by Besyanteo » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:58 am
Annetta's scans of the place revealed that while everything was fairly inert, it all looked subtly wrong somehow. The astral background here was different from what she was used to seeing. Her scans earlier on the trip had revealed the the rest of the cave hadn't exhibited this strangeness, only this place.
Leothe might wait at Annetta's request, or advance in spite of it, but either way the sight ahead of his was the same: This archway has a doorway set into it, about a foot back from it's mouth. The wood looked a bit less rotty here, and he suspected that it would not be so easy to get through as the storage room door was.
The Naga nodded. He sounded annoyed, but he indulged Daniel none the less.
"Always the first question. The answer is simple: The alternative doesn't bear thinking about. To be more specific, if the tribe didn't have a regular buyyer for "slaves", they would find other ways to make use of those they captured. The restraints are an unfortunate but necessary show of force. We subjugate you, so you are "below us", which helps maintain the image that we aren't weaklings to simply be attacked and killed or enslaved ourselves."
He paused for a moment, and then continued.
"And I suspect I know most of the rest, so I will explain. That tribe is the only one along this route that posed a serious threat to merchants approaching Baron, or my own people. Or, for fifty miles in any direction, they are.
"Given enough time and management of resources, we could have simply killed them. I'm sure the rest of the world wouldn't have minded. But their blood would be on our hands, and our souls. Not just their warriors; To do that job, we would have had to have destroyed every last one of them, young and old, male and female. Ishtar didn't make us to be slaughterers, I don't think.
"They couldn't be stopped from raiding passing caravans. There are simply not enough of us to patrol or even monitor the wide stretch of land that is their territory. So instead, we made them a lucrative offer: Each slave they could provide us, unharmed, would be worth an eighth their weight in gems to them. Dead or injured slaves would be worthless, and they would receive nothing. Their shaman elder would contact us with his magic, and we would make an exchange the next day. This has worked perfectly three times in the past, and we were just about to start nudging them to a more civilized way of living..."
He spat in the mixed sand and grass that marked their technical entry into the Barren desert, if they were still several miles from being in anything that could truly be classified as desert terrain.
"And then we arrived to find a massacre. I suspect after that display in the middle of the camp, the tribe will resort to killing and looting travelers they encounter once more; No amount of gems will replace a lost son, an heir, after all. I suppose now we will have to eventually go back and slaughter them after all.
"So now I beleive I am justified in asking: "
He pulled out a dagger, and cut the ropes from Dan's hands. He was moving to do likewise with Neb and Myrnal as well as he spoke.
"You all appear largely unharmed, and there were no other humans at the camp, alive or dead. What did they do to earn their deaths?"