Interlude: The Tale of Jastira: Part 17 – The Fall of the Oasis

Jastira sat with Ghorza, Issarel, and Dhenzuba. They were in what Jastira hoped was her new home. It was the abandoned village in Jorshah where she and Berold had seen soldiers from the Oasis take captives from Nyllenor, and disappeared with them in the small building. Of course, Jastira now knew it was because the cult had opened a portal in that building. Which made the abandoned village the perfect place for the refugees. With Dhenzuba’s assistance, the militia had sealed many of the portals between different points in Aegor that the Cult of Ug’dromon had opened, including the portals near the Oasis. But they had kept many others open, which they could make appear and disappear with a chant that Dhenzuba had taught them. The portals they had kept open included the portal in this village. It meant that if the orcs ever discovered them here, they could quickly retreat through the portal and close it behind them. In an instant they would be hundreds of miles away from any orcs that pursued them. This portal and others would allow them to quickly escape the orcs.

They had decided they would not create any new portals, at least for now. Certainly, they could have sacrificed some of their imprisoned cult members or a captured goblin or orc, if they wanted to. But Dhenzuba had warned Berold that it was a dark magic that invoked dark gods. And neither Berold, the other leaders of the militia, nor anyone else wanted to sink to the brutality and evilness of the cult. Perhaps a time would come when it became necessary to open new portals for survival or to take the fight to the orcs. But for now, they were not willing to brutally murder someone, even someone who might deserve it like their cult member captives. They had enough portals now, which they could use to evade the orcs if necessary. For now, that would have to do.

And now they had a home. They had named the village New Hope. All of the freed slaves from the Oasis now lived there. And the refugees from Penrith had moved there, reuniting Jastira, Berold, and Issarel with those they had parted with when they began their quest. A number of the soldiers from the militia had also moved here. Other soldiers remained in their base in another corner of Jorshah but they could easily travel between the two locations with portals. The militia still had the captives from the Oasis at their base. Their fate was still being decided.

Jastira hardly thought about those captives. She was focused on the future. Her future with Berold. The future of all other residents of New Hope and other human refugees they could find and bring there. It offered the best possible refuge from the orcs. And Jastira also thought about their future efforts to end the orc threat. New Hope offered a refuge. The portals offered an escape route from the orcs. But eventually, they would have to do what Berold had originally proposed. Take the fight to the orcs, ideally in an alliance with the elves of Elevosia. This eventual conflict with the orcs was a frequently on Jastira’s mind, one which was awkward with the presence of Ghorza. She was Jastira’s friend, but she was also an orc. The young female orc had travelled with them to New Hope. She had become close to not only Jastira but also many of the other former slaves from the Oasis. But she wanted to return to her people.

At that moment, she was discussing that very topic with Jastira, Issarel, and Dhenzuba. Ghorza promised she would never reveal to her fellow orcs the location of New Hope. Or any of the details of her captivity or her rescue. They all agreed the less the orcs knew about them, the better. Ghorza had no interest in risking the freedom and lives of her fellow former slave sisters that she had grown attached to, or the human men that had rescued her from the nightmare of slavery.

“I will tell them a half truth,” Ghorza said. “I will tell them I was captured and enslaved by humans and that other humans helped me escape. But I will tell them I have no idea where I was kept as a slave and that I was blindfolded when I was transported away from captivity. I will tell them I have no idea who or where my captors were, or who it was that rescued me and where they came from. You have my word.”

“Thank you Ghorza,” Jastira said. “I am sure the orcs will want very much to extract revenge on those that enslaved you. And if you are at all like me, I am sure you very much want to see the Oasis fall. But not everyone there deserves brutal retribution. And if the orcs find the Oasis, they may eventually learn of us, though they will still have no way of finding us.”

“I will tell the orcs nothing about the Oasis, though I suspect it will only be a matter of time before the orcs find them,” Ghorza replied. “Without the portals, they will have to travel long distances on foot through the desert just to get supplies. The orcs do not patrol the desert, but in the lands that surround the desert, there are many orc patrols. If they capture any humans travelling from the desert, it will only be a matter of time before they make those captive humans divulge where they came from. And then the orcs will come for the Oasis.”

“Many of them there deserve it,” Issarel said. “But many do not. They should have abandoned the Oasis when they had a chance. They were foolish to stay there.” Berold and the militia had given all of the citizens of the Oasis the opportunity to leave the Oasis before they sealed the portals. But hardly any of the Oasis citizens had left. Jastira assumed most of them could not accept that the Oasis no longer offered them the perfect refuge. It had been the forced enslavement of others and the evil magic of the Cult that had made their life there possible. They no longer had either. But the vast majority of the people who had stayed there were apparently not ready to accept that. They clung to the idea that the Oasis offered them safe refuge.

“Well, I hope they can survive and stay free. All of us know better than most how brutal slavery is. No one deserves that. And those most responsible for enslaving and brutalizing us have been killed or captured and imprisoned. And those captured will all face justice soon enough, from the militia,” Jastira said.

“Except Aelina,” Issarel said bitterly and the others nodded in agreement. All of them were disappointed that she had escaped justice.

………….

Aelina lay in bed next to Henart. It was mid-morning but she did not want to get up. What was the point? There would be no good news today. There had not been any good news yesterday or the day prior. There would almost certainly be no good news tomorrow. Only bad news. They were almost out of food. No one that had been sent out to travel through the desert to bring back supplies had returned yet. They no longer had slaves to perform labor for the city or to provide leisure and pleasure for its citizens. Everything was falling apart. Aelina found absolutely no joy in being the Oasis’s new queen.

After the invading militia soldiers had departed from the Oasis, Aelina had come out from hiding. She learned that her father was dead, which made her Queen. But she was the Queen of a ruined kingdom, with the army gone, the Cult gone, and no slaves or portals. She had tried to rally the citizens to unite and work together to keep the Oasis thriving. They had sent out parties to try and find supplies and food to bring back. But they had not returned yet and it was becoming abundantly clear that the chances that the Oasis could survive in the middle of a vast desert were exceedingly low.

Aelina looked at Henart who was still asleep. The man had been a guard who manned the gate during her father’s rule. And he had been her lover, unbeknownst to her father. Soon, he would be her husband. Aelina needed an heir and if she was to have a child, she needed a husband. Henart was her choice. Aelina had wanted to throw a lavish wedding celebration. But they didn’t have the slaves or the resources to throw such a party.

Things were hopeless. Aelina had been contemplating abandoning the Oasis with Henert. The citizens were already restless and scared. She knew that as supplies dwindled more, things would only get worse. She knew the people would soon turn on their Queen. When Henert woke up, they would discuss their future. But at the moment, Aelina wanted to fall back asleep, so she did not have to think about her problems. She closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep.

But then she heard a faint noise. Muffled shouts she realized. Her eyes shot open. She climbed out of her bed and went to the window. Her eyes widened in horror. On the street below, orcs were rampaging. With no warriors to man the walls, they had apparently breached them quickly. Orcs were chopping down men and dragging women from their homes and ravaging them on the street.

“Henart, wake up!” Aelina cried. “We have to get to the hideaway…” Henert’s eyes opened and he sat up in the bed. But suddenly, the door burst open and orcs stormed into the room. Before Henert could even climb out of the bed, orcs were hacking at him with swords. He screamed as he was chopped and stabbed to death. Jastira screamed too as orcs were upon her and began dragging her from her room.

………….

Jastira, Berold, and Dhenzuba stood with Ghorza. They had just stepped through a portal. The red, glowing portal was still open so that Jastira, Berold, and Dhenzuba could make a quick retreat when they were ready. The portal they had stepped through had been the one that was in orc territory, near the female orc camp that Ghorza and her sister had been abducted. Many weeks ago, Ghorza had been dragged unconscious through this portal to slavery. Now she had returned through it free.

She was hugging Jastira tightly. “Do not get caught by my people. Stay safe,” she said, smiling, as tears fell down her cheeks.

Jastira smiled. “I hope you are not offended that I hope you are the last orc I see,” she replied. Ghorza laughed. She released Jastira and turned to look into the forest. On the other side of the forest, only a couple of miles away, was her camp.

She turned back to her friends. “Thank you again, all of you. I am only free and alive because of you. I hope one day I can return the favor,” Ghorza said. And then she started to head into the forest.

As soon as she disappeared into the forest, Jastira, Berold, and Dhenzuba stepped back through the portal. It took them to another location in Aegor, hundreds of miles away. As soon as they stepped through, Dhenzuba started to chant. As she finished her chant, there was a flash of red light and the portal disappeared. She had not just temporarily closed it. She had sealed it permanently. It could not be opened again and only a new portal could be opened by sacrificing someone using the dark rituals. There was no need for a portal between here and the orc camp anymore. The trio departed. They had a half day’s walk before they reached the next portal. They would have a series of portals to travel through before they returned to New Hope.

………….

The orc general Trusok Gorebone stared down at Aelina. She was stripped and her wrists were bound behind her back. He knew she was supposedly the queen of this now conquered city. His army had marched through the desert and quickly taken the city. He had been shocked when they had actually found humans here. The city Kam Ladur had once been a flourishing city in a desert oasis, but had been abandoned for decades, or so the orcs thought. But then a patrol of his orcs had captured a caravan of people exiting the desert. And under interrogation, the humans had claimed they came from a city in the desert, which they called the Oasis. He had assumed they were lying or crazy, until the orcs actually found the former city of Kam Ladur inhabited.

And now he wanted answers and demanded them from this conquered queen.

“I will tell you everything I know,” Aelina cried. “We got here through portals that were opened by a cult but those cult members are no longer here.” Tears were pouring down her cheeks and she as trembling in terror. It was clear the young queen was in quite a distraught state.

“And who knows about this cult and their rituals?” Trusok growled.

“No one here knows better than I do. The cult worked for my father before he died,” Aelina cried. “Please I will tell you everything if you spare my life and do not enslave me!”

Another orc stepped into the room; it was one of Trusok’s officers, Ortguth. “General, look what we found,” Ortguth said. He was holding up a gold collar with a gold chain leash attached to it. “We found lots of slave collars in this city. It seems the people here once kept slaves.” Aelina recognized the gold collar the orc was holding. It had once been Jastira’s when she was made queen. Trusok smirked and took the collar and snapped it around Aelina’s throat. “On your feet slave,” he growled. Sobbing, Aelina slowly picked herself up. She could not believe she was now being forced to wear a collar, like a slave. It seemed the orcs were not willing to bargain for the information she had in exchange for her freedom.

“General, we are still going home to home and killing the males and enslaving the females but, as you requested, we gathered some of the older ones and brought them to the courtyard just outside the palace,” Ortguth said. “They are the ones you want to question.” Trusok had ordered that some humans be collected to be interrogated so that he could find out how they had managed to make it to Kam Ladur and survive her.

“No need,” Trusok replied and he pointed to Aelina. “This one here knows the information we want. But let her people see her and what she has become.” Trusok tugged Aelina’s leash and she lurched forward. Trusok led Aelina through the palace to a balcony that overlooked the courtyard. As Aelina was pulled out onto the balcony, she looked down below. The orcs had gathered a group of men and women into the courtyard.

“Behold your queen, now just a common slave!” Trusok bellowed to the people below. He grabbed Aelina by her hair and bent her over the railing of the balcony. “Part your legs slut! Thrust out your ass!” Trusok growled. Crying, Aelina did as commanded. Trusok kicked at the inside of Aelina’s ankles to make her spread her legs more. She suddenly felt something pushing in between her labia. She realized it was Trusok’s cock. “Nooo!” she cried and then her protest turned to a pained cry when Trusok rammed his hips forward, driving his cock into her with one hard thrust. The orc growled as he began thrusting away, fucking Aelina earnestly. Her subjects below watched as their queen was mercilessly taken by the orc general. He pounded her hard, pulling out completely and then stabbing his cock into her cunt, over and over, at a rapid place. His hips slapping into her ass cheeks, painfully pressing her body hard into the railing as he pounded away.

“Kill and enslave the rest!” Trusok shouted down to his orcs below. Aelina watched as the orcs in the court yard drew their weapons and began slaughtering the men in it. Other orcs grabbed the women and began stripping them. But as Trusok started thrusting into her even harder and faster, Aelina barely noticed the carnage below; she was preoccupied fully with the cock pummeling her insides. Her eyes widened with shock and tears pounded down her cheeks as she was brutally fucked. She realized there would be no negotiating herself out of this. She was now an orc slave. This was now her life and would be until she died.

Trusok groaned as he climaxed, sending spurts of cum into Aelina’s battered pussy. He pulled out of her and turned to some of his officers who had joined him on the balcony. “Have fun with this new slave. When you are done with her, take her to the dungeon we found in the city and interrogate her about these portals she mentioned.”

………….

Jastira stood beside Berold and in front of Dhenzuba. It was the happiest day of her life. She was marrying Berold. Her last wedding only flashed briefly through her mind. That one had been a perverse aberration. This one was everything she dreamed of but she had to concede it was still quite a rare enigma. A dark elf priestess was officiating a wedding between a human man and an elf maiden. Dhenzuba was speaking a human prayer at the moment. The dark elf had done her best to learn about both human and elf marriage rituals so that she could incorporate both into the ceremony.

Jastira was teary eyed, as she had been in her last wedding, but this time they were tears of joy, not sorrow. She was looking forward to spending the rest of her life with Berold. She did not know what their future held or how long of a life she would have. They were part of a growing force that was ready to start fighting back against the orcs and liberate this world from the orcs’ grip. It would be a dangerous life. She knew she might very well die. She might end up back in slavery. But having now experienced slavery twice, she was determined to fight against it and prevent others from being subjected to it, even if put her in danger. And Jastira was just happy to be back at Berold’s side. No matter how many obstacles and challenges and dangers they faced, she was happy to be taking them on with Berold. And with her other friends, which now included Dhenzuba. It was a strange alliance of humans, elves, and a dark elf. Something that would have been unheard of before the portal was opened between the worlds and orcs began pouring through it. It was the one silver lining of the orc’s invasion of Elevosia and her abduction. She had lived through so many nightmares. But those nightmares had led to this moment here with Berold. She would not have changed any of it.

Dhenzuba ended her prayer. Jastira leaned in and kissed her new husband.

………….

Aelina screamed in agony as the whip slashed into her back. She had been brutally interrogated for what she assumed had been days. Whipped and tortured and questioned almost every waking moment. She had already told the orcs every thing she knew about the portals and the surviving members of the Cult of Ug’dromon. She had told them about the slaves they had kept. She told them how humans had come and freed their slaves and arrested all the cult members. She told them about Dhenzuba and her sister that they had killed. She had been unable to tell them how to open the portals because she did not know the rituals herself. She let them know that the cult members who were captured or Dhenzuba would know how to open up portals within Aegor. She knew that was what they really cared about. How to open portals between different points in Aegor. The orcs knew how to open portals to the elf world. But they had no idea until now how to open the other portals between two different places within their world. She knew that is what they wanted.

The only part Aelina left out during her interrogation was that the Oasis had abducted and enslaved two female orcs. She feared what the orcs might to do to her if they learned about that. But she told them everything else. Yet still, they had continued to torture her. In the same dungeon where the Cult and her father’s men had tortured new slaves to break them. Now she was the slave. Wearing a gold collar befitting an enslaved queen. She knew as bad as her life would be, perhaps she would not suffer the most brutal realities of slavery that most of the women and girls of the Oasis would face, since she would be more prized chattel as royalty.

But at the moment, her royal station was not earning her any mercy. Aelina pressed herself against the stone wall as the whip slashed into her back and ass. With her arms chained above her head, the only thing she could do to try to escape the searing pain of the whip was to press herself into the wall. But there was no escape.

Aelina heard the creak of the metal door to her cell and footsteps as someone entered. The whipping stopped for the moment. “Any more information from this slut?” an orc asked.

“No, this slut has no more information to give,” replied the orc who had been whipping her.

“OK, good. The last coffle of slaves is being shipped out. Trusok said to add her to it. They are heading to a labor camp,” the first orc said. Aelina heard footsteps as the orc departed. The orc who had been whipping her spun her around. He laughed as he saw the horrified look on her face.

Aelina was dismayed to learn she was being sent to a labor camp. “Please, Master, I will be a good sex slave! I am a Queen! A fine trophy for some orc! It would be a waste to send me to a labor camp!”

The orc laughed. “A queen? You were a self-proclaimed queen of some refugee city,” he said. “And beside that, regardless of whether you are a queen, that is still a human cunt between your legs. We have access to elf cunt now. Much more durable. Can take way more abuse. Stays tighter longer. Even best-case scenario, you would last as a decent sex slave for a couple decades. An elf cunt could last us centuries. No, we have no use for you other than to put you to work.” The orc unchained Aelina from the wall and began to drag he from the dungeon.

Aelina sobbed as she pleaded and begged to be spared from a labor camp. She knew she might not last more than a few weeks in a labor camp. She would be worked to death there. The thought of sex slavery had been a nightmare for her. Now it was a much preferable fate than being worked to death in a labor camp. “Please, I will be a good little slut! Please Master, I beg you!” she wailed.

The orc ignored her as he dragged her through the city. She saw a line of naked women and girls locked with chains into a coffle. She recognized them as women from her city. The orc took Aelina too the end of the line and chained her collar to the back of the collar of the woman at the end of the coffle. “Alright, this is the last one,” the orc said.

Another orc stepped forward and began slashing his whip at the coffle of slaves. “Move it, sluts! You have a long journey through the desert!” Aelina lurched forward as the coffle began to move. She sobbed as she was forced to walk towards the gate of the Oasis.

Trusok watched as the slaves departed and then turned to his officer, Ortguth, who was standing beside him. “Dark elves and a new type of portal. Interesting, indeed. If we can learn how to open these portals, it would be valuable weapons.” Trusok said.

“Shall I send word to War Chieftain Grimnor about what we have learned?” Ortguth asked.

Trusok shook his head. “No, we will tell no one. Grimnor did not respect our clan enough to let us participate in the invasion of the elf world. We are stuck here in Aegor looking for puny humans. So why should I share with him this information? No, we are going to find these humans and this dark elf ourselves and use this information for our own benefit.”

(End of Part 17, to be continued...)