Bound by Truth

by Ian Rodgers

  The two false nobles wandered off, leaving only two guards to stand watch over the Healer and the unconscious Bloodline Trait bearer.

  Only once she could no longer hear their footsteps or voices did Dora let out a gust of breath in relief.

  She busied herself with tending to Kari, making sure the raven-haired woman was comfortable and that no new issues popped up unexpectedly. She made a pillow out of her lap and gently let Kari’s head rest in it.

  Dora also made one of the guards fetch a water skin so the collared slave would have some means to replenish herself when she eventually woke up.

  And she did, praise Cynthia!

  Approximately forty-five minutes later Kari stirred with a groan, limbs twitching feebly.

  “Take it easy, Kari. Just breathe in and out, and let your body wake up on its own,” Dora instructed shifting slightly so the head of raven black hair was lifted up a few inches.

  The Healer then carefully let the slave sip at the water the guards had provided. A sputtering cough later, after Kari tried to drink too much too fast, she was moderately more aware.

  “Are you alright?”

  “I feel like a herd of cows trampled my head,” Kari muttered. She sat up, taking in the surroundings. A grimace stretched across her face as saw where she still was.

  “I was hoping it had all been a bad dream,” the merchant’s daughter admitted, sighing in defeat.

  “Sorry,” Dora replied due to habit. Kari just chuckled sadly.

  “Where’s my ‘master?’” Kari inquired, all but spitting the word out.

  “You’ve been unconscious for a while, and were probably going to be out of it for a while, so they went off to do their own thing,” Dora explained. She glanced over at the guards, one of which had slunk off without her noticing. No doubt to inform the two Tower Lords their prize had woken up at last.

  The pair just sat there for a while, leaning against each other and the shimmering surface of the Aegis Sphere as they waited.

  They did not have to wait long as rapid footsteps echoed down the corridor and the red faced pudgy man entered first, followed by the sweaty browed man in green. Both of their outfits clashed miserably with their complexions, and Kari wrinkled her nose at that sight.

  “What did you see? What did you learn?” Krave demanded, hurrying over.

  Kari morphed her expression into a neutral mask, Dora not far behind.

  “The Aegis Sphere is fully functional,” Kari said at last, and a rapturous grin spread across the purple robed man’s face.

  “However, it’s out of power, and lacks an access key. Both of those will be required to even dream of utilizing it.”

  “I see. Good thing I have one of those,” Krave said, removing the gilded treasure box Scarrot had given him yesterday. He immediately opened it and removed an unusual artifact that looked nothing like a key.

  It was a single sphere, about the size of a man’s fist, with two smaller orbs attached seamlessly to the ends of the larger shape at opposite ends. The entire object was made of translucent crystal with milky white energy drifting around listlessly inside, all the while emitting a pale glow.

  “…Yes, that is indeed an Aegis Sphere access key,” Kari said after observing it with her Divine Eyes of Appraisal. “And one in surprisingly good condition.”

  “How do we go about refueling the artifact?” Tiegan inquired.

  “There’s a mana generator inside of the Aegis Sphere. It can be accessed through a portal on the bottom,” Kari said.

  Everyone glanced at the massive device, and someone let out a groan of annoyance thinking about what it would take to move that bulk out of the hole it was in.

  “As for recharging the Aegis Sphere, it will require massive amounts of magical energy. I have no idea exactly how much, but at least a thousand humans worth.”

  Tiegan let out a whistle at the number. “I’ll begin making the arrangements to purchase more mages, as well as looking into methods to transfer their energy.”

  “What about a door? How do we get in?” Krave asked next.

  “The lock that your key interacts with is also on the bottom. Or, rather, the top. See, the Aegis Sphere is upside down right now. Whatever destroyed the Titan’s outpost caused their artifacts to get jumbled up.”

  “Hmm. Very well. At least we have that golden mole now,” Krave mused. He turned to an aid. “Inform the taskmasters and overseers to start moving slaves and supplies down here. We need to dig out the Aegis Sphere from the floor.”

  “Yes, my lord.” As the servant scurried away Krave turned back to the two women, focusing mainly on Kari.

  “I suppose you’ve done your job for today. Healer, take her back Annod Bol. And as for yourself, you are now her attendant. You will make sure my purchase stays healthy and in proper condition. Where ever she goes, so will you. That is all.”

  “I do not know if Boss Scarrot will be happy about that…”

  “The orc is my servant, and will do as I say regardless of his feelings on the matter. He can leave you behind or stay here and wait for you to finish your current duties,” Krave said dismissively.

  “Yes, my lord,” Dora replied with a stiff bow, seeing no other choice available to her.

  She then took Kari’s hand and began to guide the collared woman back to the exit, hoping to commandeer a wagon to take them back to Annod Bol.

  In the back of her mind, several little thoughts were niggling at her. The loudest and most worrisome of them: “Will I ever be allowed to leave?”

  Chapter 10: A moment of mercy

  “Come on now, move it!” The sound of whips cracking brought a shiver down Dora’s spine, and she locked her eyes firmly elsewhere.

  All around her slaves toiled in rags as they excavated more and more of the ruined building outside of Annod Bol. Atop an artificial plateau that overlooked the entire dig site Dora was able to see that by now a good portion of it was unearthed. They’d even uncovered a second, larger entrance to move tools and supplies into the depths in order to move the Aegis Sphere.

  Two weeks had passed since she and Kari had been brought down to see the Aegis Sphere, relic of the long-gone Titans, and learned of the plans the two Tower Lords had schemed up.

  It was unsettling to think they would have control over such a potent artifact. If even half of what Kari claimed it could do was true – and the half-orc had no reason to doubt her since she was incapable of lying thanks to her collar – then leaving it in the Tower Lord’s grasp would be catastrophic for everyone.

  The Healer shook her head and swept her gaze over the workers as they shifted mounds of stone and rubble. Beside her, Kari sat under a parasol, trying to avoid the sun’s harsh rays.

  Thanks to her orc blood the heat didn’t bother Dora too much, but it was nicer to be in the shade for a bit.

  “How much longer are they going to make me do this?” the raven-haired woman asked, panting. It wasn’t just the temperature, she had been forced to work almost as much as the slaves below them.

  She was drained magically rather than physically, as Krave needed her unique talents to transfer the mana necessary for the Titan artifact’s fuel.

  There was no other choice. For the past twelve days Kari had carefully used a ritual to transfer magical energy out of a collection of slaves the two Tower Lords had provided and into the Aegis Sphere’s key. It could double as a battery, it seemed, so when it was inserted into the Aegis Sphere the device would immediately come to life.

  “Well, how much more do you need to fill up that key?” Dora inquired, shifting her gaze down to the collar woman.

  “I have no idea. What I do know is that I’ve only managed to load up about two thirds of what the Aegis Sphere even needs to activate. And I’ve been draining the equivalent of almost a hundred D-rank mages a day! The Titans fueled their tools with purified mana. I don’t know how they did so. It must have involved drawing raw magical energy straight from the Aether itself. It’s the only ide
a that makes sense for why it’s taking so long,” Kari grumbled.

  She adjusted her blindfold which she had taken to wearing once more. Dora sympathized with the reason the kidnapped merchant’s daughter did so. If the half-orc could afford to do so, she too would want to avoid looking over the morass of miserable and broken slaves.

  “You certainly sound like you know what you’re doing, though,” Dora commented. “You’ll be the first person in the world to revive and pilot an Aegis Sphere in who knows how many millennia!”

  To the half-orc’s surprise Kari shrugged.

  “Perhaps, but is that really such a good thing? I’m being forced to help men I find utterly repulsive with a task that is currently hurting dozens, if not hundreds, of people. And will hurt countless more once I am finished.”

  “I suppose that would put a damper on any of your achievements,” Dora said with an awkward chuckle.

  “So, uh, what about Krave? I haven’t seen him since yesterday. Normally he’s always nearby, watching you work,” the half-orc stated, looking around the site for a glimpse of obnoxious purple robes.

  “Don’t know, don’t care. Maybe he’s working, or maybe he’s dead. I’m just glad he’s not here leering at me. It makes concentration on the magic transfer ritual all the more difficult.”

  “Fair enough. I don’t think I’d work very well with someone like that giving me lustful looks.” Dora paused, searching her brain for a conversation topic. Her eyes lit up after a moment.

  “What can you tell me about the Titans?”

  Kari raised an eyebrow at her. “Not much. What do you know of them?”

  “Just that the Titans were an ancient race of beings who came to the mortal planes from the Aether and gave birth to the Giant races that exist today,” Dora said. Kari nodded.

  “I see. Well, that’s not wrong. The Titans were like far more solid Elementals in a way. They were born of the Aether and its myriad planes of existence, and eventually formed an empire of their own within it. During the golden age of their reign however they seem to have discovered mortal worlds like Erafore and found the beings living on them interesting.” Kari tapped her chin.

  “Most of what I know of them comes from books and the like, but they all agree that relations with the mortal realms did not go well. The Titans saw themselves as superior to all and essentially conquered countless worlds, enslaving their inhabitants. Needless to say, the mortal species did not like that one bit.”

  “One thing led to another, and the gods of the mortals helped them overthrow the Titans in what became known as the Rebellion of Heaven. Supposedly they drove the Titans to near extinction and the gods took the Heavens, the plane where the Titans had based their empire, as their own.”

  “Fascinating,” Dora breathed out in genuine awe. “I never knew any of that. You must have read a lot to learn that much!”

  “I suppose,” Kari said dismissively. “A lot of that information is what I gleaned from the artifact itself. It’s fairly barebones due to the sheer age of the relic, but apparently this site was one of the Titans’ main outposts for keeping the local species in line.”

  The raven-haired beauty snorted. “How fitting that slavers would take over an ancient prison as their own city. Almost poetic in a dark way.”

  Further conversation was cut off by a crash and scream of pain down in the dig site.

  Dora flinched and spun to see what had happened, and gasped at the scene. One of the pulley systems had broken, sending rope, wood, and stone crashing to the ground. Several slaves were crushed beneath the boulder they had been trying to shift, and many more were struck by flying debris.

  The half-orc was only able to take a single step before Kari’s hand snapped out and grabbed her wrist, pinning her in place.

  “Kari?”

  “What are you doing, Dora?”

  The light green skinned woman stared uncomprehendingly at the dark-haired woman currently holding onto her.

  “What do you mean, ‘what are you doing?’ I’m going down there to heal them!”

  With exaggerated slowness Kari raised her blindfold, peering first at Dora with an unreadable expression before switching to the scene of devastation below. Finally after a few seconds impassively observing she returned her gaze to the half-orc.

  “Why? This is for the best.”

  “What?”

  “Most of the wounded are already dead-slaves walking. The medicine and magic needed to fix them would be more than their owners would be willing to spend. And a slave without an arm or leg is useless. Plus, a lot of the injuries are fatal even with assistance.”

  Kari sighed and slipped her crimson blindfold back over her eyes.

  “For the wounded, Hells, for any of those slaves down there, death would be a mercy. No, acting all noble won’t earn you any favors from them. It’s better to let them die. At least then Selika can take their souls and offer them a spot in the Heavens.”

  “I’m a Healer! I’m supposed to help people,” Dora argued.

  “Are you really, though? You’re the one who keeps claiming not to be a Healer because you were never ordained, and you’ve stopped praying to Cynthia due to your guilt and grief. So why follow a code you have no reason to adhere to?” the collared woman retorted, using Dora’s own words against her.

  “Because if I don’t, they’ll suffer!” Dora shot back. “And at least in this instance, I can do some good! I can’t help the people who cry for mercy in the cages, but I can do so here!”

  She tore her wrist from Kari’s grasp and hurried down into the site of the accident, mumbling incantations for area of effect healing spells.

  “All that the sun shines on is blessed. All that the moon illuminates is soothed. Let neither shadow nor suffering come to pass on this land. Healing Wave of Light!”

  Pulsating, glittering waves of purifying and healing energy washed over the area, and groans of pain turned into sighs of relief.

  Dora kept up a strong appearance, but the spell had taken a lot out of her. It was the most advanced healing techniques she had been taught by her mother, and despite her admittedly large reserves of mana it grew exponentially more costly with each person being targeted.

  At least it had been a sunny day out, as the Level Five spell Healing Wave of Light worked best when the targets were under the rays of the sun or moon. And spread further, too.

  Kneeling beside one of the closest injured slaves, Dora carefully checked over their wounds. The spell was designed to push out or purify foreign matter, so those impaled by splinters or shards of stone were able to watch as said obstructions plopped wetly onto the ground.

  Of course, things could still go wrong. It wasn’t uncommon to hear stories about how novice healers accidentally caused their patients to expel their own bones or organs with an improperly cast Healing Wave.

  After ensuring nothing had gone wrong with the spell’s effects, Dora went around and applied more focused healing on the slaves. Older injuries were tended to, diseases suppressed, and even multiple cases of food poisoning were taken care of.

  The half-orc didn’t discriminate either. After she had mended the slaves she had worked a bit on the overseers and taskmasters.

  By the end of the day when Dora returned Kari to Annod Bol, the workers and slaves were practically bowing to the green skinned Healer. Thanks and praise were shouted repeatedly, and many tears were shed.

  Inside the carriage on the road back to the grey and black city the collared woman finally broke the silence and turned to Dora.

  “So? Do you feel any better?”

  The Healer, light headed from her act of kindness, gnawed on her lower lip slightly as she tried to formulate an answer.

  “I think I actually feel worse,” Dora admitted after a lengthy pause.

  “Let me guess; it’s because now that you’ve had a taste of being helpful, seen their smiles and heard their thanks, you realize they’re still enslaved at the end of the day. And you want to do m
ore. But you can’t. And that just tears you up inside.”

  “Y-Yes, exactly. How did you…?”

  “Believe it or, we’re both very similar in that regard. Unlike you, however, I had the wretched truth beaten into me at a much earlier age, much like your boss Scarrot as well,” Kari said. Her voice was so tired and defeated, it made Dora’s heart ache.

  “You can’t save everyone. Especially if they don’t want to be saved.”

  .

  Kari’s words echoed in Dora’s head as she made her way back to the barracks the Yellowmoon Menagerie had taken over. Some of the crew, mostly the temporary hires from Creidor, had taken their pay and left Annod Bol as fast as they could. Others had stuck around, viewing their stay in the city as a sort of extended shore leave.

  The caravan and its crew were not treated poorly. No, they were respected among the other slavers and merchants. It had been interesting to learn that during her time in the realm of the Tower Lords.

  The Menagerie was well known for only dealing in debt and crime slaves. It never indulged in kidnapping or trickery like other slave trading groups did, and its main focus was on obtaining rare and dangerous beasts. That earned respect in the harsh wastes of the Dreadlands. Respect and a healthy dose of fear, at least in regard to Scarrot.

  The bitter and taciturn orc was a legendary figure in the Cracked Land, Dora had learned. He had learned how to fight ruthlessly using his whips, and was considered by many to be a Paladin of Naliot, the only one of his kind, with all the skills and blessings he had received from the Chained God.

  And he was someone that Kari considered similar to herself. That made the half-orc’s head ache with confusion. How could the raven-haired beauty be like the scarred orc and yet also be like her?

  Her mind flashed back to the parting words Kari had given her after reaching the West Tower.

  “I can tell you don’t really believe me about how we’re similar. So, why not go and ask your boss about this same issue. If you are reminiscent of my past self, then he is closest to what I am now. See what the world does to people when they try to bite off more than they can chew.”