Chapter thirteen A.

The next four days were a peaceful and vigorous four days of travel. Sasha and I spent the time lounging throughout the ship. When we were not taking our rest or engaged in more sensual pursuits, we would practice with wooden training swords I had made. We would lightly spar on the deck of the ship or in the hold of the ship to practice close-quarters combat.

Sasha quickly warmed even more to me, and on more than one occasion, I caught her softly crying with tears of relief. I understood how the world, or at least the empire, had become so perverse. All one had to do was look at the decadent time of ancient Rome.

Many of the practices I had witnessed in the streets of Laga’vast, though uncommon to my modern sensibility’s, would have been seen as quite normal to a Roman. Though the dress was different, and many other such small details would not compare to ancient Rome, the degradation of the slaves and the perverse pride even the slaves maintained at the treatment would not have been unique.

The problem I found myself with was how I was going to fit in. I was not unfamiliar with BDSM relationships and found the consensual exchange fun. The key to that was consensual; I now found myself on a planet where the idea of consent was completely absent. In truth, I could not say it was absent because there were some forms of consent that could be subtlety given. Such as with Sasha and Honey, the issue I had was even though they gave a form of consent, they had no real way to deny me either had I pressed the issue.

Change, one of the hardest things for a society to do. It is a slow boil that eventually becomes something new. A deep part of me just wanted to go on a rampage, kill them all, so to speak. But as my anger would flare and fade as we sailed, I had plenty of time to think about the consequences those actions would wrought. If I killed all the nobility and officials, it would plunge the empire into chaos, and then the nations of the beast kin would attack and just integrate those forcefully freed back into another slave society. The deaths that such an act would cause to those I was trying to help, made it a moot point.

As we sailed, I pondered the moral implications of my plight. ‘I think I’m going to have to sacrifice some of my notions of right and wrong in this world,’ I thought to myself. There was no true way I could see how I was going to be able to find a way around the issue. There were going to be countless instances where I would, by my action or inaction, cause harm to another. All I could do was try my best to minimize that harm and form the groundwork for change.

I knew I would not be the only one in the Empire that felt this way, but as I discussed my moral ponderings with Sasha, she informed me in no uncertain terms that reformists were hunted viciously within the Empire.

I was going to be forced to play the part of a noble master, and even more so an exalted noble master. Any slaves I purchased would expect a certain level of cruelty from me. If I acted too kind, I would be labeled a reformer by the others of the nobility. Of which I was sure I was going to have to interact with. That would bring nothing but torturous death on me and any in my service. Even the children.

As we approached our destination, I resigned myself to the role. With some, like Sasha, I was going to be able to act like myself, but for the majority of the servants, the slaves, I was going to have to wear away at my own soul in order to protect those I could. There were some hard limits I set on myself; no cannibalizing the beast kin or demi-humans, of which Sasha informed me some nobles found the meat to be a delicacy. Second, and even more important to me than the first, was to protect the children I found in my care. Those were the only two things I could possibly put a limit to in this decadent barbaric society, and even then, I would commit the first personalized crime in order to ensure the second held fast.

As the sunset and cast the world into the vivid colors of twilight. I felt the same come over my soul. No longer was I standing in the bright noonday sun of moral understanding; I was now cast into the deep shadows of brilliant twilight. Where the ever-darkening colors of right and wrong blended into the melodic haze of night or day.

The early morning of the fifth day found us sailing out of the river and onto the sea of stars. The port city of Eastern dusk sprawled out along the right-hand bank of the river and sea. I tried making a new spell as I wanted a better look at the city. I focused my mana and sent it up while having it relay the light information back to my eyes.

[ you have learned a new spell: mana eye: Base cost: 15 initial mana, 7.5 mana per ten seconds. Level 1.]

Where Laga’vast’s port and marina had stretched for a couple hundred yards (91m or so) along the river, the ports, harbors, and wharves of eastern dusk extended for miles. The city was massive, with dozens of keeps, expansive plazas, buildings that were four or more stories tall. There were walls that networked throughout the city, creating from the sky what looked like a giant maze of streets and fortifications. In the distance, I could only barely start to see what looked like the beginnings of farmland.

“Holy shit, this is huge Sasha.”

“I wish I could see it from the sky also, but from what I’ve heard there are some people who are born grow up and die without having ever left their canton.”

“That’s easy to believe now that I’ve seen it.”

It was the better part of another hour and a half for me to find the spot I wanted to dock at. Farther down the sea along the westernmost end of the city, the industrial slum look was broken by a huge wall and a separate enclosed marina. This area was clearly meant for wealthier and affluential citizens but was not the area clearly reserved for the nobility.

The marina had a slew of well-maintained if not smaller trading vessels and a scattering of pleasure barges. The boats were in good repair but lacked the over-the-top embellishments of those ships I saw in the noble section.

This area also connected to what looked to be the middle-class trade district of the city or at least one of them. Guards patrolled the marina in force, and the people that were moving about the docks and ships all looked to be going about their jobs.

I guided the Ever Grove into an open spot that was indicated to me by a studious-looking woman, with four guards standing behind her. The guards’ uniforms were colored with deep purples and blues. The woman was wearing a deep blue dress with a fitted jacket and carried a portable righting desk under one arm. She wore glasses, and her blonde hair was done in a ponytail with wisps of hair framing her face.