Interlude SS [10.5] Friends Find Each Other Part 3

It had been weeks of the same things every night. A gnoll male that was some type of healer did fix her leg. She was a product and they didn’t want her to die from some preventable diseases. He did work slowly though slow enough that it took days instead of minutes like it should have for someone with healing magic. 

She was called out less but not because they felt sorry for her, it was instead because they were moving rapidly. The caravan was in some tricky terrain but it felt rushed. She didn’t know if they were trying to lose some pursuers or what. They rested only long enough for their horses to not keel over before the caravan was up and moving again.

Julie and Thesis were in one of the rear wagons only a small sliver of light came in from a hole in the top cover of the transport. It was their only light during the day but it did mean they had no idea where they were.

When night came the caravan was in the process of splitting again. It did this each time the slavers were close to a new kingdom. She noticed they had many secret passageways and paid off border guards to cross into any nation they came across. 

The gnolls talked a lot when they were drunk and as long as the females weren’t around the males partied harder. The duo wanted to use the opportunity to learn the language of the gnolls. To her it sounded like growls and snarls but there was a cadence to it. She didn’t study her ass off at the academy learning and memorizing spell forms and mana flow formulae to not also figure out a language. She learned some words but made it a point to pick up as much as possible.

A break came when she found a cargo manifest written in whatever language they spoke. Slaves were listed as white goats but it helped her put together their alphabet phonetics. She took the manifest of course and any other document she could get her hands on while the gnolls partied. When the guards were asleep Thesis and her would go over as much as they could together.

“Grraha Skasss Cralwl. Definitely means Waterway Pass Dropoff.” Thesis said.

“Grrah without the ‘a’ at the end maybe this definitely says Peachway Pass Dropoff.” Julie corrected.

“This is definitely Grraha! Look see the extra little swoop there.” Thesis pointed at the offending mark.

“Oh shit. Yeah, I just thought that was a mistake. This writing is terrible.” Julie said and scratched her head.

“So we are going to somewhere called Waterway Pass next.” Julie said.

“Looks that way.” Thesis agreed.

“Any idea where we are?” 

“Nope.” Thesis signed and layed back on his arms. “Never heard of it and the name is so generic it could be anywhere. There’s always the possibility it isn’t the real name of the place too.”

“I didn’t think about that. It could be a code name.” Julie said.

Thesis looked at her for a long moment. “Hang in there. I know they keep pulling you out and forcing you to work for them but we’ll get out of here.”

“Yeah, and when I get this collar off they will wish I hadn’t gotten free.” Julia said.

The caravan stopped abruptly causing Julie and Thesis to slide in their cages. They quickly righted themselves as mumbling spread amongst the other captives.

The caravan shifted like a snake shedding its skin. Weeks passed again. New cages. New faces. More slaves, they were dwarves and harpies which was a first. The gnolls were in competition over who got what. Apparently the caravans traded slaves. Another alpha female from another gnoll caravan was looking through Nanavil’s stocks for feasible trade. She was a jet black gnoll with long hooks for weapons on her belt. 

She looked just as menacing as Nanavil as she looked through cages. Her eyes snapped onto Julie but Nanavil growled at her something about how mage girl isn’t for sale. Her eyes then looked to Thesis and a smile graced her hyena like snout.

***

Everything after that moved too quickly to hold on to.

One cold morning, just before dawn, it happened.

Shouts. Cracking whips. Club strikes against metal. 

The gnolls came like a storm, barking orders, dragging slaves from cages, herding them like livestock. Chains clattered. People screamed as families were ripped apart and those that resisted were struck. Then they came to Thesis’s cage and pulled him out by the arm. There was no fighting back, the gnolls were so much stronger than them. Julie had screamed and she felt the cold iron against her neck repressing the magic she wanted to call upon so bad. 

She screamed his name until her throat went raw, but there was no answer. She understood why but it still hurt. If he resisted, if she fought too hard, they would make her pay. Thesis wouldn’t ever let that happen, not because of him. So they dragged him away taken with the other traded slaves. 

None of the other slaves knew the name of the black furred alpha gnoll that had purchased him. They didn’t know what would happen to him. She held onto a shred of hope at first.

Maybe he’s alive. Maybe he escaped. Maybe he’s waiting for the right moment.

But hope is fragile in chains. 

Days bled into week and hope started to die with each setting sun.

***

After they took Thesis she stopped trying to keep track of the others. They came and went, faces too young, too scared, too broken. Some lasted a few days, some a few hours. There was a guy who tried to fight back. A human warrior by the look of him, he didn’t last the night.

However no matter the region buyer they never sold Julie. She didn’t know why but guessed that maybe the collar made her look dangerous. Maybe they had other plans. Maybe the divine were cruel, and this was a punishment worse than death.

Regardless, she was too angry to die. She wanted to kill every one of the gnolls that had done this to her. She wanted them to suffer and die. She wanted to make them face the humiliations and pain. So in secret she trained her magic. Cold Iron was the bane of all mages, it would cut the connection to one’s own mana core. But maybe there was a way. She knew the magic was still in her but she couldn’t touch it. Maybe she didn’t need to; it was her mana, it was her and she would find a way.

***

It was getting colder as they were again traveling north. They had gone south during winter but it looked like as spring crested they were rapidly making their way to more profitable nations. While no one was looking she had picked up a rock and would focus every chance she got into making it move. She was a geokinetic mage and would find out how to reconnect to her magic.

Then she felt it, not the connection to her magic but the complete absence of it. It was like she and her mana were no longer of the same entity. Her eyes widened as the rock lifted from her palm. It wasn’t her will it was the will of her magic on it’s own. An extension of her sure but something whole separated. 

“What is the Infernal Planes,” She exclaimed.

She touched her chest and didn’t feel her magic core within her at all. She had never heard of this happening before. She had never heard of someone separating their core from their control. 

That’s not possible. 

Mages didn’t survive core separation. It would be like severing your spine and somehow still walking.

The rock trembled, spinning in the air then shattered into sand.

A sharp clang snapped her head up. A metal rod slammed into the bars of her cage. A gnoll male crouched, smiling with crooked teeth.

“Out, little mage,” he said, voice thick with amusement.

She stepped out on shaking legs. Then Nanavil came. No words. No warning. Just iron hands and teeth bared in a cruel grin. Julie screamed as she was yanked by the hair and dragged through camp, her bare feet scraping dirt and gravel. Rage mixed with terror until it choked her.

She was taken to a tent where a gnoll she had never seen before. She was made to strip out of the linen rags while the smaller gnoll, a male with water glyphs etched into his fur, summoned a cold, stinging stream of hot water to wash off the grime. It was the first water she’d felt on her skin in weeks, and it burned like acid. Her skin flushed red, her arms trembling as she stood, water soaking her hair, her face, her soul.

Then he dressed her in something too nice for a slave. Pale silk. Thin as mist. A garment meant to be removed, not worn. It clung to her damp skin like shame. She realized what was happening, she was being sold and not for labor or her magic.

Survive. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Survive.

They led her into the clearing as the sun kissed the horizon, setting the camp aglow in blood-orange light. There was a man who stood there, worse a fellow countryman from Mesha. She would hope he would be there to save her but no he looked at her with hungry eyes. He was a large man, soft bloated from a lavish life of wealth. He licked his lips when he saw her and smiled with a mouth full of too perfect teeth. 

“Ah yes,” he purred. “And a mage too. You always have such a good stalk, Nanavil.”

He was flanked by several guards loading other purchased slaves, all women and all in the same white silk dress. Julie’s stomach turned to stone. She considered biting her tongue hard enough to bleed out. It would be fast but it would not be what she wanted. 

She wanted one thing, to kill everyone of these subhuman filth, that would do this to people. Death wouldn’t give her peace. Her jaw clenched. She focused, not on herself, not on the collar but on the earth beneath the man’s feet. She imagined it rising in a spike of earth to run him through. 

She didn’t feel her magic, but she saw A tiny spike of earth, like a thorn pushing through soil. Then a horn, still too small for the others to notice.

A horn broke her concentration.

The sound cut through the camp like a sword through silence. Then came the screams. Metal against metal. Spells lighting up the dusk. It was the sound of battle. She didn’t know who was fighting who but the camp was under attack that much was obvious.

“Take your girls and go.” Nanavil said.

She barked something guttural and vanished into the trees with a spear in hand. The man lunged for Julie, trying to grab her wrist. His guards turned to flee. Julie wouldn’t give him the chance to touch her. The earthen spike drove up under his chin and punched clean through his skull. He didn’t even get to scream.

She didn’t wait to see what the guards would do or even if they had noticed yet. She ran. No shoes. No idea where she was. Just trees and fog and the sickly white moon overhead. Branches tore at her legs. Roots bit at her feet. She ran until the screaming was far behind her. Until her lungs burned. Until her legs gave out.

She collapsed at the foot of a mossy tree, hands shaking, dress torn, blood running down her shins. She couldn’t hear the horn anymore.

She was alone, she was free.