Chapter 028: Heart of Darkness

“You look weird.” Simea said, when we got close to the slave trading establishment. “Really weird.”

I sighed. “Well, sorry for trying to look better. This particular mission might require using charisma rather than magic, so I decided to prepare for that. Besides, what the hell is weird in my clothing?!”

For this mission I decided to steal Ramshiran’s robe. He had a spare one tucked in his study. It looked better than my normal robe, with a bit of golden embroidery, but I refused to wear it for our excursions into anomalies for trips into Ambryxis. Reason was simple - it drew unwanted attention, since it made me look like a much stronger sorcerer than I in fact was, meaning that sapient enemies would probably give me higher priority in battles.

I also flat out refused to wear anything that belonged to Ramshiran unless I really had to. Since I lacked money for a proper… representative clothing, I left this robe as an exception.

“Uhm… I don’t have a clue.” Excuse me? “I think I just got used to seeing you in your plain, pitch black robe that it’s weird for me to see you in anything else. Even your pajamas look similar.”

Uh. “Well, I just like black colour. I’m overweight in real life and black clothing makes you look slimmer. Alright, we are here.”

There was a small complex of buildings that housed the biggest ‘company’ dealing in sex slaves in Ambryxis. It was in fact an association of trainers and other specialists in this… ‘trade’, that came together and decided to cooperate. It was even ran by a board of directors (sort of), making it somewhat close to real world companies.

“Now, an important thing.” I turned towards Simea. “I speak, you remain silent. When I speak to you, you agree and then stay silent. Also, try to not make faces that would betray your approach to slavery. Pretend to be interested. Interested.” I added, to clarify what I meant. “You are a night elf, you should act like one at least in public. Got it?” She nodded. “Another important thing. I’m going to… act. I hate to say it, but leaving good impression might be useful for us in the future.” She nodded again. Surprisingly obedient for her. Hm. What is she trying to pull? “Good, follow me.”

***

The waiting room would look like one at the dentist, if not for rather… deviant pieces of art that were used to decorate it. Mostly paintings, of either naked bodies or sexual intercourses. Sigh. Simea remained steadfast and managed to keep pretending she wasn’t shocked, even when I purposefully choose chairs right in front of a large painting on which a very young man wearing girly clothes was being…

Sigh. Just sigh. I don’t even want to think about it. The fact that it would be socially acceptable in at least few ancient civilizations on Earth didn’t help. You all need Jesus Christ, period.

Teasing Simea was going to be fun. Though, even I was going to pay for it by being forced to help her carry her ‘burdens’ right after leaving this place. Well, I explicitly warned her not to go, right?

We waited for a while, before our time came. We were registered (locals had a serious approach to their business) and soon after that a woman approached us.

Human. Brown hair. Curvy body, definitely pleasing to eye especially with her cleavage (she showed a lot there). She wore a miniskirt and a looong stockings.

So, an attendant. She didn’t have a collar, so a free one. There were some slave ones I could see. Probably trained to the point when they fully accepted being slaves and were capable of actually helping slavers with a genuine enthusiasm. Stockholm Syndrome, if you asked me.

“In the name of the Ensnared Lily, I wish to officially welcome you in our humble establishment.” She said officially. “My name is Veala, and I’m here to help you find merchandise to suit your needs.”

“Wonderful.” I raised from my seat. “Let’s go then.” Simea raised as well, eyeing our guide curiously.

They probably sent one of more experienced attendants. Not the best one, though. We were a curio that was hard to be categorized. On one hand, we looked like complete noobs, a newbie adventurers that decided to spent some of their money on indulging themselves rather than getting stronger gear (it almost always was a terrible idea). Which meant we were soon going to be dead. On the other hand, we were an amalthian and a night elf, a very rare species even in Dragonspine Mountains.

This meant that even with spending our money on useless things we might still live to see tomorrow. Maybe even end up strong and influential. It was important to treat us fairly just in case. She was probably expected to probe us in the same time, to ascertain our worth as future customers.

I probably scored a point by not asking about things straight away. This wasn’t the way such deals were struck. Being impatient meant losing money.

We followed her to... a study. More or less. There was a large table in the middle with two chairs on our side. Plus a desk with a lot of papers behind it. The guide sat on a chair between the table and the desk, with the papers close enough for her to grab them without standing up.

“So, before we start..” Guide said when we sat. “Do you wish anything to eat? To drink? Or maybe I should have a slave service you in the meantime?”

Oh yes, getting a slave to give us a handjob or blowjob beneath the table was a great idea! Actually no, it wasn’t. This was another test. A stupid one, though one that ALMOST made Simea break her pokerface.

First, we were a completely new, untested customer. If they allowed any sort of trash coming from who knows where to sample their goods like that, they would become the dumbest brothel in the world. One where you could get laid for free, all you had to do was pretend you wanted to buy a slave. Second, she didn’t even ask for the certificate that we are clear of STDs. Even if there was a really low value slave prepared for it, this was a stupid risk.

You don’t even know who are you trying to dance with, woman. Time to show you how it’s done.

“Really? You let completely random people use your slaves like that? On the first visit? Without even showing you proof we are healthy?” I shook my head. “I heard you were pretty well renowned shop, but that’s seriously underwhelming.”

I caught her off-guard. Exposing one’s scheme openly like that is almost always a great idea to catch people off-guard. They want to play with you? That’s their problem, just don’t play along.

She gawked at me with visible surprise, before she managed to conjure something akin to a response.

“Well, that wasn’t… uhm… “ Okay, nevermind, this isn’t a response. “I’m sorry, I’m in fact a new one, we aren’t supposed to offer it to new clients, but I forgot about it completely. “Riiight. And that golden necklace you got as a gift. Trying to pretend to be a complete no-name to avoid giving us a bad impression of the Ensnared Lily?

“Of course. You are a new to the job.” I rolled my eyes theatrically. “I accept the apology, mostly because I don’t wish to remain here longer than I have to. Let’s proceed to the presentation of your goods without further delay.” I gave her the coldest and most bored look I could conjure.

“What exactly are you searching for? We have everything you can dream of.” Sigh. She is still shaken, isn’t she? No normal person would use a phrase ‘we have everything’ in a speech with a customer.

“Everything?” I chuckled. “Then… a domestic elf, perhaps? Oh, of course not, they died out millenia ago.” While being a reason for elves looking better than humans on average. Back then all elves besides them looked like normal humans with pointy ears. They even had beards. “Well, what we are searching for… well, simply for someone to lift our boredom.” I let her process this for a while. To understand the fact that I’m so perverted and degenerate that I got bored with a night elf in my bed.

She was weak. She had experience with the job, but her mind was weak. I shook it and she couldn’t set it right.

“Well, I guess we’ll see what you have to offer.” I sighed. “Show us the catalogues.” Let’s show her I’m well aware of the details of this trade. “Let’s start with shemales and sissies.” Not like I’m into it, but I want to shake Simea more for not listening to me. Not to mention it helped establish my image as a pervert that fit perfectly in the depraved society of Ambryxis.

After all, just how such pervert could possibly fight to destroy the place that was so perfectly tailored to serve his needs?

***

“That one’s interesting.” I pointed to a drawing of a shadow elf in the last catalogue. It showed both her naked body and the close up of her face. There was also a brief description of her skills (including those sexual) and her background, plus of course a price. Much more than we could pay. “I’m not sure about her build, though.”

“That isn’t a problem. We have a cadre of very competent fleshshapers working for us.” Attendant quickly responded. “It will increase the price, obviously, but we can modify her body.” Another thing Imperium was rather… easily irritable about. Changing yourself was one thing, forcefully changing others was something completely different. For this alone she (and said fleshshapers) would end up executed or sent to a rather hellish prison colony, to spent the rest of their lives begging for death to finally come.

“Hm… maybe with slightly bigger breasts… do you also offer mental sculpting?” Simea already looked like she was close to sanity break. Oh, she pretended to be normal quite well, but I knew her enough. Let’s give her last one kick.

“Of course!” Attendant seemed happy despite admitting to take part of a crime that would make her suffer an And I Must Scream bad end in Imperium. “We can condition her to be addicted to semen, make her act like an obedient and cute pet, make her dislike sex… it’s our newest hit, slaves that perpetually resist and fight despite being obedient out of bed are really popular. There is also… “Alright, let’s stop it there. Simea looked like she was going to vomit. This… wouldn’t be a good way to finish this visit. Besides, we already did everything we needed to hide our reason for coming here.

“So, Simea. What do you think of her?” She looked at me with eyes that looked like those of a dead fish.

“I… am not sure.” She managed to guess what I needed her to do. “I’m not really into shadow elves. Their skin colour is weird.” Yes, they had rather dark skin. Not everyone liked that.

“Hm… well, I guess we won’t find something that would satisfy us.” Attendant gave me a rather displeased look. “But… it would be a waste of time to not buy nothing, right?” I turned to Simea. “Now that I think about, isn’t Misar’s birthday tomorrow?”

Of course we knew nobody but that name. Despite this, she obediently nodded.

“Yes. You want to buy him a present?” Good girl. I smiled.

“Yes. But… I don’t like him enough to pay a lot.” I sighed theatrically. “Besides, he likes to break women in a rather literal way… Well… maybe we have a look at refuses?” Attendant seemed relieved. Simea looked curious. Poor girl. She was going to hate me for this.

***

“It’s here.” Attendant pointed towards the large cell. The smell was almost unbearable. “That’s where we keep refuses. Take a look, but don’t enter or get too close, they can get… troublesome.

The cell was dark. And filled with people. Mostly women in rags, but there seemed to be some males and various ‘others’ there. Some were naked. All of them were pitiful.

They were refuses. Slaves whose mind broke during mental sculpting. Those whose bodies deformed during fleshshaping. Those that were deemed to be worthless and failed to sell. Those defiant a bit too much, who angered their owners/trainers so much that they decided to sell them to Lily just to get rid of them.

Worst case scenario for slaves. Slightly less ugly were probably handed to the guards of the Lily to let them relief themselves. Those less mindbroken were given to various sadists that enjoyed breaking them (since they weren’t worth much). Those with bodies less ruined were sometimes sold as sacrifices etc. for magicians. The rest was sold by weight to the slums.

According to Vasyr, the player we searched for ended here due to disobedience and low monetary worth. Her owner (he failed to learn how she became a slave) decided to throw her out rather than suffer her presence anymore. I decided to avoid asking why he went to the refuse cell in the basement in the first place.

One gaze longer I knew we were in trouble. The slave we searched for was supposed to have a long, light blue hair. Weird, but rather easy to spot. But I saw nobody like that.

“Of course we can modify them if you want.” Attendant spoke, interrupting my thoughts.” Amputing arms and legs seems to be trendy recently.” Wonderful, murder Simea mentally even more. Learning that you change low value slaves into living sextoys will certainly improve her mood. Bastards.

I shook my head. Then, seeing that Simea was of no use I kept looking and asking our attendants about things. After some time have passed I decided to go forward with our investigation.

“Now that I think about it, didn’t Misar mention once that he liked women with weird hair colour?” I said to Simea. She nodded. “Blue, orange, white, pretty much anything, just as long as unusual. You have someone like that?”

“Oh. What a bad luck.” Attendant answered. “We had a girl with blue hair but she got sold maybe an hour ago. “ Shit. Worst case scenario it is then.

“Was she somehow… broken or malformed?” Let’s clarify if we talk about the same girl with blue hair.

“No, no. She got sold here due to disobedience. She was a simple low elf of poor skills, so after she… bit her owner, he decided that it was enough.” Judging from the pause and the look on her face I decided I have an idea where she bit him. Serves him right. But yeah, it looks like that’s our target. “Do you wish to know who bought her? Maybe they will sell her.”

“Yes, that’s a very good idea.” I answered. “I guess I must back out from my previous statement. Ensnared Lily is a rather… decent establishment. Despite the bad start of our business relationship we might visit you again. Probably more bored and less picky.” Let’s leave a better impression.

She smiled. “The Ensnared Lily will gladly help you fulfill all of your desires. As to the slave, she was sold to…”

***

We left the Lily. Simea hold herself together long enough for us to gain some distance from it… before she exploded.

“THAT WAS…”

“.. your fault.” I interjected. “I told you that coming was a horrible idea.” I wasn’t going to pity her. Volenti non fit iniuria. I warned her repeatedly that she shouldn’t go.

“But…”

“Listen, I know it was horrible. But you could have stayed in the Hold and let me face it alone.” I shook my head. “If you want to rant about how horrible this place was, feel free to do that, since I agree with that completely. But if you even try to include any resentment towards me for letting you go there, I’ll get angry. Got it?” She nodded, with fury on her face.” Good. Ready? Go.”

“How can they treat humans like that?!” Well, not only humans, but I knew what she meant. “This is horrible. Beyond horrible. They are items. Property. Training into obedience? Mental sculpting?! Reshaping flesh?! AMPUTATING LIMBS?!”

“Don’t shout so loud.” I sighed. Well, most of these things weren’t in World’s Requirem, so I had my own share of surprises today. “Tyranny of Ashkar is the way DFI pictures excessive collectivism, naturally degraded into tyranny of almost impossible proportions. Where humans are changed into gears in the machine of the State, completely dehumanized and with their worth reduced to object. Where they are subjected to every whim of the bureaucracy, one that is however bound by the collective as well.”

“Why are you…”

“Don’t interrupt me. Dragonspine Mountains, however, are a place where DFI shows excessive individualism. A place, where your worth is defined solely by what you achieved. Where might, be it strength, intelligence or money, makes right. A friend of mine calls it a meritocratic racism.” I shook my head. “ Slaves are slaves because they are weak. They are subhumans, that exist solely to benefit those strong. If you become a slave, this means you were worthless and unworthy of being a person to begin with. If you manage to earn your freedom, it means you improved and became worthy of being a person again. Some people actually try to improve their… property, allowing them to learn things and earn money to buy themselves out. The rest…” I shrugged. “That’s the sort of screwed up thinking that created this place. It happened in our world as well. This sort of abuse. There was an early writing on slavery from Roman Republic that mentioned things like literally breeding them to achieve desirable traits, there was a tradition of having castrated slaves guard harems and serve as officials since they couldn’t have children to inherit their position even if they gained it somehow. They were harems as a whole.”

“But… it was never that bad!”

“You are wrong.” I chuckled bitterly. “Germans of the Third Reich, ancestors of people living in the country that you visited at least once, decided that part of its society weren’t humans but subhumans that should be purged. They worked them to death, while probably raping many, they created an entire industry dedicated to wiping them out. They made crafts out of their skin. They made soap out of their fat. Neither of these things would be accepted by locals, so I guess that even citizens of Ambryxis would be terrified of what Nazis did.” I shook my head. “DFI simply combined this way of thinking with much more sex. It fits so well with how sexualized the culture of our world become.” I gave Simea a sad smile. “Everything you saw there probably happened on Earth. Somewhere. Sometime. On a smaller scale, but still. DFI loves portraying evil that dwells in humans. Remember that many people of Earth live here willingly and enjoys things that happen in Ambryxis.”

She looked down, with rather terrifying and… nauseous look on her face. Probably too shocked and disgusted to feel aroused from what happened. Good for her. For me as well, I guess.

“Well, I’ll tell you something that should make you feel better.” She raised her head and looked at me. “You just gazed into the heart of darkness that the Doomplace is. I tried to… introduce you and the rest bit by bit. Each and every time showing you how bleak this place was a little more. We reached it. The absolute end. You now know everything. Since now things can only improve.”

Well, more or less. There were some weird things that I failed to show them, but they were obviously rather rare. And, in most cases, simply a remix of what she already saw. But there was nothing worse than this. That much I knew without a doubt.

It really seemed to work. Her mood slightly improved. Well, she learned the details of this place bit by bit so it… vaccinated her against it. There was, however, a problem that she overlooked. One that I decided to not tell her.

Dragonspine Mountains could be conquered. Ambryxis could be destroyed. But Doomplace? Doomplace was an idea. A set of them. And ideas, unfortunately, were bulletproof. Even Imperium couldn’t possibly uproot local culture fast enough for it to matter to us. With all the insanity that DFI pulled, we were probably going to get older just as natives did. Even if Imperium conquered Ambryxis tomorrow, they would at best free most slaves (especially those abused), make a puppet government and forcefully open the area for imperial trade, hoping that this would slowly undermine local culture. For example by showing those idiot locals that decently paid free craftsmen that showed genuine enthusiasm towards their work were more efficient as a basis of industry than downtrodden slaves.

It would take dozens of years for this place to become more or less normal. Just as it took dozens of years for the lands of eastern Aevaria to become normal after their ymririan population fell to Kynevian Imperium.

Evil dies slowly. And it can be resurrected easily.

“How’s your… nightelvish troubles?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I think I was too disgusted to be into it for real. Sure, it got much worse than it was earlier, but I should hold on easily until we go to sleep.” Good, but… bad. Complicated. As everything.

“I think we’ll try to contact the guys who bought the girl we’re looking for right now.” She nodded. “The last thing we want is to be late again.”

***

According to the attendant (I think I already forgot her name), the girl in question was bought by a group of adventurers. She remembered the name of their leader, which should be enough to find them.

She had no idea why they bought her (and one more refuse slave), but I had few ideas. They probably wanted to avoid being forced to spend money on whores. When they wanted to, they could simply use them to relief themselves. When they didn’t want, they could have them prepare meals or clean equipment. Or carry stuff. Practical. Sensible. Disgusting.

We relocated into nearest adventurer’s guild headquarters. They had few more ‘outposts’ spread throughout the city, but they should have some records on all adventurers in the city. Or at least those more notorious.

I was forced to grill the woman working there for a long while, but she finally gave up and decided to have the person in question (named Randal Varran) deal with me, rather than continue this unpleasant experience.

She directed us to a flat the person in question rented. Most adventurers didn’t have the same luck as we and didn’t have their own little fortresses. They joined each other right before the raid, often reshuffling their team composition to fit the target of their raid better. Many of them were completely independent, but due to Randal buying two slaves like that I decided this wasn’t the case.

We walked up the stairs of the apartment block. Then I knocked on the door.

***

I knew this was bound to fail the moment the door opened. Randall was a beastman. A bear-morph, one whose morph settled particularly deep. Rather than a bear version of catgirl he was more like a humanoid bear.

“What is it?” He growled. He looked like he was in bad mood. I quickly appraised him. Brawler… LEVEL 25?! Holy fucking shit. Well, good to know that fighting wasn’t an option. He would make sashimi out of us. Barehanded. Fighting with your bare hands against the swords were totally possible with aura. His punch would probably go right through a plate armour without aura reinforcement. I saw people punching dragons to death in WR.

“Randal Varran?” Well, let’s not retreat without at least trying. He isn’t going to kill us for asking, this was a rather decent district and the city militia would be seriously angered by people killing each other here.

“Yeah. What do you want?”

“We heard that you buy a slave in the Ensnared Lily. Low elf. Blue hair. Could we possibly repurchase her?” I… didn’t like the look on his face after I said that. “A friend of ours will have a birthday soon, and he is into women with weird hair colours. Lily seemed to run out of them.”

“And there are no more trainers in the city?” Shit, he got suspicious. Beneath this scarred fur he was much smarter than that attendant from the Lily. He knew something was fishy and probably decided we knew the slave and wanted to buy her out. “Sure. For two thousand ambries.

SHIT. We got found out. The worst case scenario. The whole visit in the Lily was so roundabout precisely to avoid this. If they came to think we had personal reasons to buy their slave, they would probably demand an outlandish price even for a slave out of refuse.

Of course, what worked there simply couldn’t work here. I couldn’t pretend to be a mailman or someone like that to conceal my interests in the slave. I had to go straight to the subject. And that backfired.

The problem was that we couldn’t gather so much money. Maybe if we sold everything… Golem Iron, all remaining ingredients and potions, even most of equipment… plus borrow money from Vasyr...

“How about one thousand?” I decided to try to haggle. Or at least try to.

Beastman gave us a nasty looking grin. “Three thousand then.” Aaaand… there goes our chances to win this. We would have to either whore ourselves or sell somebody to slavery to gather so much money.

“We… will try to gather the money.” I mean, maybe few successful raids into anomalies could let us earn enough.

“Good luck.” His grin got even wider. “You better do it before we break her.” Then he shut the door in front of us.

***

“What do we do?” Simea asked me after we left the building. “Did we go that far for nothing? Maybe we should…”

“They probably aren’t here.” I interjected her. “Neither the girl we search for nor the other slave they bought. His flat isn’t big enough to hold them. Their whole group seems stable enough to make common investments. They probably rent a flat or a storeroom when they keep stuff like health potions and loot that is yet to sell. That’s where they keep them between the raids.. But neither he, nor the rest of them, will tell us that.

I fell into thoughts for a while. None of the idea that came to my mind seemed promising. He was a level 25, his underlings probably were at least level 20. Six to ten level twenties were going to mop the floor with us. Hell, they could probably wipe out Crimson Blades. The level advancements around level 10 started being much slower because the difference in power between levels got much more… steep.

I laughed loudly. Simea looked at me like at madman.

“I know what we are going to do.” I grinned to her. “We will kill the giant.”