Night eventually fell. The soldiers rounded up the slaves and had them sit around a yet to be made bonfire. They ordered a few slaves to start the fire as they watched, and soon a modest fire came to life. The guards had the slaves circle the bonfire, not like the command was needed anyway, what else would they do? Nyiko watched as some of his slavers took a few slaves aside to set up their tents, leaving a few soldiers to surround the slaves. Nyiko let himself entertain the idea of inciting a slave riot for a little bit. It would not work, not only were the slaves still very much shackled together but they had no weapons and it was likely not many here knew how to fight. Nyiko nervously smirked as he hugged his knees and stared into the vibrant flames.
To say he was hopeless would be the understate of all time. What was he supposed to do? He was told the spell was fair, told he'd get a useful aspect, he had told himself he was going to live. How the hell was he going to do that! He's aspect was a useless piece of flavor text and he saw no way of escaping the slave caravan traveling to the doomed city. Despite the warmth of the fire he shivered from the memory of the vision the spell gave him.
The apocalyptic scene may haunt his seemingly many nights to come, whatever that was coming for that city could not be stopped, he felt that truth deep in his soul.
'Whatever, they kinda have it coming if they're happy dealing in slaves'
He looked around to his fellows who shared his fate. All men of varying sizes, shapes and shades of brown. He presumed they may have all come from the same region and that the women were taken by a separate caravan for whatever, likely terrible reason. He looked towards the man to his left, the one whose back his eyes bore into the first hours of this nightmare. The man looked to be between the ages of 40 to 50, the top of the head was almost entirely bald. His hairline receded back to the back of his head, leaving his scalp bare. The man's face was a mask of solemn indifference that Nyiko could not pierce through, only assume the obvious. Nyiko gathered all his courage, trying to address the man with all the composure he could muster.
"Sir? Do you know where we're going?"
His voice sounded small and weak, and he cursed himself for that.
The man turned his gaze away from the modest bonfire, his face portraying no emotion as he did.
"Young man, how could you be so ignorant of the end of our lives?"
Nyiko shrugged and let his head drop in shame.
'Not like I was given the history of this nightmare or something'
The older man sighed, "The empire have enslaved us, and are likely dragging us to the nearest war capital. Accursed War heathens and their hedonistic crusade, from the stories I have heard they'll force us to expand the war capital"
Nyiko listened to the older man intently, quietly absorbing his frustrated words. He found this quite easy to do for some reason.
"Sir, what do you think could be a reason for the war?" He asked trying to pry helpful knowledge from the older man's condemnation of his slavers.
"I do not know, I have heard the reasons but I don't truly know. I was… I am just a farmer, a prestigious scholar like you would know better"
Nyiko stared at the older man with a blank stare.
"How did you know?"
He slightly lifted his cuffed hands, gesture to subtly point at Nyiko. It took a minute for Nyiko to understand he was pointing at his own face.
"Is there something on my face?"
The older man looked quite shocked, but did not exaggerate, weary of alerting one of the patrolling soldiers.
"Young man, the sage scars. The sacred sage scars on your face, please don't tell me you haven't given yourself those scars? At a time like this you'd mock such an integral part of our people!"
Nyiko Hastily shook his head.
"N-no sir, of course not. It's just… uh, how do I explain this. My memory seems to be… non existent"
This time the older man gave Nyiko a blank stare in response to his nonsense that was followed by a stupid smile. The older man shook his head dejected, making Nyiko's smile waver. The old man stared into the flames, Nyiko followed his gaze not sure if the man grew tired of his questioning.
"I think it doesn't matter what brought this on, the result is wrong and unfair. They think themselves the most faithful to War God, but to me they only worship the act of conquest. I am no scholar like you, but it is clear to see they do not care for her other dominions unless it can support their agenda of a continued war. Their divine right to conquer, even conquer their fellow worshippers. It's, it's, it's…."
He had to stop himself from carrying on as a guard walked a little closer to them. Nyiko couldn't help but shiver at the soldier's suspicious gaze, but the older man kept himself in check. His face was stoically staring into the deep fire, if not for what Nyiko saw he'd think that the older man was just staring at the fire because he couldn't do anything instead of covering his own growing flame of hatred to his slavers. That hatred was fair and right, but Nyiko had a sense that hatred would cause the both of them some trouble if he continued the conversation. So he returned to staring into the flames along with everyone else. Except he was staring at something that no one else could see, the runes shimmering along with the dancing flames.
'Well let's see what attributes this scholar slave has…'
His eyes moved down towards where the runes that represented his attributes, then focused on each one
***
Name: Tinyiko
True name: -
Rank: Aspirant
Soul core: Dormant
Memories: -
Echoes:-
Attributes: [Destined], [Apprentice Scholar], [Sentimental]
[Destined] Attribute description: "The strings are loose on your form, instead of being pulled by them you pull on them. Your choices bring good fortune to you alone and create great ripples in the tapestry of fate. Truly, you alone are blessed."
[Apprentice Scholar] Attribute description: "Only the most studious of youths could be accepted as an apprentice, this skill still sticks to you even in this circumstance"
[Sentimental] Attribute description: "You have a much deeper connection to your memories, even the smallest of things imprinting itself on your soul."
'Argh! What do any of these actually mean? Why can't the spell be straight forward about these things?'
Nyiko wracked his brain over the possibilities of what his attributes actually did. The [Destined] attribute was the easiest one to understand. From what he understood the concepts of fate and destiny, which wasn't a lot as he wasn't much of a philosopher, was that he had better chances at anything he did. If what he was theorizing was true, then his innate attribute was the only useful tool he had in his repertoire. The spell may have screwed him over because of this attribute alone! Well maybe that would be jumping the gun a bit, who knew how much the attribute actually affected his actions after all.
'I doubt it could make the impossible possible. I better not test it out here' He thought, knowing trying to escape his current predicament was not really feasible.
His other attributes were much more abstract, he could not understand what these attributes were meant to do. [Apprentice Scholar] seemed to tie into the history of the body he inhabited, an attribute possibly involved. The [Sentimental] attribute was much more confusing, not giving him a clue of what its purpose could be.
Sighing he let the runes disappear from his sight, they faded into the fire as if the flame made them evaporate away. Time passed along with the waning flame, Nyiko grew as the light dimmed and did his best to fall asleep in a comfortable position but curling up into a ball in a grass field and chained up with about two dozen people was not something he was used to in his cushy mid-city life. Eventually, exhaustion flowed over him like a powerful tide and he fell into a light sleep. This time he did not dream.
***
Marching was a lot more taxing on one's spirit than Nyiko had originally thought, and his feet, oh how they were a mess. A week of walking barefoot was a demoralizing experience, he was too tired to consider a way to escape after the end of each day and his feet were too sore for him to even want to continue to stand. They were darkened by the dirt of the rough road and the bruises that were splotched all over from the rocks he'd step on or kick. Not to mention his toe nails! He was growing irritated with his shackles, he was eager to feel the air on his wrists and ankles, during marches he'd even obsessively scratch at his restraints just to distract himself.
At least there were two things that kept his spirit from throwing itself into a pit of despair. First, it was the environment. After the shock of his first day in the nightmare, he began to actually take note of the environment he was now thrust into. All around the caravan rolling fields of green grass expand, something that Nyiko had never actually seen with his own two eyes. He had never experienced anything like this before, though the Dreamscape games he played sometimes were the best the modern had to experience such places, but this nightmare felt much more real to that. The air was very different to the air in the WQSC, it felt clearer? No fresher, more filled with life. The grass felt much more detailed than the Dreamscape pod and its colors were more vibrant and livelier than the parks he visited. It was all so real, and something that he would have never seen. Too bad he couldn't really appreciate the view, with the forced march and all.
The Second thing that kept him marching was the older man in front of him, it turned out his name was Sodek. Sodek told him about where he came from, his culture and what he knew about the mysterious sage scholars. According to Sodek, the Sage Scholars were somewhat akin to a religious order. They were exempt from control from outside forces and in turn they had no political sway. Apparently the Sage Scholars only goal was to research, find, record and disperse all knowledge. An ambitious and dangerous mission statement that Nyiko was sure many governments wouldn't like but Sodek told him that back in his homeland, no lord nor monarch would dare impose their wills on the sacred duty. The reason was because the Sage Scholars used their knowledge to help all who came searching.
At night Sodek would whisper tales of Sage Scholar's generosity and mystical nature to Nyiko; they were like the wise men of every heroic folk tale he knew. They had great knowledge of healing, tutored the greatest of heroes, dealt with the occult and handled many spiritual practices and even guided awakened through their journey into divinity. That did raise mild thoughts about how awakened existed during this time, presumably without the spell, to Nyiko but he did not want Sodek to question his identity as part of the sacred order with the amount of knowledge he lacked.
There were two more things Sodek told him about that had caught his interest. The stories told of the Sage Scholars having two patron Gods, Hart God and War God. Worshipping gods that seemed to hold two opposing concepts was strange especially, if Nyiko went by their names alone, they had nothing to do with knowledge.
'I should do some research about the dead gods when I get out of this'
'Wow, look at you! Where did this confidence come from? Thinking you'll get out of here alive' He teased himself in his thoughts, not a very strange thing for him to do.
The second thing he learned from Sodek that piqued his interest was the scars of the Sage scholars. It was said, again according to Sodek, that each scar on the face of a Sage Scholar represented a field of study that the Scholar has studied or mastered, the most revered of the Sage scholars were the ones who earned all seven of their scars.
It was a strange thing to be a part of this elusive, sacred group of people, yet Nyiko found himself a part of it and as top of the top as a teenager. The person he took the place of must've been some kind of once in a century prodigy! It was a shame, then, that he and in extension Nyiko himself were not meant to become great. They were just slaves now.
***
Soon, something appeared on the horizon. After the week-long march, the slave caravan's destination was now in view. The soldiers didn't show it, Nyiko could imagine they were secretly grateful to be coming into friendly territory in one piece. They were going to get a short vacation here, get paid and feel safe. For the slaves on the other hand, this was the nail in the cover, a message telling them that this was the last time they would taste freedom.
And for Nyiko, well it was an actual coffin to him, really everyone in that city. They were all going to die.