The Darkest Dawn

Chapitre 1

The half breed Frenchman lay awake in the dead of night, listening to the steady breathing of his young friend who lay only a few beds over. He could not sleep, even if he stapled his eyes shut. His mind swam with thoughts of the past few weeks. Audie's health, Master Rhaelra's recent seclusion to his study, and now the new slave who slept in the bed next to his. Or at least, was sleeping. Lucien could sense those dark blue eyes on him through the darkness, like the ocean tides at night. 

Lucien looked and stared back. The moonlight streaming from the window turned Darius' hair ghostly pale and lighter still, like the snow, was his face. "Do you insist on stalking all your fellow slaves in the night, or is it that you also cannot sleep?" Lucien whispered, lacing amusement in his tone. Darius' white lips curled in a mischievous smile. 

"Just you, I think. But yes, I do have trouble closing my eyes." Darius turned on his back, his eyes clouding. "It is around this time that I am usually jostled from my sleep so that I might be snatched from the warm safety of my blankets, and tossed back to the slave market." 

"It has only been a week." Lucien pointed out. He remembers the way Darius was dragged into the manor, his blonde strands astray, blue eyes wild, and teeth bared. Only a week, and Darius already expects to be sold again?

"Yes. It seems I am found to be unbearable, to both humans and Seivohn alike." Darius smiles, but it is a smile of sadness. Lucien grunts, recalling Darius' sour attitude towards the master. It wasn't that Darius had issues learning how to behave, he simply did not want to behave. 

Lucien heard of slaves like him. Often they bounce from master to master until eventually they are either Reeducated, sent to the Farms, or killed. Reeducation was administered to a slave if the slave cannot (or will not) do the job they were initially chosen to do. There are the field slaves, who work with crops or livestock, house slaves such as Lucien who tend to the chores, military slaves whose job can be guessed, the personal slaves like Audie whom took care of their master specifically, and then there were the business slaves who worked stores or companies. A slave is assessed when they are young to determine what kind of slave they would serve as. If the slave proved to be unfit for their job, they were sent to the Educators to train in a different service. If Reeducation did not work, the slave is sent back to the slave merchant with a seal stating they are useless. The slave would be sent to the Farms, where they are used to create more humans. If the slave is too unstable for the farms, they are killed.

"How many masters have you had?" Lucien asked. Darius pauses.

"I... don't know. Let's see... I've been a slave since I was thirteen, and I'm twenty one now. That's eight years of service. Now four years ago I was Reeducated to be a personal slave-"

"You were Reeducated?" Lucien breathed. "What were you before? Certainly they would not send you to the fields!"

"No, I was a soldier. I was quite an ugly kid back then, and I liked hitting things. When it became clear that I was going to be actually quite decent to look at, they quickly pulled me in from the battlefield before I could mess up my pretty face. I was Reeducated to serve households instead." Darius explained. "Problem is, I liked fighting. I still fight, but now it's against the Seivohn." Darius sits up suddenly, startling Lucien. His starlit hair cascaded around his face.  "That's it!" 

"Shush! Do you wish to wake everyone?!" Lucien hissed. "And what's 'it?!'" 

"We'll escape! You, Audie, and I." Darius whispered, ecstatic. 

"Escape?" Lucien gasped. "That's ridiculous! And impossible! Where would we go?!" 

"There's a secret society called the Revolution. I hear they're hiding in America right now!" Darius babbled, making Lucien's head spin.

"You better get this idea of escaping, freedom, and this 'Revolution' out of your head. It is nonsense. Not to mention if you run away, we'll be punished and you could quite possibly be killed." Lucien scolded.

"Not if you come with me and we aren't caught." Darius grinned. Lucien sighed.

"They'll find us."

"So you do want to escape."

"What?" Lucien face burns red. "I never said that!" 

"Yes you did." Darius laughed. "Twice now." Lucien sits up, furious.

"I would never act against our master. He has been so kind to us and if it weren't for him, I'd be serving under a much crueler lord doing God knows what." Lucien hissed. Darius' expression darkens.

"'Our master'? You mean 'your master'. Your master may have been kind to you, but I see nothing but malice in his eyes." Darius spits back. "And what do you know of 'God'? God has truly abandoned us to have allowed these monsters to enslave us. It is up to us to make our own fate and I choose freedom." Darius scowls and turns on his side, away from Lucien. "Good night, Mr. Penndrake." Lucien winced. 

Penndrake was his last name, and Darius only used it when he was truly crossed with Lucien. Penndrake was also the last name of a particular woman called Regina. Mrs. Regina Penndrake was rather a famous slave who died in the name of the Revolution. If asked, her peers would agree she was a woman of fiery passion who seemed destined to be the leader of the Revolution. Her Seivohn overlords would, of course, disagree. They would state she was simply a Rebel (Seivohn do not recognize members of the Revolution as Revolutionists, instead discrediting them as Rebels part of the Rebellion) and that she died a fool. Mrs. Penndrake's death is, in fact, what kindled the little spark of the idea of the Revolution into a flame. The Revolution megaphoned her death, and thus Mrs. Penndrake was marked as a martyr, "The Slave Who Burned Fighting For What's Right." Some believe Mrs. Penndrake moved on to Valhalla, seeing as she was a woman who believed in norse mythology and died with a weapon in hand.

If you think Lucien's last name being the same as a famous martyr's was a mere coincidence, you would not be alone in thinking this. However, you would also be terribly, horribly wrong. Mrs. Regina Penndrake, martyr in the name of the Revolution, was the wife of Mr. Lucien Penndrake, groveller to the feet of the tyrannical Seivohn. "But how could a coward kissing the very feet of his awful master be married to a woman who bravely rebelled?" You may ask. Lucien wasn't always a coward. He was a normal slave once. When his wife died, the widower hid his true nature in fear of death.

It seems that Darius' point in using Lucien's last name was to remind him of his former wife, who died for the cause Lucien appeared to be against. That, or he was just being plain mean. Lucien liked to think it was the latter, but sadly knew quite well it was the first. 

In the bold face of morning, Lucien prepares himself then arouses the others from their sweet slumber. Darius was quite difficult, refusing to waken. When he did, golden hair lay in tangles on his chest and strands stuck to his forehead. Lucien helped Audie through his beauty routine (a slave must be young, and quite lovely to look at if they are to be presentable and help their master through their daily routine) and afterwards tried to make Darius presentable. The keyword here is tried. Darius moved and figited too often while Lucien combed his hair and pinned it into a flourished ponytail, Audie holding him down. When it proved Darius to be much too strong for Audie by himself to keep from escaping, Lucien held him down instead while Audie applied subtle makeup to hide Darius' red cheeks which was due to exertion. All the meanwhile, Darius spewed various violent threats and colorful words using that delightful british tongue of his. By the end, Audie was in need of reapplication of makeup on his spent expression and Lucien in need of a recombing.