Orphan At The Edge Of The World

t"On your hands and knees, slave," Avenar ordered.

tIn an experimental half second, Orison briefly resisted long enough to a.n.a.lyze how the threads worked before giving in to the demand. Turned to his inner s.p.a.ce and spirit sight, Orison began working on the threads and paid no heed to the arrogant winner speech the Domain elf gave as he used the young mage as a seat. As superficially humiliating and physically painful as his current situation was, Orison now understood on much better terms what his compromise with the world actually meant.

tThe paralysis spell and the spirit threads of the collar were external influences. Most of his body was also considered external and therefore subject. The internal effects that should have sealed off free access to magic talent and freedom to think as he wished, did nothing. His head, chest and t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es seemed to be gray areas that could only partially be affected on the physical side. They were easily mapped and observable due to the cl.u.s.ters of threads trying to unsuccessfully invade more than the mere surface of those areas.

tStill, he didn"t have to fake the pain he felt as Avenar demonstrated his control. As a brisk auction came underway to determine his new owner, Orison began siphoning the spiritual energy into his s.p.a.ce. Before the handing of the control key could be completed, Avanar begged indulgence that Orison needed to be prepared with all a.s.surances that the young mage would be returned in the condition he was taken.

tElder Fvaris, who had won the impromptu auction, said, "I"m knowledgeable enough to complete whatever else needs done. There is no need for preparation."

tAvenar, already halfway through a speedy and efficient casting of a specialized type of teleport, said, "It will only be a short time."

tLooking a great deal more concerned than she probably would have liked to show, Elder Fvaris moved to interrupt the teleport casting. Dowager Xia stepped out of the shadows behind the large throne-like chair her grandniece sat on and placed a restraining hand on the elder"s shoulder.

t As the circle lit up, Orison gave a covert wink at the Fvaris elder and Xia, thinking, "Fake it til you make it, right?"

tOnce the blinding curtain of light faded away, Orison found himself in a secret chamber surrounded by a half dozen guards.

tAvenar dismissed them then turned to Orison and said, "Disrobe. Fine clothes and enchanted jewelry is far too valuable for a lowly slave to possess."

tAs Orison took them off, with flashes of light produced by bursting half complete candle flame models, he drew the clothes and jewelry into his s.p.a.ce along with greedier draws of the spirit threads, moving closer to their source.

tAvenar looked on in disbelief before he started laughing. "It was all flash and no substance. You were walking around practically naked with tailored illusions? A talented mage beggared by his own kingdom, this is priceless... We are going to have a chat, you and I. I"ve heard all sorts of rumors about you and I wonder how many of them are true...

t"If you don"t fight the magic and help me expedite this process so I can return you to your new owner, I won"t call one of my guards in to violate you for my amus.e.m.e.nt. Unless, that is, you"d rather I did? All you need do is tell me which you prefer. It will be the last choice in anything you do or get in some time I"m afraid."

tAs the elf reached to caress Orison"s face, not a touch of anything other than cold calculation in the elf"s eyes, the young mage was inspired to a different plan. It hurt like nothing he"d ever felt before but reaching with his magic to the source of the collar"s power, he ripped the pea sized paste pearl with a nearly drained presence of eternium crystal powder out of it. The sudden sc.r.a.ping disappearance of the spirit threads in his body left micro wounds riddled within him.

tSeeing Orison collapse, Avenar laughed again and said, "What? Are you angry, scared? That pain you"re feeling is for trying to move against me. You see, the magic in your collar will not allow you to do much more than have fleeting thoughts of harming anyone, even yourself." Moving down to grab Orison"s face, the elf finished, "Your life and death are no longer yours, muddy blooded mutt."

tUsing guesswork, Orison gathered some crystal powder from the orbital ring in his s.p.a.ce and fashioned another half-pea sized pearl with it. With no power in it, the collar was unclasped and nearly fell off. With a jerk of his head, Orison managed to catch it between his collarbone and chin.

t"I cannot even begin to imagine how much pain that little act of defiance cost you but I am glad you have some fight. Far too few manage more than a word or simple gesture before their resistance is wiped clean." Avenar gloated.

tOrison punched the elf in the throat. As Avenar struggled to pull in air, clawing at his own wind pipe, Orison fought off the elf"s hands to put the collar on, earning a few scratches in the process. Once it was clasped, Orison placed his makeshift power source into the collar. A high pitch whine came from the enchantment structure within as the metal portions of the collar started heating up.

tTwo things registered at the same time. Orison realized that there was too much energy in the "battery" which was going to cause the collar to explode and that he"d hit the elf too hard. Despite the searing of his flesh, Avenar couldn"t so much as whimper. As a makeshift solve for both, Orison projected the simple healing model he"d made a while back for Thorrinson and projected it on to the exposed part of the elf"s shoulder blade before connecting it with the excess energy from the collar.

tOrison watched in detached curiosity as the eternium powered spell model also seared into the elf"s skin over and over as it healed it"s own damage and the damage to the elf"s throat. Realizing that the elf would start screaming soon, Orison ordered Avenar not to. The process of the collar pushing against primal instinct wasn"t overly effective. Nearly breathless grunts and agonized whimpers broke free of the collar"s ability to stop.

tA guard came to peek in. to avoid the guard noticing anything overly suspicious, Orison bit the additional humiliation bullet and pulled Avenar over himself, pretending to cry and let out weak protests. Seeing the guard relax, he was relieved that he"d be able to push this disgusting creature off himself and get to work but the guard didn"t leave. At the distance Orison was at, it was hard to tell but it seemed as if the guard in question was hesitating to leave because he was "enjoying" the show.

tSilently screaming obscenities in his head, Orison whispered a command to Avenar prompting the elf to grit out through grunts and sobs, "If you"re going to watch.. you... might as w-well join. Uhnn undress and help m-me punish this slave."

tThe quickness and lack of hesitation to obey spoke volumes to Orison about the goings on in this place. He vowed to burn it to the ground as soon as he"d sacked it.

tA few more whispered orders as the ready and eager guard approached, "L-lay there and close your heyes. There are things I w-want to see hu-and enjoy first."

tAs soon as the guard obeyed, Orison summoned a battle axe and backhand swung it. It wasn"t a clean cut through the neck as he"d hoped but the guard was dead after a mere moment of thrashing anyway. While the young mage cleaned and dressed himself, he had Avenar lay on top of the guard"s body, both to hide it"s wretchedness from Orison"s sight and for cover if someone else decided to get curious.

tOnce Avenar had adjusted, after the nerves in his back around the model had stopped working, Orison began interrogating the elf about where they were, what was here and how to get it. Once he was done with that, he ordered the key for the collar be given to him. Orison watched on in fascination as the elf tried desperately to say the release phrase but couldn"t as he reluctantly handed it to Orison.

tKey in hand, Orison was about to begin his pillage and sacking plan when a heavy and unsettling feeling welled up in him. A compound whisper as loud as a banshee"s scream resounded across his mindscape. There was one wish Orison had made that throughout his adventures, never had the ability to express itself until that moment. It was a great deal of power repressed into it"s fair share of the structured miasma but he wasn"t taken by surprise entirely. A part of himself had been waiting for this moment and Orison let it control the flow, warping and exploiting the wish"s loopholes.

tWhat had seemed like some time in his s.p.a.ce had only been about thirty seconds in reality but it had been a fruitful thirty seconds. Once pulled back out, the key no longer resembled itself at all, it"s appearance a tennis ball sized gla.s.s...o...b..filled with symbols and pictographs. It had become a powerful conduit with a very specific focus. Just holding it, Orison knew, anything created by an elf that was no longer alive could be repaired, controlled and undone by this "key". That included elves themselves, a.s.suming a parent was dead.

tAs a conduit it had rules, both the rules of greater reality and it"s own, flavored by it"s creator and in the creation process itself. In general, it took more energy from it"s user than it used. If there wasn"t enough, it would tap life force or soul to make up the difference. The exception was the releasing or destruction of slave collars and other devices that deprived another of free will. The concepts of freedom and lending aid were a part of its creation so the more a use aligned with those ideas, the less extra energy it drew. Using the key to fix or activate a device, like a slave collar, not only ran to it"s most extreme costliness but it would also misalign the conduit with it"s current holder.

tThe most curious attribute of Orison"s new conduit was that it had a will of it"s own. It refused to be locked up unused or stowed away, forgotten. When it had been with someone for awhile without serving any purpose, it would "move on". Orison realized that this was what a conduit really was. It wasn"t meant to be kept by it"s maker but released to seek out the maker"s chosen type of people, allowing the creator to observe and even interfere in those lives. It was also an acc.u.mulator depending on its general usefulness, gathering excess energy and feeding it to its creator. If the conduit was too useful, as this one was in his current world, then other beings could become covetous of it and Orison would only have two options. He could recall it to his s.p.a.ce or abandon it to keep from drawing their attention.

tLifting the orb, Orison gave the command for all slaves to gather all portable valuables on the property and move to his location. He was shocked to discover that quite a few of the guards on the property were also under some form of compulsion that the orb recognized. Considering its first use flew in the face of its paradigm, the orb was not happy but Orison allowed the orb to sense his intent which made the orb chime in contentment.

tFresh out of the forge of creation, the orb was supercharged but Orison recognized it was currently so strong due to Avanars key as the base with the sheer amount of miasma used in its creation. Anywhere else and over such a distance would likely kill any mundane who attempted to use it in such a fashion as they wouldn"t be able to pay the price. It was at that moment Orison realized what he had created was no pure agent of goodness in the world but a trap for the selfish and a trial for the just. Only a selfless martyr or one strong and wise enough to use it judiciously could consider it a benevolent existence.

tIf the environment and the partic.i.p.ants weren"t so fearful and despairing, Orison would have laughed at some of the things considered portable valuables. There was absolutely nothing funny about the condition of some of the slaves a.s.sembled in front of him or the guards of the property who were a blend of victim and a.s.sailant both. For the near hour it took to subdue the few inhabitants of this island that weren"t under Orison"s control by orb or sheer fear and plunder, he didn"t want to use up much more time on the second part of his planned actions. He needed to get back before a myriad of possible negative situations might unfurl.

tUsing a handful of orb reinforced questions, he split the inhabitants into three groups; the ones who were willing to be a part of his "clan" and were loyal, the ones who didn"t or weren"t trustworthy but were relatively innocent of wrongdoing and the rest. The "rest" were summarily led into another room and executed by bound axe as humanely as Orison could deliver under a shortened time limit, a.s.sistance to collect blood, hearts and heads included. The "free and innocent" were released from their collars and given a share of the less desirable but still useful loot to make their own way after Orison made a cursory effort to organize them.

tOrison looked over his new people. A mercifully small amount of hollow eyed youths, a couple of injury lamed young adults and four "former" Domain guards who had no family left or that would claim them who had grown too disillusioned with their reality after the horrid treatment of Avenar, were his lot. Picking through the least nauseating of clothes, he ran some cleaning and healing before Orison divvied up what was useful for them and paid out a good chunk of salary before storing the rest away.

tOrison had Avenar use his manor"s circle to move all his new people to the beacon formation in the Domain suites. Once they had arrived the guards there were made to stand down and between lesser uses of the orb, his own guards and Avenar"s insistence, Orison managed to pa.r.s.e out two more deaths and two reprieves. Since they were soldiers brought with Avenar by choice, Orison wasn"t surprised to not obtain any more Domain defectors. The two survivors received a bit more loot in need of liquidizing than those on the island as they were in greater need of it to safely make their way back home. His people finished off the maneuver by claiming all the best of the suite and marching it back to Centerland"s own.

tWhen he arrived, Orison found Gan staring at the door with a relieved smile when he walked in but no sign of Morrel. He quickly filled Gan in on what had occurred and asked the old witch to look after the young ones and tend to the other two young adults that were still in need of some more mundane recovery. After that, he roused the Centerland soldiers to be on alert, introduced them to the two elven guards who would be joining them to protect the suite then took the two remaining plus Gan and Avenar back to the council house.

tDespite it having been nearly two hours since Orison was abducted, the only major change as they were urshered in to see the council was that Xia was sitting in the Fvaris chair, taking a tea with the council.

tUpon seeing Orison enter like someone had lit a fire under him, Xia cackled and said, "Took you long enough. I thought you weren"t going to return until half the Domain was overrun by an Abyss gate or some other impossible nonsense... Grandniece, as I said. He either would prove himself as capable as what I believed or he would prove me wrong and not worth special consideration."

tOrison said blandly, "Thak you, Granny Xia, for your glowing words of faith."

tTurning to the secondary council member under the Speaker of the Left, Orison said, "Venerable, I have taken Granite Falls Island. If I remember correctly that is your clan"s previous crown jewel island. Do you want it or do you desire to pa.s.s it on to a more hot blooded clan?"

tA heated discussion broke out over the benefits and negatives of burning bridges with the Domain over one island.

tOrison let them bat it around back and forth for a few minutes until he said, "Please venerables, I know it is rude to interrupt but I have much to share and there is not so great a time to deliberate on it to best advantage... First and foremost, it is not just one island. My slave here has access to three more. If taken, the two between them will be cut off almost completely except by boat, which is considerably dangerous and time consuming for the Domain to send reinforcements to.

t"There is less than a five and a half hour window before evening report and after that things become uncertain. All I need to know is, are you hungry or are you satisfied? It"s simplicity itself to pin this "atrocity" against the Domain on me and close it but if you want your islands back, I can save you half the effort it will take right now and scare the ugly underwear off the Domain. They aren"t going to consider turning sights back towards Obsidian Island until after spring of next year but by then they"ll be entrenching to protect what they have acquired and playing the long game with you."

tThe speaker of the Right stood up and trembled in antic.i.p.ation around his hideous rictus grin. "As long as he can substantiate, I am all for."

tXia immediately hushed the a.s.sembly before turning shrewd eyes glowing with a spell model towards Orison. "Before this can go any further, I want your a.s.sessment of the situation and it"s success rate."