"It's just a contraceptive."
I stood there for so ti as the implication of her words finally hit . At first, I thought she was joking, but then I considered it further. There was no shortage of slaves making out with each other here, but I haven't even seen a single child.
So what she said made sense. The slaves had access to contraceptives, perhaps the masters gave them, considering pregnancy would drop the rate at which the slaves mine considerably. Not to ntion, no slave would like to give birth to a kid in such terrible circumstances.
I didn't waste more ti contemplating that and joined Caron on the back.
"Cam," I asked him in a whisper. "So this place isn't completely under the earthlings?"
Caron wasn't too familiar with this place to know that, though I think he got the sa hints as so far.
"Earthlings?" the dark-skinned woman smiled in scorn, hearing even though I whispered. "Earthlings have nothing here. As for the location? No one has it under their thumb for now. Well, most of us here were summoned. Did you just consider they summon only from earth?"
That made curious. So it seed the huge giant man I saw earlier wasn't a native of this land, but coming from sowhere else. So other planet than earth.
"Hmm," I humd, considering. "Has there been any other creatures than humans that got here through the summons?"
"Probably. Now don't waste ti. We have arrived."
We entered a stone room like any other, though it was a lot more spacious than most. There was only an elderly man and a woman in her mid-twenties there. So the doctor and his assistant. Or the doctor and her assistant. I think the chances were higher for the forr, as there was no point keeping an old fellow as an assistant if he barely had any skill.
And this old man, he seed to have one leg in the grave for so ti now.
"Uncle Phillip, do you have energy left to treat another patient?" Number 197 asked as we ca forward. She was clearly addressing the older man who seed to be drained of all his lifespan and energy for today. While the other woman seed more vibrant than most slaves, I discovered here.
"You ca at a bad ti, Imani," said the assistant.
She was fairly skinned, though longer exposure to the heat hadn't been any bit kinder to her compared with the other slaves. She wasn't tall like number 197—whose real na turned out to be Imani—and more on the delicate side, though not as pretty as Imani, either. Well, as much as living as a slave could leave her. Not much, but she did seem like the courtly type.
Both the doctor and patient had slave collars on their necks, and it seed like both of them understood English.
"What happened?" Imani asked.
"Uncle Phillips had to treat a few troubleso patients," the assistant woman said. "Most difficult had been the A'caen. It seed he decided to have a go with the guards today. Imani, have you seen his wounds? Dear Lord, he was broken up and. . ."
A look of worry flashed in Imani's eyes, though it was easily replaced by tiredness.
"A'caen?" I repeated. "That tall dude that thrashed four guards on his own? Was he one of the summons?"
The assistant turned to gaze at for the first ti. She only inspected with her eyes and left the others to answer for her. Imani shook her head after a while.
"The A'caen is a man of his own. He can decide what to do by himself," Imani said at last. "I just wanted Uncle to look at sothing. There's no need to disturb your vital energy, though."
"I guess I can see one more patient for the day," the elderly man, full of wrinkles, said, straightening on his seat. The assistant helped him sit comfortably.
Imani instructed . "Show him your injured hand."
I did as I was told. I unwrapped the ragged clothes off the injured palm. I couldn't help but scan the thin spiral mark again. It wasn't the first ti I was seeing it for the day, and like the other ti, I didn't know if there was any change to it or not.
"Uncle Phillip," Imani intoned, coming closer to the doctor and his patient. "Do you see the spiral mark?"
She didn't have to tell him. Doctor Phillip was watching it closely, his wrinkled face lit with interest. "How did it happen?"
I answered, which was basically a rundown version of what happened after I got here, but none of that explained the mark in my palm. Well, the only suspicious part was about Ol' Theodore feeding potion and nothing else.
"This is peculiar," Doctor Phillip said, using his other palm to clutch the glasses that were hanging from his neck. He put it in his nose and squinted his eyes. The glasses had one of its glasses shattered, so the doctor had to make it with just one eye.
"Is this one of those tattoos the guards have?" asked 197 for the first ti.
"I can't be sure even if you leave with one of those tattoos to compare," Doctor Phillip answered without considering. "That's how complicated those fate marks were."
"Fate mark?" I repeated, but nobody seed to be in any mood to answer my question. Caron looked as lost as .
"Hmm," Doctor Phillip humd in alert, drawing his palm away from mine suddenly.
I blinked. What was that about?
"Did you notice sothing, Doc?" I asked, easing my tone.
"Weird," the elderly man said, turning towards Imani, even though I asked the question.
Man, I had no respect in this place. Even the other slaves didn't regard with anything.
"I drew a little vital energy to see if there would be any reaction."
"And there was a reaction," Imani said, putting two and two together easily.
"Yes, but not sothing I anticipated." The doctor swallowed his breath and clutched a water jar from the sides. He started to drink it slowly, leaving us with high anticipation.
"Uncle, are you alright?"
"The mark," the doctor said at last, relieving his sore throat, "it swallowed my vital energy."
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