Chapter 9 (Wonderland)

Well this week has been a little long that and work is pretty busy around this time. Well I have been surprised by how fun this has become.

Thanks,

Znomad

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Roza POV

“Ugh” I groaned as I struggled to open my eyes.

I was laying on something impossibly soft and comfortable. Suddenly I stiffened and shuddered and jerked upright with blurry eyes fully opened. I was laying on a bed and the ramifications of that did not bode well for me. The pirates had used me many times and my life had been worse than any hell could be. Being the one of two female slaves aboard the pirate vessel that had been forced to service the forty three pirates. I shuddered again as I thought that my hell had ended when I collapsed on the ship in front of those strange creatures.

I looked around the room and saw the pristine condition of everything. Nothing in the room seemed old or even like a prison which made me wonder if the strange being had decided to put me in its bed chamber. The room seemed to be very spartan in style and furnishing. There was the bed I was sitting on and small couch a mirror and two strange window that seemed to show a view of the show a view of only the blue sky and clouds outside.

A knock sounded on the door and I noticed that I was wearing some strange form of clothing that accentuated my curves and was very skin tight. It was modest in the fact that it was long sleeved and also a full length pair of pants.

The door started to open and I grabbed the blanket and curled up in the corner of the room. I stared intently at the door as a large man walked into the room. He wore nearly the same type of clothing that I did. His shirt was sleeveless and as he turned to close the door I saw two dragon heads that just showed on his very well defined shoulders. He walked to the opposite side of the room and sat in the corner looking at me. He said some things in his strange language but I could not understand a word of it.

Nemi POV

Man this seemed to be a lot more challenging than I thought. I had captured my prisoners and the only one that had addressed the commando drones on the ship was huddling on the other side of the room shaking slightly. My first thought was that she would make a terrible soldier. I however was a precision instrument of delicate removal of a key location or in some situation a full born hammer of destruction to worlds. I however had no experience with prisoners of any type nor had I ever been in a position where I had no knowledge of how to communicate with the lady across from me and even stranger was the fact that she seemed so terrified of her situation.

“Hi my name is Nemi. What is yours? I asked to a slightly blank stare from the women.

“Mirror” I said as I pointed out the mirror. Then started to name the various objects in the room. The lady still ignored me and stared at me with a strange look.

Roza POV

This man is probably the strangest person that I have ever met. He for one doesn't attack me or try to have his way with me at all. Instead he had walked over to the other side of the room and after a few long seconds said some sort of strange gibberish and pointed at himself. After doing that he pointed to various things around the room and said more random words.

“My name is Roza.” I said aloud as I pointed to myself.

The strange large man in the corner suddenly smiled and gestured for me to continue. He again pointed at the objects in the room and repeated their names in his weird and alien tongue.

Catching on I said the various names of the objects in the room and then finally muttered under my breath. “What the hell is his play?”

The man suddenly sat up and pointed to himself again.

“Hi my name is Nemi. Is your name Roza?” He asked in a nearly perfect accent.

I froze in shock did he just learn part of my language in such a short span of time or was he playing some sort of game.

Nemi POV

Yes it worked. I smiled as I said my name and asked about hers. The AI had been integral in learning this new language and downloading a constant update of it to one of the nanite chips in my brain which allowed me to understand part of what she said when she looked at me and stood up still holding the blanket in her hands over herself.

“What do you want?” Roza asked with a slightly trembling lip.

“I want to know more.” I said as I could not yer communicate at any higher level.

Roza stared at me and sighed then said “I do not trust you.”

“It’s ok I don’t trust you.” I said and she looked at me very strangely.

“Why you have the power and I am just a slave?” Roza asked.

“What is a slave?” I asked to her suddenly very shocked expression.

“It is what you own.” She said.

“Like this?” I asked questioningly as I pulled up my identification tags.

Roza POV

What the hell is wrong with this man I was truly starting to wonder if he was like some mythical summoned hero or evil creature as I wasn't sure yet. I mean he did not even understand what the term slave was. He asked if his strange necklace was a slave. I mean what the hell really.

“NO!” I growled out in frustration. Pulling the slightly stretchy material away from my neck I displayed a slave marking and seal.

“This shows I am a slave.” I said in near tears.

“I do not own Roza.” Nemi said.

With a gasp of shock and a tear in my eye what did he mean. I shook my head and he started to say something else.

“Is Roza a… fighter or hurt people?” Nemi seemed to try to ask with frustration as he seemed to be unable to communicate his point across.

“No I was librarian” I answered to his puzzled expression.

“I read and took care of books.” I said to him as a suddenly bright expression covered his face and he startled me as he quickly ran out of the room only to return within minutes with a couple of books and logs from the pirate vessel.

“Here is book. Can you read?” Nemi asked me.

With a sigh I nodded my head and quickly grabbed the book before retreating to the corner.

“Roza please speak the words on the book.” Nemi asked

Nemi POV

Yes this was going to be a huge breakthrough. The woman in across from me was reading aloud as the AI was constantly updating both the written and spoken databases for me. By the time she finished I would have a near full understanding of the language.

While she read aloud I looked at her and analyzed what I could of this situation. After retrieving the ten crew I had run a full medical scan on each of the crew and found that they were all different in some form however it was more of a racial characteristic as they mostly seemed to be able to cross breed and seemed to all be humanoid in appearance in some fashion. Each of the crew had a strange tattoo that seemed to have the strange particle flowing a black like color to my eyes through the bodies of the crew and stopping the natural flow of the particle through their bodies. Roza started to come close to finishing the book she was reading according to the warning the AI gave me.

“Finish of log book three on the twentieth day of the eighth month of the crab in the year of one thousand four hundred and forty two year after the dragons. “ Roza finished reading.

“Thank you so much Roza I really appreciate all of that I now have a much greater understanding of your language.” I said with gratitude in my voice.

“You are welcome Nemi” Roza answered a slightly unsure look on her face.

“Is there a problem?” I asked at her questioning gaze.

“Are you human?” She asked.

“Not really.” I answered.

“Um than what are you?” She asked.

“Something that is different than anything known in this world.” I answered with a slightly contemplative look on my face.

The slight sound of Rozas stomach rumbling was easily picked up by my enhanced hearing.

“How would you like to join me for some food?” I asked.

Roza POV

“Thank you I would appreciate it.” I answered relieved that he was willing to feed me.

“No problem just follow me.” Nemi said as he walked to the door and opened it.

I stepped out of the room and was shocked to see the lights on the ceiling. There were lights that glowed bright enough to make the hall look like it was outdoors and no fire or smoke was visible. What sort of strange world had I ended up in I wondered. The walls all seemed to be perfectly smooth and engineered in a fashion that screamed of a insane amount of magic and genius used to create such a place.

“What in the seven levels of hell is this place” I exclaimed in shock as I looked out of the window and saw the ocean around us. Fish swam through the water in dazzling splendor and the reef seemed to show an unmatched beauty in its display of life.

“Sorry if that is not to your liking give me just a second.” Nemi apologized to me.

“Damn! What in all that is holy?” I exclaimed in shock as the windows suddenly displayed a beautiful forest complete with singing birds in the background and the sounds of swaying trees and a waterfall in the distance.

“Is this more to your liking?” Asked Nemi with a questioning look.

“What form of illusion magic is this? I asked while touching the windows and feeling that they felt the same as the rest of the wall.

“Magic?” Questioned Nemi “This is just a simple display not some form of trickery or deceit.” he finished as he suddenly displayed a picture of the two of us talking with sound.

Shock did not adequately describe my reaction to this. I pinched myself to find out if I was in dream or some sort of fantasy but no I felt pain and jerked back from it. Nemi looked at me strangely like I might be a little slow in the head or maybe something was really wrong with me.

“Do you need a medical facility Roza?” Nemi asked with a look of concern on his handsome face.

“No! Let us just continue on.” I said in a hurried voice. “Please just change the illusion or whatever it is to the jungle again.” I asked as I felt very strange watching us talking out of what looked like a window it created a very weird and surreal effect.

We entered a door with a single strange written word on the frame. Inside of the room a couple tables with chairs sat in the middle of the room. This room also had the strange light that made the room seem like it was in the middle of the day but was still a pleasant temperature.

“I analysed the type of food that you could ingest and found it was remarkably similar to my own diet.” Nemi said as he led me towards a wall with various well lit and multi colored symbols were displayed on its surface. “I can get you the same thing that I usually eat.” He said in a questioning voice.

I nodded my head and watched as he pressed a few of the buttons and plate suddenly appeared and a few nozzles deposited things on his plate. It was a very strange sight to say the least. Walking forward he pressed another of the colorful displays and a wrapped container was placed on the other side of his plate. I wondered what this strange magic must be. He repeated the whole process and handed me a plate of whatever this stuff was.

“Come on over and take a seat Roza.” Nemi said as he went and sat down at a table.

“Sure thanks.” I mumbled out of instinct as I walked to the table that he currently sat at pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Well this is platter fifteen.” Nemi said as he pulled open the wrapped thing on his plate and let it plop down on his plate. “It’s probably one of the best ration selections in my personal opinion.” He said with a slight smile on his face. “It is much better than platter number three.” He said with confident tone that spoke of an unwelcome experience.

“Do you not cook your food or have someone else cook it?” I asked with a puzzled expression

“No. It is all pre made or created from raw or recycled material.” Answered Nemi looking at me with a questioning look. “Why?” he asked

“Well in this world we cook our food over fires or on stoves.” I answered him. “We do not premake food except for sailors with things like hard bread or crackers.” I finished and saw he had a slightly perplexed look on his face.

“Hmm. In my world few humans or any other advanced species made their own food it was all created by machine.” He answered in a thoughtful tone. “I guess I do remember that some of the nicer locations had better food creators and programs and that the supremely wealthy had some form of chef on staff or in their employe to create the food for them.” He said well putting his hand on his chin and face in a rather contemplative pose.

“It's fine let's enjoy this food for now.” I said as I looked in awe as utensils formed straight out of the table for me. Shaking my head I wondered again at this strange place.

Nemi POV

It has been around a week since I woke Roza up and she seems to be adjusting well to life here on the island. I have not told her about any of the other captured slaves now in stasis in the medical lab and she has yet to ask about them. She constantly seems to be surprised or in awe of the simplest things. She was delighted like a child once she got over the surprise of automatic doors and lights. I have taken her to the medical facility and she had sat in shock of all the equipment. She has taught me a lot about this world and I was not overly impressed by a lot of the systems in place. The strangest thing that I still did not truly understand was the idea of magic. It just flew in the face of much of what I knew about the universe and physics in general but I was slowly coming to accept that it existed in this universe and I would need to be weary of it. Which ended up leading to our current conversation.

“So Roza you are telling me that the slave marking is a magical seal?” I asked

“Yes it seals my magic by cutting off the flow of magic in my body.” She replied almost like a teacher explaining things to a slightly slow pupil.

“So your magic flow is the strange vein like things in your body?” I questioned which in turn got me a shocked look.

“You can see the flow of magic inside of someone?” Roza asked with a skeptical look on her face.

“Well I did not those things are magic or where your body has its flow of mana. I do however see what looks like colored or transparent veins in the body.” I answered.

“Seriously.” Roza said as she got up and paced in the room. “Ok what is the color of the slave seal?” She asked

“A murky blackish color.” I answered

“Can you see my core?” She asked as she stopped her pacing to look at me.

“Um. I hate to seem stupid here but what is the core?” I asked with a questioning shrug of my shoulders.

Roza POV

What the hell was this guy. Ughh! I mean seriously he obviously comes from some strange world and is dealing with the transition of it. Yet he has never heard of magic nor does he really even understand how it works. I mean every intelligent being understands a bit about magic because all creatures intelligent or not posses some it is part of who they are.

Nemi is talented enough to not only see mana in its purest form but can see the actual magic veins and after explaining it even the mana core of a person. His potential is terrifying to say the least.

Walking down the well lit hall I waved my hand at a door and it opened into what I now considered to be my bedroom on the islands. Nemi was a surprisingly different individual than I expected when I awoke here about a week ago. He seemed to be almost childlike in his desire to learn more and seemed to want to have some form of friendship or care. It was easy to forget that he was deadly soldier when I often found him practicing how to sound out words in the various languages that I already knew. He was becoming quite fluent in elvish, orc, standard, and damic which was my native tongue. He understood each of them perfectly and was working on the very complicated and intricate elvish and the very strange and guttural orc the most.

I quickly change my clothes in the corner of the bedroom looking out towards the door. Some horrors of the past never truly leave you no matter where you might be. After quickly dressing in the plain unisex style uniform which seemed to be the only type of clothing made or in stock on the island I looked into the mirror.

My face was a deep red color and dark black hair reached down to my shoulders. A scar was visible peeking up on the side of my neck from my back. After requesting loose clothing from Nemi my figure was more hidden behind my shirt. My slightly baggy pants hid much of the rest of my figure as well. Nemi said he wanted to meet me in the medical facility because he had an idea about the slave curse. I hoped that I would someday be able to put that all behind me. A determined look crossed my face as I finished looking into the mirror. I put up my hair in a tight bun so it was out of the way and walked out of the door.

Hayha POV

“Damn this city is big we are never going to find anything.” I muttered as I sat in the shade of medium sized restaurant in their outdoor section.

“Language please.” General Tamara said with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry Ma’am” I said insincerely.

“Well I guess it can’t be helped. It has been damn hard to get any solid leads on those three elves in this city.” she said. “Oh and I thought I told you to call me Tamara on this undercover mission here Hayha” She finished with a smile on her face.

“Yes but it is a bit of habit to discard Tamara” I said to her smiling face.

“Well as long as you work on it ok.” She answered.

“What can get this lovely couple?” A waiter asked us.

“A bottle of white wine and your grilled fish special please with the house sides.” Tamara replied.

“I see only the finest for the young couple.” The waiter answered with a slight flair and placing a vase with a pretty flower in the center of the table. “I will back shortly.” The waiter said as he weaved his way back through the tables and inside of the restaurant.

“Well we have only one credible sighting of the princess and her entourage in the city before they disappeared and that was when they had a dispute among themselves.” I said to a slightly starry eyed Tamara.

“Yes. uh… That was the case however much of the city has been more interested in what could have started the fire in the city boat distinct.” Tamara finished off for me.

“That is true.” I said with a frown

“And there are the rumors of a fearsome kraken spotted not to far off the shipping lines. Some are even blaming dark magic as the cause or the strange star that fell from the sky.” Tamara said with a perplexed look.

“On a more serious note Venetiae even as a neutral port city requested aid from General Erich over any of her other neighbors.” I said with a slightly disgruntled look. “Well anyway that is for politicians to decide not a mere soldier I guess.” I finished saying with a sigh.

“Well it is known that the leader of the Venetiae militia and guards is a retired member of the first.” Tamara said so it does make sense that he would request aid from his former commander and the General.

“True. But that guy is a sneaky bastard if there ever was one.” I said with conviction.

“Yes and having him so near our border is a more than a little troubling.” She answered. “It will undoubtedly increase some tensions between us and the humans especially if they make any real move to take or hold Venetiae.” She said finishing off her thoughts on the situation.

“True but let us enjoy the coming meal while we can.” I said which I happily noted caused her to lose the contemplative frown and show me a bright smile.

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Thanks for reading. I am also putting a quick character list below this just to make everything easier for the readers. Let me know if I should post it separately or make a more detailed one with locations etc.

Thanks,

Znomad

Quick Character List

Nemi- OP character form a super advanced universe. Is a created super soldier.

Asena - Giant wolf like creature with excellent intelligence and the ability to speak telepathically with both Nemi and Sy

Sy - A giant tiger/sabertooth like creature with excellent intelligence also able to speak telepathically with Nemi and Asena.

Shonna - Elfin princess who is running away to see the world.

Emma - Dwarven girl who is the Elfin ambassador's daughter. She has a napoleonic complex and is not fully dwarven. Traveling with the princess Shonna.

Jonah - Rich and arrogant pretty boy who also went with the princess.

Eli - High wizard of the Human Kingdom and advisor to the king. Also head of a neutral magic academy.

Erich - Commanding General of the Human Kingdoms army. A ladies man and a fearsome soldier. A rival and friend of Eli and a bit of a known troublemaker and prankster.

Roza - A former slave of a pirate vessel. She is known as a demon or demonkind in this world and is considered a hated race.

Jimmy - Pirate boy

Roger - Pirate Boy

Tamara - General of the Elfin Rangers considered the best scouts of the world.

Hayha - Sergeant Major of the Elfin Rangers considered the deadliest bow master in the world and is known for his hard working personality.

Vanya - The queen of the elfs. Known as a beautiful queen who keeps her calm in all situations.