to finish making the focuses so he maximized all his effort on them. There was something eerie about this predawn, that set his nerves on edge. It was unnaturally quiet. Usually you could hear some of the nocturnal lizard-bird things they called Shars making some sort of croaking noise. Or some of the more irritating insects making some sort of noise. Now, there was nothing, as if the world was holding its breath.

    He worked quickly on the focuses, in order to finish and get the girls used to using them and tested out of their situation he had to get them started today. He made an assortment of stone rings, staves, focus stones and hats. The hats apparently were the most effective part, so he needed to make them no matter how stupid they looked. Of course making them was a pain, because it required him to gather up a bunch of the fronds from the fern/trees, then transform them into something resembling a clothing/canvas like material, then further transform it into a hat like shape. It was a pain. He much preferred the rings and staves, those were simple to make.

    He couldn¡¯t help but feel like something was staring at his back while he worked. He had as many detection wards as he could have conceived surrounding everything within 300 yards of him, and it was detecting nothing, either in the air, sea or ground. Yet he still felt like someone was standing right behind him. It was an unnerving experience; especially in lieu of what Verna had told him about the hidden expert likely being a Kindred Emissary of a God. It was Verna¡¯s suspicion that it was an Emissary of Elis, only because of the way spells were being restricted. Still she told him not to worry about who it was, because ¡°all I have are theories, and it would be best not to be caught looking in one direction while the real foe takes you from behind.¡±

    What she said made sense of course, he just wished she would talk clearer about who the foe might be. Or even why she thought it was an Emissary of Elis. He ended up reviewing the defenses that Verna had laid and had to admit to himself he found them impressive. That said he ended up laying a few defensive wards he imagined as well. He figured unless the foe was a sorcerer there was no more secure location on the island then the keep.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    He kept sneaking glances behind him as the oppressive silence continued on through sunrise. Even the sea seemed to be calmed. Making barely a whisper as small ripples slowly stroked the shore. It was such a silent morning; he could barely make out the noises of the male student¡¯s miles away going to class. He didn¡¯t even hear a rustle of plant life in the wind. In fact, there was zero wind.

    It was haunting.

    He gathered up the staves and goods after finishing the last item. It sounded far too loud, he thought he could almost hear an echo from all the noise he was making. The silence and isolation he felt was so intense, he felt an uncontrollable need to take a leak. Restraining himself, figuring it would be the worst horror movie clich¨¦ to take a leak in this situation, he quickly made his way back to the tower in the keep, carrying all the focuses as he moved quickly.

    The trip back was mercifully uneventful. The tower itself was almost unnaturally quiet as well. He had to work up his courage before walking up the stairs. To his relief all the girls were waking up in their room on the 10<sup>th</sup> floor. Since everyone looked like they were up he decided to start working with them now, likely Sam and Verna would make their way down to him on their own. He ended up spending most of the morning passing out focuses to all the girls. Everyone got 4, at least one head piece, then walked them through what they should be looking for and feeling. Surprisingly they all were able to manage at least lighting a finger on their first try. And about ? of the nude girls managed to make a weak pool of light on the ground in front of them. All of the witches, much to his immense surprise were able to make the jump to channeler.

    He left the rest to practice feeling quite pleased with himself, and made his way up to the top floor to talk to Sam about his plans for the rest of the day. He figured this would be as good as any to bring those girls back to the academy and get them all to pass the test. He was a little disappointed to notice that both Verna and Sam were missing. The room felt lonely without them. He was surprised that he included Verna with Sam in the ¡®them.¡¯ While he had no romantic interest in the alluring kindred woman, he found her presence comforting after a way. He suspected that when Sam had their child, he¡¯d be very thankful for Verna¡¯s assistance with the baby. Seeing as she had already experienced that twice with her own kids. Her experience would take a weight off his mind. He poked around a bit and saw nothing to indicate where they went to and headed back down into the tower to see if any of the women knew where they went.

 Chapter 44 - Cheating Fate

    Shawey was 13 and engaged to another boy in the village in an arranged marriage. Marriage was growing rare among many human communities, her village included. Many men didn¡¯t see the point to it since they could take any unmarried woman they wanted to. Less mouths to feed, no responsibility. The only girls who got married were those from wealthy houses to the scions of other wealthy houses, or girls of exceptional beauty. She was the later. The boy she was engaged to however was successful young man of 17, dashing, like her without the moon mark, he was very good looking and for a simplistic young girl easily won over her heart with some small romantic gestures. He was so adult, unlike any boy her own age. He was the love of her 13 year old life. So she was really looking forward to her ¡®flowering¡¯ and prompt marriage.

    It was about that time a wizard came through her village looking for talented youths. He declared everyone talentless, until he saw her, his letcherous gaze made her skin crawl, and though she didn''t want to be tested, was pushed forward for testing by her family. After a brief testing, the old geezer declared she had some talent and took her away from her parents, home, and love. No one argued, no one stood up for her. No one asked her opinion. The happy future she thought she had coming to her was ripped away.

    The trip to the academy was endless. Her first flowering came and went. She grew older and even more beautiful, more adult. Sometime after her 15<sup>th</sup> year the old wizard started his ¡°lessons¡± every night. Of course she knew this sort of thing happened to other unmarried girls. But she had been slated for marriage for years. This was a fate she never expected to occur to her. He was old, diseased, he smelled like a corpse with a mouth full of rotten teeth, and thankfully (else she might have gone insane) could not get erect, but that never stopped him from trying, or taking endless liberties with her body, night after night after endless night. She tried to run away from him several times only to learn to her horror he had spelled her in some way so that no matter how far she ran, she always ended up back where she started. So she tried to kill herself, only to learn that the wizard could heal someone who was almost dead without any problem. Worse when he found her dying, he made her trip toward death endless, then ripped her back from the edge of death only to submerge her again into its cold embrace. By the time his punishment was over she was thoroughly broken and could no longer even think about trying to kill herself without nearly collapsing into a crying fit. He was sadistic and twisted, and had planted a deep resentment and terror deep in her heart.

    A week away from the accadamy the old wizard ended up selling her virginity to another old man for a gold tal. It was a mortifying experience. Until that night she thought there was nothing else the old man could do to her. It turned out she was tragically wrong. She had started the journey a bright hopeful if heartbroken young girl, and arrived at the academy little more than a filthy broken wretch. She had long ago stopped caring for her looks or hygiene, the cleaner she was the more the wizard tried to use her body.

    After getting to the academy she thought she might finally be free of him, only to learn that girls who could not pass the test to witch would be forced to be nude and used by the male students and faculty as that horrid old corpse tried to use her on the road to the academy. Worse, the ¡°talent¡± that ripped her from her family turned out to be only good enough to be a witch. Witches being little better than non-witches only difference being she could wear clothing as a witch. She was little better then talentless. Her only conclusion was the old man must have seized her because he thought she¡¯d be a good toy to play with.

    With her heart shattered and hope gone her first class arrived, and she failed her first test, one she didn¡¯t even know was a test. ¡°Glyph? What¡¯s a glyph?¡± she asked herself. The old man never told her about any glyph. How was she supposed to test into being a witch if she didn¡¯t know this glyph? When she was told her failed the test without even knowing it was a test and to strip, she felt like the world had turned mad. Why had this happened to her?

    She watched the remaining testing with dead eyes, watched students who obviously had talent show it off and the shattered heart started to get furious. Her life was destroyed for someone else¡¯s sexual desires. She had been raised to be a mother. She didn¡¯t object to being one. Humanity was dying, it was her duty. But she had a fianc¨¦, a loving family and life. Life was hard for most people but she had been blessed with good looks and was to be blessed in her life. Until those blessings turned out to be more a curse than anyone else. All those girls back in the village still at least had people in their families to help them. Boys that would protect them from too much abuse. Even slaves to take their place. They would get to raise their children. She already heard about what happened to the children of the girls here. The slaves would raise them, never seen again after birth. The cruelty of this harsh life was too much to bare and not for the first time she wished to die.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Then after stripping under the hungry gaze of her filthy fellow students, she was called up in front of the class. She thought it was for yet one more humiliation. Only to have one of the remarkable successful students, the lone male among the successful students, a Channeler, seize possession of her. She was so angry she was pretty sure she was staring murder at him after he seized her for impregnation and some stupid experiment.

    At least that was what she expected. What she didn¡¯t expect was being locked away from the student body, given a clean place to sleep, and no one coming to demand sexual favors from her. This Jace barely paid any attention to her or the other students. Before the first day ended most of the female students were gathered, the general consensus was 3 weeks break from being some man¡¯s play toy was the best deal any of the girls got since they came to this ¡®academy¡¯. Some of the others joked that even if this Jace was the horniest man in the academy, the best he could manage is to sleep with each of them 2 or 3 times in the 3 weeks they lived there, which was still a massive vacation from their daily duties. Furthermore, Jace looked clean, so it wouldn¡¯t be too bad. That she felt this argument was comforting made her frustrated deep in her heart. Sleep with some strange man a few times over the course of the next few weeks would be better than mating with half the faculty and students over that same time period.

    None of the witches were older then 22, at that age they were allowed to leave, and of course every single one would leave. They were surprised when Sa¡¯manatha, Jace¡¯s love, judging by the white robe arranged for their comforts, helped them find medicines or treatments for ills, and in general offered a shoulder to cry on. Sa¡¯manatha was braver then she was. Most of the women gravitated to her from the first day. Before long a large group of the cleanest slaves she ever saw started helping in the tower. The quality of the food got better, and she was able to study the glyph without anyone interrupting her or demanding things of her body. For the first time in years she felt safe.

    She caught sight of Jace several times over the following weeks. He always had a pensive and worried look on his face. He was a hard worker from what she heard, and from what Sa¡¯manatha told everyone it was all to help them pass the tests into ¡°channeler.¡± She never saw another man like him. He was huge, and well-muscled. At first she thought for sure he had to be some sort of Fairy lord. Though she never saw a fairy with as much bulk as he had. Fairies always moved about with a graceful floating motion, and their beauty was ethereal. Jace was a sturdy manly human. His face was a bit plain, but the shocking green eyes and brown hair was a combination that she never thought existed in humans before.

    She saw the gorgeous Kindred woman who followed him like a slave as well. And was stunned to learn he didn¡¯t sleep with the kindred woman, but remained faithful to Sa¡¯manatha. A slave. She never heard of such a man before. She wasn¡¯t even sure if she approved or not. It was actually a topic of debate among some of the women. She couldn¡¯t blame them for feeling a little put out. They were forced to mate for the purpose of the survival of mankind. They were told they were more valuable than normal girls because they had magic potential. Yet here was this apparently super talented man who was not giving his seed to every woman he saw. It seemed like he was being selfish in a way. He wasn¡¯t doing his duty to mankind. At least that¡¯s how one side of the argument went. The other side of the argument pointed toward the old practice of marriage. And the fact a man can¡¯t marry a slave. However, that white dress was the only dress a slave could wear because it was a declaration of his love for her. Those girls seemed to think he was admirable, because though he could not marry a slave, he was treating her as his wife, and being more faithful to the concept of marriage then most men were.

    Then the final week began, and a new girl moved in with the rest, the lone female channeler in the academy Khana. She helped Jace with some experiments, and after a few days Jace returned with jute sacks full of goods. She was skeptical of course. But as one girl after another made their hands light up with magic, she started to eagerly await her chance to try it. Sure enough she was able to make a light occur, then she was surprised to learn she could make magic occur outside her body.

    She remembered the judgement of the stone which claimed she¡¯d max out at witch. Yet here she was, her first time touching the pulse, and she already was a channeler. For the first time in her life, she felt like she had escaped the clutches of fate, and had control over her destiny. Khana was gathering the girls up who had failed the channeler test and was walking them through it, she saw several more pass the test on their second try. It was almost a miracle.

    While chatting happily next to another nude girl wearing a large hat like she was, she noticed Jace reenter the hall looking a bit worried. He started asking around after Sa¡¯manatha. Apparently Sa¡¯manatha and Verna were missing. No one had seen them either.

    Shawey was growing worried.

 Chapter 45 - The Storm Breaks

    Worrying about Sam and Verna, Jace asked the female students if they had seen them. Surprisingly none of the women seen them all day. He was pondering what that meant that when a young slave ran up to him. It was a young boy of perhaps 6 or 7. He had noticed that the slaves working in the keep seemed to have got much cleaner and healthier looking since he moved in, so the fact the boy looked almost normal, except for the fact he was wearing chains and naked didn¡¯t even register in his head.

    The boy looked a little upset and scared. So Jace knelt down and spoke to him reassuringly

    ¡°Ok, calm down, you¡¯re looking for me right?¡±

    The young boy nodded.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Some people came and took everyone.¡± The answer was too vague to be helpful, though the contents certainly increased his level of concern. Thinking back he didn¡¯t remember seeing any slaves this morning.

    ¡°Everyone? All the slaves?¡±

    The boy nodded again.

    ¡°Who came? The other students?¡±

    The boy nodded again. Jace took a moment to think, his frown growing.

    ¡°Was there anyone strange with them?¡±

    The boy nodded again.

    ¡°Can you describe him?¡±

    ¡°He was wearing sparkly red shirt and had red hair like Verna. He was really mean and ordered everyone to follow him.¡±

    Jace¡¯s heart sank on hearing that. ¡°Everyone? Even Sam?¡±

    The boy nodded then added ¡°He ripped her pretty white dress off her, and told her to get in line with the others.¡± The answer ignighted his rage. He actually had to take a few moment to uncleanch his jaw and continue speaking with the boy in a tone which wouldn''t scare him.

    ¡°This was down in the slave quarters right? What about Verna?¡±

    The boy spoke slowly ¡°I didn¡¯t see Verna. This was in the room we stay. I was taken out of the group and told by the red haired man to wait in the room until I heard you came back, and tell you about it. He said that um¡­ He would be in the central building. He said um¡­ To bring all the women back to the school. With you. He said he was um¡­ an emissary of Elis, and um¡­ you were to come quickly.¡±

    Jace closed his eyes, he had a deep seeded fear of the Kindred. He had tried sparing against Verna and realized there was a limit to body enhancement magic. Especially since the kindred could do it too. Their mobility was just too much of an advantage in a fight. He prided himself on his defense, but he had little confidence he could manage against a serious Kindred. Worse, Verna was apparently missing. He couldn¡¯t manage to beat Verna, the fact she was missing spoke nothing but bad for his chances.

    To his shame his hands were shaking. He hadn¡¯t really fought someone with his life on the line yet. Oh sure he sparred with no armor on and risked death, but that wasn¡¯t against someone who was seriously trying to kill him. Nor had he ever killed anyone. Taking the balls of that slime Teral was almost too much for his heart. He remembered the sleepless nights after that. The nightmares. He could still feel the warm blood on his hands. It was pathetic that he was originally a hockey player, and the idea of killing another person was still this repulsive to him.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    There was a huge difference from wanting to beat someone up and wanting to kill them with your bare hands. But what really terrified him was the boundless rage rising up in his heart whenever he thought about that scene just described to him of Sam being stripped and treated like a slave. He felt a killing urge almost overwhelm his sense of reason. The only reason he didn¡¯t grab a sword and teleport straight there was the horrifying anxiety warring within him about the idea of fighting kindred.

    The women in the tower of course were standing right there when the boy started talking. They all had different looks on their faces, some looked terrified, many looked angry though. A chunk looked like they wanted to hug him in sympathy. He wanted neither sympathy or pity.

    He felt like he was getting light headed and realized he couldn''t get up off his knee since he was hyperventilating and didn¡¯t realize it. He looked at all the women and spoke quietly. ¡°If you get into trouble because of me, I¡¯m sorry. But I have to go to meet him. This emissary of Elis will likely kill me. Hold on to the things I gave you. Weather this with your heads down. And you¡¯ll all either be witches or channelers by the time the day ends. All you need to do is come with me to the hall. You should promptly wait to the side and not side with me.¡±

    One of the prettiest girls in the group stepped forward. She was wearing one of the unfortunate looking floppy hats, and not a stich besides it. It was such a strange combination that had he not been so worried he might have laughed. Either way he stamped down on the urge to tell her to dress. Until she ¡®officially¡¯ passed the test she couldn¡¯t put clothing on. He actually couldn¡¯t place her, but since she was nude that meant she was in the group he first saved. Looking closely at her eyes, he suddenly recalled where he saw this young woman. She was one of two girls giving him the stink-eye when he claimed the first group. She was so filthy then, he nearly didn¡¯t recognize her. She looked much healthier, and no longer had that flat almost dead look to that pair of angry pale blue eyes. She spoke.

    ¡°Why would you not want us to stand with you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not your fight.¡±

    ¡°It IS our fight. Listen.¡± She gestured to everyone around. ¡°I think I can say this for many. But you changed my fate. And Sa¡¯manatha welcomed us into your home. We care for her too. We care for you as well. If you and Sa¡¯manatha are in trouble I, no I think WE want to help.¡± Her words were met with a series of nods.

    Jace closed his eyes to those nods and had to stamp down the urgent desire to break out in histerical laughter. He felt like the biggestcowardin the world. Here he was, terrified over confronting these kindred and every single woman in this tower he thought he was protecting turned out to be braver then him. They weren¡¯t conflicted in the least. The sudden urge to laugh washed away his terror, allowing his anger to heat up a bit.

    ¡°Fine, let¡¯s go to it then. Put on some clothing, I witnessed you passing the test for channeler. You might as well die with your dignity intact. I¡¯ll return shortly. I have to prepare.¡± He stood up on shaky legs and went back up the stairs to their room. He looked from one corner to the other. It felt so empty. This was the first place he felt like was a home since he came to this world. The smell of the sea coming through the windows. He could almost smell Sam in the air here. There was where Sam cried in his arms when he failed to come home one night. There was where he learned he¡¯d be a father, and in turn cried in her arms. There was where Verna would sneak a peek and watch him dress in the morning, or from time to time watch Sam and him make love.

    He looked up at the ceiling a long moment, collecting himself. At first it was an overwhelming loneliness and sadness that threatened to drag him away. But the more he thought about those faceless kindred who stripped Sam and forced her to follow them, he found that sadness melt away under the withering heat of a towering inferno of rage and frustration.

    He seized his kindred style armor where it was left on a stand, and started putting it on. He eyed the kindred blade he won from Varngus. Win or lose he planned to make someone bleed for this.

 Chapter 46 - First Blood

    Jace lead the group of almost 80 women out of the keep toward the central hall with the huge dome. It was a multiple mile walk. All the women were dressed reasonably, except for those unfortunate hats. In the time it had taken him to put the armor on and belt on the sword the last remaining witch had tested into channeler. This made him wonder a bit about the stone they used for testing. Apparently it was not really all that possible for people to surpass their ¡°potential¡±, yet every woman in this tower had managed it in just a handful of hours. This probably meant the stone never actually measured potential, but something else, and these human mages had been using it with a mistaken understanding what it did for all of this time.

    Regardless the reason, prior to today, this academy had just 11 students at the level of channeler or higher, including himself, Karius, Khana and Kay¡¯rin, that number just went up significantly. Even though all those girls behind him were basically brand new to magic, he remembered his own explosive growth with casting. Magic wasn¡¯t tied to endurance. He never got tired using it. He only could feel drained if he pushed against the limits of his ability to handle the flows of the pulse of the world at his limits.

    He knew his mind was drifting into irrelevancies, but that was mostly to keep himself in check and not to teleport directly to the dome himself. He knew the school knew he was coming. He could see people fleeing out of the shadows of some of the buildings to carry word. He was half curious what this Emisary of Elis had to say, though he suspected nothing that would come out of his mouth would be something he¡¯d want to hear

    It was closing in on midafternoon by the time they were within a mile of the domed central meeting building. Waiting for them was a large group of male students lead by Kay¡¯rin and Karius. They spread across the way as if to bare their path. Jace felt nothing but impatience to find Sam, so he was in half a mood to walk straight throught their lines. However, he didn¡¯t want the first person he killed to be a human with no evil intent. So he grabbed hold of his impatience and stopped a dozen paces away.

    ¡°Greetings Grand Wizard Kay¡¯rin. Grand Channeler Karius. To what do I owe this great honor?¡±

    Kay¡¯rin looked conflicted a moment then spoke slowly. ¡°We¡¯ve been ordered by the emissary of Elis to apprehend you, and to place these women back into the general populace as per their station.¡± Her soft voice sounded almost robotic, she looked like her heart wasn¡¯t in the command given. Karius next to her looked deeply apologetic.

    Karius spoke up, ¡°Jace just come quietly, we don¡¯t want to harm anyone. Besides, those girls aren¡¯t yours to do with as you please. They have duties, which you¡¯ve kept them from for weeks. Let them return to them.¡±

    Just as Jace was about to say something, the pretty girl who spoke out before in the keep, he still didn¡¯t know what her name was, though at least this time she was wearing clothing spoke out. ¡°We¡¯re all channelers now, thanks to Jace. Just what duty is it we¡¯re skirting?¡±

    The looks on the warlocks faces behind Karius and Kay¡¯rin was that of pure disbelief. One of the men strode forward, he looked like he was perhaps in his mid-30s, nearing the end of his life since he had the moon tattoo on his forehead. ¡°What are you talking about you little bitch. Lying won¡¯t let you avoid squealing under me tonight! You¡¯ll take our seed and thank us for it.¡±

    The pretty girl briefly shone with a blue light, and the foul mouth man, who had a grin on his face obviously feeling as if he had put this woman in her place, suddenly groaned and grasped his chest before collapsing. Jace had an idea of which glyph was used. It was either Death or Stop. If you used ¡®stop¡¯ on a heart you probably could get that effect. He suspected it was stop not death. From his experimentation, the death glyph was very hard to use on a living creature. He even struggled to use it on a small flower, he could only imagine how hard it would be to use on a living creature.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    The laughing and foul promises from the group of warlocks came to a dead stop as she killed the foul mothed one. You could have heard a pin drop, the looks of disbelief and terror on the faces of the warlocks was actually rather funny when Jace looked at it. Finally, one of the braver ones spoke up. ¡°Death by torture. That¡¯s the penalty for killing another human. We all saw her kill him. Someone seize her.¡±

    The girl didn¡¯t back down, and for that he had to give her a lot of credit. She looked challengingly at all the men and spoke out. ¡°The first man who touches me or dares to ¡®seize¡¯ me dies.¡± A number of other women strode forward to stand with her. Jace never really stopped watching Kay¡¯rin, she would be the linchpin in this conflict.

    Kay¡¯rin spoke. ¡°If all these women are now channelers, their duties as students have changed. Find a slave girl to impregnate instead. We are not here for you to collect bed companions. And unless school rules change you can¡¯t have them anymore anyway.¡± She then directed her gaze at Jace, ¡°and you. Will you submit or must you fight against the will of an Emissary of Elis?¡±

    ¡°Where is Sam?¡±

    Her gaze flickered to Karius. He spoke up. ¡°She¡¯s in the central hall. With all the other slaves brought back from the keep. She¡¯s not in any real danger right now. Though we¡¯re to tell you that if you fight us she will be.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s sophistry. Come on Karius. If a man holds a blade to your back you¡¯re in danger whether they mean to kill you now or tomorrow. They hold that blade to Sam, she¡¯s already in danger. Don¡¯t [sugar coat] this.¡± He realized he actually said that phrase in English, and corrected himself ¡°I mean don¡¯t make it seem like the situation is better now as long as I don¡¯t fight back.¡±

    Kay¡¯rin spoke in, cutting off Karius, ¡°I told you your soft and reasonable words would not work. He¡¯s of no mind to actually listen to good advice. Very well let me make this clear to you. The exact words of the Emissary were if you thought to resist, not only are we to cripple but not kill you, but you would then be brought before Sa¡¯manatha while you watched them remove her arms and legs then turned her into a toy for the men to play with until she died. The only reason you were not seized and Sa¡¯manatha was, was for you to suffer more. Elis apparently wishes for your despair before death.¡± She spoke those terrible words without even an ounce of inflection in her voice. It almost made it seem unreal.

    ¡°Cripple me?!¡± Her words echo¡¯ed in his mind. That towering rage he was keeping in check burst forth.

    Khana thought she would be sick thinking about the image put in her mind by what that nasty girl Kay¡¯rin said. She was mixed in among the other girls and was sort of following the flow. The idea of rebelling was a bit exciting to her, that said she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d have the courage to really take a lead role in what was happening. So she was surprised when she came forward with the other girls to support Shawey when she killed that vulgar fellow.

    Sa¡¯manatha was a good person. She really liked her. She sort of reminded her of her big sister. The idea that someone could do that to someone was repulsive to her.

    Then she noticed Jace¡¯s face look strained, his hand clasping the swordhilt at his waist he spoke through clenched teeth. ¡°Out of my way. NOW. Last warning¡±

    The kindly looking man called Karius shook his head sadly, then spoke up, ¡°You¡¯re just a channeler Jace, you can¡¯t match me let alone Kay¡¯rin, just come quietly and Sa¡¯manatha will be alright.¡±

    Jace scowled and spat out ¡°you were warned.¡± What happened next was almost impossible to follow, it happened so fast that her eyes had difficulty to track it. A flash of lightning and a crack of thunder roared out, which exploded as it hit and shattered a curved shield around Karius and Kay¡¯rin, Kay¡¯rin staggered back a step and Karius flashed a blue barely erecting a shield before both of them were turned to charcoal by the blast of lightning still streaming at them.

    Kay¡¯rin flashed blue, and from this range, even Khana could feel the power of the spell she was invoking, it was hair raising, Jace still hadn¡¯t moved a step and drew the kindred sword, almost as if he was ignoring what Kay¡¯rin was doing.

    A spacial ripple appeared around Jace, it looked almost like a transparent dome, which shrunk in size rapidly, she would have mistakenly thought it was a simple shield, had the spacial ripple not been present she probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed the glyph of SPACE and perhaps even REALITY involved in the creation of the shrinking dome.

    Jace smirked and spoke ¡°too slow¡± as his appearance inside the dome simply melted away while Kay¡¯rin collapsed after taking a blow to the back of her head. It took Khana almost as long as karius to realize what happened. The trapped Jace was likely a visual/auditory illusion. Though it was so well made she had to wonder how long that was there, and where Jace had been hiding this whole time.

 Chapter 47 - Entering Hell

    Jace was livid, and he only just kept himself from shattering Kay¡¯rin¡¯s head like a melon when he bashed it from behind. He wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if he broke her skull or even her neck with a force he used. Without pausing he knelt down and put a hand on her should then stood again, still watching the slack jawed Karius.

    ¡°Karius, I know you like Kay¡¯rin so I¡¯m going to tell you good news. I did not kill her. Now I¡¯m going to tell you bad news. I spelled her. It¡¯s a cute little ward I invented to protect me when I was working. If you try to heal her from this injury or even cast a spell on her in the next¡­ oh¡­ half a day or so, you probably won¡¯t survive the backlash. This is my warning to you. As for Kay¡¯rin I think she¡¯ll recover on her own from these injuries. At the worse she¡¯ll die, but it won¡¯t be for a few days yet I think. Now, you have two choices. One you can fight me, and get her caught up in our battle, or you can take her someplace to make sure she recovers well. Remember try not to heal her before dawn tomorrow. I suggest you take the second option because I¡¯m not in the mood to spare too many people today.¡±

    Jace was hoping he¡¯d take his offer of peace, partially because he didn¡¯t want too many of his tricks seen before he confronted the kindred. Partially because he knew at heart these two weren¡¯t bad people. He really didn¡¯t want to make the first person he killed be someone he liked. Time seemed to stretch then Karius nodded his surrender, and walked over to take Kay¡¯rin somewhere else. As he passed Jace he warned in a whispering tone ¡°The emissary is a famous sorcerer, you¡¯re doing yourself no favors right now.¡±

    Jace stood up, and lead the girls past the roadblock. Now that blood had been spilled Jace raised his pace. It was important to get to the gathering hall as quickly as possible. His concern for Sam starting to war with his reason as his pace became a near run. He could tell the girls couldn¡¯t keep up. He no longer could care if they did or not. As he closed in on the hall he heard a cry of pain that stabbed him in the heart. He knew that voice. His near run turned into a full sprint, he fed varies body reinforcement glyphs into his muscles and unleashed inhuman speed to reach the entrance.

    He thought he was prepaired to see anything, he was wrong. What he saw as he entered the hall nearly drove him insane.

    Sa¡¯manatha felt like she was dying. Her body was in more pain then she should be possible to feel. Nothing that old Sage ever did during her training hurt like this. She was terrified and knew tears were falling down her face. But she refused to scream out again. Part of her wanted to just die for this to end. But she didn¡¯t want the baby to die, so she struggled fitfully to breath, and prayed desperately to Manatha for help.

    She never told Jace why she chose the name she did. Manatha was the goddess of the skies, and of flying things. Part of her heart always envied the Shar which flew in the sky. It always looked so free. She yearned for that freedom to go where she wanted to go. To see new things, to not be weighed down by these chains. It was a deep seeded yearning which she never gave up deep in her dreams, she couldn¡¯t help but want to fly free. It was a childish dream born when she was terrified, sad and in pain, wishing for escape from her bondage, for her parents to come and rescue her.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    So for her, none of the other gods or goddesses had anything she really wanted. Just that unspoken wish for Manatha. She wanted to fly free just once; to see the world from the sky, and see new things without worry, to live free of the chains. When she took the name the ¡®Sa¡¯ part of the name was an ancient human way of saying ¡°daughter of¡± so she knew she was being very presumptuous with the name. She was claiming something which probably should insult Manatha. She was a cursed, pathetic human slave girl, what right did she have to claim kinship with the goddess Manatha?

    Still how could she ever forget that dream? When Verna asked her what her dreams where she had to admit she had no real dreams. Just that one fanciful one. A dream she¡¯d never see. An impossible dream. She now prayed two prayers to Manatha that she knew weren¡¯t impossible. She prayed that Jace abandoned her. She prayed that he ran away. What these people would do to him was far worse then what they were doing to her. There was no way to fight them. She prayed and hoped that the goddess who¡¯s name she took could at least hide what was happening from Jace long enough that these people gave up looking for him

    She also prayed that her child would make it through this without harm. She already knew she probably was far too damaged to heal back to being whole, even if this was to end. She just wanted to live long enough for the child to be born, for him to have a chance at life. Maybe he would be blessed and able to fly free for his mother who never would.

    So she sobbed silently, and prayed fervently, she wished she could stop trembling, she was so cold, it was so hard to breath.

    Jace almost didn¡¯t recognize the woman they had strapped to that vertical board, though he knew deep dark in his heart who it was instantly.

    ¡®It can¡¯t be¡¯

    Her long beautiful hair was burnt off her head, leaving her skin cracked and burnt, charred black.

    ¡®Too late¡¯

    One of her eyes, her beautiful eyes was milky white from the heat, likely destroyed.

    ¡®No more¡¯

    The side of her face showed blisters from the heat, and burns.

    ¡®I can¡¯t do this anymore

    I can¡¯t do this¡­¡¯

    She had a number of strips of flesh torn from her body, making her almost look as if she had been painted in red paint.

    ¡®Too LATE. TOO LATE

    OH GOD WHY? WHY? TOO LATE TOO FUCKING LATE¡¯

    Her toes, the big toes on each foot were ripped or cut off.

    ¡®Oh god Sam

    Sam, no¡­ please.¡¯

    Her arms and legs were broken. Swollen and purple. Twisted in unnatural angles. This would have taken hours to do to someone.

    His rage evaporated in the desperate need to vomit, as he felt his heart shatter. He was too late. There was no way any one human could live through this. Seeing her body desiccated like this was too much, the emotional impact was too much and he collapsed to the ground. He saw nothing but Sam. He couldn¡¯t even tell who else was in the Hall. How many people there was, what they were doing, all he could see was Sam, dangling from a board in the middle of the hall as if to display just how awful people could be to one another. He knew he was screaming. He couldn¡¯t stop if he wanted to.

    He started to stand up, he needed to reach her. Had to reach her.

    A Sharp pain accompanied by a heavy blow to the back of his head dropped him face first into the ground. His own screams echoing in his ears as the world faded to black. Blessed black.

 Chapter 48 - One Silver Tal

    Khana knelt in the corner of the hall. She was staring hatefully at Kay¡¯rin. It was easier to stare at Kay¡¯rin then to look at the horror going on in the rest of the hall. She would have vomited from the smell alone if she hadn¡¯t vomited when she saw Sa¡¯manatha dangling on that board. Her stomach was empty. Still she gagged from time to time.

    She was shivering uncontrollably. These Kindred were monsters, who could do that to a human? The wizards of this Academy were monsters to go along with them. Kay¡¯rin was a monster.

    It was Kay¡¯rin who captured them all as they reached the hall. Jace was on his knees screaming at the entrance. A wordless howl. She thought he was injured, when suddenly Kay¡¯rin was there before all of them in a flash indicating she had teleported, with a glance at Jace on his knees she hammered Jace on the back of the head with a spell, then enveloped the rest of them in a dome of air. It was just air, she knew that much, but nothing she cast, or anyone else cast could break through it. They were prisoners and brought inside to see what happened to those who went against the ¡°natural order¡± of things.

    Elis¡¯s Emissary was standing on the side of the hall, looking like nothing going on was his interest. He was a tall Kindred man with flame Red hair. He had yet to even speak. He had another kindred man speak for him. The wizards were strapping up Jace¡¯s unconscious and naked body on a board next to Sa¡¯manatha, while Shawey was being strapped up next to Jace.

    Karius was arguing with Kay¡¯rin, well he was talking to her but to Khana¡¯s eyes it looked like he was livid about something, he kept gesturing toward Sa¡¯manatha or perhaps Jace as he spoke. Khana was feeling pretty lonely right about now. She wasn¡¯t a great big hero like Jace, and she already saw how powerless Jace was to change anything. Somehow that nice guy angered a God. There was no way to fight against something like that.

    One of the old wizards got up on the raised marble platform and started to lecture. The many male disciples were listening and with rapt attention words like ¡°above your station¡± and ¡°shirking duty¡± and ¡°abandoning your fellow man¡± were thrown about. She wished she could close her ears as she pulled the brim of the hat Jace made her down to cover her eyes. She didn¡¯t want to give that horrid girl Kay¡¯rin any satisfaction of seeing her cry.

    She heard some more nonsense from the main wizard, apparently he was saying stuff like ¡°order would be restored,¡± and humanity would get better. He was saying the Elis¡¯s Emissary being here meant that the time for forgiveness may be near. Then he said that ¡°all humans must do their duty,¡± and part of why Jace was dangling from the board was because he wasn¡¯t doing his ¡°duty.¡±

    Those words ¡®duty¡¯ seemed to be a code word that everyone understood. The various male warlocks and a few of the channelers were looking at the girls like a pack of hungry wolves. Kay¡¯rin was no longer paying attention to Jace but the male wizard. Her brows drawing down. As he went on and on about duty and everyone doing their part her expression got darker and darker. Finally, he said words that he probably wouldn¡¯t have spoken if he had thought it through. He said ¡°all the girls here will do their duty for mankind too¡±

    The male wizard exploded. That brought an end to the revelry. It was dead silent in the hall Khana could feel the power gathering around Kay¡¯rin. The other wizards obviously could because instead of stopping her they all faded into the background as Kay¡¯rin passed through the sea of warlocks a dark expression on her face. She climbed the marble platform, turned and looked at the warlocks and spoke brief words.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Every student will do their duty according to the rules of the academy. No more, no less. If I hear anyone here thinks to break those rules, bend them or change them I will destroy this island and kill every last one of you.¡±

    ¡°Today we gather because Elis ordered us to gather, to witness the punishment of one who went against the Gods. The channeler Shawey killed a warlock as well, which is why she is next to Channeler Jace. Finally, the slave called Sa¡¯manatha the slave of the Channeler Jace was ordered to be tortured to the point of death by the Emissary of Elis as further punishment toward the Heretic Jace. As this order has been carried out, I ask the Emissary to make clear what we are to do with the slave called Sa¡¯manatha.¡± Her voice was cold and methodical as always. She had a bored expression on her face as if the proceedings were beneath her. Had Khana not seen the look of anger on her face she would think that Kay¡¯rin was uninvolved with the killing of that wizard, who¡¯s guts she currently was standing in.

    The kindred man next to the Emissary spoke out. ¡°On the authority of Elis, all ownership of the slave called Sa¡¯manatha has been voided. She is damaged goods. But a good healer may be able to stretch a few more years of life out of her. Her womb works. She is now for sale to the highest bidder. May it quick, I¡¯m not sure many healers could recover her in this state for much if she¡¯s left to dangle there much longer. Oh, one more thing. She was pregnant with a child; terminate the pregnancy whenever or however you see fit. If it wasn¡¯t terminated by this ordeal already.¡±

    Bidding quickly reached 7 copper tals and then stalled. She was a broken slave, who would want a broken slave? Khana raised her hand and bid 1 silver Tal. It was all she could do for Jace. She wasn¡¯t surprised she won. No one would pay 1 silver Tal for a slave in this condition. But Khana just couldn¡¯t leave her like that. Standing up she quickly ran up to the stage, and handed over the silver Tal. She quickly cast some magic to cut off the binding and caught Sa¡¯manatha when she started to fall. Using magic to her absolute limits she carried Sa¡¯manatha off the stage, and brought her over to the group of women at the side.

    She was sweating and gasping for air when she reached the area she was to stand. This really was her limit to channel. A number of the women helped her set Sa¡¯manatha down on a cloak, while they tried to straighten her limbs. Khana looked over at Karius desperately, Karius met her eyes, and nodded, making his way over to the others.

    Karius knelt down and cast healing on Sa¡¯manatha. He was still furious with Kay¡¯rin. She had told him that the prisoners were not being mistreated. He had told Jace that she was fine. He was so mad when he saw Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s state he had snapped and started arguing with her. Now he knelt down and had a hand on Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s pale cold flesh he could tell her flame of life was almost out. He did what he could to stoke it a bit, help it recover some vitality, he was afraid that the curse would claim her life while he was healing her. It was a close run thing. Then he closed up a number of the wounds as if they never were. The arms and legs were healed straight, the bloody wounded from the flayed flesh was repaired. The problem was burns and damaged eyes were much harder to heal. He studied the injury for a long time, ignoring the cries of pain behind him occurring on the stage. He had no stomach to watch what was being done.

    He felt a great deal of guilt for this tragity. He knew it was wrong to listen to that kindred man the moment he arrived. He was overbearing and obnoxious. His demands absurd. Yet what could they do?  The man was a sorcerer. Karius was certain Jace had lied about the ward on Kay''rin. He had seen a lot of wards, the one he described did not seem possible. Still he had one of the warlocks cast a small spell on her, and verified that this ward did not exist. It was simple to heal her. She was barely injured as it was.

    Setting aside his feeling''s of regret he continued exmanining Sam. The burns were bad, as was the eye. Worse, her flame of life was flickering like a candle about to burn out. He couldn¡¯t be concerned about the lives in danger on the stage, he wasn¡¯t even sure he could save the one in front of him right now.

 Chapter 49 - Snapped

    Jace had a very rough wakeup, it was to the sensation he had nightmares about. He felt a long strip of flesh being torn off his chest. His eyes snapped open and he was so startled he let out a scream of pain. He had a splitting headache, it was hard to make out where he was. His thoughts kept swimming about, it was almost hard to capture them and think straight. Trying to look around only made the lights swim, and his head spin. It was nauseating. He had this horrible feeling that there was something vitally important that he was forgetting.

    He tried to move and realized for the first time he was tied down. Between the pain from the wound on his chest and the realization he was pinned down his mind started to focus a bit, and he started to put together the scene before him.

    He was dangling from something, wood like with his arms and legs secured with straps. He was puzzled for a moment why this looked so familiar until he made out the rest of the hall. His dazed head suddenly froze with terror, as he remembered Sam being tied to a board identical to this one. He quickly looked to his left and right. He didn¡¯t see Sam, he longed to see Sam. Even burnt, he would have liked to see her. To say goodbye. To ask for forgiveness. He should have teleported straight to the hall when he heard about her being captured. So many horrible regrets were running through his heart. He wished he had told her he loved her just once.

    Who he did see was that pretty girl whose name he did not know who killed that warlock on their way here. She was bound just like him, and like him she was naked as well. Her face was pale and sweat was streaming down it. He noted the hand of one of the old wizards drawing a knife down her thigh. He still was having difficulty clearing his head but he reached for the pulse, only to find his head almost split in half when he touched it. It took him a few moments to gather his shattered thoughts to realize he probably had been spelled in some way to seal him away from the pulse.

    He was going to die like Sam. He realized that pretty quickly. This was going to take hours. He wasn¡¯t even sure he could muster up the will to fight against it. What was the point? There was a sorcerer here. He saw the kindred man he thought he would see, Terani, the one who intercepted his group on the road. The one Verna was traveling with. Now that he understood more about magic he could sense the immense pressure put off by the sorcerer. It almost felt like he was a mountain, part of the world. It was hard to believe a sorcerer and grand wizard were almost at the same level of aggregate power. Perhaps that was the case, but he could tell that a sorcerer was an almost otherworldly existence, far beyond his concept of ¡°magic¡± or ¡°mages¡±. Not knowing what else to do he reached out with his left hand, and grasped the right hand of the girl whose name he never troubled himself to learn. He was sorry about that as well.

    She looked over at him, he could see the pain and fear on her face. He smiled weakly, he wasn¡¯t even sure if a smile touched his face. The deep sadness crashing against his heart was making it feel like the color had been drawn from the world. ¡°I¡¯m Jace, your classmate I guess. Channeler. You are?¡± He had a problem saying the words, but for some reason he felt like he needed to know the name of the person he might very well die next to.

    ¡°Shawey. Channeler. Nice to¡­ ugggh¡­ meet you Jace.¡± She was interrupted mid answer as the wizard tore a strip of flesh off her leg. To her credit she didn¡¯t really scream out.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Jace glanced at the wizard as he made his way back over to Jace. If they torture the two of them to death, at the same time with only one executioner, he suspected this was going to take a very long time to die. He really didn¡¯t want to be skinned alive. He had developed a fear of this from that kindred torture game. So he couldn¡¯t help watching the knife blade approach him with dread on his face. He didn¡¯t want it to cut.

    Nothing he wished for would happen. He could pray for a fast death but he knew one wasn¡¯t coming. Just as he wished he couldn¡¯t be cut by the knife. He felt the blade tug his skin and cut his flesh. It was a long cut. Then the knife worked under the flesh. This was far worse than if he did it. He could stop if it hurt too much. He could control the depth of the cut. He could control the pace and pressure. This was far far worse. The lack of control seemed to amplify the pain. Now it was Shawey holding his hand, as the strip of flesh was torn from his body. He refused to make a noise. Not for these animals.

    The image of Sam came back into his head. This had happened to her. They never stopped. They didn¡¯t care. To them she was property. They weren¡¯t even angry with her. They just wanted to hurt him. At least he could tell himself he was being harmed for some reason of his own doing. Even if it was just because he wanted to go home. Even if he was unwillingly kidnaped to this horrid place. Sam wouldn¡¯t have had any justification for her pain except she was owned by the wrong person. If he could destroy all these people right now, he would have. He reached desperately for the pulse, and the pain almost made him black out.

    By the time his vision cleared it was his turn again with the knife. So instead of watching the knife he tried to channel again. And again. And again. And again. By the time his head would clear there were more brutal injuries on his body. Shawey next to him was sobbing and grasping onto his hand. He couldn¡¯t do anything for her, so he kept try to reach the pulse. Methodically, mechanically, his anger at what he saw had happened to Sam washing over his self-loathing for being too late to save her. He didn¡¯t particularly want to survive this. Part of his spirit was shattered. But the idea these people would survive this was far more unacceptable to him then his impending doom.

    He wasn¡¯t sure when he started laughing. But he could tell it was starting to unnerve the people watching. He wasn¡¯t sure if he was insane or not. He just knew he couldn¡¯t let these animals survive this. Animals. They were all animals. What did Sam ever do to anyone? What past sin could possibly be worth the hell like life she had been subjected to? What type of god would claim to be a patron of humanity and punish them like this?

    His rage was spilling out. The laughter started to take on a savage tone, as he locked eyes with Terani. He started to scream madly.

    ¡°ELIS, I WILL DESTROY EVERY SINGLE TEMPLE TO YOU, KILL EVERY EMESARY OF YOURS. THEN RIP OFF YOUR MOTHER FUCKING HEAD AND SHIT DOWN YOUR THROAT! DO YOU HEAR ME ELIS?!!! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING COWARD. FUCK YOU, YOU SNIVILING PIECE OF SHIT. LOOK AT WHAT YOU¡¯VE DONE TO THESE PEOPLE! IS THIS FUN TO YOU? NO GOD WORTH WORSHIPING WOULD DO THIS TO HIS PEOPLE. YOU¡¯RE NO GOD YOU¡¯RE A MONSTER. AN ANIMAL. A DEVIL! COME DEMON KING, WHY NOT RULE US ON A THRONE OF CORPSES? THEN YOU COULD RULE AS YOU ARE! INSTEAD YOU PRETEND TO BE A GOD. WHAT A LAUGH. YOU¡¯RE A PIECE OF TRASH. I WILL DESTROY YOU ELIS. TAKE THIS OATH ANYONE WHO STANDS AT YOUR SIDE WILL DIE WITH YOU. YOU HEAR THAT GODS? DO YOU?? THIS IS WAR. FUCK YOU ALL IN YOUR DANTY ASSES.¡±

    With a crack as if to punctuate the scream of rage his bindings snapped and he vanished before his feet hit the ground.

 Chapter 50 - Vengeance

    Khana looked up from the still breathing (for now) Sam as she heard the horrible cursing of a god coming from Jace¡¯s lips, most of the hall seemed like they wanted to crawl into a hole and hide upon hearing those viscous oaths. When the Gods walk the world you just didn¡¯t curse them like this. Not in front of one of their Emissaries you didn¡¯t. She jumped when she heard the snapping of the bindings on him, and stared in disbelief when he vanished. She almost thought a god had killed him until she saw the wizard who was torturing him collapse to the ground dead with the knife in his head.

    She still wasn¡¯t sure what was happening, but she knew she saw Jace use an illusion similar to this before. Suddenly a storm of power rocked the dome as Kay¡¯rin and a naked and bloody Jace started fighting in the middle of the marble stand. Jace¡¯s face was locked in a vicious sneer, as waves of power exploded sending warlocks flying. White cracks of power ricocheted off shields, then Jace vanished again.

    Several wizards attacked, but the person they attacked was Kay¡¯rin, they clearly were trying to take advantage of the battle between her and Jace to strike back at her for her slaughter of their collogues. Jace appeared a few dozen paces from those wizards and cut them down with a single blade of air, before vanishing again. The next place he struck he detonated ¡®something¡¯ she couldn¡¯t even tell how he did it but a giant explosion occurred in the middle of the dome basically vaporizing the warlocks and a number of the male wizards there. Khana saw Kay¡¯rin blown a hundred paces back away from the center of the explosion, burned and tattered and looking like she was losing the battle against the absolutely enraged Jace.

    Khana took a glance at the Kindred and noted that they were quietly talking to each other not taking action, and letting the battle happen. She saw something like a smirk on the mouth of the emissary.

    Jace wasn¡¯t sure how he was freed from the bindings or the ward stopping him from touching the pulse of this world. Just one moment he was bound up screaming out his frustrations and the next he was snapping free. He didn¡¯t hesitate, and quickly cloaked himself and launched into a battle. He was going to cheat as much as he could get away with it. His heart was screaming for vengeance. Vengeance for Sam. Vengeance for their child. Vengeance for being summoned here. Had that not occurred none of this would be happening. Sam would be alive he would be home.

    He wasn¡¯t going to stop himself. He killed for the first time. Driving that knife through that wizard¡¯s head was strangely satisfying. This was the point he started his sleight of hand. He cast multiple illusions. In reality he never really moved far from Shawey. He actually freed her almost immediately but he kept an illusion of her dangling from the board to keep eyes away from them. He would make a vision of himself appear from time to time to direct attention elsewhere while he warred with multiple foes from the shadows. He was careful to use spells that did not originate where he was standing. So mostly used air and lightning. Most fire attacks came from the caster.

    His lightning was blowing holes in the beautiful dome above their heads. He didn¡¯t give a care. As far as he was concerned the old Grey Corpse was half of the problem this world had. He created a magic circle on the floor right in the middle of most of the men students. He wasn''t killing them fast enough. He had to kill more. More... So he worked on the circle desperately, his anger crying out to make them all pay, it was a little tricky to make one using air to carve it out, especially when he was keeping up this illusion subterfuge but he wasn¡¯t going for anything too complex. Just turning the humans standing within that circle into air pollution. He waited until his doppelgangerforced Kay¡¯rin into the circle and ignited it, not hesitating like he did before to try to kill her.

    He was a little disappointed when she flew out of the explosion. Her battle instincts were horrid. She might be a genius but she didn¡¯t know how to use all this power in a battle. Not that he was a genius, but at least he trained in something approximating a battle all be it with a sword. The constant threat of death wasn¡¯t slowing him down in the slightest. He came up with this illusion strategy when he realized how easy illusion magic was. It was a blended magic, based off of what Kay¡¯rin showed him when she was testing for channeler. He never saw the people here use illusionary magic, so he figured it would be a useful tool in a fight. Especially considering most mage¡¯s difficulty with melded spells. This was simple, fire and light and water and sound. Four glyphs melded just right produced an almost impossible to detect illusion. He supposed those with a good sense of smell would be able to tell.

    He healed both his and Shawey¡¯s wounds. And made his way off the platform keeping an eye on the kindred, he could feel the eyes of the Emissary on him, he knew since the man was a sorcerer these illusion games not affect him.

    He ripped a black cloak off one of the dead warlocks, and tossed it around Shawey¡¯s shoulders and pointed her toward the others, give her a push to get going. Then stalked around the battlefield, Kay¡¯rin was scaring him a bit. She might not have a lot of battle ability but her strength and knowledge was not a joke. Half the magic she used he never saw or even imagined before. On the bright side she was caught up in a battle with a half dozen wizards. He didn''t see what enraged them into attacking her. Either way it was all to the good.  He wanted to see them all dead afterall, the more they killed each other the betterSupport creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    No longer near Shawey, he rushed toward the pile of his things, he needed his sword badly. This whole hall was within the range of a Kindred¡¯s teleportation. If one decided to act while he was unarmed he¡¯d be dead in seconds. He seized his possession and continued to run through the chaos. He got the belt on just as he realized that Kay¡¯rin was doing something unbelievably stupid. Cursing under his breath he noticed even the Kindred were alarmed, he tried to take advantage of their distraction to get out of their line of sight.

    Once out of the kindred¡¯s sight, he used the ¡°sound¡± glyph and shouted in Shawey¡¯s ear to get everyone to the portal. Cause it was going to get very messy shortly. He saw Shawey stumble a bit but then continued to run over to the girls and spoke with them, the girls started to move toward the exit.

    One more concern gone.

    Knowing what Kay¡¯rin was doing he wanted to find Sam¡¯s corpse and get out of here. But he knew that was impossible as long as those kindred were lurking. He moved deeper into the shadows, and around out of their line of sight. He had to find a way to kill them without magic. There was nothing he could do with magic against a sorcerer.

    He saw a trail of smoke, and saw the man with the emissary pop out of nowhere attacking Kay¡¯rin. Obviously the stupidity she was attempting had alarmed the kindred enough to actually jump into action. He had to pause for a moment watching her battling with 4 living wizards and one kindred and not falling back a step. It was an awe inspiring sighthe almost felt like he was being enlightened to magic and it''s uses just watching, she was increadible, and positively freightening. He was finding himself hoping the kindred would win, Kay''rin was a monster. It was a small bit of madness hoping one side would win, ultimately they BOTH were his foes, and frankly if Kay¡¯rin didn¡¯t stop what she was trying to do he doubted many people would survive. He could FEEL the lava surging under the ground. This was going to get really ugly fast. Worse, while earlier in the battle she seemed to have horrid battle sense she was learning rapidly. It was a terrifying thought, that she could improve this quickly.

    The ground was now trembling, and he could hear the huge stone blocks from the broken dome falling to the ground. Yet another hazard on this battlefield. He was now crawling on his belly as he made his way around another large pillar. If the kindred Emissary knew where he was, standing or crawling he was dead. He¡¯d rather hope the man was more interested in other things. Taking a peak he saw the emissary standing there his back to Jace. Just 12 feet or so away. He seemed to be watching the battle with Kay¡¯rin and had forgotten Jace completely.

    He didn¡¯t believe that for a moment, in fact he had a feeling the man knew exactly where he was. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and readied several body enhancement glyphs in his mind, then sprung forward sword tip stretching before him.

    He knew he was had the moment his sword tip passed through the man in front of him. Igniting the physical enhancement glyphs, he guessed at where the attack would come from, ¡®left hand side, pillar on the right¡¯

    And dove forward twisting as he dove, avoiding a sword strike by millimeters he rolled to his feet. Terani¡¯s face was ugly as his strike missed. He started to cast something that Jace knew would probably kill him so Jace launched himself straight at Terani. He didn¡¯t think he¡¯d make it but he had to try something.

    And in Terani¡¯s eyes he saw death. He knew he wasn¡¯t going to make it. He could only regret that he wasn¡¯t strong enough. He only felt bitter that he wouldn¡¯t be able to make good on his threat.

    Just as he thought it would all end, a sword bloomed from the middle of Terani¡¯s chest. Terani¡¯s spell collapsed and Jace¡¯s blade took him in the face, blowing right through his head. Staggering to a stop he stared in disbelief, as the corpse fell revealing Verna. She looked picturesque as always, her hair just so, a smirk on her face. Jace felt numb. He thought she was dead. He assumed it since she had vanished. But if she was ok¡­ why didn¡¯t she save Sam? He felt inexplicably angry at her. He didn¡¯t feel like entertaining her so he snapped. ¡°Where the fuck have you been?¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Her smug smile vanished under the heat of his glare. ¡°I was injured badly fighting Terani, last night. I got here just in time to see you hanging from that board. And cursing the Gods. By the way that was a nice speech. Ssaras approved and freed you when I asked. So please don¡¯t start burning down Ssaras¡¯ temples, she will not directly confront Elis, but she will not aid him either.¡± She noticed the anger in his eyes didn¡¯t decrease though it no longer was directed at her. ¡°What happened?¡±

    ¡°Sam¡­.¡± His voice caught, then he looked over at the now two wizards and kindred fighting that monster Kay¡¯rin. His rage ignited again. He still needed to find her body and these mother fuckers were in the way. Casting another handful of complex illusions, he launched another handful of sneak attacks from misleading locations.

    Kay¡¯rin was dealing with them better thanks in part to her getting used to dealing with the lightning and wind attacks. So he was going to change it up and see if he couldn¡¯t take them all down at once. He glanced at the crumbling dome and snarled, casting 3 spells at once. This would decide all their fates.

 Chapter 51 - Pyrrhic Victory

    Jace struck hard, fast and repetitively, using the illusion of himself he struck with lightning and air. He was able to catch one of the wizards by surprise and killed him with a bolt of lightning. However, both the kindred man and Kay¡¯rin seemed to have realized he was using illusions to launch his sneak attacks from. Wincing, realizing his ruse was seen through already he changed his plans a little. This time he cast an illusion of himself attacking with a sword. The kindred man flinched a moment and Jace, who had been looking for that flinch combined the glyphs for fire, earth and pressure, and created an explosion under the feet of the kindred man.

    The man was too slippery to kill like that of course, he vanished in a puff of smoke only to appear by the side of the hall, bloody but alive and unfortunately looking livid. Hustling toward the injured man, Jace sent another illusionary version of himself to attack with a sword, the man vanished attacking the back of the illusion mercilessly, as Jace¡¯s real sword stabbed the kindred man in the back, parting through the pretty red armor and the flesh bellow like a knife through butter.

    The sense of danger under his feet was growing greater, without the pressure of the kindred man, Kay¡¯rin was still trying to collapse the island, he had no idea why she would do this, but the incredible power she was using to make it happen only increased by the moment. She was finishing off the last wizard who attacked her, as Jace finished the Kindred man, he wove an illusion quickly to hide and brought up a shield as she savagely attacked him.

    This was the first time she actually managed an attack directly on him, and he was very worried that she had figured out how to see through the illusion already. Once that happened it would become a contest of strength and she simply was stronger than he was. Jace sped away from his shield, pouring all the power he could handle into keeping it up as long as possible.

    The shield shattered, and he struck back with a blade of air and a lightning bolt. She didn¡¯t even seem to notice either attack, her shield taking both blows without trouble. He really didn¡¯t want to get into a full blown arm wrestling match, he¡¯d just lose like that, so glancing at the ceiling he created another illusion of himself 40 feet to the north of his position, she hesitated and then attacked with a brutal ¡®something¡¯ that seemed to shatter space itself, openning rifts in reality, black cracks that made it seem like he was looking at the world through a windowwith a spiderweb of black cracks in it. The attack terrified Jace, he didn¡¯t even know how to defend against something like that, thankfully it was directed at the illusionary version of him.

    He needed her to move but she wasn¡¯t even bothering to move. Without much else to do, he decided to launch the attack he meant to kill her with, early with her in the wrong position, he channeled and the roof, what was left of it, exploded, dropping a large chunk straight down toward him and Kay¡¯rin, Jace, knowing it was coming, already was directing the huge multi-ton stones coming straight for him to the side. The shockwave from these giant pieces of stone hitting the ground made it feel like every bone in his body was just shattered, as the edge of a huge rock crashed against the shield he had formed, while he lost control of the pulse of the world.

    His senses returned slowly, he felt like he was well enough all things considered and blinked his eyes clear of the dust, coughing hard, touching the pulse he could feel the magma was still seething under the island but he no longer felt the incredible flows of power from Kay¡¯rin sustaining it. He started to try to stand up only to feel a sharp stab of pain from his left leg. Looking down he saw his left leg crushed under a multi-ton bolder stone. For some reason it actually didn¡¯t hurt much. It didn¡¯t feel like much of anything.

    Verna was just about to attack the monstrous girl Kay¡¯rin when the ceiling exploded, bringing down the massive dome. She quickly teleported to what appeared to be a safe spot. The crash was tremendous, and debris, sharp stone was thrown everywhere. She raised a quick shield protecting her from the mess. She waited for the dust to clear. There was no point rushing in blind. She learned her lesson on that. Checking carefully it seemed like the idiot girl had stopped her attempts to destroy the island. Though judging from what she could feel bellow her feet, it felt like she did enough damage to manage it eventually anyway.

    She started quietly making her way forward, slowly. After all that noise it was eerily quiet in what remained of the building. She passed the area that Kay¡¯rin was standing. She saw no sign of the stupid girl. Just a pile of rubble. She listened quietly for a long moment, she could hear breathing, then a low groan. It was probably Jace unless another man was caught up in this. She made her way in the direction Jace heard. She felt something being channeled and she heard a tremendous cracking noise, and felt the floor rumble. Something heavy was just shifted throwing up a lot of dust.

    ¡°Verna.¡± It was a weak voice. Worn out.

    ¡°Yes¡± She called back

    ¡°Can you find Sam¡¯s body please? I¡­ I don¡¯t think I can look for her.¡±

    The grief in Jace¡¯s voice tugged at and open the fresh wounds in her heart. ¡°Alright. Do you know where she might be?¡±

    She was pretty close to him, so she could tell the strain in his voice. He was probably injured in this mess too. So she continued to move forward.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°In here. This building I think¡­ Probably close to¡­ the raised platform of marble. Unless¡­ do you think they would take her outside¡­ and hang her up as a warning? I don¡¯t want her body desecrated¡­¡± His breathing was coming in pants.

    She stepped out from behind a large stone and saw him lying on his back, sweat beaded on his brow, naked except for that sword belt. His left leg just below the knee looking like nothing more than ground meat. Judging by the blood flow, she could see his pulse in the blood spurting out of the leg, there was a tremendous amount of blood, if left alone he¡¯s probably bleed out in a minute or two.

    Cursing under her breath she rushed to his side. And placed a hand on his head. He would be crippled from this. She never heard of anyone fixing an injury like this. Regenerating a limb had been theorized possible with the melding of the glyphs regrowth and heal, but no one had managed it. Regrowth as a glyph never seemed to work no matter how you used it. Which meant it was far too profound for simple use, likely it could only be used in a magic circle.

    So she used the glyph ¡®heal¡¯ to the best of her ability on him. The wound closed up leaving him without a lower leg.

    He gave her a bitter smile then spoke again. ¡°Please find Sam.¡±

    She was worried to leave him alone like this¡­ especially with the ground tremors steadily increasing. She tried to scry Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s location and realized the ward against scrying was still in place. Nodding her head toward Jace, rather than argue, she teleported back toward the middle of the ruined building. But not before leaving a tracer on Jace, she had a feeling they¡¯d need to leave fast.

    She flashed back and forth throughout the giant hall, looking for sign of Sa¡¯manatha. She paused at the drying blood on one side of the stone platform. It was probably Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s, it wasn¡¯t the same location she saw Jace or that other girl. Neither of them had bled this much either. She placed a hand on the blood and cast a "past sight."Her eyes were closed; this type of magic was difficult to wield. But immensely helpful in discovering past events to a limited basis. She could see some of Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s torture. She passed by that, unwilling to watch. Marching time forward she could see Sam, not moving, dangling from the board for a long time, before someone cut her down.

    She cursed, the past view didn¡¯t show her who did it. It looked like a mage cut the bindings, and then carried her off with some use of magic. She couldn¡¯t tell if Sa¡¯manatha was alive or dead either. Probably dead. As grim as it was to admit. The torment she faced would have been tough for most humans to survive. And she bore the mark of the moon. She would have been even less likely to survive this. She looked in the direction Sam was carried, and started moving in that direction.

    She couldn¡¯t remember who she saw on this side of the hall. She was so focused on Jace and Terani she barely spared a glance over here. She might have walked right past Sam¡¯s corpse when she entered and didn¡¯t even notice it.

    She started searching that side of the hall, there was almost no signs of battle on this side. She found that curious. Why would a battle between all these mages stay away from this side of the hall? She paced back and forth, seeing no bodies. No blood either. It was curious. In all that chaos she doubted anyone not related to Sam would bother remove her corpse. Which meant she might have been hung outside as a warning?

    Jace suggested it as if it was a common thing to do, though it wasn¡¯t a practice of the kindred. Something from his world? Or had these humans started doing something new and revolting? She teleported outside to search for signs of Sa¡¯manatha.

    Jace stared at the ceiling, feeling like a puppet with its strings cut. He could still feel the ground trembling. It was a beautiful blue sky, showing the signs of turning to evening. It was a horrible and long day. He thought he should be more upset about the destroyed leg but really it only hurt when he tried to get up that one time. Probably was the feeling of him tearing the skin. Strangely he couldn¡¯t make himself care about losing part of his body. Losing Sam was much more heartbreaking. Gritting his teeth, he sat up awkwardly. He was a little surprised at how hard it was to sit up. Losing the weight of just his lower leg changed everything about doing something so simple as sitting up.

    He looked straight at the rock that caused the damage, and broke off a long part of it. It was simple transforming the segment of rock into the shape of a couple of crutches. He wasn¡¯t sure how long to make them, but he had used crutches a number of times in the past. You couldn¡¯t be as active a kid as he was and not need them at some point. So he left them too long then used them to help him stand up. Only when standing he started shortening them. The problem he was going to have was stone on stone wouldn¡¯t stick anywhere near as nicely as rubbed feet like modern crutches have. Still, he was able to make his way over, after a fashion toward where he remembered his things were stashed.

    Sure enough they had been damaged by some of the wild magic being cast. The armor was shattered, and half melted. Not that he would wear it now. The pants were good. As were the boots. Which struck him as funny for some reason. His pouch with his money was still untouched. He found that strange, he would have thought the money would have vanished the moment they stripped him. Maybe they never searched him? He created a chair out of the stone floor and sat down. Then put on his pants. This was also harder than he expected. He put on his one boot. Using the remains of the armor and some magic he created feet and pads for the crutches. They were leather not rubber, but he figured it would work better then leaving it stone. The ground was still rumbling. He looked the length of the hall toward the door he entered through and sighed. It would be a pain to hobble that.

    He thought a long moment about different ways to get there. The easiest would be if he could teleport like some kindred. The problem was the nature of teleportation as he understood it was different from how the kindred did it. It wasn¡¯t possible to teleport that quickly. Too many calculations had to be made to create the link between your current location and the distant location. Well, he didn¡¯t have to use kindred teleportation. He was able to use normal.

    Thinking a moment, he used air to carve out a teleportation circle. Then stood up, resting on the crutches he teleported straight to the entrance of the building.

 Chapter 52 - Bravres Interlude

    Bravre turned and walked out of the hall; he didn¡¯t want to watch that young man and woman be tortured to death. He had been forced by Kay¡¯rin to watch that Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s torment. His heart broke looking at the girl. Not particularly because of the torment. He had seen that type of torment before. But because the lines of fate on the girl told him a lot about what her future might have been, watching such a beautiful future, (though he couldn¡¯t grasp how it was beautiful, it was supposed to be good for mankind) shrivel get cut away was hard for him to stand for. He knew why it went wrong, he didn¡¯t know where or how it happened. He had followed the winds of fate his whole life, the strands circling Kay¡¯rin only got stronger and stronger as he got her closer and closer to the Academy. Then just after taking the test, her fate became unclear and clouded. Why?

    He spent a long time on that question. What¡¯s more is she started acting like a different person all together. There were times during the journey towards the academy it felt like she was a little different, but he wrote that off as meaningless. But then she started raving like a mad woman about destroying the island.

    What¡¯s more horrifying then a madwoman with the power of a grand wizard? There wasn¡¯t anyone in the staff who could compete against her. Even more for a grand wizard destroying this island should be easy. When the kindred arrived the men wanted to restrict their movement, but Kay¡¯rin gave them free reign. Granted one of them was a sorcerer, so it¡¯s not like she could have stopped him, but the way she acquiesced to them always struck him as strange.

    When they demanded the head of that strange young man Jace, he wanted to warn him. However, Kay¡¯rin stopped the faculty from acting with a single threat. She would sink the island. Not that everyone in the faculty was keen on helping this Jace, but it seemed like we were hoping he could reign in this insane woman if he grew into his strength. He had similar potential after all. He also didn¡¯t seem like a lunatic, which was credit toward him. With Kay¡¯rin the bar was pretty low for the type of help they¡¯d accept. When they looked at Kay¡¯rin they saw the impending death of the academy.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    The young man Jace was a strange creature. He knew he was the summoned human from that ill-fated project of Eldridge¡¯s. He could tell the moment he looked at him. The severed and shriveling lines of fate from his former life were still wrapped around him. Fate from another world. It was downright alien to him. What was stranger were the fate lines slowly attaching to him from this world. They all were significant, as if half the major powers of this world wanted to use him for something.

    He even tried to read some of this Jace¡¯s future, however it was murky. The boy hadn¡¯t accumulated enough fate in this world. One thing was clear the god of Fate was not a fan of this boy Jace. Jace and Fate seemed like oil and water. Fate fought against him and he fought against it. Even the lines of fate which had wound around him seemed to have tenuous grips on him.

    But more strange then the way fate interacted with the young man was his actions. He seemed to be protecting the women from the endless sexual advances, and even sheltering slaves, though no one else seemed to notice it. He also seemed to waste his time on strange pursuits. Still he had high hopes for the boy as a counter for Kay¡¯rin.

    That was not to be. He almost made his way out of the hall when he bumped into another kindred, a woman, the woman who followed Jace around. Startled he stopped in place and looked back into the hall. What happened next terrified him. Jace broke free, then the killing started. Between Jace and Kay¡¯rin the academy was slaughtered pretty quickly. That Jace was just a wizard yet he had Kay¡¯rin on the defensive the whole first part of the battle. Then Jace stopped attacking her when some of his colleagues attacked her.

    After that he grew more and more frightened as he saw her take on more and more foes, and get more and more overwhelming. When she started trying to destroy the island, he resolved to leave. The journey to the teleportation array was fraught with fear. He saw no one else in the whole academy. He couldn¡¯t have been the only one who decided to flee?

    Ultimately he reached the array just as he saw the sea start to boil to the north. It looked like Kay¡¯rin had succeeded. This island was doomed.

 Chapter 53 - Choosing a heading

    Verna stroked Jace¡¯s forehead. He had been sleeping for hours now. Not that she blamed him for being worn out. It had been a brutal two days. She just wished he¡¯d cry some of his pain out for a change. But here he was, dead to the world, sleeping in the lone open bunk on his boat sharing the same blanket, as they drifted aimlessly in the Great Dragon Sea.

    Two days ago, she had been forced to give up the search for Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s body, as the northern volcano started to become active. She raced back to find Jace, only to find him in their room on the top of the tower. He was poking through Sa¡¯manatha¡¯s things as if looking for something important.

    He ended up digging out a white ivory comb and golden chain. The chain she had given that poor child herself. Jace noticed her there in the doorway, and without saying a word, held it out to her. She took the chain back, though she knew she¡¯d probably never be able to wear it easily again. Jace was hobbling around on some stone devices he called [crutches]. She had seen people use sticks to aid movement when a leg was injured, she never had seen a device so precisely made as these [crutches]. He seemed to know their use as he moved around the room fairly easily for a man with one leg.

    He did have problems carrying anything though, and he had issues bending down to get things on the ground as well. Between the two of them they managed to pack up what made sense to grab, and Jace made a teleportation circle straight to the pier he had made. In this manor with three trips on the dugout rowboat, they had loaded his boat with previsions, goods and materials.

    He put off leaving for most of that first night. He kept staring at the shore, as if waiting for Sam to suddenly show up. Or maybe he just was making sure no one was left behind. They were forced to use the boat in part due to the collapse of the caldera rim around the northern volcano just hours in to the start of its activity. It took the permanent portal with it. Though for some reason she suspected he probably would have wanted to take the boat no matter how he left this island.

    It was early in the morning when Jace finally raised anchor, and began leaving the island. She never really sailed a boat before, though she had been on plenty. So when Jace started directing her to raise sails and pull lines she was able to figure out what he wanted with a little extra explanation and manage after a fashion. They probably would have had issues getting far from the island had they relied on the natural wind. This getaway however was aided by a very stiff wind raised by some magic. They quickly put a great deal of distance between themselves and the island.

    Jace spoke just once all morning after getting underway. ¡°Which direction is the main continent?¡±

    She had to remember the maps she saw which included this island on them. ¡°East I think. I¡¯m pretty sure we¡¯re a long way off the west coast. If we head north we¡¯ll be able to see Erindalle in the Sky,¡±

    He gave her a very sharp look at that comment which troubled her a bit. It was a look of distrust, deep seeded distrust. She very much worried that the good hearted young man might be gone. She remembered the words of the prophecy she received and had to suppress a shiver.

    This was a harsh world, she raised her own son to be harder then it. She never questioned this approach, it was common among not just her own people but most. While humanity suffered the brunt of the curse, all the races suffered under its effects, the glorious, peaceful, safe and prosperous world under the grey king was dead. She wasn¡¯t alive when the grey king was alive. The reality was the kindred didn¡¯t exist prior to his death, as he forbid dragon and human intercourse. They were a new people in the grand scheme of things. Springing into being almost immediately after the king¡¯s death, apparently a number of dragons liked humans, and out of respect for the king had been holding themselves back. 10,000 years was a long time for them to wait, so it¡¯s not surprising the kindred rose almost immediately after the fall of that kingdom. There were a few elders who lived in Erindalle in the Sky children born of forbidden trysts. As a result, the Kindred were always welcome there. She suspected many of those elders were sired by the Dragon King, he did like human females a lot. Though she was not alive when the king was alive she had heard the tales. That world was gone, raising a child in this world to not expect the worst of everything, or to be meaner then the world was doing your child a disservice. However, she was fascinated by Jace. He did not think that way. Oh he was duplicitous, and capable of deception. But he also didn¡¯t see others, either races or classes as lesser or greater than the others. This would cause trouble if he meets the wrong dragon or lord, but his outlook is UNIQUE.

    This was a cruel fate. She hoped he didn''t change too much because of this blow. Part of her really liked that uniqueness.

    Late in the afternoon he started casting some pretty extensive wards on the boat, she was going to ask him what he was doing, when he instructed her to take down the sails and tie them tight. He pulled the rudder out himself, and once everything was tied down and firmly secured, they went below deck. He actually closed up the path whatever it was called, the ladder and door to the surface and close all the vents, securing them tight. Then secured his crutches, and sat down. He looked at her armor and suggested she might want to take it off. He directed Verna to sit next to him.

    It was a long quiet half an hour or so as the air got stuffier and stuffier. She didn¡¯t know what he was doing, but figured he wouldn¡¯t be wasting her time so she kept quiet. She was barely dressed, normally she would have tried to arouse his attention, but with the mood, and the tragedy of the prior day she restrained herself from teasing him. She really wasn¡¯t in the mood either.

    Then a tremendous vibration crashed through the boat. She felt like her insides were liquidized by the shockwave. The boat itself was thrown pretty violently rolling onto its side causing them both to fall to the other side of the boat, crashing into each other against the port bulkhead. Slowly the boat righted itself. She was surprised by the lack of water leakage and instantly understood when he told her to remove her armor. If the boat had broken up from that crash, whatever it was, she would have sank into the depths like a stone.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    They were tangled up together laying on the food packed tight on top of the other bed, but instead of going topside to check on damage, Jace just remained laying there. When she tried to rise up he held her in place, their faces inches apart and said ¡°wait.¡± He clearly was waiting for something so she contented herself in his strong arms while waiting. Then a second and far louder BOOOOOMMMMM rumbled through the boat, the shaking not quite as hard as the last one, but this one went on, and on, and on¡­ and a tremendous wind kicked up outside with it. Minutes, maybe an hour they waited like that, while the waves outside got stronger and stronger, some of them tipping the boat on its side and throwing them across the boat.

    After what seemed to be an endless time, the noise and vibrationdied down. The waves and wind did not die down particularly quickly though. Eventually Jace untangled himself from her, to her disappointment. It WAS comfortable in his arms. He had her help him about as he checked on damage from one side of the boat to the other. It was sunset, and on the horizon a giant black cloud was rising into the sky.

    Once he was satisfied with the condition of the boat, he had her help him deploy something he called a [sea anchor] from the bow, it looked like a giant bag on a rope, and went back below deck. He opened the vents and finally laid down and closed his eyes. There were several bunk spaces built in this boat, however she didn¡¯t feel like sharing sleeping space with food. So she grabbed a blanket and tossed it over them both, cuddling up against him. He slept like the dead.

    Waking up hurt. He felt like he had been beaten with stick. Every inch of his skin felt bruised, and his left knee ached, which he thought was strange as it had done pretty much nothing since the leg was lost. Verna was wrapped around him, he didn¡¯t blame her, it was a fairly cold night. He had a feeling it would be cold for a while.

    He remembered seeing a show on Discovery once, about Krakatoa exploding. He didn¡¯t know if what was coming was going to be like that, but he prepared for it. Luckily it seemed like they might have got far enough away to avoid the worst of it. He had left wards around both volcanos well before they left. And had been using them to monitor the volcanos as they fled. He was surprised how far those worked for.

    Disentangling himself from Verna, he made his way above deck. What greeted him was a morning like something from an apocalyptic movie. The sun was red, deep red. For a moment he thought he had been cursed, until he realized it was red due to the huge cloud of ash spewing into the atmosphere from that volcano. He had no idea if the island was still back there, though he suspected if it was it was completely leveled. There was a chill in the air. Not cold enough to make him put on something warm, but cool enough to convince him his fear was real.

    Hobbling around with the help of one of the crutches, he started raising the sails and getting the boat ready to move. It took a depressing amount of time to do it. After thinking about it for a moment, he created a magic circle on the deck, which created a large bubble of clean air around the boat. He didn¡¯t want to breath that ash when it started to fall. Finally, he reassembled the rudder and pulled in the sea anchor, and started channeling the glyph of airto maintain a stiff breeze to propel them forward. He could tell which direction was West, so he put the island behind him and started sailing East.

    He still hadn¡¯t eaten since Sam¡¯s passing. The very idea of food was repugnant to him. Frankly, living here was repugnant to him. Nothing had really changed since he got here. Just a lot of people had been harmed. Which meant nothing really changed since he got here. He hadn¡¯t had any ghost pains from the missing limb yet, which he was thankful for. Pulling in the main sheet, and working the spinnaker main, the yacht practically flew across the waves.

    He wasn¡¯t even sure what he was going to do from now on. A god wanted him dead apparently. He still wasn¡¯t sure what the limitations of the gods here were, but he had a feeling the sun god wasn¡¯t going to let him live any longer than possible. Which begged the question.

    ¡®Do I fight or die?¡¯ Jace asked himself the question, and only took a long second to decide to fight with his last breath. Giving up to Sam¡¯s murderer? He couldn¡¯t imagine doing it.

    It was midmorning before Verna came above deck, meaning he had hours to think about the problem. She was basically dressed in flimsy underthings. It was an amazing sight under most situations. She really could look good doing basically anything. Jace barely noticed, his heart was far too heavy to think about that.

    She sat down next to him and cuddled up against his side. ¡°Do you know what you¡¯re going to do next?¡± She asked quietly.

    He thought about her question a long moment, then nodded. ¡°Go home.¡±

    ¡°How?¡± came her immediate question.

    ¡°I need to find the research facility. It was under the major capital of Khavar.¡±

    ¡°Why do you need to go to Khavar and this research facility?¡±

    ¡°Because that¡¯s where I was summoned. I expect the circle and perhaps notes about how they did it are still there. I hope they are. Furthermore, from what Sam¡­¡± He paused after saying her name, his voice got a bit strained, ¡°from what I was told, that city was one of the 5 or 6 largest on the continent. Even if there is nothing in the research facility, I expect I might be able to learn more about summoning and the like when I¡¯m there. Or learn a direction to search.¡±

    ¡°Well, at least Khavar is close to the coast, and it sounds like you thought it out.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to follow me there¡±

    ¡°I will¡± Her answer was quick.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Because I want to. And because I gave an oath.¡±

    ¡°Damn your oath. You barely hold to it. Besides I don¡¯t WANT a slave. I never wanted a slave.¡±

    ¡°Then perhaps lovers?¡± Her coquettish voice probably could have gotten a raise out of a corpse.

    Jace looked at her a long moment with a frown on his face. He didn¡¯t think she was making fun of him, which only troubled him more. ¡°No. Not even friends. Lovers? Where did you get the impression that was going to happen?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know; you are half naked right now. I thought you were trying to tempt me into something first thing in the morning. I know men often are excited early in the day.¡± Her flippant answer only stoked his irritation more.

    ¡°Leave it.¡± His own tone was hard and flat, and the impatient look on his face delivered the message as well.

    ¡°Very well, so what are you going to do next?¡±

    ¡°I said, I¡¯m heading to Khavar.¡±

    ¡°I know you said you¡¯re going to Khavar. I am going to make something to eat. Do you plan to join me?¡±

    ¡°In cooking?¡±

    ¡°Eating.¡±

    He just sighed, then nodded. ¡°Might as well choke something down.¡±

    He didn¡¯t know how far the east coast was, but he suspected it was probably a couple of weeks away. Judging by the size of the growing cloud, he had a feeling it was going to be a very cold trip.

 Chapter 54 - Volcanic Winter

    In a small house in a backwater Fairy city state Shawey finally was able to rest contently after a long day¡¯s work. It was a long 8weeks since the flight from the island. The immediate week after their flight from the academy had been hectic. When they fled the hall, one of the youngest girls, Khana was inspired to seize all the documents in the document depository before fleeing. Her reasoning was solid. That depository represented the collected memories of mankind. It was an amazing thought for the small girl to have, and on reflection none of the women could think of a reason not to. So rather than flee directly to the transportation circle they looted the depository. Along the way Shawey was able to steal some clean male clothing, wandering around nude except for a dead man¡¯s cloak was disturbing.

    They cleaned out the depository in just an hour. In that time, they made a litter for Sa¡¯manatha. The girl was unconscious and tenuously alive. Karius wanted to try to heal the rest of her wounds with a magic circle, but ultimately gave in to Shawey¡¯s insistence they flee first and find a secure place. In the end Shawey was right.

    They got to the bluff above the north bay and were greeted by a terrifying scene. The bay was boiling, and the ground was trembling. Whatever Karius found when he searched for the state of the bay, paled his face and made them all get in the portal. They teleported as one to a small shed in the Independent Gnome State of Valnus. This small city state was located on the south side of the main continent. Far away from any of the centers of power. The name of the Independent Gnome State of Valnus was a bit of a tongue tier so all the locals just called it Valnus. It was one of the few Gnome kingdoms with land above ground.

    The Gnomes are a short insular people, and generally unwelcome to other races. Shawey had never been this far south, so she didn¡¯t recognize where they were. It was the lone male Karius who figured it out. He said this was one of the main supply lines for the academy, and likely that was why the portal was connected here when they left. They were going to try to make a break for an uninhabited area inside this state, according to Karius the gnomes had claimed a lot more land than they used. Since population was thin this far south, in a part to the colder weather and shorter growing seasons, they figured they would hide away from the Fairies who might be tempted to wipe them out.

    However, it was hard to hide the movements of 80 people or so, so on their second day they were located by a small gnome patrol. The reality was they probably could have wiped the patrol out. Gnomes usually top out around channeler just like humans, so with 80 channelers and one grand channeler, they would have had a fair chance to kill the gnome patrol and hide themselves away. They decided to negotiate with the gnomes instead. It was settled that the gnomes would escort them to the boarder with Fallah, a Fairy city state of no real significance. They were able to convince the Gnomes to take them only to the boarder, and not a border crossing. Their desire was to enter Fellah without alerting the fairies.

    Negotiation was hard as they had little to trade, in the end the Gnomes decided to do it for a silver Tal. No matter how much someone might want to help a human, no one would do something for free to them. As a result, Shawey actually had a good impression of the gnomes, they might not have wanted the humans on their land but they weren¡¯t cruel about it.

    After sneaking into Fallah (the territory, not the city) they located an area deep in the wilderness which looked to have not seen an intelligent being in a long time. Once there they build themselves an estate using their magic. Just the act of building the estate a number of the girls bumped up to Grand Channeler, herself included. Shawey could tell Karius was completely bamboozled by the growth of their strengths, so to be kind to him, Shawey showed him a focus and how it worked. A number of the girls didn¡¯t need all 4 of them, many could manage with just 2, only Khana needed just one.

    As a result, they ended up teaching Karius how to use the focus and channel guiding the pulse, not forcing it. In turn he taught magic to anyone who wanted it. Shawey quickly mastered most of what he had to teach them, especially magic circles. In fact, it was the healing that was done on Sa¡¯manatha which sparker her interest in the area of study.

    Their first night at their new location, Karius build an elaborate magic circle. It was almost a week since they fled the Academy, and in that time she never regained consciousness. They had sustained her on mother¡¯s milk from the girls who were lactating, due to recent or current pregnancies, and the dew of the Ghala flower. It was a known restorative for people unable to eat. They could only get a small amount into her, just enough to keep her alive, not enough to help her get better. In that way she lived half a step in the grave for a week. Karius build a large magic circle. It was an enormous circle, 3 circles in fact, each one larger than the last.

    The amount of power the circle generated was breath taking. Shawey watched in awe from outside as Karius fed power into the circles. He had explained the process before hand, by linking the power of the stars and Althos, they would be able to restore her flame of life, close to its prior state, with only part of her vitality stolen. The immense circle was needed due to the curse, which would act against this type of action. The third circle was to heal the remaining physical injuries. While he couldn¡¯t regenerate the lost large toes, he was confident he¡¯d be able to heal the burns and eye back to functioning.

    Though he said that Shawey was skeptical. What he described didn¡¯t seem possible with a Grand Channeler¡¯s skill in magic. He actually wasn¡¯t all that much stronger then she was. Yet to her tremendous surprise it worked exactly as he described. Sa¡¯manatha did not awake, but her life was stabilized, and the following day she would wake up.

    Sa¡¯manatha took the loss of her baby pretty hard from what Shawey could see. That grief was something only a few of the girls could help her with, Shawey never had a pregnancy, let alone a lost one. When Sa¡¯manatha heard that Jace wasn¡¯t with them she grew a bit frantic, especially when she heard last anyone saw of him he was fighting most of the school. It took her a while to get over both blows, that not only had the girl lost her baby, but might have lost Jace as well. Shawey got Khana to help her try to chear up Sa¡¯manatha. Both of them were sure Jace was alive. Especially since they didn¡¯t see another living soul after fleeing. She wasn¡¯t sure if she helped Sa¡¯manatha or not.

    Shawey actually didn¡¯t stay at the house for long. When she displayed some tremendous skill with the ¡°Heal¡± glyph, potentially better skill then Karius, and had reached the Grand Channeler level, they elected her to be the ¡°face¡± of the group. Not long after building the home, they decided to pool their resources and establish a presence in Fallah. The plan was for one of them to move into Fallah and sell their services as a healer, or generally a wandering mage. While fairies were a fairly magically attuned race, they mostly relied on their inherent magic, not glyph magic; and as such few fairies ever made it to grand channeler. The house was to provide the group with their main source of income, as well as source of news. It was also to help them procure food. The food they brought with them when they fled was quickly running out.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Shawey quickly found a small home to purchase in the city, and within a few days¡¯ word had spread about her skill as a healer. It wasn¡¯t long before the Tal¡¯s were pouring in, and Shawey became a prominent member of the community. In this way their group quietly hid themselves in the southern state of Fallah, just in time for a cold spell which would plunge the whole continent into a deep winter for almost two years.

    The food was running out. Jace vastly underestimated the size of this ocean. When Verna said the island was far off the coast of the main continent, he simply assumed it still part of the ¡°map¡± of that coastline. Instead it seemed this island, like the Hawaii islands and California was far away from the mainland. He was at the rudder of the yacht watching a line of dark clouds catch up from behind, trying to decide what to do.

    He knew they had been making great time, between the two of them they had pushed the yacht to the edge of Jace¡¯s ability to control it by channeling up some tremendous windstorms. They even took to sailing deep into the night, risking the dangers and hazards in exchange for shortening the journey. Of course there no longer was much difference between sailing at night and during the day. Those clouds were terrifying, and with every day the sun grew weaker and weaker, and the days grew colder and colder. It came to the point where Jace deeply regretted not making a much bigger Yacht.

    He had made this boat with fun coastal sailing in mind. Fair weather sailing mostly. It really was far too small to be a safe ocean going vessel. Furthermore, with its small size and low to the water waterline, it was very difficult to keep dry while sailing it. That was the case on Lake Erie back on Earth, it doubly was so on a huge body of water with deep oceangoing swells of water to deal with. Jace wasn¡¯t particularly worried about turtling and sinking, this boat was far too buoyant for that. What he was growing terrified of was dying of hypothermia, as the temperatures kept dropping the weather started to get violent. Making their attempts to control the direction of the wind impossible and forcing him to actually sail the horrid weather, soaked, freezing. Worse, he discovered that while healing could heal things like gaping wounds or even frost burn, it did nothing for your core temp, so dying of exposure was a very real risk.

    He grew up in a city known for its winters. He had done his share of winter sports, such as skiing both cross country and downhill, as well as shoveled a lot of snow in subzero temperatures. Right now he was wishing for some Gore-Tex foul weather sailing gear, as the water and cold air were making it almost impossible to sail the boat any longer. He knew with the looming food situation the cold weather was the worst thing possible, as the body needed more calories when it suffered from exposure in the cold, so cutting back on food intake would only invite a hypothermic death that much quicker.

    He had been working his way steadily east for almost 4weeks now. Verna rarely came above deck anymore. The kindred woman was especially weak against the cold and wet. Her ancestry was a fire dragon, and while that made her a fantastic source of heat on cold nights, it also meant she was very sensitive to cold weather, making it hard for her to function, and complain all the time. She really was a headache sometimes.

    He was eyeing the storm front bearing down on him from the southwest. It took a long time for him to even notice it, as the grey ash filled skies really limited visibility. This storm looked massive, and it certainly was gaining. He wasn¡¯t too surprised that recent days had gotten stormy. The ocean surface now was consistently warmer then the air. From what he remembered this was a great recipe for making storms. It also had forced them to hide inside the boat for hours on end a number of times in the past week.

    It was getting close to the time to prep the boat for yet another storm.

    ¡°Verna!¡± He shouted.

    The beautiful woman poked her head out of the hatch leading below deck. Her tussled hair looked like she had been sleeping, and she had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl. ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Storm¡¯s coming. We¡¯ll need to deploy the sea anchor and get the sails down.¡± He raised his voice to a near yell to be heard over the wind picking up.

    Verna made a pouting face then nodded after seeing the line of very angry looking clouds over his shoulder. With her help they had the boat rigged to ride the storm out fairly quickly, and retreated below deck, closing the main hatch and the vents to keep the water out.

    They both were shivering badly by the time they got below deck. Verna mostly because she was weak against this weather. Jace because he had been out in that for hours and was soaked and nearly hypothermic. Without an ounce of shame both stripped and cuddled under the blankets together for warmth. Jace was never really afraid of others seeing his naked body. Besides Verna had seen him nude enough. And Verna never made any real effort to keep him from seeing her naked. So when the weather turned this had become their method for warming up. It was efficient, and really there was no reason not to.

    Jace was worn out and frozen, he really wanted to sleep, but when the storm hit those thoughts went right out of his mind. It was easily the worst storm they had to deal with. The winds outside howled at gale force, and the waves grew more and more violent. He was glad for the way he build this boat, else he was pretty sure this storm would have sunk them. There were countless waves he could tell with the way the hull shuttered washed over the deck, submerging the boat completely. The water leaking from the main hatch told him all he needed to know about the state above deck. He wasn¡¯t too concerned about flooding. After their first major storm Verna laid a magic circle he never seen before that simply removed all the water that hit the deck in here. As a result, there was no danger of drowning, and there was no danger of the boat sinking.

    It didn¡¯t elevate his concern about shallows. This type of weather could exert some terrible forces, and while he had enchanted the boat to the point its hull was strong as steel, even steel could be crushed if you hit something hard enough. So from time to time he cast some scrying spells he managed to work out, to search for the depth under keel. Judging by the results, there was no real danger of wrecking.

    As he warmed up he became conscious of the fact he was hugging and spooning with and incredibly beautiful woman, like he always did. It never was an issue because he still was fairly crushed about what happened to Sam so a certain part of his anatomy never reacted.

    Today was different. He found himself grow excited and his manhood laid itself neatly against her pretty backside. He was thinking about how to move away from her when Verna half tensed in his arms. She clearly noticed what was pressing up against her. Her voice sounded mischievous as she slowly said ¡°I was losing confidence in my appearance. Day after day sleeping together, storm after storm naked and wet flesh pressed against each other. Yet you never reacted.¡±

    His heart was oddly not too conflicted at this moment. It wasn¡¯t just that Verna was ¡®convenient¡¯ or ¡®beautiful¡¯ but he felt a deep boned grief and loneliness, and he didn¡¯t dislike her. He didn¡¯t particularly like her either, but he knew she didn¡¯t love him. Sometimes sex was just sex. He moved his hand to her breast, rather than pull away and spoke quietly to her. ¡°You¡¯re strong enough to stop me if you want to. So I won¡¯t ask for permission.¡± His lips came down on her neck, he ran his tongue along her neck and nibbled her ear. She arched her back, grinding her hips into his.

    The storm raged for 2 days, two days which they weathered in each other¡¯s arms, entangled without any danger of getting cold, as they burned through far too many calories for sanity with their precarious food situation. When Jace finally disengaged from the insatiable woman and tried to open the main hatch, he found it stuck. It took him a few minutes bracing himself with one hand and balancing on one leg to force the hatch open, he was stunned at what he saw. The boat was sitting low in the water, dangerously low in the water, and everything was covered in inches of ice. Snow was falling slowly, but more importantly, he could see a shoreline perhaps 5 miles away to the east.

    They had finally found the continent.

 Chapter 55 - Lazy Journey South

    Of course finding land was half the battle. Jace panicked, he had not been checking the depth of the water under the keel the past two days, as he had been mostly distracted by the alluring and insatiable kindred woman who was sleeping peacefully below deck. Using a quick scrying spell, which was a melded spell of search and land and depth glyphs he breathed a sigh of relief. They were still in deep waters, and not particularly near anything dangerous.

    Removing the ice from the boat was actually easier then he feared, as all it required was careful use of the glyph ¡°shatter¡±. He quickly removed the ice with a sweep of the air glyph. The water was unusually calm, which he was thankful for, as he wasn¡¯t really in the mood to brave a choppy sea in this boat while it was subzero outside. Hobbling with the crutches was getting irritating to him. He had been on them for about 4 weeks. Granted he had done no real traveling, but he just couldn¡¯t imagine a life on these things for much longer.

    He had asked Verna about magic to regrow the lost limb, thinking that the regrowth glyph might work, she shot him down explaining the problems and theories regarding the glyph. He even experimented himself with it and found what she said to be accurate. The regrowth glyph didn¡¯t seem to work at all on pretty much anything. What he found strangest about the glyph was its extensive ties to the glyphs air and sky. This made him wonder if the actual glyph originally meant something else.

    Without an obvious way to restore the leg he had toyed with the idea of a prosthetic. However, he had never handled one before. Making a boat was easy, as he had spent countless hours on them growing up in the summer time. Making something with joints seemed a bit beyond his reasoning. Especially since he never really studied human anatomy before beyond what he learned in sex ed. Worse still was the idea of a peg leg. Something in his pride just couldn¡¯t give up to the extent to actually use a peg leg. What was depressing to think about is that without any other options on the table, he feared a peg leg might just be a solution to the problem, no matter how stupid he¡¯d look.

    Getting the yacht underway, he randomly chose to head south, along the coast, reasonably guessing that they had been blow north by the storm. One of the worst things about days like this was handling the lines. The lines being formerly part of a plant meant they absorbed water, making every pull of the lines like dipping your hands in ice water. Then keeping those wet hands warm afterwards was nearly impossible. If they weren¡¯t so close to shore he might have been tempted to wait this day out. However, 5 miles easily could be covered in two hours with a breeze or tide, basically they were far too close to just give up on the day, so he had to find ways to keep himself dry and warm. The day remained unexpectedly calm, which he was thankful for, and he felt they made fairly good time, despite the freezing temperatures that only succeeded in rising to the point the lightly falling snow turned into a light drizzling rain, which of course made everything miserable.

    He, from time to time would warm himself up by remembering the past couple of days. Even if he never touched Verna again he suspected he¡¯d never be able to get those two days out of his mind for the rest of his life. Jace was by no means a sadist. Nor did he get into teasing other people much. He knew he was a bit straight laced and a bit dull, but he just didn¡¯t like making other¡¯s uncomfortable. That said something about Verna seemed to press his buttons a bit. So while they were enjoying each other he discovered an interesting fact about this seductive red haired beauty. She really liked being physically dominated. He discovered it by accident, he pinned her hands above her head because she was hurting him by raking his back too hard with her nails. He had to use magic to do it, and she briefly struggled against him with magic, which he resisted. From that point on she went nuts. He never fucked a girl who was so out of her mind locked in pleasure. It was an intoxicating thing, knowing you¡¯re making your partner go wild like that. If it was just a matter of her going wild, those past couple of days already would have been memorable. What really tipped the scale was how she kept him going and going. That woman seemed to know exactly what might turn a man on, and simply wouldn¡¯t let him stop until she was too tired. It was an amazing experience.

    He kept a close eye on the depth, and around noon, or what passed for noon in this weather, he realized the bottom was sloping up toward them, by midafternoon he estimated they were probably in 200 feet of water. Being bone chilled and exhausted he chose to anchor while there still was light, and the depth was reasonable for anchoring like it currently was. The shore was still miles away and from what he could see, uninhabited. Worst case scenario he could always try to fish again, if the food situation got any worse.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    After securing the yacht, he went below deck. Verna finishing prepping something like dinner. All plants again, likely tasteless as usual. He figured if he ever made it back to Earth he should start on mild buffalo wings. He was surprised his stomach rumbled even smelling the bland vegetable stew. How he ever got used to the lack of taste in the diets in this world was beyond him. She was wearing little. A pink barely opaque bottom, which would have doubled nicely for hot pants on earth, with a pink matching tube top which left little to the imagination. The material these articles of clothing were made out of would have been instant hits on earth, as it looked more like wispy filmy mist then actual cloth. Having touched this material before when he saw Sam wearing something made of it, he knew it was a type of clothing, despite its darn near illusionary appearance.

    Verna¡¯s back was to him as she worked some magic on a pot, heating the stew, the shining glittering spot of small scales at the base of her back shining in the dim light like rubies. He had learned that her scales were immensely sensitive, perhaps more so then her skin. Unable to prevent himself from causing her a little discomfort, he placed one of his icy cold hands directly on the small of her back. The resulting girlish screak and her teleporting, actually teleporting, directly into the blankets was so out of character with the cool beauty persona she gave off he actually couldn''t help himself from breaking out in a laugh. His laughter doubled when he saw her stick a teary eyes fire haired head out of the pile of blankets as she gave him an angry look that actually looked cute rather then frightening.

    Verna clearly realized the angry glare wasn¡¯t getting her anywhere, and blushed red. He wasn¡¯t sure why she was turning red, he had seen and touched pretty much everything of her, so for her look so shy was a bit weird. His laughter died down as he tried to figure the blush out. Then Verna, eyeing him cautiously, spoke,¡°You¡¯re not touching me with those icey hands again.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Jace looked at Verna carefully. For some reason it sounded like a challenge when she said it like that. He remembered a bit from the prior couple of days and his smile grew larger. ¡°Is that so?¡± He was tempted to push her on the subject, but he knew where that would head. He wasn¡¯t quite up for another two-day marathon. So he turned to the food and asked ¡°is this done?¡±

    He thought he heard her say ¡°coward¡± under her breath, before she answered ¡°should be.¡±

    He sat down and started to eat straight from the pot. It was about as tasteless as he recalled, not that Verna was at fault for that. Nothing to taste when the ingredients had none in the first place, and they had no spices for it.

    After eating his fill, he told Verna about being in sight of shore, and the direction he was heading. She simply shrugged and said ¡°You should learn to scry more. Had you scry¡¯ed the location of the nearest town you wouldn¡¯t have to randomly pick a direction to sail.¡±

    He winced. She was right of course. There was a lot he should use magic for that he did not. So he admitted it to her, ¡°You¡¯re right, I should have.¡±

    She smiled brightly, ¡°I like that about you. Do you know how men typically respond to a woman telling them they made a mistake? Among your people I¡¯m sure you can imagine. Among mine, the back of the hand is typical.¡±

    He winced, learning yet more how horrible these people were to each other wasn¡¯t a good dessert. ¡°There is some of that where I come from.¡± He admitted honestly. ¡°However those men are mostly the exception.¡±

    ¡°But no Dragons there, yes?¡±

    ¡°No dragons.¡± He replied.

    ¡°What a strange place.¡±

    He sighed, and set aside the rest of the food. ¡°You eat yet?¡±

    Her yellow cat like eyes narrowed suspiciously. ¡°You¡¯re not trying to place those icy hands on me again?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to bully you again with my icy hands.¡±

    She looked at him a long time, then slipped out of the blankets and crouched down next to him. Once she had a spoon full of the stew in her mouth he placed both cold hands on both side of her waist and dropped her into his lap. He held his icy hands on her stomach as she squealed and thrashed. Eventually his hands warmed up, and she stopped struggling, leaning back against his chest. ¡°You lied¡± She breathed, the tone in her voice was throaty, as she twisted in his arms and brought her face to his.

    Jace figured he could try one more marathon.

    It was in this way they gradually made their way down the coast, eventually finding the port city of Lotsorn, around the time their food ran out.

 Chapter 56 - Trust your instincts

    Lotsorn surpassed Jace¡¯s imagination. He had seen almost nothing of the cities of this world. He thought he had an idea based on the fort and keep on that island, only to learn, looking at Lotsorn how badly he was mistaken. The city had walls stretching hundreds of feet into the sky and hundreds of feet wide. There were towers stretching even higher. The city probably could have held millions. The stone was all black, and looked just like obsidian, and the pale sunlight seemed to give the whole city an almost ghostly shine. The harbor was a legitimate harbor as well, with a break water, the ships were strange. If he were to name them, they looked like something akin to what a Viking longboat might look like. He wasn¡¯t sure how oceangoing they were. Though considering the Vikings were able to sail across some of the most inhospitable oceans in the world, perhaps he shouldn¡¯t be too harsh about it.

    He knew his little yacht received a lot of attention. He didn¡¯t see a single triangular sail anywhere, furthermore everything had oars, and from the looks of it, were manned by crews of slaves. Meanwhile his boat sailed in quietly, under the power of nothing but the wind, with just one man in control of it. Its size wasn¡¯t particularly small either. Though he considered the yacht far too small for safe ocean travel, it was almost 2/3 the length of the longboats.

    From what Verna told him about it, the city apparently was one of the few fully human run cities on the continent, with slavery, piracy and trading being the main sources of income. He could tell humans were in charge, as from what he could see of it, though the city probably could house millions, most of the city appeared to be in disrepair, or abandoned. The number of human slaves was stunning. It was hard to find clothing humans. The opulence of the clothed humans, and the despair of the nude ones left a deep impression on his mind. After dealing with the harbormaster, and leaving the port district, he took a room in one of the few clean looking inns he could find on the main street.

    The prices of everything were outrageous. He had developed an idea for the price of items over the past 8 months living on this world. Almost everything could be had for less than a silver tal. So a room with a single meal, for one night, one bed costing 3 silver tal struck him as outrageous. Not that he couldn¡¯t afford it but he couldn¡¯t help feeling like he was being ripped off badly. The staff at the inn were all enslaved female fairies and humans, all young and pretty, and surprisingly clean, which only raised Jace¡¯s suspicions about the cost of the room.

    Suspicions which were confirmed when dinner came with several girls to ¡°serve¡± him as he wished. The heartbreak at seeing these young women prostituted for his apparent enjoyment, made him deeply disturbed. The more he thought about it the moreirritated he became and was about to say something when Verna stood up and walked over to the girls. He was nervous about what she might do, but ultimately decided to leave it to her, figuring the ¡®worldly,¡¯ and ¡®knowledgeable¡¯ kindred woman would be able to delicately resolve the situation.

    Verna calmly looked over each of the girls then frowned. ¡°Is this the best this place has to offer? A group of scrawny ill fed used old whores who smell of semen? Are you insulting us? 3 silver tal for this? Get out and tell the owner to come himself with his own virgin daughter or his best girls if they¡¯re better, or I¡¯ll burn this place down and take our 3 tal back from his corpse.¡± Jace froze at the words coming from her mouth. It had been a long time since he had heard that imperious and overbearing tone.

    ¡®Fucking Kindred¡¯ he groaned to himself. He had completely forgot how these idiot dragon people acted to outsiders.

    The girls all paled under her withering yellow eyed glare, and quickly fled the room. Jace, pondered a long moment and ultimately decided getting mad with Verna was counterproductive as it was his own idiot fault for letting her handle anything. He picked up his knife and fork and started to carve into the meat. Verna looked at him and then casually said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t eat that meat.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    He paused with the fork an inch from his mouth, his mouth watering at the idea of any meat after the weeks of vegetable mush. He placed the fork down reluctantly and said with a great deal more patience then he felt, ¡°Why?¡± He had long harbored fears about the meat he had eaten in the past, Verna¡¯s urgent warning set off those long suppressed fears and alarm at those questions left unasked.

    ¡°When in a human city, or when your food is being prepared by free humans with ingredients they procured, assume nothing of the source of the meat unless you watch them butcher it yourself. It might be some form of animal raised in a pen. Or it might be something hunted. Just as likely as those sources is it was a slave butchered to put meat on your table. Human slaves being cheaper then real meat of course. Granted, killing humans is a great crime. But let¡¯s be serious and honest here. The only humans with any worth among your people are women who are able to bare children. The male slaves are nowhere near as valuable, and no one really looks into what happens to them. Did no one tell you these things?¡±

    Jace felt his hunger wither. Looking at the plate he saw nothing on it that wasn¡¯t soaking in the juices of the meat. He closed his eyes and pushed the plate away from himself. Suddenly he realized that he didn¡¯t think that Verna was too harsh on those girls.

    Jace started to speak, unable to look at the food anymore ¡°Tell me Ver¡­¡±

    She cut him off, ¡°Nana, if you¡¯re going to shorten my name, Nana, not Ver. I hate it when people shorten my already short name with ¡®Ver¡¯.¡±

    Starting again he said slowly, ¡°Tell me Nana¡­ ugh¡­ I¡¯m not sure I like saying that. You don¡¯t look like a Nana. Seriously? Nana?¡± His train of thought was completely derailed.

    She nodded like it was a serious matter. ¡°Nana¡±

    He looked at her curiously, nothing fit her less than a cute name like ¡®Nana.¡¯ She was beautiful, imperious, sexy. What she almost never was, was cute and childish. Trying to start again he said, ¡°Tell me Verna. Is there anything else I need to know about the people here that will be this horrifying, which I might not have been told yet?¡±

    She looked like she was disappointed he didn¡¯t call her Nana, then she thought a long moment then spoke, ¡°perhaps you never heard about the Fighting arenas¡­¡± Jace cut her off.

    ¡°I think I can guess. You do not need to say more.¡±

    At this time a large woman, the first fat human he had seen in all the time he had been on this world, came to the room. Behind her was 4 new girls, one of them was perhaps 10 or 11 and looked like she had been woken up from bed, obviously the woman¡¯s ¡®virgin¡¯ daughter. The other three were indisputably prettier and younger than the last batch.

    Verna rounded on the 5 people who entered, her head held high, as she spoke in that imperious tone. ¡°Stop! I do not recall giving anyone leave to enter the Great Lord my Master¡¯s room.¡±

    Jace felt indescribably embarrassed by what just came from her mouth. ¡®That fucking kindred!¡¯ He screamed in his heart. He was about to stand and put an end to this nonsense when she suddenly started speaking sense, ¡°First you¡¯ll replace this dish. My Great Lord and Master does not eat the flesh of beasts. So you will replace this food with something fresh, and all vegetable.¡± So he tentatively, and against his better judgement let her continue.

    ¡°Next, put your girl to bed. My Great Lord and Master does not harm children. What type of animal do you take him for?¡± For once he agreed with her tone, and actually forgave the nonsensical title she was calling him, because she said exactly what alarmed him most of what the innkeeper brought him. Seeing that poor child dragged into his room made him ill.

    Once the young girl was shoved out of the room and the food taken away by the other three girls, Jace sighed with relief. It seemed letting Verna handle it ended up working out alright. He could deal with a little embarrassment. It¡¯s what he deserved for letting her take the lead in this issue.

    Once the room was empty Verna sat down on his lap, looking undeservedly proud of herself. Then she said ¡°Which of those three girls should we keep for the night? I recommend the one in blue, she looked like she¡¯d be fun. You¡¯ve never had a Fairy girl right? So it will be the one in blue right? Or do you desire all 3?¡±

    He was wrong. He should never let Verna handle anything.

 Chapter 57 - Villainy with style

    Jace and Verna stepped out of the inn together, in the false dawn, only to come to a dead stop. The street was filled with silent soldiers, lining the street from one end to the other. Each soldier wearing black and silver, something that looked like an official uniform for this city. There was a flag Jace could make out with a silver tower and gold crown against a black field, dangling limply.

    The soldiers seemed about as surprised as Jace was to see them this early. Obviously they had arrived recently and weren¡¯t ready to act against whomever they were here for. Verna didn¡¯t even react. She simply ignored the soldiers like they were ants. Jace knew they must look like quite a pair, he was a 6¡¯ tall man in a land where the tallest human he had yet seen was perhaps 5¡¯6¡±. His black shirt was well made, and his grey cloak looked like a beggars. His black pants and boot were also well made. Of course he was standing with the aid of crutches. His long brown hair was tied back in a pony tail, dangling far down his back, his skin was sun darkened while his beard had grown a bit unkempt in the past month on the ocean. In short he looked like a giant sea hobo, or at least he thought he did.

    Meanwhile Verna was a pale skinned beauty, with scarlet red with orange highlights hair that looked like living fire, framing a beautiful face with full red lips and and thin cheeks, high eyes and well-proportioned nose, her figure was impossible to miss despite the non-revealing crimson scaled armor, she was a full breasted and hipped woman who would have easily found lucrative work on Earth as a swimsuit model. Her cat like yellow eyes positively glowed in the low light clearly announcing to even the most dimwitted she was kindred. And if the eyes didn¡¯t do it, her height which placed her just a few inches short of Jace made her stand out even more then Jace.

    The way she stood next to him illuminated by the open door into the brothel/inn with her hand on his back made them look a couple to the men surrounding them.

    Jace looked up the street then down it. And cleared his throat. ¡°Excuse me gentlemen, I¡¯m not the nimblest person, mind if you make a hole for me? Better still it would be great if you could point me in the direction of someone I could rent or buy a carriage from?¡±

    The soldiers just stood their silently.

    Jace glanced at Verna, and said in draconic; ¡°You don¡¯t suppose they¡¯re here for us do you?¡±

    She simply replied in the common human speech in a loud enough voice that half the street could have heard her, ¡°Trash like this? Unlikely. Not unless they don¡¯t know who we are. No one would send a bunch of human soldiers after a kindred. Not unless they wanted to preside over a lot of funerals.¡±

    Jace sighed. He wasn¡¯t sure what to call her attitude this morning. Happy? Ecstatic? He didn¡¯t expect her to be in such a positive mood after they fought over those slave girls last night. He might have underestimated the effect his words had on her.

    That was an interesting argument. And insightful as well. He had started off by objecting to using a slave on principle, of course he didn¡¯t say what that principle was, so Verna countered with¡­

    ¡°What, so those girls will be ¡®free¡¯ of their slavery if you don¡¯t stick a dick in them? If you don¡¯t stick your dick in them someone else will. Who knows how mean he might be too. You make no sense. You are fine with sex for pleasure, but you will not take pleasure you paid for?¡±

    He actually hesitated for a long moment after Verna said that. But what he couldn¡¯t get out of his mind was that same dead look on the face of the girls he saw on every other slave. So despite his dick urging him to surrender to her alarmingly sound argument, he replied, ¡°I won¡¯t take someone into my bed who doesn¡¯t actually want to be there. As far as I can tell, that type of consent can¡¯t be given by a slave or prostitute. So they aren¡¯t entering my bed.¡±

    Verna wouldn¡¯t take that argument, and poked at the obvious hole in it. ¡°I don¡¯t understand that argument, what about Sam?¡±

    Verna never called Sa¡¯manatha ¡®Sam¡¯, she knew what she was doing when she used that name with Jace. He felt the low blow. He was absolutely enraged and almost said a few vulgar things he didn¡¯t really mean, until he took a few calming breaths. She was watching his face the whole time, and Jace thought she actually looked apologetic for saying that.

    ¡°You weren¡¯t there Verna. You weren¡¯t in that hole they summoned me to. You don¡¯t know how that started. Don¡¯t assume¡­¡± He paused unable to speak a long moment.

    Verna really looked apologetic now, and walked over and knelt down and rested her head on his knee. And said ¡°I¡¯m sorry I did not mean to imply¡­¡±

    He rested a hand on her head and then spoke slowly. ¡°Let¡¯s not argue about this. You wanted to do this for me. Can you explain why? In what way are you giving me a gift?¡±

    ¡°Us¡±

    ¡°Us? As in you wish to lay with a woman as well?¡± He couldn¡¯t keep the incredulity from his tone. She had a sex drive to challenge the imagination and stamina of a healthy teenager. The idea he wasn¡¯t enough to keep her satisfied felt like a blow to his ego.

    She looked at him with a frown, ¡°Well it seems like you do not understand, attractive women can be alluring to me as well, however I am not sated by women. No this was for you and me, but in different ways. Strong men should have many women. It is the way of the world. And what woman would not want to watch as her strong man plant his seed and makes another woman his? The idea alone makes me shiver in anticipation.¡± Her voice was low and seductive.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Her explanation was both violent and erotic, he actually grew hard just listening to this alluring woman describe something so bestial. His mind was stuck on both the image of the scene and disbelief that he found it exciting as well.

    He stopped on that thought and another thought lashed him. ¡®When this idiot kindred is talking crazy and I start to think she¡¯s making sense, then I¡¯ve clearly gone nuts.¡¯

    He pulled himself out of the twisted fantasy she was weaving and spoke slowly, he had to be clear and firm with this woman or else something tragic might result. He was only half horrified by what he said to compromise with her. ¡°Only if they¡¯re willing. Not paid. Not a slave. I will accept women I find interesting who you bring to me, if they¡¯re WILLING. No slaves. No prostitutes. No FORCE. They must want it. Understand?¡± A small part of him, the part of him that still remembered life on Earth was absolutely horrified by those words.

    The delight on Verna¡¯s face however said it all. The crazy woman wanted him to fuck other women while she watched, or even ¡®helped¡¯. What¡¯s worse is he found himself getting hard just thinking about it. He had no right to call her crazy.

    He left it to Verna to chase the girls away when they came back with dinner. A dinner blessedly free of meat. She was even wilder than usual in the bed. Of course that might have been just because they had the room to really get carried away. There wasn¡¯t a lot of room on the boat to get too crazy.

    He pulled himself out of the memory and examined the soldiers who still had not moved. ¡°Can someone at least tell us who you¡¯re here for so we can stand clear when the moment comes?¡±

    ¡°You, we¡¯re here for you.¡± A cocky voice echoed in the street. He was a lordling of some sort, clean, only slightly less sickly looking then the rest of the humans in the streets.

    ¡°Jace, I am a simple traveler. Might I know who it is who is looking for me?¡± Jace could feel Verna growing impatient, and decided not to let her speak this time.

    ¡°I am an Emissary of Elis, I am here to apprehend the criminal Jace and execute him in the name of the Sun God.¡± The smug tones from the sickly young man echo¡¯ed on the street.

    Jace frowned and quickly cast a scrying spell to detect the presence of the closest grand wizard. Of course the answer was obvious, no one in the city was a grand wizard, though he did pause on sensing something, then chosen to ignore it for now. So he looked at the young man with a bit of disbelief on his face. ¡°You and what army? Seriously? This is what you bring to capture me?¡± He sighed and looked at Verna, knowing what would happen if he unleashed her. The blood would run in rivers. Of course at this moment he didn¡¯t think that necessarily was a bad thing.

    ¡°Tell me emissary of Elis, what are my crimes against the so called sun god?¡± Jace decided to see how long he could draw out a conversation. He had precious little knowledge of Elis, even an incidental conversation with an ¡°Emissary¡± might shed some light on this villainous creature. At the same time, he was quietly carving several magic circles up and down the street, using air to make circles was a skill he had grown frighteningly proficient at, as well as a teleportation circle under his and Verna¡¯s feet.

    ¡°Elis has charge you with Blasphemy. Heresy. And finally the murder of one of his emissaries.¡±

    Jace smiled pleasantly. ¡°Really now, that seems like I got up to a lot. Did Elis tell you I was a magician too?¡±

    ¡°A channeler.¡±

    ¡°I see. Well that is a shame. Elis is correct. I am a channeler. Very well. So here is where you command these soldiers to capture me alive? What about her?¡± He jerked his thumb toward Verna. Verna looked bored and more than a little bit amused at his proclamation to be ¡®merely¡¯ a channeler.

    ¡°We¡¯ll take your woman as a slave of course.¡±

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Jace started to laugh. ¡°Seriously? How unpracticed are you at villainy? That is the best threat you have? Here. Let me show you how a threat is done right. Let me show you how a true villian does it.¡± Jace theatrically snapped his fingers. And every soldier on the street exploded in a shower of gore which painted the street dark red. Not a drop of blood touched Jace¡¯s clothing, or Verna¡¯s. He turned his green eyes toward the once cocky young man, who was standing there stupefied.

    ¡°Where is your god now?¡± Jace couldn¡¯t help but mock the terrified man. He had no intention to be merciful. Casting a spell, he captured the ¡®emissary¡¯ with ease. A small weave of fire burnt the robe off the man leaving him nude. Then he started to cast a vicious spell he thought up in his darker fantasies during the first days of their flight from the island, when he was wishing he could have made everyone suffer as Sam had, and not given them all quick deaths.

    He completed the spell and the skin was stripped off the man, cleanly, leaving just his face still attached. The screams woke up the street, soon the block. A large crowd watched as the Emissary of Elis screamed his life away. Jace raised the man up high and pinned him to the wall of one of the buildings. And neatly hung the signs of this young man¡¯s identity on him. Then he channeled some of the young man¡¯s blood to form words which he placed in midair rotating like a sign.

    The words read, ¡°Two emissaries of the so called God Elis (also known as the Scourge of Althos and the lord of Piss and Shit) dead. -Courtesy of the Channeler Jace, a Free Human.¡± Jace let the crowd look at him then he channeled a little power into the teleportation array and instantly moved back to the dock district with Verna.

    Verna was silent the whole time, and then said in a tone which made him glance at her curiously, ¡°That is the right way to deal with your foes.¡±

    He was actually troubled a bit by how little his actions just now bothered him. But he knew Verna wouldn¡¯t understand that. ¡°What do you say about us staying in town for a bit? I suddenly have a great deal of interest in this place.¡±

    ¡°Why is this? Do you wish to become the lord of this sty?¡±

    ¡°If it will help me, sure. But I¡¯m far more interested in that resonance. Did you feel it? Of course you did. You scry a lot. Where you going to let me leave without looking into that?¡±

    ¡°I thought it would be a lesson for you that I could taunt you with for hundreds of miles.¡± Her tone was playful.

    He eyed her curiously, then deciding it wasn¡¯t worth making a point over, he ignored her strange behavior. He decided to ignore the fact that the decisive slaughter of those soldiers turned her on.

 Chapter 58 - Van Halen wrote a song about this

    That resonance, it turned out was inside the central keep. Jace located a nearby inn, which was actually an inn, not an inn/brothel, and paid a much more reasonable 1 silver tal for a huge luxury room on the 4<sup>th</sup> floor. Of course the innkeeper, a scrawny old man who had a staff that looked like family not slaves, treated them like Royalty, when he intentionally tried to pay with a gold Tal, figuring flashing a roll worked in any world. He even preposterously offered to have some of the serving girls, likely his granddaughters, help Jace up the stairs.

    Once in the room Jace and Verna started to plan. In all his time in this world he sort of let things come to him and happen. Had he taken charge after the kindred attack and chosen a different path, Sam would be alive, and perhaps he¡¯d be closer to getting home. Verna could have taught him most of what he had learned on the island.

    Verna of course didn¡¯t sit back and let things come to her. Granted she was put out of action trying to find who was hunting him, the only reason she was alone in that danger was because Jace never really felt the need to help her. For some reason he thought it best if he left it to Verna. He left the wards on the keep to Verna too. So when Sam was taken he didn¡¯t know it happened. All these mistakes, just kept adding up.

    The most egregious, though blessedly the one with the fewest consequences, was being caught in that inn/brothel. Verna of course knew about the group of soldiers. She scryed for foes all the time. She saw no reason to tell him about it because she didn¡¯t think anyone in this city was a threat to them. If Jace as he currently was trained stumbled facing that rabble, then he wasn¡¯t strong enough to be allowed outside. So Jace spent most of the rest of the day learning the ins and outs of scrying.

    Scrying was an interesting field of magic. It relied on the glyphs of future and past pretty heavily, and implied at far more complicated magic. When he started learning it he felt he could almost predict what Verna was going to teach him next as if he had an innate skill with this field. Or perhaps it¡¯s with a related field. He paused at one point and asked her about something he was pondering.

    ¡°Verna, Future and Past. They¡¯re pretty major glyphs, immensely complex. It seems to me you could use these to tell the future. Or perhaps see something from the past. It actually seems related strongly with Scrying, only scrying adds a few other things in the mix to be a bit more specific. Tell me, these prophecies the gods give you, would they just happen to be complex magic rituals utilizing the future glyph?¡±

    Verna sat for a long moment then shook her head.

    Verna started talking in a lecturing tone he had started to find extrodinarily sexy. He even had a brief fantasy of her in a slim knee length skirt white blouse, and glasses, a truly naughty teacher. The fantasy of course lasted just a moment as what she was speaking about soon grasped his full attention.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that you can¡¯t create a vision of the future. Or that this vision might seem like an augury. However, the auguries of the gods are different from what the ¡®future¡¯ glyph can manage. The future glyph can tell you things like how likely you¡¯ll die before sunset if you leave this room right now. But it¡¯s nothing more than a guess, a highly accurate guess. The future is generally in motion, and the future glyph can form pictures, impressions or even predictions about it. What auguries are, is they are insights which touch on all parts of including the roots of the Fate Plant, or Fate as we call it. Fate, is a Plant which spreads out its branches and touches all lives. Through its branches called the ¡®path of fate¡¯ or the ¡®strength of fate, or perhaps even the ¡®string of fate¡¯, certain events ALWAYS will happen. These momentous events are considering the ¡®branching of fate. Those branches of fate are what form the core of true prophecy. They are immutable events, of which will occur no matter what actions another takes. ¡°

    She paused for a moment then continued, ¡°For example, your mother passed of a disease correct? Let us say this wasn¡¯t something random, but instead an important branch of fate. Her string was to be cut at that age, from this disease. For you, your family and your mother, this event was unchangeable. Now let¡¯s say I receive guidance from the gods. The gods tell me your mother will die, and from their locating of this branching of fate, the god is now able to tell about the possible. The gods might tell me that your father MAY become a drunk and kill himself, but to be sure you and your brother keep an eye on him. This is an augury. We received certain ¡®branchings¡¯ and possible outcomes because of them.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ¡°Now I make it sound very simple I¡¯m sure. No true augury would come in so clear a manner. True auguries often obscure parts of the Plant of Fate to prevent certain changes. You see auguries, come from the Plant of Fate. Fate itself wishes for those ¡°branchings¡± to occur. So for most branchings we never hear of it because they will happen with or without our interference. However, let¡¯s say your mother was trending toward death, but fate wished for the branching to remain ¡°true¡± which would be a world in which she lived. Fate would give an augury which told enough to create the future which is ¡®right.¡¯

    ¡°Fate is a force of order. Fate believes it knows how the world is to work. So fate tries to enact changes in the world through auguries to keep the world on the path as decided by fate.¡±

    Jace frowned for a long moment. ¡°Then Elis¡¯s followers claiming a prophecy as justification for my death. For Eldridge¡¯s death. This would mean my summoning here risks something fate does not want changed am I correct?¡±

    ¡°You are absolutely correct. You offended Elis and by extension Fate because even being here you are on a collision course with a branching of fate, which is about to become something other then what fate decided is right for the world. Be warned though. Fate is far smarter then Elis. It is not beyond possibility that Fate is giving those auguries in hopes the attacks by Elis will drive you to a course of action favorable towards the right fate.¡±

    ¡°So then I might be dancing in fate¡¯s palm anyway even though fate seems to be trying to make me it¡¯s enemy?¡± Jace was frustrated, this was giving him a headache. ¡°So why isn¡¯t the future glyph more widely researched? It seems like it¡¯s the key to the [Tree] of Fate.¡±

    Verna paused on Jace¡¯s use of the English word tree, a word which did not have a translation in this language. ¡°[Twreee]?¡± She looked at him curiously. With no explanation coming she continued, ¡°Beings in the past have come to that conclusion. However, the future is dangerous and fate far too clever. The images you¡¯d get from using the future glyph will be misleading, as pretty much every future vision comes from fate in some way.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand is fate a symbolic Plant, something you call a plant to help visualize some outside force of predestination, or is fate a god with a conscience?¡±

    ¡°Both. Fate is both a Plant and a God. We do not know more than that, but we do know fate is intelligent, it is not a mindless force of nature.¡±

    Jace was silent for a long moment, then started casting various spells he thought might work melding with the future glyph. He paused a frown on his face, then closed his eyes.

    ¡®What was it my friend was always talking about?¡¯ He cast his mind back to half remembered conversations with his Star Trek fan/friend Earl in middle school. Earl used to carry around a Klingon dictionary, and had books, technical manuals of different space ships from the show. He thought he might have found an interesting spark of inspiration.

    ¡°What about time?¡± Jace finally spoke.

    ¡°Time?¡±

    ¡°There is a glyph for ¡®Time¡¯, it¡¯s hard to find, buried deep in the form.¡±

    ¡°Ah, another glyph like regeneration we have no use for.¡±

    Jace nodded. Then changed topics. ¡°So what is that resonance. No matter what scrying spell I use I cannot see anything about it. I just know it¡¯s there.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a known magical treasure. It¡¯s not really a secret. No one knows it¡¯s use, no one can move it. So they left it here, and built a city around it. Many grand wizards and a few sorcerers have tried to play out its secrets, but never got anywhere. I suspect even the Dragon King sought it out once.¡±

    ¡°Will they let us see it?¡±

    ¡°I doubt it. You just killed a solid 70 people plus a respected prince. I suspect you¡¯re a very wanted individual.¡±

    ¡°You mean that priest was a prince?¡± Jace thought about it again and decided in the end, it probably didn¡¯t matter. Had he known he still would have killed him. He might not have hung him up though.

    Verna spoke up, ¡°Why not just level this city? You¡¯re certainly strong enough to do it with the aid of a magic circle¡±

    Jace frowned. ¡°Level a city? This city is almost entirely made up of slaves. And before you suggest it, no I¡¯ll not just level the keep. There is a huge difference between killing people willing to harm you and killing them for convenience.¡±

    ¡°Only if the ones not trying to harm you only are holding back because they can¡¯t harm you.¡±

    ¡°-let me handle it Verna.¡±

    ¡°Nana¡±

    Jace gave the sexy aluring woman a flat look. His mind once again wandered off topic toward that delicious fantasy of her dressed up as a naughty teacher. He couldn''t believe how well she would fit that look.

    Snapping out of the fantasy he shot down her wish. ¡°I¡¯m not calling you Nana.¡±

 Chapter 59 - A new leg in the journey

    Jace was doing up the leather laces of the new black boots Verna brought back from her shopping trip. Yes, boots; he finally caved and made himself a prosthetic lower leg. When planning their assault on the keep, there was one thing they kept coming back to. Jace was deadweight if he couldn''t use his hands. So he began working on a prosthetic almost immediately. It actually took 8 days 23 different experimental leg designs, a night of pain and blood he¡¯d never willingly live through again and a great deal of assistance from Verna to make it work right, but it had a somewhat functional ankle, and a springy tension from the ball of the foot and toes. He still wasn¡¯t sure how effective he had been in making it, currently he couldn¡¯t run effectively on it, and he couldn¡¯t expect to play competitive sports on it, or be a world class swordsman, but who knew what the future might hold.

    Jace actually got the nugget of the idea from something he saw on TV. He wasn¡¯t a huge TV fan, mostly watched sports or the Simpsons when he did. Eventually he was old enough his father didn¡¯t mind him watching late night cable, and stumbled onto a show late one night on cartoon network called Fullmetal Alchemist. In it, a young kid lost an arm and a leg, replaced with metal prosthetics. He never really watched much of the show but he remembered a part about the arm being attached with the ¡°nerves¡± in the body, basically making it a type of bionic arm.

    Jace had a lot of time to himself on the sailing voyage to the mainland, and spent a lot of time thinking about how to replace the missing leg. When he had finally started to accept a prosthetic like a peg leg, he had a spark of inspiration from one of the more painful encounters with a sword during his training. ¡®How did that wizard repair my hand?¡¯ His hand had been smashed. He suspected fingers might have been cut off. So how did the wizard repair it in a wave of a hand yet Verna couldn¡¯t fix his leg which was still attached? The thought stuck with him so he asked Verna during their sessions on magic.

    ¡°Verna, I had a hand smashed almost as badly as when that rock landed on my leg. Yet a wizard was able to repair it. Why were you unable to repair the leg? What are the limits to healing?¡±

    She thought a moment then answered slowly, ¡°I don¡¯t know what condition your hand was in but I suspect all the pieces were recoverable. ¡®Heal¡¯ is limited by the parts still there. It¡¯s closely related to the glyph of ¡®regrowth,¡¯ which we cannot work and the glyph ¡®past.¡¯ It can rearrange shattered parts if the pieces are big enough. Reconnect separated parts if the pieces are big enough, or close enough, but when too much is missing it cannot rebuild what is not there. Too much of the leg was simply gone. The bone basically reduced to powder, the muscle gone, the nerves smashed. There was enough skin to repair that, but not enough of the rest.¡±

    Verna had no way to know she had set Jace down a road of what she would later consider absolute madness with that answer.

    So began his ¡®Leg Reconstruction Project,¡¯ the first step was to secure a good base of operations. So he located, with Verna¡¯s assistance a moderately sized cave on a bluff overlooking the ocean, almost 10 miles outside of the city. It was simply impossible to approach from the cliff, unless you had wings. Jace created a teleportation array between the cave and his room in the inn, and a second matching circle on the hill above the cave.

    He then acquired some live experimental subjects. Jace thought long and hard about this and in the end decided he needed to experiment on what was possible and what wasn¡¯t. He could take Verna¡¯s claims at face value, but he learned quickly she never really researched biological creatures in any way whatsoever. Neither had Jace. In fact, one of the things that scared him the most about the LRP, was he simply didn¡¯t know anything about biology you couldn¡¯t learn in sex-ed or watching Discovery. So he had to do some live experimentation. Humans of course were out of the question, as were other ¡®intelligent¡¯ beings. This was where he ran into the first problem. He learned quickly when questioning Verna, that general scientific classification of species wasn¡¯t done here. She didn¡¯t know any ¡®dumb¡¯ creatures physically similar to humans like there were simians on Earth. That didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t anything like that here, that was more a reflection on the lack of a serious field of biological studies. To the people here anything that swam was a fish. There never was any type of natural studies conducted. So finding a human substitute was impossible on short notice. As a result, he decided to work with size, and chose an animal with a nice and large leg to ease his studies.

    His experimenting with the heal spell began on three live Harkan. He wanted to know if simple amputation and swapping of limbs was possible. He was so engrossed with his questions he didn¡¯t really think about what he was going to do. As a result, after taking the first leg off the first two Harkans, he was greeted with the creatures screams of pain, blood spraying everywhere, and Verna getting enraged. Verna had tried to tell him over and over again his first experiment would not work. She was furious he didn¡¯t listen and did it anyway. Before he could regain control over the bloody chaotic situation Verna left the cave after cursing him out. Apparently she rather liked the scaly bear-lizard monsters, a fact he didn¡¯t appreciate until she left in a rage that frightened him, making him feel even guiltier then he already was for harming the creature in such a callus way, he actually used to be a bit of an animal lover. He probably would never had done such a thing to a horse, or a dog, or those weird furry armadillo looking creatures people seemed to keep as pets here (he had to admit they were sort of cute if weird looking). But the monstrous and frightening looking Harkan were both plentiful, easy to acquire, and docile enough for him to work on them with this grizzly experiment. Now, seeing that monstrous Harkan screeching in pain, he finally woke him up to the cruel nature of the experiments he had planned. He didn¡¯t blame her for refusing to speak to him (or even looking at him) for the rest of that day.

    Due to the guilt he felt toward upsetting Verna, and parts of his conscience that didn¡¯t like the distressed calls from the Harkan, he started trying to reattach the old limbs to the original bodies. This step worked as Verna had told him it would. He was able to reattach their legs without too much issue. Next he put the two poor animals back to sleep, and took off a different leg from each and switched them. This time the reattachment didn¡¯t work, again as Verna told him. However he felt something strange during the attempt. Almost as if it almost melded but couldn¡¯t find a connecting end that was ¡®perfect¡¯ for it. This almost success gave him a hint and he started trying to change the condition of both the stump and mismatched leg. The more he messed up the connecting parts, the more likely the magic almost triggered to reconnect it. However, all that happened is that feeling he was ¡®close¡¯ but not quite there. With nothing else to try he decided to break the dead leg down into its parts. Bone, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and nerves. Then he broke down the materials in the stump, leading all the way up to the body.

    This step was grotesque. He never realized a body had a ¡®smell¡¯ beyond blood when butchered live to this extent. The feel of the warm blood pulsing on his hands as he worked apart bones, tendons, muscles, and nerves from the stump he had just made. Feeling a bit like a monster for this particular experiment, he found himself desperately hoping this would work, so he could justify his actions to himself. To his surprise it worked, to a point. The bone connected to the bone. Then the rest of the parts connected as well, one at a time. Finally, he was able to heal the whole sloppy pile of parts back into a leg.

    Holding his breath, he woke the monster up. He knew immediately it didn¡¯t work. The monster woke up pretty quickly and started screaming. He could see clearly that parts of the leg didn¡¯t really work right. Blood flow was damaged; it simply was impossible to reconstruct the leg properly with this method. He could tell the animal was in extreme pain as well, eventually it cut off his study of the problems with the graft when it ripped its own leg off. Out of mercy and feeling queasy at the grizzly experimentation he was performing, he put the Harkan down.

    Never the less, with that experiment somewhat successful, he continued the bloody experiments on the other two Harkan. However, nothing he did could make the legs work when transplanted onto a different body, the blood flow and nerve damage was far too great. So, he tried replacing parts of the leg with inorganic and organic material. Eventually hitting on a formula, which, while not successful for the last two Harkan (which he put down as well), might be successful for himself.

    They had spent a lot of time practicing it between trial builds of the leg on different organic and inorganic material until he had a model ready for his new prosthetic. The core of the new prosthetic was made out of a type of plant material which actually would craft into replacement bones. Using his strengthening magic and plenty of the Aghod plant membrane, he created a skeletal lower leg. The bones in the shin were pretty close to identical in design to what was in his right leg (reversed of course), the foot was a simpler design. In order to make a good enough model of the leg bones and maybe get Verna to be a little less livid toward him, he had her put him unconscious and open the leg to get a good measurement for the model he would use. That step was painless if gruesome. Ultimately he made two sets of leg bones, as he didn¡¯t want to drag out the attachment process in the event one of his experiments failed.

    Once he had a lower leg stronger then steel, yet made out of this Aghod, he swallowed his moral outrage and went shopping in butcher shops looking for ¡°likely¡± human parts. That he found all the parts he¡¯d need "Fresh" at the very first shop he went into (after flashing a silver Tal), only underlined in his mind Verna¡¯s warning about the meat that humans will eat.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Then came ¡°the¡± night. Jace and Verna laid down every single magic circle Jace would need before starting. He couldn¡¯t buffer the pain much else he¡¯d cloud his own mind. For the same reason alcohol wasn¡¯t an option.

    They started with a tourniquet on his left thigh. Jace was already sweating. The painful ache caused by the tourniquet clasping on his thigh was pretty extensive. Next was the first part he was dreading, Verna cutting the bottom couple of inches off his stump. His ¡®stump¡¯ had consisted of at least 4 inches of leg under the knee. She used her sword, and bisected almost three inches of flesh and bone off the end of what remained of his leg, his leg had been healed improperly for a prosthetic anyway, so Jace reasoned this step was necessary. Because he knew he¡¯d need to do this anyway, he came up with a second and what he believed to be better theory on how to graft the prosthetic on. This first attempt would be with this second and completely untried theory.

    Jace then used a swift blade of air to slice the healed end of the stump on the three-inch piece of meat Verna had chopped off him, exposing the bone and bloody meat. Seizing one of the prosthetic bones, he cut it to match the end of the bone in the ring of meat, then squashing the surreal feeling of grabbing a chunk of his own body, he then activated the first circle. He felt the ring of meat connect to the bone instantly, just as bone and this Aghod merged in his past experiments. He shifted his grip to the bone, touching his still warm flesh and blood was threatening to make him throw up. He set the horrible looking piece of himself into the first circle. He couldn¡¯t blame Verna for the sick look on her face. This was hideous what he was attempting.

    Feeling light headed and wondering just how crazy he must be to do this to himself, he seized the parts he had made from the human meat he had purchased. Tendons, muscles, veins, arteries and ligaments all enchanted into a material no longer human or really all that biological, and an additional part, a spongy plant tissue, one after another being fused to the bone. He connected the material to the ankle, then to the foot (those bones much less complex then in an actual foot). His concentration was wavering by the time he was fusing the leaves of the Chogha plant as a type of skin for the new limb. The Chogha plant was something used for burn patients here, when a healer wasn¡¯t available, he fused it all together formingan enchanted material which was almost leather like, and if he was lucky with some of the enchantments he implanted in it, it would be self healing.

    The penultimate step was connecting the new hybrid lower leg to his body, which was bleeding profusely despite the tourniquet. To his surprise the magic reconnected the leg without objection, not only did it reconnect, the healing circlespread the effect to the fake leg and merged it together with his body as he had hoped it would. This completeness was a sensation he did not feel with the transplant experiments with the Harkan. That his theory was confirmed was the lone bright spot in the series of horrifying steps.

    The final step was performed with thefinal magic circle. This circle was something they had worked on for days. It was more complex than anything he had ever made before. Verna actually came up with the theory based on some of the magic golems the Dragon King had. Igniting this final circle took both Verna AND Jace to pour in every ounce of power they had for almost a full half hour.

    The pain was like nothing Jace had ever expected. It was like every nerve in his body was lit on flame. He almost stopped channeling into the circle just because he almost forgot to do it, the pain was that intense. What he was trying to do was merge a fake nervous system with his real one, and to spread his flame of life into the limb. A step he knew was absolutely necessary or else the biological material would rot. The flame of life was something Verna convinced him existed. It was something he discovered himself during his experiments on the Harkan. One of the reason his experiments failed in transplanting the limbs was because he failed to extend the flame of their life into the limbs.

    His shrieks echoed in the cave, until he screamed himself horse, and they didn¡¯t stop. His left knee exploded in a pain he didn¡¯t think he would ever be able to classify. What was worse was the pain in the hip and knee just grew greater and greater as time ground on. Finally, the pain started to subside, the feeling like his soul was splitting in half stopped, and he actually felt something akin to warmth from the leg.

    Jace had created a fully biological, if not entirely human and not entirely plant lower leg. Ultimately it didn¡¯t look much like a leg, it had the rough shape correct, but the color of the skin was grey, bordering on a grey-purple and its skeletal appearance looked more like something from a zombie flick, but when put under a pant leg and with a high boot providing some support, it looked no different from his other leg and actually worked in a way. He had very little sensation in it. In fact it felt a bit like a seriously asleep limb might feel. It was sort of there, almost dead. He could feel his warm blood in it, but almost nothing from the skin. He had fused a number of circles into the leg in the final step, they did things like clean his blood from infection. His deepest fear something ¡®unnatural¡¯ from the android/plant/zombie leg he just made killing him, so he went overboard with the different spells to prevent that from happening. He suspected if something poisonous bit him on that leg, he would be pretty safe. He probably would be pretty safe from any type of poison in his blood as it would only be a matter of time before it passed through the leg and was neutralized.

    Till this point he had been treating the missing leg like it didn¡¯t matter. But standing on the fake leg, which actually provided something resembling an earth level prosthetic level support (he assumed) or better, he couldn¡¯t help actually shedding a tear of delight. The loss of the leg had terrified him when it happened. But because it was nothing he could fix he just forced himself to ignore it. What he couldn¡¯t ignore was how much harder losing that leg would make getting back to earth. Being unable to walk far, being unable to fight, run, flee, hide. Basically being deadweight and at the mercy of those who were helping him. It was a heavy concern that no longer was weighting on his shoulders.

    He spent half a day recovering from the procedure, Verna left to shop. He spent most of the morning resting, worn out from the horrid night before. He finally stood up on his own, without a cane or crutch, and found he could walk, all be it with a limp. The ankle worked. The toes and arch seemed to work in the foot. His stride was not smooth. The lack of tactile feedback from the leg made it very difficult to walk without looking down. He kept feeling like he was going to collapse, and his knee was a bit unsteady. So he made himself a cane out of the stone in the wall of the cave, dressed himself and teleported back to the room.

    Just in time for Verna to return from shopping. She had a lot of clothing. Remembering all the varied clothing she always had on her he started to wonder where this woman kept all her clothing, as she never seemed to be carrying much in the way of baggage. However, he refrained from asking when she tossed a bundle at him.

    He dropped the cane, and caught it, wobbly standing on two feet. He was just praising himself when Verna tossed another, heavier item, a pair of tall boots. They proved too much and he ended up on his butt on the bed. She simply laughed a mocking laugh, then grinned a wicked grin.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be too satisfied about that monstrosity you made. Until you can stand up steady you went through all of that pain for nothing, as I think someone on a peg leg could have managed to keep standing just now.¡±

    He nodded seriously. ¡°I know. I¡¯ll figure it out. It¡¯s just a matter of trusting it.¡±

    She beamed a big smile at his answer and then nodded. ¡°I knew you were strong. Not many men can hear good advice and take the advice when it is given in a mocking tone. It takes a strong and intelligent person. Now, because you are this person you must let others know it. Those clothing are made for you. I¡¯ve long thought you dress like a vagabond. Just like all the other humans. You are not like them. Do not try to fit in but show it. Besides my master must look better than me. It will be hard because of your plain face. But I think we can do something to make you stand out better than me.¡±

    He actually started laughing, the weight of the missing leg no longer weighting on his shoulders, he found her attitude hilarious. Curious about what she wanted him to wear he unbundled the large buddle of clothing, and stared. While he wasn¡¯t a huge fan of fantasy clothing, he had to admit, Verna had taste.

    He quickly dressed in the clothing. Black dyed with silver needle work tunic, the emblem of a silver dragon in flight on the left chest made him frown. However, the needlework was astonishing, as was the material of the tunic. When held up in the light he realized the black shifted from blacks to dark greys, this material felt almost like that material Verna¡¯s seductive underthings are made of, making him suspect the material being from the same source, only different treated. He knew if this ever made it to Earth the cotton industry would be out of business.

    He tossed the tunic on, it was clearly tailored for him, fitting like a glove. His arms were bare. She had prepared silver arm bands to be fastened above his biceps. It was a strange silver like material, but what surprised him were the magic circles on them. He looked at her curiously and she smiled then said.

    ¡°Those were my betrothal gift to my Husband for agreeing to marry me. They¡¯re an enchanted item which provides some fairly formidable protection against physical attacks. No human hand could harm you with a steel blade. Nor could a crossbow. Now, don¡¯t get too confident. A spelled crossbow bolt or enchanted sword will cut through that protection like a knife through parchment.¡±

    A black pair of pants made of the same material waited for him as well, as well as a black leather and silver belt. The black and silver leather boots matched the almost liquid silver and black lined hooded cloak, which was was something from a CGI filed fantasy movie. It appeared to be liquid metal, like mercury, formed into a cloak. The Flying dragon emblem in black on the cloak was flashy, he realized when he spun it around it was a REVERSABLE cloak, now black with silver lining, and a silver dragon. Ultimately he felt the silver dragon was far less showy then a shiny silver cloak and wore it reversed.

    Last of all was a sword identical in size to the one he lost on the island. It was silver and black not red and white. It was also a bit lighter than the old one had been. One glance at the blade showed it to be enchanted like the last one. Jace actually felt the weight seemed almost perfect for him so he hung it from his belt.

    He looked at Verna and asked the question. ¡°Well?¡±

    She frowned then suddenly smiled. ¡°Good but not quite right. Sit down. I need to trim your hair.¡±

    ¡°Wait, why?¡±

    ¡°Have you seen it recently? Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t shorten it too much, I do like to run my fingers through it you know.¡±

    He looked at her suspiciously, but decided to let her do as she will. They were going to knock on the door to the keep tomorrow, he supposed he needed to look his best.

 Chapter 60 - Good Neighbors

    Easol was staring at the tall ugly black walls of the human shithole called Lotsorn. The trip had been longer then she wanted to think about. She rued the fact that though she loved to travel, she was just as bound by the homeward longing as the rest of her people. The more days slept away from home, the further from home one got, the more irritated she became; the longing robbing from her even the joy of travel. Many People of the World dreamed of long journeys and faraway places, only to find the same heart wrenching pain she was feeling just a fortnight away from their birthplace. The truth of the matter was, People of the World are tied to the land they¡¯re born on, one with the land, as the land was one with them.

    She was riding a Flur¡¯a¡¯gah. A creature, which to someone from Earth would look much like an Owl, if an Owl came in a lime green color, was 6¡¯ tall, furred not feathered, and had a noticeably elongated neck, and claws which appeared to be dripping poison, on feet that looked suspiciously reptilian. There was no beak on the face, and a sharp toothed almost dragon style mouth. The reason it looked owl like and not dragon like was because of the lack of a tail, all that fur, and the eyes which instead of being on the front of the head were on the top of the head. As a result of the eye placement, for people who had not seen this creature feed, it would appear as if it was an owl without a beak, and no mouth. However, when it was time to feed its head would tilt back, and the shape of its face would change to be quite horrifying. The Flur¡¯a¡¯gah were preferred mounts for the People of the World from the northern free city of Ghanarai. Being an insular nocturnal people, a very territorial people, most cities sported different modes of transport.

    Easol herself was dressed like a shadow on the back of her Flur¡¯a¡¯gah. Black on black, a hood covering her teal hair. All the People of the World in Ghanarai had teal hair, and eyes ranging from black to grey to blue to green. Her own eyes were a deep, dark blue, which many found rather attractive, much to her irritation. She was wearing ¡®mourning¡¯ clothing, as she had every day since her baptism. She knew the cloths alone angered her parents more then was reasonable. Her people were known for wearing bright natural colors, many refused to wear mourning clothing even when a parent had died. It was off-putting, and she found since she started wearing them, people would avoid talking to her. Which was exactly what she was aiming for. Her mouth twisted in irritation at fate for pushing this lifestyle on to her against her will. It was all because of that baptism.

    When the People of the World are born they¡¯re born without a gender or even external sexual organs. Growing up, children are free to pursuit anything that interests them naturally. For Easol, it was the Sword. She was easily the most athletic, active and adventurous of the children her age. She was a tremendous swordsman, and her parents doted on her as a potential future blade master. She had a number of memorable mock battles again Kalog, another child her same age, who was nowhere near as talented as she was, but infinitely more arrogant. They quarreled over everything. From who ran faster to who could climb a tree higher, to who could tame a Flur¡¯a¡¯gah better. She beat him in everything except for arrogance. She was a natural with a blade, good with tactics, a quick read, and even showed some promise in magic theory, with a great deal of potential to be a seerlike her mother. However, she had no interest in that lifestyle. For Easol it was adventure and war she craved.

    The baptism is a ritual all People of the World go through when they turn 14. At that age, the children generally had started to show inclinations toward one sex or another. The baptism was a weeklong event in which the children would metamorphosize into a sex, chosen by fate. Fate always loved the People of the World. And as a result Fate never seemed to choose a sex which would make the child upset or disappointed. Their sex would be determined largely by the children¡¯s own heart. Occasionally, depending on the needs of their people, fate would intervene and chose a sex against the wishes of the children. In times of war men were often more likely to emerge then women. In times of peace, from time to time, fate would tweak the balance of men and women to keep populations reasonable and sustainable.

    When it was Easol¡¯s turn for baptism, she was certain to be a male. A new blademaster, who¡¯s name would become renown among her people, perhaps among those of the world. She even found women attractive and deep in her heart wanted a wife or three. Kelog had went through his baptism months prior, and to no one¡¯s surprise had emerged a male. No one in the community believed she would emerge as anything but male. So when she woke from her baptism she wasn¡¯t greeted by happy faces but faces of confusion, which then transformed into forced or shocked smiles. It took Easol a few moments to understand those confused then forced smiles. She had not become a male.

    No one understood the purpose for this choice of fate. Easol was a prodigy with the sword. Furthermore, had a great desire to be a male. It was rare for fate to stomp on the desires of the people like this. There were no wars for fate to disprove of, nor need for more children, and though Easol had some skill as a seer, there was no lack of good seersor replacements in the wing. Easol had gone from a person with a future, to one who saw her future burst into flames.

    Her parents adapted faster than anyone. Likely a sign of their love for her. However, they focused too much on their own guilt at their disappointment, so went overboard with their forced ¡®joy¡¯ at her tragedy. Easol might have been young but one thing she did not want was pity, and the happier her parents became the more upset Easol became. The final blow however was when her parents agreed to engage her to her rival growing up, Kalog. Kalog was more a foe then a friend. Worse she still could kick his ass, and he would get to become a soldier, while that path was forever banned from her.

    So she put on black mourning clothing. She had tried to wear men¡¯s clothing and sneak away with a mercenary company. Her father had tracked her down and beat her half to death. Her mother didn¡¯t stop her father. And when she had recovered her mother started punishing her as well. All her boyish clothing and items were destroyed, her weapons taken, she was forced into dresses, and forced to choose a future for herself, that was not a swordsman. She had seerchosen for her by her mother.

    The people of the world were favored by fate and chained to tradition. As a result, while her people had no real issues with people loving others of the same sex, or identifying with the opposite sex, they still played the roles of their life faithfully lest they lose that favor from fate. Once Humanity was favored by fate and the gods, the elders would drone on about. Their current state was the result of scorning the will of both. So she put on black. Everything was black. It was female clothing. She studied her new path as a seer, and diligently applied herself as one. She no longer climbed trees, snuck out, got in foot races or carried a sword. She soon established herself as a minor prodigy as a seer, which of course only confirmed in the hearts of all those who knew her, that fate had in fact chosen her sex correctly.

    Easol, however, never could accept it. So she grieved in her heart. And sneered at the world. She put on black and almost gelded her would be husband when the marriage was pushed, ending the marriage talk, but earning her parent¡¯s enmity. Her mother sent her to this backwater human slum as a type of punishment. The self-styled King Herath d¡¯Khan offered a huge bounty of fish, leather products and other crafts goods in exchange for a seer''sservices once a year. Easol had been here several times in the past 3 years. Lotsorn was one of the closest city states to Ghanarai, and the d¡¯Khan family had been employing the skills of seersfrom Ghanarai for over a thousand years.

    Finally, with the journey nearly at an end, and the irritation of the homeward longing deeply set in, she was if not quiet eager, certainly in a hurry to grant the pig his readings, and head home.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    King Herath paced back and forth in his throne room. The throne room was a left over from the old grey king. It was huge, likely large enough to allow a full grown dragon to rest in. The throne was garish, and much more new then the rest of the room. He was nervous. No one was present with him except the guards posted at different entrances. He didn¡¯t want to the heads of the families or their various sycophants see his nervous fretting. His wife¡¯s sister¡¯s son had turned up dead less than a week ago. Skinned, and hung from the wall of a building in the foreigner quarter by the Red Tiller.

    He had no real interest in the fate of the worthless boy. He was just like half the young princelings in this city, worthless. This one however was especially worthless. Just a few weeks ago he had suddenly declared he was taking his guard and leaving the family, in the name of Elis the Sun God. Of course he had laughed just like everyone else. The boy stuck his dick in everything. It was all they could do to keep him from fucking the male slaves in public, they could do nothing with him. He was driven by his dick, like a lot of the free men were. Like he was at times. Still, the idea the little nephew who at age 8 was caught fucking a young Harkan was a ¡°chosen¡± of Elis, a god which never once said a single word to humanity since the death of the Grey King was absurd. Even the pervert¡¯s dotting mother laughed.

    When he turned up dead next to a brothel the King had naturally dismissed it as a tragic end for a worthless prince, a predicable end though. He even darkly wondered if he could get away with awarding the man who killed the worthless sack of flesh just for ridding his family of another useless mouth.

    What changed his mind on this topic was the state of the body and the bloody sign none of the channelers in his family''s employ could figure out how to take down. When he had heard the killer left a message he grew concerned the killer was targeting his throne. But when the message was read to him he couldn¡¯t help but wonder at exactly what happened. The message was pure provocation toward Elis. Furthermore, the killer named himself. The witnesses all agreed on how the man looked. He even stayed in the Red Tiller the prior evening so they had confirmation on the name. The fact they found enough blood on the street to dye the harbor red and enough equipment to indicate that blood once belonged to the 70 or so guardsmen hisidiot nephew had in his guard, only underlined the seriousness of the situation.

    The reports of the murderer Jace terrified him. He sounded like a Godout of the stories. Apparently he was a human male taller than a Fairy lord, weighting perhaps 3 sacks. He had a missing leg, and some grey devices he used to get around with. He had enslaved a Kindred woman. One from a fire dragon tribe. That bit of information everyone agreed with as impossible as it was to believe. And he was, impossible as it was to believe, a Grand Wizard.

    A man with no grey in his hair had reached the level of grand wizard.

    An angry grand wizard was in his city.

    He was so scared he didn¡¯t know if he should even look for him. He was worried looking for him would be seen as a provocation. Humanity only had one Grand Wizard in his lifetime. That was Eldridge. Eldridge was a monster you couldn¡¯t reason with. He had nearly bankrupted the d¡¯Khan family over the years demanding tribute for some magic project to cure the curse. He didn¡¯t even want to cure the curse. Why should he? Currently his power was mostly based on the existence of the curse. If the curse ended his family would be ruined. Still, despite his reluctance, Eldridge gave him no choice in the matter. So he sent nearly every last Tal his family had to fund that project.

    Thinking of that hardship he couldn¡¯t help but shudder. Now the world had another Grand Wizard.

    He couldn¡¯t help but wish the Fairy seerwhich should be arriving soon due to the annual agreement with Ghanarai would hurry to get here. He didn¡¯t want to be blind for much longer.

    ¡°King Herath.¡± Easol stood before the monstrous throne. Every fiber of her being wishing to be away as quickly as possible.

    ¡°Seer¡­? Oh right, you¡¯re the daughter Easol. I saw you the last couple of years with your mother. Are you now a full seer?¡± The king irritated Easol by trying to make small talk as if buying time. Which was strange as according to her mother, he typically would ask the same questions every year ¡°Will I hold on to the throne this year? Who in my family will die this year? What is the best way to become richer this year?¡± He usually would reserve the next question for ¡°Will someone try to kill me this year?¡± and the last for the follow-up to any answer he thought created more questions. This year he apparently had a few more important questions on his mind.

    ¡°Yes, I am doing this job full time now, No longer in training. Now what are your questions?¡±

    ¡°Will someone try to kill me this year?¡± He quickly spat out the first question on his mind.

    With something to work with she closed her eyes and worked a melded magic unique to a fairy seer. She could feel the lines of fate tangled around the old bastard, and quickly worked through them looking for any impending danger. She paused as the answer surprised her. She studied the lines of fate again and felt the will of fate. She was perplexed. Clearly the path of this old bastard¡¯s life was supposed to take was dying in bed at the age of 60, in another 10 years. However, she could clearly see a death to the old man, very soon. Fate had no plans for this. But it seemed it might happen shortly. More shocking then that she saw herself in the same image. Both images implied they both were to die tonight. Both images implied one more thing too.

    ¡°Yes, I can see your death. It will be here in this room. In the next few hours. Perhaps? I see my own image in your vision. Dead next to you.¡± The old king started to try to say something ¡°However. This is not fate¡¯s desire. Something is breaking fate to make this occur. So my vision of this event is clouded. However, I don¡¯t think our deaths are guaranteed. Something may change that fate yet.¡±

    The old king was looking at her dumbstruck, then he rapidly spoke. ¡°Who is the killer?¡±

    She thought this the natural follow-up question so she intentionally left that answer out of her first answer. ¡°A human and a kindred. A man and a woman. The human male is known as Jace, the Kindred Female known as Nana.¡± She paused frowning. ¡°I think the human male might be a swordsman, and of course the kindred is a kindred.¡±

    The king jumped at that. ¡°Swordsman? Impossible! This Jace is one legged. Have you ever heard of a one-legged swordsman?¡±

    She prevented herself from smiling. Though the image said she would die, she already knew the path to safety, there were several, so she was no longer concerned about the vision. What she was concerned about was fleecing the old king. Her mother told her to make him ask one pointless question, and he just did it by himself.

    ¡°I have never heard of a one-legged swordsman your majesty. But swordsman he is. Fore he chops your head off right there.¡± The pointed to a spot on the floor not far from where the king was standing.

    ¡°Impossible. Simply impossible. Even I could kill a one-legged swordsman. Tell me, does this Jace have one leg or two?¡±

    She almost laughed and then said lightly. ¡°Old King, he has two in the vision not one.¡±

    ¡°Then he is not the arch wizard Jace who killed my nephew? There are two Jace¡¯s?¡±

    She grinned bigger knowing he had just asked his last question, having just wasted 3 questions on nonsense. ¡°He is the same Jace that killed your nephew, he is a wizard or arch wizard, I cannot say for the branches of fate are twisting around him.¡±

    The king pondered a long moment. ¡°Then how do I live through this night?¡±

    ¡°I am sorry your grace, but you have already asked 5 questions.¡± Her answer was flat and calm.

    ¡°Wait¡­ no I just asked 3.¡±

    ¡°Will someone try to kill me this year? Who is the killer? Have you ever heard of a one-legged swordsman? does this Jace have one leg or two? And Then he is not the arch wizard Jace who killed my nephew? There are two Jace¡¯s? I have answered all 5 questions.¡± Her tone never wavered.

    ¡°Double.¡±

    ¡°Double what?¡± She pretended she didn¡¯t know what he was talking about. She was enjoying stringing this corrupt bastard along.

    ¡°Double the tribute. We¡¯ll pay double the tribute to Ghanarai this year, just answer 5 more questions.¡±

    ¡°One question¡±

    ¡°Three¡±

    ¡°Two¡±

    ¡°Alright, fine! two questions.¡±The old bastard was sweating, then asked the most important question.¡°How do I avoid this fate?¡±

    ¡°Welcome him into your home and give him everything he asks for.¡±

    ¡°Even the crown?¡±

    ¡°Especially the crown.¡±

    ¡°Will I lose my crown this year?¡±

    ¡°You already asked 7 questions.¡±

    The king looked like he was about to explode.

    ¡°Triple!¡±

 Chapter 61 - On the precipice

    Jace disentangled himself from Verna, her chest was shining with perspiration and her eyes gazing at him with a hungry glean. Had they limited the past half-day session to just the wooden bed he wasn¡¯t sure it would have survived. They had already broken a chair and the nightstand was broken as well. He had to admit, he could grow quite addicted to the kindred woman¡¯s body. Before meeting this woman, he didn¡¯t realize there was a difference between good and bad sex. Now he realized that was only because he never had good sex before.

    The need in her eyes, which seemed to be saying ¡°more¡± was addictive. If they hadn¡¯t already delayed their visit to the keep half a day in this activity, he would have given in to that look. He leaned down toward the alluring woman and pressed his lips to hers. Engaging in a passionate kiss that threatened to end up in a continuation of their session. He broke away from the kiss, her cheeks were flushed and the hungry look on her face only grew more alluring.

    ¡°Verna¡±

    ¡°Nana¡± she corrected without hesitation

    ¡°Verna,¡± he started again, she pouted as she usually did when he refused to acknowledge that terrible nickname, ¡°get cleaned up and dressed, we¡¯ve already wasted most of today.¡±

    Still pouting she stood up gracefully, then strode over to her scattered clothing; she really knew how to get a rise out of a man. Every movement was sensual, and he couldn''t help but stare. There was something delicate and indisputably feminine about how she moved about collecting her things. Suddenly she cast a spell which terminated the direct scrying of the room. With the room no longer monitored she spoke.

    ¡°They¡¯re still there watching the inn. Don¡¯t you want to give them a better show? It would be best if they came to us.¡± Her voice was reasonable

    They had chosen to start their love making session precisely because of the people who started watching them half a day ago. Of course, they were being watched via scrying. Several of those scrys were created in a way to actually remotely watch a location. Verna had gotten rather enthusiastic once they had gathered a ¡°watching¡± audience.

    He never knew she was an exhibitionist, though in retrospect it made some sense. Seeing how she was displaying her nude body to him within hours of meeting him. He gathered his things as well.

    They discussed their plans one more time. Jace was sure their preparations took into account an even larger opposition force then the one tracking them right now. Verna however seemed to think otherwise. And cautioned him to resume their love making and wait for those people to come to them.

    It was an attractive suggestion, one which Jace seriously considered for almost a minute, his clothing forgotten in his hand.

    An average, slightly fat middle aged human woman was leisurely laying on a giant, ornate bed, resting on an elbow with a purple augode pillow under her arm, as she watched two young male slaves, toys really, fuck each other in the corner of the room. The room was lavishly decorated with gold and ivory, in a wing of the palace inside the keep courtyard. She loved watching the toys look appalled when she made this demand. It was the look of pure loathing as they hesitantly played with each other that entertained her more than any other. She lived for the moment a toy would deny or refuse her demands. The bloody games that followed would usually motivate all the other toys to do as she demanded.

    The slapping sounds caused by one man pumping into another filled the room, their low grunting usually was enough to turn her on. However, she was only paying them half a mind. One of the toys, the one on top looked a bit too enthusiastic which was ruining her mood. Nothing bored her more than when a toy started to enjoy this hobby of hers. Slaves were sent away to a butcher shop if they ever lost their loathing of this entertainment. She figured this young man had reached the end of his usefulness.

    Of course, the other Toys quickly realized that the ones who got into this hobby of hers were sent away, not knowing the destination, so there always was a group of slaves trying to be enthusiastic about their duties, and even trying to convince the other men to be enthusiastic as well. Obviously trying to escape her clutches. It was enough to make her laugh from time to time as she watched their games. Unfortunately for those Toys, they were all poor actors, faked enthusiasm was just as fun to her as loathing. She enjoyed watching marginally attractive young men between 12 and 18 debased against their will. The men of this age all probably enjoyed watching the slave girls or unmarried women in the same situation; the king, her brother had a harem filled with sisters and mothers, he enjoyed bringing a whole family of girls into his bed, it really was a paradise of vice for people like them who probably would have had to hide their perversions in another age all together.

    Occasionally she would discover one of her toys would have a slave girl lover, she enjoyed nothing more than making those girls serve her while their man was forced to be fucked by another man, and act like he enjoyed it. Sometimes if she was feeling particularly happy with the looks of despair on the girls face she¡¯d have one of the other men fuck the slave girl, so they both could act like they enjoyed it in front of each other. Of course, if they put up too much resistance then she got to get one lover to torture the other lover until their lover was a pile of bleeding meat; the despair and betrayal on her Toy¡¯s faces when the situation got to that was always the best. She had even built peep holes and listening spots into the walls of her room, and enjoyed leaving the room while they were still at it, sex or torture, to watch in on their activities undetected.

    Would they stop fucking? Would they keep fucking? Would they stop acting? What about the lovers, would they talk to each other? How about the torture, the begging screams to stop the torment and the indecision on the face of the other as to whether to stop or not? It was the best drama in the world.

    In addition to the one man¡¯s enthusiasm, Kindra¡¯s mood was still recovering from her son¡¯s death. Her son¡¯s body had been so badly mutilated they wouldn¡¯t even let her see him. But she had heard enough. He had been skinned by some shitty mage her brother was too afraid to go hunting for. Knowing his character, she had employed some of the guardsmen as spies to secretly look for this magician ¡°Jace¡±, and had hired a Fairy mercenary company at a staggering sum to hunt him down and kill him.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    The company was known as the ¡°Black Eyes¡±. They specialized in hunting down mages. They had told her just hours ago they had located the inn this mage Jace lived at and were planning to capture him this evening. Considering she hired them just two days ago, she was reasonably happy with their speed and efficiency, even if she was appalled at how much it cost to hire them.

    Just as she was about to tell the men to finish up, she really wasn¡¯t in the mood to indulge tonight, one of the guardsmen she had paid to watch out for this Jace came running into her room. He didn¡¯t even look at the two boys in the corner, her perversions were rather tame in comparison to some of the royal family, and quickly dropped to his knees and bowed down like he was being viewed by the king himself.

    She looked at the slave-soldier and spoke. ¡°What is it?¡±

    The slave quickly responded ¡°He¡¯s here, this Jace just showed up at the gates of the keep.¡±

    She felt her pulse quicken. ¡°Quickly let the black eyes¡¯ know if they don¡¯t already. They¡¯re to capture him and that kindred woman as soon as they can.¡±

    The slave-soldier stood and saluted then ran out the door.

    She felt her heart raced, she seized the cat of nine tails by the bed and told the men to stand, facing the wall. She needed to vent her bloodlust while she waited for the good news.

    Verna and Jace left the inn they were staying at; they took what they thought they¡¯d need with them. Jace tried not to get too close to the people on the streets. There was an epidemic of some strange virus running through the city, that caused people to grow some pretty horrendous puss filled sores. Some of those sores being larger then eggs. He had no idea what it was, but from the word he heard from the staff apparently, it could be lethal. He didn¡¯t know if it was healable or not. He didn¡¯t want to catch it to try it out.

    What bothered him was how these people didn¡¯t seem to do the basic stuff required to keep you healthy. No one bathed, no one covered their mouth when they coughed or sneezed, the strange animals they kept didn¡¯t seem to eat pests, and the pest¡­ well the pests were the stuff of nightmares. Strange lizard like rat things, called Vullas, that had no fear of humans. Those little creatures would and did eat human babies or elderly. Those black and red shelled beetles/cockroach things, flee like parasites. There was even a type of larva that looked like a white worm called a Reghaldi. By itself it wasn¡¯t dangerous. It moved slow, didn¡¯t have eyes, but if you were unfortunate enough to let one burrow into your skin¡­ You could see an old person from time to time with them infesting them. It was like snakes crawling under their skin. Apparently if left alone long enough those worms would basically devour you alive. The larva apparently hatched into a type of bug which ate dead flesh.

    They were working their way along a wide boulevard toward the gates of the keep. The road typically would be busy at this time of the day, however, with the plague most people were avoiding large crowded areas. He wasn¡¯t thinking about the lack of crowds though; he was wondering who the 100 or so Fairies were who had been tailing them from the inn. Obviously, they weren¡¯t here to be nice but thus far they had made no real attempts to attack either. They were the people Verna and him had detected earlier in the day, when they started to watch the inn. It seemed logical they were sent by the King, even if they weren¡¯t doing anything there was enough of them they could be dangerous if they attacked without him noticing their presence first.

    Jace and Verna approached the keep. They had prepared for this evening for a few days since he got back on his feet. The plan was set it was just a matter of executing it. Jace just was hoping Verna would stick to the plan. He had to exert an awful lot of effort convincing her it was best if they not just kill everyone by destroying the keep and studying the object. He understood where she was coming from. She just didn¡¯t want a knife in the back. There was no opposition the closer they came to the keep. Their plan expected them to be seen on the approach, yet none of the guards seemed to pay them any mind at all. He had wondered at the lack of search for Verna and himself after killing that priest. Though there were no obvious attempts to locate them, he just couldn¡¯t bring himself to believe the king didn¡¯t know who had killed one of the princes of this city.

    The palace/keep was enormous and probably ate up almost 1/10 of the already humungous city. It was made out of the same black stone as the rest of the city, and guardsmen were everywhere. Jace had learned that most guardsmen were slaves and all male, one of the few situations where a slave could wear clothing apparently. The downside for the slave of course was he had to be gelded. He couldn¡¯t even begin to explain this tradition. Even Verna had no explanation for it. They looked just as sickly as everyone else though, one of the guardsmen they passed had a massive puss filled boil sticking out of his cheek. He looked feverish.

    The guards finally paid close attention to the pair as they approached the main gate. It was massive, perhaps a hundred feet high, the wall to the keep was very thick, it made an impressive vista, with the black stone houses lining the streets leading up to the large open square before the keep gates, with inns and other large shops ringing the square. Jace and Verna cut no less an impressive look then the gate. Jace in black and silver, Verna dressed like a guard in silver and black. Back in the Inn before they left Jace had asked her why she wasn¡¯t wearing her red armor her reply was.

    ¡°I am your slave. Of course, I have to match my master.¡± She had shaken her cute butt at him as she said it, even covered in scaled armor he found the motion seductive.

    Of course, the pair had drawn attention before that, they looked too spectacular for them not to. Most people on the streets shied back from them assuming them to both be kindred, though Jace did not have those yellow vertical slit eyes. He didn¡¯t blame them for the assumption, just looking at the pair it looked like a visiting dignitary and his guard. Life was hard enough, these people didn¡¯t want the trouble someone with his perceived status would bring, so of course they caught almost all the eyes of the people on the street. No, these gate guardsmen weren¡¯t looking at them in fear or even curiosity, they had the look on their face as if they expected trouble. He could see one guardsmen running to bring someone else. An officer perhaps.

    Stopping before the gate he let Verna speak. This part had been pretty much scripted out. She was supposed to let them know Jace had arrived and was seeking an audience with the king.

    ¡°FOOLS! HOW DARE YOU WORMS STAND AND NOT BOW BEFORE MY LORD AND MASTER, THE GRAND WIZARD JACE!¡±

    Even Jace gaped at her briefly. This domineering tone. She was using a spell to make it echo loud enough he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if some of the men in front of them had ruptured eardrums.

    ¡®Fucking kindred¡¯, Jace growled to himself. He sort of knew how she was going to talk to them, so he really had no one else to blame but himself. But he always thought getting to the gates without a blade drawn was one of the least likely situations. As a result he put little thought into how she should address these people, in retrospect he really should have told her to moderate her tone.

    The ringing in Jace¡¯s ears was still dying down and most of the street was kneeling when those following Fairies suddenly made their move.

 Chapter 62 - The Power of a Grand Wizard

    Verna, glanced at Jace, he nodded to her and she flickered away from his side, in a swirl of black smoke, appearing in the alley behind one of the nearby shops. She ducked down and braced herself. That stupid man was far more heroic then he had any right to be. This was subplan 4, it was the right plan for the situation but it was also the plan she hated the most. He had insisted they try this before resorting to plan 2, so she would let him try it.

    She covered her ears and cast a shield. She had been unable to create the shield Jace had invented. Even with his explanation of what glyphs were melded and how they worked together she simply couldn¡¯t understand the principle. Her shield should be enough. She just hoped this building would still be standing. It should be, the blast wouldn¡¯t be directed in this direction.

    A tremendous bang/rumble rang out; the rumbling noise that followed the much louder explosive bang seemed to shake the ground. She peaked around the corner of the building and saw people fleeing the streets and nearby homes and a gaping hole in the wall where those enormous gates once were. Huge multi ton stones were raining from the gaping hole as part of the wall started to collapse. Jace was standing in the middle of the street, that strange shield formed around him. That shield was stout enough she knew he should be relatively safe. Ignoring Jace¡¯s impending battle, she cast out a scry, and instantly located a close target.

    She vanished in a swirl of smoke, the sensation was much like floating in water; the world seemed to stretch to the spot she was looking at, and everything snapped into place. Glancing around the corner she saw a pair of Fairies creating a circle, likely a node for a larger circle meant to capture Jace. Flickering forward in a swirl of dark smoke, the world lurched again and she was standing directly behind the two fairies, her blade already moving, taking both of their heads. She then advanced to the next target.

    Jace stood calmly and tall in the middle of the square, he watched the regular humans fleeing as he channeled into a massive, three layered circle the pair had created around the outside of the keep. A huge translucent dome appeared in the sky, sealing the whole keep inside. This dome took little of his strength to maintain as long as it wasn¡¯t being damaged. His main concern was the army descending upon the keep, he wanted to keep the body count as low as possible, so locking the keep off from support was essential.

    The Fairies were all within the dome as it was constructed. Verna¡¯s concern about them had raised warning flags in his heart. He suspected they were not a simple foe, though he had never combated a fairy before, since the fairies took it upon themselves to eliminate human mages when found he suspected they had ways to combat him he wouldn¡¯t expect.

    From what his scrying was telling him, they were sticking mostly to the alleyways surrounding his position. Strangely he couldn¡¯t see them even though his scrying told him several should be visible. They obviously were using some sort of cloaking magic, well he knew some of that as well, with a thought he vanished as well, and started to move in the direction of the nearest fairy; dropping the shield he had raised to protect himself from the earlier blast.

    He had crossedpart of the square when suddenly he stopped. ¡°Eh?¡± Jace¡¯s face twisted in confusion and at the last moment he reacted twisting on instinct, and drawing the huge blade, swinging it in an arc, He used the glyphs ¡°strength, speed, and might¡± in combination, causing the blade to whip around in a one-handed grip. He felt the shock of the blade crashing into the body of someone and saw a spray of pink blood, almost a pastel pink in color spray out and the body on a Fairy, bisected in half at about the chest crash into the ground a look of surprise on his face.

    He hadn¡¯t detected this assassin via scrying but rather by instinct, he had heard or felt something behind him and panicked. He changed his scrying method to a sonic one, and instantly noticed that half the fairies he was picking up with his first method were fake. He was rapidly being surrounded by a large group of men he could not see. Cursing again, under his breath he quickly merged ¡°ice¡± with ¡°burst¡± and released the unorthodox attack.

    An explosion of icicles like lances launched from his position radiating out in a circle, he could hear the crystals shatter as they came in contact with a number of the closest fairies. It was the exploding field of ice he was aiming for; of course, the ice probably wouldn¡¯t even injure armored opponents, but he needed to be able to judge range for his next attack.

    ¡°explode/body/boil/blood¡± It was a combination of glyphs he had come across back on that island. He used it with the aid of magic circles to ruin that troop of soldiers earlier in their stay in this city. The trick was the area it could affect was a bit limited without a circle. However, with the sound scrying showing him where the nearest Fairies were, he could get ¡®close enough¡¯.

    A series of explosions rocked the street as pastel pink blood sprayed everywhere, nothing resembling a corpse left behind not even a death scream. The pink blood of course painted the other invisible fairies he had yet to detect, allowing him to continue the series of explosive assaults. After less then a dozen breaths, dead silence was all that could be heard. The street in a circle around him was painted pink, with entrails and other chunks of flesh. Pieces of armor and weapons were all that was left from the assault.

    Jace scanned the street carefully, wondering if that would be the end. Just as he was thinking the fairies were going to retreat he could hear the footsteps of hundreds soldiers; shortly after those footsteps turned into human soldiers holding blades who flooded the street, spilling out of the hole in the keep wall. Sighing to himself, he turned to face them. He knew that this was going to become a huge mess.

    Verna flickered through the enemy like a ghostly apparition. She made no attempt to dual any of the fairy blademasters scattered about. As far as she could see they had no means to really threaten Jace. What that man was currently doing was boarderline awe inspiring. She had known grand wizards before. There always was a very definite point where their power stopped growing. She had seen no evidence his had stopped growing. He was clearly not a sorcerer, he wasn¡¯t giving off the sorcerer feeling, but his power was immense, and as the battle progressed he was progressively channeling more and more power, maintaining more and more complex spell formations at the same time, while precisely assaulting his enemies.

    The power he was handling could have leveled this city with ease, yet he was holding himself back and carefully slaughtering only those who were opposing him. It was a terrifying display of overwhelming might. She just wished he would be more viscous in his use of power. His soft heart would only hurt him in the end. This world was not kind to those who showed mercy to their enemies.

    Flickering between two fairy blademasters, she drove her blade directly into the chest of one of the handful of powerful mages left; without bothering to draw the blade out of his chest she flickered over toward an officer who caught her eye. She had been on the lookout for officers, both human and Fairy since the battle began, this officer was a Fairy and likely was the legendary commander ¡®Galin¡¯ of this mercenary company, which she assumed was the ¡°Black Eyes¡±. Not that the ''Black Eyes'' really existed anymore. Between her work and Jace¡¯s there was little left of them.

    Flashing forward, her eyes narrowing she drove her sword forward, only for it to rip through an illusion of the man, her breath caught, and she spun to the side, just in time to see a circle ignight under her feet. Cursing inwardly, she knew she had made a critical error, and only hoped she could escape the circle before it triggered.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Easol was watching the fat king pace, sweating profusely while reports filtered in, they no longer were in the throne room but outside on an observation deck, observing the situation as it spiraled out of control. It had all gone sideways just ten minutes ago. She checked her own fate again and felt like joining him in the pacing. The future had changed again, and her paths out of this alive had been greatly reduced. What was worse is those paths were changing constantly now. She no longer had an idea of how to get out of this one alive, the poor fat bastard was in even more dire straits from what she saw of the future.

    She was toying with trying to make it back to her Harkan, but she knew that was panic speaking. No, there was no escaping the keep right now. She thought back at when it all went wrong; just after having finished the reading for the king they had received word that Jace was at the gates. The king planned to welcome him like a hero, it was a smart play. Easol had to admit this plan probably would preserve the kings throne. Even the futures she saw seemed to solidify toward a good end for the king when he started making the orders. Then the whole palace was rocked with a terrifying explosion.

    The reasons for the blast were uncertain until word came in that the famous mercenary company the ¡°Black Eyes¡± had suddenly attacked the gates of the keep. Jace and the kindred woman were contending with the large company in a battle that was ruining the streets and even the walls of the keep. Unable to believe it, and against the advice of his guards the king, with Easol in tow had rushed to an observation deck to see the chaos outside.

    It was a spectacular battle. At some point the guardsmen had joined the Black Eyes, in trying to put down this Jace and the Kindred women. Those two were easy to see. It made Easol¡¯s eyes open like saucers. Standing some distance away from them used to be the gates to the keep. Now they were looking at a gaping hole in the wall. The street and the houses on the street were no better off. Surrounding two people, back to back, were perhaps a thousand soldiers and mercenaries. There was a huge translucent dome cutting the keep off from the rest of the city. She had no idea who cast such a thing, but she suspected it was the male, Jace. That was something only a Grand Wizard could do without a circle. And she knew without a shadow of a doubt the Black Eyes did not have a grand wizard.

    The kindred woman was flickering back and forth in and out of the soldiers precisely killing one legendary Fairy mage hunter after another. The black eyes were famous, as a child she had memorized their faces and names, and dreamed of joining them. The kindred woman was terrifying. Of course, all kindred were terrifying. But she believed the Black Eyes probably had plans to deal with her. The problem as she saw it was the mage Jace. He was singlehandedly taking on the combined might of a thousand soldiers. What she saw stunned her, he was standing still in the middle of the opening, a circular translucent globe like shield absorbing attacks, while everywhere he cast out his hands a group of soldiers would explode as if detonated from the inside. He was killing dozens with every glance, and didn¡¯t seem to even view the storm of attacks coming his way as trouble at all.

    The king was moaning by her side about the idiots involved and started screaming orders for the soldiers to stand down, or even to kill the Black Eyes. Just as it looked like the battle was going to end as a one-sided slaughter, she saw the Kindred woman get captured, snared in a spell. When Jace saw that, the look on the man¡¯s face chilled her blood. She had no idea how to get out of this one alive.

    Jace was growing nervous. He was employing the shield he saw Kay¡¯rin employ back on the island. Or at least he thought it must be the same shield; as thus far it was darned near invulnerable. It was really a marvelous spell. Obviously, these Fairies attacking them had never dealt with something like this before and were having just as much problem with it as the teachers at that academy were. It was a really mysterious shield, employing several glyphs including glyphs space and time, which seemed to make this some sort of dimensional wall, a bubble of disconnected dimensional space perhaps? He wasn¡¯t too sure. It had taken weeks of theorizing and testing until he found a shield design that behaved like Kay¡¯rins while sailing from that island. His problem was the number of soldiers and the way the Fairies were hiding themselves in them. Though he was fairly confident in this shield, he wasn¡¯t completely confident in it. If they figured a way through it this was going to turn into a serious slaughter. Thus, far he was holding back most of the soldiers with a ¡°gravity¡± glyph. They simply couldn¡¯t get closer to him. He didn¡¯t want to kill a bunch of slaves who were ordered to kill him by a bunch of corrupt freemen.

    He was slaughtering the fairies whenever he saw them, and admittedly he wasn¡¯t really being precise about it. He found they had a number of ways to avoid lower powered attacks, some of them even employed spells agilely to negate his attacks. As a result, he took to using the burst, fire and explode melded spell he found to be a pretty effective area attack; causing small explosions of fire which ripped through foes, his strength at a point where their shields were ineffective against the blast. The problem was it would usually take out dozens of normal soldiers at the same time.

    Frankly, they had planned for this situation, he just didn¡¯t want to activate the circle they had prepared beforehand, just yet. Right now, he thought they might be able to make their enemies retreat.

    ¡°HALT!¡± Jace heard a loud voice ordering a stop to the battle, he turned his head and felt his blood boil. The Fairy man was holding a bound and unconscious Verna. Every Fairy in his field of view had weapons and spells prepared to destroy her.

    Jace didn¡¯t even bother to speak to the Fairy, as his rage boiled forth, and he intentionally let his restraint slip, activating the first circle without hesitating anymore. The look of surprise on the fairy¡¯s face was priceless, as Verna and himself teleported back down the street to the edge of the dome he had created. He then poured an immense amount of power into a 3-layered circle which had been laid down in advance which encompassed almost all of the street.

    The world turned white, and he felt as if his skin was fried right off his body clean through the shield. This was followed by a blast so massive and sudden he felt the dimensional shield crack and almost shatter. It took him almost 30 seconds to blink his eyes clear enough he could see. He felt the huge dome shield over the castle shatter moments after triggering the blast.

    A massive mushroom cloud was towering in the sky; the explosion ripped up half the keep and part of the street outside. It was a tremendous blast. Had it not been for the dome over the keep absorbing the initial blast he suspected half the city might have been leveled. Most of the keep clearly was.

    It took ten minutes for the fires to stop burning. Jace didn¡¯t bother to stop it himself. He had tried to politely enter the keep and they attacked him without warning. During those ten minutes, he waited for the fires to stop, he had healed Verna¡¯s injuries. They weren¡¯t serious. The real trick was the spell put on her to keep her asleep. Eventually he dissolved it, but it took a bit of effort.

    Easol was staring at a scene like something from a story of a dragon caused apocalypse. The explosion tore down most of what remained of the south side of the keep walls, casting huge bolder sized stones inward, shattering half the palace and leveling most of the troop and slave barracks inside the walls. She almost had her own head taken off by a piece of far flung stone, and was bleeding badly from a wound on her forehead. The king had pissed himself and was curled up in a fetal position sobbing next to her, while his attendants tried to see to him.

    She was stunned by the power of the blast, but the firestorm that followed it was so intense she was certain it WAS a dragon attack at first. It looked like the world was burning, and she could even feel the intense heat from this extreme distance. She saw very few people fleeing that flame. It seemed no one would get out of that conflagration alive.

    However, there was a moment just before the blast she thought she saw Jaceteleport away.

    As horrifying as the firestorm was, it wasn''t as bad as what fate was now showing her. She was surprised at how much she did not want to die. Yet no matter how she looked at fate, there was no longer any path to surviving this. She was heading rapidly to a horrid death; sometimes she died at the hands of the kindred woman, sometimes she died a painful death at Jace¡¯s hands, and sometimes it was a screaming death in a magical firestorm, leaving no corpse behind. She had to change something fast, she just wasn¡¯t sure what it was.

 Chapter 63 - Plenty of time for regret

    Jace and Verna strode into the courtyard, what was left of the courtyard. Prior to venturing deeper into the keep, they actually took a few minutes to make themselves appear clean and untouched. Removing armor, cleaning it, making sure clothing was properly dust free and straight. They were out in the open while doing this. However, Jace wasn''t concerned, there wasn''t a living soul within eye sight of them. The dust and smoke made sure of that. Their clean and unruffled appearances would intimidate the survivors more, he figured. Much like how his brother liked to show off in Lacrosse. From swinging around his stick like a weapon to the crazy long hair, how he would get involved in some of the most brutal collisions and no matter how hurt he was he never admitted it, and made everyone believe that he was fine. It scared the heck of out the other team. Right now, he was hoping they appeared terrifying. He no longer was in the mood to give these people a second chance. It was funny, he often thought about his father or girlfriend when thinking about home, but he never really was worried about his younger brother. His brother and him had a terrible relationship. He had to admit as an older brother he was a terrible one. Being far less reliable then his younger brother. Bullying his younger brother when they were little. The situation grew so bad that by the time he realized what a piece of shit he had been to his brother, the wounds were too deep to fix. No amount of apologizing would ever repair that relationship. He felt a great deal of guilt over that. What was a true shame is his brother was the type of brother everyone with a sibling would be happy to have. Smart, talented, generally good natured. The whole situation left a shadow of regret on his heart.

    They swept through the keep like two angels of death to reap the living. Every person he saw with a weapon in hand looking at him simply exploded in a rain of entrails and blood. He closed off his worry about killing slaves. He knew Verna was doing much the same as she vanished from time to time only to return with blood on her sword. They posed little real risk, however Jace was no longer in the mood to give these people a chance. He had intentionally held back in their earlier fighting to avoid excessive casualties, and just as Verna predicted the enemy chose to assume that he was at his limits and so pressed all that much harder. He should have hit them far harder right from the start. It probably would have resulted in less death overall.

    They made their way around the scorched earth and house sized boulders from the wall that were strewn about. Heading toward the palace, or whatever it was that remained of it. It looked like the whole south wing was crushed under one of those house sized boulders. He didn¡¯t expect that burst/explosion circle would cause this huge of a blast. The blast threw rocks this huge this far gave him a deeper respect for the power of that circle he used.

    Eventually the pair made it to the palace. The palace looked like a wreck. There were fires burning in the west wing. The south wing/entrance hall was shattered. The huge dome likely over the throne room was shattered. They simply slaughtered any guard who approached them with a weapon in hand. And continued to march toward the throne room. Jace was still limping from the new limb but had gotten more and more used to walking on it as time passed. The aching pain in his knee was troublesome, but he could restrain that with a spell if he needed to. Right now, it was far from his mind.

    Picking their way through the rubble, they found their way into the throne room. It was not an easy walk and the devastation was impressive. A huge bolder from the wall was laying right in the middle of the reception hall, causing the ceiling to collapse in what was left of the throne room. The room was filled with staff, and freemen, some slaves, both male and female in separate groups, strangely there was a sizable group of rather attractive nude girls huddled in groups by the side of the throne, probably the king¡¯s harem Jace figured, though many of the girls were huddled in groups with older women, it was a strange sight. There was an older human, pale skinned, fat, his hair white, giving him the appearance of advanced age. In reality he probably wasn¡¯t much older than 40, but given the way the people lived in this world he supposed this made this man the king, at least Jace assumed it was the king was seated on the throne. His pants looked damp, and he looked terrified. To his side stood a black shadowy figure he instantly knew was a Fairy, given the surreal way the clothing drifted about. He had never seen a fairy in all black, even the head was fully covered. He figured this was the character who tried to have him killed. He knew Fairies would kill human mages out of a sense of duty. He wasn¡¯t surprised they were here to kill him after his mutilation of that prince.

    He was scrying constantly right now. Looking for threats. When his scrys touched the Fairy he nearly burnt it to a cinder where it stood.

    Easol really was dreading what was to come next but it seemed like the only way out of this mess. The King listened to her advice and followed it exactly showing his desperation that he trusted her word to this extent, there were no weapons allowed in this throne room. That was the most important part. He had summoned the whole family and even the royal harem, plus whatever slaves were left alive in the palace. It made for a really poor reception overall. The fear was thick in the air. Even the king¡¯s sister looked like she had wet herself.

    Easol once again debated if she wanted to live through this or not. She did want to live. She just wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to do what was required of her by fate to do it. Was it worth it? The thought danced around in her head. Ultimately she feared there was no other way, so worth it or not she would have to try it.

    This Jace and Verna entered the room, climbing past some debris. Jace didn¡¯t look human. She actually had a hard time accepting he was of the same people as the people around her. If he had those yellow eyes she¡¯d have no issues believing, he was sired by a dragon. He simply towered over all the humans around her. She wasn¡¯t short for a woman of the People of the World, yet he still stood about as tall as the tallest male of the People she had ever seen. He was also thick. His arms were muscular, his chest broad, wide shoulders, thin waist, conversely he walked with a limp, and his aura was a mess. The contrast between his aura and physical appearance was strange and fascinating in its own way. She had seen him from a distance but it wasn¡¯t until now she realized why all those slaves were so intimidated.

    The kindred woman was striking in a different way. Red and orange hair that had an almost illusionary appearance looking like living fire. The fire dragon tribe of kindred were famous for their pride. How he had tamed one and made it follow him was impossible to imagine. Her hair was in stark contrast to her silver scaled armor, if he looked like he had transcended humanity, she looked like she should be by his side. Easol always favored women over men, and she had to admit this Verna was a gorgeous woman.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Clenching her teeth, she acted.

    Jace was just about to kill the Fairy, figuring of everyone here, that one was the only one he was weary of. The humans clearly weren¡¯t impressive, there were two channeler level mages hiding in back, but they looked properly terrified. No, the fairy was a different matter. (S)He had enough magical defenses up, varied ones he was having difficulty telling anything about him/her. He wasn¡¯t even sure how to attack him/her through those defenses.

    Just as he was about to try to brute force it, the Fairy lowered her hood. She, he was very certain it was a she, was heartbreakingly beautiful, with delicate graceful eyebrows, and hair that was a sparkling surreal blue, almost sapphire blue, matching similar colored eyes. The only thing marring her beauty was a large angry and bloody wound on her forehead. It painted half her face red. The contrast only made her more striking. She was pretty enough he hesitated for a brief moment. In that moment, she spoke.

    ¡°Breaker of Chains, I, Easol, daughter of Easolin of the Kingdom of Ghanarai, would like to ask your leave to read your future and fate, free of charge of course, for ¡®He who Shatters Walls and Captures Cities,¡¯ it would be my honor.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t the only one shocked by Easol¡¯s speech, or her kneeling before him, and pressing her face to the floor. The king next to her looked apoplectic; for some reason, he was mouthing the words ¡°free?¡± Jace decided to stop the slaughter here for a moment, he glanced at Verna, she smirked then strode forward.

    ¡°ALL WHO VALUE YOUR LIVES, KNEEL BEFORE THE GRAND WIZARD JACE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELVES.¡± Her voice was explosively loud leaving his ears ringing, of course she had used a spell to make it this loud, but the effect was apparent. Every noble, freeman and slave fell to their knees.

    The king found his voice and spoke from his knees ¡°Grand Wizard Jace, I am King Herath of Lotsorn; I do not know why those men attacked you and had nothing to do with it.¡± The older man was trembling in fear.

    It was a preposterous lie. Who else could order those soldiers to attack him? Jace was frowning. He knew someone here had to have hired that Fairy mercenary company, obviously, he was the target of it. Yet here the Fairy girl was acting unrelated and subservient, subservient! Every fairy he had seen prior looked down on humans as if they were animals. Seeing one kneeling like this Easol was strange. More so the King even was kowtowing to him and trembling in fear. ¡®Perhaps it was someone else?¡¯

    While Jace was indecisive, Verna was not. ¡°DO NOT LIE TO ME. THE BLACK EYES ARE TOO EXPENSIVE AND PROUD FOR ANY BUT THE RICHEST OF HUMANS TO HIRE. UNDERSTAND HUMAN WORMS. I AM ASKING OUT OF A SENSE OF BOREDOM. GIVE ME THE PARTY RESPONCIBLE AND MOST OF YOU WILL LIVE. STALL LONGER AND ALL WILL DIE.¡±

    To Jace¡¯s surprise several of the nude male slaves stood up at this point and pointed straight at a rather frumpy looking middle aged woman. She was kneeling and judging by her position in the crowd rather high ranked, as she was close to the king. She also didn¡¯t see the slaves point at her. Jace glanced at Verna, and noticed she had seen it. Jace motioned subtly for the slaves to stand down. He knew some of the free humans had seen it, both his gesture and that of the slaves. Meaning of course he now had a responsibility to them.

    Verna meanwhile moved closer to the noble woman. Stopped in front of her and spoke in a slightly less domineering tone. ¡°PISS WOMAN YOU¡¯VE BEEN ACCUSED, SPEAK.¡±

    The woman trembled visibly, then spoke slowly ¡°I am Kindra, the sister of king Herath. I have no idea what vengeful braggart thinks to take advantage of this situation and have me killed by your hands. But I did not hire¡­ the Black Eyes, was it? Nor did I order the troops to attack you. However much reason I might have. You killed my son you know. I would like to kill you but I cannot.¡±

    Verna crouched down next to this Kindra and had a large grin on her face. ¡°Kindra you do know my people can tell when human trash lie to them. You are ruined, how about you simple confess every evil deed you¡¯ve done.¡±

    The woman glared at Verna then said in a loud voice, ¡°NOW!¡±

    At that time, several things happened at once. The two channelers blacked out all light in the room. And Jace heard several ¡°twang¡± noises. A sharp pain crashed into Jace¡¯s arm, causing him to lose his concentration for a moment. The pain in his arm was grotesque. Still it was child splay to destroy the channelers. He was already acting in that direction when he noted them start to channel.

    The light returned almost immediately as both channelers exploded in a shower of guts and blood. Verna was holding the woman Kindra up as a shield, three crossbow bolts piercing her back and passing through the poor shield striking Verna¡¯s silver scaled armor. One bolt punched through the armor and was sticking out of her hip; Verna¡¯s face was already showing signs of rage and bloodlust.

    Jace¡¯s own arm was pierced with a crossbow bolt, having passed straight through the shield caused by the armbands. Jace took in the scene and nearly struck out at the fairy when he noticed she was just feet from him. How she got there he wasn¡¯t sure. But what he was sure is she had two crossbow bolts sticking out of her back. And judging by her position, she had chosen to take those bolts for Jace.

    His eyes found the assassins quickly, and all of them exploded in a shower of guts. He acted decisively, healing his arm first, he strode over to Verna as the Fairy girl collapsed to the floor behind him. There was dead silence in the throne room except for the sound of hit boots striking the stone floor.  He stopped in front of Verna then placed a hand on Verna¡¯s head and yanked the bolt out of her hip, then healed the wound. Then he ripped the bolts stuck in this Kindra out and healed her as well. After a pause to make sure she was alive and awake, he cast that special spell, tearing her skin off like he had done with her son.

    He didn¡¯t even spare her a second glance and quickly put the wailing ¡®thing¡¯ out of his mind. He turned around to the fairy girl and knelt down. He yanked the bolts out of her, ignoring her shouts of pain, and healed the wounds. Then Jace stood up, the ¡°thing¡± that was Kindra was screaming in a horrible tone. On reflection Jace decided to let the king enjoy her fate, and skinned the king in the same manner. Then dangled them in the air, as they screamed and bleed out their lives and regrets.

    The throne room echoing with the screams of the dying king and his sister as they dangled over the heads of the human nobles dripping blood on them. It was a long day between Verna in the inn and the battle, then the walk he was a little tired. Jace strode past the silent nobles and slaves and sat down on the throne. The throne was the closest chair after all.

    Easol stared at Jace on the throne. She had seen this result of course. She knew her actions would lead to this end. But it was the only path to life she could find. She couldn''t even look at the king and his sister. Their screams were horrible. Trembling she could feel the strands of the curse invading her body. She knew this would be the price she''d have to pay for surviving this. Though why saving Jace''s life from that crossbow bolt would be enough to get the curse? Somehow she knew this would be a day she would long regret.

 Chapter 64 - Curse of the Forsaken

    Jace was sitting on the throne watching the king and his sister dying a horrible death. He couldn¡¯t even decide if he felt bad about the situation he just felt tired like the weight of a mountain was bearing down on his shoulders. He was looking at the faces of everyone present. Most were watching the king and his sister die. The rest seemed to be too afraid to look at him. The slaves, both from the harem and even the menial slaves seemed to be rather happy at this turn of events.

    Verna however was looking a little ill. Looking for a source of her discomfort it took a few moments to notice the moon mark above her eyebrows, it was faint but it clearly was forming. Frowning Jace was about to say something when he suddenly felt some foreign power assaulting his body. It was a strange sensation, almost as if little tendrils of ¡°something¡± hair like, were crawling through his body, moving toward his heart.

    There was a complete sense of defilement which seemed to follow in the wake of these tendrils. Almost as if his very essence was being bound, his fate robbed and future stolen all at once. They left a painful and dull ache as they went and seemed to feed on the power of his life flame.

    Cursing under his breath he was able to put two and two together. Apparently removing an incompetent and corrupt ruler of a human kingdom was enough to trigger the curse. He looked at Verna and saw the bleak hopelessness now on her face as she looked at him. He hadn¡¯t come this far to lay down and die.

    Standing up he felt an ache in his body as he moved, ignoring it, he knew he had little time. Mind thinking as fast as he could he barked at the people in the room. ¡°Backup, clear the center of the floor immediately.¡± The Fairy girl caught his eye, he saw a faint moon tattoo forming on her forehead right alongside of Verna¡¯s. It took him a moment to remember her name.

    ¡°Verna, Easol, stand right there.¡± He pointed to two places on the floor, then using air started to carve a 3 layer circle around himself then carved the outline of one around Easol and Verna. Three layered circles around each of them. The circles overlapped in the middle of the formation, then he created a separate pair of circles around the screaming nearly dead bodies of the kind and his sister. He channeled power into those circles and returned to the larger far more important circles.

    He already had a feeling for this curse. It definitely was a curse of fate. He could tell immediately, all the time he spent playing around with scrying and with the fate glyph made it pretty clear how this curse worked. He knew this was probably known to most of the major powers, the thing was, curing or affecting the curse would curse the person who tried. So of course, no one ever bothered to try.

    The fact he could feel the nature of this curse made him more confident the existence known as gods, were only an existence one step beyond grand sorcerer. They likely were bound by the same rules as every other mage in existence, meaning they likely were originally normal creatures which had taken magic to it''s extremes. The problem he had is this curse was cast by an existence beyond a sorcerer, and a wizard like himself couldn¡¯t affect the magic of a sorcerer.

    Why was that? It clearly was the same magic. Yet something in it¡¯s construction made it basically immune from outside interference.

    He could feel the progress of the curse slow down, as his circle extended the life of the king and his sister. Clearly he would be fully cursed once they died. And they were too injured for him to repair. He had destroyed the skin to rip it off them. So, he was going to extend their flame of life as long as he could while he worked on this problem.

    This overlapping multi concentric circle design was something he had pondered in the past. The problem was making the circles link. On reflection, he added two more giant circles around the outside of the formation, with the inner walls of the inner circle brushing along the outer edges of the 3-inner concentric circle formation. He had to make this work the first time.

    He sat down in the middle of the whole formation and tried to picture the glyphs he¡¯d need to add to make it work.

    ¡®First make the circles work together. That was the first step. In the standard concentric circle design, the outermost circle was designed to capture the power of the heavens, the middle one to capture the power of the earth, the glyphs used were those for moon, sky, power, beg, move, praise. It¡¯s pretty obvious the design is wrong. ¡® He talked to himself puzzling it out

    Speaking out loud he said ¡°The problem with the circles we¡¯re using is it is asking for permission for the world to borrow its power. This implies we have no right or control over it. This is where a sorcerer and wizard is different. A sorcerer has the acknowledgement of the world as being part of it, whereas the wizard is basically begging or forcing the world to comply. This is why I needed those focuses for those girls. They couldn¡¯t sense the pulse of the world, because the world didn¡¯t accept them. By making the focuses, they could sense the pulse and their power increased rapidly. Becoming one with the world still implies the world has dominion over you, but it also implies the world has accepted you as part of it. This is why a wizard cannot affect a sorcerer.¡±

    ¡°What about a god? Is a god part of the world or has dominion over it? I suspect it¡¯s the later. So, a god has control over the world itself rather than being part of it they are back to the original relationship, however their relationship is one of master not one of slave. This might be why the grand sorcerers think gods are killable. They¡¯re very powerful but they no longer work in harmony with the world. As a result, a sorcerer¡¯s magic CAN affect a god. The problem is it¡¯s probably only magic the god has dominion over. So, it¡¯s a limited control? Maybe?¡±

    Looking at Verna he spoke up. ¡°Correct me if I¡¯m wrong please. You heard what I said.¡±

    She spoke slowly, ¡°I don¡¯t know enough about it to theorize.¡±

    Jace winced, how could he base his, no not just his, but their futures on speculation? He could feel the curse twisting its way through him slowly. Ignoring the fear caused by this curse, he closed his eyes and started his breathing exercises, he felt the pulse of the world. A strange impulse took him and he sunk deep into the throbbing pulse. He felt it wash over his mind like crashing waves on a shoreline, then let go of his hold on his body, letting the pulse take his mind with it.

    Easol was standing where Jace had indicated, she watched him carve out some massive concentric circles then a pair around the three but he never carved any symbols. The future was gone. She couldn¡¯t see it almost as if it didn¡¯t exist. She wasn¡¯t sure what that meant. Though she could feel the tendril of the curse already intertwining with her fate. Its progress had ground to a near stop once he started to prolong the wailing of the king and his sister. That horrific torment seemed to go on forever. She wasn¡¯t even sure if they were conscience anymore. Their moans sounded more like that of a dying animal now, there were no words or conscience thought behind it.

    She could see everyone in the throne room standing up against the walls looking on in terror, afraid to actually leave. She didn¡¯t blame them, had she not suspected this Jace was giving a last gasp chance to avert the curse she probably would have taken this chance to flee. The problem was her people sold cursed Fairies to other races. She had nowhere to flee to.

    She watched him close his eyes and stop muttering, then she started to feel radiating power coming from this Jace. It was an oppressive might, something quite similar to a sensation she once felt before. She looked over at the Kindred woman Verna. Her eyes were locked on Jace, a look of disbelief on her face.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°Ah so she feels it too.¡±

    Jace drifted with the pulse, it was so powerful he couldn¡¯t imagine how most others couldn¡¯t feel it. It was the pulse of the world. It was in the breeze, in the air, in the soil and sea. He could feel the whole world thumping with this pulse. The pulse was the world and he was the pulse. He was both part of it and it was part of him. Everyone was part of this pulse. He could feel the disharmony in his left leg, it was not part of the world. It was something unnatural. The pulse was misaligned within it; it was an affront to the world.

    The harmful dissonance from his leg was irritating. So, he ignored it and simply enjoyed the pulse as it was. There was something otherworldly about this flow. Almost as if the world and heavens were painting on a canvas, only the canvas was the pulse itself. The world and heavens were one not two. However, they interacted with each other creating power in the interactions. The enlightenment from this revelation was like a change in his very being. He could feel how every creature was connected, every person and every plant. It was strange how he never felt this before. It was so obvious now. Almost like a world truth he always knew but never considered. What was amazing was though he had never been born here, how every bit of his body was separate from the people here, how the pulse, the very flow of this land saw no difference between him and the world.

    There were things more important than the atoms in the body of the person and where they came from. This was the first time he actually felt welcome or even home in this new land. He felt a kinship with the humans in this room. He could feel their terror and hope. He could feel the cold souls of the cursed slaves who had no hope or future. The tiny flickering flame of hope in some of the younger ones as they looked at him, He could feel the bone numbing terror in the hearts of the nobles. He could feel the dead sad acceptance from the Fairy girl, and the waves of hopelessness crashing against Verna¡¯s heart, while a small spark of hope warred within. He also started to feel the pain of the king and his sister, suspended in their endless hell. For the first time, he found himself regretful for what he was doing to them.

    The pulse made no judgements about the hearts of men. Good or evil, it didn¡¯t particularly care, but it did care for the health and wellbeing of the people. He could feel the pulse¡¯s empathy for those cursed, and how the curse was something foreign to it. Something malevolent and against the very nature of the world. He could feel the pulse trying to reject the curse, and almost the world crying in pain at being forced to empower the curse.

    Slowly he opened his eyes, the world was silent, no one moved, he looked at Verna, he could still remember that small thread of hope within her heart, and now thought he could see it in her eyes. He gave her a small smile.

    ¡°A sorcerer? You¡¯ve broken through to become a sorcerer?¡± Verna¡¯s words seemed to wake up the people watching from the walls.

    Jace simply nodded, and strode over to the pair floating and suffering in the air, and designed a new circle around them, igniting it was simple, this was something he felt he gained insight to he wanted to try. A spherical shape formed around the floating pair, and time was locked within it. He knew that he couldn¡¯t maintain this for long. The world was already rejecting this stasis type magic, but it seemed to have worked. He couldn¡¯t keep them alive as long as he needed, through normal means, he could feel the warping of reality in the area around the globe. He knew it was a matter of time before that resonance would start to tear apart reality near it until the stasis bubble was dispelled. He could already see the magic circle starting to burn.

    Had he tried this as a wizard nothing would have happened. The world never would have let him go this far outside of the natural way of things as a wizard.

    With time bought, he quickly went over to the huge circle and started to carve out the symbols using air. He could feel the very world tremble as he created this circle. This circle would rewrite the world if he had it right. He started to smile just thinking about what type of chaos this might cause.

    Easol watched a new sorcerer enter the world. She never thought she¡¯d get to see something like this. More so from a young human man without grey in his hair. The difference between a wizard and sorcerer was like the difference between the dirt on the road and the world itself. She could feel profound ripples in reality when he created that sphere around those two humans. The power of the formation was stunning. It felt like the world itself was crying in pain. He created something like that without thinking about it. The nonchalant way he did it caused her to gasp, and look over at Verna. Verna¡¯s eyes were shining in anticipation.

    ¡°Pay attention little girl.¡± The kindred woman was watching Jace with a very hungry and proud look. ¡°The world will change today I think.¡±

    Easol watched as Jace carved one glyph after another into the circle, he seemed to think about each one he added before adding it. As he added each new glyph the world seemed to warp under the weight of what he was creating.

    It took almost an hour for him to ring the whole formation in glyphs, by this point in time the world seemed to be fracturing around the bubble containing the king and his sister. Now Jace seemed to move quicker as he used air to carve a number of glyphs in the three-layered circles only slowing when he neared another circle, leaving parts blank. She tried to figure out what he was carving but when she looked at the symbols she realized he was carving symbols over each other in such a way she wasn¡¯t sure what she was seeing.

    Verna seemed to quote something quietly while watching him work. ¡°¡­ the heavens shall shatter from freight.¡±

    Jace felt the pressure of the world bearing down on him. Even carving the glyphs was causing some tremendous feedback, the problem seemed to be the leg now. He could feel a strong resonance coming from the leg, the pain was growing rather intense. He had spent his whole life half assing everything. He even attacked this keep in a half assed way. He probably should have just flattened it.

    It was too late to regret.

    Too late to keep doing things half assed.

    So, he created a blade of air and severed the leg right under the knee. The pain that bloomed was fairly impressive. He saw Verna start to move toward him, balancing on one leg he held out an arm with his palm facing her.

    ¡°Stop¡±

    She came to a dead stop. Concern on her face

    He closed his eyes and channeled power, following the flow of the pulse of the world, pain bloomed from the leg he just let the power flow through the regrowth glyph springing into life, as a new limb grew where the old fake one existed. It felt exactly like his old leg. Flexing it he placed his weight on it then laughed.

    ¡°ah, that floor is cold.¡± He muttered before continuing his work

    The power of the world no longer fought so hard against him, though he still felt a deep pressure with every glyph he made. He was weaving together almost thirty separate glyphs, carving them on the circle as if the circle were a transparent 3-dimensional object, so there were two layers of glyphs all interconnected. It was a complex formation and it might not work. But he could think of no other way to shatter this curse.

    Now he moved onto the parts of the circle where he had left the glyphs blank. It would be very difficult to merge all these circles into one. He spent nearly an hour pondering how he wanted to merge the structures before trying. The glyphs came together as envisioned, however the pressure from the world grew greater. It took more and more effort to carve the symbols. Eventually as he got down to the final glyphs, he was unable to continue carving it with air. He got down on his knees and using a crossbow bolt he reformed into a type of chisel, he started to scratch out the final glyphs.

    On his hands and knees, completely oblivious to the time required to do this he was absorbed in the creation of these final few shapes. A gentle "scratch scratch scratch" sound echoed through the hall. his sweat dripped from his nose down onto the floor, it was a muggy night, and a storm seemed to be rolling in. He could hear the thunder in the distance, and the rising wind. The wind was icy cold in direct opposition to the hot muggy air. Rain started to fall, it was cold rain, he imagined most of the people in the hall wanted to leave yet no one did. The rain didn''t stop his efforts to carve the circle. On his knees with water puddles forming around him, the icy cold in the air making his hands start to shake he kept working at it. If this didn''t work Verna would never forgive him for making her stand out in the rain like this.

    He finished the final glyph, the circle he just carved seemed to be resonating with something deep within the world. Lightning was flashing wildly in the sky, and the peals of thunder caused the ground to shake. He looked at Easol. She looked like a drowned rat. Her hair no longer floating on the air unnaturally, but rather hanging limply, soaked. She was shivering in the icy cold. He could see her breath in the faint light. Then he looked at Verna. Verna, contrary to his fears was looking at him almost expectantly. She seemed to be ignoring the icy cold and tolerating it much better than the Fairy girl. Their eyes met, green eyes and yellow, as lightning flashed in the sky. He smiled as he channeled a tremendous amount of power into the circle, the world seemed to turn white as the heavens themselves seemed to crack.

 Chapter 65 - Aftermath

    A tremendous flash litup the night sky across the continent. People throughout the world turned and looked toward the city of Lotsorn. The sky seemed to tremble, cracks appearing in the sky, spider webbing across the skies of the planet. Then the 2<sup>nd</sup> moon in the sky seemed to dim and crumble. Breaking apart, and adding its rocks to the splay of light across the night sky, ringing the world. All people across the world were terrified at such a horrible display. Kings called their wizards, priests were sought for auguries. Prophets were called to explain what these signs meant.

    As the Sun rose in the west the next morning, the people only grew more terrified as the sun now appeared to be a deep dark red, much like you might expect to see if you were cursed. The world was now in an uproar. The sun even appeared to be smaller than before. Those seeking council from sages, prophets and priests now demanded answers on their knees.

    The answers were the same. The sun and moon gods had each gone blind in one eye. The fates of the gods had been tampered with. The Sun god and Moon goddess now suffered from the very curse that humanity lived under. The heavens trembled in a rage, and doom and war became the prophecies of the hour.

    Kelog, a Fairy sent from the Kingdom of Ghanarai was the first investigator to arrive at the city of Lotsorn since that terrifying night one of the twin moons disintegrated in the sky. He had been sent after rumors from traders reached the king¡¯s ears about a coup in Lotsorn the night the moon was destroyed. Figuring it was time to discover the cause he was sent. Before he left he was asked by Easolin, Easol¡¯s father to look for her, as she had vanished into this sty around the time of the coup.

    Kelog had conflicting feelings about this assignment. Especially when it came to Easol. Easol had been the bane of his childhood. She had been better at literally everything he tried. Nothing he did could beat her, and in a way part of him respected her.

    When Easol emerged from her baptism a female he was stunned. He couldn¡¯t imagine the strong swordsman who he could never defeat never holding another sword again. How was he supposed to be happy about this? To win their many competitions by default? It made no sense. So he asked to see Easol. His parents misunderstood what he was asking, and soon arranged for them to be married. He was actually appalled by the very idea. How could he want a wife who never lost to him? How could he be happy in such a marriage? To know he could never compete again, to win fair and square. To know he ALWAYS lost. It almost seemed like Easol did this just to piss him off.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    So, when Easolin asked him to hunt down his wayward daughter, a part of him actually was hoping he couldn¡¯t find her.

    He arrived at the city about 3 weeks after the 2<sup>nd</sup> moon¡¯s death. He approached on foot. As he was passing down the road near the fields he couldn¡¯t quite put a finger on what was different until he realized he could see humans in the fields. He was stunned by the sight. Humans cultivating crops?

    How was this possible?

    He crossed a field, careless about the mud he was getting on his boots. He approached an older human man, the man looked surprisingly healthy. Most humans didn¡¯t look healthy. This one did. The old man watched him approach. Then, without bowing his head spoke up. ¡°Is there something I can help you with young man?¡±

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re touching the crops. How can you touch the crops?¡± He couldn¡¯t help asking the question, not bothering to introduce himself.

    ¡°Mmmm. I wonder?¡± The old man looked pleased with himself at the vague answer, then he spoke again. ¡°Seemed to have happened the night the moon shattered and that bastard Elis got blinded in an eye as the prophets clamed happened. As to why, perhaps you¡¯ll find an answer in Lotsorn?¡±

    Kelog kept his temper in check, reminding himself he was rude to the old man first. Then turned and left the field, deep in thought. He reached the gates of the city. The first thing he noticed was he couldn¡¯t see a single slave anywhere. Even the city guards all looked like their freemen guards. The guards had an unusually happy look on their face. He had been to Lotsorn before, he never remembered the guards even smiling. Humans simply didn¡¯t smile much.

    Lots of people were smiling. The streets were clean. The smell of an open sewer this place often had was gone. He saw perhaps a hundred-people dangling from ropes from the walls of the city. He wasn¡¯t sure who they were thought judging from their clothing they looked like they had been important. He suspected those corpses were the result of this coup. He hurried down the streets, nowhere was a human in chains. Everywhere there were humans in clothing working, cleaning or smiling and chatting with each other.

    He noticed he saw no rapes either. He had seen human hovels before. Those were places unmarried women never walked around smiling in. No one rutting like an animal, no general fear on the face of the people. He noticed a number of the women seemed to shy away from the men, and some of the men seemed to be looking lasciviously at the women, but no forced anything.

    He wasn¡¯t sure what to make of it. He never knew humans to restrain their base urges before. How had this happened? Hurrying down the street to the main square, he halted his jaw dropping. In the main square the old statue of the Grey King was torn down. In its place was a hundred-foot-tall statue of a human male, with a broad chest, and strong arms, a short trimmed beard and wise look in his eyes gazing in the direction of the city gates, a large two handed swords planted in the ground before him; covered in Kindred style scale armor.

    Carved into the base of the hundred-foot-tall white stone statue were the words ¡°Sorcerer King Jace, The Breaker of Chains¡±

 Authors - Afterword

    Thank you for reading Curse of the Forsaken. Stay tuned for the next book in this series called "Breaker of Chains" which should be published in January or February right here on Royal Road Legends. I think this book suffered a bit due to me posting it before finishing it. So I''ll try to finish breaker of chains before publishing it. We''ll see how that works.

    I''ll likely post another chapter on curse of the forsaken linking to the next book in the series when it''s up on this site so keep this bookmarked. If you enjoyed this story please don''t hesitate to rate it, lots of 5 star ratings will help it get seen by others, so it''s the easiest way to get this novel seen by others and enjoyed. If you didn''t like it or have constructive criticisms feel free to rate it as well, though please let me know why you didn''t like it, just drop me a PM with your concerns; I''m trying to become a better author, so your critiques can help me improve!

    Over the next two months I¡¯ll probably be going back over this book editing it and adding some content. I think it could be better, and so I¡¯ll probably play around with it a bit between writing Breaker of Chains.

    I expect Breaker of Chains to be the best book in this series, at least it has most of the best scenes (IMHO), I know a lot of character''s stories were left half told, expect them to return in the next book. There is plenty of suck left in this world to explore.

    Now for the elephant in the room. That tag "romance"; when I put that on this novel there was a romance planned to start in this book. However, when I reorganized this book in order to get the island into this book I ended up shifting a lot of stuff around. I know this might irritate some of you, but the romance ended up shoved into book 2. I''m keeping the romance tag on here, only because there IS romance in the series, we just haven''t got to it. I apologize if this gets on your nerves. I hope you can forgive me. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    As for Jace''s amoral decent that troubled some of you. Yes, this was intended. I understand if you would like for him to be "good", but I am aiming to keep the psychological tag on this series. I find a great deal of interest in questions of morality confronted with fluid "natural" situations. In my experience, most people are moral "on paper" yet when confronted with difficult situations their morality becomes more "fluid". That''s mostly what''s happening here. Jace is placed in a lot of unreasonably situations with poor choices in every direction. Right now, he definitely is acting out of "self-preservation" more than "morality". As his power grows expect his behavior to become more "stable" but right now, or at least at this point, he still is mostly just making it up as he goes along.

    As for Curse of the Forsaken, coming in at 114,500 words and 260 pages in a MS Word document this is the first time I actually finished a book after years of starting and stopping one story after another. Now that I can point to this and say ¡°I DID THAT¡± my next goal will be to finish this trilogy for you my readers, and for myself. I would like to finish telling a whole story. Very stoked that its done, and really thankful to everyone who¡¯s read this whole thing. It might not be Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time, but I like to think writing a novel longer then the first Harry Potter book isn¡¯t too bad a start. This book easily surpassed my initial expectations. After I¡¯m finished reworking this book it probably will be longer still. Either way, I really hope you all enjoyed this.

    -Jade Dragon

 The Continuing Series - Breaker of Chains - Book 2

    Hi everyone, I am still working on Book 2, but I figured there was no harm tossing out a bit of a teaser. Here is the link to book 2, Breaker of Chains, I have published a prologue with it, enjoy!

    BREAKER OF CHAINS - http://royalroadl.com/fiction/9246</a>You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ETA for Breaker of Chains remains early January, thus far writing has gone well; if there are any change of plans I''ll use this chapter to update you all.

    Please don''t hesitate to rate Curse of the Forsaken, or even write reviews. We''ve got this book into the top 60 on RRL, which is amazing, considering the content warnings on the novel. Don''t hesitate to tell others about it as well.

    And above all else, THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!

    -Jade Dragon