Triple Strength

242. Personel Skills: Wiremu

Wai is in paradise. Almaeadin is built on the edge of a shallow lake. An underground stream supplies the lake, but its deepest part is only about 4m down. All around the edge, it is muddy, shallow water. Wai disappeared into the mud, and I haven't seen him since. Ruku is not worried, so neither am I.

The city is on the edge of one side of the lake. A tent city surrounds the rest of the lake. Some of those tents look like they have been there for years. The desert is home to many nomadic people, some of whom seem to have set up camp here for good.

It is noticeable we are out of the kingdom now. Almaeadin is one of the so-called “Barbarian City States”, which are mostly animal kin run. Lizardkin are predominant here. The buildings are predominantly one or two stories high with flat roofs. A lot of the time is spent living on the roof, and you see many a lizard kin sunning themselves. Many different species pass through, and the hills overlooking the lake are built in plateaus as the second most numerous species are Avions.

Tabitha went off to explore the markets and sell her goods. Mayakku, Ruku and I were looking for a different market. Next to the livestock and camel yards was the prominent slave market. There were slaves in the city, as there were no laws against owning slaves here. This wasn’t the empire, but it also wasn’t the Kingdom.

This was my first chance to examine the variety of slave bonds and perhaps grab a slave taskmaster or at least watch one working for a while. Mayakku and I needed to get the ‘flavour’ of a Slave taskmaster to try to replicate the flavour to be used in the Ritual to remove the Slave Class. It is the last step we need. It is not a small step, though.

“Good day to you gentlemen and to you young lady. How may I help you today?” The man greeting us was well-dressed and pleasantly spoken. This was an upscale slave trader, and the place was luxurious and tasteful. We chose this trader for that reason. “Personel Skills” had a good reputation and marketed to the upper class, with a generally higher level of Skilled slaves.

I was dressed as a rich noble, and Ruku was my guard. Mayakku didn’t have any acting skills, so she was being herself, a well-to-do employee of mine. We didn’t want to advertise she was an enchanter as it may put her at risk of being abducted. Enchanters were in demand, and the law was more flexible outside of the Kingdom and the Empire.

“There are a couple of things I need help with. I am told I need more workers. I also have an opportunity that may help with the first problem,” I said.

“If I may enquire, sir, have you owned slaves before?”

“No, but my man here has,” I indicated to Ruku.

“It is good to have experienced advice, but if I may suggest, many of our first-time clients find it helpful to read this guide. You will get the most out of your purchase if you treat the slave well. A well-fed and rested slave with the right tools is much more productive than a starving or abused slave. Please take it; it is free for our customers. Now, we at Personel Skills pride ourselves in placing a slave with the right skills in the right jobs. What tasks are you wanting to be performed, and what is this opportunity?”

“Mostly basic labour, looking after beasts, housework etc. I am looking for someone with merchant skills to help in our business if possible.”

“Many are good at basic labour. Some farmers have fallen on hard times and can’t pay their debts. We have a couple of ex-herd masters, but they are in our Janub office. We can have them relocated for the right sale. May I give some advice?” he was going to anyway, “Most people buy the young, the recently awakened. It is true they are strong with a long life ahead of them and are usually good-looking, but they are usually without skills. It is virtually impossible to train a slave in new skills. The older person, who has fallen on hard times, often comes with a surprising number of skills and is many times more productive and useful.” He paused to make sure I was following. “A discerning customer such as yourself will understand. We have several merchants on our books at the moment. They have failed in business, it is true, so they need oversight, but they still have many skills. We even have two with specialisation classes.”

This is very interesting. The ones who became slaves later in life might be the easier ones to save if we can remove the class. They have previous life experiences to fall back on.

“That brings me to the opportunity I have. I have been conducting business with this merchant, and she cannot settle her debt to me. She has suggested one or two of the younger family members might work off the debt.”

“If I might advise, sir, that almost never works out. She will pass the young and most useless members to you, and they will only be a burden rather than productive members of your house. You should take one of our Slave assessors to accurately determine their value before agreeing. We have a small fee for this service.”

“Is this assessment done by the Slave Taskmaster?”

“No, we don’t trouble the Taskmaster with this. We have people trained in mental attributes with strong Status viewing Skills. They will be able to make an accurate assessment. Usually, it is best to then sell the slave to us, and we can provide one more suited to you.”

“When does the Slave Taskmaster get involved?”

“Only at the point of gifting the Slave Class. This is done in our private rooms, and one of our people will become the first owner. We will then transfer ownership to you.”

“I can watch the process, though?”

“I am sorry, sir, we have had to increase our security recently, and only trusted staff are allowed in with the Taskmaster.”

“But you could give some sort of command to the slave before I take ownership. You could find out all my business.”

“We will take you through a full reset of the slave to clear all previous commands when you take ownership. This is standard in transferring slaves between owners. There is no risk.”

It looks like they have really had to increase security. It is looking like this method is hitting a dead end, though it has still been informative.

“You said something about an office in Janub?” Janub is the southernmost city of the empire, where we are heading next.

“Indeed, sir, it is our regional office and has a greater stock selection than we have here. We have offices throughout the southern part of the Empire, with branches further afield like this one.”

“I am going to have to think about it. Do you have a current stock list I could take with me?”

“I am sorry we only keep one here in the office, and it is updated regularly. We do hold a weekly auction that you might be interested in. It is in two days' time there is some excellent stock being presented, including one of the merchants with a specialisation class.”

“Weekly sounds very frequent. Do you have a lot of stock?”

“It is a joint auction with all the local traders. A lot of the younger stock has a high turnover, if you know what I mean. You can get some bargains. We test the market with the more highly skilled as prices are on the rise.”

“Oh? What is causing the prices to rise?”

“There have been some unpleasant incidences with a number of Taskmasters losing their lives, so the number of fresh slaves entering the market is slowing. This is causing demand and the subsequent price rise.”

“I think I heard something about that.”

“Indeed, sir, but I wouldn’t worry. The Empire will have it sorted very shortly, I am sure.”

“One can only hope.”

We took our leave after that, not making any promises about being back for the auction. I am unsure I could sit there and look at those people being paraded and sold like animals. Even the slaves in the room with us have bolstered my resolve to get a solution to this horrid class. The ones who became slaves at an older age seem more salvageable. However, young people who are tricked or coerced into slavery have the roughest time. They have no skills. They are always the cheap labour, and if they are even slightly pretty, they are often abused sexually and then cast back into the auction once the master is tired of them. They are treated as worthless playthings.

This could have been me. It probably would have been. My anger had been suppressed when I was in the Kingdom and not confronted with the reality of it. Now it is back. I almost feel guilty it has taken me this long. I could have gone straight from Jern to Kirghiz and cut almost two years from the time. Logically, I know there were other circumstances, and I wouldn’t have gotten this far without Tabitha, the bond class, Mayakku etc. I still needed Mayakku, and she had her own learning curve to get the skills she needed. The guilt is still there. How many of my fellow villagers are still alive and living in this hell? How many have died? They are the lucky ones. The past is the past, and I can’t change it. I can only focus on the now and where to go from here. I am here now, and we are very close to cracking the Slave Class. I need a Slave Taskmaster to experiment on.

I refocused my thoughts. There were three slaves in the room with us, all owned by the salesman. They were probably company assets. The bonds were strong, and while the salesman's flavour dominated, there were hints of another flavour in the older Lizardkin slave behind the bar. I need access to a Slave Taskmaster, preferably a Journeyman level one. My bounty has made that more difficult for me. One thing is for certain: I wasn’t going to get there by posing as a customer.