Advent of Eternity - Chapter 50 (P1) (Patreon)

“It looks like there are other shops too,” Stix said, nodding at a tarp covered wagon where several people had gathered. “I, uh, kind of thought this place would be more… mystical?”

“Same,” Cyll muttered. “This is lame. It’s just a town.”

“I suppose we should see what they’re selling,” Knell said. “If the bandits left through here with the townspeople, we’re probably never going to find them. This might be the end of the line.”

“Hey, we tried,” Cyll replied with a shrug. “That’s more than most.”

Knell gave a one-shouldered shrug. They entered the crowd, hanging at the outskirts to try and avoid drawing too much attention to themselves. It wasn’t particularly effective with Knell’s appearance and Cyll’s height, but the thought was there.

As they grew close enough to see the stage, Knell’s disinterest burned away like wheat in a forest fire. There were no products on the stage. There were people, and they were in chains.

“I think I found where the villagers went,” Cyll said under his breath. “Slavers.”

“I thought slavery was purged.” Stix hissed. “What are they doing here?”

“Hush,” Knell said, thankful that the noise of the crowd made it difficult to hear what anyone was saying. “And I don’t see anyone here to enforce the rules. Do you? Power begets right.”

Stix clenched her hands as the auctioneer shoved a man off the stage into the hands of several bandits, who dragged him out of the crowd. With a flourish, the auctioneer grabbed another man from the line of defeated people at the stand.

“This one is a fresh catch,” he boomed. “Strong, even if he’s Pathless. Great for working mines or farms. We’ll start at five gold. Go!”

The crowd erupted with bids and Knell bit down the disgust building in his stomach. He studied the town, searching for an easy way to bring the entire operation down, but the results were less than encouraging. While Brickvale looked relatively small, it was still a town.

There were probably a few hundred people within it, all of whom at least tolerated the slave market. He had no information on the strength of anyone here, nor did he even know where they were. If anything went wrong, they would be stranded in this new area.

“Knell?” Stix pressed.

“I – what can we do?” Knell asked, his knuckles turning white around his staff. “There’s an entire town of unknown strength.”

“But–”

“Our own lives take priority,” Knell said, turning and limping away from the crowd. His crew followed him into the city, and they stepped into a hidden alley to find a more out-of-the-way place to talk.

“So… what? We just leave them all?” Stix asked.

“I am thinking,” Knell replied. “The scales are heavily against us. Even if we do something, it will do little to nothing to actually benefit us. We won’t be able to stick around and fight. Many of the slaves will die.”

“Better to die than live a slave,” Cyll said.

Knell rubbed his forehead, thoughts flicking through his mind. Every plan he could think of ended the same way – their death. It was one thing to attack a bandit camp. It was another to take on the entire town, where there were almost certain to be multiple powerful people. If the bandits were playing nice inside Brickvale, there was a very high chance that it was run by someone far too powerful for them to currently deal with.

“We can’t do anything directly,” Knell said after several minutes. “There is not a single path we can take that does not end in our demise if we show ourselves to be openly against the town.”

“Is there a but coming in there?” Cyll asked. Even he looked disgusted with the town, which spoke volumes considering Knell had seen him essentially partake in cannibalism.

“There is. If we are seen, we’re done,” Knell said. “But… if we can cause a distraction for the slaves and free them, their fates will be in their own hands. Many will die, but some might escape. From what I saw, the”

“What about us? Hard to cause a distraction from far away,” Stix said. “We’ll be caught up in it.”

A grim smile stretched across Knell’s face. “Not if it’s only one of us. How quickly can you break chains, Stix?”

“It was hard to tell how sturdy the chains were from where we were standing,” Stix replied, pursing her lips and scrunching her nose. “Honestly, Cyll would be a much better candidate. He’s stronger than I am.”

“But not nearly as fast,” Cyll pointed out. “I could wade through the crowd, sure, but how long before I got captured? I might free a good number of the poor blokes, but I’ll eventually go down. The whole down will collapse on me.”

Knell nodded to himself. “No, I’ve got it. This can be done.”

Cyll cocked an eyebrow. “Without getting me captured?”

“With almost no risk to you,” Knell replied. “This is perfect, actually. Yes – I don’t know how it took me so long to figure it out. And, to take it a step further, I believe we can turn this toward my own purposes as well.”

“Are you going to tell us or just crow about it?” Cyll asked.

Knell’s grin grew wider. “First, how durable are those portals in the dungeon?”

***

Eliza was having the worst day of her life. Her parents were dead, her brother had been sold to a group of bandits, and her entire body ached like it had been put through a grinder. The brand on her right arm burned both body and soul, marking her as nothing more than property.

Hatred churned in her stomach, but she kept her eyes dead and lifeless. It wasn’t hard to pretend to be defeated – her resolve was cracked and crumbling, only a tiny nudge away from falling into the endless ocean of despair that awaited her.

Blood dripped from the dozens of wounds covering her body, sticking her torn clothes to her like a smothering blanket. But the tiny spark deep within her, the last semblance of her will, still burned.

The man before her in line – Jake – was about to be sold off. He’d been the village cartographer, and Eliza still remembered him sneaking her candies whenever she visited his shop. A sob bubbled up in her chest, but she strangled it.

No matter what the bastards did to her, she wouldn’t cry. Whoever bought her – Eliza would wait until their guard was down, then rip their throat out with her teeth. Even if she didn’t kill them, at least she’d die with the taste of their blood in her mouth.

“And take a look at this hearty young lass,” the announcer roared, grabbing Eliza by the neck and yanking her upright. Pain erupted in her body, but she pressed her lips together and refused to let the whimper escape.

“Trust me, gentlemen, she’s quite the specimen,” the announcer drawled, his sleazy voice crawling over Eliza’s skin like snakes. “She’s got the looks. She’s untouched too – we make sure all the goods you’re provided with are top notch, after all. No scarring or other permanent injury. But, more importantly, she’s got a Path.”

Eliza tried to spit on him, but her mouth was so dry that she couldn’t muster up the saliva. The announcer laughed in her face.