Entrust to me your ear Ifelian, and know what comes.
The heavy scraping of iron on stone, the crumbling of shattered rock, quiet hums of work songs, and the shuffling of feet was all that the blue eyed, dark haired boy heard. It was all Gek would hear in the first session of the cycle and all he would hear in the second day in and day out. The mining would only stop briefly for breaks and for the third session, which was the time of sleep and rest and almost as long as the first two sessions put together. That was just how things went on the outskirts of the city Dalfik, deep below the surface of the planet.
Gek was merely another serf using claw diggers to scrape and stab away at the soft stone of the tunnel walls. Such tunnels would have been dangerous to form without the mages that came by to stabilize the walls and prevent the tunnels from collapsing. Of course, accidents still happened and hardly a week went by where someone wasn’t crushed or at least nearly crushed by a collapse. Still, it wasn’t his place to speak out, it was his place to dig and to search for precious gems that the Lord of Dalfik needed for trade. That’s what the overseer always said anyway.
“That bastard of a overseer wants us ta up the amount of mining we get done again. Ah’m sick o’ him and he's gonna get a metal claw to the face.” Gek glanced over at a nearby man as someone else tried to shush him in fear of retaliation. There were always those complaining about being serfss and how awful it was. Gek didn’t really understand those people considering he was born into this life and didn’t see how it was so different from others. Everyone had to work for a living and it seemed to him like being a peasant was serfdom with extra steps. The guards liked to tell them about how grateful they should be, as they would otherwise be eaten by galera and other, worse creatures without the protection of Dalfik.
Among the fifty or so others that he toiled away with and lived with, most of them had a hatred for the guards and the nobles in charge of everything. Many of them had not been born into this life but were criminals or extreme debtors.They grumbled about how it wasn’t fair and that the living conditions were horrible but his grandfather said otherwise. He too always told Gek that he should be grateful. They were fed sufficiently, they weren’t beaten as long as they worked diligently and kept their heads down, and they weren’t worked to death if one didn’t count accidents. These were all things that his grandpa told him could happen and there would be nothing they could do about it.
Unknown to Gek, his grandfather was a cynical old man that had seen and heard many things through the years so instead of fighting the injustices of serfdom, chose to impart a sense of acceptance and complacency in the boy. He disgusted himself trying to give Gek a positive view of their situation but he wanted the boy to live, not fight against unassailable circumstances. There was no fighting their oppressors, not as they were, and he had no wish to see his only living relative die a tragic death.
IIn front of Gek his grandfather pretended that their slavery was better than it could be but the old man knew it didn’t mean that their situation was fair or just, and it cartainly didn’t mean that they were well cared for. Serfs were, and forever would be, treated as less than human, simply tools meant to be used until it was time to throw them away. Generations born into servitude and poor living conditions were what they were given and they had no choice but to accept their lot in life.
“Besides,” he would say. “Uprising against oppressors is the job of heroes and the only reward a hero ever earns is heartbreak and death.” Having been raised by his grandfather, his parents no longer alive to raise him since he was young, he held onto every word the old man said and trusted him deeply. Gek loved his grandfather, the man who raised him, and so he took the lessons to heart. Maybe he would never want to be a hero, but did that mean he couldn’t ever learn magic? He didn’t think so as there were plenty of people who learned magic without spontaneously turning into a hero. In fact, most people lived life that way.
Gek wanted to be like the mages, wielding the mystic arts to delve into labyrinths and prove himself. He would also settle for being one of the mages who stabilized the tunnels and ensured the continued survival of the tunnel network. It was a safe job and supposedly everyone could learn magic. Not everyone could use it well but he thought that surely everyone must appreciate the mages who kept the ceiling from crashing down around them. What he knew for certain was that there were considered to be six types of magic and the mages hardening the tunnels were manipulators. There was also…
“Hey. Hey Gek, you’re spacing out again little guy.” A voice called. Gek was roused from his thoughts and began absently clawing at the wall again as he glanced at the young man next to him who was wearing a knowing grin. It was a look he wore often and Gek thought he should be sick of it by now. He wasn't. Gek didn’t often speak much and this time just gave the other boy a nod. The older boy was named Hayvid and he almost always worked with Gek on tunneling, not allowing the boy to ostracize himself as much as Grandfather might have liked. He was 17, four years older than Gek and somehow seemed to know a lot more as well.
Hayvid looked after Gek and had even saved him from a small tunnel collapse half a year ago by pulling him out from under it just in time. He was Gek’s only friend and the only person he had grown to trust aside from his grandfather. The old man liked to say that trust was the blade you gave to someone when you wanted to be stabbed in the back. Still, he didn’t think Hayvid would do something like that and it was too lonely to be entirely without friends and with no one to trust.
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Gek stepped back to pull their glowstone lantern forward to where they had made progress over the last hour of digging. The lanterns were heavy things, a simple iron cage designed only to hold and protect the relatively fragile glowstone, a bright glowing rock that lit the surrounding area in whatever color the glowstone happened to be. They had been at the edge of its effective reach for a bit and it wouldn’t help trying to spot gem veins if it was too far. He quickly dusted off the lantern and smiled at it a bit only for Hayvid to shake his head and tease him about his special treatment of the green lanterns in particular. He could only grin sheepishly and mutter about how the green ones were lucky. The greenish glowstone and others like it were the only source of light in the artificial tunnels. The many colorful lanterns were provided by the guards daily and taken away at night.
Supposedly there were other types of light in the city proper and the ceiling above that underground metropolis sparkled beautifully from glowstones and other crystals embedded into the ceiling. That’s what some of the others said anyway though most of them hadn’t ever come close to seeing it. One of the men even said you could burn wood to make a light but everyone knew he was a liar who spouted nonsense and made up the word torch because it sounded cool. None of them had ever seen wood before and the idea of burning it was laughable.
Wood was supposedly worth more than a pile of gems and Gek had been told that even a single gem was worth a lot in some places. Gek slashed his claws against the stone as he mused about money and trade. He didn’t know a single thing about any of it. Oh sure, he heard enough talk about coins and how much things were worth but really none of that mattered to him. He continued to tear up the stone until a break was called, the sound of a bell reverberating through the tunnels signifying that it was time for food and that the second session of the cycle was beginning.
The boys released the leather straps that secured the claw diggers to their forearms, setting them down to pick up the glow lantern. Hayvid let Gek grab it knowing the younger boy liked to hold the lantern when they got the green one. He liked how it tinged the walls faintly green in a way that was calming and felt magical for some reason. Not all the glowsones did so. Some gave off white, blue, yellow, and even red light, but Gek liked green the best as it was the color he most associated with exploration and adventure. They made their way through their tunnel which joined up with other larger tunnels until they eventually reached the main hub where everyone gathered.
The room was once an ore vein that was carved tall and wide with the occasional pillar to support the ceiling. It had been expanded to accommodate living quarters and a common area for meals as well as the rare gathering. A large steaming cauldron had been brought by the guards that waited along one of the walls by a few stone tables set up with metal bowls and spoons. They were fed hard bread and some oily, darkly colored soup from the cauldron with small chunks of vegetables and even a few scattered pieces of meat. Gek thought the hard bread was fun to gnaw on, though others complained about it, saying the only way to eat it was to let it soak in soup for a few weeks.
Hayvid moved off to chat with some of his other friends while Gek moved to sit in a shaded corner, watching the others. Despite the inclination to keep his distance from others, he found watching them as they ate to be his favorite part of the day. He liked to watch them, the way they managed to find some small semblance of happiness in each other’s company. It wasn’t something for someone like him to participate in. It made him uncomfortable to be a part of the social environment but watching from afar often brought him a warmth all on its own. Today was different and there was an undercurrent of something off about the way they all interacted. It was too stiff, with too much smiling as if they were trying to chase away bad feelings hidden beneath the surface. It was subtle enough that he didn’t think most people would notice, but he had watched them too often to miss the forced smiles and occasional nervous glance.
Eventually, it was time to return to work and Gek moved to wait in the entrance of his and Hayvid’s tunnel, green lantern in hand. He slipped by the other miners, adult men and women mostly with the odd teenager moving about. He nodded at the few others who acknowledged his presence with a nod of their own and quietly made his way through the tunnels. Hayvid joined him shortly and they returned to work, the strange atmosphere of the lunch hour soon forgotten.
The clanging of steel on stone once again filled the various tunnels as they returned to their grand quest of seeking gems in the walls. They toiled away, until eventually Hayvid frowned before tossing away one of his digging claws in frustration. Gek looked over and raised a questioning eyebrow.
Hayvid furiously paced back and forth before turning to him. He looked conflicted and breathed deeply to calm himself before speaking. “Can I ask you something, Gek?”
“Yeah.” He stopped working to grimace at Hayvid. Was this related to the odd feeling he was getting from the others at mealtime or was this something else entirely? Whatever it was, Gek wasn’t sure he wanted any part of it.
“What would you do to reach your dreams, Gek. I know you’ve always wanted to be a mage and delver but that’s never going to happen down here in this hole. What would you give up for that? What would you sacrifice?”
“I don’t understand.” He nervously wrung his hands, the desire to slink into the shadows growing within him.
“You and I were born into this life. Where’s the justice in being forced to live as slaves, regardless of whatever they call it. That’s what we are. They will never let us go. So I’m asking you. What are you willing to lose to gain your freedom? Would you fight for it?”
Gek turned away with a heavy sigh. “Can we go back to work please? I don’t want the guards to find us slacking off.”
Hayvid let out a breath and shook his head. “Someday you might have to answer that question, my friend. I hope you choose the right answer when you do.”
Gek frowned as he carefully excavated a small hunk of silver ore from the tunnel wall. What did Hayvid mean? There was no fighting their situation. It wasn’t a fight they could win and Grandfather always said never to start a fight you couldn’t win. He quickly dismissed Hayvid’s words as purely hypothetical and turned back to his work, falling into a trance with the rhythmic strikes of his steel claws on the earth.
