The previous Sassy Saturday post can be read here: Brave the Orderly Reality Vice
The context for this post: Preceding from the previous excerpt, Annala has arrived at a Latrot slave market.
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Inside was a dark and
chilly place. Meza found the light switch and pale lanterns illuminated every
corner of the room. Annala gasped at what she saw. She’d read of such places in
her studies, and even walked through a virtual reality reconstruction, but the
real thing left her speechless and outraged.
Row upon row and stack
upon stack of birdcages, and each one containing an elf. They were identical in
every way save gender: shaved heads, clipped ears, pale skin, black tunics, and
gleaming Subjugation Collars on their necks. All of them were emaciated and so
clean their skin was as sterile as a vacuum.
Annala bowed her head and
clenched her fists. She marched to the nearest cage and grabbed its bars with
both hands. Instantly, they melted. Security measures activated to repel her
and she melted them too. Within twenty seconds, the cage was so much sludge.
“You’re leaving,” she said tightly. “Now.”
The slave looked up at her with blank eyes. “Leaving
is unlawful,” she said in a dull voice. “I must await my duly designated
handler. Leaving is unlawful. I must await my duly designated handler. Leaving
is unlawful. I must await my duly designated handler.”
It was a broken voice and
it moved Annala to compassion. Reaching into her dress pocket, she withdrew a
silver-grey metal scrap. It carried the shape of an “L,” but when she inserted
it into the keyhole of the slave girl’s collar, it molded to fit inside.
This was no ordinary lock
pick. Her mother gave them a long name, but she herself decided on “Contagious
Contradiction” lock pick. It was forged from a piece of the Subjugation Collar
that used to be on her own neck. A quartet of contradictions shorted out its
control matrix and left modified rule structures in its attempt to solve those
contradictions. They were half-baked nonsense and thus utterly useless to
ordercrafters, but they were a godsend to elves.
The collar possessed
program madness, and with minor tweaks, it could be made contagious. Even now,
the young girl’s collar was shorting out by mere contact. It gave up and
depowered long before Annala figured out the tumblers. Now it was nothing more
than cold metal. Annala shapeshifted stronger hands and ripped it off.
“I am your new duly
designated handler.”
“The Law of Order
requires me to request proof of such a claim.”
Annala presented the
Subjugation Collar. “How could I remove your collar if I was not your new
handler?”
“You could be chaotic
kidnappers and forced it off.”
Annala waggled her finger
and tsked. “Foolish slave. You know the
Church of Chaos requires several hours in a cursed location and a profane
ritual to force the removal of Subjugation Collars. Seeing as I did so without
such tools, I cannot be a chaotic kidnapper.”
The slave girl hesitated.
“The only other
alternative is that Order is not as almighty and powerful as he says he is, and
Order does not abide lies, so it’s not really an alternative.”
“Uh...Umm...Yes, that is
certainly the less likely explanation.” She bowed
and said, “Handler, what are your orders?”
Shifting one of her
fingers into a blade, Annala cut off a strand of her hair. She placed it into
the younger elf’s hands and gave her a gentle smile.
“You must be hungry. This will make you feel better.”
A faint chaotic pulse
traveled through the slave’s body. It reached deep to connect with her tightly
repressed Seed of Chaos and awakened an
ancient longing. A rumbling stomach concurred. She placed the hairs into her
mouth and swallowed.
A perfect copy of Annala’s
DNA entered her system and a fragment of Annala’s Twin Seeds leeched into her
blood. A little color returned to her skin and a little awareness returned to
her eyes. Her hair started re-growing and her ears resumed their natural shape.
“W-who are you?” she
asked.
Annala crouched to be
eye-level with her. “I’m Annala, and I want to be your friend. What is your
name?”
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Transcending Limitations, and the rest of the Journey to Chaos series, is available for purchase at Amazon as an ebook. The series is also available in Kindle Unlimited. The paperback format is available at Amazon and also at Createspace.
To learn more about the heroines of Journey to Chaos, visit the Tvtropes character sheet.
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