URBIN LOOKED AROUND as he moved through the dense forest, then beckoned to the figure behind him, gesturing towards a solitary buck. Without rustling a single leaf, Doom joined his trainer. Dressed in dark leathers to blend into the shadows, he loomed over the human by a good foot. The recurve bow creaked softly as the gromek drew back, releasing after several heartbeats.

The arrow, longer than the average human walking cane, flew through the air towards the buck but only grazed its chest. The alarmed animal fled with a crash through the brush.

Doom sighed, lowering the weapon and closing his eyes. “Forgive me, Urbin.”

Urbin squinted up at him. “In the ten years I’ve known you, I have never seen you this distracted.” Doom remained silent, looking away in shame. “You worry about Tiwaz. Don’t blame you. Alimar’s death matches are brutal.” He patted the gromek’s back just below the shoulder blades. “Take heart. She’s never lost a fight yet.”

“It isn’t that. He uses spells to force her to kill her friends. She’s withdrawn from nearly everyone but me, but he always finds out who she cares about among the other gladiators” With a frustrated growl, he punched the side of the tree, making the elder oak tremble. Loose leaves fluttered to the ground. “Why does Master have such a fascination with her? Everyone says he becomes bored within five years of a new acquisition. It has been twice that. I know.” Yellow eyes turned to the human. “You taught me numbers.”

Urbin grunted at that, resettling his backpack as they walked. “I taught you more than Alimar wanted you to know. He does not want his slaves too educated. Gives them ideas, he says. Makes them discontent.”

Doom put his massive hand on Urbin’s shoulder, careful not to squeeze too hard. “You know Tiwaz and I have never been ‘content’ here. Knowledge does not make it any better or worse.”

“Just don’t let Alimar find out, lad. It’d just be my head, but it’d be worse for you.” Urbin shook his head. “And Tiwaz. The only reason I can figure he is so fascinated with her is she intrigues him. Defiant but obedient. Brazen but docile. He wants to break her spirit but she yields when he expects her to break.”

Doom growled, his face flushed darker green with shame. “If he wanted to break her, he could just kill me.”

“If breaking her was the only thing he wanted, you’d’ve been dead long before now. No, he enjoys toying with her.” Urbin shook his head as they reached camp. “Alimar is a twisted, evil bastard. The longer the torture, the more it pleases him. And as long as this has been going on…” He shook his head in dejection. “Zuneer is both proud and despairing. She is his finest gladiator. The best in the Western Empire. A damned legend. And he wishes she would lose so she could be free.”

Yellow eyes narrowed. “You think it would be better if she were dead?”

Urbin shook his head. “Once Alimar owns you, only death will free you. And that only once tormenting your soul after death stops amusing him.”

Doom frowned. He raised one arm to examine the seamless, matte black shackle on his wrist, then looked at his trainer’s bare wrists. “You are not a slave. Why do you stay?”

The man exhaled noisily, looking away in shame. “I am not a slave according to the Western Empire’s laws, but every one of us who serves Alimar is enslaved. If I were to try to leave his service?” He shook his head. “I would not be the only one to suffer his wrath. Any Alimar thought sided with me, anyone related to me by blood or law, would suffer the most torturous deaths. And I cannot bring myself to kill myself.”

“And this emperor of the Western Empire allows this cruelty?” Doom demanded in disgust. “I thought he was supposed to be this great and kind ruler.”

Urbin snorted. “Alimar is careful not to cross the lines that would draw the Sphinx Emperor’s attention. Alimar is as powerful as he is evil. So long as his evils stay within Shurakh Arln, considered sovereign on this island, he is left alone.” He looked up at Doom, sadness in his eyes. “It is why he tends to hunt within the Southern Wildlands for most of his slave acquisitions. Few of the reputable slave houses wish to be involved with him.”

“Why?” the gromek wondered. “It doesn’t make sense, if they are selling slaves why they would care.”

“Slavery out there is not what it is with Alimar,” Urbin stated as he arranged firewood in the stone ring and dug out his flint and steel. “Some prefer to call it ‘indentured servitude’ because slavery is an ugly term from the reign of the high elves. But there’s no sense in calling it anything other than what it is.”

Doom sat on the broad rock, unstringing his bow and setting it on his rolled up sleeping gear beside his quarterstaff. “What is it like out there, Urbin? Slavery, I mean.” He looked at his shackles. “I have been Master’s slave longer than I had been free but I remember gromeks never had slaves.”

“Well, there are two types in general. Criminals and debtors.”

“What is a debtor?”

Urbin chuckled. “Someone who owes someone else money. When they end up owing more than they could possibly repay, they get sent to the slave house to have their debts paid. In turn, the slave house will sell their contract to recoup what they paid and some profit. Once the contract is complete, they are free. Criminals often serve their terms through similar contracts. Unless they’re considered too unreliable or dangerous, then they’re either imprisoned or executed. If the contract extends to their descendants, the slave houses are required to ensure those descendants can survive as freemen.”

Doom rubbed at the shackle on his wrist. “I envy them. Tiwaz doesn’t even remember what freedom was like. She never asks me about my life before Alimar came.” He clenched his fists, squeezing his eyes shut. “I promised her we would be free one day. But I do not know if that day will ever happen.”

The man stared at the flames as they grew to envelop the logs in a soothing, warm glow. “Don’t give up hope, lad,” Urbin said in a gruff, quiet voice. “And don’t look to the likes of me to be your example. I am just your trainer, nothing more than that.” In the following silence, he looked up at Doom’s profile. “You’ll be there for her. We’ll be back well before the games Alimar has scheduled, I promise you.” The gromek nodded, clenching and opening his fists in agitation.