Luck in the cave 1

Ylre knew they should hurry up, he knew they didn't have time to spare, but stopping Rue in his priorities was impossible and he didn't even plan to. So while Ylre tried to find some mechanism to open the door from the inside, Rue let people out of the cells.

Ylre continuously watched how he simply broke the metal locks with some stone, opened the doors of the cells and received first terrified, then grateful looks from the prisoners. Ylre might have helped them if he didn't know they had problems of their own, so he continued to look for something useful, but he couldn't find it.

If it could save them, he might have drawn his sword. However, since the bars and his blade were made of the same material, he knew his sword wouldn't work on them. Metals that could take luck from things and beings weren't built to meet each other, and Ylre knew he'd just reveal his identity to someone who really shouldn't know about it yet.

"Ah!" a loud cry made him pay attention and abandon his search.

"What happened?" he ran to Rue, who was rubbing his fingers painfully and gently blowing them, as if he had just hurt himself.

Ylre glared angrily at the pile of people who had gotten out of the cells. He created a barrier between them and Rue and gave them a murderous look that made everyone back away.

"Who did this to you?" Ylre asked monotonously, which only scared people more.

"Lock," Rue laughed lightly and nodded to the ground, at the bloody stone he had hit his fingers with, "I missed." he picked it up again.

Ylre watched for a moment as he made his way to the next cell before catching up to him and blocking his path.

"Do you want to help?" Rue asked as Ylre took the stone from his hand.

Without a word, Ylre chose to finish opening the remaining cells. It didn't take long at all and Rue just watched with interest how easily was everything done by Ylre's hands. He lightly slammed the stone on the iron lock, it fell to the ground, several people ran out, and Ylre went to the other cell. He ignored the captive's bullshit, and in no time unlocked all the cells. Rue ran up to him interested.

"You're better at it than me," he smiled.

Ylre threw the stone on the ground and raised the corners in a soft smile, "It'll sounds strange, but I've always enjoyed destroying locks."

"Sir...thank you, sir." their moment was interrupted by a group of people behind them. Some were sitting exhausted as the entire rescue took several hours.

Rue smiled, "No need to thank us, take today as a new chance for life and thank the Luck that brought us to you today...however, if you want to be helpful, I have a few questions," he began, "who locked you in here?" he asked.

The people fell silent and looked at each other in confusion before telling the pair a few stories.

During the conversation, Ylre and Rue discovered that the people didn't know each other, that they came from all kinds of parts of Rinsel, some were just passing through, some belonged to someone. Some were Rinselans, some Lacrisans. However, there was one thing that their statements agreed on... each of them met the suspicious Lacrisan.

Some he lured like a troubled boy, some he robbed and let them follow him here, some he even attacked and dragged here. Some he took here only as part of a common trip.

"As soon as I woke up, I had this on my neck...like I was an animal! In Lacris they said they weren't used anymore, so I agreed to go to this country...but I don't deserve to be treated like this!" one guy grabbed his iron collar chain with a diamond-shaped hole in the center for a stone.

"Right! In Rinsel, black collars have become de-legalized, de-legalized! Shit!" the other shouted.

"Black collars?" Rue still didn't understand.

"They are used to transfer bad luck or luck...they are usually used to torture the Lacrisan by making them feel as if their luck has run out and they are overwhelmed with bad luck...but they can also be used to directly draw luck or bad luck to the stones," Ylre clarified.

"Ah," Rue blinked confused, as he had never seen anything like this, "what cruelty. Who could use such an inhuman thing."

"Church of bad luck!" one guy shouted.

"Disgusting animals...pigs!" another guy shouted.

In no time the entire cave was filled with the screams of people who harbored both anger and fear towards their tormentors, and Rue watched them for a moment before deciding that this might be enough. Therefore, after listening to them for a while, he raised his voice.

"Calm down!" he tried to stop the crowd from shouting, which partially worked... but not enough.

"Calm down? How? I don't know who even gave it to me! I will not get rid of him! I'll have that collar forever, it can't even be unlocked, they didn't even let us take it off!" one Lacrisan continued.

"Exactly! At least you are Lacrisans, but I'm a proud Rinselan! Who has ever seen a Rinselan with a Black collar for tranfering bad luck? Who? Outrageous!"

The crowd soon roared again, leaving Rue confused as he had no idea how in the world anyone would even allow something like this to happen. However, he didn't stay in thought for long. His mind couldn't think through the shouting, and since he didn't like the noise, he let out a soft sigh. He scanned the crowd, took a deep breath, and briefly stated his wish.

"Silence!" he shouted sharply, his usually gentle voice echoed through the hall as if it didn't even belong to him, forcing the people to immediately fall silent.

Many pairs of eyes looked in his direction, their pupils resting on Rue's unchanging face, which was surveying them from above. His golden eyes made each of them subconsciously bow their heads down in submission.

Rue smiled softly when the cave was quiet and added, "None of you will have it for long...today I will take them all down...but you must be civilized...don't shout, speak slowly and let me help you ...if you don't behave yourself, we won't get it done, do you understand what I'm saying?" he asked.

The people stood in silence for a moment and nodded gently, intending not to bother Rue any more. Although he didn't seem angry, his gentle smile, his piercing gaze, instilled in them a special kind of respect and a need to fulfill his wishes. Each of them, no matter what position they usually were in, felt subordinate to Rue at that moment...naturally.

Ylre knew that he didn't have to speak or interfere, as the group of commoners didn't stand a chance against Rue, as a member of the highest Infey. Therefore, he just watched as the people finally took the positions they were supposed to be in front of Ruo right away...in complete submission at his feet.

Ylre stood next to him in an exemplary manner, waiting for the people to nod in unison at the words.

Once the situation calmed down, people wondered, "Can you really take them down?"

"I can," Rue nodded and smiled lightly as he saw the hope in the human's eyes, "but you have to stay calm, line up and wait your turn...when we're done we'll take you out." he said.

People hesitated for a moment whether Rue was telling the truth, but since his voice sounded trustworthy, everyone followed his words.

Meanwhile, Ylre waited what Rue wanted to do and wasn't sure if he got it right. It was true that highest Infeys connected to the source of luck could manipulate it, restore it to its original state, move it between people, and other things that were once their job. However, several hundred years had passed since then, and Ylre wasn't sure if Rue knew exactly what to do.

He didn't know how much of his powers he could still control, since he couldn't draw any more from his luck. But he didn't speak, he didn't stop him...because whatever Rue wanted to do, he was in no position to stop him in any way.

However, Rue knew what he was doing. Even though his luck was small, even though he couldn't draw from the source of luck like he used to, still his connection to luck itself wasn't broken. It couldn't be...if it was, Rue wouldn't be alive.

However, that wasn't the case with him…his connection to luck was weaker than in the past, but it was still there…he was still able to perform the basic duties that his kind had.

As soon as the first human stopped in front of him, Rue lightly touched the collar on his neck and sighed softly as he didn't understand what atrocities were happening in the new world. He lightly bit his finger and created a small injury, then placed the bleeding wound against the collar and gently closed his eyelids.

To be connected to the source of luck was to be connected to all living beings who possessed luck...each of his kind could perceive all living beings as a whole. It had been a long time since Rue had sensed the course of luck, had sensed its connections as tiny golden threads leading to every single living being...and had been trying to find a way to the source for someone whose luck was no longer his own.

At the time when he was at full strength, when he was able to use his luck, Rue had never encountered the black collars, but in the end they were nothing significant. The classical flow of luck in an individual has been interrupted and combined with someone else's luck for someone else's one-sided benefits.

It wasn't natural and what wasn't natural had to be corrected. It used to be no problem for Rue to perform a similar luck flow cure at any time...and even though he had been locked up for a long time, nothing had changed...Rue simply connected the luck of the person in front of him to the source of luck.

As soon as a person's luck even touched the source itself, its flow returned to its original state. In the case of these people, the marks on their necks became worthless, the collar snapped, fell to the ground, and their luck became their own again.

Once the first person survived, the others couldn't wait for Rue to heal them as well. Seeing it as a duty, Rue didn't even think of turning down any of them, so he continued on. One by one he freed them from the grip of their collars and watched with smile as people rejoiced and thanked him for his blessing.

"It's al right, child, thank Luck that brought our paths together," he said.

All the while, Ylre watched as Rue applied his blood to iron collars and freed people from something they thought would be a burden for their entire lives. Ylre didn't say anything, but somewhere deep in his soul, he felt his insides quiver, his heart pick up its pace, and he smiled lightly as he watched Rue's content expression as everything worked out.

"You look happy," Rue looked at him with smile.

Ylre nodded lightly, "I just saw something beautiful...nostalgic."

Although Rue didn't understand, Ylre returned his smile and Rue went back to work. Once he destroyed all the collars and each of the people became free again, they were all able to focus on a different problem.

"How do we get out?" they asked.

Ylre stared at the iron bars that separated them from freedom and thought, "In that case, you could still-" he began thoughtfully, but stopped in time so Rue wouldn't overhear him.

However, he wasn't wrong. Once people started asking how they were going to get out, a few words from Rue was enough to turn the panicked crowd back into an orderly collective waiting to see what would happen.

Ylre watched as Rue came to the door. He brought his palm to them and touched one of the bars that had once cost Ylre a painful experience. But they cost Rue nothing. A material that normally drew luck from others and returned it to the source itself, couldn't draw luck from someone who was the source itself. Therefore, under a single touch of Rue's fingers, the terrifying door became an unusable piece of junk.

The metal slammed into the ground and made people jump in surprise, as none of them expected such an easy solution.

Rue turned to them with a smile and said, "You are free to go."

People looked hesitantly at him for a moment, then at each other, before walking out in disbelief. They walked slowly for a while, then they sped up to a run. Ylre walked to Rue, who remained alone at the door and laughed lightly.

"That was amazing," Ylre said, relieved that he didn't have to think about how to get them out of there in time.

Rue just smiled softly and looked at Ylre's fingers. He moved his own to them, but immediately pulled them back, "I only know the basics...it's something like a family heirloom...but I can't help you with this right now," he muttered unsatisfied.

Ylre raised his black marked fingers and laughed lightly, "You've done more than enough...thank you." He hid his palm behind his back. Rue smiled softly and nodded as he believed that in time he might help Ylre. They stood side by side for a while before they made their way out of the cave.

Ylre knew that it would take some time for his black spots to disappear, probably several decades, but he didn't mind since it didn't affect him in any way. As a middle-class Infey, he was connected to his highest Infey's source of luck. However, unlike them, he couldn't communicate with luck and couldn't restore it once the part in his course of luck was broken. He only knew how to draw from it. And even if Ylre was a special case, he still couldn't make the black marks on his hand disappear.

Once outside, the people bowed gratefully to Rue and went their separate ways. A few of them had no idea where they were, so Rue advised them that they saw a few guards along the way who could help them. The rest scattered more easily, and Rue and Ylre were soon alone in the forest.

Although it didn't seem like they had been in the cave for long, in fact a whole night had passed, a whole day, and the sun was setting again towards evening. Rue asked thoughtfully, "Should we take a walk at night? I'm not tired yet."

Ylre, who thought it would be a better plan to continue on their way than to look for a place to stay for the night, since he didn't feel like sleeping either, nodded. They chose the direction in which they once aimed and believed that their destination wasn't far away.

However, it was... because their steps were not directed to Dycae but to Alycante... but they were to find out soon.