Chapter 7

When we stepped through I was greeted by everyone who was home. The happiest face was Tabby’s and I could tell she was having a hard time not running over to hug me. “Welcome home sisters.” Everyone called out and then they moved towards us with open arms. Our little ones ran over and made instant friends with Melody’s little ones. I took Cleo, the baby, in my arms and had my hair pulled as I nibbled her fat little belly.

After that it was mostly the same introduction time to the family that all women received as new sisters. First was the general orientation which was followed by a meeting of the sisters. I faded into the background and let my family gel together. With new people came a new dynamic, and letting Jewel guide that on her own had proven to be the best of all ideas. The best part of the whole evening to me was watching the children holding hands and talking with each other.

The next few days were wonderful as I played with kids, women, and both all day. The nights were wonderful and for some it was an eye opening experience. Jewel made sure everyone had new clothes and Tikka broke down crying as she clutched clothing finer than she had ever even seen. When she had arms all around her, holding her and comforting her, it leeched the pain from her soul.

Catharine, Kim and I went through the gate to her home in Camton. The carriage hadn’t shown up yet so we stayed inside and I added a ton of goodies from our home into a closet in the kitchen. What can I say, I loved spoiling my ladies. The carriage arrived, we pretended we got out and the servants officially welcomed us back.

The next day we said our goodbyes, got on our horses, and headed towards our new lands. Along the way we stopped in a few towns, had to help a village that was facing an insect swarm attacking their crops, and over all enjoyed our trip. When we arrived I had to triple check everything, even to using my mapping ability, and found the dungeon we would be building a town around.

“Is there someone I have to notify or some kind of ceremony?” Kim just shrugged and I looked around. I called Catharine and asked her and she started begging me to open a gate for her. I did that and she brought along a shovel. “It’s tradition for the founder of a town to use a ceremonial shovel when breaking ground.” I did it and she smiled like a little girl. In fact she was starting to look a little younger than when we first met. She looked all around us and sighed. “This is the place the future will be built. I can feel it.”

The next day I went to see the mayor of Felton to see what would be the best way to found a town. He asked me what I meant and I explained what I was doing, what my plans were, and where this was headed. “Feel like hiring some work crews from here? I also know a great engineer to help you with the planning.” Then he thought through things and began a list of people, equipment, animals, and materials I would need to get a good start.

A few days later things were off to a great start. The girls were running the dungeon for goodies and learning that it was a general dungeon. We had brought some animals that pulled a plow according to a grid pattern to mark the general layout of streets. With that people were able to set down stakes for the foundations. We had one person who went around with an extra-large storage ring to purchase lumber, stone, and other materials we would need.

Grendel was working overtime at his forge to make material till we realized I could buy high quality materials like nails in bulk online. People went crazy when they saw the many different sizes of nails we had to offer in buckets. Even the cheap quality tools were far beyond what the carpenters had. I made sure to gift them the hammers and they really put extra effort to earn those hammers.

Day by day the town grew. I was spending gold like it was water, but that was why we saved up so much. Then there were people who came in and then moved in. The Mayor said that his town was getting too big and this was a perfect relief valve. Human and beast folk couples were looking at what we were building and wanting to stay. Freming and Grendel came in and were working overtime to solidify foundations.

Catharine came back after being gone for two weeks and almost cried. “Master, there are people here, there are actually people living here.” We walked around with her holding my hand. “The streets could use hardening.” She said as if making a list. “The town could use a water system.” She added. The more she walked around the more she added to this list. That evening she went home, after some kisses and cuddles.

A few days later she called me and asked if I could come to her home. When I arrived she lead me outside and presented me with an army of dwarves. “This is the local construction guild. They already have all their materials packed up in storage rings, and are ready to start work.” She leaned over. “And they were already paid by the council.” I opened a gate and they began moving out and nodding hello.

When we came out behind them they were already talking to some of the beast folk and there were handshakes everywhere. The materials were being emptied into empty plots and I was amazed to see trenches being magically dug for water and sewer. I looked at Catharine and she was grinning like a fool at all the work that was being done. An older dwarf walked over to me and gave a nod. “You and your people have done a great job with all of this. Catharine told me you have been at this spot for only a little over a month, but you look like you are ready to open shops already.”

I nodded and looked around. “When people know that this is their chance of a lifetime; they will do the impossible. Freedom is a major incentive for anyone.” The dwarf agreed and then went to check on the progress. There were already homes built, but sat empty and the construction crews were thankful to have them. Things were developing so fast I felt like it was out of my control, and it was, but the people who would live here knew what needed to be done.

Two months later I was walking the new guild mistress to her hall and she was dazzled already. “So this town is only a few months old?” I nodded as we saw people shopping, talking, and living as if this town had been around for years. “And the open relations between human and beast folk is beyond believability. That former owners and slaves could be friends and even family is awe inspiring.” She looked at me and sighed. “This is exactly what this world needed, an example for all to follow.”

“I can tell you from experience that not all slave owners see their slaves as chattel. Among divers your life depends on each other, so those social lines blur and even fade away after time.” She smiled as we entered the hall and looked around. “You did a great job of keeping this guilds appearance in line with others. A sense of local flair is welcome, but a diver needs a bit of continuity don’t you agree?” I looked at her. “I do. It provides a sense of home away from home.”

What she doesn’t know that is the girls had been mining the dungeons bottom floor for most of this time, and I had been looting everything valuable from the bottom five levels daily as well. The gold went into the vault, and the rest went into the shop to buy the things needed to build and supply the town. The only problem, that turned into a blessing, was when one cat folk really used his head.

He looked at the fancy hammers, nails, and a few other things and approached me with an idea. “Sir, I would like to open a store and carry your otherworldly goods.” He then told me how all his life he and his partner had roamed the two human nations. He had bought and sold anything and everything he could to keep them alive in and out of the dungeon. He learned how to dive like an expert and he had spent twenty years learning how to tell gems from junk.

I looked at him and he smiled with hope in his eyes. “What are you calling otherworldly?” He realized he was stepping on a secret. “Well your wives often have snacks that are packaged in metal paper. My wife has told me that they have underclothes and described them to me. The hammers have a script stamped into them I’ve never seen. The nails had a strange edge to them as if they were stamped in a single strike. I’ve seen children with strange bandages of a material I’ve never seen. The list goes on and on.”

Yeah. When you have that many women, who are so used to the online store and its goods, they might not realize they are showing off things people would notice. As far as I knew no one had even questioned the nails and hammers, they just thought they were from the dwarves or something. Normalcy bias usually covers for those unknowns.

“Sir I understand now and please forget I said anything. I have a feeling this was a secret of your family and I have violated that. I am sorry and I swear not to say a word to anyone.” I grabbed his arm and his tail went stiff. His slave nature told him this was either a beating or his death. “Please sir, do what you need to, but please leave my wife alone. She has no idea I have noticed these things.”

I chuckled. “That wasn’t what I was going to say. I was realizing that my ladies are so used to many things, that they have forgotten they were a family secret. If you noticed enough, then sooner or later others will too. I was just trying to figure out how to work this out. I wondered how much was too much, what kind of story to create to hide their origin, that kind of thing?”

I could tell by his face his heart was pounding from a near death experience. “T-That is easy, we say we buy them from a passing elvish trader. Elves are quite secretive about their manufacturing so it’s common to explain the different and odd as “elvin made”.” This was the start of a beautiful relationship between me and Hans. Soon the people of Allfolks were wearing and using goods that were of great quality for this world, but were more like dollar store goods in my old one.

I was sitting in the house we had built in Allfolk looking at the number of people being happy. Humans, beast folk, and dwarves were all living happily and children were happily playing together. There were shops selling goods, crafters making goods, it had finally all come together. Even now people were moving to Felton after hearing the population had shrunk. These were people who had been living in the shadows of the northern Human nation and now word was coming to me that there were two towns in the southern human nation that were similar to Felton.

I would like to get out there, search around to see for myself but now was not the time. Right now I had a good reason for neither leaving town nor even diving. I was going to be a father and that meant I wanted to stay close to the women I loved as our children developed and grew. Yes, I kept my promise to Jewel, but after that Kim, Elise, Silver, and Yin came to me with tear filled eyes hoping they could also be mothers to my children.

I also learned that once the fertile button was turned on the girls didn’t hold back, and it didn’t take any effort for the magic to make it work the first time or two. Once their tests came back positive I flipped that switch to off again. Yin however was the only one that wanted to have a naturally non-human child. That didn’t bother me, but I had felt like few would want a beast folk child if they had the option. I didn’t ask her why, like I said I didn’t care. Knowing that our baby would have cute little bunny ears for me to nibble was perfect for me.

Then one day, as I thought about how great my life was, my map alarm went off. It shocked me as that was a dungeon setting that never went off on the surface. I looked at my map and saw a red dot moving in my direction. I looked and I only saw human woman walking towards the house. Something was wrong here and I didn’t think it was my alarm.

There was a knock and the woman looked a little panicked. “Are you Samael?” I nodded. “I came riding from Felton. Forces surrounded the town and are killing people. I don’t even know if anyone is left alive.” I sighed “It was only a matter of time before someone tried this.” I said. “Well it’s a long ride there so I will get ready and leave after you.”

“Sir, this is an emergency, the people there are dying and you are going to waste time? Can’t we just gate there?” I nodded realizing people knew more than I wanted them to. I nodded and opened a gate. I waved her in and then I closed it behind her. I called Freming and he gave me a very nice hello. “Freming, I had a human visitor come to my house telling me that Felton was being overrun by human forces and killing the people there. Then she said told me it was an emergency and that I should use my gate skill.”

I could hear his voice turn cold. “That means they know we are one end of the system that can smuggle slaves out of the human lands.” He sighed. “I’ll go talk to Janice and the mayor. Where is this person?” I gave it a moment. “Well I think she is still alive on the twenty ninth floor of the dungeon here. I thought I would call you before dealing with her.” He started laughing. “When did you get that ruthless?” I shook my head. “I’m going to be a father Freming, when you come after my children the nice me ends.”

I opened a gate and stepped through. I found her and it seemed she had company. I walked over to see her covered in blood, and some of it was her own. She looked up at me angrily. “What the hell did you do?” I leaned on the wall quite a bit away from her. “Our friends are dying and you tossed me to the dungeon?” I nodded and she held her side. “Well I have a way to talk to my friends instantly. The people in Felton are doing just fine, though now they are alerted.” I saw a cloud Pass over her face.

“I think that you, or the people who paid you, think I have the ability to get people across their barrier. Now the question is, were you sent to kill me, or are they just trying to find out if it’s true?” A knife flew towards me before I could move out of the way or defend against it. The woman’s smile faded when the knife clanged to the floor.

“Well it looks like you also don’t know that I carry a shield pendent.” She looked me trying to figure things out. “While you are thinking lets add some more information. If that had killed me, you would be dead. I mean we are at the bottom of a dungeon, not the top. In just over five minutes you couldn’t even take out the little guys so trying to go up, or in the dungeon boss room, you are dead. I’m the only way you live.” I could see her realizing just how screwed she was.

“So how does it feel to be sitting there feeling your life draining away?” She glared at me. She knew better than to say what she was thinking. An orc turned a corner and looked at us both. I waved my hand and removed its head with an ice blade. “Oh, let me guess, they didn’t tell you how powerful I am either.” Her eyes closed. “So are you going to kill me or just stand there and watch me die slowly?” I waited a minute and she looked at me. “Well I’m not going to kill you, but how slowly you die is an interesting question.”

I walked over and did a light heal on her. “See I have plenty of time and plenty of healing magic. I could make this last all day.” She stared at me. “You could fall on your sword over and over and I could just heal it up. You could cut your own throat with that poisoned knife and still come back to life. The question is, how many times would it take for you to lose your mind after feeling deaths cold hand on you over and over?”

“Why are you doing this? Why not just kill me and get it over with?” I pointed to her and winked. “Now that is the right question. Why am I willing to torture you for hours or even days on end? It’s because you are a threat to me and my family. You volunteered for this little experiment the moment you walked into my house.” Her head hung and I saw her body tremble. “Now while I put you through this I will be asking you about everything you know about who sent you. After you tell me I will do it all over again to see if there are any lies. Then I will do it again, and again, and again till your mind is shattered. I will keep doing it till you beg and plead for me to simply let you die.”

She looked at me and something passed behind her eyes it was fear, but not of me. She suddenly bit off her own tongue. And as the blood poured out I gave her a small heal to stop the bleeding. She was dazed so I grabbed the collar of her shirt and began dragging her into a secret room a little bit down the hall. Here we wouldn’t be disturbed.

I called Jewel, who was at home in our plane, and asked her to buy some padded leather restraints. She asked why and I filled her in. “Open the gate.” She called, and when I did, she walked in with my request. I put the restraints on her and she looked defeated. “Master, why not just make her your slave?” I shook my head. “As long as she has a strong will it will fail.” She pointed to the woman’s chest and said “But master she is already a slave.”

Her shirt had ripped while moving her and that exposed the reason why she was willing to do what she did. I put my hand over her heart and erased the mark that was there. I then poured a major heal on the woman and that was enough to replace lost limbs. She gasped at the sensations coursing through her and she looked at me. “It’s gone, how did you take it off?”

“The better question is who put it on.” She looked at me and then at her chest. “The lord of Galain put it on me when I was a child. He has a small army of women he puts a slave marks as children and then trains us as his guards and assassins. He is the ruler of the land Felton is in. He knows that Felton allows humans and beats to produce more slaves, so he allows it.”

“Then he got word that divers were going into the dungeon and not coming back. He got suspicious and caught a trader from Felton. After torturing his beast slave for days the man told him that you were able to get people with slaves into the dwarven kingdom. He didn’t know how, just that you could do it.”

I nodded and looked at Jewel. “You know that sound like the truth. The problem is I think there is just enough truth to make it believable, without really betraying the man you love.” There was a flash of anger and I smiled. “Well let’s see what we can do about that?” She struggled and for once I did the unthinkable. I began the process of forcing my mark on another living being.

“See I know my women. They would die for me even without the mark.” She struggled as she felt my mark slowly being etched into her skin as she fought it. “Your lord isn’t just a slave master, he is a harem master.” She strained against me and it was hard on both of us. “He chooses little girls, marks them as his property, and then twists their hearts into his version of love.” She glared at me as sweat covered her face.

“Imagine what he will look like as I hold his still beating heart in my hand. Imagine the look of betrayal in his eyes as he thinks about how I did it because of you.” Her face paled and that was the crack I needed to finish the mark. As I did she screamed her throat raw as my skill overcame her memories. It pulled back the cover of lies and showed her things she never saw because of her master’s skills. Jewel ran over to her and stroked her hair from her face.

I wanted to go over and help her, but I felt sick to my soul after doing that to her. The only thing worse than living a lie, is to have the illusion erased and have to face the reality of your actions. I sat on the floor and started crying. “Husband, open the gate to home.” I did and soon the room was filled with my loves. I was guided through the gate after others carried my victim.

I was pulled into the main bedroom and then I was touched, stroked, and kissed over and over. Encouraging words filled my head, and I knew I had to be strong for my women and children. I drifted off with the look of horror in the woman’s eyes and I knew that would be in my heart forever.

I opened my eyes and saw nothing but Silvers wonderful eyes. “Good morning my love.” I said in as light a tone as possible. “Husband do you think every woman that wears your mark doesn’t know when you are lying?” She arched her eyebrow and I could only sigh. “Master, my love, you did what you had to do. You hated doing it, all of it, and that is why I am proud of you. That you still did what was necessary to protect your family makes me even prouder. You have shown me and all your women that you will do anything to protect us.”

I nodded, but she still held me tight. “You may not feel it yet, but all us of can feel Kendal’s love and gratitude towards you. Her mind is still tortured by what that animal did to her, made her do, and all of his other slaves. She understands that what she felt wasn’t love, and what she is filled with now shows her that.” I tried to put a brave face on for her. “But who she really needs right now is you.”

I looked at her and tried to understand what the hell she was saying. “Master, she needs the source of all the love we feel to let her know that she is loveable. You saw through it all. You know her deepest pain. You need to pull her out of the place she is torturing herself.” That penetrated everything. I eased up, felt a little dizzy, and then let Silver nearly carry me to another bedroom.

Elise and Amanda were on either side of Kendal, holding her hands and stoking her hair. I came in and Amanda eased away so I could take her place. I reached out and touched Kendal’s hand. She gasped and looked over at me. “I-I-I’m so sorry!” she whimpered and then tried to cover her face and pull away. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. “Kendal I know that wasn’t you. I know that wasn’t the real you. That is why I fought so hard, even if it hurt you, to get you free from him.”

She rolled over, looked into my eyes and then wrapped her arms around me and held on as the storm of emotions flooded through her. I ran my fingers through her dark red hair and kissed her head over and over. She calmed down and looked at me. “How do I know what I am feeling now isn’t the same as him?” I was really glad she asked that. “When I erased his mark what did it feel like?” She breathed heavily for a moment. “It felt freeing I guess. I felt like I could breathe for the first time.”

“But you still loved him, or at least what you knew as love.” She nodded. “You also feared him didn’t you?” She nodded again. I put my hand on her and then removed my mark. She felt the shock and looked at me in desperation. “Why did you do that?” I reached out and stroked her face. “I did it because I care about you Kendal. You have been controlled through magic your whole life, and you need to be free.” She seemed so lost. I took her face in my hands and slowly kissed her. She shivered and then melted into me. We kissed over and over and then she began to grip me in desperation a little bit. I pulled back and cupped her cheek. “Kendal look into my eyes and tell me what you see.”

She looked into my eyes and really looked. “You do care for me. You aren’t using me and you feel terrible for causing me so much pain.” I nodded. “When I erased his mark I could feel you struggling inside. I knew that even without the mark you would return to him, because that was all you ever knew. I had to show you all of that. When you screamed I felt my heart being ripped out for causing you so much pain.”

She leaned up, kissed me, and then placed my hand over her heart. “Please let me feel your love again. I know I can heal faster and better if I have the support of my sisters, and my master, to see me through it all.” I gently put my mark on her again and she sighed in near ecstasy. “Master I have always been a slave. I don’t know freedom and I have always been afraid of being alone.” She looked at me and her face was literally glowing. “I thought I had a connection to his other women, but compared to my all my sisters now I know I was still all alone.”

She lay on her back and had an innocent smile on her face. “I wish all my sisters could know what I know. I wish they could feel what I feel.” She looked at me and I knew this was no act. “He takes young girls from the slums and trains them mercilessly. I have watched him as he makes them fight, and even kill each other, in order to become his attendants. Maybe one in ten survives the first year and that number goes down with every year.” I felt my guts twist as my anger grew.

“We are only elevated once he tires of our bodies. Once we are elevated we become his warriors, his assassins, and his spies.” She looked at me. “He uses anyone and everyone around him. The idea any slave could escape him, or his territory, infuriates him. I was sent to learn your secret, so he could gain power by exposing you. If I couldn’t find your trick, I was to kill you.”

She looked at me and there was so much love in her eyes. “You could have killed me, you could have done all the mean things you said you would do, but you didn’t. Unlike him you don’t thrive off of suffering. You hate what happened, I can feel that, but you did it so I could be free of all of that. You had to be mean in order to release me from real cruelty.” She smiled at me and I knew her feelings weren’t from a skill or magic. She was feeling love, and I could feel it from her as well.

Silver stepped forwards and looked at her. “Then help us to know how to end him.” Kendal nodded and something passed between them. “If we don’t move soon he will just send another and another. He also might decide to cut his losses and eliminate Felton.” I could only close my eyes and think.

Since I woke up here I was a man striving to build something good. I saw the system and worked around it. But after all our hard work some people had to try and take it from us. I didn’t have a lot to lose before, and we could always move. Now I had something, something real, and to keep it alive I was going to have to fight.

After that Kendal wracked her brain for every detail she could think of. What he did, where he went, how he did things, how he thought, everything. Then we sent Yang and Lynx to verify this was what he was still doing. “If I was him, and one of my own was taken, I would change things around just in case they had information I didn’t want them to have.”

It was good to check, because not only had he changed things up it seemed he was quite paranoid. I didn’t want to turn this into a war, especially one that crossed national boundaries. When we saw that he was building up some forces we alerted Felton, and overnight the town became deserted. The people didn’t just evacuate either, they all decided to move after learning what was going on in the shadows. I even moved my orchard and the forge as well.

When the lord found out about that he went ballistic. He burned the town to the ground and ravaged the area. He then began to send pairs of women towards the dwarven border. Kendal talked me into treating them in a similar manner as she had been, and before I knew it, our ranks were growing on a weekly basis. We also learned more and more about him and what he was doing in response.

He feared trying to involve anyone in this and seem weak to other lords. He also had no evidence that any slaves were escaping, that there was a means of getting slaves across the border, or anything he was quite paranoid about. The teams were supposed to foil efforts to stop him, but his number of older fighters was decreasing to the point he was getting ready to try something different.

He would assemble a fighting force, cross the border in pairs again, but this time they would wait till fifty warriors were gathered to storm our town. This forced us to take a different approach. I alerted Catharine to what was happening, what we had been through, and what was coming. Well the council couldn’t just let us handle this in our own way. This was a covert attack by a human lord into the dwarven nation to attack its citizens. Worse it was using human slaves to do so.

Well that blew things sky high. The women were captured and quickly sedated to prevent suicide. I was not allowed to free them because they would be proof of human slavery, violation of the treaty by an armed force, and the slave marks were evidence of who owned and controlled them. This became a major embarrassment to the human nation and the lord in question had his lands taken from him, as well as his head, to placate the dwarven council.

It would have been removed anyway, along with the heads of the guards that were bribed to allow slaves to cross the border. It was a death sentence to allow such a thing after all.

The humans asked for the slaves to be returned. The dwarves said they would of course be allowed to return, after their slave marks were removed. It was then that I was quietly brought in and turned fifty women into free women. Those women were then given therapy from their predecessors and an offer to join the people of Allfolk.

When the Human representatives were allowed to meet the women, they also met with Janice who represented the town of Allfolk from now on. This caused questions of their own, but the Humans were told that if the lord hadn’t attacked and burned their town down she and others would not have moved to the dwarven nation.

When asked what happened to the slaves of Felton she stated they left to places unknown. They had all ran for their lives in all directions. Janice came here because she knew the guild had a new dungeon and was planning to open another. This took the fire out of anything they could have tried to say or do so they backed down. All the freed women then moved to Allfolk but felt very out of place. They had little skills other than fighting, and a lifetime of abuse to try and overcome.