CC2

1.2 - Archers and varied

I found myself on a ship, travelling West, away from my side of the continent. I was taken to an archer town, where I was locked up. For weeks they tortured me, asking questions I didn't understand, trying to get information out of me that I didn't have. They knew I was from the other side of the continent, so naturally, they thought I was a spy or had knowledge of something important regarding the connection between them.

Eventually, I awoke to find my chains being removed. The people around me I didn't recognise, and they all looked at me with concerned expressions. None of them carried bows either, appearing to also be varied.

"Oh, my god, what did they do to you" a girl said to me as she ran up and hugged me. "Don't worry, we're here now, you're safe."

They healed me and gave me food, helping me regain my strength and get cleaned up. They even gave me some clothes and money. They told me that they had taken over the town, so it was no longer archer territory. The town happened to be in a war zone, specifically between the archers and the neutral territory.

I was brought to the leader of the town, a man who looked at me strangely. When I met with him, alone, he asked me to tell him everything that had happened. I explained the story about how I was on an expedition and got stranded on the island, then ended up getting caught, but he didn't seem to care about any of it. He wanted to know why I was getting tortured, and I told him that the archers thought I knew something significant because I was on the island. And if I left it there, I might have been alright.

But I didn't.

I said they tortured me because I was from the East, beyond the wall. When the man heard this his eyes widened. He grabbed my shoulders and told me to tell him everything I knew about that side of the wall. I told him that it was very similar and that I was just from a small town of curse users, but he didn't believe me, nor did he care.

He quickly forced me down and tied me up, locking me down in the dungeon once again. There was information he thought I had. There was something really important going on that I would supposedly know stuff about. He was just like the archers. He interrogated me daily. He would starve me, beat me, cut me, drown me. He never let my health deplete completely, but he never let me recover enough to not be in severe pain, either.

For a small moment, I thought I was safe and free, but then quickly went back to being half-dead, trapped and alone

I imagined he would make up some lies to explain my absence, or maybe the whole group of them were in on it. I couldn't know. I spent more weeks there, being hung by my chains, unable to move, and too uncomfortable to even sleep. I remained in a state of half-consciousness, often losing it completely for a little while, just to be woken by a sudden chill of water was poured on my head.

My head was filled with nightmares, as I could only think of the pain and hopelessness of my situation. There was no simple way out of this. There was nowhere I could safely retreat to, no home where I could be greeted with the warmth of friends. The only place I ever had was a small, dark and gloomy town filled with people who didn't care about my existence, never to notice that I didn't even return.

I was in constant pain. They had techniques for this figured out, finding methods of pain that only decreased your health by small amounts. All the archer torturing tools and strategies were still there so the new leader was very quick to become acquainted with them.

I heard a sound enter the dungeon, but didn't look up, even if I could. They were just back to torture me again, so I wasn't that eager to look. But instead of the regular interrogations and questioning, there was a woman's scream. The woman that originally found me here once again came to my rescue, if you could call it that. She ran up to me and released me, carrying me outside. She took me to the healers and quickly got me food.

"I'm so sorry. I can't believe this happened. I had no idea, I swear. What did they do to you..." she said.

I slept. She seemed to stay by my side the whole time, making sure no one would take me away. She told me I spent three days in bed, only waking long enough to eat before collapsing again.

"What will you do now? Where do you need to go? We can help take you if you want" she said, feigning kindness.

But I couldn't trust anyone here, not after that...

"Stay away from me. Leave me be. I never want to see this place again."

I went outside and looked around. I went to the edge of the city and stopped, looking out to the road through the forest.

"You heading somewhere miss? Need a ride?"

It was a travelling merchant. He was a decently old man with a beard, that seemed to just be passing through. He wasn't from here, so I decided to join him.

But before we could leave, the rest of them found me, gathering around us after hearing the news of my recovery. I could feel their stares and curiosity. It looked like many were unaware of my existence, which was something I didn't mind usually. It was difficult to know, though, as I was still clearly a curse-user, so fear and judgements could easily be hidden behind their normal expressions.

I saw one person in particular whispering, another medium, the ones that seemed to have the most to say and judge about me. I didn't know why, but it was like they had history or a reason to hate my kind more than others. The one they were speaking to was a field-user, a class that had no offensive capabilities. While field-users often had the least malice towards me, they might just naturally try to avoid conflicts and making enemies, being as useless as I am in one-on-one fights.

He appeared to be a boy close in age to me, perhaps a little older, but behind his youthful appearance I could see the eyes of someone who seemed to have more experience than one should normally have at such an age. I may have grown up rather disconnected, but after going through things that one shouldn't experience when so young and innocent, it was enough to let my weakened body and soul let my guard down, as he approached me.

He gave me a charm, that would supposedly help protect me on my journey. I can't say I was knowledgeable enough to know of such an item, as it felt like it would give me little more than wishful luck, but since I sensed no malice, I saw little reason to leave it behind.

The people of this town, however, I couldn't say the same of. I was never that great at reading others, since the common looks people would give me would either be fake or of obvious disgust. I was on the wrong side of the wall, and that knowledge seemed to be enough to make me a target. I had no way of knowing who here was aware of this fact. It was very easy to view me as vulnerable, someone to use, so I couldn't trust any of them. I had to get away from this town, away from these people...

So, I left town with the old merchant, hoping to never return there again...