by Marcus Sloss
I decided to go to the training yard and spar. I wore my helmet in to avoid notice but everyone knew it was custom armor commissioned by Duke Riza for the Knights of Fernlan. With my identity obvious I removed my helmet and trained with the others. I was asked many questions the entire time. I politely answered the decent questions. The dumb ones I ignored. I grew tired of the pestering and went to find Earl Conway's son. The animal market was soothing for some reason. I figured I could help shovel manure or something to pass the time until Roz returned.
Baron Tedi was the spitting image of his father. I asked to see what he had for sale and he only had horses left. Now that trade was opening up again, they were fetching a premium. The twenty four I got for free were a steal. Funny how markets swing. There were six for sale at ten gold per. I decided to decline, because they were passed up by Earl Conway. Oh well. I asked if he had some hard labor I could perform and he frowned. I had to repeat if he had some back breaking work for me to hone my muscles and kill time. Eventually, he consented and paired me with two ladies milking cows… bison.
For the next few hours, the girls talked my ear off about potential suitors. How life in Lakeland was improving. How some idiot was paying their little brothers to collect rats and the kids grew ideas of grandeur. I was hunched over squeezing large teets when Duke Riza found me. The two girls stood at attention and I kept working. He ordered them to pretend he wasn’t there and they struggled to do so.
“Why?” Riza asked as he pulled a stool up beside me.
“It soothes me. Hard work, keeps me centered. Idle hands lead to idle minds. Something like that. Good people you got here. These girls have a great future planned out. They have hope, and that makes me proud of you.” I said while swapping out a full pail for an empty one. “What brings you down here?”
“That shaman of yours showed up. She has fourteen male shamans and a hundred chained goblins. She said she needs to see you when able. It took us a while to find you. Luckily you mentioned after sparing where you were going. We checked twice here but never asked Tedi if you stopped in until just now.” Duke Riza said and rose from his stool.
“Take care ladies, good luck in the future. I mean it,” I said and they waved goodbye. “Alright, Duke how about I go buy some slaves.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me of my sins. At least you might be able to free some good folk. That is why I was able to get to sleep last night. Oh… Those horses we pretty much gifted to you. Can the knights get them back? They promise two offspring per in exchange. That is a really good offer.” The Duke said.
“Who is going to move them?” I asked not wanting to deal with the financial headache of it.
“You get two offspring per and they stay where they are for now. It should be a few cycles at least, even with experts like Conway and Phen. We can worry about moving them after.”
“I paid too much to move them, but if it is a big deal then we can come to something. To be honest, if the griffins clear out the Horde then they need to be utilized. I need to get into the wagon making business. I have the mages for it.” I said and paused. We were crossing the bridge at this point. I notated the wagon idea on my to build list and moved forward to catch back up to Riza.
“Good idea. Hey, look Gryff. Thanks for being good to Bella, it means a lot. And thanks for taking in Trish. I know you could have refused, instead, you did something for Bella. With that being said, my dungeons are not for slaving. I hope you tend to not repeat this elsewhere either. I am not judging yet, because I haven’t seen the end result… It doesn’t sit well with me.” Duke Riza said sternly.
“I hate it too. Who knows those ten may buy us thousands of human slaves. To be honest my morality meter is at an all time low. I chained the goblin shaman to be my literal slave forever. I rewrote the term length too. She knows, but I think she doesn’t care because of what I am. Any enemy of the Horde is a friend of hers. I hope I don’t piss off humans the same way.” I said as we arrived at the portal. We clasped arms and I left his side to approach Roz.
“Master, I did very, very well. I will be the first to admit that your five books sold easily and for more in stones than I thought possible. If I had to guess I could have moved three times as many. Alas, there is a competition today at the major slave market. That means additional species and sheer number of slaves for sale. It is a rare opportunity that should not be missed. First I need to stash my harem though. I siphoned off their minimal yellow aura for today. Oh, these fourteen have their tongues removed. I have enough energy to portal five times roughly right now. If I properly sex drain them I can do much more. I will find out when I try later, never used my succubus aura stealing before today. These goblins will stay here while we move my energy generators.” Roz said and I almost felt bad for the male shamans. Nope, just kidding. My morality meter did officially hit zeros. I was grinning that my slave, had her own slaves to abuse.
“How does it work? Can I show you a place on the map and you portal me there or do you have to have an image?” I asked.
“I can pull the image from your mind, it is a tad invasive but if you think of only that – it is not bad, if not I need to have been there. I have been nowhere but here on Vin and this was all Rakmar implanted. Do you have a place in your mind you want to go to?” She asked and I nodded. She reached her hands out and wrapped them around my head. “Ready?”
I nodded and thought of Monox Isle. The pressure on my mind was minimal and before I realized she was done, the portal spawned. She barked in her shaman native tongue for the male shamans to get in the portal. I actually had no idea what she said. I did hear ruttish talk and pointing. I jumped through first to ensure no one was killed after entering.
∞∞∞
The tiny hut on the beach was the only structure I saw. There was some water and a few cots inside the hut. This would do. A griffin peeked at me from the backside of the hut, curious as to what disturbed his nap. I informed him some silent monk shamans were coming to live here. I told the griffin to not eat them. He grumbled. I repeated do not eat them and then made him repeat it back to me. The fourteen male shamans stepped through and Roz ordered them into the shade.
∞∞∞
Roz and I stepped back into the portal. Once back in Lakeland I let it sink in how awesome portal power was. I had shifted a vast distance for what would have taken a griffon’s day of flight without stopping. I immediately realized how much of an asset Roz was.
“Hey, Roz before we go to this mighty trading planet. Are we going to trigger any sensor or alert by our portal travel? I notice the Horde rarely moves like this.” I asked with curiosity.
“No, you uninformed human. There is a diplomacy pool of Maurta energy. It is separate from his almost limitless storage of power he uses to open portals to new worlds. For us shamans with the individual power, we have a separate reserve to utilize. It never ever comes close to being fully used. The reality is Maurta set it aside to move diplomats and negotiators. The problem is the Horde wins so thoroughly, so frequently, it rarely is used. I am another absorber of energy among millions. Now if I opened an invasion portal sure. Alerts everywhere. A personal portal would take a few thousand activations a day to make a noticeable dent. I can easily move a hundred thousand troops a day without issue. So we are good to go. Are you ready?” Roz asked and I nodded. It was hard to argue with her logic and she was the expert. I also did not think on the scales the Horde did. I was used to my twelve member team and that was it. The Horde had millions of planets.
“Uh, no. Not ready yet. Why don’t we have a seat here first?” I said to a bench outside of the portal. I did not want to go into a portal blind with minimal knowledge. “Start with the currency, please. What are your stones? Why do the Horde use them over coins? And how much do we have vs how much should we expect to expend in currency.”
Roz impatiently seated herself beside me. “I will try to be quick master because the competition starts in an hour. I have been able to adjust Horde time to
your time. Horde uses twenty eight of your hours into their twenty hour day. On that issue, easy math and you are good to convert.” Roz said with an ugly smile. Well her teeth needed cleaning. I had mostly been picking mine clean when I can but she never did. Her eyes did note a smug satisfaction at achieving a time conversion. “The Horde utilizes stones for currency. If you want to know why stones… I know not. I do know they have aura inside them. If you are a shaman, they incredibly value this currency for its power, the same for the cyclops. The orcs and ogres can use some of that aura to buff their strength but it is not as impactful. Where the stones are filled, or how I can guess. The gods or slaves giving aura into the stones to keep the economy fueling. Now if I was to pick the two I would select slaves, and when they die part of their souls go into the stones. The more aura from souls the larger the stone, the more value it has. Banks measure in the raw souls that stone contains. Most vendors utilize a soul number. Some still use the stone brackets with scales to establish fair trade. ”
I paused here at this point. “Okay, I was not expecting this but it can work in my favor for certain. Hand me a low value stone.” I said and she removed her backpack. It was stuffed full of stones and I was handed a small one. Now I feel it was important for me to stop thinking of them as simple rocks. These were square chips of hard stone. It seemed like granite. I could not verify but it looked exactly like granite. So these granite stones had one rune on them. I reached in and grabbed a larger stone and compared them. It was denser, heavier, and in this small stone, I could sense the internal aura that it contained. It would take a lot of these to buff my considerable aura in purple magic. Yellow though was weak, even so, I decided to place the slabs back into the bag. Maybe after I freed slaves I could start to suck up aura to improve my aura pools. “Okay, I will save the aura in these for now. Transition into the value of these compared to the male shamans, the goblins, and I want elvath as well as dvaren.”
Before Roz could answer I dug into my bag to pull out a pen and fresh paper. I handed her three more bibles to stuff into her bag thinking she may need them to bargain.
“If we keep selling these, then the market will eventually collapse. It does make sense to bring a few more. The only thing worth less than a goblin is a common animal. Many animals are worth more than goblins. Following so far. Good, even the Horde sticks goblins at the bottom of the value meter. Shamans it depends, and you are going to hear it depends a lot. You drastically overpaid for me. Let me go over the names of the stone type. The biggest is a slab, and it contains an immense amount of aura. These are either platinum as the most then diamond as the next. Then there is the chunk of stone, these are your sapphire then ruby. Then last is the slate or chip of stone. The most common. They come in three types. From high to low it is emerald, garnet, and topaz. Now, even though these are gem names, every stone must be in granite. It binds the best with the magic. A topaz the lowest stone in value is the smallest and empty with a proper rune ready for filling. Did you follow that? If not it is okay. We will be using a bank contract on Kikra with soul numbers on it.” She said and handed stacked out seven stones to display each one. There were three stages to stone growth and varieties inside each stage. Got it. “Great! Okay now knowing what for instance an emerald stone is worth is… it depends. The Horde are many species combined for a single effort. What a goblin values, to what a cyclops values are infinitely different. With time you get a rough idea though and bartering is more than acceptable, it is a requirement. A smart vendor will try to get you to mention a stone amount first. That is the first dance around the barter. Where we are going, I suggest we simply buy at the buyout amount which is overpaying generally. This will result in smoother transactions and it will get you additional business while potentially open more doors. An overpaying desperate client brings drool to most vendors. We can afford it trust me. So you wanted dvaren. The little stout warriors with long beards and ugly faces?”
I held in my laughter at this comment. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder after all. “Yes they are master crafters and I could use the warriors too. I studied the peace accords, if I take slaves they can pass through the barrier with weapons and not count.” I said and her eyes widened.
“You crafty… human. Well, the warriors are more expensive than crafters. Crafters and breeders of dvaren are not terribly expensive. For ages, many of the most ruthless and successful cyclops families have gained their wealth by breeding dvaren. There will be many for sale today, and you will have no problem buying any type you want. Expect to pay more for the warriors by ten to one over the breeders though. The crafters about three to one over the breeders. I will handle the transactions. You will be another slave to our pretend higher master. That is our cover story. And true, I will not say who we serve and neither will you. This is acceptable and while there may be some additional questions, it is very common.
“The elvath are another story. The elvath fought the Horde to near extinction. The only ones who ever surrendered into slavery were the young. Over the years the males died in battles demanded by their masters. They were exceptional in their abilities. The stock was not managed well. The females rarely breed, it is if they were cursed from impregnation from other species. Well, we cannot afford a male but there is an opportunity to potentially win one. I will go into that next. The female elvath are numerous. They were never trained for battle and refused to be converted into warriors. When the cyclops tried they would rather violate their slave bounded contract and die. That was quickly stopped as they were still valuable. They make excellent seamstresses, cooks, and any job really that most females are associated with. A female elvath is around the same price as a dvaren male warrior if not more. Even if you overpay you can afford many thousands of each. If I use these three books many more. Speaking of which you should not bring the rest just in case it is inspected.
“You will see many more species. The trade fair will be the largest of its kind with thousands of types of slaves for offer. There are even female dominated fighting species, again they cost more than the breeder males. You will have many options and I will try to go over them. If your goal is elvath, dvaren, and human then there should be enough stock to spend this fortune on. While it may raise some eyebrows if you take a losing deal it will not matter to the seller. Only the stones matter and not the slaves.”
I nodded at this. It did help clarify some things. “I want to know about this event that is drawing in all the crowds.”
“Of course master. The event is a bracketed one vs one winner take all. The prize at the top is an old male elvath. They are rare as I was mentioning and almost every elvath breeder will desire him. You could buy ten thousand dvaren warriors for his price. The problem is the entry fee. The entry fee is steep. Roughly two bibles or four thousand dvaren warriors for just a chance of winning. So there will be a competition, but it will be short from a lack of entries. Most cyclops will field ogres, they are the standard for arena combat. Part of the reason why is if they are defeated and survive the wounded ogre can regenerate over time. I think you should compete. Your body would be returned to us even if you lose it is in the contract. With your uniqueness, I think you can easily win.”
I glanced around and saw Bella talking with Trish and her father not too far away. “Bella, run to me!” I shouted at my wife, and she jogged over. “You are coming with me. You will stay quiet and in my shadow. I know… I believe in you Bella and I need a healer. Add hiring one to follow me around to my list.”
Duke Riza approached with Trish at his side. I handed him my bag with the extra bibles. We said our farewells and I ordered Roz to take us to this trading world full of slaves. A portal spun up behind her and I watched its perfect formation. The goblins were forced in first. I followed them with Bella and finally, Roz followed me. Then there was blackness.
CHAPTER 16
We stepped into a new world that Roz called Kikra. The sky was green and there were no clouds. I did notice the bloated sky carriers
called the Biponi that the Horde had tried to use on Vin. Bella immediately vomited from the disorientation. A few extra heaves and she stabilized. I focused on our surroundings and noticed we were in a landing pen. There was shit everywhere, the stench was awful, and I wanted to join Bella in vomiting. The goblins we arrived with for our slave quota did not care. They formed small groups and relaxed. This was probably normal to them.
Large wooden walls enclosed us and Roz was approaching a side door. I could see mere glimpses of traffic outside the walls because of the haphazard construction. An orc guard was watching over the doorway and he beckoned a shaman his way. Roz spoke in Horde to the shaman, and a spell was cast from the goblins to the shaman. I studied it briefly. It transferred ownership until the sale. Which I wanted those goblins for their hearts and protein. The door swung open and Roz led us into a crowded walkway.
“All the different species…” Bella gasped and froze. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her. “Sorry, it is a lot to take in.”
She, of course, was right. There were Horde everywhere. Sprinkled among them were alien life forms I never could have fathomed. There were bipedal birds, quad legged centaurs, and even fairies flying. It was indeed a shock and I knew I had to stay focused. Roz was on the move and I kept us right beside her as she navigated the loud boisterous crowds. There must have been a million Horde crowded on the wide road. Vendors sold food, trinkets, drinks, and slave equipment. The entire area was thousands upon thousands of giant wooden pens. There were viewports that could be opened to inspect the potential slaves for sale. Signs hung from points near the viewing area.
“What do the signs say, Roz,” I asked and pointed. She waved me over and pointed at a sign with a questioning look. “Yes, translate that please.”
