blink

The unfortunate tale of Narer Valohi, as told by his brother, Balion, and transcribed by Ilavrick Maroitian.

Also located in "The Effects of the Enslaved", written in 3E 433, as a lesson to those slavers who fail to heed the new law.

Darkness had long since devoured the small, small room. The stones behind his back and the iron of his chains had grown uncomfortably chilled, like frost covered them, or they were made of solid ice altogether, and the steady dripping of water from gods knew where was enough to drive anyone, man or woman, insane. The silver light of Masser and Secunda together shown through a tiny barred window across and above him, and bounced off his paled skin and jutting ribs. At first glance, the man seemed dead.

Not yet.

Narer Valohi just barely lifted his head when the sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway, and his heartbeat increased to what he assumed were unhealthy levels as the rattle of keys opened the door to his cramped cell. How he would have loved to run every time that door opened, but chains held him back. Chains and broken knees.

The Master would do it on purpose, too, just to see the Dunmer squirm. He would open the door, let freedom appear just a few feet away, and simply watch, for he knew his prisoner could do nothing but cry and break.

This time was a bit different. The door was opened and the Master actually bothered to walk in.

Narer had never seen the Master's face, curiously enough. The shadow of a hood and the darkness of the room ensured that. But he knew it was the Master because there was no one else there at all and even if there were, no one else visited him.

Now the Master stood in front of his enslaved pet, the thing he used for sick mental torture to satiate a sadistic appetite, and spoke with just a ring of remorse on his tongue. "Do you regret?"

"Yes."

"Do you regret?"

"Yes."

A pause, then: "You shouldn't have blinked."

Then he left, and the cycle would repeat every day for six months, letting the Dunmer man writhe in confusion and a longing for light to touch his skin once again. He wondered often what those words meant. "You shouldn't have blinked." What did that mean? Why was that important? It drove him mad and even as mice nibbled at his toes for food, he couldn't come up with an answer.

One day though, it hit him. The door was open and he caught a glimpse of the Master's face. And the face gleamed with copper scales.

It hit him.

Hard.

Argonians and Khajiit, the beasts of the land, worked on the yards like bulls and mules and guar. Animals. They weren't intelligent beings with minds at all, not according to the Dunmer slavers of Morrowind.

One of them, an Argonian man by the name of Bun-Lah - nicknamed Feather-Head, was worked especially hard as he was stronger and bigger than the others, and he was considered the epitome of the brainless lizard humanoids to Dunmer.

When slavery was outlawed at last, most slaves fled to their homelands. Not Bun-Lah. He swore vengeance on the Dunmer, and mosre specifically, the one who enslaved him. He still clearly remembered the words of his mother when their village was raided.

"Don't blink."

He did.

In that second, his mother was killed and he was taken by slaver grinned, bearing all the evil in the world, and said simply: "You shouldn't have blinked."

On the first day of the seventh month, when the Master came for his normal ritual of asking regret and stating what he shouldn't have done.

"Do you regret?" the Master asked.

"Yes," Narer said, then before it could be asked again: "I'm sorry, Bun-Lah."

Bun-Lah revealed his face and just laughed. It was the pained done. The one that told someone they lost everything. "It's too late for sorry, Master. You took everything from me. You deserve nothing."

He left then and shut the door, and just like Bun-Lah before him, when he was captured, Narer really did regret everything.

AN: The 100 Themes Challenge to try and get me writing more and get me out of a severe block. Constructive criticism always appreciated, though anything is welcome. Shoot me a flame if you want.

These won't be in order, just as a heads up. I'm also open to requests for stories and open to ideas. Hope you enjoy!

- JR