Misaki stopped walking, shortly after Milith came to a halt. They were pretty deep in the garden. This area was pretty clear, populated only with flowers. Milith turned, and began, “I’m going to summon a few targets, here. I have a few old war machines and a few mimic drones that will be perfect for showing you the difference.”

“Old war machines?”

“Honestly, most of them would be museum pieces if they were in better condition.” she pointed out, and where she pointed a portal deposited a massive mechanical scorpion. It was a huge hulking collection of metal, but it did seem old. There were holes in the hull, and the armor was rusty. Very rusty, but it did seem a bit familiar. Not the design, but something about it. It was very different from the few mechs she had seen in her old world. None of them had six legs, at most she would have seen four. The giant mechanical tail was certainly different as well. No mech she had seen before had one.

“A heavy combat walker! I haven’t seen one in years,” said Misaki.

“Well, if you want it you can have that one. Its a Scorpion II and it is in fairly decent condition for its age. Unfortunately, it is not a One or Three. If it was, a museum might have accepted it, but not even the collectors want that model.”

“Might be an interesting toy.”

“Sure, if you can fix it. Just keep in mind that the frame is somewhat overloaded, and the thing is notorious for breaking down. Then again you are a dungeon, with a talent for magic. You might be able to fix that problem.”

Her excitement drained a bit, “It’s completely broken isn’t it?”

Milith nodded, “Just about. The hull is fairly intact, and about half the mechanical systems still work.”

Misaki scratched her head, “Well, it would make a neat decoration. Would be great for a devastated battlefield floor theme.”

“I take it you don’t think you could fix it.”

She shook her head, “I don’t know much about mechs in the first place.”

“Well, consider it a learning project then,” replied Milith before getting on with the lesson.

She headed towards a hill, and immediately summoned about a dozen bipedal combat walkers, and another six legged walker. This one did not look like a mechanical scorpion, but more like a crab. None of them were walkers she was familiar with. Also of note was that none of them had holes in their hulls, and there was still paint on their frame. Albeit aged, and fading with no rust in sight.

“These are older mechs no longer in imperial service. They were decommissioned, stripped of their shields, some weapon mounts, and then sold on the civilian market. I acquired them a few years ago, when a merchant sold them off in favor of newer equipment.”

“Stripped of their shields?”

“By imperial law, civilians may not own or operate any craft equipped with a shield generator. Some weapons are also restricted under the same law. Anyway, as I was about to say, I recently fitted these mechs with new shield generators. For the purposes of my demonstration, they would need them.” 

Milith suddenly cast a small fireball spell at one of them, and it was absorbed by a flaring energy barrier. “As you can see the shields act much the same as mage shields, absorbing damage up to their capacity. I could sit here talking all day, but I think it is time for action.”

With that she flew off, and approached the mech formation. From her mouth she spewed forth a cone of blue-green flame. It engulfed the formation blocking them from sight. When the flame vanished most of the light walkers were damaged in some way. One of them had escaped damage, and another was completely destroyed. The heavy walker was largely unscathed. Milith came back, and landed next to her.

“That was my breath attack. I outfitted those mech with shields equal to a mage’s around level five hundred, and the Crab has a stronger one equal to a mage around seven hundred. As you can see my breath is potent, able to affect multiple targets at once, but it can’t really damage the Crab with its powerful shield. Now that you have seen my breath, I can show you Skylord’s Lance.”

Misaki had to admit that attack certainly had been something to see. Now she was really excited to see this ‘Skylord’s Lance’ in action. Fortunately she didn’t have to wait long. Milith flew off, and soon hovered over the mech formation. Blue-green light gathered in her open mouth, and a second later it shot off as a concentrated beam. It struck the Crab head on. The shield flared brightly, but the beam went right through the barrier, the armored hull, and out the otherside. Then something exploded. When the dust cleared, there was a broken hulk where once the walker stood. 

“As you can see, the spell concentrates the power of my breath into a focused attack.”

Misaki interrupted, “It did more than that. It altered the properties of the attack as well. It gained a magical attribute I have never seen before. That attribute changed the way the two elements of your breath interact with each other, and the target.”

Milith nodded, “I’m glad you noticed. Makes my job easier.”

Then she went on with the lesson. Quite a few unfortunate mechs were harmed, but Misaki eventually learned the spell. Not that she knew what she would do with it. She couldn’t use it, much like the poor rust hulk, Milith gave her. At least the hulk was free.

Xatali just sat there like an idiot, even as her instincts were screaming at her to run. It was already too late though. The dragon lady next to her suddenly pulled out a very familiar blue ball.

In surprise, she exclaimed, “My ball!” While trying to grab it.

Zemoria easily moved it of reach, and then said, “You know if you were lucky enough to escape your master it was kind of stupid of you to leave this in your pocket where anyone could pick it up. Although since this ball lacks a registered master, I guess you managed to escape when your master tried to sell you. Tell me slave, who was your master?”

She didn’t like being called a slave, but she could feel a compulsion to speak. Zemoria had asked her a question, and held her ball so she had to answer. “Arlie, Arlie Contrey put me in that ball.”

“OH!? How did you escape her? With her abilities that could not have been easy.”

She looked away, hesitating to speak, but the compulsion didn’t let her stay silent long, “...I... I didn’t. She sold me back to my people, but we don’t practice slavery.”

“I see, so your new master didn’t register you, and simply gave you the ball. Too bad for you they skipped that step. You could have been a free woman if they had just registered themselves as master.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“This isn’t the first time I have seen a Solean Capture Ball. They have a release function, but it requires a registered master. Otherwise it is impossible to release the captured Combat Pet.”

“You mean I could be free of that cursed ball!?”

Zemoria smiled, “Sure could.”

Xatali had wanted to be free of it for ages, but her instincts were still telling her that being near this lady was bad. “I could be free,” she muttered under her breath. That was the best news she had heard, in ages, but what the Dragon said next was crushing.

“Not that I would do that. You have too much potential to squander like that.”

Of course the dragon lady wasn’t going to let her go. She had the misfortune to lose the ball in the first place, and now that misfortune was growing worse. It was just her luck that the person who had it not only knew its functions, but apparently wanted to keep her. She buried her face in her thighs, but kept listening.

“I can tell you will make a great nature mage, but your main affinities lie elsewhere. I think it will be fun to train you into a proper combat pet. Your level is a bit too low to be useful, but that just means I can train you from the ground up. It’s not often I get to mold an individual from the ground up. At least you were smart enough to spec into magic. No wasted potential there yet.”

It just kept getting worse, the longer she listened. At least the dragon didn’t want to make her a sex slave, but from the sound of it she planned to take total control of her training. The idea of nature mage training scared her. She already knew that nature mages pranced around naked, and while that might not be much of a problem here, it would be downright embarrassing back home. It was bad enough that she had been sold naked, she certainly didn’t want to spend her life that way. Even if it meant she would not have to deal with uncomfortable clothes again. The young Liritian desperately wanted someone, anyone to help her.

Unfortunately the only people in sight were total strangers, and they scared her as much as the dragon. Any one of them might gladly just take her as their slave instead, and there was no guarantee they would be better. With her luck, they would be worse. Was there any way to get out of this? Someway to get her freedom back? Preferably without any strings attached. If her friends/coworkers were here she knew they would help her, but she had the strangest feeling that they would not be able to help her. Even if they were here, and knew what was going on. However they weren’t here, and there was no point lingering on that.

She didn’t even know where all of them were, but she knew the twins were on temple grounds. Knowing where they were didn’t help her though. Everyway her mind turned, she saw no way out. In such desperation, she mentally turned to the one thing that might help. She began to pray for the first time in her life, but since she wasn’t familiar with any gods her prayer ended up basic, and generalized. Regardless, it did attract some attention, but nothing to help her out of her predicament. Well almost nothing, the last god to speak to her was a goddess she had actually heard about. Even caught the twins worshiping, and just like the statue she appeared nude. Not that the statue did her justice.

“Not much I can really do about that. She has your ball, and has already registered herself as your master. It’s rather typical of that dragon, but there is a way out. I’m afraid its not an easy one for you. That ball’s primary master has been, and always will be the Primordial God Queen, Arlie. She built the thing, and could release you regardless of what Zemoria wants of you. I can help you contact her, but since you haven’t accepted any god yet you will have to visit my shrine.”

“Will she even let me do that?”

“Zemoria may be your master, but she doesn’t control everything about you. Now listen very closely, as I will only tell you this once. When you visit my shrine, and pray, I will connect you with the God Queen. You will tell her everything that happened, and pledge yourself to her. In effect that would make her your patron, and give her certain rights over you. Rights that supercede that ball.”

She looked away in this strange space, “But she was the one who put me in that ball. Would she really help me?”

“I’m afraid Arlie is the only one who can help you. I don’t know what you did to make her put you in a Capture Ball, but you are going to have to make amends.”

With that she left, leaving her listening to Zemoria again. Huddled onto a street, and still wishing she could be anywhere but here. At least now, she had a spark of hope where there was none. Unfortunately, now she knew the only person who could help her was also the one who put her in the ball in the first place. Not that Arlie was entirely to blame for her current predicament. Xatali was fully aware that it was her own damn fault as well. If she had just put the ball in a safe this never would have happened. Better yet, if her people had figured out the master requirement for the release system she could have been free of the ball, entirely. But no, she had to be stupid and leave it in her pocket. A stupid decision that ultimately resulted in her current misfortune.