Chapter 2: Prologue (2/2)
"Who are you?" Mako asked, no more confused then he was for the past hour or so. He had no idea where this man came from as this room was clear of obstacles on all sides for him to hide behind or appear from. The man did possess a certain aura of power but it just made Mako even more confused for various reasons. "What did you mean when you said you GAVE me power?"
"Oh how rude of me," the old man said as he stood up straight and placed his hat back onto his head. "Allow me to introduce myself!! My name is Aero Yuxer and I'm an elf in service of The Slave Trade. Its a pleasure to meet you. You no doubt have numerous questions so lets have a seat and talk."
Aero waved his hand and a table appeared out of thin air along with three chairs, one of which seemed to be made out of metal instead of wood like the other two. The old elf pulled out a chair and sat down, waving both the fiery woman and Mako over to join him.
Though a bit hesitant at first, Mako eventually shrugged and also took a seat, figuring that there was no harm in having a conversation with a stranger claiming to be an elf who could also use magic. From the moment he woke up it was simply one confusing thing after another so it made no difference to him what was happening as long as he got the answers he needed as it wasn't like it things could get any weirder.
"So, care to answer my questions?" Mako asked as he placed his hands on the table. "I have quite a bit of them for you if you don't mind." He completely ignored the woman who hadn't moved from her kneeling position, instead focusing his attention on the old sickly looking elf in front of him.
"Okay. I'll answer some of your questions but only the ones that need to be answered now as I don't have much time." Aero gave an apologetic smile as he looked down at his hands. "I'll give you a brief summary before answering any questions pertaining to what I told you. Fair enough?"
Mako thought about it before nodding, figuring that anything he could get would be better then nothing. Hell, he was already lucky that things were working out this well as he could've been killed numerous times before this. His life could have easily been extinguished by the cage, the fiery woman, and even this elf who used magic so causally. It made no sense to complain nor would it help him learn anything.
"Okay, so first things first," Aero said as he began his explanation. "Your now in the world called Enstenten, or just Enst for short. You were brought here by me via magic which actually took quite a bit of work and a lot of money. I had to attach some Permanent Skills to you in order to keep you from going insane or dying early on and I also had to give you a Permanent Magic from a grimoire in order to ensure you'd have a good foundation."
Before Mako could open his mouth and ask questions, Aero raised his hand to stop him. "Nope, you'll have to wait until the end of my explanation in order to ask questions. I still have numerous things I want to cover."
"A permanent skill is a skill that cant be removed by any means," the fiery woman said as she stood up from the floor, a frown on her face. "Its one of the most expensive things out there second only to a grimoire's Permanent Magic which goes for 40 Platinum coins as a starting price." The woman took a seat in the metal chair without even looking towards Mako.
"Oh, Mana, you decided to join us," Aero said as he glanced at the woman with a small smirk. "Were you feeling a bit lonely??"
"Shut it Aero," Mana said as she glared at the old elf. "Your lucky I cant hurt you otherwise you'd be nothing but ash. Damn bastard."
"Always so lively," Aero said before turning his attention back to Mako. "In any case, what Mana said was correct. Permanent Skills and Magic cant be removed by any means and they're quite rare. For example, one of the skills I got for you was [Calm Mind] and it keeps you from going insane by forcing you to remain calm and process everything that would normally overload your brain and accept it without trouble. The skills take at least a full day to completely take hold but the effects will still show and keep the mind from self-destructing as well as making you immune to mind attacks."
Aero leaned forward and looked Mako in the eye with a serious expression. "Travelling through worlds is no joke. Unless you get reincarnated or a god brings you here personally, any other way is impossible unless you have some sort of medium that prevents you from going insane. Without the Permanent Skill I gave you, your brain wouldn't have been able to process the transfer of worlds and you'd have been brain dead the moment you arrived. In other words, there's no way for you to make it back home without making you a mindless zombie. I'm deeply sorry."
There was a long moment of silence as Mako processed what Aero just said. However, even after hearing this horrible news, Mako didn't feel anything, which disturbed him. He should be feeling angry, sad, frustrated, but all he felt was a strong desire to know more about the situation and the world. This lack of negative emotion greatly confused him but he just added it to the rest of the seemingly endless things that he didnt know about as of yet.
After failing to get a response for a full minute, Aero continued his earlier explanation about Enstenten. "In this world there are 52 species in existence, not counting the halfbreeds and such, and everyone is almost constantly at war with each other. Most of the time its just small skirmishes, but every hundred years or so huge battles break out between entire countries. Of course, I wont go into detail so I'll just leave it at that. However, I will tell you that the underlying cause for it all is The Slave Trade, an orginization known and accepted world-wide."
Aero leaned back in his chair and sighed. "The Slave Trade obviously deals in things involving slavery and is considered to be the most powerful organization in the world, unrivaled even when compared to multiple kingdoms combined. They don't care who they sell slaves to or who they enslave, they only care about profit and stroking their own egos. They could easily wipe out a nation or a country if they truly wanted to. They have the money and power to do so, so if they set their sights on making you a slave or mark you as an enemy, your already as good as theirs."
"Why are you telling him all this stuff anyways Aero?" Mana asked with anger and frustration in her tone as she stood up, completely interrupting out of nowhere. "He's a damned human!! He's just as bad as The Slave Trade is!! Hell, why the f*ck did you even bring him here and waste so much money on him??!! He's nothing but garbage!! If it weren't for the fact that my flames seem to fail against him, I would have killed him already!!"
The kindness Aero previously had in his eyes slowly vanished as he looked over at Mana, a cold and icy stare being shot striaght at her. "Sit!!"
Mana didn't look as if she wanted to obey, but eventually she did sit down with an angry huff, her flaming hair glowing brighter . She shot Mako a few glares but didn't say anything else, though the few glares she shot were full of so much venom and disgust that she didn't even need to say anything. If looks could kill then Mako would have been dead quite a while ago.
"I apologize for her," Aero said as he looked back at Mako. "She's been a slave for over 62 years and hasn't had the best experiences with humans. In fact, all of her owners have been humans and every single one of them treated her worse then sh*t. On another note, feel free to ask me questions as I'm about done with my summary."
"62 years?" Mako asked with a raised eyebrow. "I take it she's not human then.....what is she? Also, why cant her fire hurt me? Why does she listen to you when she clearly doesn't want to?"
"Thats quite a lot of questions, but easy enough to answer." Aero turned his head to look at the fiery woman. "Mana here is a Pyro, a subspecies of the species known as Animorphs. Animorphs are beings made completely of one type of magic. Pyros are made of fire, Kryos are made of ice, Aquas are made of water and so-on. All Animorphs are immortal and will never die of old age but can still be killed though its difficult to do so unless you use magic. Mana is 87 years old and has quite a temper on her so do try to be nice."
"The reason she can't hurt you is because of the Permanent Magic I gave to you when you arrived." Aero smiled as he pointed towards Mako's chest. "The Magic you recieved is called [Travellers Fortune] and its actually super rare and very complex so I'll just give you a small description of what I KNOW about it. From now on you will be immune to almost any form of magic or any condition caused by magic (i.e. burning, freezing, shock, etc). Also, it appears that when directly touching magic, you seem to make it weaker or in the case of Animorphs, make them as powerless as humans or even weaker then that. This is why Mana collapsed when you first touched her. She wasn't used to it."
"As for the last question, that's where Slave Marks come into play," Aero pointed a finger at Mana's left shoulder where a symbol of a black flame rested like a sort of tattoo. "When a slave is issued to a new master, the owner must prick his finger and let the blood fall on to the mark. Once the mark accepts the blood, the slave will then have to listen to what the owner says. If the slave tries to defy an order then the mark will activate and hurt the slave. If the slave tries to betray the owner then the slave will experience pain so bad they would wish they were dead. In other words the mark is there to keep slaves in line which is why Mana wont attack me as she could die if she tried since I'm her current owner."
Mako glanced over at Mana before looking back at Aero as he soaked all the knowledge in, easily understanding what he was saying thanks to years of reading fantasy novels. "Okay, so that aside, why DID you summon me here? You gave a very short summary of the world but you never told me WHY you brought me here? For what purpose did you bring me here?"
Aero smiled softly with a trace of seriousness in his black eyes. "I want you to destroy The Slave Trade. Thats all. Nothing more and nothing less."
After sitting quietly and saying nothing after she had been told to sit, Mana finally stepped in, clearly in disbelief that Aero would even say those words. "Now I know you've gone senile you old bastard!!!! The Slave Trade has existed for THOUSANDS of years and in that time they have gained enough power to make them unbeatable. They can't be stopped by a large scale kingdom or empire so what the hell are you doing asking this RETARDED MALE, WHO DOESN'T EVEN KNOW THIS WORLD, FOR HELP??!!"
"Your right, he doesnt know this world," Aero said, not even bothering to look at Mana, his eyes fixed on Mako. "Thats why I'm giving you to him as a slave so you can inform him. This young man may not look like much right now but given time, he could just as easily turn this world upside down. Of course the main reason is because I'm running out of time and I need someone to take my place and continue my mission."
"You said that before," Mako said, ignoring Mana who looked like she was ready to burst with anger and frustration. "That your running out of time. What exactly do you mean by that?"
"F*ck that, what do you mean your giving me up to this dumbass filthy piece of human trash!!!" Mana was literally flaming as she yelled this, her hair rising up and elongating until it was at least 6 feet high in the air. "I refuse and I'd rather die!!"
"Throughout my 756 years working for the Slave Trade, I have sabotaged them countless times while shifting the blame onto others," Aero said, also ignoring Mana. "I've freed slaves, tricked customers, pocketed money, and basically did anything I could to screw them over. It took them seven and a half centuries to catch on which is truly remarkable. Now their after me and its only a matter of time before I'm publicly tortured and killed as a message that not even employees are safe from them."
Aero waved his hand and a blue bottle appeared from thin air, a bottle marked with a skull on it. "They'll be here in this Dimensional Slave Storage in about 30 minutes to capture me. I could run but I wouldn't go far so instead, I'm going out my own way."
Mako blinked as he looked at the bright blue bottle, understanding clearly what the old elf was thinking. "So this is your final decision then Aero? After all this time you'll just quit?"
Aero smiled as he tapped his finger againt the top of the lid. "Thats the reason I brought you here for, to take my place and take them down permanently. It will easily be the most dangerous and most difficult job in existence, but I have faith that one day the Slave Trade will fall. Whether its by your hands or someone else's only time will tell. Once I'm gone, every single slave in this storage will be released around the world, its all part of my plan, my final middle finger to this f*cked up world. In any case, lets get Mana switched over to you."
Aero looked over at Mana who was still looking quite angry and waved her to come closer which she did after some hesitation. "You come over here as well young traveller, I need your blood. Just a finger will do."
Mako stood up and walked over, stopping by the old elf and Mana, holding out a finger. He winced as his finger was sliced open and blood began dripping out down his finger and onto the floor. He then raised his finger and swiped it across Mana's slave mark, leaving a streak of blood across it. There was a flash of light and the blood disappeared, leaving only the mark behind. Mana was now officially Mako's.
"There we go, now that thats finished, its time to wrap things up," Aero said with a sad smile. "I shall be sending the two of you to the town of Areindale, also known as the Town Of Beginners because of the many young people who stay there. Its pretty far from here and it'll make you look less suspicious. Also take this."
Aero tossed Mako a small brown clothbag that was filled to the brim with large bright platinum coins. "That should easily keep the two of you fed and pay for a hotel for years if you so choose. Take it as my way of saying sorry for dragging you into this."
Mako looked back at the old elf and witnessed the saddest smile in his entire life. He was unsure of what to feel after seeing that. One moment he was completely emotionless as he was busy absorbing all this new information and the next he could feel his chest tightening and his eyes tearing up. He hadn't even known this guy for a full hour and he could still feel an overwhelming sadness knowing that he would never see this old elf again.
"I'll make you proud Aero," Mako said as he held up the bag. "I may not know who you are or whats happening to me, but I swear that I'll live up to the expectations put on me. This I promise on my life."
Aero picked up the blue bottle and undid the cap, tossing it to the side. "Whats your name young traveller?"
"My name is Mako D. Carson," Mako said as he felt his chest tightening further. He wanted to stop the elf but he felt that he didn't have a say in the matter. Not even Mana was moving, just staring and watching Aero with watery eyes. "I bid you farewell Aero Yuxer. May we meet again in the next life."
"Well said Mako D. Carson, well said," Aero said, a single tear rolling down his cheek. "Cheers to your victory. Go out and make this stranger proud."
The last thing Mako saw before blacking out was Aero putting the bottle to his lips and drinking the contents within.
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