Dawn of Chaos Pt 13
#13 of For the love of Chaos
I pulled the remaining food down from the cart and began feeding the newly freed slaves.
"If you eat too fast you'll get ill so please take it slow, I just got this place cleaned out." I looked at the carriage standing in the middle of the floor. "Is there anywhere I can store this in here Kazath?"
"There should be a stable in the back." Kazath responded absently.
I thought about my first encounter when I had entered this place fighting off hordes of skeletons.
"If there are undead horses or lizard-whatevers I'm gonna be pissed."
Fortunately the stables were empty as I entered them, of any skeletons, animated or otherwise. Any waste that had occupied the stalls had long since decayed to dirt. I led the lizards into their stalls and parked the carts in a place designated for them.
"What are those lizard things anyways? I can't just call them that forever you know."
"They're called Rasp Lizards, because of the rasping noise they make when they panic."
"How disappointingly mundane."
Kazath gave the equivalent of a mental shrug, "They've been called that for so long no one's bothered of thinking something else up."
I picked up a pair of buckets that hadn't rotted away, and filled them with water from a miraculously still working pipe. The Rasp Lizards taken care of I went back out to check on everyone in the main hall. I observed the groaning ex-slaves with a mixture of dismay and amusement.
"They never listen." I shook my head. Shiva moved around the room administering what aid she could. I gathered up a number of buckets and took them over to each of the huddled people.
"If you throw up, please do it in the bucket." Each of the freed slaves flinched when they saw me, and I scratched at the small beard that had been growing the past little while absently. I looked at the broken collars hanging from their necks and sighed as I realized why each of the furs had flinched. I glanced over at Shiva who was leaning up against a pillar beside me.
"Humans haven't really done these people many favors have they."
Shiva winced at the flat tone in my voice, then gave a small sigh. "It's not just humans though, nobody trusts anybody they don't know anymore, and even then it's a careful trust. The priesthood is thoroughly manipulative, rewarding those who betray each other, blackmail, lies, all manner of deceit and coercion; these are the weapons they use against us." She looked meaningfully at the groaning furs. "As you can see, they're quite effective."
"What now?" I looked around the huge room, "What next? Just turning these people out is out of the question, I don't have enough food to feed them for long and the money I have will run out not long after. I have a feeling asking for charity amongst the slums here would not exactly be met with open arms." I said wryly.
"So what will you do?" Shiva gave me a questioning look, "I have a feeling you're not going to give up just like that."
"I'm going to network."
"Network?" Shiva and Kazath both asked.
"No society is ever completely homogenous; you can never perfectly grind something to your will, there will be people out there who will help us. I just have to find them and convince them. When they come to," I inclined my head towards the now resting furs. "Tell them that they're free to stay here as long as they like, but tell them to stay in the main hall here, I haven't explored a lot of this place and I don't want anyone running into any nasty surprises."
"How will you find the ones you're looking for?"
"Trust me, I'll find them."
I sat on the roof of one of the buildings and thought hard on what I was actually going to do to find any sort of group that could help, despite what I had said to Shiva I really didn't know enough about this world I had been thrown into to find someone so easily.
"Any idea's Kazath?"
Kazath gave a frustrated grunt. "Back in my heyday I could have found the names, down to what they had for breakfast that morning, now I can't get too far away from this church without being crippled."
I placed a mental arm across his shoulders, and gave him a grin. "Don't worry too much about it, back in my world I made a living investigating, I'll manage somehow." I glanced down at the street and my grin widened.
"And right down there is our first lead."
He walked down the street furtively, his hood covering his head and face, but he was definitely human. No one in the street seemed to take any notice of the hooded figure as he glanced around and ducked into a back alley. I cursed as I lost sight of him and sprinted across the rooftops to the alley he had slipped into, I looked down into the alley just as he turned another corner. I cursed and gave chase leaping across the gap to the next roof, thus began a long hour of me playing catch up with my target, by the time the man reached where he was going I was gasping for breath as quietly as possible.
"Kazath...remind me...never to use these rooftops again." I regained my breath and finally gave a good look at the building I had crossed what seemed like miles of rooftops to reach. I have to say I was disappointed, it was a warehouse exactly the same as any warehouse on the street.
Kazath sent an amused thought my way.
"What did you expect? Some sort of rebel bastion dedicated to equality ranting away?"
I gave a mental shrug as response and slipped out over the edge of the roof and down into the alley my quarry had exited from. I glanced out into the street and saw...nothing. I lifted one eyebrow as I eyed the empty street.
"A deserted street," I sighed as I looked across the great empty space that separated me from the warehouse. "Joy."
"What now fearless leader."
"Well, I'm sitting here with a full house so I think I'll go all in." And I crossed the street.
I walked along the side of the warehouse and calmly walked in through the side door, almost immediately I was ringed with drawn swords. Kazath immediately tensed but I gave him a quick reassuring thought. Then I serenely crossed my arms and let my gaze wander across the grim faced men all around me.
"Good afternoon gents, I take it you wouldn't like to purchase an encyclopedia?" My captors blinked but otherwise kept their grim faces. "I didn't think so."
"Let him in." A warm rich voice came from the shadows of the warehouse. The men ringing me looked uneasy but lowered their swords, I noticed that they didn't sheath them however. "What brings you here Mr..."
"Alath," I directed a flamboyant bow towards the direction of the voice.
"As to what brings me here, I believe we may share a common interest."
"Perhaps," The voice sounded amused. "Why don't you come over here and we'll talk about it."
I couldn't help but think as I crossed the warehouse floor of the words, said the spider to the fly.