10 Work (1/2)

Daneel woke up to the sensation of being choked.

His eyes snapped open with panic, and he took deep, rasping breaths to no avail. He quickly realized that a foot was pressing down on his throat, cutting off all airflow… and as his eyes traveled along it, he came upon a tall, lanky man with long hair and a sick smile on his face.

His strength seemed to have finally returned to him, as he was able to move his hands with enough strength to shove the foot aside. He got up swiftly, coughing, and raised his hands, expecting a fight.

After his eyes adjusted, he saw that the man's smile was gone, replaced by a goading look that put Daneel on guard. He hadn't even realized that he had taken a fighting stance; hastily, he put his arms down, and seeing this, the newcomer scowled.

It was only then that Daneel saw that he was holding a whip in his left hand. This, by itself, gave him a hint regarding who he might be, and when he spoke, Daneel confirmed his identity from the falsetto he had heard before.

”Oh… we could have had so much fun if you really did hit me! Did you think that you were still a young master who can lounge around all day with no work whatsoever? You're a slave, now, boy, and that means hard, grueling work! The bell was rung to summon all slaves in your corridor fifteen minutes ago! Now, move, or you will be rewarded fifteen lashes for your tardiness!”

Slamming the whip on his palm with a sharp 'THWACK' that echoed in the cavern, the man narrowed his eyes, as if hoping that Daneel would rebel.

Hence, he frowned with disappointment and turned around when all he saw was a docile slave, ready to go to work.

Daneel had already seen that he was in a very unstable position. He had no intention of making life harder than it had to be, so he had taken the obvious decision to keep his head low, for now.

This was the same man who had taken away the old healer before. He seemed to be an enforcer, of sorts, and as he led him through the corridors of the Pit to some unknown destination, all the slaves who saw him cowered, their eyes warily following the instrument of pain in his hands.

Daneel could see that he was enjoying it.'THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!', he announced his arrival, and with the sound, many a slave would flinch, as if remembering memories that they had wanted to forget.

Caught up in studying the man, he had almost forgotten about the reason behind him fainting. When it came back to him… he rounded on the system as if it was a person walking beside him and screamed in his mind.

'What the hell was that? You shouldn't go around smacking heads into walls without prior warning!'

[Responding to host. Command was given, so it was carried out.]

The flat answer sent him sputtering.

'Yes, but st-st-still! If a command involves something like that, I should be warned!'

[Direction received. All future commands that will result in host fainting will require double authorisation before they are carried out.]

The indignation didn't leave him, as he felt like someone who had stormed into a store, intent on having a quarrel, but found a calm storeowner who solved his problem without needing an extra word to be said. The emotion left him, though, when he recalled what the system had promised, and at once, he looked around, trying to see if there was any difference as his magic organ, or whatever it was, had been unlocked.

There was nothing of the sort.

He even trying to squint and look closely at each and every piece of rock and weakened slave that they passed, but nothing was different from before. The rocks still glowed faintly due to the stars trapped within them, and the slaves were still starved bystanders of a life that passed by with naught but pain and hardship taking part in it.

As the indignation returned, he targeted the system, again.

'What-'

The thought stopped instantly when they reached an exit, of sorts. At first glance, it looked no different than any of the cave gateways that they had seen so far, but on further study, one would see that there was a film on it that was two-dimensional. It looked like a painting that had been inlaid into the opening, and in front of it, a line of slaves were present, apparently waiting for something.

They all moved aside when the two of them arrived. Striding imperiously, the man passed through the opening… and disappeared.

Daneel was flabbergasted as he watched the entire thing happen. The reason behind his thoughts grinding to a halt before had been the incredible phenomenon that he had seen around the opening.

Tiny pinpricks of light of various colors were swimming on the surface into which the enforcer had disappeared. They were like miniature pounds of fish that were frolicking around a lake, and even though it might seem that they were just happily swimming around, there was a certain rhythm and pattern to them that captivated Daneel and made him stand there, agape. He traced the path of each pinprick, his eyes struggling to follow without getting confused due to the thousands that were present all over the opening, and if not for a shove from behind that rudely interrupted him, he would have gone ahead with his study for hours.

He turned around, his first impulse telling him to destroy whoever had been so insolent. Yet, he quickly saw that it was a remnant of the one whose body he had occupied, so he shoved it aside and saw that the one who had done so was actually Sébastien.