***

The sun had began to peek from the east, chasing dark hues to paint the world in its golden glow. Birds sang their early tune to wake the forest fogged of morning dew. All the while, I walked sluggishly with gargantuan load on my back so the horse beside me would not get tired.

I grunted. The day just started, but mine was already ruined hours before the sun had risen. We had been walking since midnight, covering a good distance away from the Orphanage.

After the fiasco yesterday, I woke up straddled atop a horse, together with other baggage and an old man. He noticed I was awake and introduced himself as Wuen Dreik, my new owner. During the confusion, he completed the disrupted ownership ceremony by dripping his blood to my 'tali'.

Which was illegal.

That was considered stealing other people's property. Even though every 'visitor' then had already paid before hand, choosing slaves was a first-come-first-served basis, an unwritten law in slave business. Since I was already chosen by that pig first, no matter what, I should had been on his care right now. Hence, the reason for travelling despite the dead of the night. We were escaping. For better or worse, I was stuck with Wuen. Because I was already bounded by the seal, there was no way for me to disobey and prevent myself from becoming both a slave and a fugitive. The seal works like a curse, causing severe migraines in the form of intolerable high pitched sound inside my head. It was like a steady shrill that gets increasingly worse until you do what you were ordered.

I spoke from experience. Wuen's first order were to lessen the horse's burden by getting down and walk on my own. Which I hesitated to do for a second because, again, I was short and had no idea how to climb down a full grown horse. That split second hesitation triggered the damned curse, suddenly piercing my barely awake mind. Surprised, I subsequently fell off and even nearly got stomped to death by the horse. I immediately rolled off to the side, disregarding the thorny bushes in my landing zone.

The old man got the nerve to laugh it off. Though he did cast a healing magic, in the end, he passed more burden to me in the form of a big backpack. Like that, I walked for hours carrying a load half my size. Its weight were not laughable either. The size was actually deceivingly lighter than the actual kilos I was shouldering. I had no idea what was inside, just that, they protruded sharply on my back and irritated me with an itch I could not scratch. Good thing I was not born a normal human, or else, I would be dead either due to fatigue or blood loss.

"How is your body?" His sudden worry made me jump.

I looked up, and regretted. He was not worried. His grey eyes were twinkling with curiosity and awe, telling me that resting for even a moment may never come.

"My back, legs, and shoulders are sore. My eyes is also dropping from exhaustion. I am thirsty and hungry-"

"Kukuku, I order you to carry on as long as you could! This is the first time I had seen your kind, so I had more than a few questions! Kuku, I really am blessed." He blatantly ignored my misery and went on blabbling about random things.

I could only bite my lip in frustration. I did not lie at all. My legs were already shaking with fatigue. Back and shoulders were also stiff from bearing so much weight for too long. I may be a 'jinn', but five year olds were not exactly so invincible.

Jinn, a term used for a group of humanoid species with golden eyes. Most commonly found in the south, they were renowned as great warriors in both melee and ranged combat. Quite OP in wars, but jinns have one fatal weakness, their fertility rate was extremely low. They were all about quality, but laughable quantity. Neighboring nations saw them as a threat and profit, then banded to wage war against the small country of the south. The war was said to be the bloodiest in history, but the result inevitably ended with the jinn's loss. Their land divided and absorbed by its neighbors, while the survivors scampered before they ended up dead or collared. Centuries had past, the gene for golden eyes had been heavily diluted into the population, making them a rare commodity worth killing for. I guess that should be termed 'we', since I also had those golden eyes. Which, right now, only made me sigh. My new master seemed to be very curious, and eager to constantly to test my racial limits. Too eager.

After a few more hours of silent and tireless walking, we finally stopped. Not for my sake of course, but because the horse Wuen was riding on began to go limp with froth visible in its mouth. It had been walking for twelve hours after all.

"Haa, can't be helped." Wuen easily hopped off in a puff, and considerately patted the worn out horse ...officially making my worth lower than that of an animal's.

The old man took out something from his robe, a long wooden stick taller than me. Bright red stones glittered at its hilt, adorning a jet black orb at the top which was the size of a fist. This must be the infamous staff, powerful magical equipment that only the rich and powerful could acquire.

All staves were graded based on the size of the magic stone, where a dot was worth a bullion of gold, a pinkie for royal treasury, so a fist must be equivalent to a country by least. If that was so, then why does this person wore a beat up robe, headed out with only one horse, now led the way to nowhere? It obviously meant he was more than he appeared ...or far less.

With a swish of his staff and incantations I did not understand, our surroundings shifted. In the next instant, the thick forest surrounding us transformed to something stunningly different.

"The sea..." I whispered in disbelief.

We got transported to the bottom of a cliff facing the sea. Endless blue greeted me with a breeze of salted air. Waves constantly smashed against a wide field of jagged rocks, greatly taming the rapid water to eventually lick my dirty feet with warm and bubbly splash, slightly tickling me.

I never considered wanting to see this sight ever again. I thought it was a lost cause, a mere wishful dream at best. Now that I was standing here, feeling everything that I once took for granted, I was stumped on what to do.

"Come on, that is something you'll see everyday anyway." Wuen called out.

The curse activated immediately with his new orders, so I turned before it got louder. I was not really curious to know how worse it could get. So with a last glance at the blues, I looked away.

Then paused.

What stopped me was the impossible sight upfront. It was something I thought possible only in computer graphics. Clearly, that was not the case. This grand architecture looked as real as the sea behind me. Made of material whiter than the clouds, a gigantic maze-like city was carved out of the cliff. There was no gate towards it, instead, two angel statues standing on opposing side marked the entrance towards a dangerous looking stairs that might crumble at the slightest pressure. Looking closely around, seaweeds and some other shells were sprinkled everywhere, hinting that the tide occasionally swallows higher than what it currently does.

Anxiously, I began to follow Wuen up, keeping my eyes wide at the incredible feast before me. The more I looked, the more majestic this place seemed to become. Far more than what I could see, settlements after settlements lined impossibly to trace the winding walls of the cliff. How it stayed stuck without falling was a mystery, but they looked old and worn by time which proves the the sturdiness of whatever kept the buildings in place. Aside the white infrastructures, greeneries were also present. Vines crawled all around with occasional pink and red flowers blooming out. It stunningly made a hanging garden to complement the vertical city.

Overall, the cliff became a surreal city with no lefts or rights, just ups and downs.

Climbing stairs with no railings was very unnerving, especially when one wrong move led straight to jagged rocks at the bottom. Still, safety issues aside, finding our way through this place was very counter intuitive. I knew we were climbing a cliff with stairs, but all my life, the way had always been composed of a turn here and there, something I keep searching for when I see a house in every landing. Heck, their doors were not on the side, but on the roofs and opens down where another short set of stairs was built to finally lead into the house.

There was just one thing that greatly worried me. We were alone. Even the horse was nowhere in sight. No townspeople milled about, nor any voices resounded. Our footfalls echoed eerily with the backdrop of the splashing waves against the solid cliff. Even though it was a very beautiful city, without people, a deserted city would still be dead city. The desolation was saddening.

I lost count how many flight of stairs we climbed. On and on we went, I felt the tinge of loneliness growing out of my calm facade. Looking at this deserted place was very depressing, and I was plenty depressed enough to tolerate any more.

"We're here!" Wuen looked back to me and grinned ever so curiously.

A wide door stood at the end of our climbing journey. He opened it for me and waved me in. I took note that hand gestures do not trigger the shrill sound of slave curse in my head.

When I entered, the third surprise of the day waited for me.

A dimly lit space, easily the size of a football stadium with the generous stands included, was amazingly contained behind the white city outside.

"Welcome to my laboratory! From now on, you will be assisting me in many tasks ahead." He gayly announced with open arms.

"..." I was speechless.

"Kukuku, it really is amazing isn't it? For the most powerful alchemist in the world, this is only as expected."

"Alchemist? I thought you were a mage?" I inquired half-heartedly. It wasn't hard to connect alchemy and magic, but my mind was busy evading any thoughts of what could repositories, exhausts, and screams in the far corner of this big dome had in common.

"Tsk, tsk, this is why slaves are... Well, we have a lot of time in our hands to learn everything you need to know." He nodded with his own words, and immediately ordered me to dispense the load of my backpack to the nearest table. I flipped the bag upside down, and an assortment of contents clattered as it fell. Accessories, cutleries, and weapons. In this variety, there was one glaring similarity. They all sparkled with the brilliance of luxury.

I looked up accusingly to Wuen, who just shrugged as he dumped another bag-full of sparkly things. "Well, a freelance alchemist needs a lot of money, you know."

With that, a life of struggle truly began.

***

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