Chapter 5
It had been two years since Alistar's conversation with his father. He was now nine years old. His next birthday would bring with it his Name Day, a special occasion on which he would receive his second name. This name would be used in all formal proceedings from that day onward. In addition to receiving a second name, there were several other procedures of significance that would also take place on this day, but he was ignorant as far as those were concerned. Knowing them would make no difference for him, anyway. He was a slave, after all.
Being one of the only children in the mines, he came to realize that he was quite the centre of attention for many of the guards. They seemed to enjoy attempting to lead him astray, misinforming him at every opportunity for their own amusement. Having been tutored by his family, he caught on quick that a lot of the things that they said were untrue. By this point, he'd been fooled enough times that he'd grown able to detect their lies just by staring into their eyes, at least most of the time.
Even so, he still learned things here and there from listening in on their conversations, something he hadn't done in his younger days. In doing so, it quickly became apparent why the people of the Resident Cavern obeyed the guards' every order, and why they dressed so differently. They were slaves, considered below animals and thought of as useless in any area outside of physical labour. The others were guards, hired by the state to assure that they never left the mines unless permitted. In learning this, he also came to understand the value of coins. In the world outside of the mines, one could exchange coins for just about anything depending on the amount one had.
According to the guards, the workers in the Crystellum Mines had it easy, especially those in their work group. Alistar didn't understand how this could be the case, as it was common knowledge that if one showed signs of slacking off then they would be beaten as a means of future deterrence. When he'd foolishly talked back to the guard that said this, rather than being beaten for his slip of the tongue, he was told that in other mines the slaves were treated far more harshly. Alistar didn't want to believe them, but when he heard that there were other mines out there aside from his own it made him think about how large the world must have been.
After learning the truth of things he had begun to wonder why his family was here. Why were they slaves? Why did slaves exist in the first place, and how did one become a slave? They were all people, weren't they? What made any one person better than another? Didn't they feel bad treating others so poorly? His father had always said that no person was better than another, but Alistar couldn't help but doubt his words each time he saw a guard beat one of the workers into submission. At the onset of his contemplations, he'd dedicated many lonely hours to such thoughts. He never found any answers. He ended up deciding that it was best not to think about it, so he put it in the back of his mind. He would probably understand it when he grew older.
The guards only lived in the barracks for a year or so before being sent off to serve somewhere else within the kingdom. If they chose to stay in the army, as most apparently did, they would end up back at the mines in a few years or so. Two days of the week they were allowed to leave their posts and retire to the nearby town of Hatsford, spending their time and money as they saw fit. The ones who used to bet on whether he and Kaila would get lost and die during their explorations had long since relocated elsewhere.
He had learned a lot more from the guards by eavesdropping than he had from anything they had deliberately told him. The only important things they willingly educated him on were the reality of death and what it meant to be a slave.
Things had changed quickly since Kaila's parents had gone to sleep. Of course, as far as permanent sleeps went, he now knew that this wasn't the case. They hadn't lingered within the world of their dreams as he had been made to believe. They had died. Once you died, you were gone forever. You ceased to exist. Dying was the worst thing that could happen to someone, and it had happened to Kaila's parents and plenty others before them, and many after.
Once she had been left alone with her grandpa, Kaila had stopped playing with Alistar. She stuck close to the middle-aged man, keeping to herself as she watched him work through vacant eyes. Her parents hadn't been much older than her when she was conceived, but that was a topic of which Alistar was still ignorant.
Kaila ate at mealtimes and slept when allowed. Sometimes she would go without speaking a word for weeks at a time, which worried Alistar greatly. Not only had she stopped speaking, but she hadn't shed a tear since her parents had passed away. That same Kaila that was always crying and forcing Alistar to hold her hand had not cried once since the passing over her parents. Kaila didn't cry anymore because Kaila had changed. The shy, companionable girl who used to race through the tunnels with him was gone, replaced by a silent, lifeless shell of the person he once knew. Or so he had thought, until one day she approached him.