Twai

“First, I should try to figure out where I am,” Mia told herself before she could begin to panic. First she checked herself. Her fencing uniform had vanished, replaced by clothing similar to that of the people around her. She’d been placed in something like a robe with a blue and silver pattern sewn into it, but a tightness around her legs informed her that she was wearing pants underneath as well. The clothes were loose and airy, allowing in a cooling breeze that offset the harsh sun. Her sword now sat in a sheath hanging from a belt stretching from her left hip to her right shoulder.

Having determined that she didn’t seem to stand out to much, Mia looked around, trying to get her bearings. She’d been transported to the side of the road in a city of some size, from the looks of things. Behind her and across the street were buildings constructed mostly of stone with sharply slanted rooftops and brightly colored facades. The road, too, appeared to be paved with stone. No matter where Mia looked she saw no signs of concrete or asphalt, nor were there any modern streetlights. Not that the latter mattered at that moment, as it seemed to be morning judging by the angle of the sun, even if the temperature had already climbed to scorching heights.

A procession of soldiers passed by in the center of the road dressed in dated, bright green uniforms. They most closely resembled something she’d only seen in history books and movies—the sort of coats British soldiers wore around the time of the Revolutionary War. In their hands the soldiers carried muskets with bayonets, and they marched in step to a drumbeat being repeated from somewhere down the street.

The soldiers themselves didn’t resemble the British much, however. Most had black hair and dark eyes. Their skin looked suntanned, which made sense considering the heat. Some did have blonde or brown hair, but these features were paired with pointed ears that marked the men as elves, not humans, by Mia’s estimation.

Strangely enough, most of the civilians around her were neither humans or elves. Instead, the bulk of them had no ears on the sides of their heads at all, replaced by animal-like ears atop their heads. Odder still, there were no cheers coming from the crowd. They all looked wary of the soldiers passing through instead. Maybe a bit resigned. Certainly they were much quieter to than any crowd Mia had seen in her life, to the point that the only sounds she heard were footsteps and drumbeats.

“Human and elven soldiers, but animal people civilians?” Mia muttered to herself as she tried to assemble the facts she’d gathered so far in her head. Her best guess would be an occupying army. “Is that what the goddess wants me to do something about?”

That seemed unlikely to Mia, though. One nation or people occupying the territory of another was common enough historically that she just couldn’t see a goddess caring that much about it. Much less attempting and failing to do something about it over the course of centuries. There had to be something more to it.

As she mulled that over, she saw another pair of the scaled horses from earlier approaching. They didn’t much resemble horses aside from having four legs and hooves, actually, but she didn’t know what else to call them. Their faces were wider, almost a cross between a lion and a lizard, and instead of manes they had sail-like fins on their necks. The scales coating their skin were an iridescent green of a shade similar to the soldiers’ coats, though the they also gave off flashes of red depending on the angle.

The previous set of scaled horses had been ridden by soldiers Mia assumed were officers of some kind. This next pair were pulling a carriage. At first, Mia didn’t thinking much about that. As the carriage came closer, she realized it wasn’t just an ordinary passenger carriage. Bars decorated the sides, and there didn’t seem to be any doors where a carriage would normally have them. A single door, sealed with a lock, sat at the back of the carriage.

Through the bars, Mia caught glimpses of people wearing clothing of many different styles. No two of them seemed to be from the same place. She couldn’t make out many details because of how dim the inside of the carriage was, but she thought she saw chains. Prisoners? Slaves?

“It has to be the second one. The goddess must have placed me here so I’d see this,” Mia decided. Mixed emotions rans through her as she saw the sad state of these people. She wasn’t some all-loving heroine with justice flowing through her veins, prepared to give her life in an instant for the cause of some people she didn’t know. With that in mind, though, the idea that she real-life slavery was right before her eyes filled Mia with disgust.

Slavery had always been a thing of the past to her. She’d thought it wrong, sure, and she felt glad it had been brought to an end long before her birth. Past that, she never gave it much thought or looked into it all that much. She still didn’t know for certain that it was slavery she was dealing with, however. Mia clamped down on her disgust and indignation in favor of learning more about the situation.

She could try asking the people around her. They would surely know the answer. But this was their normal. If Mia asked a question like that—assuming they even understood the words—these people would immediately have questions of their own which Mia didn’t know if she should answer. Better just to observe a bit longer and maybe follow the procession to its destination.

Stepping backwards into the crowd, Mia headed for the nearest alley. So long as she could hear the military drummers she would have some idea of where the soldiers, and more importantly the carriages under their escort, were. Everyone seemed preoccupied watching the soldiers pass by, as well, so the alleys were probably relatively safe for the moment.

It took a bit of bumping and pushing, but soon Mia popped out of the crowd and into an alleyway that stank of mildew and urine. Scrunching up her nose, Mia did her best to ignore the stench and stepped into the alley, navigating by ear. Unconsciously, Mia tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword.

She didn’t notice as someone slipped into the alleyway behind her.