23. A Melancholy Gang

Leading Castus over to the tables, everyone took their seats. Castus paused for a bit, considering the knowledge he had just gained and the new compatriots he had met, before moving into his first question.

"Why did the church enslave us?"

Cerone, who Castus had realized is the defacto leader, signaled to Rys. Rys sighed before throwing himself into an explanation. "Honestly we are still not one hundred percent certain why. I spend the most time outside of here and as far as I can tell they want us for three reasons. The first is we're from a different world so we have knowledge not of this place. The second is every single one of us have a unique blessing not seen here. This planet has a number of blessings, and the church tries to record as many as they can, but when we show up, we often have one they don't know of. There are some they do have information on and those lucky bastards can slip through the churches gaze. The blessings we receive often have potent abilities which the church wants to use. The third reason is we are disruptive. From what I've heard in the past transplants have caused a number of issues and wars so now the church tries to keep us under control." Rys sucked in a breath of air after spilling all of the information in front of Castus.

Castus nodded. It made sense and followed along what he believed the churches reasons were. Moving on to questions that he didn't know. "Why are we all about the same age?"

Everyone at the table shrugged their shoulders. Cerone spoke up. "Not sure honestly. Coincidence or just like a scheduled drop off, we dunno."

Castus nodded in confirmation then moved on to the most pressing question. "How do we escape?"

Cerone furrowed her brow and looked to Wyden. Wyden started to speak in a monotone voice. "The slave collars prevent us from attempting escape and purposefully harming those it designates masters of us. Darius is the main controller though. His mana controls the commands and will of the collars. If Darius were to die, we would be temporarily without a controller allowing the next mana signature to take control of the collar. If we can imprint on them, we could potentially escape, assuming we can get far enough away. The collars are sustained through our own mana, thus the reason they fuse with our necks." Castus perked up and opened his mouth when Zed cut him off.

"No good bud. We've tried exhausting our mana, but we collapse or black out before the collar loses mana. Pushing it any farther risks killing us." Castus frowned at Zed realizing his idea was too obvious.

Before Castus could speak again though Alyssa chimed in. "And don't even think about getting out of range. It's titanic as far as we can tell." She gave a sympathetic smile at him.

Castus fell into contemplation for a moment. 'So Darius has to go for us to escape. Wait, Darius had that scar on his neck!'

Castus placed his hands on the table and spoke excitedly. "Was Darius a slave before?" That question darkened the room. Everyone at the table looked down sadly.

Shi spoke this time. "Darius used to be a slave like us. When the church found me they were going to kill me. Darius has blessing of Hercules and he was restraining me. When he found out I was from Earth he made an agreement to sign the contract in exchange for sparing my life. You've seen what the contract does. It's worse than these collars. The good news is unless you willingly sign it, it doesn't work."

Castus felt the vigor from his realization vanish at Shi's words. 'Fuck, I'm glad I didn't sign that thing.' Castus spoke up for the last time that night. "Before he took me to get cleansed he seemed to change and he told me not to sign the contract."

This caused everyone to perk up for a moment. Zed spoke in an surprised manner. "He's still in there?!?" Everyone looked at each other for a moment. Cerone put a hand on Castus' shoulder. "That makes plotting his end harder for us, but thank you for telling us that Darius may still be in that shell. Lets get some rest. I'm sure your tired." Castus nodded his head. He was tired. It had been a wild ride to this point and some sleep would help tremendously with planning out his next moves.

Castus turned over in his bed a lot that night. He had thought of something. His blessing let him destroy a material he had never analyzed before. In theory it should allow him to destroy part of the slave collar and allow him to break out of it, but he hesitated. It wasn't the right time, and there was a nagging fear in the back of his mind. 'What if it takes more than just the metal. What if it takes part of my neck too. I could die.' He had also considered making a key, but the collar had no holes for keys and as far as he could tell. 'I guess as a last resort I could try it.' Castus smiled bitterly.

After hours of turning in the small bed Castus finally fell asleep.

The next morning everyone was rudely awoken by Darius slamming the door open. "Wake up!"

Everyone compelled themselves awake and walked to the center of the large room. Darius inspected everyone in the room. He spoke while pulling out a sheet of paper and reading from it. "Alright assignments for the next coming weeks. Cerone you will be aiding the joint war against the heretic Mordens in the north. You will report to Sacred Flame August." Darius read out the rest of the assignments for the group before stopping and looking at Castus. You will be coming with me to level you up and then you will be sent the White Flame forges to make weapons for the current war effort."

Everyone left the room in a neat file and Darius walked towards the door with Castus in tow. While Castus wasn't sure how to escape the church yet. He was still determined. Determined to leave, find his remaining family, and now, also help his fellow transplants escape.