by David Burke
“If you survive this week, then you will begin training with weapons. We will tailor your craft. And you will focus on solo combat. In five weeks, there will be some exhibition matches and you will be pitted against other new slaves for the benefit of the nobility who own teams that might buy you. That will be your first chance to change your life.
“If you do well and impress at the exhibition, then you will be rewarded. Better food, better quarters, soothing massages, and even slave girls for your enjoyment are all things that the winners can gain. But even that is only a lesson. Do well and you will be patted. Do very well and you will be given a treat. None of that changes what you are—a slave. Reconcile yourself to that now. At least you can enjoy some perks for your hard work.
“After that, well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. After that, there will be new challenges and eventually, you will be bought by one of the teams… or not. This small portion of your fate is in your own hands. For now, you will be led back to your chambers. Don’t resist and eventually you will be allowed more freedom. Remain here until the guards arrive,” Saber said and then walked out of the room without looking back.
Kyle didn’t know how much time he had before the guards got there, but figured this was a good time to meet some of the other fighters. He was all about building a team. The fur and extended canines of the wolf girl, or lycan, were sort of a turn off for him, but who doesn’t want to talk to the one girl in the room. Especially given that her strong suit in fighting looked to be his weakness.
He thought to Hilde, “Anything I need to know about lycans before I go and chat her up?”
Hilde was humming in his mind. “Oh, by Krig, you actually think she is attractive.”
“Well, no, err… I mean, sorta. Not a fan of those teeth or fur, but that isn’t why I want to talk to her. She is an agility-based fighter, and if we end up forming teams here, I would rather have her on my side than against me,” Kyle replied.
“Sure, sure, I bet that’s it. Maybe you will be more fun than Krig,” Hilde said, still laughing. Then she sobered up and said, “Just remember, they are a very proud people, but they are used to humans looking down on them. It may help that she thinks you are an elemental. Just start with a compliment. I assume that is how you pick women up on earth.”
“Not trying to pick her up. Just wanna see if I can start off on the right foot in case this turns into a team competition,” Kyle said.
“Same thing.”
“Well okay, whatever. Oh, and we are gonna have to talk about this elemental thing later on.”
When Hilde didn’t respond, Kyle strode over to the lycan girl just in time to see her growl at one of the humans who apparently had been hitting on her. He led with, “That was impressive how you could catch the arrows earlier.”
She looked at him for a moment. Her oddly canine eyes seemed to be appraising him and then she leaned her head forward slightly and sniffed the air. “You don’t smell like a human.”
Unsure how to respond to that, Kyle just asked, “Is that a good thing?”
Having to go through Hilde for translations was getting faster, but it still made him sound like he was a little slow. He hated it. Learning this language definitely needed to be at the top of his to do list.
Her ears wiggled a bit. They had been lying flat against her head and as they moved her entire demeanor appeared to relax. “Yes, I suppose it is.” Then she stared at him awkwardly again for a moment before saying, “You don’t speak common very well, do you?”
He wasn’t sure what to say so he went with the truth, hoping for comedic effect. Apparently, Hilde didn’t disagree with his choice because she gave him the words to say. Or at least he hoped he was saying what he meant. Probably no way to know for sure.
“I actually only know a handful of words.”
“Then how?” Kierra asked, waving her hand as though to finish the question. He noticed her tail was wagging, so that was probably a good sign she was at least curious.
He smiled and once he had the words said back, “I have a brilliant spirit in my head translating for me.”
She cocked her head as she stared down her nose at him. Kyle couldn’t help but be reminded of the cocker spaniel they had when he was growing up. It likely wasn’t a very flattering comparison, though, so he kept the thought to himself. After all, for all her fur, this was still a beautiful young woman who was also a fierce competitor from what little he had witnessed of her.
“Ah, being an elemental must be fascinating,” Kierra said.
Rather than lie or mislead her, Kyle simply borrowed a line from Popeye and said, “I am what I am.”
She was about to reply when the guards entered the room and started barking out names. Two guards were dispatched to take each of them back to their cells. He paid attention to where the others went. Kierra was two cells down, if he had it right, and between them was Gilthan’s cell.
Kyle had wanted to speak to the elf also, but there simply hadn’t been time. Given a chance, he would have struck up a conversation with Skrug. Even if the half-troll was a bit slow, he was definitely strong and durable.
Kyle was thinking in terms of building a party. Skrug would make a perfect tank. Kierra would be their rogue, and Gilthan their mage. All they were really missing was a healer.
Of course, when they opened the bars to his cell, Kyle remembered that this was anything but a game. He was not excited to climb back down into the pit, but once he cleared the bars, he realized that there were other people down in his cell. After stepping off the ladder, he looked around and saw two guards standing against the far wall next to his little table.
Sitting on the edge of his bed was a gorgeous woman. She looked like she couldn’t be older than eighteen and had pristine, smooth skin with the shade of an opal. She was petite, and he would have been shocked if she was much above five feet, although he conceded that his increased size made everyone around him seem small.
What set her apart even more, in his eyes at least, was her deep rose-colored hair and slightly pointed eyes. Her hair was so vibrant it didn’t seem to be natural, but after having seen Gilthan, he thought maybe it was just a trait common to elves. Most pleasant, though, was the way that she smelled of fresh cut flowers.
As he looked at her, anxiety was written all over her face. Maybe that wasn’t inappropriate. She wore a silvery manacle, similar to the ones on his wrists and ankles, on her left leg. So, it seemed likely that she, too, was a slave.
She started speaking to him and her voice was melodic. Hilde translated for him and he learned her name was Nyda. She was here to be his language instructor.
One of the guards interjected at that point, “And we’re here to make sure you don’t try to touch her. This one is saved for the winner of the first practice bouts.”
The other said, “Whoever that lucky SOB is.”
The first guard laughed crudely as he said, “To the victor go the spoils. Almost makes me wish I could compete.”
The second guard said, “Like your wife wouldn’t cut off your balls if she even heard you say that.”
“A man can dream, can’t he?” came back the reply.
Due to the translation lag, Kyle found it difficult to be angry. He struggled to keep up with the conversation.
Nyda blanched and became even paler at the way they spoke about her. “Please allow me to begin my lesson. Maybe it would be best for you two to wait up top.”
The guards looked at each other, uncertain, but Kyle said, “I won’t touch her.”
After that, and for the next three hours, he did his best to keep his mind on her voice and the words as he went through what essentially amounted to ‘See Spot Run’ level drills. He did have to admit that she was good at teaching him, and he added another hundred simple words to his vocabulary, but more importantly, he got a better understanding of simple grammar. He knew he was learning child-level speech, but he had to start somewh
ere.
When she signaled the guards to lower the ladder down again for her to exit the cell, he placed his hand on it, causing her to shiver.
Kyle immediately stepped back and said, “Sorry. Thank you.”
He hadn’t intended to scare her, but he felt good to be able to say a few words on his own. She looked at him for a moment before nodding and then climbing up the ladder. He did everything in his power not to stare up the short form-fitting dress she was wearing.
He was even mostly successful.
“You definitely have more interest in the fairer sex than Krig ever did. Maybe reincarnation has helped you. And you seem to be equal opportunity interested. First a lycan, and now an elven sorceress,” Hilde trilled.
Kyle paused for a moment. He could let her get under his skin and tease him like some grade-schooler shouting about trees, kissing, and baby carriages. Or he could tackle it head on. He had nothing to be ashamed about. Kierra freaked him a bit because, honestly, she was all furry and he didn’t know if that made her more like an animal, even if she had curves in all the right places.
Nyda was definitely nothing to be ashamed of. She was gorgeous, with a rocking body wrapped up in the cuteness of her petite size. The best way to handle a conversation like this was to go on the offensive so you could take charge, and he knew the thing that almost always worked with women who were trying to be a bit aggressive.
“If you think I get worked up over elves and lycans, then you should see how hot I get for fiery celestials,” Kyle thought back at her while trying to inflict the sense that he was staring right into her.
He didn’t understand how this soul connection between them worked, but he poured his energy into it. The attempt was instinctive, and he just went with it. Kyle had never been an overly spiritual person. If push came to shove, he believed in a god or God, although what his current situation said about that was something else.
Despite that now, he felt another aspect inside himself.
He was used to being attuned to his physical body, knowing exactly how far he could push himself. That was part of the secret of his success. Suddenly, though, it was like there were multiple layers to him that he hadn’t known existed before.
As he pushed in, he felt something part. Like there was a vast emptiness around him. It was bottomless and threatened to devour him, but he forced it apart. It felt almost like he was trying to shovel the water of a vast ocean apart with his bare hands. The substance moved, or perhaps lack of substance might have been a better way to describe it.
Then it rushed back around his fingers, but he didn’t want that to happen. He wanted to drive his point home to Hilde, so Kyle pushed harder. He willed it not to be so, and the fabric shifted around. A small, round window formed in it, and he looked into a glorious hall fit for royalty with a throne of gold draped with a crimson cloth.
Sitting upon that throne was the most gorgeous woman that he had ever seen, wreathed in flames and sporting two wings. He knew without knowing, that this image he beheld of her was only a physical representation of her spiritual being. Yet he was captivated.
Where Kierra was curvaceous and Nyda was delicate perfection, this woman exuded sensuality. She was the matured conclusion of what every other woman he had ever known hoped to be. And best, she wasn’t wanton; her appeal was simply a part of her, as simple as breathing. It was an expression of her fiery nature.
Then he started panting and his body trembled with a strain unlike any he had ever felt. It was impossible to describe it in terms that he could understand, even to himself. The effort was draining him completely, and he felt a bitter cold sucking the very life out of him. Kyle hated to let the image of her go, but he had no choice but to pull back, lest he die.
As he collapsed on the stone floor of his cell and the darkness overcame him, he heard the anguished cry of a soul and knew that he had seen Hilde.
Chapter 12 - Finding a Place
The next morning, he woke when a bucket of icy water was poured all over him from outside his cell. Two different guards stood up above and laughed at his sudden scramble to wake up. In his haste, he had failed to control his strength and crushed the table. Even the stone wall was cracked on one side where his leg had kicked out in response to the water.
He was so angry that he yelled out in English at them, “Hey, what the hell? Just say something. I’m a light sleeper.”
There was this urge within him to leap up out of the cell and teach these insolent curs a lesson they would never forget. Well, that wasn’t quite true. If he did what he had in mind at that moment, it would likely be the last thing that he did.
He reined in his emotions. He was angry, but killing people for throwing some water on him was not something that was part of the way that he operated. It was as though that other part of him had felt such indignation at being treated in such a way, that he lost control for a second.
It made him again wonder if some part of Krig truly was inside him. Or worse, he was being transformed into a duplicate of the war god. If that was what he had gotten into, he didn’t intend to go quietly.
The ladder was dropped down into his cell and he began the climb out. As he did, he called out in his head, “Hilde, are you okay? Something happened last night. At least I think it was last night.”
An instant later, he heard the sultry voice of the celestial. Except it was slightly off. It had that particular timbre that a woman’s voice had after she had been crying. “I was so worried.”
Then that moment was gone, and her mocking anger resurfaced. “That was really stupid. You have no idea what could have happened to you. Why would you take such a foolish risk?”
“I’m glad that you are okay, too,” Kyle replied, as he followed the guards through the halls. He was getting better at talking to her while also paying attention to what was going on around him.
“What do you mean? The last thing I remember was…” Kyle’s thoughts froze as he remembered the strange gray place and the way he had parted it to see the fiery angel. “Was that you?”
“Yes, you saw me in your mantle. But that isn’t what’s important. You nearly expended all of your essence. I don’t know what would have happened to you if you had spent the last of it,” Hilde replied.
Even as she spoke, he could tell there was something more she wasn’t telling him, but he had to check something first before asking her anything more. He pulled up his character sheet.
Raw Essence: 1,907
“What are you talking about? I have more essence now than I did yesterday.”
“Shows what you know. You were down to less than ten raw essence and were expending it as War Essence as quickly as you could spend it. You may think that you just over-extended yourself and can sleep it off, but you aren’t some mortal. Your very being is composed of that essence, at least in part. You can never let yourself get that low again. Certainly not because you wanted a peek at me.”
“I just was trying to push the meaning of what I was saying more strongly at you, but then I saw this gray stuff and it was everywhere, and somehow I knew I needed to push through to the other side,” Kyle said.
“That gray stuff, as you so lightly called it, was the void. The complete lack of essence that the very planes of existence float in. Your divine mantle is a pocket dimension that holds the idea of war. You are a manifestation of that idea, or Krig was. Now you are something more and less at the same time. But the point is that you are nowhere near ready to pierce the void, let alone travel through it, no matter how much I might wish the truth were different,” Hilde said.
Kyle could hear the fear and anger competing in her voice.
“The way you describe Krig, you make it sound like he was just some war elemental, which brings up the question about what an elemental is, but don’t think this conversation is over. I know that something scared or upset you, and we need to talk about it. My reincarnation resolution is to build better relationships. I n
ever really listened to the women in my life—at least not in my old life. Well, now you’re stuck in my head, and there isn’t anything for me to do but listen to you. I have to think there is some cosmic humor behind that.
“Oh, and was that the real you that I saw sitting on the throne?” Kyle asked. He realized he was rambling a bit, but something about the night before had him all worked up. He felt a true connection to Hilde that he hadn’t felt before.
“That is my physical manifestation. I’m sorry that you saw me like that, m’lord,” Hilde replied.
“Sorry that I saw you like what? You are stunning. I can’t imagine that you could possibly look more beautiful. So don’t give me any of that just rolled out of bed BS. And what’s with the m’lord all of a sudden? Trying to change the subject?”
“Not at all. I just realized something. At first, I was shocked by what you accomplished, and then I was worried for you. Now though, I feel guilty for doubting you. Only one of the gods could have accomplished what you did on mere instinct. It isn’t a minor thing. I have been treating you disrespectfully and I apologize, m’lord. Krig liked to be called Lord Krig, Lord Battle, or War God. It is clear that you aren’t there yet, but equally clear that is what you are destined to become,” Hilde replied.
Kyle wasn’t quite sure how to take that. Sure, he wanted her to stop holding back and work with him more, but that didn’t mean he was ready to have someone bowing and scraping before him, even if it was only inside his head. Not that he couldn’t imagine some fun things she could do on her knees if she really looked like what he had seen. The irony being that he was a slave now, even if he felt like that was only a temporary situation.
“How about for now you just call me Kyle and we figure out the rest of it? I have so many questions, that I’m not sure where to begin. I want to know why you were crying, and don’t try to deny it. I know what I heard in your voice. But as much as I want to know that, I need to know what an elemental is, since I got identified as that somehow.
