Xed

Chapter 1

The incessant buzzing of flies was audible to Aemon over the consistent noise of the market as he passed by the fish stand. The yelling of merchants, advertising their wares, desperately trying to grab the attention of their prospective buyer had become all but meaningful to Aemon who wasn't even focusing on all the hullabaloo around him.

With him he had a few rolls of paper and a crudely designed fountain pen crafted out of bamboo. He looked for a good corner to sit on and found an empty space on the corner of the road. He sat down on the cobblestone footpath and layed out his paper. He uncapped his pen and began to draw lines on the paper, lines that began to take the shape of people passing by. The lines depicted everything he saw, from the shady alleyways that connected one market lane to another, to the slave shop right opposite to him on the other side of the road.

When he began to flesh out the shop on his paper he noticed that the slave owner belonged to the Armorlord race. He owned three human slaves, a woman, a boy no older than 11 and a man. The slave owner was covered from head to toe in metal. His face comprised of a brushed titanium dome with a cutout in the middle which had a red, circular-shaped red convex glass fitted over it. His hands and his torso were also metal with his joints covered in rubber boots. His chest had a smaller glass cutout as well, only that this one glowed red faintly. His legs, well they weren't really legs at all, all individuals of the Armorlord race had mildly spiky caterpillar tracks that looked like armored conveyor belts with bogie wheels supporting them.

A man approached the Armorlord and in a few moments walked away with the woman that the Armorlord had on sale. Aemon couldn't help but notice that the woman was quite pretty even though her hair was unkempt and her clothes and body were filthy as a pig sty. The slaves had clearly not bathed in days. He felt a pang of despair in his stomach as the realization dawned upon him that the man who bought her may not choose to use her as a maidservant afterall.

Aemon quickly drew the woman on his paper as if wanting to capture her before before she disappeared. He couldn't help but feel a bit sad about the fact that he didn't know this woman's story of how she landed up as an Armorlord's asset and probably would never have the chance to find out.

Another customer approached the Armorlord, this time he was looking for the boy. The boy had a black eye on the left side of the face. Perhaps he got into an altercation with the man beside him. The merchant and the customer continued to discuss for sometime, it appeared that they were haggling on the price. The boy screamed loudly, "I am not a slave, i won't be sold." He then jumped up in the air and spat on the customer's face. The customer was taken aback, he hurled abuses at the boy and punched him, blood flew out of the boy's mouth. The customer then said something inaudible to the merchant and left. The merchant's face glass glowed red. He held the boy's neck with his iron hands and shocked the boy. The boy's body convulsed for a moment before he screamed in pain. The Armorlord dropped him down to the ground, "this is what happens when ya don't obey, if ya don't get sold today no food fer ya. Yer a burden, that's what you are. A fuckin' liability."

Aemon chuckled, now it made sense to him how the boy got his black eye. The boy had guts. He got up and rolled up his papers and put away his pen. He walked to the slave shop and took a closer look at the two slaves.

"Lord Kamagi is the name, what can I do for ya today?" The Armorlord said in a welcoming tone.

"How much for the boy?" enquired Aemon.

"Fuck off." The boy screamed at Aemon. "I am not a slave."

Lord Kamagi reached to zap the boy again but Aemon stopped him, "don't damage something I am looking to buy."

"Sorry sir, this lad right here, he a problem, but if ya teach him some discipline he will work hard for ya, I promise. I can assure ya a good deal on this laddie." Kamagi said convincingly, he really wanted to be rid of the boy.