Chapter 141: Book 3 chapter 13: Dark designs

Jemini

Terlu’s POV

Terlu felt more than heard the sensation of his teeth clicking together as pain flashed through the entire lower side of his head, reverberating into his skull as his lower jaw was violently slammed into his upper jaw. He was confused and disoriented, and found himself thrashing about in a tangle of arms and hard stone as he attempted to orient himself.

[Huh?] He heard his mother’s confused voice as he was thrashing. [Terlu?] Her arm shifted on him, and then suddenly she gasped and recoiled. He was able to get his bearings at around the same time to look up and see who was standing over him. It was none other than Úrdes, glaring down at him.

[So, now I see why it is they were all calling you soft.] She scoffed, but Terlu was barely able to process what she was saying as he held his hand over his mouth. It felt like his teeth were bleeding and he had a sick feeling in his mouth. Did she just kick him!? [Hah! Don’t make that face at me!] She barked, and then Terlu had to raise his arm in order to protect himself against another kick that was coming his way. [Your slaves are back, and it’s time for breakfast. I’m going to stick around here and make sure you don’t pull any crap like sharing your food with them.]

Terlu cast wild glances around the room and saw the four small children standing on the other side of the room near their beds. They all looked considerably worn down compared to how he remembered them only a few days ago, and there were some obvious signs of fresh injuries on their faces and arms. One thing was particularly striking about the whole situation though.

[Where’s Sam!?] He looked up at her and demanded.

[Oh, that one you favored?] Úrdes said with a sneer. [It sounds like one of the Nirodgir liked what he saw when she was out in the mines. She won’t be coming back.]

[WHAT!? Terlu scrambled and got himself standing when he heard that, the pain in his jaw was forgotten and he glared menacingly at the small woman in front of him.

[Hey! I don’t have her, this is way over my head as well. I have no control over what the Nirodgir do. You want that girl of yours back, here’s what you do. You get yourself stronger, you join the Nirodgir yourself, and you kill whoever it was who took your property from you and then lay claim to everything they own. It seems like you got the talent kid, as well as the guts. You stood up to that enforcer for no reason more than the sheer indignity he’d shown you. That’s the kinda gut’s that’s needed to survive around here. You just stick with me, I’ll toughen and train you up to get that girl of yours back.] She chuckled and sneered, making it very clear Sam’s well-being was really the very last thing on her mind.

[So, what are you gonna do?] She asked, sneering at Terlu.

Terlu’s mind reeled. He felt violated and gutted in the worst possible way, and now that he knew some guy had grabbed Sam while he was not around to do anything about it, it stood to reason he was also terrified for her sake.

But wait, this woman! She’s lied before. Well, he wasn’t even sure if she lied or not. When she defended herself during that trial, she didn’t even bat an eyelash as she gave her story. It would have almost convinced him even if he hadn’t seen how freaked out she’d looked when he cracked that rock. He had to find more information.

He looked over to his bed where there were two trays set in front of it, both prepared with one of those fancier meals he was always being served.

[This is what I’m going to do.] He said. He walked over between the two trays, turned and spit on one of them, noticing there actually was blood in his saliva as it coated the mushrooms and meat in the dish. He stared at the streak of red for a second before sitting in front of the other dish and picking up his spoon. [That was for kicking me.] He growled.

Úrdes looked visibly irritated at his response, and then she sneered. She walked up to the tray he just spat in, picked it up, and then hurled it across the room where it struck one of the children in the chest, causing him to yelp as the heavy dish and the hot gravy went all over the front of his clothes. Terlu watched, frozen in place as Úrdes stood challengingly between him and them. The others huddled around the boy who was hit and got the dish off him, and then they started picking the meat and vegitables off of his chest and the floor and then putting them in their mouths, scrambling like animals over the food that was just thrown at them as a weapon.

Terlu’s face twisted in disgust at what he was seeing. What had they been fed in the past few days to make them all THAT desperate!? How did they pick up such a behavior? Just like his mother, they all looked a lot skinnier as well.

He glared up at Úrdes, who had a twisted grin of satisfaction at the whole situation. [Good boy.] She said. [If you’d gotten up to help them, I was going to claim your food for myself. I’ll just get myself something at the cafeteria down in the Nogoth area instead since you are being so nice and obedient now. Looks like everything worked out after all, you like feeding these worthless lower slaves our food like some kind of gift to train them like loyal dogs, right? Well, they just got an entire plate’s worth between them.]

Terlu glared at her, causing her to shift about uncomfortably. [Uhh… hey! I’m doing this under orders!] She said. [I take pride as a trainer, I’m one of the best! I’m just doing my job, it’s as much your punishment as it is mine. I’m going to treat you the same as I would any other kid fresh off his blessing. I still can’t believe they had us start your training before you’ve even gotten your blessing though.] She groaned in frustration and then glared down at his mother. [Well, I’m certain you’ll be getting it before you become too dangerous anyway.] She had an evil grin that seemed to realy scare his mother for some reason.

[I think you are enjoying it too much.] Terlu snipped at her and then took a bite of his meal, only to groan in pain and grab his jaw as his smashed and damaged teeth found it difficult to chew.

-

After a difficult experience just trying to eat his meat and vegetables, Úrdes allowed Terlu just a few minutes to talk with the other children… his slaves… before she dragged him right back down to the “Nogoth” level. He didn’t really get all that much useful out of them. Unlike himself and Sam, these kids were really just kids. While they were supposedly at the same level of development as him and Sam, their communication skills left a lot to be desired.

The best he was able to get out of them was that when the priestess came to drag them off to the mines, suddenly the priestess seemed really mad when she looked at Sam. And then, after they were brought to work sorting rocks that were brought down from the mine, another very scary looking priest came by and dragged Sam off by the wrist. Úrdes had said it was a man, and part of this Nirodgir group, who were supposed to be Nogoth like him and Úrdes. But the kids were saying it was a priestess, and an elf at that.

The two stories were clearly not lining up, but the strangest thing was easily the fact that Úrdes had let him talk to the kids about this in the first place. Shouldn’t she have been afraid her lie would get found out? If anything, she just looked very pleased with herself as Terlu glared at her after hearing the story from the children that was completely inconsistent with her version of the events.

[Why?] He asked her, once they were settled in on the lower Nogoth level.

[Why what?] She asked.

[Why did you lie to me about who took Sam, and then let me talk to the kids about it to find out?]

[What makes you so sure I lied?] She challenged. [Let me tell you a little something about how things work here for us Nogoth. Those slaves of yours are Naugrim, the only slaves lower than them are Edan which are only good for breeding and making more Naugrim and Nogoth. Naugrim like them have weak magic and are only good for their strong bodies which is good for work.]

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[You, as a Nogoth, are a higher tier product for our masters. You are considered highly enough that they will even give you Naugrim like them as your own slaves. You are a slave who owns lower slaves, and you don’t even have a master yet. But then, maybe you’re too stupid to realize how significant that really is.]

[To give you a better picture of this, even though you are a slave, no common elf would even have enough authority to own you. Right now, you are in training, so the only ones who actually own you are the trainers and the enforcers. I am your trainer, that makes me your master from now until you find your place in one of the three divisions.]

[The lowest division of Nogoth, by their value and the potency of their magic, are the earth shapers. They are put in the mine, and they have to answer to the overseers. Some elven overseers can even be male, that’s how low a position it is, so being at the command of some of them is truly an embarrassment as a Nogoth.]

[Next is the enforcers. The enforcers answer directly to the church of Iuutel. Their job is to punish the cowardly, keep the blood flower fed and harvest it’s vines, and to oversee trainers like me. The enforcers all wear hats made from fibers taken from the blood flower vines, it enhances their magic and makes them really powerful.]

[Some of the rarest and most powerful Nogoth though, the absolute best, can join the ranks of the Nirodgir. The Nirodgir used to have the job of keeping the land devourer tamed and under control. But, now that Iuutel has personally come down and slayed the beast, now they are the direct servants of Iuutel. They may be Nogoth, but their authority is strong enough that they only answer to the high-priest. An elf doesn’t even have the right to command them. If you’ve got any brain cells in your head, I’m sure you can figure out what that means.]

So, she’s implying that these Nirodgir would be able to order the priestesses around? There was something else she said that was bothering him though, and he had to get it cleared up before he could dwell on this issue too much longer.

[You said that the Nirodgir answer to the high-priest. But you said no elf could command the Nirodgir too, and you said priest, doesn’t that mean he’s male?] That was another thing he’d picked up in the way everyone here talked, their social hierarchy was definitely a matriarchy of such extreme proportions that they considered males dirt. So, what’s this whole high priest deal all about?

[Hah! Well, I suppose you wouldn’t know, would you?] Úrdes scoffed. [Well, it can’t be helped. You haven’t had your blessing ceremony after all. Alright then, I’ll tell you. The high-priest is a dragon. And it doesn’t matter if he’s male, he’s still far above any elf.]

A dragon!? Are you freaking serious!? A real dragon is running this whole show!?

[Oh? What’s with that face?] Úrdes says [I thought for sure you’d be all “what’s a dragon?” or something like that. You should at least look indifferent about it… unless… you actually already knew what a dragon is? How could you know what a dragon is but not know the high-priest was one? What kind of useless stuff has your mother been filling your head with?]

Shoot! He almost messed up there and got caught!

[Well, whatever. That woman is worthless anyway. Just stick with me kid, and I’ll correct all those little flaws in your education. That’s my job after all.]

Great! NOW she wants to play nice with him! If only she could stop insulting his mother while she was at it.

-

Sam’s POV

It had been two days since Sam was dragged out of her cell with the other children, and a day since one of the priestesses had grabbed her and brought her right back to the church. A lot of the priestesses had seemed very upset at the time, and for some strange reason they kept talking about her mother a lot, referring to her as “the real source of that power.” She also heard them muttering things like “a waste” and “that worthless man.” She seriously could not make sense of any of it. So many things had changed so quickly, and she honestly was no longer following any of it.

She was put into a room with a comfortable bed, and she was told to change clothes into a fine looking robe. Later, one of the priestesses came in and knelt down in front of her, getting on her eye level. For some reason, this priestess was asking her a whole lot of questions about her mother, but chief among them was [Do your remember your mother? Do you miss her? Do you want to see her again?] Sam was pretty certain they were talking about her mother in this world, not in her previous life. Honestly, she barely even remembered her mother in this world other than the fact she was around for a while to breast feed both her and Terlu after they were born.

Well, she may not remember her mother much, but if they were offering to reunite her with her mother then she had absolutely no reason to refuse the offer. This is why she answered “yes” to those questions. The priestess seemed extremely pleased with that answer for some reason, pleased to an extent that Sam was quite frankly unsettled by the whole thing.

[Alright, well, that’s good.] The priestess said. [We are doing what we can to find her right now. If we can find her, you should be able to meet her again. Would that make you happy?]

There was really something creepy about the way this priestess asked that question. Sam was certain she was not getting all the information, this woman knew something and it was something very not good. But, all Sam could do was just give a weak nod in response, and the priestess seemed way too happy about her answer as she left.

Every single thing about this situation seemed totally wrong, and she really couldn’t figure out exactly what it was that was off about it. But, every single thing she knew and every single instinct she had was screaming that she was in the middle of something very big right now, and it was going to end very badly for her. She was definitely not someone they had considered as worth their attention any time before. Everything before now had looked like they expected her to be Terlu’s slave or something, and after Terlu had been dragged off they took her to work in some slave mine. Why would they be treating her the same way Earth would treat a normal child all of a sudden? She was not just going to believe they suddenly got some kind of streak of decency.

She was left to wait alone in that room for a few hours after that. In the meantime, she was brought something to eat. It wasn’t the normal tasteless paste-stuff she was served either, it was one of those high-class meals they alway served Terlu, and she was given this one all to herself. There was definitely something very off here. But, she decided to just accept the food and eat it while it was there anyway. She might have considered sharing the same way Terlu always did if the others were here, but she was by herself, so that just meant it was all for her and only her.

It was later in the day that the other shoe dropped, as Sam had been dreading and expecting the entire time. [We found out where your mother was.] A stern faced priestess said when she came in and just announced that without preamble. [She’s dead. Some worthless overly-enthusiastic man killed her.]

Sam stared back at this priestess, not even knowing how to process this information. First off, did she even really care? Well, it WAS her mother. She didn’t know her long, but it DID mean something for her mother in this world to be dead. The priestess didn’t go into all the details, but the way she had phrased it “overly-enthusiastic man.” She could guess what he was probably doing at the time he killed her mother, and that was something that would probably get her wanting blood even if it wasn’t her mother who was killed that way.

[I will leave you alone for a while.] She said. [We are going to be bringing that man in for punishment. Since she was your mother, you will have an opportunity to take part. Think about what you want to do until then.]

The door was closed, leaving Sam alone with her own thoughts. Was this the priestess’ sick game from the start? Locking her in this room and raising her expectations with talk about her mother, and then letting her down later by saying she was dead? Did they know about all of this from the start? If so, what would be the point of all that?

Sam was starting to feel like she was just in the middle of some kind of really twisted mind game. Nothing at all made sense today. What should she even be doing or thinking right now? She didn’t know at all. And, again, why was it that they seemed interested in her all of a sudden? Absolutely none of it made any sense at all.

And still, she had to deal with the bomb shell that priestess had just left in her lap. She said she’d have the opportunity to help punish the man who killed her mother. Should she do it? It was incredibly obvious this was exactly what they wanted her to do. But, really, should she? If what they said was right, then this guy definitely deserved it! But… absolutely everything about this seemed wrong. Completely wrong.

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