I couldn't have guessed at this stage in my life as a teen verging on adulthood exactly when Vadras' tolerance of my curiosity and taste for learning turned into affection. For sure, I made myself as useful as possible to him in hopes that he would never find a reason to banish me from the wonders of his study. While I had an appetite for books, it was mathematics that I took to like a bird to the air. This proficiency had only just begun to take root under Cynis' instruction, but under Vadras, it bloomed with voracity! I was his constant shadow in nearly all of his business dealings, checking measures and pointing out incorrect calculations in currency conversions, not all of which were made innocently. This aptitude seemed to please Vadras most of all.
I kept waiting for him to ask me to accompany him to other darker dealings, to venture with him into Nexus' underbelly and find a way to cheat his competitors. I was sure that he would, as Cynis had, find some way to use me in immoral ways for his own benefit, but to my surprise, he never did.
For all intents and purposes, despite my own doubts that I could ever think such of any master, Ahrun Vadras seemed a forthright and fair man who made his fortune from exploration, his unparalleled skills in cartography, and the sale of antique and rare curiosities which he procured on his expeditions. He was known throughout the Guild for his stern demeanor and the shrewd fairness of his dealings. As a Merchant Prince, he managed several caravan rotations along with a few shops in the district that sold his refurbished antiques, maps, and other niche services.
I kept wanting to find reasons to hate him for the mere fact that my only other recourse was to accept life the way it was. I was a slave whose future was always what other people would make of it. I should hate him on principal, but I never could. His kindness, or at the very least, his fair treatment when compared to other masters, made me comfortable and complacent. I had a place in the world as his assistant, even if I slept in the storage rooms. There were other fates far worse than this. I adjusted well to the rhythm of business meetings, the exodus of his modest caravan, and quiet nights reading in his studies as he poured over his day's accountings, his glasses gleaming with concentration in the candlelight.
Expeditions were always an exciting time in the household. Vadras would be gone for weeks, sometimes months, at a time only to return with fanfare from the entire estate bearing crates of wondrous oddities he would spend the next few months studying and inventorying with my aid. He would never let me tinker with the strange curiosities he brought home, however, no matter how my curiosity and wide eyes burned over his shoulder. Sometimes he'd bring home broken tech from the ages past or old toys unearthed from gods know where so he could study and replicate the design.
Finally, my burning, silent, pleading curiosity became too much and Vadras decided to include me with a nonchalant, "Kalara, I suppose you should come along and manage the supplies. Haro is making a complete mess of it and I think he needs a vacation from the stress." Unsurprising, considering Master Vadras was also known for having an insatiable curiosity of his own that often led him down the more dangerous paths most explorers usually shied away from. Hired help cycled through fairly often. Many couldn't stomach the risks he liked to take.
Even knowing all this, I was elated at the opportunity! I spent day and night for a month making sure every supply we could ever want for was included, probably to an extraneous degree. Vadras seemed pleased and in a matter of days, we had set off on my very first expedition! Our humble inconspicuous caravan included myself, Vadras, a small escort of mercenaries, and a trusted excavation crew. The floodplain countryside of Nexus with its silent brooding statues of the Emissaries faded away into the rocky territories of Lookshy. I was finally able to enjoy these sights without being stuffed into a wagon of countless unfortunate souls. I rode at Vadras' side, trusted and valued.
I wouldn't know it at the time, but we weren't exactly welcome legal company in the area. Vadras secured our passage along the roads with honeyed words and greased palms. I was too caught up in the excitement to be scared or to care overmuch. When we were camped one evening, I noticed the glint of the mother of pearl inlaid grip of a firewand tucked inside Vadras' robe. He must have felt my curious stare because he smiled and drew the flame piece, holding it out where I could better view it in the firelight.
"It was a gift from Arbani Halan for a most fortuitous arrangement involving a dig in Gem." Vadras continued smiling his subdued smile, delighted by my slack-jawed wonder as I gazed upon the most exquisite craftsmanship I had ever seen. "Would you like to see how it works?" I nodded, still dumbstruck by the seamless integration of swirling elegance with function. Another part of me wanted to ask Vadras about his adventures in my homeland, but I was too distracted by the offering of beautiful craftsmanship that symbolized something from a distant childhood daydream I had almost forgotten.
To my complete and utter surprise, he led me to the side and placed the piece in my hand. The grip was even more cool and exquisite than I could imagine! I wasn't thinking about how much trust it must have taken for Vadras to put a firewand in a slave's hand. I wasn't thinking about anything remotely as radical as shooting my master and escaping. I wasn't thinking about how this firewand and the firedust needed for its operation were worth more than my life. All I knew at that moment were the cold beautiful carvings and far off childhood dreams of the gunslinging Ashen ghosts.
Ever the teacher, Vadras merely continued to explain the procedure for packing the firedust in the barrel and the form and function of the hammer and ignition. He held my unsteady hands and guided them to aim at a stray rock stack that made for a perfect practice target. The loud pop and short burst of fire that emerged made me squeal with fright and excitement all at once! I could only stand there grinning with glee and staring at the stream of smoke trailing out from the barrel before Vadras removed the firewand from my dazed grip with an amused snort. "Well, I am at least glad to see enthusiasm for such 'inefficient' weapons!"
He laughed and rambled on for half the night about the advantages and disadvantages of the firewand versus the bow and arrow and how his theorized modifications might improve the design of the firewand if only the Arbani would let him in on their clan secrets.
I listened with rapt attention, my mind abuzz with the possibilities and remembered fantasies.
We reached the dig site within Vadras' projected timetable and things moved quickly. Camp was secured and his team of trained experts disappeared into a yawning opening in the side of a sheer cliff face grown over with vines. Strange luminescent flowers bloomed on vines that grew out from the opening, a hint of the wonders within. Unfortunately, because of my inexperience, I was doomed to sit outside staring fervently at the entrance wishing I could go in with them. I endured hours of staring with no sign of anything, eventually deciding I should make myself useful and water the horses and refill our canteens at the nearby river.
It was in the midst of returning from my ever so boring task that I heard the voices of the mercenaries echoing across the canyon. "Are you sure all of the charges are set?"
"I've got them around the entrance." His companion responded. "Vadras won't see it coming. That'll teach him to cross Vaator Lex!"
I didn't even think, my body moved on its own. I could hear Vadras and his crew coming back up to the entrance. Caught unawares, the traitorous mercenaries could only watch in surprise as I ran as fast as I could past the rocks they had chosen for cover and threw myself towards the entrance, waving my arms emphatically and shouting to Vadras to turn back before the entrance blew.
I saw Vadras' confused face as I appeared in his path just as the bomb blasts detonated behind us. A loud pop and a flash was all I could hear before I felt the concussive force throw my body forward into him, a hot rain of shrapnel hitting my back as the world went dark.
I awoke a day or so later, the lull of horse hooves and the caravan a small comfort for the wracking pain that kept me in a tight cocoon of immobility. No sooner than I had come to than Vadras was there, talking gently and instructing me not to move. In his over-informative manner, he went through the list of injuries. A concussion, embedded shrapnel, internal bleeding. "You saved me, Kalara." He said at last. "You saved me from the brunt of it. Why did you do that?"
He seemed perplexed and I had no answer for him but hot, pain-induced tears and some unspoken emotion I was afraid to admit to. I owed him so much for something so little. To be able to dream again, to be able to feel like a person again, to be able to learn and grow. These were all gifts he had given me. Little gifts that most people took for granted.
Apparently while I was unconscious, Vadras had found a hidden passage from the ruins. All the while, he chose to take this scrap of a foolish slave along with him, despite the fact my limp body slowed them down and made it so his betrayers escaped without punishment.
Unfortunately, the simple fact of the matter was that I was going to die from my injuries and we were leagues away from any settlement that we could safely stop in. Somehow, Vadras still had hope. "Just hang on a little longer." He said with gentle encouragement. I felt his hand holding mine. "There's someone who can help." I couldn't respond and tell him how I felt, how grateful I was. To speak invited too much sensation.
And so Vadras spoke instead, soothing and distracting me from the minutes that dragged out to eternal hours where I didn't think I could hold on past the pain or the injuries that ate away at my body's ability to function. He spoke of the days when he was still a teacher at the Luminous Academy and his many adventures as a young, exuberant man. He spoke of his wife and child - a daughter I had never heard of until now.
She would have been my age, I learned, if they hadn't succumbed to the blue death that had taken them while on an expedition. He couldn't teach any more after that and instead buried himself in his business ventures. It wasn't till I snuck into his study and reminded him what it was like to show an eager young mind the wonders of discovery that a spark of passion had re-ignited in him again.
His steady voice and the ever-present grip of his hand kept me in this world until we made a stop far off the beaten path at a secluded hovel. There, a beautiful woman with amber eyes stopped the pain with a touch of her hands. I remember thinking it was a trick of the light that her fingers seemed to be glowing gold.
We would return home not entirely empty-handed. His prize from the excavation was a pair of pristine firewands the likes of which even Vadras had never seen before. They weren't at all like the wood and iron ones he possessed, as lovely as I thought they were. Their frames were struck in orichalcum and chased with elegant script etchings and runes. Each gun's grip had a peculiar hollow in the bottom of it, as if they were beckoning to be filled with something equally wondrous.
Vadras would display these twin guns proudly over his mantle on a custom-made mount until the day I would take them down, the day I left Nexus. The day of his funeral and the day of my execution. But that is a story for another entry.
Notes:
GLOSSARY:
Arbani Halan - An impressive craftsman and sharpshooter, head of House Arbani in Gem. He runs one of the few mortal organizations in Creation which has the knowledge to build superior firewands. They guard their secrets closely.
Firewands (aka. Flame Pieces) - Essentially medieval type barrel loading handguns which spout streams of fire after being loaded with 'firedust', this world's equivalent of gunpowder. They are a prized and expensive luxury in this world.
Merchant Prince - The most successful and highly regarded Guildsmen of the Merchant branch of the Guild, Creation's largest mercantile organization.
Orichalcum - A precious metal and magical material gold in color and purified by the Unconquered Sun's power. This metal is used in crafting materials for Solar Exalted and is highly prized.