Chapter 180: Elder Terrakeep's Past
While Charliye respected Elder Terrakeep, it was knowing that he allowed Taera and Camryn to take the blood oath that convinced him to follow suit, Elder Terrakeep was known for his overprotectiveness of his daughter and grandson.
Elder Terrakeep had nearly lost his life when he tried to protect his firstborn granddaughter from being taken away by the Royal Inquisitors when it was revealed that she was born as a stone. Like most common born Charliye disagreed with the general belief that just because a person was born with a tiny dantian which then classed them as a stone rank, that stone rank citizens of the Lower Realm were then automatically designated as slaves.
So what if having a small dantian would limit their growth as a mage, that didn't make a person useless, Charliye thought. A waste of resources was the commonly held belief that the nobles and royals had about stone class people, although how they could believe that when they relied so heavily on the slave class was beyond Charliye comprehension.
Those poor souls can't even call themselves mages, Charliye thought with disgust. Thinking about how difficult life was for stone and copper ranked citizens. Well at least coppers still have some dignity, they were 'allowed' to be servants, and were entitled to be paid. Although most copper rank servants barely earned enough coppers to feed themselves.
Without slaves, the noble and royal clans would collapse, most would go bankrupt as their industries relied solely on slave labor. Charliye suspected this was one of the reasons why the nobles and royal families invested so heavily into policing the stone class citizens of the Lower Realm. They couldn't afford for the stone class citizens to rebel, which was why they had Inquisitors who investigated all rumors or reporting of citizens who hid their stone class children or family members away.
Since the Inquisitors paid hefty rewards to informers, and those generous rewards were paid in both gold and more importantly, rare pills, many people were enticed into reporting any suspicious activity. This was how Elder Terrakeep's granddaughter stone ranking had been discovered. It was Elder Terrakeep's cousin who had reported the birth of his stone class granddaughter.
Both Elder Terrakeep and Taera should have lost their lives for not informing the government of the birth of a stone class child. The law stipulated at that within seven days of a child's Reading Day, any child who was ranked as a stone class had to be reported to the local government authorities. Of course, any child born to stone class parents had to notify their owners within seven days of the child's birth, and the had child handed over to their owners within a year.
Slave owners would only allow a child to stay with their parents long enough to be weaned. Once a child was a year old, they were removed and raised in nurseries. The nobles didn't want their slaves banding together, and since Doha was founded on the strength of one's clan, the nobles had decided that the best way to keep their slaves under control was to ensure that they never had an opportunity of forming any sort of family or clan.
With Elder Terrakeep mentioning of Taera and Camryn taking the blood oath, Charliye couldn't help thinking back to that terrible day, when the Inquisitors had invaded Shaihshire.
It was only due to Elder Terrakeep's mysterious background that he had been spared, but he was still punished with fifty lashes with a cat o' nine tails whip. Since Taera had been pregnant with young Camryn at that time she had been in no condition to survive such a beating, Elder Terrakeep demanded that he take her punishment of fifty lashes as well.
Charliye still had nightmares about that awful day when Elder Terrakeep had been stripped and tied to a pole in the middle of the Shaihshire. Every villager had been forced to watch as Elder Terrakeep was whipped within an inch of his life. To this day Charliye still remembered how Elder Terrakeep had looked like a piece of raw flesh rather than a person after the Inquisitors had finished carrying out their 'duty', but the part that really haunted him was the soul breaking screams of Taera as her young daughter was ripped from her arms.
Charliye mouth filled with a bitter taste as he recalled how the cruel Inquisitor had ripped the young child from Taera's arms. The brutal Inquisitor had then lifted the young girl by her legs, then sneering at Taera he smashed the child's head against the floor repeatedly. The Inquisitor had then laughed cruelly at the shrieking mother while taunting her that her child was a waste of resources, before throwing the dead child at Taera's feet before turning to leave with his men.
It was at that moment that Taera's husband, who had already been discovered as a stone class during the investigation, had broken free of his restraints and attacked the Inquisitors who had promptly overpowered him. The villagers had then been forced to watch as the Inquisitor slowly tortured the young man to death; they said that he had been 'trying to escape'. Escape my ass, Charliye thought bitterly; he had been seeking revenge for his daughter that they had cruelly murdered in front of him.
Thankfully Taera had already fainted and didn't see the horrific ending of her husband, but it had been touch and go for a while, whether she would keep the young babe in her stomach at the time. For the next couple of months, Taera had been like a person who had lost their soul; it was only with the birth of Camryn that she had come out of her shell. Of course, an Inquisitor had been dispatched immediately to test the new child but thank the gods young Camryn had taken after his mother and was a rare dual element bronze class.
Most newborns were never tested at birth due to their magic still being unstable, as there was a high chance that having their magic stimulated by a powerful mage could damage them, leading them to never being able to cultivate, but due to the past crimes of his parents, Camryn had been forced to undergo such a dangerous procedure. It was pure chance that Camryn had survived such a procedure with his magic intact.
Most of the villagers didn't know that while Elder Terrakeep was busy recovering, he left his sick bed, to tracked down his cousin who had reported the rank of his granddaughter and exacted his revenge. Charliye was one of the few individuals who knew—as he had followed the Elder when he noticed his sneaking out of the village.
The only reason Charliye had followed was that he owed his life to Elder Terrakeep. Years ago, it was Elder Terrakeep who had found Charliye and Doren outside the village. Charliye had been seriously injured and was dying. Elder Terrakeep brought the dying man back to his home, and he had nursed the severely injured young man. Elder Terrakeep had also looked after the sickly Doren and nursed her back to health.
When the two had finally recovered, Elder Terrakeep had asked if the two would be willing to stay on in Shaihshire. Not once had Elder Terrakeep ever ask how come Doren and Charliye had been all alone in the forest, nor had he ever treated them any differently than any of the other villagers, even though Charliye was sure That Elder Terrakeep must have known that Charliye and Doren were runaways.
It was only later when he had interacted with many of the villagers in the town that Charliye realized that most of the villagers of Shaihshire were runaways, they all had secrets to hide. Most people wouldn't pick it up, but most likely due to Charliye own experience, he was very sensitive to his surroundings, and he quickly recognized the signs of these people looking over their shoulders.
When Charliye confronted Elder Terrakeep about sneaking out of the village, Elder Terrakeep had reluctantly divulged his reason for leaving, Charliye had instantly offered to accompany Elder Terrakeep. At that time Charliye had been worried that Elder Terrakeep had been about to do something stupid like confronting the Inquisitors – so he had been relieved to find out that Elder Terrakeep had only been after his cousin.
The two men had quickly located the woman living the high life in Erstonia. The two had drugged the woman and during the night had removed her from Erstonia without anyone being the wiser. It was during the following days that Charliye found out Elder Terrakeep's secret. It had come out while Elder Terrakeep was torturing his cousin for betraying him and his daughter, which had led to his son-in-law and granddaughter's death.
Iveanne, Elder Terrakeep's cousin taunted Elder Terrakeep that she hadn't sold out his daughter for money or the pills, but to get back at the old man. That is when Charliye found out the Elder Terrakeep wasn't a low born commoner like the rest of them, he was the son of a high ranking clan, and even more shocking, Elder Terrakeep wasn't a bronze ranked mage, but one of the rare silver ranked dual elemental mages.
During that long night, Charliye was able to piece the whole story together. When Elder Terrakeep was younger, he fell in love with a beautiful servant maiden on their family's estate. The young woman Banca was copper ranked, and couldn't even be considered a mage in the Lower Realm. Being a young man with high principals, Elder Terrakeep refused to follow the usual way of doing things and take the young woman has his lover but had insisted on marrying her.
Of course, this did not sit well with his family as they had high plans for the young silver ranked mage, but Elder Terrakeep had been insistent and had even refused the arranged marriage with a young lady from an influential family. His refusal had thoroughly embarrassed the girl's family, they had been furious with Elder Terrakeep's family and had threatened bloody vengeance. To prevent hostilities from breaking out; Elder Terrakeep was kicked out of the clan.
Elder Terrakeep's family had been sure that once the young man experienced the harshness of life outside the clan, he would soon bow down and return to the family and marry the noble young woman picked out for him. Even though Elder Terrakeep had embarrassed the young woman, she had refused to rescind her betrothal.
It's wasn't often that a young woman from the Lower Realm had a chance to snag a silver ranked mage like Elder Terrakeep, and there was no way the girl was going to give up her opportunity to improve her lot in life. Not only was Elder Terrakeep's family powerful, but by marrying Elder Terrakeep, she would have a chance of leaving the Lower Realm and entering the Mid Realm.
Everyone had been sure it would only be a matter of time for Elder Terrakeep to bow down to the pressure, but no one had countered on how stubborn the young man was. He had whisked away the beautiful Banca, and the two had moved to Shaihshire where they had lived for decades in peace and happiness.
Years later, Iveanne pitched up having tracked down Elder Terrakeep. At that time Iveanne had told Elder Terrakeep and Banca that she was fleeing a forced marriage, and had begged them to take her in. Elder Terrakeep and Banca had been sympathetic to Iveanne, especially considering their feelings about forced marriages and hadn't hesitated to take the woman in, treating her like a sister.
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