The Orm'del Sea is an ocean that separates Eastern and Western Idalos. It is said to have many horrors awaiting those that wish to travel through its waters.
The life of a slave was a predictable one in some ways. A slave woke when they were required to. They ate if and when their masters told them to. They did the work that they were ordered to do. They went to sleep when they were ordered to. And if they failed in their task, or failed to complete it when and how their masters wanted it done, they were punished. What a slave might be ordered to do, and what punishment awaited them might vary from trial to trial. But those underlying rules remained the same.
Her life was ruled by those facts. It wasn't something that she never questioned. Some of the newer slaves did question it. Those that did were slaves who had once been real people, and who had lost both that status, and the people they had been before they were enslaved all in one trial. It wasn't something that she could even remotely imagine. She saw real people all the time, of course. Her masters were real people, as were the crewman who worked the ship for them. So were their families. But she did not wonder what it was like to be real anymore than she wondered what it was like to be one of the fish that swam in the sea. Fish were not people. Nothing would ever change that, and a fish could not hope to understand what it meant to be a person. Slaves were not real people. Nothing would ever change that either. It was pointless to wonder what it was like to be a real person. And she saw slaves who complained about not being real anymore punished harshly for their crimes. Some were even killed if they complained enough, or if they tried to refuse to work because they had once been real people.
Those were the thoughts that filled her mind as she worked. Her first job for totrial was to scrub the deck of the ship. Her masters had told her that they wanted the deck to be clean enough to eat off of when she was done with her work. One of the other slaves had been assigned to the task as well. A boy who was a few arcs older than she was. Unlike her, he had not been born a slave. He had been captured during a raid towards the end of last season. He had once been a real person, unlike her.
Perhaps that was why he did not put as much effort into the task they had been ordered to do as she did. The older boy was not stupid. Whenever one of the masters was within sight, he worked as hard as she did. It was obvious that he had learned that slaves who did not obey their orders were punished. But when no real people were around to see, he stopped working, and watched her in silence.
Sometimes when he watched her work, he would talk to her quietly. He was the son of a trader. His family, while not rich, was not poor either. They did well enough for themselves, the boy said. They owned a shop in a place called Ne'haer that was run by the boy's uncle. But he and his parents traveled all over Western Idalos trading for goods that would be sold in his uncle's store. The boy sounded proud when he told her that he was going to work in his Uncle's shop one trial. And if his uncle didn't have any children of his own, he would own that shop some trial. Or he would have if he had not been captured and enslaved. And the boy told her that it would still happen some trial. His family were going to find him and free him. Or he would escape and make his way back to them. He was absolutely certain of that.
She didn't respond to the other boy's words in any way. But she did listen to them. She couldn't help it. Besides, listening to the other boy talk distracted her from her aching muscles as she scrubbed the deck with the wet cloth she had been given for her task.
Once in a while, the boy asked her questions, but she did ignore those. She hadn't been given permission to speak, and she knew what awaited her if she failed to complete her task. She wasn't going to risk punishment just because the other boy didn't want to work.
Her muscles ached with exertion as she scrubbed the deck. Stopping wasn't an option though, and she didn't even consider it. The punishment she would earn for failing to obey her orders and complete her task would hurt more than the pain she felt now. So she ignored the pain as best she could. Even so, weariness and aching muscles slowed her movements.
Last edited by Sei'rue on Sun May 02, 2021 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total. word count: 833
The boy continued to watch her as she worked. She felt weird about that. Part of her didn't care whether he worked or not. He was the one who was going to be punished if he was caught not obeying his order. It had nothing to do with her. And yet...it did. He had been ordered to scrub the deck with her. If she were to fail to complete the task she had been given because he was disobeying his orders...well. She would just have to try as hard as she could not to let that happen.
When she finished the part of the deck she had been scrubbing, she moved to another one. The bucket of water she was using was heavy, and she had to struggle to carry it. She managed to carry it over to where she needed it to be, but not without spilling some of the soapy water out of it. Since her task was to scrub the deck, that was not the problem it would have been had the deck already been clean. So after freezing for a trill, and anxiously looking around to see if any of the masters had seen her spill the water, she got down on her hands and knees once more and got back to work.
The boy started talking again. He told her how his family had someone whose job it was to clean their shop up for them so that they didn't have to do such work. To her, it sounded as though he thought that he shouldn't have to do such work. He would learn soon enough that he did. It was a slave's place to obey, and whatever he had once been, he was a slave now. He would learn to obey his orders...or he would die. Either way, it was of no concern to her. It was her place to obey the orders she was given, not to worry about whether others obeyed their orders or not.
She saw a flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye as she was scrubbing the deck. Suddenly the older boy was on his hands and knees not far from where she was, scrubbing the deck just as hard as she had been the entire time. Footsteps heading in their direction was all the explanation she needed for why the boy had suddenly decided to obey the order he had been given.
Someone stood over her, watching them work. She didn't pause in her scrubbing. Nor did she look up to see who it was, or what they wanted. If they wanted her to know, they would tell her.
"Orik wants to see you, girl. He's asked me to bring you to him now. As for you boy, you're to finish scrubbing the deck by yourself."
OOC
The bucket she is using is a wooden one, and is fairly small in size; something one might use to wash floors with. It holds 2-3 gallons of water.
She scrambled to obey. The boy who had been ordered to scrub the deck with her redoubled his efforts as he realized that he would have to finish the task on his own now. It was no longer her concern, so she forced the thought out of her mind.
She followed the man as he led her towards Master Orik's office at a brisk walk. Although she tried to walk as quickly as she could, her leg ached fiercely from the work she had done while scrubbing the deck, and her limp was more pronounced as a result. It was enough to slow her progress, and the sailor who was leading her to Master Orik's office glared at her for it.
"Stop wasting time! I have better things to do with my time!" he snapped at her.
She struggled to obey, but the resulting spike of agony in her leg threatened to make her collapse. It was a clear warning that her leg would give out completely if she continued to push it too hard. And after several breaks on her hands and knees scrubbing the deck, anything more than her current speed was too much to ask. When she didn't speed up, the sailor turned back to glare at her again.
"Hurry it up, or I'll report your disobedience to Orik when we get there." he snapped.
She wished that she could go faster. Not going faster when told to do so was being disobedient. But she wasn't physically capable of obeying that order, and she hated herself for it. A slave was to obey. It was that simple. There were no excuses for a slave failing to obey an order. She knew that she would be punished for her failure to move faster as she was ordered to...and that she deserved to be punished for her failure to obey an order. But that didn't make it any more possible for her to move any faster. The last time she had pushed herself so hard that her leg had given out on her, she had been unable to work for three whole trials, and the punishment for that had been far worse than anything she would earn for not moving fast enough, so she didn't try it again. In her mind, it was a matter of which would be a greater act of disobedience.
When they arrived at the door to Master Orik's office, the sailor knocked on the door. They didn't have long to wait before an impatient Orik opened the door and gestured for them to come inside. The sailor was quick to inform him that the slave was the cause of their delay. Master Orik eyed her for a few trills before nodding. He told the sailor to go back to his duties, and watched him leave. Only when he was gone did he turn to address her.
"Does it surprise you to know that I have been keeping tabs on you off and on over the arcs?"
Her eyes widened. It did surprise her. How was she supposed to respond to that? Questions were supposed to be answered...but only when the person who was asking them wanted an answer to the question they were asking. How was she supposed to know if Master Orik wanted an answer to this one? Before she could make the decision whether to speak or not, he continued.
"You were marked by Yvithia when you were a young child. That is a sign that you are intelligent. Yvithia does not take an interest in anyone who is stupid. For that reason alone, you were of interest to me. So I've watched you. I have asked others to watch you as well. You learn quickly. When you make mistakes, you don't often make the same one repeatedly like some of the slaves do. You remember what you are told. You do not need constant supervision when you are given an order. All of these things are signs that you may be good for more than just simple, manual labor. That makes you of more interest to me."
She listened carefully to the master's words, trying to figure out what he wanted of her.
"From now on, you will do less of the type of work that you have been doing up until now. You will learn to help me with my work. You will also spend time in helping Lars in the ship's clinic. If you prove to be as useful as I expect, all of your time will be spent helping one of us. Do you understand?"
This time, Master Orik looked at her expectantly, so she nodded to show that she did understand. Orik glanced at his desk, his eyes moving across the many papers and open books that he had there.
"On the trials that you will be working directly for me or for Lars, you will be told when the slaves are given their first task of the trial. I don't have anything that you would be able to help me with at this time, so go see if Lars needs you to help in the clinic. He already knows that you will be helping him when he needs an extra hand. If he doesn't need you totrial, then go to the ship's galley, and do anything they tell you to do."
Master Orik turned away from her then. It was a clear dismissal, and she quickly left and headed for the ship's clinic.
Discipline
Focusing on a task while being distracted by someone talking
Continuing to work in the face of pain Endurance
The pain of aching muscles
Distractions from pain help you to ignore it Strength
Carrying a bucket full of water
Scrubbing hard takes strength
Non-Skill Knowledge
N/A
Loot & Consequences
Sei'rue's treatment has caught Moseke's eye... and her ire. Furious and heartbroken by the treatment of her own daughter, the Mother of Life has intervened. Sei'rue will go to bed that night and wake up within the walls of Desnind, in the home of a Sev'ryn family who have prayed for a daughter to love as their own. To them, Sei'rue is the answer to their prayers. They will not beat her or mistreat her, but they also will not make her stay with them forever (meaning she can be is any open city in her current threads). As Sei'rue comes to age, she will have the choice to go out on her own, or remain in their care. They will respect her wishes, but will mourn her departure.
As for what comes of the Sei'rue's former master(s)... well, that won't be known unless she seeks the answers herself.
Renown +10 - Sei'rue, a foreign girl, appears overnight as if by magic, and supposedly a direct gift from the Life Mother herself. Her adopted family will spread the news and reverent whispers of Sei'rue's arrival will be well spoken about in Desnind. For the next arc following (714), Sei'rue will be locally known in Desnind (positively viewed by all who favor Moseke... aka, most of the city), but the novelty will pass unless she meets the standard fame requirements.
