3000 Years Ago...

***

Someone's POV

It was the sound of waves crashing over the docks of the pier. A huge ship made out of sturdy wood slowly approached the docks as it was about to settle. The sounds of people can be heard around the docks, it sounded like an anticipation of something they were waiting for.

As the ship put down its log pathway on the pier, groups of chained people slowly got escorted by guards equipped with chained armor and steel swords. It was diverse as there were humans, elves, beast people, and much more. Not only that but also their genders are no exceptions, male or female, even children were included on the voyage.

The people on the dock murmur in excitement as if they have found something valuable to keep. The chained people were none other than slaves themselves, getting sold by people who had no dignity as human beings.

One of the slaves stared at the vast ocean and stopped momentarily. It was an elf girl around 16 years old in human age with sky-blue hair and the color of an eye of frost. She stood there emotionless, watching the beautiful scene of the ocean with seagulls and boats.

"..."

Suddenly, she was shouted at by a guard who was behind her.

"Move your arse!" He shouted and pushed her forward.

The elf girl didn't defy and continued walking on the cobblestone path with her bare foot. She can't do anything about it, she has accepted that she is a slave and meant to be sold to aristocratic people, whether to be a labor maid or even something worse, sexual desire, especially in her age and gender.

They kept walking into the cobblestone path and after 40 minutes of forced walking, they arrived at what seemed to be an auction place. It was fancy, made of limestones and wood with fancy glass as its decorations.

They went behind as they went into the back door. Upon arriving, they went downstairs at least 30 meters deep and found themselves in a cell room occupied with previous slaves too.

One by one, they were escorted into their respective cell room. Some of them were defying, and some of them just accepted their fates.

"You stay here until someone buys you out. Try to escape and we will end your life," words from the guard echo in every slave's mind.

Every day drags on endlessly inside the cell room, the air heavy with the echoes of suffering and defiance. The piercing cries of children and the agonized voices of adults blend with the sound of whips cracking against flesh. Emotional and physical suffering permeates the air, bringing gloom to every minute spent inside those confining walls.

The slaves had to go through grooming sessions once a month, and they had to do so at least twice. However, given the filthy and frequently dusty conditions of their cell rooms, these grooming sessions proved insufficient to help the slaves maintain proper hygiene.

The slaves made an effort, but they were faced with a terrible choice: follow the guards' orders or face punishment, which usually consisted of whipping. The slaves' only option while imprisoned in this harsh environment was to follow their captors' instructions.

Only twice a week are the slaves given food, a meager ration that frequently leaves them starving. Sadly, there's a greater chance that some slaves will starve to death as a result of this insufficient provision.

But in the harsh reality, these people are ensnared in a system that robs them of their basic human rights and dignity, and they have neither the autonomy nor the freedom to look for other sources of support.

A lone figure was chained up, her fragile ankles fastened, in the dimly lit hallway that led to the cell chambers. It was the young elf girl, her gaze as cold as the first light of winter, her hair a shimmering sky blue. There were bruises all over her sensitive skin, and the frayed pieces of clothes did a poor job of hiding her nakedness from the bitter cold.

Every bruise revealed her defiance and demonstrated her unwillingness to comply with her captors' orders. She was impoverished, but she did not let anyone touch her; in the oppressive darkness of her cell, she was a frail but resolute beacon of resistance.

Although alone in a solitary place, there's this particular guard who always visits her cell once in a while. It was a male guard with black hair and grey eyes, wearing a thick grey wool uniform with a sword and its scabbard on his waist.

Every day, without fail, the guard would arrive at the cell where the elf girl was confined, bearing a tray laden with sustenance. Whether it was a simple loaf of bread or a humble bowl of soup, he would present it to her with a kind yet guarded expression. Despite being a stranger to her, he felt a sense of duty to ensure she was fed.

But every time the guard held out the tray to her, the elf girl would decline to take a bite. Rather, she would sit there, her thin body curled up and her legs tucked in close to her chest so that her face was hidden. The food would remain unfinished and left on the tray, serving as a painful reminder of the distance between them and the girl's silent suffering.

At times, the elf girl found herself unable to resist her hunger pangs, succumbing to the temptation of consuming the food offered by the guard.

The elf girl's food was occasionally taken care of by different guards too. But these others would laugh mockingly and leave, hurling the food onto the ground with callousness, unlike the sympathetic guard who fed her with empathy.

One day, the guard who always visits the elf girl brings a plate of food, usually attending twice a week. He looked over the cell door first and saw the elf girl with sky-blue hair just sitting there, covering her face with her both legs. He took some time before he gradually opened the cell door and entered her cell room.

"I got you some food to eat," he said with a friendly tone.

The elf girl didn't reply or take any action whatsoever and she was just sitting there in silence. The guard expected this to happen all the time, getting no response from the elf girl was like a natural thing for him.

As he crouched down to place the plate on the stone floor, he spotted a broken plate underneath the bed. Upon closer inspection, he realized that something was missing from the shards of the broken plate. While scanning the surroundings, he noticed scribbles of lines on the wall, usually indicating the number of days the elf girl had been imprisoned in the cell room.

But he was wondering about this, how was she able to scribble some lines on the wall without any tools to do it?

But then, he remembers something logical. Usually, plates have an iconic partner – spoons. The last time he saw the broken plate under the bed, there was no spoon on the ground. It was just some broken pieces with the residue of food that was molding.

In an instant, the elf girl unexpectedly attacked the guard with a spoon. Caught off guard, the guard instinctively tried to defend himself with his right hand. Despite her lack of strength, the elf girl was able to slice the guard's hand with the sharp edge of the spoon.

"GRFF!" He winced in pain, falling to the ground.

The elf girl attempted to quickly stab the guard using a sharp and pointy spoon. However, the guard proved to be a difficult opponent to kill as he immediately grabbed the elf girl's hand and pinned her against the wall. Consequently, the sharp and pointy spoon fell to the ground with a clatter as the elf girl dropped it.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" The guard said to her, pinning her to the wall.

The young elf girl didn't say anything, as if she was too tired to speak. The guard was still holding her hand against the wall to stop her from attacking him again. His hand was bleeding, which must have hurt a lot, but he remained calm and in control.

He continues, "If you did this to the other guards, you would be dead by now."

Still, there was no response from the elf girl. The guard sighs and gradually rises from the floor as he gently let go of her hand. He looks at her, still waiting for a response but still left on deaf ears. He sighs once again and turns around as he's going to leave the cell room.

"Eat your food before lights out,' he said and deliberately left the cell room.

The elf girl noticed that the guard had left the room and locked the cell door. She sat down, feeling tired, and saw a small spot of blood on the floor. Although she felt a bit guilty, her face remained emotionless and did not show any sign of remorse. She knew that she would eventually apologize, but at the moment, all she could think about was food.

"..."

She momentarily grabbed the plate of food on the floor and ate it even though it was already molding. However, she doesn't have any choice but to eat it rather than starve to death.

Days passed slowly, dragging their weight like heavy chains, and a pall fell silently over the small cell. A period of twenty-six long, endless days had passed since the guard and elf girl's covert meeting, an event shrouded in secrecy and hushed rumors.

The once-bustling cell chamber became quieter by the day, its occupants dwindling like embers in a fading fire. The slaves met their end one by one, their bodies weakened by desperation and hunger. A few were carried off and sold to unidentified aristocrats, whereas others withered away, their thin bodies serving as a reminder of the harshness of their situation.

The smell of desperation and decay hung heavy in the air, mixing with the musty smell of perspiring bodies and the harsh metallic tang of iron bars. Dappled shadows danced across the walls, creating unsettling silhouettes in the faint light that came in through the tiny apertures in the tall windows overhead.

Time seemed to have no meaning in the suffocating silence, punctuated only by the whimper and occasional moan of pain, and to stretch out endlessly like a barren desert plain. And yet the elf girl was there, a lone figure in the desolation, a flicker of defiance in her eyes against the gathering darkness.

She was confined to the depths of her dimly lit cell and kept apart from all human contact. Her reputation preceded her, and no prospective buyer dared approach her because she was known for her fierce defiance and willingness to lash out at anyone who dared to approach her. Her aggression had forced her into isolation, where she was forced to brood.

Just as the silence fell over the cell room, an unprovoked earthquake rocked the area, sending small rock fragments clattering to the ceiling. Amidst the chaos, the elf girl, her face flushed with surprise, cocked her head slowly to see what was causing the commotion.

She didn't realize what was happening, and she didn't understand why until a man with jet-black hair and sharp grey eyes suddenly broke the silence in her cell.

He was clutching a crystal that had been crystallized by frost ice. His face was pale with anxiety and sweat dripped down his forehead. He was heavily panting as he ran relentlessly down the hallway. However, the reason for his anxious expression remained unknown.

"I don't know what's happening, but there's something out there attacking any living being," he said anxiously.

"The others were consumed by this mysterious black magic. I don't know what it is, but no one is left other than us here."

The elf girl was perplexed by the guard's sudden anxiety, although she didn't pay much attention to it. The guard quickly placed a crystal stone in front of her and crouched down, but his intentions were still unclear.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound came from behind them, and a black, mysterious magic began to engulf the cell door, slowly menacingly advancing toward them. It was a magic that no one knew existed.

"Shit, it's here!" He shouted in anxious.

The guard approached with a sense of urgency, his eyes focused on the crystal lying on the ground. With a swift motion, he drew his sword from its scabbard and plunged it into the crystal, causing it to shatter into a million pieces. As the sword pierced the crystal, a bright light emanated from it, illuminating the surrounding area with a soft, blue glow.

The crystal's broken fragments began to enlarge, and the light radiating from them increased in intensity. The expanding pieces of crystal gradually took on a frosted texture, and the elf girl nearby was soon surrounded by the shimmering ice.

The crystal itself was a unique stone imbued with powerful ice magic, making it impossible for anyone to disperse its enchantment unless they possessed the magic to undo its seal.

The elf girl observes as the guard is consumed by an unfamiliar dark magic. Although she remains emotionless, she feels a sense of unease as the ice gradually freezes her in place. The guard notices that the elf girl has finally become frozen and he lets out a faint smile of relief.

"Be safe," he said his final word before he got completely consumed by the black magic.

The dark magic surged in a sinister way, its tendrils of darkness reaching outward until they engulfed not only the room but the young elf girl's delicate form in its evil grasp.

Even though the ice that surrounded the elf girl was made to be impervious to such evil forces, the dark power was able to overcome its crystalline surface nonetheless. The ice itself was still unbroken, but the black magic that was creeping in was hiding its once-perfect exterior.

The young elf girl was engulfed in an unfathomable darkness as the dark tendrils of black magic engulfed her. She felt the cold, sharp tendrils encircling her, and as she fought against the overwhelming feeling, shivers ran down her spine.

The dense darkness seemed to smother her senses with every moment that went by, and she could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness and giving in to the all-consuming void of darkness and silence. Her eyelids became heavy gradually, and she gave in to the all-encompassing darkness, her world sinking into a void of complete silence and darkness.

The last time an event called "Black Incident" happened. That was 3000 years ago...