"Th-they killed everyone in the academy," the young man sitting on a chair hoarsely whispered, his teary eyes staring at the ceiling were full of guilt that had been weighing on his chest since this morning.
"It's my fault," more tears flowed on his wet face.
The man tattooing his forearm stopped what he was doing after hearing that and the golden aura that was covering his sharp pen trembled so erratically as he did. It rose from the pen like a dancing smoke of a candle. He noticed it and immediately went back to tattooing the young man's forearm and the golden aura went still.
"I never should have taught them my magic," the young man continued as he sobbed, his face looked like a mess because of the clear liquids from his eyes and nose combined with the dirt scattered on his face and blood that also tainted the dirty brown clothes he was wearing.
The man tattooing his forearm inhaled deeply, but this time the golden aura from his sharp pen remained stable. The tattoo was almost finished, glowing the same color as the golden aura.
"Arkhel Vance Silversprout," he sobbed. "First Prince of the One Hundredth King . . . of the Kingdom of Silversprout." He paused and breathed deeply, recalling his title that had been recited countless times in front of many people in different ceremonies. The pride that came with it—gone.
"My name will go down in history as the very first slave in the entire history of Silversprout Kingdom," he bitterly laughed, but it came out as a sob.
"A royal slave. The prince who caused his own people to fear that they could be turned into slaves regardless of their social standing," more sobbing. "The criminal who triggered the curse of slavery to be casted upon this land."
The young man sobbed even more. This time, joined by the man that had been silently tattooing his forearms, unable to keep the tears he had been holding back while listening to the wails of the prince. And as his tears fell, the aura from his pen intensified; the golden smoke trembled and bursted into golden flames, engulfing the man's hand.
The young man flinched in pain, but he accepted it. It was nothing compared to what happened to the entire academy.
"AAAHHHHH!!"
He screamed as the pain intensified and the chains that were holding down his neck and feet clanged as he struggled violently, his tightly secured arms remained still.
He screamed and screamed and screamed, then almost immediately, as the man tattooing his forearm finally parted his sharp pen from his skin, he stopped shaking, and the golden flame flickered into gold smoke, then vanished.
The young man was left stunned, his eyes and mouth were open widely, breathing between fragmented stops, as if choking for air. The tattoos on each side of his forearms stopped glowing, leaving a black tattoo finely interlaced with the color of gold.
"D-do that again," the young man finally said. "I-I deserve more of it," he sobbed, more remorseful than ever. "TEACHER...," wailing loudly, "DO IT AGAIN...!"
The man he called teacher just looked at him, still crying.
"PLEASE, DO IT AGAIN...!"
"I'm . . . the reason they died!" His voice trailed trembling in guilt.
"Th-the soldiers . . . they just . . . suddenly came and started killing everyone. . ." His mind replayed the horrifying memory—visions of blood and screams.
"M-my entire class . . . my students . . . my professors . . . my friends . . . th-they died because of me...!"
"People will be turned into slaves because of me...!"
The young man cried even more.
"It wasn't your fault, prince Arkhel," the teacher finally spoke. "They already planned to turn the people into slaves from the beginning."
The prince looked at him with confused eyes, his sobbing had lessened.
"They only used you as another opportunity. It was inevitable. They will turn the people into slaves regardless of whether you did that or not. And right now, it's not just the academy, they are doing it all over the kingdom. They are hunting their own people. Everyone possessing advanced magical knowledge. Everyone conducting magical research. They wanted to make it easier to control the people because it was becoming more difficult in the past years. It's only a matter of time."
"I-," the prince weakly shook his head.
"And you're not the first slave." With that, the man raised the sleeves of his robes and showed the same tattoo the prince just received—a black and gold tattoo of chains and shackles, beautifully drawn with intricate and elegant patterns, as if to lessen the horrors that came with it. "There are many people that have come before me. In the shadows of this kingdom, people have always been suffering. Some of your professors must be slaves. Soldiers and mages. Even nobles from the most powerful noble houses. All of us were forced to do things against our will, deprived of our freedom and all the benefits that come with it."
The prince couldn't believe what he just heard. He just shook his head while still crying. All he could think of were his friends and his students. "But they still died because of me."
The man looked down. "You should blame me for that. I was the one who taught you. The knowledge I taught you is forbidden. I only expected you to improve a little. I didn't know you were such a genius and would be able to expand so much from such meager information."
The prince just shook his head. The man shook the prince's shoulders and looked at his eyes. "Time is running out. Get yourself together. I'm sacrificing myself for telling you all this. I will help you escape. You're our only hope, Prince Arkhel. You should escape from this kingdom."
The prince was still not quite himself. Everything that happened since this morning was too much for him.
"Be strong." The man said while removing the chains that held the young man on the chair. "Strong enough so that you can free our people. It's only possible with a genius like you. It's only possible with your understanding of magic."
The man lifted a part of his robe and stabbed the side of his own stomach with his own fingers, earning a shocked look from the prince. He flinched in pain as he took out a blue gemstone covered with blood. He dropped the robe and wiped off the blood.
He ripped a part of his robe and attached the blue gemstone to it, turning it into a bracelet that he tied around the prince's ankle.
"Prince Arkhel, I want you to go to the Great Ravine of Thousand Caves. This gemstone will help you find a cave that I sealed a long time ago. I planted a spirit there. I want you to harvest it. With the help of this gemstone, you will know what to do. After that, you will flee this kingdom. The spirit will be helpful to make you stronger. "
The prince was overwhelmed with all of this new information, but he understood all of it. He wiped off his tears and said, "But how about you?"
"You will come find me once you're back. I will be punished, but I will survive so don't worry too much about me," he said reassuringly. "And this slave mark I gave you. It's special. I engraved it deeper into your soul and it will help with the spirit."
The man looked at the closed door behind him and said, "The guards are waking up. You have to be quick. Don't let them catch you."
. . .
Arkhel flew along the ravine his teacher told him about. The name of the ravine well earned its name. It looked like a giant sword had cut the ground, leaving a straight, deep and narrow cut extending as far as his eyes could see on both sides of the horizon. Countless caves riddled both walls of the ravine and several waterfalls were supplying the long river at the bottom.
His back had a bleeding wound that he had been trying to endure after fleeing from the dungeon. Some guards managed to injure him while he was escaping.
After some time, he felt something from the blue gemstone tied around his ankle. He could now feel that the cave was near. He flew faster as he endured the pain until he finally reached it.
The cave was dark, he used his magic to make a fire to illuminate the way and after walking and crawling for a while, he finally reached the seal with the help of the gemstone. It was a large stone bigger than him located beside the wall of the cave.
He touched it and felt something behind. It must be the spirit his teacher was talking about.
He concentrated to get a deeper connection with the gemstone and placed both of his palms firmly on the stone seal.
The blue gemstone glowed blue and the large stone shone white. Streams of different colored lights started to leak between Arkhel's hands and the stone seal.
The stone seal glowed brighter and magical patterns appeared on it. Beads of sweat trickled down on his face as he tried to concentrate even deeper.
After a while, Arkhel felt from the gemstone that the seal was about to be undone. And he was right, the stone was starting to shatter.
When the stone was almost gone, Arkhel suddenly felt something. He could feel that something was off about the energies in his surroundings. The lights leaking from his palm became intense until it was lashing violently. With the blue gemstone attached to his ankle, he knew what was happening.
'N-no way! A dimensional disturbance at a time like this?'
The lights became more intense and lashed even more violently. The temperature and pressure of his surroundings grew, becoming heavier and hotter with each passing second. The lights burned and grew brighter and larger until it swallowed the entire cave, including Arkhel.
. . .
Arkhel opened his eyes and saw the bright blue sky above and countless buildings below him both at the same time. He was floating in the air and no, it wasn't his eyes—he realized—it was his consciousness itself. He was in his spirit form. And he could see and feel everything around him at the same time even without looking.
But something felt off. He could almost feel no magical energy in the air and his spirit felt so unstable. He knew he needed something to attach his spirit with.
He flew lower and started scanning the area. There were buildings below him and the design were not familiar, a lot of them were made of metals and glass with finely refined stones with different colored coatings. He had never seen those designs before.
Arkhel thought deeply and realized that the dimensional disturbance messed up the spell and he ended up in another dimension in his soul form.
Finally, he felt something that could possibly hold his soul. And there were so many of them. A collection of gemstones were displayed neatly inside a series of glass boxes in a massive stone building with intricate and swirly patterns sculpted on its surfaces.
It was a bit far and his soul felt like it couldn't hold itself much longer. He tried to go faster but he was becoming slower and slower.
When he reached the inside of the building, his soul was already dispersing. He floated slowly atop the series of displayed animal skeletons and old looking things inside the buildings. And before his soul completely dispersed, he finally managed to reach a yellow gemstone. It glowed bright blue the moment he entered it and when the light dimmed and vanished, a deep blue gemstone was left sitting inside the glass box.
'It looks like I made it. Now, I only need to find a person with a compatible soul to perform the spell so I can go back. I will save my people.'