Freeing The Slaves

We get to a large set of double doors. Belle turns to me momentarily. “Help or don’t, I don’t mind.” She says, somehow managing to sound earnest in her words. She holds her hands in front of her and starts to conjure red energy between them. Her magic twists and wriths in shapes I’ve never seen before, nothing like the mana or elemental magic I know.

After a few seconds of charging, she unleashes the energy blast at the metal reinforced doors in front of us, completely vaporising them, along with a big chunk of the wall. The magic seems to almost hiss as it disintegrates the building, the building itself screeching in protest. It’s an incredibly chaotic sound, and leaves me wondering just what kind of magic Belle actually uses.

Belle storms into the building, not waiting for any alarms to sound. I follow after her quickly, my agility allowing me to keep up with her movements. Rather than one massive central chamber, the building has a long hallway that leads to a few different rooms, and a staircase. I follow along behind her as she strides forward confidently.

The first room we come to, has a bunch of humans in chains and tattered clothes. “Sit tight. I’ll be back.” Belle says to them. She gives me an icy glare as we head to the next room, and my face feels warm with shame. I know what she’s telling me. They’re here because of me.

The next room is similar, except it’s filled with a variety of abyssal species. Dwarfs, elves, goblins, harpies and others, all in chains. Belle quickly reassures them the same, then stalks back to find the actual slavers. It’s in the next room that we find a group of them, smoking, laughing, empty beer bottles next to them, playing cards.

The second Belle enters the room, a hurricane of rage and despair, the room falls silent, and they all look up to her. My heart sinks. I recognise their faces. Belle regards them with a sickened expression. “People like you disgust me.” She curls her lip in contempt. Barely giving them a second to react, in the blink of an eye, she charges forward and grabs one of the beer bottles.

Belle smashes the glass on the wall next to them, then thrusts the broken glass remains towards the nearest slaver. It takes him in the chest, and blood spurts from his wound. The man drops to his knees, gurgling and struggling to breathe. The sheer speed of the attack leaves the others stunned. I can keep up, but they clearly can’t.

It’s only then that I notice she hasn’t even drawn the twin hooks coiled at her hips. She fires of a blast of red energy at another slaver, before grabbing the head of one and slamming it to the ground. The sickening cracking sound and blood pooling on the ground makes me flinch. He doesn’t get back up again.

Belle unleashes a lightning fast kick, sending another guy crashing into the brick wall. In an instant, she’s already leaping towards him, crushing his ribcage between her knee and the wall. More cracking and breaking bones. I’m horrified by the sight. I’ve never seen someone fight so intentionally gory before. Olivia’s fights are brutal, but this is on a whole different level.

Olivia fights out of necessity. Belle fights to hurt and kill.

The last remaining slaver hasn’t even gotten out of his chair, or set down his cigarette. He just sits there, shaking and wide eyed at the carnage before him. Belle shakes her head as she stalks towards him, every stride slow, deliberate. “When will idiots like you learn? When you hurt others, you sacrifice your right to a peaceful life. You incur a debt. One that’s payable in blood.” She snarls.

The man gulps and opens his mouth. “Please…have mercy…” He pleads. She shakes her head. “How very typical. Did you show mercy to those people out there?” She asks. He just stares at her. Belle grabs a nearby sword and runs the man through unceremoniously. “I thought not.” She says dangerously. The man struggles to breathe as she rips the sword from his body.

The slaver looks up at her, with ****, pleading eyes. Belle rams the sword directly through his face, in a disgusting display of gore that I have to look away from. When I turn back, Belle is already walking towards me. “Come on. Let’s find the others.” She says, her rage slightly dispelled from the fight.

We go through the rest of the building, with Belle dispatching of the slavers with similar ferocity and gore to the first group. It’s all I can do not to throw up, seeing the almost fragile seeming bodies of the slavers explode into red mist, in the fury of Belle’s bloodthirsty attacks. The ringleader too goes down easily, crying and whining from his injuries before she puts him out of his misery.

Belle wasn’t lying. I knew his face. It was the same group of people we’d made her spare that night. The sight of him chilled me to my bones, knowing that because of that decision, he’d gone free to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on those he’d captured. Who knew how many lives had been lost because of that decision? Who knew how many had been ruined or scarred beyond belief?

I’m still contemplating those questions when we free the slaves and lead them all outside. I give them all a bit of cash from my inventory, not knowing if any of them need it, but doing it anyway, if only to ease my conscience. As I walk back to my guild, who are still waiting outside, Olivia lifts her gaze. “Is it done?” She asks. “Yes.” I reply, barely being able to speak.

Belle approaches me after she sees off the last of the former slaves, looking almost sympathetic after what we saw in there. She touches a hand to my shoulder, and I look at her, a single tear rolling down my cheek. I don’t want to cry in front of her. But I really can’t help it, after what I’ve just seen.

“Believe me, I know this is tough to see. Take some time, get your head on straight. And if you want to work together sometime, here’s my number.” She says, handing me a slip of paper. I take it, more confused than anything at the gesture. Belle seems to notice my confusion, and smiles gently. “I’m an asshole, not a monster.” She says.

Belle looks to Olivia and gives her a nod. My mentor looks away, her expression sour. Belle looks back to me. “I’ll see you around.” She says, before vanishing as she leaves the barrier. My head drops as I think about what’s transpired this evening. “Let’s go home.” I say in a small voice. Ivy shrinks herself down to hop in my inventory. Nobody says a word.

The first few minutes of the drive home pass in a tense silence. None of us know what to say or how to react to Belle and what she’s shown us. Skylar drives with her knuckles whitening around the steering wheel. Olivia practices a deep breathing exercise, but I can see her fists clenched too, resting on her legs.

I stare out the window at the passing scenery. Mia does the same, although she seems a little more relaxed than the rest of us. Paige fidgets with her phone in the middle seat, doomscrolling her instagram feed to distract herself from what happened. Eventually, Mia speaks up.

“I think Belle’s right.” The aeromancer says. “What?” I ask, surprised. “Weren’t you literally just threatening her?” Mia takes a moment before she responds. “Those people don’t deserve to live.” Olivia responds almost immediately. “It is not right to kill in cold blood.” Our mentor replies firmly, clearly on edge.

“Is it really in cold blood? Look what they were doing, they’re awful horrible people who are **** and hurting others for fun and profit! That’s not right!” Mia shoots back. “Neither is ****!” Olivia says, the tension in the air rising. “Why not? They’ll kidnap or kill whoever they want, without a second thought.” Mia challenges.

“Because-” Olivia falters. Mia presses on. “You’re just mad because you know she’s right, and you don’t have a good argument against her.” She says. “How dare you!” Our mentor replies, taken aback. “Tell me I’m wrong! You’re mad because your ex girlfriend or whatever, is the only one stopping this from happening.” Mia steamrolls her.

Olivia falls into a stunned silence. The air shifts uncomfortably. And Mia just keeps going. “You’re so high and mighty, always needing to be right! Always needing to be the one who teaches us something, and you can’t stand being wrong! Belle is right. We should be killing those monsters, because if we don’t, they kill other people. We have the power to stop them, and we haven’t been. We’ve just been giving them a slap on the wrist and sending them on their way.” She raises her voice.

Paige, in between us, has put her phone down by this point, and is picking at her cuticles. Up front, Skylar’s jaw is clenched tightly, as she listens to Mia’s outburst. “Mia-” I start, and she rounds on me. “Oh what? Are you gonna tell me to calm down? To not bring this up now?” She asks haughtily.

My mouth clamps shut. That’s exactly what I was going to tell her. Instead, I ask her. “Mia, why are you so enraged by this?” She laughs almost mockingly. “Are you kidding? Tell me you didn’t see those people in there. You went with her, you know the consequences better than us all. Why aren’t you upset?” Mia postures angrily.

My voice catches in my throat. I swallow hard and open my mouth to respond. But before I can make a sound, Mia presses on. “These monsters hunt and kill and **** whoever they want, for fun! I thought we were stopping them or making a difference or fucking something, but we aren’t!”

“We’re trying Mia, we’re doing our best to stop all this!” I answer, shaking my head. She didn’t see the bloodshed I witnessed. “What we’re doing isn’t enough, and you know that! People are fucking dying the more we don’t act!” She yells back. Paige is stiff in her seat. I feel tremors in her leg as it brushes up against mine.

Olivia shares a look with Skylar. Then she speaks up again. “If we start killing them, we become no better than them! We need to spare the lives we can.” She states firmly. “I don’t fucking care about being better than them! I just don’t want innocent people to get hurt! If we don’t kill them, that’s exactly what happens! Your high and mighty morals don’t matter when they cause innocent people to die!” Mia shouts, a tear streaking down her face.

“Mia, this isn’t like you, I don’t under-” Skylar tries to interject, but cuts herself off. “Oh shit…” Olivia turns around to look at Mia. “Mia, you need to think very carefully about this. I do not want you to go down the same path Belle has.” She pleads, her anger giving way to worry. “Belle’s an asshole, but she’s-” Mia retorts, but Skylar cuts us all off with a sharp shout.

“Girls! We need to get out.” She says, getting out attention. My head whips around. It’s only then that I notice the red and blue flashing lights. Police? What? Cop cars surround us, three of them in total. Blue uniformed officers are waving us out of the car. Confused, I unbuckle my seatbelt and open the car door. Paige shakily follows me.

We all group together on one side of the car, wondering what this is about, the tension between us thick enough to cut with a plastic spork. For a few seconds, none of the officers move. Then I feel the familiar pull into a trap barrier. One that I’m not strong enough to resist.

In an instant, the police are replaced with a far scarier sight. A large group of people, some 20 of them, standing ready for us, all between level 50 and 75. At their helm are two men. The larger of the two, a familiar figure, stands over 2 meters tall. His bulky, dark figure towers above the man to his side.

An almost plain looking man by comparison, in his 40s, with very slightly greying hair, wearing a white suit, a black undershirt and a red tie. I can’t seem to meet his eyes. Something about him scares me even more than the hulking figure I recognise from the Opera House. “Hello Gemma. It’s about time we met.” The man in the white suit says.