Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"Wake the wolf. Now!"

"What about the enchanter?"

"Bah! Her too, they're both going to Seteste. Whatever the bastards there want to do with them is fine by me. Move!"

Kalliope was already awake before the men started barking orders at each other. They were far from quiet, and she could not sleep well in this place anyway. It seemed they wanted to move them quickly. She had only been here for twelve hours or so since she had woken up.

She had been here less than a day and they were already moving her. Which meant that someone was concerned about keeping them in one place for too long. As comforting as the thought that they wanted to move her out of fear for Lucius, it was just as concerning that she would be harder to find.

The men grabbed crystals from the strange pedestals in the hallway and approached the cell doors. They tapped the crystals against the metal, which caused the mana flowing through them to dissipate and nullify the enchantment. Kalliope stood, appearing proud and defiant before the men. Part of her wanted to resist, but a quick glance over at Ethi reminded her that she was not the only person present.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

That was when she realized the purpose of placing Ethi near her and moving her at the same time. They needed someone weak to act as a deterrent and keep her in check. While Kalliope would likely resist and fight despite the threat to herself, they figured that someone weaker than her would keep her from acting out.

Unfortunately, she was not Lucius, and this tactic worked wonders on her. There was no way she could sacrifice someone else's well-being for her own defiance. It would be better to play along for now and work with them.

She followed their directions and walked with the guards out of the cell. They shoved her and pulled on the chains binding her to try and get a rise from her, but Kalliope remained calm. Her beast blood boiled begging to be unleashed on these elves but she kept herself in check.

To distract herself, she began to analyze her surroundings. The place their captors claimed they would be taking them was called Seteste. Kalliope was slightly familiar with the name through a report, but she did not have any in-depth knowledge of the location. Find more chapters on empire

All she could remember was that it was a haven for the slave trade in Aedrider. While slavery was technically illegal in every country on the continent, that did not mean it was not practiced. Many underground rings existed across all of the kingdoms. However, Seteste was a more well-known one thanks to its size and age.

As the oldest slaver haven on the continent, it gained a lot of power and prestige in history alone. Most of the continent's slavers would travel through Seteste at one point or another during their careers.

"[Umbra: Sleep]"

Once again, darkness settled into Kalliope's vision, and she crumpled to the ground.

After an indeterminate amount of time, she awoke once more. This time her senses were filled with unfamiliar nature. The familiar sound and sensations of a wagon driving along a broken road threatened to lull her back into sleep, but she fought against it.

Next to her were a number of other slaves, a mix of men and women. In total, there appeared to be twenty of them in the wagon. Some had also woken up and tried to pry apart the metal bars of the cage around the wagon.

Ethi was leaning against her and was still unconscious, but everyone else seemed different. The others were either asleep or trying desperately to claw their way out, save for a few calm ones. Kalliope turned to one of the other calm prisoners and noticed that he was a large elf man with platinum blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

His face was stoic and strong, befitting a warrior. Like all elves, he exemplified a near other-worldly beauty. However, some of that beauty was marred by small scars peppering his face.

"Hey, what's your name?" She asked.

"Gett." He grunted. "And you?"

"Kalliope. I take it you're a warrior?"

"I was."

"What are you in for?"

"Murder. I was imprisoned, and then I escaped. I tried to borrow funds to escape the border, but I was trapped. Now I imagine I'll be sold to the fights at Seteste." He answered, clearly trying to intimidate her.

"I see. You look strong."

"My crimes don't bother you?"

"How many people did you kill?"

"Ten." He smirked as if the number was impressive.

Kalliope did not react, which seemed to bother him. Gett shifted uncomfortably until, finally, he asked, "What is wrong with you? Why aren't you scared? Many people have heard of Gett the Butcher, but you don't seem to care."

"I served in the Alorek war alongside Titan of Eroa. The conqueror of Alvora." Kalliope grinned. "Ten people, really? Please."

Gett closed his eyes and acted like he was going to fall asleep and ignore her. Kalliope decided to let him and continued to wait. Though everyone present was an elf, and elves had pretty decent hearing, she was a beastman. She concentrated on trying to hone in on any conversations between the guards.

What she was able to discover was that she had been knocked unconscious for about four hours. This meant she had been missing for about sixteen hours or so from Lucius. He was likely searching all over Varris for signs of her. She wondered how much of it remained by this point. Or if Desmond and Jade managed to keep a handle on things…

"Is he really, though?" She mumbled to herself.

These past few hours, she was so confident that he would find her. She felt like he would come and find her; like he would stop at nothing to bring her back… but would he? They weren't an item like Rena and him.

He only mentioned they needed to talk about what they were to each other. She had assumed that it was positive news. The thought never occurred to her that it could be the opposite.

Would he simply cut his losses? He could be rather callous at times. There were times where she led the search for missing men that he was content to classify as deceased. Would he do the same with her? She went missing in action after all. That showed she was a liability.

"Is something wrong?" Ethi asked, having woken up a few moments ago. "Worried about your prince?"

"Slightly."

"Well, you seemed so sure that he would come. I may be a useless enchanter with bad business sense, but I have a good eye for people. Based on the way you look when you talk about him… I can't imagine he would feel any differently about you."

"Thanks, Ethi. That means a lot." Kalliope smiled. Ethi was right… Lucius would come. Until then, she just had to fight to survive. "Besides, I promised father I would give him five grandchildren with Lucius!"

Ethi blinked at Kalliope's accidental proclamation of her thoughts. "That was random…Sure, okay. Good luck?"