Closed To Whom Does a Slaves Commitment Lie First? (Alea Davenport)

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

It was 6 Days after the riots, ten after the execution. Gossip flared throughout the city ricocheting off the walls and spreading over the canals like a bleeding sore. As it spread the gossip was woven anew by different mouths. Some enjoyed the delight of the stories taking it non too serious, other plotted. Stories were just stories but that did not make them weak. For the older women and children the excitement and gossip brought smiles and chuckles, what was wrong with having a bit of fun? But for the merchants and wealthy of Ravok it was a time for suspicion, and a time of opportunity.

Many merchants realized that with the people distracted and tensions high a delicate hand and a little exploitation could go a long way. The night was heavily overcast cold water drizzling along the stone buildings to pool along the planks. The water splashing into the canals echoed through the many passages. Everyone's mood was dower, reflecting but not caused by the weather. Despite the monochromatic surroundings there was a lethargic beauty to the shivering water top and the little waterfalls created by the rain. Rhysol kept the city beautiful and stemmed the rain that fell torrentially further from the city. Here, the drizzle was heavier than usual but didn’t stop children from splashing through the puddles or the woman chattering in small groups with their cloaks pulled over their heads.

As the dark shape entered the pawn shop the water shed from his black leather coat creating a pool around his feet. He walked with a swagger and a hand always hidden in the folds of his clothing. The patrons eyed him up and down, a few making themselves scarce in the corners of the store others squirmed and slipped past him without their purchases. The curve of his hat had collected water and as he tilted his chin to peer around the dim shop it poured off him enlarging the puddle at his feet and making him grimace.

"Alea?" He called grimly. The messenger had been sent my Aleas' new master, Valerius. He scowled into the darkness of the pawnshop. At the end was a table, the only clear surface in the place. This was the underbelly of Ravok, the shelves littered with odds and ends for sale. The more valuable things locked up behind glass. He was usually a jovial man who took only his job seriously but failure did not sit well on his experienced shoulders. He had been interrogating the slaves for over an hour and still nothing. If he didn't get the information he needed soon they would have to be turned over to the Ebonstryfe. They couldn’t risk the Ebonstryfe finding the beings in his masters holdings, but if he turned them over prematurely...Valerius was a kind master, to those who didn’t disappoint.

It wasn't a large task, merely a trifle in the larger plan to acquire several trade deals another merchant had, but it was a deal the master had wanted for several months. Bidding his time, the Nitrozian house had waited patiently. This moment, this moment was perfect. Rondre, the messenger, thought highly of himself and was insulted by the lack of respect awarded to him by the master’s family. The slaves however, they were expected to bow before anyone who was a citizen of Ravok and as a messenger from her master he expected her unquestioning obedience. If she was obedient that was all he needed to make use of her.


HD Ticket Approval

[Alea Davenport]

Alea frowned anxiously at the puddle the large man was creating. If luck was against her, she was going to have to be the one to clean that up. There were downsides to this slavery business. True she had better food and bed than she'd ever know possible, but it was so much harder to avoid chores. Or course, this man called her specifically by name. That hadn't happened before; she wasn't even aware anyone but Valerius knew her name, much less would bother to use it. Most people just called her "slave" or "hey you, shopkeep", to the point where she was almost starting to wonder if there was even a point having a name anymore.

She was so excited to hear her name from the stranger's mouth that she immediately dropped what she was doing with another customer and practically sprinted the couple paces to where the messenger stood. "Yes, I'm Alea," she said eagerly. Was she about to get an excuse to stop minding the shop, and possibly get out of mopping up the floor? That would just make her day.

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

The customer she had bounded away from scowled at the back of her head, "Slave! I wasn't done with you!" He retorted. Reaching and missing her arm to grab her back he stormed up behind her, a black cloud over her gleeful introduction. "Excuse me sir" Rondre gazed over Aleas shoulder his voice firm and respectful, "There is another there to help you." He gestured with his chin before his attention left the other completely.

The customer, much shorter than the tall messenger, excused himself from the scene with a frown. His gaze moved over the Slave's wiry body and smirked inwardly. Despite the bountiful food she still had the scrawny half-starved look of a Slave. She certainly looked the part.

"We are going." The man of little words muttered turning on his heel. Others seemed to take pleasure in grabbing their slaves arms or hair and dragging them along, Rondre himself even took pleasure in this when a slave was particularly fiesty but on the whole he expected their obedience and violence was not his first expectation.

Slipping into the rain he felt it collecting in the brim of his hat again, the rivulets curling through the grey beard. "Some slaves escaped from a merchants house. You will find out how. When you have done so you will turn them in." The less a slave knew the better Rondre knew, the more information they had the more entitled they felt.

They scuttled through the rain, under stone balconies that offered reprieve for a moment and along the infrequent bridges that crossed the channels. Returning to the warehouse he had left to fetch the slave and to the warmth of the terrified bodies within. The warehouse was a cellar at the bottom of one of Nitrozians shops. Large but low it held a large collection of supplies and the four Slaves.

Stepping in before her, expecting her to close the door behind him they stumbled down the steep stairs, Rondre ducking to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling. "There. Go." He murmured past her ear. If they knew he was back, they would clam up again. He waited patiently behind the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Seated and gazing after her. Their conversation was directly beside him and he could easily hear them through the thin walls.

The shop was on the top floor, away from the colder waters. Easier to heat and connected to several bridges it was easier to get inside. The low floor they were on was only accessible through the top floor and the canals. The heavy door was used to transport goods and slaves in this case.

The four slaves were hunched together in the corner, wrists and ankles shackled. In the fight to retrieve them and the gentle torturing already inflicted upon them they were heavy with purple bruises. Soiled hair and cheeks it was easy to see the long tear paths over their skin. They were young Slaves, likely in their first year or two of servitude. Naive, they had thought escaping would be akin to a game.

The two girls were young, cheeks still red and shining with youth breasts hardly budding. The other two were teenage boys, arms laced around the girls protectively. All four were likely siblings, sharing the same black hair, brown eyes and pert curved noses. They stared at Alea, pressing like startled fish, deeper into the wall.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea followed the man readily, eager to get out of the cramped shop. Of course, when she heard what he'd fetched her for, she frowned. She was more than happy to find out how the slaves escaped, even if she was more interested in the "why", but she wasn't sure how she felt about turning them in. Were they criminals, or were they just trying to claim their independence, much like she had done when she ran away from Denval? She supposed if she was going to talk to them, she'd get the chance to ask. She could decide later just how much of the orders to follow.

She considered asking the man for more information, but from his tone he didn't seem to be in a particularly informative mood. Still, this was important. "What will happen to them after they're turned in?" Not sure whether to expect an answer, she continued following him as he lead her into a cellar. Alea started to feel a bit nervous. Were they below the level of the lake at this point? What would happen if water started flooding in? She was not keen on getting trapped in here if the walls sprung a leak. This, and the lack of explicit instructions otherwise, led Alea to leave the door open behind her. Always leave an escape route, after all.

Confused at the instructions and wondering what exactly she was supposed to do, she stepped around the partition and got her first look at the slaves. She felt slightly ill at the sight. They were just kids... younger than Alea, possibly younger that she had been when she'd left home, at least some of them. That was entirely too many bruises to inflict upon a kid all at once. Fighting was one thing, but this... this was not right.

Stepping softly, she approached the quartet the way she would a skittish horse. Quietly, trying not to startle them, but making sure they could see her clearly as she approached. When she was still a few feet away from them but it looked like they were getting extra nervous, she stopped, put up her hands, and then carefully sat down, bringing herself to their eye level and making it clear that she wasn't going to come any closer. She put her hands on her knees, palms down, so that they would be able to see that she was also a slave, and not someone else coming to hurt them. At least, she hoped that's what they saw; for all she knew there were some really sick slaves in Ravok.

Alea wondered how she was going to do this. How was she going to make four scared kids open up to her, much less tell her more about the thing that got them into trouble in the first place? She doubted it would be as simple as saying 'I'm a slave too, trust me!' Jumping right into it would make her seem way too eager, and would not adequately address the gravity of their situation. The kids already knew they were in trouble. Alea had to figure out how to get them out of it (her assignment be damned).

"Hi," she said quietly, taking care not to startle them. "My name is Alea." She wasn't sure whether they would take the opportunity to introduce themselves. She waited about twenty ticks to give them the option. She figured the trick would be to get them talking at all first, then once they knew she wouldn't get them in trouble, she might be able to steer the conversation. "Where are you from?" she asked, partly as an innocent question, but partly because she was genuinely interested. She knew first-hand how difficult it was to get used to Ravok after growing up outside it.

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

All four gazes moved to the back of her hand and stared. The little girls relaxed in their brothers arms and grinned at Alea but the boys held them stronger in their grip frowning. "Away..." One of the boys murmured his accent heavy but unrecognizable. "Are you with the man?" He asked, accusation so thick in his voice his accent so deep it seemed strange it came from a mouth so young.

"She can't be..." The girl he was holding replied gazing at Alea with trusting eyes. "She's a slave, like us!" The child was almost shaking with exuberance, "Sairque, that doesn't mean she's going to help us. Are you going to help us?" The boy asked looking up at her. "If you aren't going to help us get out we have nothing to say to you." He added. The others fell silent at his command. Seeming to recover slightly from his fright, in the presence of someone equal to him he stood, moving in front of his siblings. Frightened tears trembled in his eyes but he gazed at Alea firmly, demanding an answer.

In the staircase, the messenger had overheard and frowned. They weren't going to tell her anything more than they'd told him. He would give her another couple of minutes, but if she hadn't gotten anywhere he would have to intervene somehow to get them to trust her. He didn't have time to waste on her pleasantries. They had an hour max, before their time ran out.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea flinched slightly and then froze when they asked if she was with "the man". It was clear enough what they meant, and technically the "man" had brought her here. But that didn't mean she was "with" him. And if he was responsible for the bruises on the children, well, there could only be one response.

With very real anger in her voice, she said, "If he is the one who hurt you, I will rip off his head." Her fists clenched, and she couldn't resist glancing at the partition, where she knew the man was listening. She had no idea if he was any good at fighting, but she bet she could at least slow him down if he was stupid enough to reveal himself and try to hurt these kids again. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to bring the hate out of her gaze before she looked back at the children. "If anyone tries to hurt you again, I will do what I can to stop them."

She addressed the boy who seemed to be in charge then. She was no good at playing nice (probably why she'd always had so much trouble with the horses), and if she were going to be a co-conspirator, best to talk to the one in charge and cut through all the horse shyke. Of course, this was going to be a tricky thing. She was the only one who knew their enemy could hear them, and she was the only one who knew whose side she was really on. She would have to try to keep a plan in her head that would work even in spite of everything being said out loud.

...That probably meant the easiest solution was cooperation. If she could convince the kids to not run away, or, if their situation was too unbearable, talk someone into giving them to kinder masters, that would be the ideal solution. If it came to it, she would try to help them escape and damn Valerius, but she wasn't looking forward to the number of ways that could fail.

"What exactly was your plan?" she asked critically. "How did you escape in the first place, and how did you get caught? You don't want to make the same mistake again. I need to know what works and what doesn't before I can come up with a plan." With luck, her intention of actually helping the kids would lend sincerity to her voice, and her knowledge that their enemy was listening to every word didn't cause her to noticeably waver.

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

The anger and sincerity in her voice concerned the listener but he stayed put behind the partition. The most important thing was to get the information and to get it quickly. She had cut to the information he needed and if they answered Alea then whether her emotions were true or not he had achieved his goal.

The boy stared at her chewing his lip. In the moment he relaxed his age slipped from his face and he appeared almost as young and guileless as the girls. "We escaped from our master's house, but then a man caught us up as we were getting on the boat. He was very tall with a broad brimmed hat. He took us here and questioned us about the masters house. We can't tell him though...We were research projects in Sahova...there are things...things we cannot say." He gazed at his sisters and brother over his shoulder shoulder shaking slightly. "I promised them after that, that we would be free. But we can't be free here, not as slaves. Not on this island of horror...please...please help us get out..."

The boy wept openly before her then his shoulders shaking. The others brought him into their embrace soothingly. They moved like a unit, so used to depending only on each other. The man behind the wall frowned deeper. He loved Ravok, he knew the slaves were lying, would Alea? Would this affect her job? He grumbled to himself, it was a grand idea to have a Slave interrogate another slave, but they were so easily swayed so easily manipulated. They were useless.

"How we got out doesn't matter. There is a door there. Open it and help us escape." He demanded. Rondre lost his temper. The boy was insolent. Creeping up the stairs quietly he descended again. Announcing his presence with his heavy footfalls he hoped Alea had the brains to hide so he could remove the boy. The others trusted her instantly, she could soothe and get the information out of them. "Hide!" The two little girls cried at the same time ducking into the corner behind barrels and bags of textiles.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea gasped when she heard 'Sahova'. That was one of the words the mage had spoken, only a few days previously! Apparently Sahova was a place, a pretty horrible place from the sound of it, if that mage knew about it and these children were so afraid of the place. She fought the urge to ask them more about Sahova. She needed to know for her own safety what the dangers of the place were, maybe find out something about that mage which would protect her from him! But that was completely irrelevant to helping the kids right now, so she bit her tongue.

The bigger problem was that the boy was traumatized and not thinking his plan through entirely. "And what would you do once you escaped, huh?" she hissed. "Even if you make it across the lake, there are hundreds of miles of wilderness in all directions! Do you know where the next city is, because I don't! And how do you know it would be any better than here? Here at least you get food and a roof over your head, and there aren't wolves constantly trying to eat you. Do you want to put the others through that?" She still spoke directly to the older boy. It was clear the others would follow his lead.

She stood and took a step forward, her tone softening as she asked, "Was your life in Ravok really that bad?" For all she knew, Alea was one of the lucky ones. She wanted to follow up with something more comforting, but that was when she heard the sound of heavy footfalls. Oh no, had someone else discovered this place? She instinctively moved in front of the children to protect them, in spite of their pleas for her to hide. When she saw the man with the hat, she looked at him confused for a moment. Then she realized that it didn't matter why he had chosen to show himself. Either she was on the children's side in which case she would defend them, or she was putting on the show of being on their side. Either way, her option was the same.

She still had hope that a peaceful resolution could be found. "What would happen to these children if they surrendered now?" she demanded, her voice just barely taking on enough of a defiant edge that the children might believe she was still planning to help them escape. "Would their masters be merciful, or is running away their only choice?" She practically snarled at the last word, as she got herself ready. She thought if she was quick and clever, she might be able to hold the man off. If she was lucky. If he wasn't a better fighter than she was. Her eyes darted to the sides around her, taking in her surroundings and looking for anything that might give her an edge. She took a slow step toward an open bag of cloth, thinking about what she would do if the man with the hat tried to make any sudden or hostile moves.

OOCPoor derailed thread plot, I just won't take a hint Really, I think a negotiation is your best option at this point. Or is that my best option?

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

Rondre produced a mask of shock at finding Alea at the bottom of the shop. "Slave. Remove yourself." He demanded. "What would happen to these children if they surrendered now? "Would their masters be merciful, or is running away their only choice?"

Rondre smiled at Alea, "I'm not their master Slave, I have no idea what he will do. But I do know, that whatever the master does it will be better than what the wild will do to them out there. They are his property, and no owner would damage something he paid money for if he could help it. They're scared, but they are children, likely all that has happened is they've been threatened with a beating and run away for fear of that."

Rondre knew that like all cities there were consequences to the greatness of Ravok. Every cities greatest strengths gave way to their greatest weakness, like humans. However, this was a slave, and he couldn't expect slaves to think so logically or elaborately.

"I don't know how you found your way down here Slave but this is none of your business." Rondre fibbed moving closer to Alea and the children, "These boys raped those little girls, and knowing how they got out will help your master get in and put a stop to the merchant who is allowing his slaves to carry on as so."

"Lift up your shirt girl!" Rondre demanded. He wasn't sure if Alea was acting as much as he was about their lack of acquaintance. If she wasn't, he couldn't risk not proving his story to her. Both girls obediently pulled their shirts up, covering their faces with the dirty dress their small pregnant stomachs revealed.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea immediately refused to believe Rondre, convinced he was making stuff up to shake her loyalty to the obviously traumatized children. She turned toward the girls to tell them they didn't have to listen to this man, but they obeyed before she could say anything. What she saw made her very confused. The girls were pregnant? Was that even possible? How old were they? And how long ago had this happened that they were already showing? Alea did not know much about pregnancy, but something felt wrong.

Alea's confusion froze her in place for a few moments, but fortunately her clever brain kicked into overtime, trying to get a handle on all the possibilities. One, Rondre was lying, and there was some other explanation for the girl's stomachs. Two, he was telling the truth, in which case the boys could not be trusted. But then why were the girls not afraid of them? So, her possibilities led her to suspect either Rondre or the boys. She might as well allow for the possibility that the girls were suspicious too. Better safe than sorry, and until she had more to go on, she couldn't trust anyone.

So that was it then. She would have to get to the bottom of this, before time ran out and someone found them, and she lost her chance forever, allowing who knew how many to continue suffering. She was no longer in the mood to play the obedient slave. As far as she was concerned, this was life or death, and she was willing to use force to exercise her will.

"This is what is going to happen," she said in a hard voice. "Nobody is leaving until I understand what is going on. That includes you," she said, pointing a the man they were so afraid of. She edged aside so that she could keep all of them in sight at once. It made her uncomfortable, not being able to see all the potential threats in the room. Finally, she turned to the children and said, "Let's start from the beginning. What happened to you in Sahova?"