Rescuing Tasia

Rustle—rustle—

The frequent turning of pages disturbed the library's quiet.

[Sorcerers could only use the powers they awakened, so they were inevitably less versatile than mages. An ordinary mage could choose freely among six schools of magic and eventually learn spells even from the schools they were less suited to. But sorcerers could only cast spells tied to their awakened powers...]

Tap—tap—

Even faint footsteps made Annan look up.

Little Winchester selected a book from the shelf and returned to Mr. Victor's side. Words like "Breeze City" drifted over.

Annan tried to focus on his book again, but worry over Tasia left him in no mood to read.

[...The advantages of being a sorcerer? There were fewer of them, and they learned spells faster...]

Even the rivalry between mages and sorcerers could not draw Annan into the story.

"You haven't been able to settle down since you arrived this morning."

Mr. Victor tapped his cane against the table, jolting Annan out of his thoughts.

Annan was about to explain, but Mr. Victor's wrinkled face hardened. "I don't want to hear your excuses. I'll count you as absent for half a day. Come back to work once you've dealt with whatever's troubling you."

"Thank you, Mr. Victor!"

Annan sprang to his feet and hurried out, then ran back to put down the key.

Dozens of minutes later, Annan reached the Haunted Gold Mine. Tasia was still inside at this hour, so he paid a miner two copper coins to call her out.

Annan first examined Tasia's wound in the shed. It did not seem serious, but when he shifted the shackles and unwrapped the cloth, he found that flies had laid dense clusters of tiny white maggot eggs in the rotting flesh he had cleaned yesterday.

Tasia was not a true Minotaur. She could not recover without rest.

"Do you really not want to defy the contract enslaving you?" Annan asked, holding back his revulsion at the stench as he cleaned away the eggs. He looked at her intently.

"The contract is more important than death."

Tasia was as stubborn as a dwarf.

She was unlike the Minotaurs Annan had read about, too... After all, no Minotaur liked philosophy and painting.

"Take me to the foreman."

Annan had Tasia lead him to the man holding her contract. When he explained why he had come, the foreman named an outrageous price. "Two Gold Narls."

"You only paid seventy silver coins when you bought... her."

"That was the price then."

"She's nearly twenty pounds thinner than when you bought her, and her ankle is rotting and crawling with maggots. How much strength does she have left to work? How much longer can she last?"

The foreman frowned. He could smell the sickening rot, too. "One Gold Narl and fifty silver coins."

That was still more than Annan was willing to pay. He stared at the scrawny man for a moment, then abandoned the idea of provoking him and having Tasia crack his skull.

"One Gold Narl. If you agree, I'll go back and get the money now."

The foreman considered it. The newly discovered vein was nearly exhausted. Soon the slaves would be sold again, and selling this one now would bring in thirty extra silver coins... Most importantly, he could pocket the money himself.

"Fine."

"I'll go get the money."

Annan could not fully trust a foreman operating in such a shady business. He leaned close to Tasia and whispered, "If I'm not back before dark, it means he's pulled something. Subdue him and get me out..."

It seemed he had worried for nothing. Nothing happened on Annan's way back to town. At Aunt Susan's house, he pulled twenty silver coins from beneath his bed and rushed out again.

"Where are you going, Annan?"

Holding a washbasin, Aunt Susan called after his hurried figure.

"I have something to do!"

"Quick, follow little Annan!" Aunt Susan shouted to Martin, who was chopping firewood.

Martin hurried off, then ran back to put down his axe.

Annan soon noticed Martin following him and briefly explained that he was going to borrow money from Mr. Fast.

"Why not ask Aunt Susan?"

"Aunt Susan has already done enough."

Annan could not bring himself to ask more of someone who had helped him all along.

When they reached the Dawn Tavern, it had not opened yet. Only Faster and Soluman Copperbeard were talking in the empty hall.

The dwarf woman was about to duck back into the cellar when she saw that the visitors were Annan and Martin.

"What brings you here so early?" Faster asked, puzzled.

"Mr. Fast, I'd like to borrow one gold coin."

"That's right, you have to lend it to us," Martin chimed in. "If you won't, I'm not coming to work today."

"Now there's an offer."

Faster walked up to Annan and looked down at him.

"I don't want to lend you the money, Annan." The elite warrior stood by his principles. "'It's the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose important.' You told me that."

"It isn't for the aptitude test." Annan told him Tasia's story from the beginning, then pulled Martin forward. "Martin can back me up."

"That big Orc?"

"She's a Minotaur."

Telling Minotaurs and Orcs apart was a little difficult for Martin.

Soluman Copperbeard landed on the floor with a thud and barreled toward Annan like a rolling keg. Her eyes, almost hidden among her thick braided beard, gleamed strangely.

"Is what you said true?"

"She's my friend."

"You'd be friends with a Minotaur?"

"Yes."

"I'll lend it to you!" Soluman Copperbeard thumped her chest, her voice bright with excitement.

Faster remained composed. "Then what about your aptitude test?"

"Knowledge won't disappear. There will only be more of it." Annan held back his longing for magic.

Soluman Copperbeard had already taken out a gold coin. Annan thanked her and accepted it, then turned to Faster. "Mr. Fast, I'd like you to help me with one more thing."

The sky had yellowed. The woods were quiet, and the camp lay still.

Tasia was still in the shed. Annan saw a miner run off the moment he spotted him. Before long, the foreman appeared in front of the shed.

As agreed, Annan took out a Gold Narl stamped with the profile of the Goddess of Wealth. "Where's the contract?"

"The price has gone up, boy. Two Gold Narls now."

The gold coin shone in the foreman's eyes. As Annan had expected, greed had taken hold of him.

"Mr. Fast."

Annan called softly, prepared for this. A broad-shouldered, muscular figure stepped out of the shadows.

Faster was a little shorter than Tasia, but as an elite professional, his presence alone left the foreman too frightened to speak.

"How much do you want now?"

"O-one gold coin will do..."

"I think one Gold Narl is too high a price."

"Of course... I-I bought her for seventy silver coins. It's only right that I sell her to you for seventy..."

"Give me the change."

Annan tossed the gold coin to the foreman and did not haggle further, though he could have.

The foreman handed over the contract and hurried away.

"Is this it?" Annan asked, passing the contract to Tasia.

"This is my slave contract."

In the yellowing afterglow of sunset, Tasia held up the contract and knelt on one knee before Annan, her head bowed in submission. "Now you are my master."

"No."

Annan took the crumpled contract and tore it in half.

"No one is your master anymore."