Chapter 29

Wraine and I walk out of Oliver’s office, my pockets filled with silver coins but my confusion is endless. I don’t mind being fired since my last day in the mine was supposed to be two weeks ago but I don’t understand why I was fired and why I’m not allowed to talk about what happened in the tunnel. They’re even giving me 20 silver which is a pretty substantial sum for seemingly no reason. As we’re walking through the outpost toward the wooden gates, there are people spread out among the tents who are quietly talking amongst themselves. When they notice us walking by, they stop talking and watch us walk by instead. Or rather at me. What’s happening? Wraine and I walked back to his tent he’s been renting since joining the rescue team two weeks ago, he started staying at a tent here for the night instead of the inn so that he didn’t need to make unnecessary trips back to the city every day. But tonight, we’re gathering his belongings and heading back to the inn.

As Wraine’s inside his tent getting his things ready, the people around his tent are acting oddly. Some are trying to be subtle about it and they’re trying to make it seem like they’re looking at something next to me while others aren’t trying at all and they’re staring directly at me. It’s uncomfortable with this many people looking at me without knowing why. Just as I start to think about going into Wraine’s tent to lend him a hand, Levan approaches me waving his hand, “Hey, good to see you still alive.”

“Hey Levan, good to see you too.”

“I wasn’t part of the team who dug you out today because I was resting from another shift. I’d like to have seen you getting out of there though.”

“Nah that’s alright. I appreciate all the work you and the other guys put into saving me and the rest of the trapped miners though. Thanks, if it wasn’t for all of you guys I wouldn’t have made it out of there.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, uhh, listen. I don’t want you to take this the wrong way but a lot of people around camp have been talking about today’s rescue and I heard some things. I know Kayman died inside your tunnel and all but umm… you know? Did you do it?” Levan looks pretty uncomfortable asking me this because he has one hand on the back of his neck while the other is deep in his pocket. He won’t even look me in the eyes for more than a second before looking towards the ground. I didn’t know Kayman’s death would be this big of a topic around the camp. Is this why everyone was looking at me oddly? I can’t really blame them, can I? Kayman died quite a while ago for me but for everyone else, they only just found out. I understand now.

“Yeah I did. Kayman lost his mind while we were trapped in our tunnel. I don’t know what did it, it could have been a lot of different things, but one day he stopped talking to me completely and just stared at me even when I was sleeping. He eventually tried choking me to death when I was sleeping and I had to defend myself. I really didn’t want it to turn out the way it did but I ended up killing him when I was defending myself.”

“Oh, right. Yeah, that makes sense. I wasn’t really talking about that though. We found Baelin, Arslo, and Piers all dead inside their tunnel a few days ago and it turns out all three of them killed each other for whatever reason. I was more so asking about… you know, Kayman’s hand.” This again? Why does this keep coming up? Wraine’s done packing up his things and he’s standing next to me waiting.

“I don’t know what happened to Kayman’s hand. After I dragged his body to the other side of the tunnel, I left him there and didn’t take another look at him. Anyways, Wraine and I have to go. It was nice seeing you again, Levan.”

“Fuck, alright, umm… I just need to know Isaac. All the guys who dug out your tunnel told the rest of us in the camp about what they found inside the tunnel. They talked about Kayman’s death, his body, his missing hand, and they also talked about… how they think you ate his hand.”

“What!? What the fuck are you saying right now? That’s fucking disgusting, no matter how bad it was, I’d never eat another person.”

“Wait, wait, wait. We’re not judging you or anything like that. We know how bad it was inside those tunnels and if you did everything you could to keep yourself alive, no one’s blaming you-” I couldn’t listen to him anymore and I punched him right in his mouth. It didn’t do much considering how weak my entire body felt and it probably felt more like a slap in the face to him but at least it shut him up. I didn’t want to stay there anymore and I started heading towards the outpost’s wooden gates with Wraine following behind me. The rest of the miners in the camp were still watching me as I left. That’s what they think? That’s why they were watching me so intently the entire time I was in the camp? That’s fucking crazy they think I ate Kayman’s hand.

The outpost guards let us through the gates pretty easily and even they’re looking at me strangely. How fast did this news travel? I wasn’t in Oliver’s office for longer than an hour and even the guards seem to know the news about me. Wraine’s been pretty quiet this whole time, probably due to how tired he’s feeling right now but when we’re far away from the mining outpost heading towards the city, he asks quietly, “What happened in that tunnel?” Stopping to take a look at him, I explain from the very beginning and go through everything I experienced for the last two weeks. I touch on how it wasn’t too bad at the beginning and Kayman was still lively and talkative. I go through my body’s changes in how weak I felt and the growing hunger and I go through Kayman’s changes in how he stopped acknowledging me. I talk about the incident when I woke up and Kayman was standing above me while I was sleeping, pickaxe in hand. I also mentioned how it seemed like my dreams were mixing with reality. Finally I quickly go through the dream I had where I thought I was being rescued and the ensuing fight that took place when I woke up. I don’t mention how after I killed Kayman until I was rescued today, I’ve only been imagining how I’ll kill the blond bandit. I don’t know how long I sat there, but every single waking moment, I sat there and planned, imagined, and executed. When I finish recounting two whole weeks worth of events, Wraine silently nods his head and pats me on the back before walking away, “It’s been hard on you.” What? Of course it has been. I run to catch up to him and ask him about his past two weeks.

When the earthquake happened two weeks ago, Wraine’s assigned tunnel had two other miners in it and they were both pretty experienced, which he says was why he turned out fine. Right when the shaking started, both of his partners grabbed him by the arm and rushed to the tunnel’s entrance. Before long, all three of them reached The Hub which they knew was the best supported cavern in the entire mine and they got through the earthquake entirely unscathed. Lucky bastard, all I had was a crying Kayman. They were also some of the first members of the rescue team and helped get the injured ones out of mine. Wraine even mentioned how he saw Mr. Wellock arrived at the outpost a day after the earthquake and directed efforts into saving the miners. He immediately announced everyone willing to help with the rescue efforts would be paid 45 copper coins every day until every miner was rescued. He also declared he’d be covering treatment costs at the Wellock Medical Clinic inside the city and paying a few months’ worth of wages to families with deceased miners. I heard about him before I got trapped and I honestly thought he was a made up person like Sinti Boss, the winter father. Mr. Wellock is nearly as well known in Midriver as Alira is but for the completely opposite reasons. As opposed to Alira, Mr. Wellock is known for his generosity, his charity work, and his overall kindness. I couldn’t believe someone like him could exist in Midriver but there he was, in the flesh.

According to Wraine, taking into account his wages for the past two weeks, the 10 copper he has needed to pay for the tent every night, his morning and evening meals, and then our savings he’s kept with him this whole time, we have 9 silver and 34 copper in total. Adding my 20 silver to that and we have a massive sum that we’ve never seen before. Gods, that's a lot of coins. As we’re making our way through the city toward The Sleeping Hornet, I’m constantly on the watch for any potential threat. I’m reacting to any and every random noise or movement from people passing by and it’s pissing Wraine off. He tells me I’m making it too obvious that we have money on us and that if I keep it up, we really will get robbed. Fuck, we should have shoved our coins into our boots before we even set foot in the city. We reach the inn unharmed and I’m finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Farland welcomes us in from behind his counter with a nod and gets back to his work. Oh fuck, is Quinn going to have a feast set up for us? Excited, we get to our usual table but there’s no exquisite food on the table, only a passed out Quinn surrounded by a dozen empty mugs. Sighing, we sit down at the table and the noise wakes Quinn up from his stupor, “Ohh, Isaac. Good to see you still kicking around. Tell me my boy, how was it being trapped inside a mine for two weeks?”

Chuckling, I say, “Same old, same old. Tired, starving, and I couldn’t lift a chair right now if you handed it to me but not too bad I’d say.”

Laughing and pounding his hand on the table until he stops with a series of coughs, he says when he’s recovered, “That’s good, that’s good to hear lad. Like the way you sound now too, sounds like you’ve been through hell. Don’t eat too much right away or you won’t be lifting anything ever again. Need to start you off slowly with small amounts of food until you get some strength back and gradually add in more each time you eat until you’re back to normal. Seen someone who didn’t have anything to eat for three weeks gorge themselves and they dropped dead the next day. Don’t want that happening to you too. Farland! Half a bowl of pottage and some water for Isaac over here, go light on the pottage. Get Wraine a mug of mead while you’re at it, he looks just about ready to drop dead too.”

“Thanks Quinn, that’s really kind of you.”

“Not everyday someone gets trapped in a mine for two weeks and lives to tell the tale. Now c’mon, go ahead and tell that tale.”

I recount the whole story again for Quinn while Farland’s getting our food ready. When it arrives, I finish my story and Quinn’s laughing again while banging on the table. I don’t even know which part of it he found funny but apparently it was hilarious. While I start on my pottage, I overhear the table next to us talking, “I wouldn’t go near the southwestern forests anytime soon if I were ya.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?”

“Heard Alister’s stalking around there with his usual group. Apparently there’s a newly born dungeon there and he wants its core. Will take him and his boys a few days to clear it all out but it’s best to stay away from all of them, especially the blond one. Fucker sends shivers down my spine whenever I see him.”

“Why’s he wanting the core though? Not like he needs the money, he’s Alira’s son for Everett’s sake.”

“No idea. Can’t tell what goes through any of their minds, they’re all lunatics. D’you hear about what they did in Weistrell? Fiends, every last one of them.”

“No, what’d they do?”

“Well, it’s a nasty story but…”

I stopped listening at that point. My mind was too preoccupied to think about anything else. This is it. This is my chance. When I got out of my own thoughts, I looked up and saw Quinn staring directly at me. Not a sign of drunkenness in his eyes. His usual wide smile was absent from his face.