Chapter 37
Alistar awoke the next morning with a renewed sense of resolve. Prior to falling asleep the night before, he’d thought about the course that his life had to take if he wanted to have any sort of shot at freeing Kaila from Crystellum. She was eleven years old, so there wasn’t much time before she would have to start mining like everybody else. He wasn’t sure if she could handle the workload, but knew that she would manage to get by so long as Talon was around. Terrible as the thought was, everything depended on how long her grandfather could survive.
At the very latest, Alistar had to return to the mines within five years. Any sooner and there wouldn’t be any chance of success, while any later and his remaining loved ones would definitely have succumbed to their surroundings. Even five years from now, he doubted that he could actually achieve his goal, but he couldn’t afford to wait any longer than that. At the very least, he definitely couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.
Before then, he had to become strong, like Servan. Ideally, he would reach a level where he could defeat at least two cave lizards on his own, so that he could travel safely throughout the Tall Mountains by himself. He would infiltrate the mine disguised as a guard and flee with Kaila into the restricted lower levels, which they were more familiar with than anybody else.
As he tidied up his room, his mind was filled with thoughts of his future.
Recently, while flipping through an old book, he’d discovered a brief description of a specific type of danger beast called a rock worm, which was known for creating massive networks of tunnels underground. He suspected that the ancient network of tunnels beneath Crystellum had been created by these creatures, or some sort of related species. Supposedly, they had gone extinct long ago, but the entry stated that they had always created multiple exits when shaping out their dens, which were usually beneath great mountains. That meant that there had to be another way out of the mines that nobody else had noticed, somewhere along the gigantic mountainside of Mt. Barosh.
Alistar’s plan wasn’t foolproof, but he had several years to figure out the details.
Kaila...I’ll keep my promise.
Once he’d finished flattening out the surface of his freshly-made bed, he retrieved a water bucket that one of the house servants had left outside of his room, as they had done since the day of his arrival. He carefully wet a cloth and then wiped himself clean, going on to wet his hair before drying it with a thick cloth. Afterwards, he donned his second set of clothing and set off for breakfast.
He was happy to see that both Caedmon and Anice were speaking quietly over their untouched plates as they awaited his arrival. Caedmon looked more like his usual self today, eyes brighter than they had been since he had received the dreadful news of his sister’s demise. His skin was smooth and unblemished, his dark hair combed and slicked back. As Alistar slipped into his seat across from Anice, his uncle rested a hand on his shoulder.
"I’m glad to see that you’re in higher spirits, Alistar."
"You too, Uncle."