I did have a previous draft, but the story wasn’t even fully over and i felt like it was too long for a single post, so, here we are. the sequel to my fire warlock’s mine suffering, Yipee!!!
(Part 1)
(May 23rd, Y1854)
My body was worn out, despite the rest I had managed to get, however much even if little.
I saw a small stew sitting inside my cell, the bowl of a small size and the amount of food sparse. The food looked as repulsive as an edible object could ever be imagined to get: the ingredients were classic vegetables, carrots and potatoes. But the broth… a dark green mixture I couldn’t fathom the makeup.
I forced the pitiful mixture down my throat. I gagged harder than I ever remember harder than anything my acid reflux wanted me to give up.
I coughed afterwards, rubbing my hand on my bloody arms. Red stains got on them, but I wasn’t bothered by it. I’ve had to cauterize my own wounds after my fights with my rival, after all.
What wasn’t so pleasant, however, was the fact that I had opened up a few of the cuts around my arms. I tried to shrug off the pain, but it was still pretty intense. Omniscient for now, you could say.
After eating, I found the door out of my cell was still closed. I waited for instruction, and none came.
I looked around my cell, trying my hardest to ignore the freezing air, my bleeding arms, and just…. Everything.
How long was I sentenced to be here? How long has Tora been here?
I’m…. Don’t think about it, Vega. don’t make yourself even more worried.
Tears trickled down from my eyes, I wiped them off with a bloody hand. I tried to straighten some of my black hair, but the way I’d been roughed up combined with how messy it naturally was made it feel like I was making it even messier.
I stopped all action and wept in my bed, trying to deal with my immense loneliness and dread. You never know how used you get to something, like your crew’s jolly banter, until you get separated from it.
I waited, coping. After ten more minutes a guard arrived at my cell.
He banged on the bars of the cell in a demanding manner which startled. I looked up and tried not to show how devastated I was by this.
Their face was barely visible, but my panic was causing him to smile insidiously.
“It’s time…”
They pulled my cell’s door open while I responsibly followed them out, afraid of being further wounded. They handed me a pickaxe and shoved me towards a rock with teal spots in it, between a five minute walk to the location.
I hesitated working at first, but I forced myself to swing the tool at the rock. Flakes of stone popped out.
Clip, Clop, clip, clop.
The guard leaves as I began hitting the rock with the pickaxe even more. Another prisoner - An older man with white hair and a big beard, with more beige rags than I had on came in and started working on the rock I was tasked with.
“Another new prisoner, by the looks of it.” He said.
I nodded to him, I felt another tear drop out of my eye.
“What are you in for, young one?” He asked.
In a voice parallel to a frog’s, I told him: “I managed to beat lady carina in a fight, and before that I was in a terrible fight with a lord.”
“Oh? Do humor me.” He asked humbly.
“The fight against the high lord Elius was brutal, and he was left in critical condition. I came to him for some information and he refused to give it up. I never had the heart to kill him myself, so I’d guess that he bled out from the injuries I dealt to him.”
“You look like a skilled young lad. What is your name, if you could share it?”
“Vega anchor. You are?”
“Gaillo bronze. These mines are harrowing, couldn’t you agree?”
I nodded, swinging at the rock in the wall. A chunk of metal fell next to my feet.
I grabbed it and looked at the piece of ore. The brown rocks of the mines were clinging to this unique turquoise metal.
“What even is this?” I asked, “How could a metal be this blue?”
“That copper has just rusted, my friend.” Gaillo told me. “It’s a testament to how much of it hasn’t been touched, even after all these years. I see this is your first time seeing copper in this state.”
I looked at him as he gently took the mineral from me. He had soft, hopeful blue eyes. “This is what the guards want from us. You are in no condition to work.”
“I know. I wish I got some bandages from them yesterday, I was able to make them give me a head bandage.” I told him. I muttered, “Slow to notice.”
“These mines are the most harsh place in the bronze seas. The soldiers and the warden of the mines will shed no tears for your pleas.” Gaillo dropped the ore we’d extracted into a giant crate.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they expect us to fill that up and haul it out at the end of the day.” I said, lowering my pick and looking at the container.
“That is exactly what they want from us.” Gaillo told me, “If we are even a moment too slow, our flesh will open.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“We will receive physical punishment: beaten by steel gauntlets, stripped for a whipping, even being stabbed once or twice.”
I shivered, then turned back to the wall. I swung hard at it, and another chunk of copper fell out. I brang it to the crate, which had only five other pieces in it, and dropped it in.
“Don’t expect these days to deviate all too much.” He told me while grabbing his pick, “Your life will become very monotone soon.”
“When are you supposed to be released?” I asked him.
“I have forgotten. I was supposed to be released about three weeks ago, but they have acted to keep me trapped down here. It is not only upsetting, but unfair.”
“And how long will I be stuck down here?”
“I should not answer that for you. But if I were to make an estimation, There is a good chance that you will remain here for life. You ended the life of a lord, after all.”
“I spared him, he bled out, supposition. All is stupid.”
“You were the last person attacking him, after all. You should, by laws of technicality, be the one to blame.”
I sighed, and ran over to my pickaxe. As I was about to grab it, I heard something. I paused.
“Something on your mind, young one?” Gaillo asked me.
“I can hear something.” I said, slowly approaching the source of it. “It feels like somebody is yelling.”
“Please, do not spectate fights between prisoners and guards.” He advised, “They are utterly brutal and will only scare you further.”
I ignored what the gentle old man was saying and turned the corner which I came from. I followed the echoes of the fight for around fifteen minutes until I came across a pale, white female assaulting a dark skinned male prisoner like myself, only with words and not punches.
“Dare you rebel against the mines’s Warden, young sir?” They said in a charming, evil voice.
The prisoner yelled, “This place is brimming with perfidy! You are treating so many souls, ending so many adventures because they broke one rule so quantum it shouldn’t be punishable!”
“SILENCE.” The first of two guards charged towards the man, grabbing him by his arms. The other went to face him.
“Madame, what do you demand?” The second guard asked.
“Send him to a private cell. Grab a weapon, there is solace to the suffering of others.”
Sadistic. Disgusting. Absolutely repugnant.
The second guard slugged him in the face, and I caught a gross smile that fractured a small part of my being.
How is one person able to be so immoral? How is one being able to reject so many core human laws?
I saw her head tilt a bit to my direction, I ducked behind the corner I was next to and ran back to where Gaillo was still working. It took me around twelve minutes to return.
Only when I got back I was left to a lonely room. Gaillo was gone, but the walls looked cleaner now.
Where did the old man go? Did the guards take him? Are the guards trying to punish him? Do they want me to work alone?
I looked at the floor for a pick to use, thankfully one was resting near the ore crate. The crate was only a bit fuller.
As I grabbed my pick and got back to work immediately, my worries about Gaillo - and frankly, about my adventure and what was to come kept reverberating in my head, reminding me painfully that if I was more prepared for the ambush at the castle I could still be adventuring, enjoying the world. Being a free spirit with a crew of trustworthy and reliable sailors, willing to work without a life for me.
The thought of my crew on the pink perfidy… That hurt.
Did they even know I was gone? Do they know I’m down here? What will My deckhand, Faust and My co-captain Edward do while I’m gone?
I had to force myself to get those painful thoughts out of my mind. Distraction with the work at hand was clearly not working so I would need to try other things just to shoo them off.
However, my gut sank when I consider how many ores I would need to hack off this wall just to be safe for tonight: With the crate only slightly filled up, I’d either have to try and cope with my bad thoughts just to endure more pain tomorrow, or work tirelessly with my mind corrupted with worry.
As my head burnt itself and my arms cried for help, I decided to do the latter of those options. While I could at least deal with these malefic thoughts later, the wounds would be much more of a problem for me due to the fact that my fire was locked out of my bag of tricks…. For now.
Settling down, I took another swing at the rock wall. Between the terrible thoughts and one-sided mining, it felt as if something was slipping away.
Hours, minutes, seconds. All the same body.
)