When she finally came to a hands were wrapped, her clothes were ripped, her hair was dirty and sticky, her head felt like it had been split open and closed up again.
She couldn't say how she survived, but her whole body felt like it had been run over a carriage when instead she had been the one doing the running away from the carriage. Her eyelashes pried apart from each other painstakingly, to reveal an old dusty ceiling above her, and an equally dusty mattress she was on which felt mostly like hard wood and strings.
"Thank God you're finally awake." A voice startled her out of her reverie. Emilia looked to her left to find the owner of the voice folding a heap of what seemed to be clothes but looked more like rags. The woman was of color, her dark curly hair bounced off her face as she moved.
Emilia had only ever seen a few people of color in her life, her first instinct was to run, but this woman didn't seem like she was dangerous at all or capable of harm instead she was calm and collected.
"Who are you? What am I doing here?" She wanted to ask, but voice failed her. All that came out was dry raspy cough.
"There, there, you're still too weak to speak." The woman rose from her heap of clothes. Emilia wanted to shift in the bed, but her body felt too heavy to lift. She had a very twang accent to her words that Emilia didn't quite recognise.
"Here, take a cup of water and then you can try that again." said the woman, holding out a stainless cup.
"Thank you," Emilia whispered, Downing the cup of water.
"I assume you were going to ask where you are and who I am?." The woman said pouring her another cup.
"My name is Moreen, my husband saved you from the river a few days ago, thinking you were an animal only to find out that you were a girl, I don't know how you survive that long in the freezing water." Moreen explained.
"But you seem to have latched onto log, floating just above the water and thankfully the tides weren't too strong or you would've been washed away. I have to say, you're a pretty lucky one."
"Pardon me, a few days?." Emelia asked, sitting up.
"Yes, you've been out of it for five days now." The woman affirmed. "Do you remember how you got to the river?."
Emilia paused to think. She was watching over her siblings as they ran in the mud with all the animals in the farm. Then she began to wish her prince charming would come to take her. And then all of a sudden it was raining heavily. No, that's wrong. Her parents were fighting, because of her father's gambling issues. His debtors had come again.
Her eyes widened as it came to her. Instead of taking their possessions, if they had any left, her father decided it was a great idea to sell her as slave to his debtor, Lord Goring. In a flash, her life plummeted, from the small slow farm life to a bumpy carriage ride.
But she managed to escape. Without wasting a second, she scurried to her feet, hoping to run as fast as her legs could carry. If she has been passed out for five days then there was a possibility that Lord Goring would find her soon enough.
Swinging her legs off the bed to stand, but her legs failed her.
"What are you doing? You need rest." Moreen said, rushing to her aid.
"I need, I need to leave this place at once." Emelia rushed out in a shaky voice.
"Calm down child." Moreen said with an alarmed face.
"He is going to take me."
"No one is going to take you from here, no one knows here." She replied with a small smile. "Our cottage is isolated from the village, you need not worry."
"Ah, yes we found a horse too, was it yours perhaps?." She asked and Emilia nodded. "Well we can't afford to keep it, so we had to sell."
"It was a huge horse with a huge appetite." Moreen added with a small laugh. Moreen helped prepare a bath, it wasn't warm, it was most likely water straight from the river, but beggars can't be choosers, Emilia told herself as the icy droplets ran down her sore back. After the bath, she changed into more cleaner clothes and had a small bowl of hot porridge.
"Who is going to find you?." Moreen asked as they sat outside the cottage, waiting for her husband to return from selling the horse. "Did you run away from home?."
"No, I was sold by my father." Emilia explained. "He lost all his money to gambling and his debtors decided to they wanted me."
"Oh, you poor thing." Moreen said pulling her to a side hug.
"I ran away from the debtors, he paid a hundred shekels to cancelled all of my father's debts." Emilia swallowed. "Apparently that's all I'm worth, A measly hundred silvers."
Moreen husband returned with a rabbit game for dinner and a managed to sell the horse for five silvers and a nickel.
It had been seven days since Emilia successfully ran away from Lord Goring, everyday better than the last. After two days of rest since she woke up, Moreen was going to take her to town to find a job. Being the eldest daughter, Emilia could do a hand ful of things around the house and also train animals, but at the end of the day, even though they were poor she had a nanny all her life.
There was not much success finding a job, Moreen being a woman of color restricted their choices and Emilia being good at absolutely nothing also was a barrier.
After the third shop of rejection, they decided to call it a day and buy supplies for dinner later that night. But as Moreen was about rounding up her bargain with carrot trader, Emilia caught the sight of a long line of girls to her far right.
"What is happening over there?." Emilia asked Moreen.
She turned away from her haggling to see, pausing her conversation with the carrot seller. "Oh, its that time again." she said to herself.
"What time?."
"You don't want to know." She shook her head, but the nosy carrot seller was faster and awful at reading cues.
"That is the emblem of the Dacra the Northern Isle." The old lady pointed to the black cloth from afar. "Every once in a while, people from the Northern isle Kingdom come to purchase slaves to work; one of them is the Duke of Therma." She spat.
"For how much?." Emilia asked immediately.
"No, no, we don't need to know." Moreen countered, but again the nosy lady couldn't help herself.
"Five hundred."
Her eyes widened. She couldn't go back home, Lord Goring was surely waiting to take her away again. And her father was right, she was an extra mouth to feed, many her age were already married. Her siblings needed new clothes, new shoes.
Five hundred was more than enough to pay all her father's debt, she would be free. Emilia didn't realize when her legs began to take her there itself until Moreen's hand grabbed hers.
"No you don't!." Moreen said.
"Five hundred will change my life Moreen."
"Didn't you hear what she said?, slavery, it is not a job you get paid for, its slavery, slaves are treated like animals." She bawled.
"See the lines of people, it can't be that bad."
"Those girls were either captured from the kingdom of Hiddenburg, illegitimate, orphaned and homeless or sold against their own will." Moreen explained. "Trust me, slave to the duke is not what you want to do with your life."
"Listen to her girl, no matter what you're problem is, the duke house is no place for humans." The carrot lady spoke. "I've seen it with my own eyes, girls go like this and never return, never heard from again."
Emilia agreed, as another girl crying her eyes out was dragged to the place.
"The emblem of the Duke of Dacra is always a bad omen." Moreen said in hurried steps, pointing to a black cloth from afar.
Just as she was about to rebuff, Emilia noticed a group of familiar men. It didn't take too long for her to recognize them as lord Goring's men. On impulse, she began to run. The market being a crowded place, with people everywhere, Emilia resorted to pushing her way through and didn't notice when she let go of Moreen's hand.
"Emilia!" She heard Moreen cry out from the crowd.
"Moreen!" Emilia shouted back, pushing her way through to her. In all the chaos, but her voice was enough to alert the enemy.
"I found her!." One shouted to another. The only thought on her mind was to run, far away. They couldn't catch her again, not now when freedom was very close.
But her luck ran out, they blocked her way quickly, forming a wall before her. That the only way was back and back led to the line of slaves being carted to the Duke's mansion.
Lord Goring appeared from behind his men, a smoldering look on his face and grabbed her. "Unhand me!." Emilia screamed.
"You don't want to know what I'd do to your father if you continue with this attitude." He began slowly, pushing a hair away from her face. He motioned to his men to force her to kneel.
"And your poor mother and siblings." He hissed. Emilia's heart dropped as she crashed to the ground.
"Leave my mother and siblings out of this, do whatever you want with my father!." She spat.
They all laughed. "Oh child, whatever your father owns is mine, including your mother and siblings."
"You're evil!."
"Your father is foolish, don't be like him or you haven't seen evil." Lord Goring gestured to another one of his men and they brought Moreen forward.
"Let her go you beast!." Emilia screamed, charging at him. Lord Goring moved away in time. "She has done nothing!."
"All you have to do is say one thing." He sang.
"I'll go with you!, please let her go!." Emilia cried. Moreen had no reason to be repaid as such after saving her life and sheltering her for days. "I promise I will go with you and be well behaved I swear."
He finally motioned to his men to let Moreen go.
"Emilia." Moreen called softly in tears.
"I will be right, I promise, I am grateful for all you have given me…" She replied before brutally yanked away by the evil man. This time, they did well to bind her hands and feet as they boarded a boat to the Capitol.
'How is this not slavery?' Emilia asked herself as she watched the slaves being loaded into the boat with the Duke's emblem as well.
If this was slavery, she was better off anywhere else than with lord Goring's, even if that meant becoming a slave to the duke and never to be heard from again.
Without another thought, Emilia spun on her heels, delivering an elbow to the man that held her and ran as fast as her legs could carry her, quickly joining the line of girls being hurdled into the large boat.
She dared a glance at lord Goring's men, jaws to the ground and a fuming lord Goring running down from the pier just in time for the boat to leave the dock.
She let out a breath, turned so her back was now facing them as they set sail, only to take in another when a stern looking man stopped before her.
"Where did you come from?"