Chapter 10 – Among Bottom Feeders

“Ugh. Tastes like glue.”

The meals were free, the room leaves a little to be desired, but I’ve got a bed to myself at least. The toilet is a glorified bucket and the privacy, well… at least there’s only one person watching me from the other side of the bars, but hey, the bright side is it’s free.

“Hey, at least you’re eating. I’ve got to sit here for 8 hours at a time, watching you shit in a bucket.”

“Mind the splash zone, buddy.”

The grumpy little gnome watching me was just that, a gnome. He was a stout little guy, about 4 feet in height with no facial to speak of. Apparently, gnomes and dwarfs are entirely different species and it’s a huge insult to call them the other race.

Gnomes think they’re smarter than the dwarves, which may actually be true since they’re better with magic then their bearded brethren.

“Do you think you could take these bracelets off? Stone makes for a crappy accessory. It also makes casting magic and frying your ass kind of difficult.”

“That’s the point, lad. You know, you don’t have to act sour all the time.”

“Yeah, but I have to keep up my image somehow. You may be nice, but your friends are assholes.”

“First off, Liorre is not my friend. Second, I’m not doing this because I want to.”

He’s really not a bad guy, but damn, these cuffs really are uncomfortable. They are also inscribed with an anti-magic enchantment making escape somewhat… difficult.

We were all blindfolded, bound, and dragged off to some warehouse somewhere. The other kids were in another room and, apart from being imprisoned, were okay. According to Oli, my gnome overlord, they weren’t going to be moved for a while, so until then, I’ve got no reason to panic.

I’m making an effort to be more level-headed because, in all honesty, I screwed up. Ciel was hurt, and it’s my fault. I was reckless and I almost deep-fried the kids with my last magic when I fought with Liorre. If he hadn’t cancelled my magic, they would have all been hurt, or worse.

I feel terrible about it, but they’re all fine, and I can’t afford to lose my head, metaphorically speaking that is.

Every now and then Tiral, Ciel’s brother, will come down to my cell and stare at me. No matter what I say, no matter what I do, he doesn’t respond. He just glares at me.

I understand where he’s coming from, so can’t argue with the man.

“… How’s she doing…? Please at least tell me that. If you guys would take off these restraints, I could heal her with my magic.”

“No… this kind of injury… you can’t heal.”

“Wait… what? You can speak?”

“The wound is already cauterized and even if you healed the physical wound, restoring her vision would be an entirely different matter.”

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I didn’t know…”

“…” he sighed and looked up at me for the first time since I was brought here. His almond eyes looking as though he was tossing something around in his head, but he apparently tabled the internal monologue since he got up and left the room without another word.

“What did he mean by that…? Can’t you heal any injury with magic?”

This is the first time in the last few days that I’ve been here, so I’m going to make the most of it.

Firstly, the doors are solid iron; they aren’t budging at all. I have a wooden cot, a wooden table, and a bucket to work with, so nothing happening there. The walls are solid stone, and the windows are too small for me to fit through, so I assume that we’re in a cave system of sorts. Outside my cell, I could only see a small and bare stone hallway leading down to a door.

“Shit,” I sighed.

There’s nothing for me to even use to try and escape. Even if I had anything useful, these stupid bracelets are… wait… normally, the inscriptions would be glowing and make sleeping very difficult, but now they weren’t.

Now, how about a little test? I gathered a little mana in my palm and brought a small fire to life. Brilliant!

I don’t understand why the anti-magic bracelets had suddenly stopped working, but I’m not going to squander this opportunity by being reckless. I think that hiding the fact that I can use magic is the most prudent choice for now.

The door opened, so I quickly dissolved my magic as Oli, my aforementioned gnome watchman, walked through the doorway.

“Wasn’t Tiral supposed to be watching you?”

“I guess, but he just up and left without a word.”

Oli sighed as he said, “it’s fine. We’re going to put you to work here anyways, so come on, get up.”

“… You’re going to let a prisoner walk around your headquarters…?”

“In a sense, but you’re going to be working your ass off.”

“Hey, as long as I don’t have to use that damn bucket anymore, then it’s a deal.”

“You know, you have a foul mouth for a kid.”

As I was being shown to my new room, I paid careful attention to my surroundings. Exiting through the single door at the end of the hallway, I confirmed my original suspicions; we were in a huge cave system.

The main room was as large as a sports stadium with a gaping hole in the roof that illuminated the interior with sunlight. The interior, was a series of floors spanning several stories down into the abyss and up to the roof with a hole heading straight down the middle.

There was an entire city built inside this cave system with buildings hewn from the walls and wooden supports strung up everywhere like a spider’s web holding the whole thing together.

Maybe this was the interior of a dead volcano? That would also explain why I never got any sunlight through the window in my cell. What’s the point of the window!?

“Oli, what is this place?”

“It’s the underground city of Hydeni.”

“Hydeni, huh? Whereabouts is it in Biruth?”

“Lad, I can’t tell you that, but it’s not on a map. It’s a city built by refugees and the undesirables.”

“Ah, so that’s why you guys can set up shop down here.”

“Yeah, but only on the lower rings down here. The upper rings are the ‘upper class’ citizens.”

“I don’t think you’re a bad person, Oli.”

“Aye, like I told you, we’re not in this business because we want to be, lad. Truth be told, I don’t like Liorre one bit- Ah, we’re here. It’s the blacksmith’s just up on the right.”

This building is slightly different from the rest. Instead of just being carved from the rock, it was made from stacked stone bricks. The door was made of iron, and the sign above had an ornate emblem of a mithril dragon wrapped around a silver dagger.

“Oli, I meant to ask you before, but, where is Liorre?”

“He disappeared after we brought you here for some reason or another.”

“Huh. I figured, he’d be watching over me personally after I gave him those burns.”

“You mean you were the one who caused those burns!?”

“He didn’t tell you? Yeah, apparently, I almost turned him into charcoal when I was a newborn.”

“Th-that’s hilarious! The fire mage Liorre was beaten by a newborns accidental fire magic discharge!?” Oli said, doubled over trying, and failing, to contain his boisterous laughter. It wasn’t accidental, but he doesn’t need to know that.

After Oli managed to reign in his laughter, he motioned for me to walk into the blacksmith’s.

The inside was actually very nice looking. The flooring was all varnished wood, and the inside walls were a smoother stone than the outside. Chandeliers with candles hung from the ceiling illuminating the room, but the real source of light was coming through a door that lead to the back room.

“Oi, Halvarr, I’ve got the apprentice you requested!”

We waited a few minutes for a response, but 5 minutes passed and we hadn’t heard a single sound come from the back. Oli, getting impatient, ushered me to follow him into the back room.

I pushed the door open only to be met with the sight of a full moon. Not the pleasant type either; it was a short and stout little man standing on a stool in the buff, thankfully, with his back turned. He was mumbling something in the corner of the room at a table by the billowing stone forge.

“Oh for the gods’ sake, Halvarr, not this shit again!”

Startled, the bearded nudist jumped and fell from his stool onto the stone ground.

“Feck! Oli, what in the name of Tiabaul are you doing here!?” He asked desperately.

“I’ve got your new apprentice here,” he said, pointing at me with his thumb, obviously exasperated with the pitiable dwarf. “We’ll be waiting in the front, so put some clothes on and, please, hurry at every opportunity.”

Apparently, my new role is to assist this dwarf in making equipment for my captors.

He's still naked.

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Author's Note:

I'm sorry this chapter took so long. A lot of personal things came up as well as a big storm, so I've gotten behind. I'll have chapter 11 coming out soon as well, so please look forward to it.

Here's a drawing of Ciel. I plan on fleshing this out some more and adding a few more characters to the art for my cover.

Cheers! Thank you for reading!