For the slaves outside of the main tent, morning came far too quickly.
Tired yawns and exhausted faces rose from the dirt as the able-bodied were put to work.
And as Kalen and the others were waking up and being shuffled to their tasks of disassembling the camp before they would move on, they started to notice some absences.
"Kalen, have you seen the old man?"
Ayana came up from behind Kalen while he was plying the wooden support stake of a tent from the ground.
She spoke quietly and through the side of her mouth, making it appear that she was just there to fold up and collect the tent canvas beside him.
"No I haven't. He's not with Wellynd or Maurice?"
Kalen questioned. He thought it was odd that Ayana was asking about the old man, given she had the most animosity with him out of everyone, but the serious tone of her voice gave Kalen the feeling that she was actually worried after all.
"No, he's not. The others said that the old woman they came with was missing too, Daphne, I think her name was."
Ayana said. She mentioned the old woman that Wellynd and Maurice had originally come with from their village.
"Hmm."
Kalen's brows furrowed.
'More than one person is missing? And an old woman too…It's hard to imagine that they were able to escape, not with the leader here.'
Kalen's expression darkened for a moment when he remembered the noxious smell of burning flesh from a week ago.
'But where else would they be? They've been made to work this past week just as we have, so they should be out here somewhere.'
Kalen shook his head before finally shaking the stake out of the muddy ground.
With the stake out of the ground, he had to put it on a supply wagon before one of the guards saw him idle for too long.
He gave one last quick response to Ayana before moving.
"I don't know. Maybe the guards took the old people to the market early."
Ayana nodded, as unsure as him.
Kalen continued past the ring of tents. He could feel the glare of a guard burning a hole into his back as he heaved the wood stake into the back of one of the wagons.
Wiping the sweat off of his brow, he looked around the side of the wagons to the road ahead.
"What's going on?"
Kalen stayed silent as the guard leaning against the side of the wagon stood up and looked in the same direction.
'Who are they?'
…
Further up from the prairie than where the caravan had camped, the dirt path met a line of dark green conifer trees before disappearing within the forest.
A group of people had arrived out of those woods. An armored contingent of soldiers on horseback.
From the tops of their helmets, to the shins of their horses, they were equipped in dark gray plate armor. Jagged steel draped every inch of their skin, yet strangely enough the material seemed unreflective of the sun's rays. The dark gray held consistent in the light, matte like it was fabric or wool.
Even from a distance, they were like nothing Kalen had ever seen before.
But while across the prairie's distance, he couldn't make out what they were saying to the camp's messenger, he knew with a look that they were unhappy about something.
These were real knights. Not merely mercenaries who had bought worn equipment or had stripped the corpses of Imperials. No, their armor and the way they carried themselves was too impressive for it to be another trick.
Across the prairie, the knights were speaking to the messenger. At the head of the armored group, a feminine voice was coming from one of the knights.
Other than her voice, her sex was only distinguishable through the slight differences in her armor's jagged shape.
"For the last time, I'm not questioning the legality of your camp. I merely wish to speak to your company leader."
Looking down from horseback, a dry voice repeated their demand behind a closed visor. That plate of metal did little to mask the dissatisfaction evident in the woman's tone.
"I-I'm really sorry, Madam Knight, but our camp is currently in the process of disassembly, I'm not sure we have the capacity to receive visitors at this time–!"
In front of her stood a sweating man, who had nearly been forced to rest on his knees from the exhaustion of running across the prairie. He had been one of the first to see the approaching knights, and so was ordered by his superior to intercept them and question their intentions.
It should be said that Imperial Knights were in the Empire as the mercenaries were in the camp.
Under the banner of their given authority, they lorded over the local governance of cities and provinces in the Empire even when they weren't responsible for those lands, acting as a higher ranking of police than the basic soldier.
The Redlanding Empire was a vast state rooted in its militaristic traditions.
During its infancy, it had designed the management of territories and the enforcement of its laws to match the system its military used. That was why in the Empire, soldiers in times of peace or who were otherwise deployed to the interior fulfilled the roles of policing laws and punishing criminals when they were not in battle.
Knights, who were a step above common soldiers and traditionally were not conscripted into the Empire's wars, were the higher tier of this.
When an imperial citizen thought of law enforcement, they might first think of the Imperial soldiers and the legionnaires who patrolled their streets, but it was actually the Knights who served in the most critical parts of this system. They were the ones who oversaw the trials of offenders accused of large crimes, and managed the routes, replacement of, and compensation of soldiers underneath them.
It was a well-known position, but few citizens were actually aware of all the things a knight was really responsible for.
Most just witnessed them in their most public role, searching through the territories for outlaw or bandit camps, and thought of them as merely wandering adventurers.
The Eagles, however, had no such delusions.
They had dealt with the Empire's knights plenty of times in the past, and had measures in place to immediately recognize contingents like the group that had emerged from the forest for what they were.
So when the Eagles messenger had arrived before the knights after running at full speed, he was a little shocked to see they were so forceful in their demands. The Eagles was a lawful organization under the Empire's laws, why were they so persistent to meet their leader?
The knights couldn't have mistaken them for outlaws, could they?
"If you come back later–"
The messenger went to speak again, only to be cut off by the growl of the knight.
"Enough! Move aside mercenary! If you won't bring him here, then I'll go find your leader myself."
"Wait!"
The messenger held out a hand as several knights trotted past him, ignoring his clamors of surprise.
Their armored horses galloped until they reached the train of wagons where the camp was being loaded onto. Kalen and the slaves who happened to see the group approach just waited in silence as they observed the unusual scenario.
Kalen, who had never seen the emblem they had inscribed on their pauldrons, nor understood what their armor signified, stood back near one of the wagons as he watched the leader of the camp emerge from a tent.
Wellynd had arrived behind him during the commotion, and whispered in his ear some clarification.
"Those are Imperial Knights, Kalen. They're like enforcement officers of the army, given total autonomy to ride across the land and correct injustices where they see them."
Kalen's expression brightened up. He whispered back hopefully.
"So if they're here…?"
"I wouldn't get too excited. To my knowledge, none of the Eagles' crimes can be proven with just us here. It's more likely that they'll just raise trouble which will anger the mercenaries."
Kalen gulped, now unsure of what to expect. His back straightened with trepidation as the knight in front of the contingent looked over the crowd of slaves.
"As I thought! You clearly have children in the midst of your stock."
The dry voice of the female knight beckoned no disagreement as she snapped her head to the leader, who was frowning.
'Stock' wasn't the first word that Kalen wanted to hear come out of the mouth of his potential saviors, but even more shocking was how the leader actually seemed to show respect and caution as he spoke to the woman.
"Madam Knight, I don't understand. Is our Eagles' company not protected under the Imperial law by taking in these slaves? Last I had heard in Humility, it was legal to transport slaves over the age of three in the Empire?"
"But it isn't Humility anymore, is it Dean?"
The knight responded, taking out another parchment which the leader accepted with a deepening frown.
Kalen and Wellynd both looked over at the leader, with one thought shared between them.
'His name is Dean?'
The knight continued.
"Time moves forward, and sometimes the law does as well. While in the month of Humility, I would have been able to find no fault with your little caravan here, it is now Refinement. And after thousands of pleas for the past hundred years, the Emperor has finally made an amendment to the Slave Laws."
The leader nodded thumbing through the bundle of parchment.
"And so now, it is illegal to transport slaves under the age of ten. Though only in Jasper and a few other areas, it is a start."
The dry tone of the knight picked up as if she was smiling under her visor.
"Oh, but last I checked, your company's camp is still located within Jasper, correct? So to travel to Whitefinger, you must have rode entirely through the province without once leaving it, no?"
The leader bundled up the parchment, taking care not to fold it up at all as if it were gold. And indeed, in the case of an official document it might as well have been.
He gave the knight a serious look as he handed it back carefully.
"Are you planning on charging my men and I for a simple action of business that was only declared a crime within the past month?
Kalen could hear the grinding of steel within the leader's voice.
Seeing the knight look down on the leader and wait a moment to respond, Kalen thought he could feel the air getting hotter in the surrounding area.
But the knight responded before things could get out of hand.
"No, seeing as this change was made without giving your business warning, I will not be taking your company as responsible. However, I will not repeat this generosity again should I meet another caravan of yours. I'd send a messenger to any other caravan you have in the Jasper province if you don't want to lose them."
The knight said with an even tone.
Just like that, Kalen heard the exhale of several people around him as the temperature toned down a notch. Even the guards around him seemed to be relieved.
"But, I'll still require you to hand over all merchandise that fails to meet the law. That means of course, we'll be confiscating from your camp all slaves and servants under the age of ten."
The leader's face scrunched up for a moment, but seemed to relax as he considered the alternative. Some losses were unavoidable, or were better to settle for in exchange for avoiding an even bigger setback.
When the laws of a nation changed, these things just tended to happen.
"Alright, but if you take anyone else…"
The knight just smiled.
"Of course. Thank you, Dean."
The knight gave an acknowledging tilt-of-the-helmet.
"Men! Go ahead and move. We're bringing the children with us."
'Wait! No!'
The expression of Kalen instantly morphed as he processed what was happening. After hearing that exchange it only dawned on him in the next moment that his sister would apply to the law.
Once he saw the knights behind their leader start to move, Kalen fell into a panic. He frantically started to search the crowd for Layla.
"Kalen! What are you doing?"
Kalen ignored the confused voice behind him as he ran out from the vicinity of the wagon. Disappearing from the sight of Wellynd behind him as he dashed through the onlooking crowd.
Not everyone in the camp had been present to hear the exchange between the knights and the company's leader, but many had gathered now, and it was difficult for Kalen to weave through them to get to his destination.
'Move! Move! Get out of the way!'
Flinging himself forward, Kalen finally found the familiar face he was looking for. The sight of a dark-haired young girl came into view as he stepped out from the crowd.
"Layla! Stay there!"
Kalen ran up to the wagon where Layla was sitting at once.
Being exempt from the work of camp construction on certain conditions, she was already strapped into the back of a slave wagon.
Like a full moon piercing through a dark storm, Layla's smiling face illuminated her surroundings as she saw the approaching figure of her brother.
"Kally!"
"Yes, I'm here Layla, just stay still. I need you to do something for me, okay?"
Layla rapidly nodded.
"Great, put this sheet over your head, and don't let anyone know you're in this wagon!"
Kalen ordered as loud as he could whisper. The instructions were important, and to avoid her being taken away, this was the best he could come up with in the moment.
Kalen hastily moved as he brought a canvas out that had belonged to one of the tents and attempted to lay it over Layla.
'Good. With this, they won't see her! I can keep her here as long as they don't–!'
"Ack!"
Kalen's train of thought was interrupted as he felt something hard slam into his face.
It was the floor of the wagon. Brought closer to his face as his ankle was pulled out from underneath him, gripped by the iron force of a metal gauntlet.
With another fluid motion, the hand that gripped him pulled him back, scraping him across the wagon floor and throwing him from its height.
"Kally! No!"
Layla screamed as the sheet fell down and her eyes were exposed to the sight.
Kalen was thrown and crashed into the coarse surface of the pathed prairie road. His body left red tracks as he rolled through the dust.
CRASH
The pain of hitting the hard surface, and jarred Kalen's senses enough to stop him from responding for a second.
But the moment after Kalen craned his neck upward to look back at the offender, before being blinded by the brightness of the sky.
His head was pounding, his eyes and ears felt like they were going to explode.
"Who di…"
"Stay down kid!"
A black shape was introduced into the edge of Kalen's blurred vision as the shadow of a knight suddenly loomed over him.
As Kalen's concussed mind attempted to refocus onto the figure's visored helmet, from horseback, the feminine voice beyond the knight's helmet spoke to him.
Kalen even thought he heard a sigh, before the same dry tone from earlier started to speak.
"Hmm. Your sister, I assume?"
Uuuhhhh….
Kalen gripped the sides of his head, trying to nod.
"Then stay down. Know that in your situation, it is better for her to go with us. If you care about her future, be grateful. She will do far better with us than she could hope to do being sold by this company, of that you can have no doubts."
"No!"
Kalen yelled, craning his neck forth and attempting to pick himself off the ground with the momentum.
As he did everything he could to lift himself off the ground, suddenly a sharp weight pressed into his chest, slamming him back into the dusty path with a thunderous echo.
THUMP
"Ack!"
Kalen coughed, spitting up as the wind was knocked out of him.
One of the knights, who had gotten off of their horse to get Layla out of the wagon, had casually stomped on the flat of his chest as they walked past.
Kalen's body numbed as it was sent down. Against the cool feeling of the mud around him, Kalen started to feel a warm sensation along the side of his head, like two things separating apart.
This time it wasn't the female knight leading them who responded to his actions.
"Final warning kid, stay down. You don't realize how good of an opportunity your sister is getting."
"He's right. Compared to your future, your sister will practically be given a second chance at life. Thank the Emperor for the change in Slave Law, as once we're out of here, we'll be taking your sister to the Imperial Capital to be registered as a citizen. Though the laws are still new, she was still wrongfully enslaved, and now she'll be free."
"Yeah, with any luck, in a few years she might even be able to visit you. Though if I were you, I'd focus on surviving your own situation first before worrying about others."
Kalen felt a warmth fall from his eyes as he listened to the knights speak in the background.
They were right. Layla would be freed, and given the tools to build a better future for herself than he could hope to give her, but…
'Is this what mom would have wanted?'
Kalen's head fell back onto the ground in exhaustion.
He couldn't help but feel like he was abandoning her. Though she would be given a life without slavery, who would she share it with? His mother's last wishes had been for him to be there for his sister, and even now, he couldn't do that for her.
'This…fucking sucks.'
Kalen's mind swam as he lay there in the mud, still partially concussed.
He was tired of it, tired of the constant losses.
Tired of feeling powerless all the time.
Tired of the consequences.
Tired of everyone around him having strength.
One last look at the disappearing group of knights, and Kalen mumbled weakly.
"Lay…la…"
Kalen reached out a hand toward the disappearing posse of horses.
His blurry eyes didn't even have the capacity to see his sister's face as she was escorted away by the knights, but her youthful eyes looked back full of sadness.
They beheld the disheveled and beaten form of her brother, being pulled from filth by the same mercenaries who were responsible for his situation. Her childish eyes were unaware of what she was seeing.
Her brother being treated as a slave.
As a product.