Slaving Away

"Get up." I'd been trying to sleep, since my incarceration three other drunks had joined me in the cell.  They all kept their distance, apparently my display of murderous intent had cowed the locals a bit.  It was nice, meant I could have the majority of the bench for sleeping and it was a great change from before. The local law was here now, his overly tight shirt its normal brand of dirty and not caring. Behind him was the judge I'd heard the night before.

It was like a night and day difference, this guy was lean, his skin was pale and not craggy like everyone else in Regor.  Short dark hair actually styled (I really shouldn't talk, in those days I let my red hair grow and grow, which lead to tangles and general annoyance), no beard. His "uniform" if you could call it that was black pants, and boots, a large tabard covered his chest area (most likely a simple shirt) the tabard was that of most red hand officials, white with a blood red fist gripping in the middle (hilariously enough during the war these tabards were called bullseyes for obvious reasons).  He had a sword on, one of those thin bladed for ceremonial purposes only type of things (too thin to really be useful in a fight, maybe like a single kill) the hilt and sheath were coated in silly runes, at the time I couldn't read or recognize any of them. He had on a fancy pair of gloves that looked to be of a material I'd never seen before, they also had runes down the length of them. He stood behind the local official with a face of contempt, I could see he felt this was a waste of his time, and for a moment feared I'd just be executed and that would be that.

"Lorentino, step forward," The drunks let me by as I came to the front of the cell.  He tossed me a pair of shackles and instructed me to put them on.  I did as I was told and he unlocked the cell and removed me.

"He's all yours sir." There was a hint of fear in the local mans voice, that kind of speaking to a dangerous person who can kill you at their very whim and suffer nothing for it (which is true).

"Come." Was his only instruction, it didn't seem the kind of command that got a second nicer request so I complied.  Outside the guard station were two horses one out in front, the other tied to it, I could see my mishmash of gear was currently sitting in the saddle bags of the lead horse (I guess Grengor's days of being a hunter were over since I now was in ownership of half of stuff).  The Red Hand guard instructed me to mount the horse that had been tied in a rear position, and with a bit of difficulty (I was shackled, and never had ridden one before). The Red Hander didn't give me a lot of time to get situated, instead he kicked his horse into gear and hoped I'd hold on.  I guess he wanted out of town before we drew too much of a crowd.  We were well away from town and down a well beaten path before I even heard him speak to me again.  I hadn't noticed it before with his short "come" but his voice was really dry, like spit was something he didn't have at all.

"I just want you to know I don't care at all about you almost killing that man in town."

"He deserved to die."

"I'm sure he did, honestly though most people in that town could be butchered and it wouldn't be a loss at all, no instead I want to know how you killed that beast." I tried to look away, and even though he wasn't looking at me, I could feel his eyes on me.

"What beast?"

He laughed, it was higher then his normal voice, and little more the scary, "You can fool the rubes boy, but I'm not an idiot, I traced the spell you foolishly used on the beast to that town and eventually to you, I gave you a chance to admit it! To embrace your ability, but alas years of living with mere mortals has apparently made you skiddish."

"I burned it down! Conjured fire and wiped it out!" I suddenly felt the need to impress this guy, I guess in a way I wanted to be one of his peers, wear the red hand tabard, embrace my magic not run from it.

"And yet you still wear shackles? And use this?" He pointed to the hilt of my large bone sword, "Hell prior to killing that beast you were in the employ of a skinny drunk who could hardly kill small animals.  Mr. Lorentino you are a sad mage." Crestfallen, it was like I'd been judged before I could do anything. "Still you aren't entirely useless."

"Oh?"

"Of course not, you'll fetch a pretty penny at market, though you might end up someones mind slave, oh well such is life Lorentino!" I cursed under my breath and my captor just laughed again.  So for those playing along this is the second time I'd been sold in my short life, though I think my dad selling me off is worse then a member of a creepy magictocracy.  But I'm biased. How did I escape? Did I escape? What's a mind slave? All will be answered in good time, in good... ahh damn it someones in the shop, till tomorrow!