MLiW Chapter 11 (Patreon)

I broke off from Arthas’s army after we made it inside the city. The smell… Wasn’t that great. Right off the bat, the stables should have been kept separate from the city as it stunk of horse shit. I was hoping for the smells of freshly baked bread or stew from the inns near the entrance gate but for about a mile radius around the stables stunk from the hundreds of horses living in them.

I instinctively started to avoid the entrance because of the smell. The inns outside of the poop stench probably could charge a premium just so their customers didn’t walk into that smell when they left in the morning. I just spent most of the day exploring. Getting directions to the chef's wing I headed there to pick up my new profession and the small lake nearby let me pick up the fishing profession as well.

I got so distracted by learning new recipes and making new food that I didn’t get pulled out of my learning montage until Jaina found me and told me the army was headed to Northrend. Right, I was here to free my mother if she was here. I still hadn’t checked out the zoo either. Well, let me find where the slaves are being held first. Asking around I got pretty much the same canned response from everyone. “No sir, slavery is illegal in the city.” 

It took asking at one of the inn/bars inside the stink range of the entrance to get somewhere finally. “There are no slaves here in the city… At least on paper anyways.” He whispered the last part and I asked the barkeep for another set of beers for the both of us before asking. “Oh? Well, if there were slaves inside the city where would they allegedly be located?”

He finessed another two drinks and a gold piece from me before telling me about the ‘Undercity’. It was a city underneath the main city that dealt with the seedier parts of society. The thieves guild, assassins guild, black market, and slave trade existed inside the Undercity. There was something as blatant as an elevator to get down to the sewers, but taking a ladder down I entered and the place somehow didn’t smell as bad as the front of the capital city.

I was feet away from a river of poop and could barely smell it, this must be the work of a magician to keep the place from stinking so bad the criminals couldn’t do business. The city felt otherworldly, like a city that was always covered in darkness, the only lights in the area were magic lamps and light posts. The population of the upper city was about six million but it looked like the Undercity could have a similar number of people living inside. You could walk the entire day and not reach the other side of the city.

They did a census a few years ago and the total population of all the Lordaeron’s territory was eighteen million. I doubted the census also included this Undercity. Every other person looked to be a slave though. Almost every business had at least one slave helping with their business.

My plans began to rapidly change as I saw how my people were being mistreated here. A little orc girl was caged on a wagon as she was being taken towards the slave quarter of the city. Several million orc slaves, I knew I couldn’t free all of them. More than half had the same dull hopeless eyes the orcs at Durneholde Keep had.

First, I needed to see if I could find my mother. It was going to be much harder than I originally thought as well. I thought there might have been twenty or thirty thousand… Not the millions here propping up the underworld businesses of the city… I wondered if I let the king know about this ‘Undercity’ what would he do? I couldn’t rely on him though. I could only take a fraction of them out of here, trying to transport more than ten thousand would become a logistical nightmare and most would starve if I took more than that number.

I could just wing it but that’s how you lose lives. Freeing everyone is a noble goal but millions would die in the attempt and millions more from starvation from the large mass of people migrating. Creating a home for all of us to return to while slowly safeguarding more and more orcs out of Undercity until we could finally overthrow the slavers was the best option.

I sat back and watched the orc girl get processed before learning more about how things worked. New slaves would be brought in and depending on their skill set they’d end up in different lines of slavery. Big strong orcs either were sold off to be cannon fodder on other battlefields or had the ‘thrall’ treatment done to them making them husks of their former selves.

Anyone with a skill outside of war would be sold off to the highest bidder, which was normally not as much as you’d think. The little girl went for five gold coins which was only a few weeks of work from a guard. It meant that a lot of orcs were going to the wrong place and the price was so low if they disobeyed their owner would probably just kill them.

Female orcs tended to go for more than male orcs, and that went doubly when they got to bed slaves. The scantily clad orcs were brought up on stage all at once instead of singularly to draw more attention to the end of the auction. None of them were extremely attractive to me, the muscular male orcs flexed to try and draw attention while the female orcs did their best impression of humans to attempt to be bought by better customers.

They had the most cushy lives out of the group on paper. The cheapest going for thirty gold, which was a lot but meant whoever bought him might think twice about murdering him in the future. None of the female orc bed slaves went for under fifty. It just showed the stark difference in the price and that men just care less what the women they sleep with look like.

It was disgusting and I could tell the goddess who gave me my powers also wanted me to do something about it… I still needed to figure out if there were slave purchase documents I could backtrack and find out if my mother ever passed through the city. I just wish-. I felt myself being guided in a certain direction before I remembered my god could guide me to things.

I could feel how close she was. She lived here, somewhere in Undercity.

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Draka’s Point of View

I lifted another bag of feed to give to the chickens as I felt my old leg wound start to flare up from over-exerting myself. I managed to get the bag back down to the ground as I sat on the ground and caught my breath. Rubbing the giant scar on my leg, I hated that I couldn’t do the things I used to be able to do. I felt a hand press against my shoulder as the bag was lifted from the ground.

I couldn’t help but smile as the man spoke up. “Draka, you should take it easy. Especially from the condition you’re in.” I couldn’t help but smile as my hand rubbed across my belly protectively. “Fine. I’ll go get dinner started Borne.” He helps me stand up and I make my way inside our home as I shout. “Momma’s done for the day. I need my two little helpers to make supper.”

My two children came running down the stairs as they cheered. “Yay! It’s time for dinner!”