Chapter 4: 4 – Coward

The carriage arrived while the servants and slaves awaited outside for the family to come and board it. They brought three slaves along with them: our male elf, Head Slave-Butler Gnome and another elf. A beautiful female one. The family liked to take this female elf out with them, it exuded elegance, for an elf slave. After House Liame members got on, the carriage sped off into lonely streets as our elf saw the other two slaves running after it.

“For real?”

Having no other option he followed suit.

“What... is this? My body... can barely fucki-”

“Aarghhh!”

His stomachache made him kneel, he stopped to breath and wait for it to abate.

This... is going to kill me.

Good thing for our elf the building the family headed lied a few blocks away. Still it took him about five minutes to caught up with them.

“By Ferrallia’s Circlet! You are making me look bad! Better train your weak body or you won’t last!”

[Weak then, weak now. I see no difference.]

It popped whenever it wanted, not projecting shadows but spewing venom.

This is beyond weak, even breathing takes a toll.

“Ah... ah...” No words came out. He tried to get air deep inside his lungs. Dizziness, headaches and a rising nauseating feeling assaulted his frail constitution.

He composed himself best he could after a few seconds.

“Where’s the other elf?”

“You mean Ruianne? She’s already inside with the family. I was just waiting for you!”

“Well, I’m here. Stop nagging.”

“The Lords made me check you were still coming after us. And as luck would have it, your slave collar didn’t go off, but you’ve got to be careful though, a couple steps further in the wrong direction and you’d already be dead. Not that I care about it, but it would taint my résumé. So do better next time! And if you’re about to die do it on your damn own!” said the gnome before storming inside.

So that’s how it works. Wait. Doesn’t that means... we always have to be together?!

“Come inside already and you’d better change your attitude or you won’t survive the punishment our Lords give!”

“...lovely people...”

[Reminds me of someone.]

The building’s interior expanded in a straight line towards the opposite side of it’s entrance. On its walls hung all kinds of paintings, from portraits to epic battles with unknown monsters in them. Rows of display cases exhibited an assorted variety of objects such as weapons, ornamented vases, books, and simple everyday objects, half of them with glowing inscriptions. Temporary exhibits for a refined and wealthy audience. A huge golden chandelier hanged center piece inside a circular chamber at the other end bearing an ostentatious parade of wealth in every detail. Through this large room’s center a narrow corridor, surrounded by five rows of benches on both sides, lead to a platform with an altar on top and behind it a red curtain with several banners, written in unrecognizable patterns, decorated it.

People browsed the items on display while talking to other attendees. Many wore clothes like those from House Liame, elegant and dignified. Less than half sported more practical attires and carried weapons like swords, maces, daggers and staffs. Only humans donned wealthy attires or weapons. Any other race present did so as slave. Liame family members were already at the front desk talking with a receptionist of Wareim’s Auction House while the slaves stood firm and proud awaiting further orders. Their eyes darted from individual to individual as they scanned their faces and movements.

A bookshelf lied near the entrance, old and dusty it didn’t attract any attention from humans nor slaves. Our curious elf approached it and picked up a random book.

“Hey! You elf, what are you doing?! Ruianne go get him or we are in big trouble!” Head Slave-Butler Gnome tried his best not to yell.

“B-but-”

“Just go!”

The book he picked up had pretty illustrations inside but he could not understand anything written on it.

Figures.

“You want us death?! Put it back!” Ruianne whispered, her words crumbled under pressure. “We slaves are not meant to touch anything, least of all human things!”

He turned around and had a good look a her. A beautiful young female with moon-glaring skin and golden wheat hair stood before him. Her skin glowed with an attractive force, big jiggly meats adorned her chest and her curvaceous body could twist many a mind with its elegance and grand poise. She gave off an air of superiority. For sure the prettiest female he had ever laid eyes on, by far.

“Ok... you don’t have to be all stiff about it.” The mischievous elf acknowledged her.

Did someone notice? Head Slave-Butler Gnome and Ruianne turned their heads around but everyone remained busy elsewhere. Crisis averted. Or not. Without warning a whiplash hit both elves. A bug-armored human male lashed them two more times each.

Pain, but not a reality-bending nor mind-altering pain, ran through our elf’s body. Nothing like his in final days nor the gods’ curse but poor Ruianne, a bright explosion of pain sent her straight down trying to cover herself.

“Ahh!” She failed to contain her screams.

“You had to go and do it,” said the male elf. “You alright?” And offered his hand to her.

He felt a sting on his back and with squinted eyes turned around to see the man that had lashed him once again. His blood boiled.

“You don’t know what you just did.” He spoke towards the bug-armored man while his raised hand descended in anger over his attackers’ exposed face.

“Huh?”

The outspoken elf stared at his opponent, faint lines of doubt blurred his sight. His hand missed and only managed to graze his armor. To unsuspecting eyes he hadn’t tried to hit him, he simply had approached the human to clean his armor. He sighed.

Those... demons... they’ll see.

[They did you a favor.]

Its figure popped behind his whip lasher.

And I’ll have to repay them... the sooner, the better.

“Argghhh! This slave touched me!”

Their ruckus made people stop their activities and gather around, their altercation escalated exponentially. Dozens of eyes stared expecting a good show. Head Slave-Butler Gnome rushed towards them. With a graceful pace the Liame family came right after. The disgruntled armored human unsheathed his sword and poised to strike.

[Now things are getting interesting.]

Exactly how I like them.

“Hey you... I think it’s clean, that spot there... in your armor. Look! Now it’s all shiny and-”

“An e-elf touched me!”

“Are you allergic?”

“You-”

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“Autistic?”

Head Slave-Butler Gnome helped Ruianne stand up. The Lord, Master of House Liame, took a step forward.

“You lashed our slaves! Those are not your property!“

“Then watch what they do! I saw him stealing a book!”

“Did you?” exclaimed the Lord towards the elf in question.

“I merely wanted to... clean it. Cleaning... is.. what I do! And look at those poor books... moldy and dusty... And why would I steal a book I can’t even read.”

Faces frowned with suspicion at those words.

“What you took is an elven book. All those are non-human books, no one ever touches them,” said a bearded adult from another House.

“So... what’s the problem?”

“Apart from claiming that you, an elf, can’t read elven, your slave attitude!”

“This elf doesn’t know the proper way to address its masters!” exclaimed a noble human.

“It is new, a fresh hunt, we bought it yesterday... that’s why it doesn’t now our rules and it’s not well up here.... in its head. It has been sick all day,” the young Lord from House Liame interceded.

“Be that as it may, it is no excuse. We will punish it,” the Lord of House Liame spoke.

“With a punishment for this misunderstanding, of this new and unprepared elf, this hiccup is resolved.” His wife added.

The human in the bug-like armor grumbled. Going against House Liame remained outside his current options. At least under such circumstances. He conceded. After sheathing his sword he slapped the elf’s left cheek sending him tumbling down.

“As long as you punish him Lord Derreick, I shall condone this grievance, for I already got mine.”

Lord Derreick Master of House Liame assented. And thus the problem came to a satisfactory conclusion for everyone involved. The gathered crowd dissolved, everyone went back to their own businesses. Conflicts involving slaves were not uncommon and those usually ended in punishment or death. While most trouble wasn’t caused by the slaves but the deep resentment humans had towards them, no human cared what happened to slaves, except those who payed for them. Regardless of the outcome, people enjoyed the elf’s limited outburst, anything to break monotony.

The bug armored human glared one last time at our weak elf and turned around. The Lord and Lady relaxed their postures, after all, their investment remained safe. Their minds went through punishments trying to find a fitting one.

The elf took his time but after a while stood straight.

[How does it feels? Being on the receiving end.]

I’m going to show you how it feels.

A smile crossed his face.

“Head Slave-Butler Gnome-” the Lady of House Liame spoke when a crooked voice interrupted her.

“Coward!”

Time stopped inside Wareim’s Auction House. Nobody could believe their ears, least of all the members of House Liame. The human in bug-armor turned around in disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“What everyone’s thinking. Picking on a weak elf slave that can’t defend himself... There’s a name for such people.”

The human laughed in astonishment at those words.

The elf laughed back.

“Are you laughing at me!?”

“No you bug, I’m not laughing at you. Everyone else is,” the elf said while pointing his finger at the crowd surrounding them. Their contorted and shocked faces stared at them. Or were they, laughing?

“Slave collar on!” the human shouted.

Every slave inside Wareim’s Auction House dropped to the floor writhing in pain. Most of them fainted right away. The collar-induced pain brought our mischievous elf to his knees.

Now this is more like it!

He withstood the collar’s pain and fighting through it rose once more.

“Hey! You think you’re tough bug boy!? Picking on this weak, hell, on this dying elf.”

“Why are you still standing?!”

“Big guys like you are all talk.”

“Slave collar on!”

“Stop it!” several nobles shouted in unison as their slaves laid on the floor fuming from their mouths.

“You’re going to kill all of our slaves!” someone from House Flosse screamed.

Our elf in question had fallen on his knees again and tried to keep breathing and remain conscious.

“How can this slave still be conscious when the slave collar is working!? Every race with a single call of the slave collar gets flattened out. Even the strongest races get on their knees begging for it to stop. And to withstand a second call of the collar?”

The bug-armored man turned his head addressing every human there.

“What’s this?!”

People were in disbelief.

“Does it not work?”

But pain did build up inside him. His hands trembled, legs wobbled, jolts traversed his body, sweating rivers and still, he stared at the man before him.

Strange.... I have a weak body... but at the same time I have a large tolerance to pain. What a mess you’ve made... you demon-gods. But to be truthful... I had always been built to last.

[Remember where that kind of talk took you last time.]

He smiled.

The last thing he saw was a fist coming right to his face. His mind went dark. Shouting vanished away in a foggy dream. Only peace remained.

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