“Brother!” A gnome cried out in joy as we pulled into a walled warehouse. He was the same size as Bribis, though he had dark hair and a slightly more bulbous nose than Bribis’.

“Dramitian!” Bribis cried, pulling his brother into a hug. They whispered some things back and forth, too quiet for anyone to hear. After they finished, they pulled back in a much more somber mood.

“So, it’s like that?” Dramitian asked.

“Yeah. We need to be ready to leave in a hurry.” Bribis replied.

“Hmmm. I think I’ll be joining you. This place is getting dull anyway.” He said, turning back to nod at a few gnomish workers. They started bustling back and forth from the warehouse, pulling out an incredible amount of stuff that was already packed and waiting. As they were doing that, Dramitian walked up to me and started studying me. “Hmm. Looks a lot more boring than what the other one who claims to be the Chosen of Ariana does.”

“You’ve seen the other one?” I asked.

“Yep. Tall, dark hair, incredibly charming. It took me a while, but I was finally able to hear him from far enough away to not be affected by his spell. For someone supposedly new to this world, he has an incredibly subtle way with Charmspeak. Most of the humans here didn’t even realize what he was doing, and so they easily fell into his sway. Especially when he was joined by that priest of Ariana.”

“Do you think?” Bribis asked.

“No doubt about it. Especially after hearing about those nosferatu lords. We’ve been slowly moving out the free non-humans from the city, but everyone was warned last night. As we make our escape, there are a few that are willing to leave behind some distractions. Now, Sean was it? You and Gareth need to get going, and swiftly. We don’t have much time.” With that, I was ushered away from the group.

“Come on, I’ll escort you and Norie to the Adventurer’s guild.” Gareth had appeared out of nowhere, and led me and the twilight elf away. As soon as we were out of the compound he warned us, “Make no mention of fleeing town. We will hit this guild rather swiftly, then meet the portion of the slave caravan that is at the guild. Hopefully we will be on the road by noon.”

As we moved through the streets, I was disgusted by how humanity in this world was behaving. Anyone that wasn’t human could expect to pay two to three times what a human paid. Any physical labor? Non humans. From what I could see, only about one in fifteen or twenty beggars were humans as well. It only took ten minutes to arrive at the guild, and I was already in a terrible mood.

The guild? It was exactly as I expected. Half tavern, half looked like a bank with a row of five receptionists. “I have a feeling I know what’s going to happen, but here. Take the bag.” I held it out to Norie, then went and sat at the table closest to the receptionists with Gareth to listen in. There were a few others sitting around, looking glum as they sipped their drinks. Most were in groups of two or three. The lack of activity was good, as Norie was able to walk right up.

“Adventurer’s guild, how can we help you today?” The receptionist asked in a bland voice.

“I need to turn in some adventurer tags. My condolences on your losses.” He replied, slight shake in his voice. I immediately felt the tension in the room ratchet up, as several people were instantly interested in the conversation at the counter.

“Oh my. Do you know the cause of death?” She asked.

“The nest of a nosferatu lord and dark queen.” He answered, placing the bag on the counter with a dull thunk and clink of metal as the tags shifted around. The receptionist looked surprised at the amount, and some of the members started shifting in their chairs.

“Very well. We will give you five copper for each bronze tag and fifty for each silver.” The receptionist started.

“That’s not the price the guild offers.” Norie interrupted.

“That’s the price you get, scum. And be glad I don’t have you arrested for murdering these adventurers.” She growled out, and I decided to step in.

“Pity, I would have thought that the Adventurer’s guild would be better than the filth outside.” I said, scraping my chair legs as I stood up.

“What are you talking-?”

“Shut up.” I snarled. “I was having Norie here test something out for me, and you failed. These are my tags to turn in, and you will be giving me the proper payment for them.”

“Bullshit.” One of the warriors growled. “I recognize Phelan’s tag there. Ain’t no way a scrawny bastard like yourself could have taken out whatever killed him.” I turned to see him walking towards me, and he stopped a few feet away.

“Oh really? You know a lot about nosferatu?” I asked, and he shook his head now. “Well, let me tell you, they hate me because I can bring their greatest fear to life.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Another of the ignorant warriors chuckled from across the room.

“The power of the sun, no matter what time.” I calmly said, summoning a solar orb close enough to the first warrior that he was forced to step back from the heat.

“Gah! What the hell?” He cried as I let the spell drop.

“Now, about my pay.”

“Eighteen copper plates and four silvers.”

“Try cheating me one more time, and I’ll take your hand.” I said calmly, keeping my back to the receptionist. “There were twenty-four copper plates and eight silvers. That’s sixteen gold you owe me.” As I spoke, the warrior started to walk forward. “Ah, ah, ah.” I shook a finger at him. “Someone want to warn the idiot what’s about to happen?”

“Vorn, there’s a magic blade circling your neck. Looks like the kid thinks he can cut your head off.”

“That so eh?” He chuckled, as a red aura started enveloping him. To my surprise, it resisted the mana blades. “What’s the matter kid, never met an aura user before?”

Aura, mana, whatever. It all has to be some form of energy, so I switched my blades to shadow mana and started pressing through his armor. It was slow going, but I was making slight progress. Time to speed it up a bit.

“Don’t make too much of a mess Vorn.” The receptionist said, and I heard her backing up a bit. Whatever. My main concern was the mass of aura that was collecting in Vorn’s right hand. So I hit him with a slightly modified Mana consumer, piercing his palm and letting it spray aura all through the room.

“Aaah! What the hell kind of spell is this?” He cried out, ripping it from his hand. While he was distracted, I saw Gareth pulling his sword to try and hold off the rest of the room. Time to end this swiftly. I tripled the pressure from the shadow mana blades, and altered them so that they were honed just like my air blade spell. With the new edge geometry, they slashed through the aura like it was nothing. Everone froze to look at the now headless body falling to the floor.

“Anyone else, do you really want to fight me? I guarantee you will only end up like your friend here.” Unfortunately, they all started to stand up, making some sort of vague threats to my life. Their threats were interrupted by a volley of shadow blades piercing into the tops of their heads from the ceiling.

“Alright miss receptionist. Are you going to give us our sixteen gold or not?” I asked, casually leaning on the counter.

“Wh, what are you?” She asked, shaking. I noticed a bit of liquid running down one of her legs.

“Just someone who took out a nest of nosferatu that wants his reward for bringing in adventurer tags. Had you not tried to cheat me, all those weaklings would still be alive. So please, just pay me.”

“Vorn. Vorn. Vorn, baby, why don’t you get up?” She started rambling, and I knew she was done for. Her mind had broken when she saw her boyfriend die. Using mana control, I tied her up.

“Gareth, what do you think?” I asked.

“Bribis wouldn’t approve, but they left us no choice. No witnesses.”

“Damnit, I was hoping there might have been another way.” Before she could register what was going on, a mana blade had slit her throat. I jumped over the counter, to find a small strongbox. Searching the receptionist, I found a key and sent both into my ring. “We’ll figure the rest out later. Any ideas on how to delay setting this place on fire?”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Norie asked.

“Yeah. This place needs a good burning.” I said, looking around.

“Use the candle.” Norie said. “Place it in a can of oil, with a few wicks leading out to other sources. Once the candle burns low enough, the oil ignites and the fire spreads.”

“Go ahead and set it up.” I chuckled, watching Norie go to work. He took a cup of oil, and set it up so that oil was half the candle. A few wicks went out of the oil to full barrels, and we were set. Norie lit the candle, and we left. Even if someone came in, the candle was behind and beneath the receptionist counter, a place most likely off limits.

Three minutes later and we were walking in to the Slave guild. The guards here had a more advanced version of the mancatcher. The part that would slip through around the neck had a pair of metal arms ending with small orbs, that would spring back into place once the neck passed through. We entered without challenge, and walked over to where the slave portion of the caravan waited.

“Elendria, Corey, Janie. Come with me. The rest of you, over to the waiting area. Do not cause trouble, and follow any orders from the guards that do not conflict with my own.” The slaves split up, the three following me as we headed into the main hall. The ostentatiousness of the area just annoyed me. Gold filigree was everywhere, covering marble columns and flooring. The occasional gem mosaic was around, and the receptionist was sitting behind a massive desk of some dark wood.

“Welcome to the Slaver’s guild, and might I commend you on such a fine elf specimen! Would you be interested in purchasing some of our higher end products?”

“As delightful as that sounds, I have more pressing matters. Would you kindly ask if the Guildmaster would see me? I apologize for the short notice, but it does involve the death of one of your members.”

“Oh my. How terrible. Would you by chance be in charge of the caravan that just came in then?”

“I am indeed.” I said with a smile.

“Thank the gods that the caravan wasn’t lost then! Yes, I’ll have a message sent right away, please make yourself comfortable.” She said, beckoning to a runner that was standing near an ornate staircase. While we waited, I walked around looking at the sights.

“Master?” Elendria asked.

“Relax. I’ll need you three to trust me for a bit, but we will be getting you freed. Do you two know what you want to do afterwards?” I asked the other women.

“I think I could find a life to live here.” Janie said,

“I. I think I want to join Bribis.” Corey said.

“Excuse me, sir?” I turned to see a fellow dressed as a butler waiting behind us. “The guildmaster will see you now.”

“Lead on then.” I said with a smile, and we headed up the staircase to the fourth level. This was one big office, and sitting behind the desk was an older man with two guards behind him.

“That’ll be all Lawrence.” He said, and the butler gave a bow and left. “Welcome to the Slaver’s guild. I’m guildmaster Damien. You are?”

“Name’s Sean. I’m sorry, but I think I’ll have to report the bad news first. You had a slaver named Bartoss. He’s dead by my hand.” The guards started to shift, when the old man started laughing.

“HA! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, you’ve got big brass one’s there fella. Alright, I’ll play your game. Why are you here then?”

“I’m glad you asked. Mind if I sit? It’s a bit of a story.” I said, pulling back a chair and sitting down when he nodded. “You see, I have an issue. Bartoss went and enslaved me against your laws, and I took exception to that.”

“Oh, I doubt he would do that.” The old man said with a smile. “You wouldn’t happen to have proof, would you?”

“In fact, I do.” I said, sliding two things across the table to him. The first was Bartoss’ log, and the second was a redacted status card.

Name: Sean

Age: Hidden

Titles: Escaped slave

Chosen of Ariana

The old man read over the card, then started swearing under his breath. “Damnit, idiot kids these days don’t know how to do proper surveillance. I hope you aren’t one of those who thinks we can simply shut down slavery overnight.”

“And crash the economy? Not to mention what to do with all those suddenly free people, no. Ending slavery is something that has to come from within a country.” I said, shaking my head.

“Well, you seem to be at least somewhat rational. What’s to stop me from simply slapping another collar on you?”

“I took a few precautions. Should I not come out in the set time limit, then a certain friend of mine will release copies of this card in every city and with the major guilds.”

“Hmmm, interesting. Most of you summoned hero types are too goody goody to resort to blackmail. So what can we do for you?”

“Some simple things really, I’m not looking to make any enemies of a major guild.” I answered, definitely not thinking about the Adventurer’s guild I had just left.

“Oh bless Ariana, she finally picked an intelligent one.” He muttered as he exhaled. “Sorry, I’m listening.”

“First off, these two human women were also enslaved illegally. So you are going to remove their slave collars and titles, as well as my own slave title. Then give them a decent bit of money to start their life over. Say, twenty gold apiece?”

“Hmm. That could easily be done, but something tells me you have more. Let’s hear all of it before I agree or disagree.”

“Sure, sure. Elendria needs to be freed from her collar as well. With no lingering titles.”

“The rest of Bartoss’ stock?”

“As it reverted to me when I enslaved him, I’m free selling them. You know, let’s do a trade. One of my stock for one of yours, though I want non-humans that haven’t committed any violent crimes.”

“Freeing them is a simple matter, even that magical collar Elendria wears. Though I’m not sure about that trade. How about two of yours for every non-human.” He said, leaning forward and making a steeple with his fingers.

“One, and you can keep the collar that Elendria wore. From the craftsmanship that went into it, it must be worth quite a bit.” I countered.

“Better, but we still aren’t quite there. You are asking for some of my best slaves, and I’ll be honest. Human stock just doesn’t sell as well here.”

“What am I offering for?” I asked. “I’m assuming the majority are elves, but what other races have you on hand?”

“Of those that fit your criteria, I have six gnomes, ten elves, and two of the demons.”

“I see. I’m bringing in eighteen humans, so let’s do this. The humans for the elves and demons, that gives you three for every two, and I’ll trade the collar from Elendria for the six gnomes. From what I can see, most of the slaves are wanted for physical labor, so the gnomes don’t do you much good anyhow.”

“I could trade the elves, but the demons will fetch a high price. I couldn’t let them go for less than fifty gold apiece.”

“One moment.” I grumbled, checking through the inventory I had taken from Bartoss. A hundred gold would put a huge dent in my available cash, but I still had the safe from the Adventurer’s guild. “Very well.”

“Excellent! We have a deal!” He said, raising up and shaking my hand. As soon as he did, I got a notification telling me that I had the option of taking Slave master as a profession. “Since you likely got the notification for slave master, I’m going to need you to take that for now.” At my look of concern, he explained, “As a slave master, you will be able to free them. Simply unlock the collars while saying, ‘As your master, I free you. Your obligation has been fulfilled.’”

“I would rather not accept that as my profession, if you don’t mind.” I replied. I wasn’t about to take that as one of my ten possibilities, especially if there wasn’t a chance of me getting rid of it in the future.

“That’s fine, as a guildmaster I can do it myself.” He said. Walking around the desk, he took out a key and unlocked each collar. “As guild master, I free you. Your obligation has been fulfilled.” It was all very anticlimactic. No flashes of light, no flares of magic. Though from the excited faces of Janie and Corey, the status had been removed.

“As for you.” He said, standing in front of me. “As guildmaster, I hereby recognize the error in enslaving you. May it be as if you were never enslaved.” There was a flash of light this time, and I wasted no time in inspecting my status. I smiled when I realized that escaped slave was no longer a title, and that slave wasn’t an available class. He moved on to Elendria, and studied the collar for a moment.

“This is quite possibly the most intricate collar I’ve ever seen. No matter.” He pulled a wand of bone from some pocket, or maybe his own inventory, and placed it on the collar. “As guildmaster, I free you. Your obligation has been fulfilled.” The light didn’t flash this time. Instead it grew slowly, intensifying as the magics worked. After five agonizing seconds, where Elendria was staring at me with fear filled eyes, the seamless collar split down the middle and fell to the floor.

“And with that, I thank you for doing business with the Slaver’s guild! While we prepare your purchases, can I offer you help in procuring anything for your journey? Many places have special requirements after all.”

“Thank you for the offer.” I replied, as cordially as possible. “However I will decline. We have a few experts in the Southern Forests, and have everything we need. I’m sure you are busy running such a fine establishment, so I think we shall head downstairs to wait on our acquisitions with our man at arms.” I said with a bow, and ushered the confused looking former slaves out of the office. Once we were on the stairs, I told them, “Say nothing here, not until we are at the Mage’s guild.”

“There you are, excellent!” Gareth said as he walked up to us. “Have you contacted your friend?”

“Not yet. We are waiting on a few acquisitions.” He looked confused, until Elendria pointed over his shoulder.

“Master Sean?” The receptionist asked.

“Ah, so good to see you again. I take it these are my new people?” I answered.

“Indeed. Slaves! This man speaking is your new owner. With that, I officially transfer you.” The line of people looked me over, mostly with loathing.

“For now, these are your orders. Follow me swiftly and quietly. You will make no attempt to escape, nor to hinder me or those travelling with me. If you see something of an immediate danger, call out. This includes danger to me, those travelling with me, and yourselves. Don’t attempt to get injured, but if you are injured in some way let me know immediately. Do you understand these orders?”

“Yes master.” Chorused back at me.

“Excellent. Let’s go.” I said, turning and nodding to Gareth to lead the way. As soon as we were all out of the building, I activated the talking stone. “On our way. Probable shadows, none detected so far.”

“Affirmative. All is ready.” Came the response as we headed east down the streets.