Introduction
Beneath layers of dirt and heavy lengths of chain I stood within my iron cage, forgotten. I am a unicorn, and while many believe themselves to know what a unicorn looks like they are all wrong; I am a creature of poetry and of dreams, of wishes and unattainable hopes. I am the passion of a thunderstorm and the isolation of a star. During better times my slender body was white as clouds and possessed the lissome, athletic elegance found only in deer and gazelle. With cloven hooves, a spiraling ivory horn, and a lion-like tufted tail, I was and am like the woven tapestries telling of my myth and yet not like them; I am to horses what angels are to men. Yet all my majesty was robbed from me in the harsh lights of the auction house pens, my grace left to rot in the reeking banality of a stock yard.
Those stock yards of the auction house were the first thing most new arrivals to the Nexus ever saw. The market itself was buried into the outer flesh of the world as if it were some ancient and diseased tick, filled with the terrified stink of ignorant creatures abducted from their homes. I could hear many of them wail to their gods, demanding to know why such things had befallen them. To my grim amusement they were never given an answer. For many this was their first time meeting other sentient life forms, forcing upon them the awareness that they were not alone in the universe after all. What should have been a cosmic moment of enlightenment was reduced to nothing more than base terror. We were all in a market in which we were the products being bought and sold; we had all the misfortune of arriving at the Nexus as slaves.
It might be a good time to explain about this new environment in which I'd found myself. The Nexus is an interstitial planar construct made of five concentric, enormous rings orbiting a small star. It was created to promote communication and trade between the connected universes. The Nexus always had been and always would be a pulsing heart, circulating the needs and voices of countless realms filled with hundreds of worlds. One could invest in a product and become wealthy within a day, perfectly set to live his or her life in the embrace of unadulterated avarice. Unfortunately for myself and my fellow slaves, the largest demand shared between the universes was also the simplest to procure: living, sentient creatures.
No realm, not even a single world, had ever attained interstellar travel without a dependency on the labor of slaves at some point in their history. While some cultures would eventually outlaw the practice as abhorrent, others would continue to embrace it as a vital and celebrated part of their economy. Thus there was a simple axiom provided to all slaves within the market: be useful or die. If sentient property could provide no other useful quality in life, they would at least provide amusement in the throes of their death. Bloodsport was the second most lucrative market within the Nexus.
I had no way of knowing any of this at the time. No one had bothered to speak to me after I'd been collared in the hunt; it was my punishment, perhaps, for indulging in one of the worst decisions I've ever made. Ignorant of what the humans had meant to do with me once caught, I had thought that they'd sought me out for a game. A game for me, that is. Like as not they intended to catch me with their horses and hounds and to boast of their hunter's prowess once it was all over. Such droll human desires I'd seen from afar many times, and I might have disappeared into my woods if I hadn't noticed the bait they'd used. I had never seen a more beautiful human being than that particular maiden in all my life, and though I was and am a unicorn (even if I no longer resemble one now) I am always a slave to beauty. Oh, how I wish you had seen her! With long, unbound hair the color of a passionate sunset and a voice like chiming bells, the maiden's innocence had drawn me to her like a siren's song. The huntsmen had gathered close, watching in amazement as I, this indomitable myth, had lain my head in her lap like a docile lamb. For a moment it had seemed a sweet adornment to slip a golden bridle onto my head - but only for a moment, and no more.
The chase had ended before it had even begun. The golden bridle had been woven around iron chain and leather straps, and a discrete rope tied it to the tree against which the maiden had been sitting. The dogs were on me in an instant and the men were not far behind with their spears. I hardly fought in my shame and surprise; thinking back on my passivity I am shamed still more. In no time I had been bound and loaded onto a wagon, the countryside passing by as I watched from the back pallet. I could have spoken at any time but I hadn't the desire to say a word. What should I have said to them? The question of how I had been such a poor judge of character consumed me, and I replayed my failure over and over again. The only luck I can boast of is that I never saw the maiden again. Money changed hands, and soon enough I was packed into an iron cage and loaded onto a strange metal ship.
The hunt had occurred many days previous to my arrival in the Nexus. Portals from place to place were only as predictable as cats and every bit as fickle. One could squirm through space and time, lost forever, and thus those engineers who knew how to tempt a stable breach were always in demand. Any who knew how to construct their own private portals had all the power in this new world, though I would only learn that much later. Having been acquired last, I was added to a menagerie of other oddities that had been picked up across my world. None, of course, were as wondrous as I was, though perhaps that is conceit talking. We were all placed on a vessel piloted by a crew who knew well how to make the passage through Hinterspace properly, and they did so without incident. That was my first experience jumping from one universe to another, but it wouldn't be the last.
All of the oddities that had been acquired lay seething in cages near to me at the auction stock yards. Panthers, lions, a white bear, slathering wolves, and even a minotaur counted amongst their number. The beasts were destined for markets unappreciative of sentience: zoos, hunting grounds, arenas, butcher shops, and even private collections. The minotaur and I were caged nearest to each other, and it seemed to my eyes that the monster beside me shrank in size as the days passed. Like as not this was because of his despair, but it was still a strange sight. Had I a mirror I would have surely seen the same phenomenon in myself. Occasionally I'd try to make eye contact with the bullman, but he would only look away and avoid my gaze until at last he grew incensed, where he struck at the bars of his cage in an effort to scare me. The first time he succeeded and I panicked, crashing into the bars at the far side of my own cage and making myself look like a fool. Eventually I stood my ground against these assaults and kept staring at him, which would send him back into self-pitying sorrow. I admit that I took a cruel pleasure in deepening his suffering - it was the only control I had.
At the time of this tale's beginning my cage was opened and I was driven into a pen. Four stout humans - or creatures that at least looked human to me - entered it. At first I tried to escape from them, dancing lightly away on my impossibly fine legs. Within those few days of bitter confinement my body had lost its condition, but even so it was easy to ignore the weight of my chains. After a time, however, even I knew the effort was pointless. The guards weren't convinced by my false vigor and so I submitted to their will and was led out of the pen as tame as a child's pony - a disgusting analogy for a disgusting feeling.
During my time caged in the market I had seen the division of sentient and non-sentient creatures; beasts and lesser creatures were led to the barns while humans and other thinking beings were led toward stockades. Once out of my pen I found myself being led shockingly toward the barns. With a disbelieving bleat and a sharp snort I pulled back on my chains; did they truly think me a mindless beast? Did they not know unicorns?
They were about to know
me
.
