With no school for the next week, I plan to sleep late into the afternoon. However, my dad keeps shouting at me to wake up. I mumble something about him needing to leave me alone. Does my voice sound different or is it just me? I try to go back to sleep but my dad starts shaking me violently. I try to blink but my eyes are glued. Someone is screaming at me in the background, their voice panicked like there's a real threat. What can possibly be this important that I need to wake up this early. When my eyes finally adjust, I realize the person shaking me isn't my father. It's a young boy about my age with tan skin and curly brown hair, speaking a language a don't know but suddenly understand.
"Get up! Get up! GET UP! The Kanta is about to come! Quick!"
"W-what? What is going on?" Ok I definitely sound different. What language am I speaking? And what in a world is a Kanta? But most importantly, why is this dude in my house waking me up so early?
"Dude what are you doing here? What time is it?"
"What am I doing? What am I doing? What are you doing? The Kanta is going to punish you again if you're not on time. Your last punishment was 150 gelts. You don't want it to be higher. Come one. Come on!" His voice becomes more and more urgent, his eyes going wild.
"Please, I don't want to lose you!" The boy looks close to tears. My mind actually starts to deteriorate. Some random boy is talking to me like I'm his dearest friend. I'm understanding and speaking another language. And everyone is in my house...wait. As the sleep haze wears off, I start to take in my surrounds, but they just make things more confusing. I am not in my house, I'm in a tight and dirty room with about 30 other boys ages nine to nineteen, all in bunk beds, crowed all over the ground, running every which way, all wearing the same strange and battered uniforms. Didn't I sleep in my room last night? Maybe this is all just a dream. But suddenly everyone in the room freezes. For a split second, the whole world stops. Then the whole world erupts. The boys run into a line with their heads bowed and hands to their sides and stay like that. I'm very confused and kind of angry. What the hell is what on here!?! The small broken door opens, and the boys stiffen even more. A tall thin man appears, wearing fancy, elegant clothing. He walks through the entire row inspecting each boy like they were merchandise and completely ignores me, still half laying in my bottom bunk bed with the ripped blanket on me and sleep dazed eyes. But I wish he kept ignoring me because as soon as his eyes meet mine, I wish they didn't. A victorious sneer is plastered on his face.
"Olsin Fik. Still lying in bed, are we? Do you just want to die?" He smiles and raises his hand, thinking he is going to slap me, I get ready to dodge because I'm not going to take that level of disrespect from some stupid old man that thinks he's god. However, his hand does not come down. It just stays there in the air. Just when I think he finally used his brain and start to make a stupid remark, the worst pain ever comes over me. A fire spreads from my feet and crawls slowly and painfully over my entire body. I look at myself trying to detect any burning, only to find a thin mal nourished body that isn't mine. But that thought goes away instantly as the fire ignites inside of me and I scream. The pain burns my insides and tears at my lungs. The entire body is jerking, and my head feels a billion times worse than any migraine ever could. I scream and scream and scream. I scream so much my throat feels like sand. I scream not sure where the fire is, only knowing that it is consuming me and turning me to ash. My mouth tastes like metal and liquid runs down from my nose into my mouth. Blood. My brain is being crushed. I scream again. I need to get out of this body. I tear off my skin. I pull out my hair. Anything. Anything to make it stop. Anything to get out of this body.
"STOP! STOP! PLEASE!" I scream louder, begging, crying as snot and blood splatter my face. My body moves involuntary, and I hear a loud crack as a bone in my body breaks. But I can't tell where it is. Blood now leaks out my nose, mouth and leg.
"STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! I'M BEGGING YOU!" My pleas and cry fill the entire room. Then the pain just suddenly stops.
"That's 200 gelts. If you do it again it will be 250. If this behavior continues and becomes a routine, you will be sent immediately to the torture chamber. This kingdom has no use for a useless weak boy like you. Only the powerful rule. Learn that. I hope you take this little session of our as encouragement to get up when we say so and stand at attention."
The boys line up after the tall man and leave the room. However, I barely notice because my body is still reeling with the feeling of pain, but no physical evidence of it. I stay on the ground, blooded as I am, for what I assume to be half an hour. By then, the pain turns into a slight throbbing in my body. I try to piece things together, but nothing makes sense. I start to move my limbs slowly while also trying to think things through. Am I supposed to follow them? Who exactly am I? How did all of this happen. But my head is pounding restlessly. I get up and go to the dirty, stinky, small, one stall bathroom that looks like it sees more piss and feces then air and use the brown water from the sink to clean myself up. At the end, I stand up straight and go up to the door. But for the first time in my life, I hesitate. I can't do something stupid; I can't even do anything wrong or else I'm going to go through whatever that is again, and I don't think I'll survive another round of it. So I walk out the door, my body shaking with fear and look at my surroundings. One hall. One long hall with crowed rooms each filthier than the last but with nobody in sight. The walls are cracked and the halls reek of blood, filth, and something else. A strange metallic smell with an electric taste. Ew. With only one way to go, I tell myself that this could all be a dream. I can lie to myself every now and then. Besides there is no logical explanation to what's going on so I can convince myself it's fake. The hall ends with a total of 114 rooms that all lead to a single door. When I open the door, that same metallic taste attacks my nose and mouth while I walk in complete darkness. As I walk, I remind myself that facing the darkness is better than having to get tortured again and it keeps me moving. The door leads into a pathway filled with mud and barely two feet wide. I squeeze myself through and walk about half a mile in this hell when I finally find a source of light. I tug on a door, and it swigs open, leading me to a servant's headcounters. Boys rush all around me. Some carrying trays of foods, and others carrying heaps of heavy bricks. I stand there lost, before the tall man who put me through hell walks in and makes immediate eye contact with me. I freeze as he walks over to me. I can't believe I'm going to die without even knowing what's going on. But when he reaches me, I don't feel any pain.
"Olsin Fik. The Ragza has been looking for you. Follow me." I walk after him as all the servant boys turn to me in horror. Uh Oh. I panic even more because the further we walk the more elegant things are. Guards start to appear everywhere. The halls widen and fill with ancient art. Large columns hold the bottom to the ceiling 100 feet overhead. Portraits of what I assume are royals hang on the walls. Everything looks like it's meant to be used by the rich. And if they're rich, they're powerful. And if they're powerful.... I have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. If someone is ordering around this guy, I think he's called a Kanta, then it means they can surpass his power. Which means whoever this Ragza guy is, can easily split me in half. Great. My nerves bounce in my stomach. At this point I'm really hoping it's all a dream. Or nightmare. However my pleas go unanswered because we reach huge golden double doors. The soldiers on either side bow before opening the door. For a split second I forget I'm about to die because all I see is silk and medieval couches and servants and wine and gold all in a room about 5 houses wide and 6 doors high. Holy Cow. I'm in a throne room! The ground is covered with luscious red carpet that looks more comfortable than the bed I woke up to. Dozens of people in heavy dresses, drenched in jewelry, with pointed shoes, and men in long coats armed with swords, are surrounding a middle-aged man with black hair on a huge throne several feet above their heads. The Kanta who tortured me this morning bows deeply to the man on the throne.
"Oh Greatest Ragza. Here is the peasant boy you asked for" The Ragza looks amused.
"Ah, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the infamous Olsin Fik." The throne room erupts with laugher.
"Doulos, did your plan to resist my rule by destroying yourself work. I heard you finally coward today in front of Kanta Alces. Did he break you with only 200 gelt."
The echos with more laughter and a smile spreads on The Ragza's face.
"If you are a strong magic wielder, as you claim, you should have more tolerance for gelt pain. In fact, your shield should protect you from any harm. Why didn't it, oh powerful lord?" I'm just starting to realize that the guy whose body I'm in is kind of crazy and also stupid. He definitely does not have any magic whatsoever in his blood. Wouldn't I feel it if he did? I say nothing and the people finally quiet down. The Ragza sighs with content.
"You've served well as my entertainment today. Atlas, take him to the torture chamber. His futile life will finally come to an end." The Ragza goes back to talking with his advisors like he didn't just end my existence. I have no doubt that if their punishments are in bouts of magic, so is their torture. The guard named Atlas moves through the crowd effortlessly and drags me backwards.
No No No No No. I can't die like this.
"WAIT, WAIT," I beg and The Ragza's head turns my way again
"I don't know how I got here. I don't know what this place even is" Laughs again fill the throne word with whispers like,
"The stupid boy has actually gone insane" and
"That doulos has lived for too long anyway" and also
"a slave is a slave. You can't outrun your destiny. I hope he gets dragged through hell." But I don't care one bit about stupid gossip. Not in this situation.
"No seriously! I didn't even know my own name until Kanta Alces called me." Atlas drags me backwards. Closer and closer to my dome. I scream louder
"I SWEAR IT! I SWEAR ON MY LIFE! THIS BODY ISN'T MINE! THIS LIFE ISN'T MINE!" Everyone ignores me as I let out my last cry and an unknown force slams my head down, making everything go black.