chapter 1

Chapter 1 Nix

Year, 4004

We had been marching for what felt like days. My legs were machines, walking without thought. Being a slave of Moriens Patriea may sound easy to the public, but isn’t. The lies crammed down their throats by the King and his flock of noble puppets are just that, lies. They tell them we are payed.  They tell them we are allowed to leave when we want. They tell them we are not slaves. All lies. We are the condemned, the ones who dared to speak out against the King. The ones who stole the stale bread at the end of the day to survive. The ones who committed petty one time crimes. The ones who suffered the punishments of others. The ones the world has forgotten. We are constantly being moved building to building, mine to mine, city to city. If we stayed in one place too long, our secret might get out. The truth might be known. Most of the slaves didn’t last longer than three months, but I was lucky. I lived a year and a half before I escaped.

We were walking through the Moriens Patriea countryside passing farms, forests, and mountains. Not a person in sight. No doubt the King had ordered them to stay in their homes until further notice. He must think we're stupid but were not. We know he hides us to protect his precious Kingdom from rebellion. Sometimes I think the only thing that keeps us going is the hope we cling to. The hope that the people of Moriens Patriea would revolt if they knew what was really happening. A voice blew my thoughts into a never ending abyss. I was stationed to walk at the end of our row and I could see the shooting girl well.

“You can’t do this! They're human beings, you have no right.” She was about the same age and height as me. She pushed her way past the few guards surrounding us. Her dark brown hair framed her olive skinned, sharp featured face. She wore tight black cargo pants lined with pockets, and a plain black tee shirt. Strapped to her back was a large combat axe over a thin bow with a sack of arrows. She made it close enough to reach out and touch us. closer than anyone had before. Her slender fingers wrapped around my thick pale arm and I stared at her. Her brown almost red eyes looked like fire itself. They were full of malice and something else. I realize now it was fear. Fear of an unknown responsibility greater than a single human should ever have to bear.

“Run! Run while you still can! Run!” She shouted with warning in her voice like I had never heard. The guards surged forward and yanked her arms back breaking our connection. They dragged her kicking screaming body to the front of the now stopped convey of slaves. The general grabbed the girl by the shoulders and shoved her to her knees, splashing up the mud from the dirt road below our feet.

“Let you all see…” His voice cut through the valley like a knife made of tyranny. “Anyone who tries to defy the King. Anyone who tries to commit treason and topple the strong monarchy, that has ruled fairly and justly over this land for centuries, all have the same fate. Death.” His hand dropped and the soldiers to his right raised his sword. But before he could end the girls life, she burst into flames. Hot blue flames, tipped with white, that should have burned her to a crisp in a matter of seconds but didn’t. The soldiers jumped back and some of the slaves close to her yelped from the sudden heat. She raised her head slowly, eyes closed and opened her mouth.

“You will pay for your crimes against humanity. I vow on my father’s grave I will kill every last one of those responsible for the suffering of my people. For the suffering of Moriens Patriea. I will kill you all!” As she said the last words her eyes flew open. They were burning red. An inner core of orangey red, tipped with blue, like the flames surrounding her.

“Seize her!” The general shouted at the others. They rushed forward but her body had already begun to dissolve into ash. In a matter of seconds all that was left where she had once been were her eyes burning as bright as embers. A voice, her voice, like an eco called out as if from the tops of the mountains.

“Tell your beloved King to watch his back. I am coming for him.” The eyes disappeared. The ash of her body flew into the sky and floated west, strung along by an invisible net of air.

“Come with me!” The general said, his voice hard and dry pairing perfectly with his rotting figure and greasy hair. He grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the carriage he had been riding in. Tossing me inside, he followed, blocking my only chance of escape. The cart lurched forward. The sound of tired beaten feet hitting the mud crept towards me and filled my ears like lead. The cart was quiet for several moments. I reveled in the feeling of not moving. It felt so good to lay there and wait. In that moment I didn’t think about the strange fire girl or the one person I thought of every day. All I thought about was the little bit of energy I had left flowing out of my body through every limb I could feel.

“Do you know what it was? What's its name?” Classic slang commonly used to describe source spued out of his mouth accompanied by a stream of spit. The general grabbed me by the shirt collar, and yanked me upright. “Tell me boy, or you will join slave 14700.” Slave 14700, or Dahlback, tried to escape from the mine a few days ago. He had been shot with a cross bow the second he broke rank. “Talk!” His voice was so harsh I thought he could break me into a thousand pieces with one word. He threw me to the ground and slid back into his set. I scrambled to the corner of the carriage before he could grab me again. The general leaned so far forward I could smell his breath. His rotten teeth emitted the stench of death and decay. I fought the urge to gag as he spoke. “If you hold back on me I swear…” I cut him off abruptly.

“I don’t know anything. I don’t know why she said that about the King. I don’t know anything!” I repeated this until I surely sounded insane.

“Stop! Stop the carriage!” He shouted out the window. Before we had come to a complete halt he flung open the door and pushed me out. Blood and gravel cracked my face. He pulled me off the muddy ground by the collar of my ripped starchy shirt. “You better not be lying to me. If you are I will hunt down that girl you are so fond of, and end… her… life.” He tossed me back into the imprinted dirt and I was forced to take my place in the slave block and we continued walking. As we trudged forward the next slave was forced into interrogation.