I was taking a vacation with my parents in some foreign country. I don't really know which one, but I do remember a large tower that was leaning at a really steep angle, far steeper than what a tower should lean. I remember a man talking to my parents, keeping them occupied for a bit. Then I remember nothing until I woke up in a strange room with a couple of other kids, all of them looking scared and tired. I could hear some voices through the walls of the room, but it was tough to make out what they were saying. I did hear one of them say that they had picked up a good haul this time around, and that their boss would be pleased. I stayed awake most of that night, being too scared and lonely to sleep. I was sixteen when I was taken.

I woke up the next day to someone hauling me forcefully to my feet, making sure that I looked into the face of the man who was looking me up and down, like I was some prize cattle that had just won a blue ribbon at a county fair. He nodded and I was stripped of all my clothing. He frowned at the hair on my legs and on my genitals, and said, "Hmm…. Nothing that a quick waxing wouldn't fix, how much for this one?"

"$500,000, in cash," The man holding me said, "And we can have her ready for you to pick up at the end of the week."

"Fair enough," The other man said, snapping at his assistant to bring a briefcase forward. He handed the case to one of the other men behind the man holding me, and then I was led into another room, this one completely empty except for one man who was sitting at a desk, holding a weird collar in his hand. The collar looked like the dog collar my dad had put onto our Alaskan Malamute to train her to not bark at everything she saw. The man behind the desk put the collar on me and said, "You're gonna be a good little bitch, got it? Or else…."

The man then pushed a switch on the remote in his hand and I screamed in pain as the shock lanced through my skin. As quick as it came, the pain left, leaving me gasping for air. I looked at the man in front of me and I took in his face. He had a closely trimmed beard on his face, making him slightly look older than what he really was. He had horn-rimmed glasses and a moustache that made the monopoly guy look like he was clean shaven. His hair was slicked back into a short ponytail and colored black with flakes of grey in it. His eyes were the most memorable ting about him. They were a bright blue color, and quite beautiful. At least, I would have thought so if I wasn't in the situation I was currently in. As it stood at that moment, I wanted to see this man die a horrible death for everything he'd ever put all the people he'd taken through. I guess something of my thoughts must have shown on my face, because he stood up from the position he was sitting in, walked around to where I sat and said, "Defiant, I see… I like that in my slaves, it makes the breaking down that much more enjoyable for me and my men." Then he reached out and put his hand under my chin and attempted to pull me into a rough kiss. I bit his lower lip hard enough to draw blood and he pulled back howling in pain. I spat out the blood in my mouth in disgust as he pushed the switch again. I screamed in agony for what seemed like an eternity and then I remembered nothing more for a long time.

As I slept, I went to a place deep within my own mind. It was a single tree in a wide open field. The field was surrounded by a forest to one side, and a lake close to me. I looked up and saw the night sky, focused entirely on the constellation Draco, whose stars were shining brightly against the darkness that is space. I felt a slight breeze and noticed a small figure coming towards me from the forest. She was wearing a plain white dress, platinum blonde hair falling to her back and icy blue eyes that looked like they could pierce even the strongest of materials like they were butter. She walked over to me and lay down in the grass close to the edge of the lake and patted the ground next to her, inviting me to do the same. When she spoke, it sounded like the heavens were being split apart and remade in an instant. It made me feel more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life. The girl said, "You have been taken by some really bad people."

"Tell me something I don't know," I replied softly.

"So, you know what has happened?" She asked, propping herself on an elbow so she could see my face better.

"I'm being sold at the end of the week. The man who bought me looked severe, but not unkind. The man who will be "training" me, on the other hand…. I want him to burn," I said, looking the girl in the eyes.

"Well, you shall have your chance to do that, but only if you can survive the trials that await you…" the girl said as she leaned in close.

"I'll do what I have to…" I said as she came closer. She kissed me in the moment that I finished my sentence…. And I was jolted back into reality as harshly as the kiss in my dream was beautiful.

I suffered more that first day than I cared to remember. I was beaten, then healed with some weird power, then beaten some more. And then came the worst part of all. They took me to a bed room, stripped me down, then "had their fun" with me. The whole time I cried silently for what was being taken from me. I pulled back into my mind for the last bit of it, to the place where the girl had kissed me and wept uncontrollably for what seemed like days. Then I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder, and felt a warm, comforting embrace. The girl from before whispered to me comfortingly, then hummed a tune to make the pain go away. I fell asleep in her arms, then woke up in reality, dirty, covered in semen, and being dragged to a washroom. They cleaned me up, rubbing against me roughly. I made no protest, as I was already hurting more than words could describe. They finished their jobs, then forced a dirty white nightgown over my head, and a black thong up my legs. I squirmed as they dressed me, which prompted one of the men to slap me. I hit the ground hard, blacking out as my head bounced off the ground.

I woke up to the same place in my mind, with the girl looking at me with sadness in her eyes, as if she had known what was going to happen, but was unable to do anything about it. She told me that if I practiced hard enough at it, I could come to this place as often as I needed to find comfort in the surroundings and in her presence. Truth be told, I had never found another girl attractive before, let alone a girl I knew nothing about, but I just nodded and lay down next to her. She started telling me that she was the messenger of a deity named Bahamut, so I asked, "Why me?"

The girl looked at me and said, "Why does fate choose any of us? We are always given a choice to defend what is right, and to right whatever wrongs that we can with our own power, but rarely are we given enough power to save more than our own lives."

"So… You're saying that I'm going to be some kind of hero?" I asked curiously.

The girl smiled and said, "Not exactly a hero… More like an avenger."

"What if I'm not cut out for it?" I asked.

"You'll be ready, in time. For now it is time for you to take the first step of your journey," the girl said as she stood up and held out her hand. I took her hand and she held me in her arms for a moment. Then she was gone and I was left alone in my mind, looking up at Draco. I saw what I needed to do in that instant, and I didn't like it. I needed to let what was happening to me happen. I needed to stop fighting and make it seem like they had won, make it seem like I had been broken down to nothing more than a sniveling shell of my former self.

"If that's what it takes to do this… then I'll do it," I said softly. I woke up in that instant to a man shaking me and handing me a small plate of food. I crawled over to it and took it quickly, before the hand holding it could take the food back. I didn't know how long I had been unconscious, but I didn't really care. It had been at least a full day since I had any kind of food or water, so I downed everything on the plate and went to the corner farthest from the door and slept uneasily, knowing what the next few days would bring.

The week that I had been given for training went by quickly, like a blur of motion and events that I detached myself from as they were happening, sending my mind to the field next to the lake. It was my refuge of peace in the chaotic time that I had been thrust into, and I was almost happy, knowing that the messenger girl was there to hold me when I needed it, and to talk to me when I needed a friend. I guess I grew to love the girl I knew nothing about, so when she told me that she had something for me, I blushed and said meekly, "Thank you…"

The girl smiled and said, "This is for you, from my master, and from me…."

She placed her hand above my left breast and I felt a tingling sensation under her hand. The sensation grew until the skin was white hot, and I gasped as the girl took her hand away. The pain left as soon as the girl took her hand away and on my skin was a sort of cat like eye in a circle of flowers. I looked at the mark and asked, "What is it for?"

"That, like I said is a gift from my master. If you pray to Bahamut, king of the good dragons, and platinum sage, he will answer your prayers. You shall be his vassal in this realm and dragonborn," the girl said.

"I accept…" I said softly.

"Then you must sit and meditate here for a day and a night," The girl said, "After your Rite of Rebirth, our master has given you permission to deal with these people as you see fit…"

The girl added the second part almost as an afterthought, saying it quietly, like she were speaking to a lover that she had wronged. I nodded and discarded the ugly white nightgown I had been wearing, and the black thong. I took the linen shift that the girl offered me and I put it on, covering my body. I sat on the grass and closed my eyes, looking for the voice I now knew came from my heart, asking me if I was ready to do this. I answered the call and meditated for a day and a night in my peaceful field, and found myself in an egg like cocoon.

I broke out of the cocoon two days after I started meditating and went to the lake to see my reflection. I ran my hands over my skin and felt scales under my fingertips. The scales themselves were platinum in color, and seemed harder than what seemed possible for a natural material, meaning that if I ever got into a fight I would be well protected. I noticed the girl standing by the tree when I turned around. She was holding a pendant in one hand and a sheathed longsword in the other. She handed me the pendant, which was the same as the mark she had put on me earlier and said, "This will mark you as a follower of Bahamut, the king of good dragons and platinum sage."

Then she handed me the sword and said, "This is a token of my own love for you… I forged it out of one of the scales that our master himself gave me. It is called Excelion, and it has no peer in the mortal realm. Use it to protect those you care about and the blades true power will be unleashed."

"Will I ever meet you in person?" I asked as I took the gifts.

"Soon, but you have work to do first," The girl said, "However, I can tell you my name, so you can look forward to speaking it to me when we meet…"

The girl whispered her name to me and I woke up in my room amidst a bright white light emanating from the pendant she had given me. I put the pendant around my neck and attached the blade, Excelion to my waist. I looked at the door in front of me and inhaled deeply. I let out my breath and out came a torrent of white flame from my mouth. The flame burnt the door and the guard outside it to a crisp. I walked out of the room and looked around. I was in a long, well lit hallway, with two large windows on either side. I could hear moans of pain and pleasure from some of the other rooms in the hall, so I went to everyone and helped the other girls with my light. The light I produced from my pendant healed the girls and put them into a peaceful slumber, while it burned the men raping them, and beating them to ashes. I heard a shout from the hallway as I finished with the last room and went out. One of the other men had went into one of the rooms I had already cleared out and found the ash from one of the other men I had killed. I looked at the man up and down as I walked towards him, noticing that he was the same man who was supposed to pick me up to be his slave that day. I noticed he also had the remote to the collar I had around my neck still, and he pushed the switch to shock me. I tensed up as I felt the charge start, but all I felt was a slight tingle around my neck as the shock was mostly absorbed by my new scales. I laughed as I reached up and ripped the collar off and walked towards the man. He back pedaled as fast as he could, until he hit the wall. I drew Excelion and pointed it at the man in front of me and said, "You were going to deal in human trafficking. I want to know why."

The man cowered under my blade and said, "I wanted a young, beautiful woman by my side…"

I looked back at him and said, "Slavery is not only illegal in most countries now, but it is also a slight against human rights, for all people. Think about what you would do if YOUR son or daughter had been taken from you and sold, like I was about to be."

The man flinched away from me and hit his head against the wall. I guess he was rather weak willed, because at that point, he soiled himself and passed out. I shook my head and sheathed my sword and went down the hall he had just walked down. After I made it about halfway down the hall, I noticed a few men with guns coming up the stairs on the left and another man walking out of a room with his head down looking at his phone. He looked up at me and grinned a wicked grin at me and said, "Fire," to the men in front of him. I put my hand up and said coldly, "Holy Light." As I finished the words, a blinding flash of light arched from my palm and struck the men in front of me and they fell down, their eyes burned by the sudden brilliance. The man that had given the order to fire had quickly turned around and run towards the opposite end of the hall, avoiding my light. I quickly caught up to the man and saw that it was the same one who had put the collar on me when I had first arrived in this place.

I drew Excelion and pinned him to the wall through his clothes with the blade. He struggled for a moment, then stopped as my fist struck the wall beside his head. I felt angrier than I had ever felt at any moment in my life, all because this man had taken me from the life I had before this farce he called business. I stopped and took a breath for a moment, then said, "I don't care what your reasons were for taking me or these other people from their families, and quite frankly, I don't care whether or not you are sorry for this. But I swore you would pay for this, and I will make sure that you go insane from this pain…." I raised my hand to the man's head and placed it on his forehead. The man's slicked back hair, flecked with grey, his beautiful/ugly eyes filled with fear and hatred and condescension, his entire being quaked as I cast my spell.

"You will forever feel every ounce of pain and suffering and loneliness you have ever put your victims through, whether you were the one doling out their suffering or not," I said in an arcane tone, "You shall not go insane, nor shall you take your own life, though you will always wish that I had allowed you to, so great will your suffering be. And last, you shall inform the authorities of everything that you have ever done wrong in your life, leaving nothing unspoken from your past misdeeds. The people here that you have taken shall go free, and you will give up the names of your allies and your buyers and your suppliers and everyone in your sick little business that you know of."

I took my hand away from the man's forehead and freed Excelion from the wall. The man collapsed on the floor and pulled out his cellphone. He started dialing the authorities as I walked towards the stairwell that I had seen from earlier. The men I had blinded were currently trying to figure out what had happened, so I knocked them out where they kneeled with the flat edge of Excelion. I sheathed the sword and walked up the stairs, thinking, 'I guess I should've killed them… But I just don't have the heart at the moment….'

I followed the stairwell to the roof of the building and stepped out into the late afternoon sun. On the roof I found the girl from my dreams standing in front of me. I rushed to her and hugged her tightly, thinking that I must be dreaming again.

"Don't worry, I'm here," the girl said softly, "And I don't have to leave, either…"

I just kissed the girl deeply and passionately, and when we broke for breath I said, "Elysia…"

Elysia smiled and broke our embrace. As I watched she stepped back a few feet from me and her body began to shift to a dragon. She was a beautiful silver dragon and I stood in awe of the creature in front of me. She lowered her neck so I could get on. I took Elysia up on her offer and climbed on. She took off from the building as we heard sirens in the distance. We turned from the sound and flew towards the leaning tower, taking a break from everything to recover for a bit, and letting my family know that I was still alive.