Redemption of The Imps

It had been an interesting decade.

The four Human kingdoms of Galria had been deteriorating at a frightening speed following a number of attacks from the Elven tribes of the Verdant Wilds. Worst struck was West Galria, which had fallen completely following a chaotic internal battle for succession between the royal family and several mercenary armies. Weakened internally, they were no match for the raw strength and number of the Elves. Meanwhile, the race formerly known as Halflings had surprised everyone with the incredibly rapid expansion of their subterraneous empire. They were well-known for being a blight on the Seventh Realm, but they had mostly kept to themselves. Following their mysterious “allegiance” with the Tieflings, all of that changed. Now referring to themselves as Nightfolk, the once-short vampiric race had manipulated the entire Tiefling race into a perverse form of subjugation. In merely a decade, the Tiefling name was lost and replaced with Imp. Living a pathetic existence somewhere between pet, slave and comic relief for the Nightfolk, this development caught the eyes of at least a handful of the other races. Especially the eyes of the Orcs.

Following the additional subjugation of another race, this time the Dwarves, who had been made to shed their beloved beards in preference for big swirly skirts, a handful of Orcish scholars in the Southern Espeni Khanate decided that it was time to act. The longer they waited, the higher the chances would be for the Nightfolk to continue their absurd style of conquest. They knew however that like the Nightfolk, they would have to work in the shadows and be clever if they were to have any chance at stopping them. Waging simple war against them was not in the nature of the Orcs after all.

The Orcish scholars formed a secret council and worked intimately with the Espeni khan family to keep diplomatic relations with the Nightfolk at the very least neutral while the scholars researched the Morundine Empire’s weaknesses. Serendipitously the first real weakness was found quite fast. It was discovered that the younger the Imps were, the less loyal they were to their masters and mistresses. While the oldest Imps happily bent over backwards to please any Nightfolk, the youngest seemed to be more critical of their situation. Though it was still very difficult to find many that dared to speak up against their cruel oppressors. Nonetheless, it did not take long for a few dozen of these dissenter Imps to be bought as curiosities by Orcish diplomats. And of course the Nightfolk had no reason to be suspicious - what could a few pathetic Imps do?

—

In a dimly lit room, far from any prying eyes, an Orc scholar and a young Imp sat and spoke. The Orc had brought the young boy some delicious fruits and tasty pastries, the most decadent meal the boy had been given since leaving the Morundine Empire. The Orc, an elder man with a soft voice and a kind face, explained to the Imp that he and his friends, the other “purchases,” were going to be given their freedom while in the Espeni Khanate. No strings attached, they would be free to do whatever they wanted in Orcish lands. But also that if they wanted, they’d be given a much greater gift for a price.

Cheeks stuffed with sweet treats, the boy suspiciously eyed the green-skinned man. He seemed kind and trustworthy, but so could the Nightfolk seem to be.

“What’sh the prishe?” The boy asked.

The Orc smiled while looking somberly at the burn marks over the boy’s neck. “I can’t name our price yet, but would you mind me just asking you a few questions first?”

The boy hesitated for a moment but relented and said “Sure.”

“So could you state your name and age, please?”

“I think it’s Shel… Sorry, it’s been a long time anyone called me that though. And I’m not sure how old I am, I know I was a kid when it happened.”

“The Nightfolk Ritual of Cleansing?”

“Sorry, but is that what other races of the Realm call it too?”

“Usually, but some of us scholars are arguing that it should be called something else.”

“I hope you come up with a better name… please.”

“We’ll see. So you don’t know exactly how old you were at the time of the ritual?”

“Sorry, but not many of us know how to count.”

The Orc started to notice a trend in the boy’s manner of speaking, excusing himself over and over. It started to ache in the man’s heart to piece together just how badly this race had been treated.

The boy continued,  “I think the older ones literally can’t even try to count, like there’s a thing in their heads that block them from thinking like that. I know I can’t count because my mistre- my…”

“Your owner?” The scholar asked?

“Yeah… she didn’t like it whenever me and my friends did anything smart. She had this game she wanted to play with us. She gave us orders to find things in the house by solving riddles, and if you found the things she would either give you a treat or punish you.”

The Orc had been writing down everything Shel had told him so far but had to stop at the explanation of this “game.”

“What do you mean, Shel? Why would she either punish you or give you a treat? That doesn’t really seem like it makes sense.” He asked the boy.

“I know… It makes no sense. But here’s the thing, if you didn’t find anything, she wouldn’t do nothing to you. No treat or punishment. I think she was just trying to mess with the smartest of us. Like, if you’re smart enough to find the things she hid, you’d be smart enough to want a treat… but I guess dumb enough to think you wouldn’t get punished…”

“Why didn’t you just try to fail the game? No chance of getting punished then, right?”

At that question, the boy nearly began to cry. “We wanted to! But the Nightfolk have some kind of spellery over us! Anything they say is like a song to our ears!  Our big, dumb, floppy ears!”

The cruelty of the Nightfolk became more and more obvious the longer the two conversed. The scholar learned much from Shel, how the Nightfolk kept the Imps dancing on a knife’s edge of their every waking moment. The vampiric monsters constantly swayed between treating them with affection or spite and that it got worse after the Dwarves came into the picture. Before the Dwarves, Imps could sometimes work as servants, fulfilling specific needs and accomplishing important tasks for the Nightfolk. After the Dwarves were turned into an all-femme race of servitors, far more intelligent and capable than the Imps, the smallest of the two races was relegated into little more than pets. Some Nightfolk still kept some Imps as servants but it was clear that a hierarchy had taken shape with the Imps farthest down.

The scholar wrote as much of Shel’s stories down until the time seemed fitting for him to reveal what his and the other scholars’ goal was.

“What you’ve told me so far, Shel, is astonishing. I had no idea of how evil the Nightfolk really are.”

“They can be worse…” The boy sniffled.

“I don’t doubt that. In any case, as I said you are free in these lands. You don’t owe me or any other Orc anything while you’re here. But we did free you with the hope that you’ll accept our offer of a gift that might be worth even more than your freedom.”

“I still wonder what the price is for that gift.” The boy repeated. “And what is the gift anyway?”

“The price is… well, we don’t know what the price is yet. Our sorcerers and scholars can’t be sure what, if any price there would be for what we want to give you and your Imp friends. But the gift… How does revenge sound?”

- The End

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I'm happy to see the Tieflings/Imps get a chance at redemption, and despite being isolationist at least the Orcs are on the right side in any future conflicts with the Nightfolk. With a powerful ally like the Valkyries on their side, I'm sure that the expansion of the Morundine Empire will be slowed down by a significant degree.

But I do wonder what'll happen to the Humans in the future ;)

Thanks to Halima Abdi for the suggestion and as always thanks to everyone for your wonderful patience. Gonna try to crank out some Comic pages next!