As the lift reached the maximum height I turned around to face what the new front would be. The bearmen gave me one final order,

“Whatever you do, do not speak to the guards. Do not make eye contact with them and keep your head down, understand? Things are different in the upper city,” He warned. I nodded to show my understanding and prepared myself.

When the lift reached I could see a massive stone gatehouse, the light-colored grey stone was of much higher quality than anything used in the lower city. The stone walls were also massive, I originally thought this was just part of the cliff but I was wrong. Not only that, the guards standing at attention were leagues above anything I’ve seen so far in this city.

Rather than looking like a bunch of conscripted bandits these men and women were highly equipped soldiers. Their grey half plate and steel swords were night and day differences compared to the lower city guards. I guess this is where all the money goes for the security budget.

The aura the guards emitted was that of trained professional soldiers, not city guards. There were also a few individuals wearing grey cloaks carrying staffs with purple gems at the end, the gems looked like the sparring stones I’d used once before back in the village. So they even have mage soldiers here? Where was the kind of presence in the lower city?

Everyone began to awkwardly shuffle off the lift and funneled into lines to be screened by the guards. There were about 50 people waiting to get searched by the guards, most of them seemed like regular civilians but there were a good amount of slaves as well. The atmosphere was tense, the only voices that could be heard were that of the guards asking routine questions and people answering quietly.

Even though we were at the back of the lift the bearman pushed through the crowds to get into the middle of one of the lines. We waited without speaking to each other until one of the guards beckoned us over,

“Identification,” He droned off.

The young man looked to be around his early twenties with chestnut brown hair, he clearly did not want to be here right now. It was most likely the end of his rotation. My guide took out a piece of parchment and handed it over to the guard.

“What about the little one?”

“The young one lost his in the riot,” The bearman’s Human language was far better than his Elvish. I wonder if he thinks I can’t speak it either.

The guard sighed, “No can do. He needs a pass or he can’t come through.”

“Perhaps you could take a second look at my pass,” He did not phrase his response as a question rather a suggestion. The bearman was almost an entire head taller than the young guard and he kept his deep baritone voice low and even. It was almost borderline threatening, I’d be wary if a giant Beastmen was standing over me like this.

The guard seemed like he could care less about how someone was speaking to them and unrolled the parchment and began muttering to himself while he read. Then he stopped and peaked over the pass and double-checked repeatedly, “You are the Viceroy’s servant?”

“Yes, we both are.”

“I see… well I can-”

“Are you going to be the one to tell the Viceroy why I am late making a delivery? If so, I don’t mind waiting.”

“Well I-I mean the rules say…”

“I am aware of the rules, sir. But the Viceroy needs to be notified. Would you please do it while we wait for a pass for the young one?” He interrupted the guard mid-sentence and rather sternly.

Isn’t this man walking a dangerous line? Even if this guard was just a rank and file soldier he was still way above us slaves on the social hierarchy. He could just cut our heads off right now for speaking to him like this.

However, the guard who seemed lackadaisical at first was now bright-eyed and sweating a bit despite the chill in the air. I was quite cold myself so he must really be stressing out. Was the Viceroy so important that this guard would forgo his duty? And just who is the Beastmen?

“Just don’t lose it again, I won’t let this slide a second time. You both may pass.”

The guard begrudgingly gave us the all-clear and we were allowed to cross. My guide took back his pass and pushed me forward through the checkpoint. A few of the other guards eyed me suspiciously but most didn’t even bother looking my way.

I guess being dressed like a dirty orphan has its perks. And man did this go better than I thought. There was no way I was going to be able to get through any checkpoint if this was what the security was like. In my current state, I would have been lucky to kill the first guard let alone the mages.

“Thank you,” I muttered.

“Do not thank me yet, little Elf. You are not safe yet. That guard just happened to have been on the Viceroy’s payroll. We were lucky,” He said matter of factly.

“Did you just gamble with my life?”

I looked up so I could see his face but he just shrugged his shoulders and continued moving me forward. This guy just rolled the dice with my life, didn’t he? Well, I got lucky this time at least but I’d rather not be using what little luck I have in back-to-back situations.

As we moved through the tunnel to the other side of the gatehouse the view of what lay beyond was shocking. When I imagined the capital city of a merchant nation, this is what I expected. Comparing the upper city of Ostela to the lower city was probably a crime in this nation.

Even though this was technically the same city it was like two different worlds. The buildings were made of dark brown wood like the lower city but they were all uniform in design, giving the city an appearance of unity. The houses also weren’t shanty at all and the sight of thrown-together markets were nowhere to be seen.

As far as I could see buildings stretched out into the distance and at the center was a large palace made of marble. At least I assumed it’s marble, the white stone was bright even from here. The dark wood and blue-colored accents made the white marble pop in the late morning sun.

“We can not gawk forever. We must stay moving in the upper city, getting stopped will be dangerous. Keep your head down and eyes low, if you receive the ire of someone, I may not be able to protect you again.”

Without giving me time to respond the bearman urged me forward into the sprawling city. The first thing I noticed was paved roads, well cobblestone roads but it was the first time I’d seen something besides dirt. The streets were wide as well with enough room for two carriages to move alongside each other. The number of denizens moving around had decreased but not all that much. The slave count had also decreased as well. Before most slaves were wearing close to nothing but those in the upper city were dressed to keep them from being eyesores, most wore full-body cloaks covering themselves. The people here were also dressed much nicer and this place gave off the air of belonging to a higher class.

We were forced to walk down the street in a line with other slaves, I must be a walkway just for slaves to be in as no regular civilian was walking in this lane. The only time slaves weren’t walking in this lane was if they were being accompanied by their master. I also noticed that far more slaves in the upper city had the red metal slave collars around their necks.

Before it seemed like only a few who were probably mages had them but now it was almost every slave had one. And I doubt all of these slaves were capable of using magic. The only ones who didn’t seem to have them on were Beastmen.

While walking down the cobbled streets I saw something familiar for the first time in my new life. And it was glass. There was no glass at all in Owlkirk and I didn’t even see any in the lower city. However, the glass was very unclear and must have had a lot of impurities in it.

Perhaps they have not mastered the art of crafting glass? No, it’s more likely that this was more cost-effective or perhaps done recently. Although nearly everything from the buildings to the roads seemed to have been thought out from the very beginning the glass somehow seemed new. Glass also tended to be expensive in early periods of time and few could afford it, especially clear glass.

But I managed to catch a warped glimpse of myself and… I looked awful. I haven’t been able to see my face in a long time and I looked downright depressing. Just by being starved for this long, I’ve already lost what little muscle I had on my body but seeing my face really drilled in the fact that I’ve lost a lot of weight. And I didn’t have a lot of weight to lose in the first place.

My eyes looked sunk in and my face was covered in dry blood from my broken nose. Seeing my battered form made my heartache, if Mom or Dad saw me like this they would probably have a stroke. Hell, even I don’t want to look like this. Have I ever looked so defeated before?

I banished the negative thoughts and focused on the task at hand. If I wanted to change my current state I needed to get out of this hell hole, alive.

At this point, we walked to the side of the palace and were quite close to it. Although it was still a fair distance away, being this close still made it seem all the more opulent. I guess they decided to forgo protection and maximum beauty for the palace. When you are a nation that runs on commerce, if you have to defend your central palace, you’ve probably already lost everything else anyway. My guide has stayed silent but I noticed we had looped around this district twice now. This district had only a few people walking about but there were still plenty of storefronts and housing.

“What are we doing?” I asked quietly.

“Making sure we are not being followed. If we are being followed I can smell them easier if we loop around. But it seems all is well. We are nearly there, so stay patient for just a little longer.”

After finishing the final loop we made it to what appeared to be a random clothing store. The sign hanging from the door read, Silver Fox Outlet. My guide wasted no time and ushered me into the store. The store was warm inside and had a mixture of different smells to it, it smelt… manly? I guess they sell cologne here along with clothing?

We were greeted by a young woman wearing what could best be described as a butler uniform. She has shoulder-length brown hair and had a stern look about her as she eyed us. We were the only ones in the store not that my guide seemed to care as he walked straight up to the woman and spoke in Human,

“The forest requires tending.”

The woman who was glaring at us before smiled and ushered us into the back room. The backroom was filled to the brim with textiles and incomplete clothing. She moved over to a shelf that was overflowing with different materials and forced her hand into a piece of red cloth. Immediately a soft thunk went off and the wall of textiles swung open, revealing a dark passage.

Well… that’s about as standard as it gets. Is this some type of underground railroad? I guess where there is a hub of slavery there are those who want to subvert it. I guess I could always just ask, we should be safe now.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“A place for those who wish to find freedom. This is the home of The Keepers, they are good people. I have been working with them for many years, they can help you where I can not.”

Years? This man couldn’t have been older than 20…

“How old are you, sir?”

The man patted my head and spoke softly, “No need to speak so formally, we are one and the same after all. And I will be turning 39 this coming fall.”

39?! He doesn’t look a day past 20… yet he is almost 40?

His deep chuckle reverberated against the stone passage, “Surprised? We may not live as long as you Elves, but time is much kinder to my kin than Humans.”

“Do beastmen live a long time?”

“No, we live as long as Humans do. True Beastmen live even shorter lives than most Humans.”

“I see…”

The silence stretched on as we continued down. We were heading down deeper into the abyss. The passage must have been carved out and supported using earth magic. Candles were lit periodically down the tunnel giving a minimal amount of light to not make it dark and-

“Stop,” The man grabbed me and held me back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Look,” He pointed towards the ground and I could see a thin, almost invisible wire was taut from one wall to the other. “It seems they missed a trap. You must keep your eyes open as much as your ears, little Elf.”

I mentally slapped myself and groaned, so much for all that training. I’m so tired I finally let the feeling of safety wash over me. I would have walked straight into that wire without the help of my friend here and well… I don’t want to know what would have happened to me. I mean it’s not my fault they left the trap but if I got hurt I’d be the one regretting it anyways.

“Thanks, again.”

He just grunted softly while he picked me up and placed me over the tripwire. I mean he didn’t have to do that… I don’t think I like being manhandled so easily, whatever. I need to go to sleep, I’m getting too grouchy for my own good.

After about 5 minutes of walking the tunnel began to get wider and we stepped into a small cave where a large iron door sat. He knocked on the iron door rapidly until the shutter slid open.

A pair of purple eyes looked us up and down and shut the slider. I could hear the mechanisms of locks being undone then the giant iron door slid open with a whine. A High Elf woman with wavy blue hair was waiting beyond the door.

“It is good to see you, Deya.”

“I’d say it’s good to see you too old man but if you are here that means you got captured again?” The woman named Deya said kindly.

“Indeed I did. I was caught in a port in the Mists. And you call me old man yet you are nearly 200 years older than me woman-” Deya didn’t give him a chance to finish as she bonked him in the head with the flat of her long sword.

“It’s rude to talk about a woman's age, especially in front of someone so young,” She said curtly. She looked at me and gave me a warm smile, “And who are you, young man?”

“Kaladin,” I answered back.

“See to this little Elf’s safe return, Deya. I must go, the longer I delay my return the more likely I am to be found.”

My guide turned to leave but I called out to him,

“Wait! Your name… what is it?”

How could I have spent all this time with him and never asked his name? I was so preoccupied I didn’t even think about giving a simple greeting… this man has helped me so much in such a short amount of time.

He turned around and patted me on the head again, “My name is Sorn. Goodbye, Kaladin. May we never meet again,” he said softly as he began walking back down the tunnel.

He’s just gone? Just like that? Why doesn’t he want to escape this city? And why does he never want to meet me again? Sensing my confusion Deya answered my own concerns for me,

“He says that to every child he brings us. He believes that if he sees you again that means he failed to free you. Honestly, I wish he would think of something else to say…” She said with a sigh.

I see… that makes some sense, kind of. A weird way to go about it but he is a nice guy at least, thank you Sorn, and I hope I meet you again someday.

“Now then, let’s get you some food, clean clothes, and get Remi to take a look at your nose, okay?”

Deya took my hand and gently guided me through the safe house. She pointed out a few things to me like the sleeping quarters, the toilets, the mess hall, and a few other places. There were a decent amount of people here as well. I was expecting a lot of slaves but there didn’t seem to be that many. I saw about 10 people who looked like slaves. Maybe some just got sent to safety recently? A lot of the slaves were women and children.

Deya parted some curtains and a middle-aged human man was standing in a small room with a bed. He turned his head slightly and began complaining immediately,

“Can’t you even knock, Deya? What if I already had a patient in here?” He complained.

“Knock on what Remi? The thin cloth separating you from the hallway? Besides I can hear you alone in here, now I need you to help our new friend Kaladin, please.”

The man sighed while taking a knee and brushed the matted down hair out of my face,

“Broken nose, starvation, fatigue… A half Dark Elf half High Elf? Never seen that before.” Remi droned off as he took stock of me with his piercing blue eyes.

“Is that not common? Being a mixed Elf?” I asked.

“Yes, it is quite rare. Elves already have difficulty making children during sex- GAH!? What was that for?!”

Deya had smacked Remi with the flat side of her sword but much harder than she did to Sorn. Remi was now on both his knees clutching his head in pain. I could already feel the welt rising up on the top of his head.

“REMI! He is a child! What is wrong with you! Use that big brain of yours and be smarter about your choice of words!” Deya scolded Remi like he was the child.

I guess if you had to compare their age he probably was a child to her. Remi was probably in his mid-thirties… I think. My understanding of people’s actual age is getting tossed around constantly. I mean if Deya was supposed to be over 200 years old she was looking great, I would have put her in her late twenties at most.

“I mean I wasn’t wrong…damn woman, you didn’t have to hit me so hard,” Remi groaned while rubbing the top of his head tenderly. He sighed and looked over at me,

“Uh… yes. It is rare… you see Elves have one of the hardest times uh… making babies… yes. And when two different types of Elves try it’s even more difficult. Even more so since you are Dark Elf and well Dark Elves don’t really leave The Barrens all that often so it makes you even rarer. I’ve never seen an Elf with two different colored eyes before either… I wonder if that’s because you are a mix of the different subspecies...” Remi monologued while eyeing me more like a novelty test subject than a patient. I could feel Deya becoming more and more annoyed by the second.

“Remi, you can ask him questions later, the boy has a broken nose. Help him already, he is covered in his own blood!”

“Ah, yes, I’m sorry. I let my curiosity get the better of me, please forgive me,” He gave me a slight bow.

“It’s fine, thank you for helping me.”

“Aww you are so nice Kaladin, let me go get you a fresh change of clothes and some warm food, okay? You must be really hungry. Then we can talk about some things,” Deya said warmly.

Remi guided me to bed and had me sit down while he pulled a stool over to sit down,

“Your nose is broken but I can fix it. The break seems pretty clean so you shouldn’t have any permanent damage but I’m going to have to reset it."

“Can’t you use magic?” I asked.

“Sadly I’m not a mage, just a normal person. I wish I could but I can’t, so this is all I can do for you. Here let me get you something for the pain… this is probably going to hurt a lot. I'm sorry in advance.”

Remi got up and went to a shelf that had various bottles of liquids in it. I recognized a few of them from Grandpa’s store but there was also a good amount that I didn’t recognize. Remi grabbed a bottle of milky white liquid and walked over to me.

“No, I don’t want to take that,” I said quickly.

“Huh? It’s going to hurt a lot and I’m only going to give you a- wait do you know what this is?”

I didn’t need to know exactly what it was but a milky white substance that relieves pain is very common in any world. I’m not sure how strong it is but if it’s an opioid, I don’t want it. Getting addicted to that stuff would be disastrous and considering magic exists that stuff might be even stronger. Besides, correcting a broken nose was nothing to me.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ll take some Blood Bush root if you have any.” At least I knew Blood Bush root wasn’t addictive.

“If you say so. I guess I do have a little bit left anyway,” Remi fiddled around in his medicine cabinet and pulled out some of the dried root. He cut half of it off and ground it into a powder with a pestle and mortar. “I’m surprised you know so much about herbs, most people want the stronger stuff anyways. I figured you must be in a lot of pain but I guess you seem fine, here open wide.”

I lifted my tongue up and he poured the dried powder under my tongue, letting it dissolve into my bloodstream. When you dried Blood Bush root it was stronger and acted faster. I could already feel the pain-numbing a little bit in just a few minutes.

“Now then, it should be kicking in so let me wipe down your face a bit.”

He walked over to a wash basin and cleaned his hands then grabbed a towel. He began to gently wipe away the blood off my face and mouth. I was expecting him to be a little rougher but he was taking extra care not to hurt me.

“There we go all cleaned up, you are looking better already. Now then, let’s get the hard part out of the way, are you ready?”

I nodded and Remi gave me a small strip of leather, “Bite down on this. I’ll give you a countdown.”

I bit down on the leather while Remi began placing his fingers on my nose. My nose was very tender and it hurt but the pain was minor compared to my phantom pains in my ears and on my chest.

“Okay, 1… and 2…”

Snap.

Although it didn’t hurt that much, tears still flowed from my eyes.

“Aright not bad, you took it like a champ, great job kid. It looks good already, the swelling is going to be bad for a week or 2 but that’s it. I’ll give you some medicine to help with that so you can sleep easy tonight,” Remi said with a smile.

“Thank you, Mr. Remi.”

“Ah, just doing my job. Now, where is that damn woman…”

“I have a name you know, would it kill you to use it?” Deya said coldly. Remi let out an Eeep of surprise as Deya walked in with a bundle of clothes and a bowl of food.

“Here you go, Kaladin. Let’s get you out of those and into something cleaner.”

Deya handed me a fresh set of clothes and I changed into them quickly. They weren’t much but they were far better than the filthy blood-stained rags I was wearing right now. Besides, having clean underwear made me feel like a person again.

Once I was finished she handed me the bowl of porridge with a stipulation,

“Eat slowly. If you do, I'll get you another bowl.”

At first, I slowly dug into the food. I knew that eating fast after being starved was bad for your health and I ran the risk of just throwing it up but… it isn’t water soup, this is amazing. Deya bonked me on the head with her hand lightly,

“Slowly. Eat. Slowly.”

I nodded and slowed my pace. Sorry.

“Now then, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself, Kaladin?”