On the battlements, a half-drow slave leaned against a merlon, spear in hand.
The night breeze swept past, and the rare moment of leisure made her yawn.
Slaves of the Duwa Family had no such thing as rest. Even though minor nobles with few holdings had little work that actually needed doing, their mistresses would invent tasks and use their whips to keep the slaves busy.
Moving a piece of furniture back and forth over and over, for instance. Even the stupidest goblin would not do something like that.
Duty on the walls was the second easiest part of her life. Her mistresses never climbed the stairs to check whether the slaves were keeping a proper watch.
The most relaxing part was still trampling the newcomers' heads in the pen. Whenever she beat new slaves until they begged for mercy and fell to their knees, the half-drow felt as imposing as a noble herself.
Rather than return to the crowded slave pen, filthy with waste, she decided to enjoy the fresh breeze atop the wall and take a short nap first. Tonight, she would go back and spend the whole night "teaching" the newcomers a lesson...
Clearly, the slave had not realized that this sudden breeze was not a natural current of air within the cavern.
Only when a hand wreathed in deathly shadows clamped over her face, its darkness eating away at her skin, did the half-drow abruptly wake.
But it was already too late. The slave's limbs twitched twice, then rapidly stiffened. Within seconds, her fat and muscle dissolved, leaving only a thin layer of skin wrapped around her skeleton.
The half-drow did not even have time to scream before she became a desiccated corpse.
The magic power of Fly was fading from Renato's body. The buoyant