Tag: Lower Landing

#Lore24 – Entry #127 – Muckenmyre Month #6 – The Ways of Mind and Body

From the journal of Takara, Slave Inquisitor of the Stellae Illustris.

I am not certain how long I stood where the mayor had left us, but after a time, Satella gently nudged me, bidding me to follow her.  Having no will of my own at the time, I did so as a slave would, a few steps behind, careful to keep my gaze from meeting anyone’s eyes.  It became awkward as we traversed the town again, when Satella kept slowing her pace so that I could catch up, and I likewise stopped behind her.  She realized what I was doing after a few instances of this happening, and gently informed me that she and I were equals now, and that I should walk beside her.

I didn’t know how to process that.  Me?  Equal to a free human?  It seemed absurd to the point of laughter, but I could find no such mirth within me.  Still, her smile never left her face, and she showed a remarkable amount of patience with my awkwardness.  It is so unnatural for me to consider walking beside someone who was not a slave, so against my very nature that I had to concentrate on the very act, knowing that were someone from the Empire to see me, I would be punished severely, and rightly so. 

Satella took me out of town via a boardwalk off the Lower Landing, following a rocky patch along the coast, in view of the Grimbridge lighthouse that stood on a nearby island, and eventually we wound up at a manmade breakwater that jutted out from the shore.  Satella showed remarkable agility for a human, her raised heels easily hopping along the rocks as she brought me to the end of the jetty.  There was a large, smooth boulder here, laying almost flat, which she lowered herself to her knees upon, and had me do the same, resting her hands upon her knees.  For a time, we said nothing, her eyes looking out over the sea, the waves calm for the moment, but the darkening skies further out indicating a storm on the way. 

Though I had recently been plucked from the very sea I now gazed upon, I held no fear of it, no particularly strong feelings.  The waves crashing upon the rocks a few feet below us were calming, the breeze blowing over us pleasant enough in the warm morning.  The sounds of the docks were but a faint buzz in my ears at the time.  After some time simply taking in the moment, Satella had turned her gaze upon me, and I could feel the intensity of her scrutiny. 

It was the same kind of gaze that I had mastered as an inquisitor, deep, penetrating, unnerving.  I was used to that look of course, so was unfazed by it, but thought it curious nonetheless.  I had had my suspicions about Satella’s nature, in the little time I had known her, but it seemed that she was openly telling me of her true self now.  I suppose it makes some kind of sense.  As a kerryn, I cannot begin to fathom the nature or intentions of the gods, for such things are not meant for us, but for Yurisaya to send a Confessor to be my caretaker at this time seemed somehow appropriate.  We are both intimately familiar with inflicting and receiving pain, of the many arts of torture, of the Ways of Mind and Body, as they are usually called; the word “Breaking” is usually omitted from the name.  I am uncertain as to how these methods came to be, and whether the Yurisayan confessors adopted them from the Inquisition, or if it was the other way around, but, at least, some things are the same even across the vast distance between here and the Empire, so it is likely the latter that is true.

Kindred spirits by virtue of our abilities to inflict and endure pain, of our ability to drive others away from us by our very nature. 

And yet, Satella was rather different than the Confessors I had known; she was very much like the average Yurisayan in demeanor:  cheerful, compassionate, friendly…yet still at a distance from others, as evidenced by the looks she had been given by the townsfolk.  A strange dichotomy, but one I could understand; I had often put on such faces myself, at least in my earlier days, before I had been fully adopted into the Inquisition. 

Having shared this moment, she rose, and I followed, and now openly aware of both of our natures, she assumed a stance, nodding for me to do so as well.  Of course, I was quite familiar with the form, for it is amongst the most basic of exercises which I practice daily and had resumed following her healing my bones.  The forms were unarmed techniques, meant for fighting without need of weapons or armor, for slaves were to have neither outside of a full-fledged slave knight of the Stellae Illustris, but quite useful for an Inquisitor hidden amongst the rank and file of the slaves.  The particular techniques we shared were meant to be the most efficient at disabling opponents, at inflicting the most damaging blows to bone in order to disable and cripple, to strike the nerves in ways that could cause limbs to go numb.

I mirrored her movements exactly, without need of her to slow her progression through them, though by the time we had finished with the exercises, I was sweating and winded, still not fully recovered from my ordeal at sea.  We returned to sitting upon the stone for a while longer, until I had recovered, simply enjoying the sea, though it was growing rougher as the storm approached. 

Though my deeper thoughts were still far away, back in the heart of the Empire, my earlier uncertainties about my situation had alleviated somewhat, knowing that I had a kindred spirit beside me, our intrinsic understanding of one another creating a bond between us without need of words. 

#Lore24 – Entry #126 – Muckenmyre Month #5 – Grimbridge

From the journal of Takara, Slave Inquisitor of the Stellae Illustris.

Restless as I was, I felt little of my fatigue by the time Satella and the mayor awoke that morning, and though I’m certain it was exquisite, I cannot recall having smelled or tasted breakfast that morning.  My thoughts were on the far shores of the Empire in which I had grown up and would continue to be there for some time.  Still, I bathed myself and donned the light dress and leggings Satella had for me, gray in color, with darker boots good for the swampy area we were in.  I still felt naked as I looked over myself in the small mirror, self-consciously feeling at my wrists and throat for the metal that lay rotting atop the nightstand. 

I should have tried to clean them already, even if they were broken.  Why hadn’t I?  Why did I let them linger so?  I resolved myself to correct the failure as soon as I could, and punish myself properly for such an infraction at the first opportunity.

Though the window in my small room had been open frequently, stepping out of the mayor’s home sent a refreshing rush through me.  The town was perhaps everything I had expected, and something else entirely.  The people who already moved about in the early morning regarded us in a warm manner, greeting Mayor Pleasence with casual friendliness, though it didn’t take long for me to learn that they were not quite so welcoming to Satella, and tended to have a bit of wariness about her that I didn’t initially understand.  There were plenty of curious looks and friendly greetings for me, the locals having known of my arrival and saying how much better I looked than when I had come to the town.  I was…uncertain how to respond to the townsfolk honestly.  I certainly wasn’t used to such warm receptions; would that change once they found out about my past?  Surely, they could not abide a slave trainer and torturer in their midst?

As I would learn once the mayor had started his tour properly, the town of Grimbridge had been constructed upon and around an ancient, sunken bridge of absolutely massive size.  A single span of the bridge was still visible, stretching from the sea by the docks in a northerly direction, leading deeper into the Muckenmyre swamps; the ancient marble still appeared in a brilliant, almost unearthly white in the sunlight and must have been nearly a thousand feet in length, perhaps half that in width, and was packed with stone and wood buildings atop it, mostly the town’s businesses and wealthier residents, built several floors high, and some were evening hanging over its edges, above the lazy end of the Crocodile Run River that meandered from the deeper swamps to the northeast. 

On either end of the span were the remnants of the ancient bridge supports, where more of the town had been built, named the Upper and Lower Landings, comprising some of the homes, like the mayor’s, as well as some of the businesses that required more space or dealt with less pleasant odors.  The Upper Landing marked the entrance to the town from the north, and had a surrounding palisade built around much of its length, the gates of the town overwatched by a series of short watchtowers along its length.  Beyond lay the Grimbridge Way, a raised roadway through the swamps that continued for several days to the north, following what had once been the path of the ancient bridge, and eventually came out into the forests surrounding the city of Ryanathyr, once elvish, but now sporting a multicultural population.

We continued along through the docks, which were built built large to accommodate heavier merchant vessels which preferred to spend less time on the sea and move goods northward via the Way but were mostly reserved for the fleet of fishing boats that called the Grimbridge port home.  It was here that I finally learned of my saviors, a merchant ship by the name of Amokura, captained by a human named Maza Tokala.  They had not spent much time in port, long enough to offload me and take on a few extra supplies, and then set off along the coast to the northwest for another destination.  At least I had a name, should I encounter them again that I may offer my thanks and find some way to repay them for saving my life, whatever may become of it.

After this, we crossed the Span, allowing me to see the various shops and services the town offered, as well as some of the wealthier homes, a few of which seemed quite out of place with the rest of the town’s more simplistic structures.  A curious thought occurred to me as we strolled along the Span…with no master, what could I do to provide for myself in this new land?  Surely, I could not expect someone to provide for me as slaves had been in the Empire; nearly everyone of age in the town had a job or responsibility of some sort.  I knew there was no need for someone with my skillset here, so what could I hope to offer in return for my care besides simple labor?  I am not certain what exactly sparked these thoughts, but I certainly could not ignore them.

Following the walkthrough of the Span, we came out onto the Upper Landing.  The general market was here, handy for the locals who lived outside of town and farmed on the patches of land that weren’t too far gone into the mire.  There was a much smaller group of docks here, where the curious flat-bottomed boats used by the locals were moored while they traded their goods; apparently the swamps were mostly not that deep, but filled with plenty of dangers, and I noted no few weapons on belts and stowed upon the boats.  The Crocodile Run River had been named for a very good reason, I would learn.  Having taken less than an hour, the mayor excused himself, said that he had town business to attend to, and would check in on me once he returned home that evening.  I thanked him of course, bowing out of habit, which seemed to get him a little on edge, but he brushed it off quickly as he left Satella and I in the market, bidding me to continue exploring and getting to know the townsfolk.

It was a rather surreal experience, my first trip into Grimbridge.  I saw no other kerryns in town, so I had plenty of eyes upon me, as I suppose the locals were not used to seeing us.  I suppose I could interchange my race with ‘slaves’ as well; everyone was there because they had reason to be there, not simply because that had been their assigned duties given to them by their masters.  I think Satella recognized the look that had come upon me in the moments that followed the mayor’s departure that morning, for she put a hand upon my shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. 

I was lost.  For the first time in my life, I had no duties to attend, no slaves to train or punish, no threats to my Emperor to root out…no one holding my leash.  I didn’t even have my collar.

I had no earthly idea what I could possibly do, where I could possibly go, at that moment. 

It was the first time I had felt truly without purpose in my life.