LLZ-10: A Magical Place

His name is Max Falsch, a native of Milium. The owner of a business in Roze called Mirrors Palace. One among many establishment at the night market, legal and registered. Yet it’s an open secret among the business owners, that Mirrors Palace is just a front for his real venture. Slavery and human trafficking.

His preference became the mold for how he conduct his business. He prefer products that has a longer shelf life and easy to transport. One which doesn’t take much space, easy to handle, requires fewer amount of guards, and in-demand. Naturally Max’s focused toward procuring, maintaining, training, and selling as much Heisian people as he can.

Milium took a massive step to ban all form of slavery. But the lack of enforcement, regulation, and bad definition of what “slavery” is, became the perfect climate for a thriving black market. A run off the mill slavers are never accountable, transparent, and their businesses are tax-free. Whether it is taboo and or illegal, Max still has to keep the police happy by sending 10% of his gross profit to The Bureau of Human Rights. This transaction went under the table, and the government also need near-gratis workers for their factories. Max rounded up his third best, then sent them off to work.

To solidify this partnership, the government gave Max a position as the Head of Production & Supply Department in one of their factories. His main job is to watch over the Heisian, making appearance more as a master rather than a leader. His office is a mana packaging plant, the product specifications are suspiciously close to what the military needs when the war broke out.

Max doesn’t have the qualification to run a factory, instead his job was picked up by one of his subjects. Her name is Caroline, a small yet smart female slave he bought from the market. The ownership costed him 55000 Koen, a pretty penny even for a business owner like Max. Her name is a sick joke of his. It means “Free Woman”, “Free” as in freedom, not in beer.

She is standing at around 140 centimeters, weighs 40.5 kilogram, and usually described by Max to be as flat as a board. Her black hair, long enough to touch her T8 thoracic section, is kept neat by a black rubber she spun around into a ponytail. She dressed neatly at work, wearing a gray blazer, dark short skirt, and see-through stockings covering all of her legs.

Caroline is officially Max’s first secretary, with her coworker conveniently missing as they are nearing the government’s target deadline. She is writing, flipping, and stamping all of Max’s paperwork, while Max turned off his brain, staring outside from his second floor office towards the production line’s workers below. Caroline knew the cold war is nearing its boiling point, just by looking at the number of mana containers ordered.

She stood up from Max’s desk, which is used by her more than Max. Her hand is holding an executive summary for a 100 page monthly report some poor soul have made overnight. Caroline tapped Max’s back, he reacted by ever so slightly jolting, his non-existence concentration is now broken. Max is wrinkled with worry and somber, as if he’s about to announce the death of a relative. Caroline took notice of it and put a smiling, reassuring, warm face, trying to entertain him. He turned around and clearly relaxes his face once Caroline is within his peripheral vision.

“You’ve got something for me, Carry?” He made a nickname for her, even though Caroline’s name is only a single word long.

“I do, Sir. It’s about our current production rate, procurement statuses, and notes from the logistic team. Please read it.” Her hand extends slightly upwards, handing him the document as politely as possible. Max shook his head with a condescending smile.

“No, thank you. I’m an auditory learner, just say what you see on the paper.” He replied while gently pushing the document back to her. She raised her eyebrow with a little smile following immediately. Caroline already knew this will happen, but she always tried to do it properly anyway.

“Just to recap, our production rate is still aligned with the current target. So as long as we kept things constant, we will reach the target by the end of the week. Also the foreign logistic team noted one missing truck going back to The Republic. This caused minimal impact to our throughput, so you shouldn’t worry about it.”

“One late truck you said?”

“Yes sir, one late truck. I could push the logistic team, maybe for a discount or compensation for lost time.” said Caroline.

“Do you have the manifest for those late trucks? I want to inspect them myself.” Caroline was taken aback, her eyebrows frowned ever so slightly.

After that, Max spent three hours silently reading through all the logistical documents he’s able to review. His eyes are locked into each numbers and names on those papers. It’s rare to see him this fired up. Caroline sat behind him on a spare office chair. She is wondering what kind of treasure Max is searching in between those boring paperwork.

Caroline noticed he mentioned “late trucks”, an interesting point to pursue. She read the papers herself a few hours ago, a seemingly ordinary late shipment. In a complex journey from raw materials, production, and then packaging, mishaps will happen in between. Shipments are one of the most important and easiest to screwed-up type in these processes. The truck might be late, the containers can get thrown over and be damaged along the way, a package, or two might get lost in between changing hands. Sure they are traceable, but in time of near-war, functionality, and production rate take precedence over small acts of incompetence and or malice.

The breathing and throbbing brain inside of her skull can’t figure out what he’s truly searching for. Asking straight questions to Max might not be the best thing to do. She is, however nicely treated by Max, is still a slave. She had and will never have enough power to question or even give opinion, without the permission of her master. She tries to not pry in, but she lifted her head by a tiny bit, to see the document being reviewed from behind Max’s shoulder.

An earth-shattering noise was heard from outside of the room. It’s like changing to the wrong gears on a car, gears meeting gears, grinding out each other’s surface. Both Caroline and Max jumped out of their seats, a scream of a woman, screeching like a birthing mother follows after.

Max peered his head over the edge, overlooking the production line from A1 to A10. They are a mid-sized conveyor belt, with several Heisian sitting on each of its sides, each doing their part to assemble the final product.

The line A2 is automatically stopped, something is caught between the space of its construction. A hand of a female salve was caught by a small gap, eating anything fleshy into the machine, invariably killing the momentum of the production. She is still young, far from being a proper adult.

The other Heisian aren’t stopping their work. A similar incident happened on the previous month, also to a young Heisian. Someone gullible tried to help her, but his effort was cut short after one of the guards punched him in the face. They are not allowed to think, to feel, not even to speak, without permission. It forces them to ignore such terrifying sight, lest they wish more punishments from the guards.

These guards are a part of a larger regiment, they called themselves Stickmen, named after their favorite weapon. They are a part of the police force which is used by the government to put force into the civilian areas. Their business spans from security, manhunt, enforcements, and slave-tending. All men and women in the regiment wears all-black clothing and smart glasses. It’s mandatory for them to go through monthly physical test to make sure they are fit for the job. It’s not uncommon to see them beating their way through a large crowd, often battered by rage inducing political movements. The baton hanging from their hips are dented, scratched, with red streak of blood all over them.

They are unfazed by the high pitch shriek, her hand crushed and blended into a red-soup. The poor slave’s name is Alexandria Rasmusdottir. She is daughter of Rasmus Gorrunson and Selena Thordottir. She is far from home, an almost isolated island, one that’s cold, harsh, and filled with the warmth of friendly people. It’s a small town called Lytfok. Within those regions, a country is commonly separated by tundras of grass and greens and or voids of bottomless sky in between. Through centuries of advancements, it has come to a point where the voids between floating islands are not a reason to separate people. The indigenous men created techniques to bridge the voids with bridges, balloon vehicles, and even catapults for items. It’s far from being called a large country, but they are far from the so called “primitive civilizations”. They have their own culture, history, currency, technology, science, and long standing descendants.

Her father was the town’s magician, his office was located near the center area. It’s by no means a bustling city, only enough to meet at least one new people every day. He specialized in making small daily necessities. Hand warmers, groceries lifters, and food preservers. Marketing were handled with word of mouth, which is enough to build a sizable customer base.

Selena, her mother, is the town’s “flowers of the hills”. Beautiful, fragile, far, and mere human dare not to touch them. She spent her day caring for Alexandria, reading her every books in her collection, running around the field, while always finishing housework before Rasmus came home. As a mother, she is also expecting another one in the oven.

The townspeople loves Alexandria, her family loves her, she doesn’t have a single enemy, and her future looked bright. She wanted to be a magician once she grew up, exactly like his dad. She put 100% of her effort by gobbling up any piece of information, books, hearsay, movies, videos, and notes, anything remotely connected to magic. A natural born autodidact, in a year she is able to create lightning out of the ground, months before she’s able to ride a bike.

Everything changed after their first contact with the Milium government. The town of Lytfok made up a partnership, promising a fruitful economic relation. They are going to exchange food for money and labor. It became one of the most abusive, cold, and calculated relationship the town had ever faced.

It happened a few years back, when the cold war was a bit warmer. Milium was on their high horse, being able to connect civilizations from different islands in a cost effective way. Flying ships, knowledge of travel, uninet connection. They are everything and everywhere, all at once. Milium desire to win as many friends and kill as many foes, betraying one by making a black sheep of another, and ultimately conquering the city by controlling her residents.

Lytfok is just another dot in the history of Milium’s greed against humanity. The partnership goes well at first. Foods, drinks, and even infrastructures were tossed around the place like it’s a big birthday. The price was low, and the interest were minimum. Everyone is thriving inside of a big bubble that’s about to burst. Their reliance to this new alliance begets complacent.

They are starting to ignore their good friendship with the city across the land. Because of their faith in this relationship, every goods, and services were imported without limits. Local businesses started to compete with a nonsensical pricing from Milium. Rasmus was the first man to notice, then the others, then at last, his customers. No businesses, means no work. No work means everyone will look for a job outside of the city.

Credit card application jumped in numbers, burying the whole town in debt, it is now common to see homeless without a cent on their name. Selena sold most of her jewelry, just to cover groceries and transportation. None of the home appliance was used, not even the fridge. Utility bills sky rocketed, Milium factories sucked it dry, and they are located just across the road.

Alexandria remembers when her mother’s lost hair. It was messy, fills up the whole house with strands of hair, like a stressed cat. Rasmus rarely comes home, only for a few days of every two weeks, resting after he scraped any pieces of odd-jobs to make ends meet. Several of his friends already bought out of the town and started living as a rough, blue collared worker at Milium.

As expected, the majority of credit holders defaulted. A negotiation between National Bank of Milium and the local government soon follows. The choices were clear, and they were met with an impossible decision. Either mass immigration, or forceful imprisonment. The first choice is to ship out the majority of the population from the island to work in one of their factories. Their labor will be considered payment towards their debt. These workplaces were known to delay salaries and have a harsh working conditions. It’s effectively slavery. The second choice is to imprison the defaulters, which is the same as killing the sovereignty of the town. You can’t exactly rule an area without people to rule, after all.

Being met by an impossible choice, a class war commenced. The people of Lytfok dropped down to the street, harassing, then eventually killing anyone from Milium in the light of day. No large demonstration, just an act of manic self-preservation against the system. Everything goes according to Milium’s plan. After the first blood was spilled, Milium now have a valid casus belli, legitimizing their use of force in another man’s land.

The military soon came to the island in full force. Their guns are loaded with “non-lethal bullets”, which are in fact can kill someone if fired enough times. Those who dare to oppose the new order, will be captured and executed on the spot. Violence ran rampant, you’re either live in shame or die trying. The canals ran thick with the essence of those who live near them. Milium is trying to kill a whole town by kidnapping the women, killing the men, and imprisoning the children. Which are exactly what happened to Alexandria’s family.

His father was found dead near an electrical box, his head smashed into its corner. He’s still holding a screwdriver and a notebook, now red in his own blood. Rasmus was trying to fix his neighbor’s short circuiting house, free of charge. But the military got to him first, thinking he’s trying to sabotage Milium. The alleged methods were unclear, but a dead body can’t really sue a living person. It was short, effective, and brutal. A person wearing full armor just took the barrel of his gun, bashes his head in, and shoot before he could even blink. It took 10 seconds from the first hit, until his last breath.

Selena, cursed by her own beauty, are now in the hands of some lonely soldiers. They were instructed to bring any productive members of society into Milium. They are picking the best out of the population, and then use up all the rest in a carnal and beastly endeavor. Thousands of women considered to be “ugly” were rounded up and then killed with their husband watching. Nothing like killing a family member to plunge an entire area into depression.

Selena whereabouts are unknown, she could only briefly see the face of her only child before being taken away in a large black truck. Because of the amount of societal pressure, Selena couldn’t hold unto the child that’s growing inside her, she had a miscarriage soon after.

Just like hundreds of others, Alexandria is now reduced to a nobody with a higher than usual magic affinity. Her life can now be summarized into several paragraphs of reports, rather than pages of epics and novel adaptations. The worst part about her journey, is the fact that she can no longer make friends after being separated from her mother.

Back to the present day, Alexandria is just an unlucky girl. She tried her best to survive, but it’s just not good enough. Her amputated hand is leaking a lot of blood, and no medical professionals are available to help. Max ran down the stairs as fast as he could, straight towards the site of the accident. Caroline walked behind him while holding a book and a pen, the typical appearance of a secretary. They are in a hurry to stop the Guards from doing unnecessarily harsh decisions, which they tend to do.

“You muscly bastards, help her out of there!”

The guards went and looked at each other. A direct order from a nobody like Max will not move them a centimeter. They shrugged and smile instead, tapping their feet in boredom. Max is visibly mad, Milium had sent him truly despicable bunch of muscles to spy him, without any of the help provided. He angrily pull a male Heisian out of his station then push him into the scene.

“I want you to unfuck whatever this is and get her into the infirmary, now!”

The female Heisian is still writhing in agony. A puddle of red liquid, smell of a wet iron, and chunks of battered meat. She can hardly believe of it. Her breath is heavy, she screams as loud as she can, it won’t ease the pain, just distract you for a moment.

Henry, a veteran guard among them saw what happened. His baton is clean as a whistle, he just got it back from the inventory. Different from the others, he is one of the rare guard equipped with a long range weapon. Nestled on his back is a loaded shotgun, several shells of red color hangs from its side. Each shell is filled with 10 pellets of hardened steel, meant to blast a stomach out of a person. Some are filled with magnesium pellets which will ignites and burst out like a fire breath, burning everything on its way. His whole purpose is not to control or deter a crowd, but to neutralize them.

He stepped up from behind the shadow, his feet comes first into the light. The glint of his prosthetic skull, protruding out of his face, stroke fear to nearby slaves. Max stood still, he knows the consequences of messing with a high ranking Stickmen.

Henry knowingly stepped into the pool of blood beside Alexandria. She knew this is the end of her. She is replaceable, no amount of medicine is cheap enough to justify the cost of maintaining her. Similar to a startup employee, she is going to be cut off, because she hurts the bottom line.

“Goodbye, little one.” Said Henry.

He cocked his shotgun and put it right against Alexandria’s head. A standard procedure, happened hundreds of times before. Today, will not be any different. She longs for this kinds of death. A point of no return, with nothing left to lose. Her eyes flashes with memories of her parents, when they are still together. A spark of rebellion was implanted inside her heart, far before this moment.

Alexandria wrote a magic script on the floor with her feet. She used her own blood to finish it. As soon as Henry closed in, she finished the magic script, closed the loop in the magic script, and spawned a large lightning from the ground. It measures around thirty thousands amperes, it meets and flows right through Henry’s body. The burn marks appears almost instantaneously, tattooing his chest with a branching red lines. His left eye burst out with liquid, creating a fleshy mess on Alexandria’s face. He screamed as loud as possible, his hands touching his face from the burning sensation that he felt all across his skin.

It struck fear unto the other guards.They are agitated, afraid, and in panic of what the other slaves can do. But this is their lucky day, the only person with a sliver of rebellious bone in their body is Alexandria. She immediately went into a deep sleep. It doesn’t help her high energy incantation, not without a physically well body. The last time Alexandria had a good meal and a truly full stomach was several months ago.

A Heisian going rebellious, that’s a sight to behold for Max. He doesn’t see this kinds of situation first hand, so it’s an experience for him. One that he knew would happened sooner or later. The sound of his fast moving feet are masked by the rumbling of the machines. The other production line continues to operate, business as usual.

Max pushed Henry aside from his path towards Alexandria. Henry is still in agonizing pain, his body didn’t have enough power to lift itself up, his fate is for his chest to meet the cold factory floor. Meanwhile, Max is lifting his slave up to his chest, as if he had any paternal feelings towards his subjects.

Caroline gave a reassuring nod toward Max, she knew what to do. Her job is to alert nearby hospital for an urgent care. She ran straight to a landline that’s installed on the pillar. Alexandria is near the death’s door, it’s a race against time.