We knew we needed to move on if we didn't want to spend a night in the wilderness but before that, we tried to smoke the leftover meat so that it wouldn't spoil. We ended up making a huge mess, revealing how neither of us knew anything about survival out here in the alpine forest.
"I can be excused! I lived in space, I only watched holos and played neuro-stims! But you two? What's your excuse?"
Vespera grumbled. "I'm sure demon society was civilized enough that I didn't need to learn to smoke meat."
"That is correct, Sol," Elyra added with a playful grin. "Shame on you for assuming things about demon society. Angel society as well."
We had a good laugh about it, and eventually decided to discard what was left of the ruined meat and follow the river downstream.
The girls caught fish rather easily using their magic, and my skill made the impossible task of dressing it or whatever the actual process was called into a trivial one. We drank the cool water of the river, and kept a good pace. Despite that, we ended up sleeping under the stars, huddled together with the bear pelts keeping us warm. We walked for a few days until, finally, we saw signs of civilization.
A fishing boat on the river. The sound of voices in the distance. The smell of smoke. Eventually we reached a small city built on against a wide bend in the river.
It was a strange sight. From our vantage point, it looked like a circle of concrete placed right in the middle of the idyllic sight of the forest. Open fields surrounded it, the grass swayed in the wind, and the river lapped at the smooth stone of its huge defensive wall.
Said wall was at least ten meters tall, but we were high enough up a small hill that we could see inside. That's what puzzled me the most, and even the girls—despite being locals—were puzzled by the sight. There were no buildings, nothing. Inside the walls, all that we could see was an expanse of smooth stone blocks.
I almost thought that the city was dead, but no. There were people milling about everywhere. Boats went in and out of the city through small holes in the walls. Guards were stationed outside. People stacked monster bodies and timber near a massive gate.
There was just one entry, the gate, reinforced and closed shut, plus a few holes in the walls by the side of the river to let boats in and out without needing to have an exposed dock.
Close to the it, there was a much smaller one manned by guards. Two men were stationed on either side of the narrow door, wide enough for one person to pass through at a time, while others watched us from holes in the wall or temporary wooden sentry towers scattered along the dirt road.
I thought our looks would draw attention, but they didn't. The guards looked at me, then at the girls, then at me again and let us through.
"They used magic on us," Elyra said after we passed the first checkpoint. "Some sort of detection, maybe? It did not fell like proper magic, more like a Skill. It brushed against our bond, and I felt some sort of response."
"Thank the heavens Sol was given the ability to conceal our bond by the System," Vespera said sharply. "Did you see those hunters we passed by? They all had beasts with them, hooked up by chains."
Elyra hummed in agreement. "Whatever it showed them, it was exactly what they expected to see."
More nods, and we finally reached the small door. From there, it was only a matter of squeezing through the several meters of stone of the walls, and we were on the other side.
I had to pause at the sight. The stone squares we saw from outside were actually enormous hollow spaces, and each one of them was like the inside of a cramped space station. The ceiling was lost in darkness, with not a speck of daylight reaching inside save for what little of it came through the door behind us. The air was heavy with smoke from torches and the smell of dirty, messy, desperate civilization.
We pushed past a tight group of people huddling in the square, awaiting their turn at the door to leave the city, and found ourselves in narrow streets surrounded by wooden structures, huts, tents and all manner of strange stalls. In the distance, the stone walls loomed, signaling the end of this large square, but we soon discovered that all the squares were connected by corridors and tunnels. They were narrow and easy to barricade, with checkpoints, huge metal grates and thick stone doors. Guards stood at each one of the gates, relaxed but vigilant.
We wandered around for a while, lost in the sights. As I absorbed the information, my mind spun to gear and I sighed. I wasn't liking was I was seeing, that's for sure. To the angel and the demon, this place was strange and unfamiliar.
For me? The city reminded me of home in a way I did not like at all. As I said already, it reminded me of a cramped space station, the only difference being the technological level. I was used to high tech gadgets, stalls where people took power armors apart and sold them for pieces, custom mod shops and odd food.
Here, the gadgets were actually pieces of armor, enchanted trinkets and potions. The custom shops sold maps and bestiaries. There were temples and churches. The odd food was just more of the same. Inhumanly colored slop. Iridescent pieces of some weird monster, grilled meat of questionable origins. Low sanitary standards all around.
This place looked, moved and smelled like home. Not the hauler, but the stations I was forced to live in whenever I wasn't in transit. It hit me all at once, a dizzying wave of nauseating revulsion, the dark twin of nostalgia.
"Hey," Elyra caught me as I swayed, looking everywhere. "Are you okay, Sol?"
I nodded weakly, swallowing and taking a moment to compose myself.
Meanwhile, Vespera was frowning at everything. "What the heavens even is this place?" she asked out loud. "This is nuts! Where the heavens did we end up?"
I breathed in. Unexpectedly, the rank smell of humanity in a cramped space, smoke and food managed to ground me. It was doing the opposite to the girls, I could see. I grabbed them both and deftly navigated the flood of bodies, idly noticing that while it was composed of mostly humans, I could see the odd elf and dwarf walking around. That, and more monsters than I could count.
Each and every one of them had a bright collar around their neck, like the hunters and loggers we saw outside, and if I focused on them I could see who the beast belonged to. It looked like a chain leading from the collar to the owner. Slaves. They were slaves.
"Hey," I told the girls once we found a quiet corner. "Are you okay?"
"You are asking us?" Vespera snapped. "You were the one who almost fainted back there."
I knew she was uncomfortable, so I slowly nodded at her with a smile that I hoped conveyed some sort of warmth. "Yes, I know. This place brought back memories. But right now, you look like you're ready to throw hands with everyone you see while you, Elyra, look genuinely frightened."
"Yes well," Vespera said. "This place sucks, Sol."
"I concur," the angel said. "It is deeply unsettling. How can you be so calm?"
"Remember what I told you about space stations?"
They nodded.
"This is just like back there. An island of civilization isolated from everything else. Bringing out the best and worst out of humanity. Well, elves and dwarves too."
"Yeah," the demon girl sighed. "I suppose we know who two of the other Great Races are now."
She eyed the collars on every single other creature in disgust. How could she not? Not all of them were monsters. Many were humanoid, a few even looked sentient.
Elyra touched Vespera's arm, and the demon leaned into her touch for a moment, closing her eyes and calming herself down.
"I don't know what we are supposed to do here, Sol. I hate this."
She was almost growling, and her magic was roiling inside her. Luckily she had not manifested her claws, but I knew she wanted to. I eyed the guards in the distance, but they were thankfully ignoring us.
"Don't worry. I hate this place as much as you do, but I know how to navigate it. But… you'll have to trust me."
"I always trust you, Sol," she said, her voice losing its edge. "And yet," she looked at Elyra. "Do we really have to stay here? We did good in the forest, didn't we? It was just us three. That's all that matters to me, Sol."
"Is it?" I asked her. "Don't you want fame, power and glory?"
She shook her head. "I was just—"
Elyra cut her off. "Do you not want to know what happened to our races, Vespera?"
"I… yes," she said in short, hiccupping breaths. "But why here?"
"Where else?" the angel asked-
I spoke before they spun the conversation in circles. "We'll be in and out as quickly as we can. I swear. Okay?"
"Okay." Vespera said.
"Good." I nodded. "First thing to do: we need to blend in."
"How?" the demon asked.
She was confused, but Elyra understood. She brought her hands to her neck, sighing. "A collar."
"What?" Vespera snapped. "A collar?"
Elyra shushed her, worried that she was making a scene and it would attract the guards. Luckily, I knew how to find shady corners where they wouldn't bother looking, as long as we didn't make too much of a ruckus.
"Vespera!" she hush-shouted. "Anyone who isn't an elf, a human or a dwarf is tied to one of them. Sol is a human but we are not."
"We are Great Races now, angel. Did you forget? We are not slaves!"
She stared at me with an odd intensity to her.
"Vespera. Do you think I want to make a slave out of you? Do you really think that?"
"I…" she said, pausing. "No, fuck… I know you don't. It's stupid to think that now of all times you'd want to do that. It's just… a collar?"
"Then we don't do that," I said. "But be aware that if we go parading around like that, there will be questions. Listen, I'm not forcing you. I hate this as much as you. If you say no, that's the end of this, alright?"
Elyra was blushing. "Vespera. I would never lower myself to such a state without reason, you know that. But, if it's Sol…"
The demon looked at her, blushing. "You two don't get it, do you? You're cute." She bit her lip, blushing even harder. She scrunched her nose, then relaxed. "Yes, him being him changes things. Heavens, Elyra, I've been dreaming of him putting a collar on me, making me his!" she caught herself, totally red in the face. "I'm a degenerate, don't you get it?" But it's too early and…" In a small voice, she added: "…in public?"
She looked around. We were between two buildings, in a narrow alley filled with garbage bins and a small sewer stream. Behind it, it led to a dead end against an inner stone wall.
From the narrow gap, we could see people walking on the street nearby. There were all sorts of people, but most of them looked mean and dangerous, the kind of person you'd rather avoid. Or, I thought to myself, the kind of person you'd find on certain space stations right at the outskirts of human civilization. Wherever we were, this place was like that.
She drew a deep breath, wincing at the smell of sewage. "Okay," she said. "We don't want attention, do we?"
She was looking at me, so I shook my head. "Not until we know our situation," I said. "Right now we don't have money, and we have no idea where we are or how things work around here. If it's any similar to an isolated space station, however, nothing comes for free. We want a map? We need money. We want gear? Money. We want to sleep in a shitty inn? You guessed it, money."
"Alright," Vespera said. "I didn't mind sleeping under the stars with you, but I get the point."
"And we are going sleep outside again, just us three?" I said. "We won't be staying in here any longer than it's necessary, but it's good to have a base of operations."
Elyra touched my arm.
A shiver ran through my body. Ah, shit, I forgot I was bare-chested. The weather outside had been mild enough not to bother me so far, but I needed to get myself some proper clothes. Or maybe not… I needed a persona, a tough one. Perhaps a slightly deranged one too, if people were to believe I enslaved a sentient angel and demon. Going around bare-chested might do that and my stats might be enough to shield me from the cold. If not them, perhaps one of the General Skills I didn't pick.
"Do you promise we are going to leave, should we find a better city, Sol?" Elyra asked, bringing me back to the present.
"Of course."
It was like asking me to choose between Prominence Vector and Waypoint 32-Centauri-b.
She nodded, satisfied, and Vespera echoed her.
I felt a tug through the bond, the System's ability to hide its true nature slowly stirred. When Vespera nodded again, followed by Elyra, the bond changed. Its core remained as it was, but on top of it a new kind of magic appeared, a sort of disguise. Outwardly, it materialized as a pitch black choker around Vespera's neck, and a golden one around Elyra's. Both of them connected with ethereal strings to my hands, like pets on a leash.