Rise of the Godking

As they watched the abomination taking place in front of them, Daneel was reminded of the exact reason behind him choosing this island.

His idea had been simple; he had reasoned that there must be many masters like Harold who must've been squirreling away resources for a very long time, which would mean that they would be sitting on their islands with heaps of crystals ready to be stolen away by anyone who was capable of doing so. Hence, he had asked the system to find him an island based on the beggar king's data that was close to being completely depleted.

There were different fates for such places, but many defaulted to the one where they would try to retrofit themselves to perform other tasks. After a quick scan, the system had given him three options, of which the one he had chosen was supposed to still be a month away from the point of complete depletion.

Either the beggar king's information was outdated, or things were progressing much faster than he had anticipated. The slaves came onto the block one by one, and the auction was eerily silent. There was no loud calling of bids, or any announcements of the merits of a particular slave. The people who were seated just looked at the cards and mentioned their interest by raising one finger, and as he watched, it became clear that if there was a clash between any two individuals, there would be a small price war that also went on silently, with both raising hands intermittently until one reached a point where they would go no further.

It was all very simple…but in a way, it shed even more light on how incredibly perverse it was.

Daneel felt his blood boiling the more he watched, but he controlled himself forcibly in the same way that he had when confronted with the suffering taking place all over all the islands. One might ask him who these people were to him…but his only answer would be that as a human, and someone blessed with life and power in this world, why shouldn't he be concerned with the lives of others given the same blessing, but not the same opportunities and luck as him?

Surprisingly, Alex was actually the one most infuriated by what they were watching. After his initial curse, he continued muttering under his breath, his mood growing blacker and blacker until his eyes were so red that Daneel was convinced he might jump out of cover and leap at the bidders if he wasn't holding himself back by the very edge of his teeth.

The elf was subdued, but Daneel noticed that he was a tad bit uncomfortable based on the way that his fingers twitched, from time to time, before going still as if he had realized that he was giving an outward reaction.

At the moment, Daneel had a very important decision to make, so he finally stopped observing his two companions, interesting as they were, and focused on the dilemma placed in front of him.

He had three other options that he could go to and check out before making it, but something stopped him from leaving. Reading about things and seeing them for himself were different; his very essence was against the idea of witnessing such a thing, then leaving as if he was completely unaffected.

The dead eyes of the slaves almost seemed to be calling to him. In a way, they were even worse than the individuals who had sacrificed themselves to save Daneel. In their case, there had at least been a hope they had clung to, a hope that had given them a burst of life that was probably the most beautiful thing in the world, but here, they were all just…walking corpses, with no agency or will left to them, at all.

This thought suddenly made another come to him.

'Wait…what about the Will? How do I go about finding it, and connecting with its might? System, any clue?'

[Responding to host. Previous incident came to be when host physically showed a sign of helping those birthed by the Will. In this case, there is a slight chance that the same might happen, but system estimates that crystal depletion is at a rate where such an act by the Will would not be possible even if host actively fights those carrying out the slave trade at the moment. Also, there is a high probability that the Will has been beaten down over the years. Only something much worse, or something sacrilegious like the act of installing a false Will would rouse thee Will that is dead, or is close to death.]

Hearing it, he could tell that its response was based on what had happened on that island with the bar. It didn't help him in any way, though, so in the end, he resorted to just wait and watch like the others were doing.

For an hour more, the auction progressed, more and more slaves coming onto the block, each different from the one before but possessing the exact same eyes which were mere hollows, windows to a soul that was almost as dead as the Will of that island that had gone out in a blaze of glory. 

It seemed that whoever was running the show had decided to keep the best for last, as the slaves that came at the end were the healthiest and the biggest of all who had come until then. A few were even freaks of nature, standing at over 8 feet tall with menacing muscles and shaved heads, but on their faces, those eyes stood out in even more contrast, making his heart ache for whatever these people had gone through to look like this.

"Uh…Dan? This is a bit embarrassing, but can I ask you to close your eyes? That way, I can use a spell that will hide us even if anyone passes within a mere foot of our location. The auction Is going to end, soon, and my guess is that most of these people will be heading to the teleportation matrix, in which case they might see us. There is a human equivalent of the spell… but I'm afraid that it might draw the attention of someone down there, who might be a mage."

With a quick nod, Daneel obliged, knowing, of course, but not mentioning that the system would be watching no matter what he did.

He felt the change in the air once again, but apart from that, with his eyes closed, he wasn't really able to make out the patterns of the dots that the elf was using to weave his spell. He was done in less than a minute, though, and when he said that he was finished, Daneel opened his eyes and raised one eyebrow at the complicated structure of differently colored points of light that was hiding them.

"Even the best novice in the world cannot figure out the way a spell was made by watching the end product, so I chose this workaround..."

[Spell studied, recorded, and added to database. Ready to be cast on host's command.]

The timing of the system's message almost made him grin, but he controlled himself and nodded.

Sure enough, muttering between themselves, many of the people who had been sitting on the hard, red ground on those chairs began to make their way in the direction that the three of them had come from. At first, they only caught snatches of conversation, so Daneel had to rely on the system to eavesdrop, but then, casting another spell so quickly that he couldn't really see what the elf had done, Mors made it so that they could hear what was being spoken outside clearly.

Almost all of it was useless. All that they gleaned was that the people had come from different places, and they would be coming back at a later date to take delivery. When all the people passed, there was a small group that stayed behind whom the three of them couldn't see from that vantage point.

What they said, though, turned out to be the most important. There were at least two of them, with one having a voice that sounded as rough as if he was gargling stones, and it was he who said, "Step one is done. Are we ready to cheat all these fools who came so eagerly? Most of them only paid the advance...but it's still a hefty sum, all put together."

The reply was given by a woman in a silky tone. 

"Yes…when we sell the entire lot to the Garbonors and flee, they won't be able to find us, anyway, and they wouldn't dare to take it up with those that rule us all. It's perfect! And who cares about what will happen to these bugs, anyway? I've heard that the family use them as punching bags…but I don't even care if they kill them all the moment they are taken. Hmm…that might even be an improvement on how they've lived so far!"

Laughing between themselves, the three left, leaving Daneel and Alex with livid faces. A few moments later, throwing out everything else he had thought until then, Daneel took in a breath and made his decision.

If anyone deserved to be stolen from, then it was these three. So, without an ounce of hesitation, he declared, "We are staying. And we are going to give these three what's coming for them. First step: let's make a base, nearby, where we can rest and begin tomorrow. It's going to be an eventful set of days…so once again, as we have a chance, let's get some sleep."