Breaking Utopia

Chapter One | The Women In Chains

       It was a night like any other on the outskirts of Falmis. Cool air rustled the trees as it passed by. The birds slept soundly in their nests safely away from the creatures below and the steam lantern's bulbs in the town square began to fade, becoming one with the night as the muddy streets glistened against the moonlight. Though at the Kleon Plantation, a chaotic and important race was ensuing.

The master's hounds howled in hysteria as they pushed their snouts to the ground. Hergus Kleon's men could barely hold the beast's leashes as they pulled and yanked against them. The eldest of the mutts and most reliable, Truxie, was the first to get a good smell of the runaway. Truxie howled and yanked at worker Gunnder's leash, pulling him towards the Falmis woods.

Master Kleon and the others quickly followed suit and raced into the woods hoping their own mutts would pick up where Truxie left off. Their lanterns swung against the wind and the light from them smacked against every bark and bush around the pack of wild hunters, yet in all the excitement, one worker, by the name of Cillian Bolk did not notice the strange purple eyes peeking out from one of the illuminated bushes as he passed.

It wasn't Kei's intention to be stationary, let alone entwined in the branches of shrubbery. To her credit she was running before, and she ran deep into the woods; her lungs felt like they were filled with ice formed from the cold night air. She wanted badly to keep running, but she froze with the thought of what would happen to the others she left behind.

Crey, Tye'vor, Drunna. They flashed in her mind, and she froze, only to hear the dogs closing in and the shimmering golden light of the lanterns come across the trees. So, she chose the best place to freeze, amongst the thicket. It felt to Kei as if half an hour went by and the lanterns slowly dissipated into the background of the woods, it seemed that now was the time for running again, her only thought was in which direction, south back to Crey and her friends or north to freedom.

She rattled at her mind for the solution until something large and bulbous gripped her silver hair and yanked her out of the shrubs. Kei fell to the forest floor and looked up to see Hergus towering above her with a nasty grin on his face. He was a burly man, with an equally burly red beard. He didn't seem like the type to own a plantation and more like the type to work on one.

Hergus worked hard to create his own plantation. It took years, but after the first war of the divide broke out, Hergus found fortune providing rations to the Arkins. He was a proper businessman, coming from nothing he was not willing to let anything in the business slip. Kei...Kei was slipping.

The red bearded man snorted and held a grin of contempt across his cracked lips. "Been searching the whole woods for ya, Pretty Cotton!" A cruel nickname he gave, no one could tell if it was given for his own amusement or simply because he never remembered his slaves' names.

Kei was not paying attention what name he threw out. She was too busy eyeing the vial dangling by a metal ring on his belt. The vial held a bright blue fluid that seemed to be frosting the glass. Kei knew exactly what it was. He never went anywhere without it. To Hergus it was a trophy and a way to prove to Kei he held all power over her.

Hergus spat down onto her, bringing her back to reality. "Wipe that grin off your face, Cotton!" He said leaning down to her. Kei turned to him with a menacing grimace as she raised herself up to his face. Hergus Kleon gave an airy chuckle. "I got two options for you, lady." He said calmly, as he snatched one of her hands and raised it to his lips "you can come back home calmly, and I can take you to our fun room for the night." He kissed the palm of her hand, with menace in his eyes, "or I can burn this whole forest down with you in it."

Kei looked at him a while longer, as he caressed her palm thinking of every which way, he would gain pleasure from her pain tonight. She thought of all the things he would do to her, and all the things he already had. She thought long and hard, if she went back, she would save her friends, what was her only family left from days of punishment for her escape. Kei couldn't even imagine what Hergus would do to her, she was his favorite toy, and she didn't know what he would do to a broken toy. Kei thought of one last thing in this moment. There was an option C, and Kleon shouldn't have brought that vial.

Kei, with her free hand ripped the vial from his belt and smashed it against the ground; without a second thought Hergus slapped Kei to the ground in a rage. "The hell do you think you're doing, you rotten Rel bitch!" He screamed as she held her cheek beside the misty ooze of the shattered vial. For a second, she thought she saw a blue butterfly flap its wings across the liquid and shattered remains of the vial.

As his chest puffed up and down Hergus Kleon watched as the liquid turned to mist, and Kei slowly raised her body off the ground. The mist seemed to trail up her body like a snake wrapping its prey. Hergus slowly backed away stunned, the fear growing as the mist entered every orifice of her, as if it was a part of her finally retreating home. The remaining mist that didn't seep into her mouth or nose, covered her eyes for a moment, until Kleon witnessed them turn a neon purple as the mist slipped underneath her eyelids. A small runic birthmark on her neck lit up for a moment the color of her eyes, as she gave a sigh of comfort she hadn't felt in an awfully long time. She was whole.

Her master, at this moment, fell to his knees in submission. "You thought I'd be the one to burn tonight?" Kei said with a sharp grin. Her fingertips lit up with purple embers emitting from them. She felt her power coursing through her like wildfire. Kei was overcharged with power, and this was the perfect moment to take advantage of it. She waved her purple fingertips along the tree line and in a instant they both were encircled in a blazing ring.

The bearded master could feel the ground beneath him turn from cool dew to hot ash in seconds, this was no normal fire, it was something from another plane, something unnatural. He watched as Kei turned her back from her ex-master and opened up a small gap for her to leave the hell fire.

"Your god." Hergus somberly said to the purple eyed Rel as she stepped towards the threshold of her escape. "Rowvick, you call him? He would hate you to leave a man to die, wouldn't he?" He cried out, his one last chance to escape the inevitable.

Kei paused for a moment, as if to give it thought. In that moment, something broke inside of Kei. She looked over her shoulder to the red bearded master on his knees with the fire's smoke drying his wet eyes. "No god would leave me in your chains." She answered with venom on her words, as the flames began to engulf the man.

By morning, the small village of Falmis awoke to a burnt forest. It took two days for the Arkin guards to find all the bodies of Kleon's search party. They never found Hergus, only a pile of ash at the center point of the fire. They only knew it was Kleon's party when one Gunnder Fassel never came into town for his regular end of shift drink at the village tavern. They found Kleon's plantation abandoned with all of his slaves and many of his crops missing. All that was left behind was the fiery rubble of what was once the beloved Kleon Mansion.