The border between the lands of the humans and the demis is mostly a wide-open expanse of desert. The heat and predators do almost all the work that keeps the two from having open warfare. Humans are happy to live their lives in the north, farming, and raising families. Most of them believe that the demi-humans are nothing more than myth and the southern lands are wild savage lands.
Those who live in the southern lands go no further than the town of Northern Gate if they travel at all. And that leaves wide open areas for nature to expand and spread itself out. But among the dusty dirty spaces are the occasional oasis, like the one that Ed's followers have built for him. And not far from the border of the desert into the green verdant plains of the south is a cave, hidden inside a farm that looks like something only hardy people would dare to try to keep alive.
This house is a front though for a man who almost had it all or had it all and lost it.
Felgar walked between the house and barn. The barn was too large to be a standard size, but it housed the opening to the cave that housed all of this man's most prized possessions.
As he walked through the door the sounds of people in the cave crying worked its way up. And that was the sound that Felgar loved most. It wasn't that he was a masochist. Quite the opposite, he loved these people like a farmer might love his most prized cattle and goats. They were a source of divine food. The thing that kept him powered up.
Felgar sat in what counted as a small office on what would have been a hay storage area above the metal grate covering the opening to the cave. The cave was completely natural and went down on a slight incline of 15 degrees for nearly 30 feet. Inside water had eroded out prison sized arms that stretched out for what seemed like an eternity. It was perfect because the temperature was a nice 68 degrees. If his possessions managed to escape they came upon the grate and if they mistakenly thought they could spelunk their way out they were met with a 300-foot drop into a sinkhole that fed a larger water supply underneath.
The desert butted up to the farm and what most people forget is that the desert really isn't completely dry. The desert that served as the border between these two lands had been just as beautiful as the forest and plains behind the farm. War, strife, farming, and intentional burning of the lands had decimated the soul and soil of the lands. Regardless of how hard the spirits of the forest had worked to nurture back life, nothing happened. But the waterways and rivers were still there, they were just underground. Large aquifers of spring-fed water flowed slowly towards the ocean. Anyone that died of dehydration in the desert would have been angered to know that the water was so close to the surface.
As Felgar checked his ledger and accounted for his gold the barn opened. T, Reggie, and Hollis had returned in a large carriage. They opened the doors out and backed a large rear opening right up to the barn. They then got out and moved to the back. Hollis and Reggie stood at either side of the door with swords drawn and masks over the top half of their face. They attached a ramp to the back of the carriage under the door and stood back. T, being the most imposing of the group, walked over and removed the padlock from the rear and pulled the door open. His mask hid half his face but not the smile he had from ordering them around.
"Okay you slime, unload the crates! Quick hop to it!" he screamed and banged his sword on the door.
Four dirty bodies climbed out of the back each carrying a large sack on each shoulder. The first man was scrawny and all bones and tight muscles. He had a bald head and tattoos across his body. You could tell that at one point he had been musclebound and probably a great pit fighter. After him, a demi-human came out. It was a wolfman. His gray fur was matted and he had very distinct dog features. His ears had pieces missing, either from fighting or torture. His long wolf-like face was sullen but his eyes were still bright and full of life. He carried the sacks out jumping down after the first man. Another Demi human came out, this one was a young member of the minotaur race and carried two bags on each shoulder. He smiled though, completely unaware that his life as a slave was against the law in both lands. His previous slave owner had sold him to this man who fed him and kept him alive. His ignorance was his own bliss.
The last one to jump down was a girl, with what had been at one point long golden blond hair and tanned skin. The muscle from working the farm still showed but all the fat from good meals and home-cooked desserts was gone. She was smiling to herself as she ducked out the door and walked down the ramp to drop her load of grain where the others had dropped theirs.
"That's right unload there and then go get the rest. If you get it all done in five minutes with no arguing you get twice the food tonight." Torgus screamed at them. Double their meager rations would still be half what Felgar and our three favorite brigands ate every night.
They all grunted and put their backs into the work. They unloaded another 15 bags of grain, several crates of wine, and pickled meats. Several bags of household goods came next and then seeds for the fields.
When the brigands were gone the slaves under the barn got a day's rest but no food. It was a tradeoff, they praised their gods for the chance to rest but held their already distressed and empty stomachs while they laid in their cold damp cells. Felgar had realized that slaves were easy to come by or capture on his own with the help of the three he had employed years earlier. The missed chance to abduct that young man had made Felgar very angry. What a waste of nearly unlimited divine power. He had been counting the privileges he would have had returned to him when he walked back into Ganel.
But then the purge at the church came. The exorcism had driven spirits made all across the world for years causing increased hauntings and other problems. And the rat invasion, Felgar was glad he had missed that particular event because he despised rats in all forms and fashions. But all beings had some level of either mana or divine power and Felgar could recharge his own divine powers from them. Reggie, being sensitive to people's powers, could help identify the poor traveling souls that would suit his nature best. Felgar let the three take occasional other captives for their own amusement. The blond had been T's personal capture. He was going to break her eventually but she had spent the last year and a half putting up a very good fight. Her resistance made him want her all that much more.
With the work done the carriage door was locked and closed and T walked over to the large gate in the back of the barn. The 4 captives knew the routine, if they weren't malnourished and tired they might have actually stood a chance at escape with the skills they all had between them. The Minotaur though might have actually defended Felgar and the 3, and that was the wild card in the bunch.
Each of them was locked in their cell which was near the front of the gate. They were the special ones, either to be fed off of or to be played with. Hollis walked through with a torch and a bucket. He poured out two ladles of soup with meat and bread into a bowl instead of the normal one. Each pulled it into their cell and ate it as quickly as they could before the cold and damp leached the last of the heat from each the tasteless soup.
Several hours later the young lady was laying in the bed of damp straw that counted as her bed when she saw the lights dancing on the stone-headed down the shaft. She pretended to ignore it and be asleep but the light stopped at her cell and shone over her face. She rolled over facing the wall and said, "You know Torgus, a million times you have come and threatened, and I still won't lay with you. Come and rape me if you must but you know it won't be easy."
Torgus laughed. "Oh, you will beg me one day for the chance to try and catch my favor. Maybe a few weeks without rations and you will come begging me for something, anything to eat."
"Maybe, or maybe I will just starve myself to death." She snorted. "You know I will get out of here sooner or later. It will happen and I will find who I'm looking for and I will come back to burn your house down around you while you sleep. And when I do, just to mock you I'm going to lay him down right outside your hose and watch it burn to the ground from on top of him." She turned her head and spit at the door before turning back around and facing the wall.
"Promises from the feisty one. If you have this kind of spirit maybe I ain't working you hard enough." The back and forth banter was exciting him, he kept a slave next to her cell. He was going to have his way with her tonight in hopes that the sounds would eventually drive her to save the poor thing the brutality…
"Try your best… So, decide, are you coming in here or you going back to your room to cry about that miserable excuse for manhood between your legs? You'll need extra light to see it in here. Don't want you just fumbling around while you come to try and use it on me." She rolled over and sat up in her hay. She tucked her tangled hair behind her ears and rolled up her sleeves. She might be weakened, but she had fought her older brother and wrestled animals as big as him in worse shape. If tonight was the night he tried, she was going to make sure he remembered it.
He laughed and looked in between the gates. "No, I think a few nights without supper will do you some good to appreciate me and my generous… offers."
He took a step back and used the pommel of the sword on his hip to bang on the cell doors as he walked past. The bang, bang, bang let the prisoners know who was coming. She heard the clinking of keys and the sound of the lock releasing. She knew the girl in the cell next to hers. She was a very sweet Demi-human. She was from a family of Demi's who had any number of beastly aspects. Her name was Olive and she had cat-like ears, rough fur and goat-like legs, and hooves. The village she was from was all families like this. And to them it was normal. Some other towns had considered her an abomination of cross-breeding. While traveling, one town took her captive under the pretense of a trumped-up charge and sold her into slavery for not being able to pay the fine.
Olive knew what was going to happen and resisted just enough to sate T's appetites. She resisted just enough for him to finish what he was doing, knowing that when she was done enduring this attack, he would slip her a bit of extra food and pat her on the head like a pet. She wasn't much longer for this world, her spirit was draining and each day became longer and harder. She was less worried about the assault than at least staying fed until the diseases she contracted from him and living in a cave killed her.
When he was done T walked by the door to her cell and banged on it again. "You know, you could save that poor girl all the trouble. Let her pass in peace. You will give in El, you just wait and see." He laughed as he walked away banging doors and waking up slaves as he left.
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Above ground, Felgar was in the house. It was evening and an uninvited guest had walked into his midst. He was doing his best to entertain her given the meager nature of the house. It was designed to make life comfortable for him and his three compatriots. It wasn't that he didn't have money for better housing. He had enough money now from buying and selling slaves and the things they made for him. He could have had mansions again, but to keep up the funds he needed to look like a homestead, and that meant keeping up the slightly run-down appearance.
"Oh Felgar, you have fallen haven't you?" said a woman to him as they sat in the only parlor in the house. Felgar had made Reggie clean up the place in a mad dash. Items and dishes were thrown into cabinet doors. Reggie had done everything he could to get out of that room as quickly as possible. Reggie wasn't sure what was going on but he knew that this woman was either a sorceress or something even worse. His abilities were going wild inside his head, screaming at him to get away from her at all costs.
"You know madam when you visit it only ever brings me trouble. I mean you could come by and let me at least kiss your hand." Felgar said as he sipped at the weak tea that Reggie had provided.
"And give you the chance to leach off of me? I think not. I like you just where you are. You need to appreciate your life. Why do you think I went to such extremes to get you removed from the church and have you completely discredited? Having access to an unlimited source of power before made you drunk and mad. You are still drunk and mad now but in check. Just where I like you." She crossed her legs and put her tea cup on its saucer and rested it on her leg.
"I know, I know but you have to know I would ask. What brings you to my home. I would ask you how you knew where it was, but then again, I know who you are. You know many things." Felgar smiled.
"Oh I came to visit, make you an offer you will never refuse, and get something of mine that you have at the moment."
"Is that so? Well send a messenger or a plague, or just take off my legs next time. When you come to see me it's never anything I think back on fondly."
The lady reached over next to her and patted a small box she had brought with her. "What a shame, then I guess I will have to go back to my home then." She smiled and started to get up.
Hollis was trying to look at the two of them through a window but failing. He couldn't see through the glass which was frosted over. It wasn't cold, quite the opposite. He really wanted to know what kind of person had the power to affect individual panes of glass.
"Get it out of your system Ysennia," Felgar said with a sigh. "What do you need from me?"
Ysennia smiled. "I'm going to offer you something. First, did you know that the man you were chasing before has come back to this world? He wasn't killed or hidden away. He is very near actually." She sipped her tea and looked for any lost emotion from him.
Felgar smiled, "Good to know. I have quite the operation right here right now. I understand he is gaining attention though and that might bring me unwanted eyes. If he passes by though I will be sure to invite him for dinner though."
Ysennia smiled, she knew he wouldn't take the bait and do something that rash. "I do have one other thing I need though. You have something, well someone really, of mine locked up that I would like returned to me. In return, I will leave you this amusing little box." She put it the box on the low table between them.
"It is a recently acquired holy relic of sorts. It will leak an amount of pure divine power each day. The box is sealed with my magic so don't even think of opening it, try anything to it and it will return to me immediately. All it costs you is one golden blond slave and the promise that you will come when I call in the future."
Felgar considered her proposal. He only had one blond slave at the moment and really she belonged to T. Felgar weighed out the options, he didn't own her but then again, Felgar owned the land, and he owned T for the failed abduction earlier. In his mind, when he applied his warped logic, he really did own her anyway.
"Well that's going to make poor Torgus mad, but he shouldn't have played with his food so long. Agreed. Should I send her off somewhere or just send her walking towards town?"
"No, you will have the one trying to peer through the windows bring her to me immediately."
Felgar smiled and yelled at Hollis, who appeared almost immediately through the front door. He explained what he wanted, and Hollis nodded before rushing off.
"What do you want with that little El?"
"Trade secrets dear. Please do keep the box safe, it's a precious little bundle" Ysennia said with a smile and leaned back sipping on her tea. Her day was going better than expected.