ooc: 1st Memory (Sound/Taste)
"I'll teach you about the pyramid of Sairando!"
It was darker than anything Apple had ever seen, blacker than the night sky, which always had the moon and the stars to light it. He wasn't frightened by it--it was too novel for him to be afraid--but he was confused. He tried to open his eyes to see the person speaking but the world stayed black. He couldn't move, couldn't even feel himself breathing...but for some reason he could taste something dry in his mouth, grit and hot. Desert air. The realization was instinctual, born of the same feelings that had made him first aware of the fact that he could form wings and fly.
The voice continued.
"At the top is, of course, the King."
The voice sounded feminine and young, but she also seemed to speak with an air of authority. It made sense since she was giving Apple some kind of lesson. What was it she'd said before? The pyramid of Sa-something? He could also hear the sound of wind blowing and distantly the sound of construction and people far away talking amongst themselves.
Why couldn't he see anything? Was this a dream?
"King...Aristocrats...The Military...the Common People..."
The girl paused for a moment, then spoke more softly in a sad tone.
"And then the Enslaved. +Anima and Kimunkle must become someone's property...That's what this choker means." He heard the sound of metal hitting leather, as well as the sound of cloth rustling.
Wait. Enslaved? +Anima? But that--Rose said that he was--
"A slave who wears a choker can live, as long as they work for their master..+Anima and Kimunkle without a Master are arrested...and sold in a slave market."
Apple hear someone gasp, someone standing right next to him.
"But that's--" A new voice, another girl, although she sounded even younger than the first one.
"So...that's Sairando's Law?" He heard himself ask. Oh! It was that word again. He heard the soft clink of metal on leather again, much closer now.
"It's true! Our happiness depends on our master!" The first girl said. "Even a Master who works us too hard..."
"But...I'm not property! I'm not...I didn't want to wear this..." Now it was the second girl. She sounded frightened and sad! Don't be sad, please--
"You don't want ****-sama to be your Master?!" The first girl was shouting now and he couldn't hear part of what she said. Wait. He had a master? "I can't believe it! You don't realize that she's a gift from heaven?!"
Apple waited for the girl to continue but instead of getting louder, the sounds grew soft again, eventually fading away into a mummer. Then he woke up.
[ooc: Scene from Chapter 35, Sairando's Law.]