PrologueThe Tranquilla family consists of a mother, three sons and one daughter - all Vherokior. The daughter's name is Aerilyn. Aerilyn is the youngest of the children.
All live their lives as slaves to an Amarrian slave-master who is one of a dying kind. The kind that still uses traditional methods of slavery, not involving either implants or any form of drugs or the like. The Khanid man, old and exhausted by living through many subtle changes in the society of the Amarr Empire cares little for anything other than the welfare of himself and his family these days. He keeps his slaves in line by means of physical punishment when they get out of it. He likes his slaves to show spirit, likes them to resist or serve with the notable sight of disapproval on their faces, but above all he likes the entertainment - as he envisions it - of punishing them when it comes to this.
He did, however, warn that should they ever cross any lines he may resort to Vitoc after all.
Only one slave was never touched, never harmed - Aerilyn. When she did something the slave-master condemned someone else in her family would be subjected to the burden of carrying the scars.Escape from SlaveryYC112.05.24, Jesoyeh VThe group strolls across the weekly market. The Khanid slave-master, despite the identical setup of this market each week, appears new to it every time. He wanders seemingly random from stand to stand, accumulating wares for the slaves to carry as he proceeds. At several stands he stops more than once, stopping, continuing to another, buying something, going back and stopping again. His eyes glance the same items in the same order. Then he holds, staring blankly at something - something additional to the fixed chain of his perception's proceedings. He seems fascinated by it, yet indifferent at the same time. It's hard to tell. Fascinated, in a vacant kind of way perhaps.
Suddenly he breaks free again, he turns abruptly in the general direction of his slaves and advances past them, his eyes fixed on the next stand. He stares right past them, his eyes not lingering, his sight not straying from the stand ahead. It's typical. The man never looks at his slaves - not in public at least, not for but a mere second. He stops at the stand and looks around frantically for about half a minute, his whole head and body moving towards and from different items as he goes until unanticipatedly he freezes. He looks closely at an item that looks like a relic of some sort.
Aerilyn moves in front of her mother and brothers and focuses her eyesight on the item as she tries to figure out what precisely it is. It doesn't look as worn as she first thought it did, that was merely the detail in carvings on some parts of the object. It appears more like a decorative artifact of some sort, shaped in gold or what looks like gold at least.
The artifact looks like a small pedestal with on top of that a round base for the work of art in the form of several snakes curled up in a circle, entwined amongst each other. Rising from that is a basin in which rests a u-shaped support - comprised of two broad leaf-like shapes intersecting at the bottom - that in turn locks in place an upward aligned person's upper arm with at the top a spread hand reaching out into the sky as if making a last attempt at seeking aid from the surface of a swamp one is drowning in. A cilinder-shaped gap is held out from the arm, embedded on its inside - centered in the arm - a chain of beads along the same cilinder shape. Much of it is decorated with inscriptions and carvings, all of it seems to be made up from one single solid block of what appears to be gold.
The Khanid man is obsessed by the looks of it. Consumed by the integrity and detail of the artifact he inspects it closely from every angle. Minutes go past and still he shows no intention of releasing focus anytime soon. Aerilyn gently pokes one of her brothers. The poke is passed on, swiftly and unseen. They all look at each other and nod. Something is happening, something had to have been discussed, because the five slaves are telling a story, they're doing it in seconds and without words. Completely out of the blue they all start running as fast as they can towards the edge of the large market where it meets a dense building block.
The slave-master stands straight up and furiously looks from one slave to another.
"Stand still NOW filthy slaves!", he shouts - it almost sounds like roaring.
One of the brothers shouts:
"Follow my lead!".
Not extremely small, but nothing length-wise in comparison to her tall brothers either, Aerilyn is less obstructed by the stands and banners hanging across the paths. She covers distance much quicker than the others.
Aerilyn looks back and yells,
"Hurry! HURRY!".
Her mother trips and tumbles to the ground, her head smashing some pottery.
"What the… Are you insane?? Someone had better pay for all of that!", says a voice nearby.
Aerilyn - alerted by the noise - comes to a stop and turns around swiftly. She sees her mother raise her head, half of it covered in blood, a shard of the pottery stuck in her cheek. For a moment, she remains paralyzed by the sight of the agony in her mother's expression. She gets her act back together and runs towards her as she calls out,
"Laishaaa!".
Aerilyn forcefully pushes a man aside from whom distant sounding bickering about some pottery appears to originate as she makes way to her mother. She bends over towards Laisha.
"Mother?", she says softly.
A furious and voluminous,
"THOSE ARE MY SLAVES! SOMEONE! STOP THEM!", grasps her attention. She looks up and sees her slave-master approaching in the distance, moving quickly and violently.
"You must not give up - we cannot go back.", she says as she helps her mother up.
They start running again, first slowly as Aerilyn supports Laisha, then carefully Aerilyn let's go.
They run and run as quick as they can. All their focus is on the escape. Voices are heard, but no words come through. Whilst ignoring the increasing amount of angry voices in the background they near the end of the market.
Aerilyn and Laisha sprint out of a market lane onto the narrow stroke of the immense plaza the market is located on, just between the market and the buildings. They skim the row of buildings with their eyes, shifting focus quickly, looking for something.
"Over here!", a loud voice says.
Aerilyn looks in the general direction of the voice and spots her brothers just at the corner of a building.
"Follow me.", she says determinedly and with Laisha following her she runs up to her brothers.
Upon arrival, as they stop running, Laisha immediately seems to collapse into the arms of one of her sons. He eases her fall and gently lowers her to the ground. At the same time about half a dozen men - the slave-master included - come running off the market ground. It takes them mere seconds to spot the slaves and they make start running towards them.
"Not only will you be sorry you tried to run away, you will be sorry you even so much as thought about it!", he shouts furiously towards the slaves.
"You will be sorry you were born a Vherokior!", he continued.
"We must go NOW!", Aerilyn says with a raging spirit,
"It is that or Vitoc!".
Aerilyn starts running, but only for a few steps. She realizes something is wrong. She turns around and sees the agony in Laisha's eyes again. Aerilyn's brothers are trying to help her up, but every time they try to start moving Laisha slips away again.
Laisha looks up at Aerilyn while clamping one of her sons - she remains quiet. For some seconds Laisha does nothing but stare at Aerilyn, with her whole face covered in blood, diluted and spread by the tears from her eyes. She looks at Aerilyn full of sorrow, full of pain and full of regret. Then she turns to her sons. She says:
"Go... all of you... leave me...".
"NOOOOO!", Aerilyn cries out and takes one step towards Laisha. She holds and looks past her mother. She sees the men coming close now, she sees impending doom.
She looks to her brothers and says:
"Come!".
"No, it's too late. We can't do this. We can't leave mother behind.", one of them responds.
"We have failed.", he adds to that.
They all say something, they all give their opinion now, but Aerilyn can no longer make out the words as she's overcome by the abhorrence of the men now so close to her and closing. While turning around and running away she faces straight up and casts a resouding scream into the air in an attempt to vent all her emotions.
Aerilyn disappears between the buildings. She keeps running. Further and further and crying all the way. She doesn't know what to think or what to do apart from running - further and further. Many thoughts go through her head right now: about her family, about Laisha's wounds, about their future - if any and about Vitoc. With each new thought that comes to mind she shudders and cries more. Her movements reflect the physical impacts of the horrors the fear and agony are forcing her mind to envision now.
All she sees is walls. Wall after wall. A corner. Another wall. It's all blurred, but still recognizable - all walls. Narrow alleyways... and walls.
For a moment she curls up and focuses, she focuses on sound. The voices are still there. All of those that were there before, perhaps even more. Angry calls are coming from all directions, all male voices. Some are distant, some are close.
Someone comes around the corner, shocking Aerilyn to an extent no words can define. Full of pain and despair as she is all she sees is a silhouette.
She jumps up screaming:
"GET AWAY FROM ME!". The person turns and looks at her.
"I WILL NOT BE A SLAVE, I WON'T, I WON'T, I WON'T", Aerilyn continues,
"I'D RATHER DIE, YOU BEAST!".
The silhouette approaches. Aerilyn stands still, frozen solid, daunted by the unknown.
A jaunty giggle sounds and a female - somewhat youthful - voice best characterized by the words 'soothing', 'naughty' and 'sparkling' asks:
"Do I look like someone who keeps slaves?", followed by another giggle.
"Who are you?", Aerilyn asks snivelling.
The voice responds:
"Would you remember in two minutes if I told you now? I don't think so.". The woman smirks.
"It doesn't really look like it matters as it would appear to me you have enough on your mind already.", she continues,
"I shall leave you to your business now - teehee.".
The woman turns around and tries to walk away as Aerilyn grabs her tight.
"Please! PLEASE t-take me with y-y-yoouuu!!", Aerilyn utters ineptly. The woman fiercely spins around thereby throwing Aerilyn off her and forces her against the wall with a firm grip. For a moment the woman remains all silent. She tilts her head a little and looks Aerilyn directly in the eyes, trying to analyze what she sees in the expression, whilst Aerilyn wiggles her head and attempts to avoid any eye contact.
Suddenly Aerilyn turns her head and looks straight ahead, her eyes wide open and unfocused as if shocked by something. She holds completely still for several seconds, as if she realizes something or sees something happening in her imagination, before she bursts out crying again and crumples to the ground whilst heavily shuddering. The cheerful yet now most intent looking woman kneels beside Aerilyn. Again she looks at Aerilyn directly for a few moments with a contemplating look in her eyes. Then she tilts her head slightly up, unfocusing her eyes, and listens to the voices in the area. Voices of anger, shouting threats and coordinating with each other on their apparent search.
"Follow me.", the woman says resolutely and she helps Aerilyn up on her feet. She starts moving and Aerilyn follows the silhouette. Constantly plagued by thoughts and sorrow she tries to keep track of it. She makes an attempt to wipe some of the tears blurring her vision, but to no avail.
Everything following beyond this point is nothing more than one big blur. Thoughts unfocused, clumsy movement, dodging walls and a regular literal helping hand restoring Aerilyn's balance are key words to the journey into the unknown that she plunged into, guided by someone she doesn't know, until finally the overwhelming feeling of a spectrum of emotions focused into a single moment paired with physical weariness lead her into a complete blackout.
....
Aerilyn wakes up in bed, or rather, in a bed. She looks around. She finds herself on a space vessel. Through a small window just above her head, between some monitors and other devices, she can see a woman. She recalls this woman only from back in the building block. It's the mysterious woman that managed to extract her from the miserable position she was in.
She thinks back to her family. Vitoc comes to mind. She realizes how the moment she abandoned her family was the moment she chose this vague freedom and left her family to deal with Vitoc on their own. Confused and immersed in thoughts, thoughts about freedom, thoughts about life, but most of all thoughts about whether or not she is to blame for the demise of a humane life for her family she lays down once more.
Aerilyn Tranquilla - realizing all she needs right now is rest - goes back to sleep.
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Topic: Escape from Slavery (Read 1872 times)