Isekai 0.3

This was turning into the worst isekei ever.  I needed a breather.  A chance to process everything.  What, ultimately, was the point of my being here?  Who’s body did that voice stuff me into and what had happened to her.  There were already so many unknowns that I felt my stomach clench.  “This darkmarket.  What is it?”

They shared a look.  Xoxothiel answered, “It’s an illegal market in the aqueducts under the city.  The city has a lot of laws, and so there’s going to be people who can’t or won’t follow them all.  Darkmarkets are places those organizations meet to trade and mingle.”  He looked at Lurue.  “While most won’t admit it, most of the trade houses do business with them to some extent.  Enough we can tell you how to get there and a contact who might help you further.”

“It’s dangerous though,” Lurue added.

“Your king’s laws have a bounty on my head.  If that’s legal, it’s not like your laws are any safer,” I pointed out.  Then I looked at the pointy eared... elf.  Were they ‘elves’ here?  I was  ‘felyn’ not a ‘cat girl’.  He seemed to be giving me an appraising look.  “Once I’m there, what’s to stop me from getting killed?”  Again, a part of me dryly added.

“Not a lot, but only the most desperate or stupid would kill you and try to claim a bounty.  After all, most of them have bounties on their heads too.  Worth more than yours,” Xoxothiel said with a small nod, like I’d passed a test.

“But Akria...” Lurue began, her brows knitted together.

“It’s me not winding up a pet nor trusting a city of people to not kill me for money.  Thanks for caring, though.” I smiled at her.  Tried to.  I’d been through a lot in... how much time had passed since I died?  How did all that work?  Ugh!  I had so many questions.  I was tired, sore, and hungry.  No one ever arrived hungry in Isekais...

“I know,” Lurue said in a small voice, dropping her eyes before she met mine again and gave a nod.  “Okay.  We’ll try and get you as close as we can.”

They emptied a crate filled with metal cans in a language I didn’t recognize and stuffed me inside, leaving the lid loose enough to peek through.  The train of wagons was almost completely past us by this point.  The reins snapped and the wagon started to roll.

“Once you’re inside, get into the aqueducts under the city.  Follow the water.  Eventually you’ll run into the faceless.  People in masks.  Don’t stop for anyone or talk to anyone till you meet them.  Then you’ll know you’re at the darkmarket.” Xoxothiel said.  “Once you’re down there, look for a tent with a lot of scattered goods.  You’re going to need to find ‘Uncle Oxxo.’  When you meet him, say you’ve met his nephew.  He should then say ‘Little Vaha?’  Then... good luck.  He should at least point you somewhere more useful.  An orphanage.  A gang.  Someone to help look out for you till you’re older.”

“Thanks,” I replied, confirming several more horrifying possibilities as to how I ended up under that tree.  “So much for being an adventurer,” I muttered.

“Why can’t you be an adventurer?” Xoxothiel asked as we rolled along.

“The adventurer guild takes anyone who is willing to go into dungeons.  Felyn included.  In fact, if you do it enough, you can earn royal pardons,” Lurue said brightly. “It’s not easy or safe, but it’s an option for you.  When you’re older.”

Older.  “Lurue?  How old am I, in your opinion?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“You don’t know?”

“I’m... I have brain damage.” It was ‘brain damage’ or ‘my soul came here from another world.’  Which was crazier?  “Please.  How old am I?  For a Felyn.”

“Felyns grow up a little faster than humans.  A teenager for certain.” Xoxothiel answered.  “I’m surprised to see you at all.  Most felyns don’t stay this close to Gateway.”  Given my throbbing bruises, I could see why.

I wasn’t human. Female.  And teenaged.  And with a bounty for being whatever I was.  I closed my eyes.  Racism was something I’d always brushed against.  Dad had been American, mom Japanese.  My mother was a surefire way to get me into fights at school growing up. I knew they just made things harder for her, so by high school I’d just hidden behind a shield of apathy. She’d worked two jobs to care for both of us, and I’d gotten a job as soon as I could just so she could quit hers and raise my younger half siblings.

And now I was dead.  She had apparently cremated me.  I squeezed my eyes shut, bit my fingers, and cried as quietly as I could.  Felyn had little sharp fangs, I noted.  Not that any of that mattered at this point.  My gut was an absolute twist as I tried hard to stay as quiet as possible.  Xoxotheil and Lurue said nothing.  Either I’d succeeded, or they were too kind to say anything about the noises I’d made.

“Lurue,” I asked in a wet voice, “Can people in this world travel to other worlds?”

“Other lands?” she asked.  “If you go down river...”

“No.  Worlds.  Other worlds...” I sniffed.

She didn’t answer for a moment.  “I don’t know.  That’s a question for mages.  I just move crates along the trade roads.”

“Right.  Right,” I muttered.  Could I go home like this?  Could I get Mom a message?  Tell her, somehow, I was... that I missed her?  That I was sorry for getting killed?

“Hush now.  We’re at the gate,” Xoxotheil said.  I peered out the gap in the loose lid and saw a woman in a bright purple uniform... with a deer for a lower half!  I got a bounty for ears and tail but she got to be half deer?  How was that fair?  She held a spear in one hand, and was reading some papers in the other.

“Not like you to be last in, Lu,” the deer centaur said as she read over the documents.

“Couldn’t be helped, Tessa..  Had a load of Loxa milk break open.  Cans everywhere.  Had to make sure we loaded them all up again.  You know how expensive that stuff gets.” Xoxothiel said casually.

“Did you?  Where’s the box?” Tessa asked.  I heard a thump as Xoxothiel stepped on my crate, and for a moment my heart stopped.  Was he going to hand me over for the bounty?  But then there was a bumping and thumping and I got a good look at the backs of his legs.  “Huh.  Looks like they didn’t nail it down.  Let me count the cans.”

A minute later, Tessa sighed.  “Okay.  It looks like the inventory’s there and nothing looks tampered with.”

“Find anything good?” he asked.

“The usual.  Burtox powder.  Republican pamphlets.  Oh!  And felyn trying to smuggle themselves inside.”

“What?” Xoxotheil asked, even his casual voice tight.

“Yeah.  In a box of Bettavines on Jarmo’s wagon.  Had a knife.  Seemed crazy.  Cut Bol pretty bad.”

My heart was beating hard in my chest.  Lurue asked what I was thinking, “What happened to them?”

“They subdued her.  Put her up for auction.  If no one bids they’ll claim the bounty.  You know how it is,” Tessa said casually.  “Bol got to a healer.  They got the finger reattached.”

“Damn,” Xoxothiel said.

Did they know who this body was?  Were we related?  I had so many questions.  A part of me wanted to ask to join her in the hopes that maybe I’d understand more. But that would just wind me up in a slave market with someone who may not even know this body.  I lost track of the conversation as I slumped in the crate.

The wagon lurched as we started moving again.  The sound of city and talking surrounded me.  I didn’t know what to expect?  A dirty medieval setting with dung sprayed everywhere?  Cartoony buildings? A 'Lord of the Rings' set?

No, what I was struck was a feeling of normalcy punctuation by the bizarre.  Most of the structures looked like insula, with shops at the bottom and two or three living apartments stacked on top.  A white stone seemed the most predominant building material.  The structure was illuminated by a strange lantern like device illuminated by a purple crystal.  Magic?  This world’s technology?  Both?

The majority of the people I saw were humans, but there was a smattering of pointy eared ‘Elves’ and short and broad ‘dwarves’ along with occasionally a person with dog ears or wolf tails.  But the cat girls had the bounty.  Totally fair...

“We’re almost to an aqueduct entrance.  Remember.  Follow the water,” Lurue said, pulling on the lid of my crate and pushing something inside.  It was an apron, some dried meat, a bottle of water... and a knife.  I lifted it up and stared at it.  It wasn’t some kitchen implement.  It had a leather grip, crossguard, and two edges that came to a point.

She’s giving this to me because I might need it.  I realized, and my hand shook a little on the grip.  “I hope you can use a light blade,” she said as the wagon slowed.  “Get ready...”  All I could see out the gap was a white stone wall.  “Go out the left, under the wagon, and down the stairs as quickly as you can.  Ready... Ready... Go!”

I froze.  A bang thudded against the crate.  “Go!” Xoxothiel shouted.  I had to.  I kicked off the lid and clambered out.  We were going around some kind of plaza.  I jumped out and for a split second had cover as the wagon rolled past what looked liked stone steps carved next to the road.  I jumped under the wagon, and then out into the open.  A glance at Lurue, staring at me in terror.

“Felyn!” someone screamed.  And like a chain reaction the cry spread.  I saw two women pointing at me!  All ready purple uniformed guards were racing at me.  I clutched Lurue’s gift to my chest and sprinted down the stone steps.

At the bottom, I entered a vaulted passage way, a stream of water pouring down the middle.  There were people down here too, but they seemed to squint at me in confusion, giving me time to run.  Every hundred feet, there was an overhead hole over the channel that let in plenty of light for me to see.  I could hear shouts echoing down the tunnels.  Boots.  The channel sloped downward and I followed the water.  It opened into another ring like tunnel... and ruins.  The facades of buildings now walled up met me.

Troy was a city built on a city, apparently this place was too.  There were still patches of dim illumination from overhead shafts, but they were few and far between.  I heard the boots coming, but my body... this body, was almost done.  I collapsed into a niche in the wall as the boots approached.

A guard holding a lantern walked by.  I didn’t see why he needed one, but then he turned and looked right at me... and his eyes continued past.  I struggled not to gasp.  His eyes swung back the other way, passing over me again, and then he turned and ran on.

I breathed slowly and deeply.  Felyn had nightvision?  Or dark vision?  Or whatever vision had spared me?  It felt like the universe finally was throwing me a bone.  I took the dried meat, chewing it, and then sipped on what tasted like weak wine.  Definitely not grapes, that was for sure.  Somewhere between a kiwi and a strawberry, but tart as well.

As my stomach got to work on calories, I got to work on modesty.  I doubted felyn were nudists, and even if they were, I wasn’t.  I considered the apron.  As is, it would trip me up and leave me completely uncovered in the rear.  But I pulled out the waist strap and then I carefully cut the cloth into two strips.  One I sliced into a Y.  This one I tugged up between my legs, putting my... tail... through the split.  Then I tied it around my hips with the strap.  The other piece I pulled around my chest, tying it under my left arm pit.  They might have been clothes, but it was a step up.

Taking some small comfort that I’d likely see guards before they saw me, I followed the water, walking past the bricked up building fronts that had been buried and filled in. Many sported carvings of felinoid humans with spears, jewelry, and... if I was honest, clothes not that different from what I wore now.  Many had been defaced with chisels, but there were too many to get all of them.

Which was too bad, because some of them showed battles with sword and axe wielding humanoids.  One carving showed what I assumed was a ‘victory party’.  Apparently it’s not cannibalism if you’re not human.  Or rape.

I wanted to go home.  Of all the isekai worlds I could have ended up in why this one?  Why this body?  This horrible world?  I found another place where the water descended deeper.  Even with my felyn vision, this was getting dark.  I could make out shapes about fifteen feet away, but all color drained to a grayish tan.  It was enough to prevent me from stepping into the channel, but that was it.

This deep, the water was sluggish and the flow was interrupted by chunks of masonry from the ceiling.  The structures were more raw stone and the buildings collapsed.  Broken cat statuary looked out from the rubble.  I munched all the dried meat and wished there was more.  What was I doing?  I stocked shelves for a living.  I mopped the floor and rang up customers.  I wasn’t the kind that went off to magical worlds.

You didn’t have to help her.

No.  I didn’t.  I could have kept walking.

But you did help her.

I got killed for it.

But you tried.  That matters.  You did that.  You can do this too.

I took a deep breath.  Okay.  Enough self pity.  Save it for after you find the darkmarket.

Follow the water just led me to a hole where the water was pouring into a fetid smelling current below me.  That, I anticipated, was the sewer.  I balked at that, in part because there was a fall that my vision couldn’t see the bottom of.  I started back up.  Where else could it be?  The aqueduct was large, but not large enough for a ‘market’.  Yet all the water was leading to the same pit.  Right?

I drained the bottle, filled it a little, and carefully set it down into the flow, watching it bob.  It started towards the sewer pit, but kept getting caught in eddies and whorls.  And then it approached a side tunnel where water was flowing smoothly forth... but the bottle stopped and then started up the side tunnel, flowing in a direction utterly in violation of gravity.  The flow was so smooth, I’d missed it entirely.  There was only room to crawl, so crawl I did, the water soaking my backside as I interrupted the flow.

Follow the water.  I was following.  And I emerged in a small box of a room.  The water pooled before some purple appartus that was siphoning it right up into a hole in the ceiling.  I gawked at it, the illumination of the purple crystal in the brass mechanism outlined just how little was in this space.

So why was it breathing?

“I know someone is in here,” I said.  “I’m trying to get to the darkmarket.”  I turned slowly in a circle.  “I’m looking for uncle Oxxo.”  I swallowed.  “I met his nephew?  Vala?”  Still nothing.

Then four people appeared.  They were covered head to toe in gray cloaks, their faces hidden behind polished metal faceplates.  I didn’t bother drawing the knife.  They stared and I had an uncanny feeling of fingers stroking through my brain.  It lasted only a few seconds, but left me feeling nauseated.

Then they touched the wall.  The stones shifted and rearranged themselves into an arch, exposing a vaulted chamber that looked like a dry reservoir.  The arches made for nooks.  The nooks were occupied with a variety of shops.  Some occupied only a single nook while others took up multiple.  Within were every sort of person I could have imagined, including catgirls.  Many wore cloaks, and there were an alarming number of looks shot my way that seemed to be calculating my value.

I’d arrived at the darkmarket.