Clouds of crimson engulfed the virgin sky; the sun began its inevitable rise. Aleus was sitting beneath, talking to his oldest brother Huan as he always did before a day's labour, perched up on the end of half rotted barrels eating their breakfast in the mine pit. A deep crater in the ground; one of many, with several tunnels all pushing into the earth. Built by the hard labour of Galdian prisoners. From the suns rise till it sunk back in, pickaxe in hand hacking away at rocks and mud. Some would die against their will and some chose death as they yearned for peace. But hear, in the mines of the great city of Stames, was nothing but sweat and blood and summer was upon the horizon; a hot sticky summer that clung to you like a deranged lover.

"It's bloody hot aint it," Aleus said to Huan in dismay.

"Agree brother," he replied, swirling around the minuscule amount of water in his cup, waiting for his body to recover from the last sip he endured. "These half rations not doing justice."

The portions always shortened during summer; the quality of meals would regress back to that of the previous - so the Carthodians could enjoy the lavishes the sunny months had to offer. Slaves' wellbeing irrelevant of course. Despite that, this summer round the portions were even more dire. The water was never that of the divine but at the very least drinkable however this time round it had a brownish tint to it with a somewhat earthy taste. Aleus frowned at the site of it but downed it nevertheless. Some of it had to be water, and if he were to survive this summer the dirty water was the least of his troubles

"This God forsaken Carthodian heat I can barely open my damn eyes". The sweat purged from his skin started trickling down more and more. One drop... two drops again and again... three drops, four, like molten tears of a volcano as they fell into his eye, and rubbing them away only spread their flames. Aleus began twirling his hair with the sweat flushing out his forehead as a way to combat and ease his sweaty suffering, attempting to moisture the tights coils on his head that had now turned to straw.

"Thank Ri tai my hair does not run wild like that," Huan kindly inputted, cusping his heart as he always did when mention of his god. "You Bradians have weird hair". Alues anxiously finished twirling the last light coil on the back of his head, wrapping it around his finger tightly, all now bonded with sweat and grease.

"Did you say something brother," He began arrogantly as he unwound his last curl. "Because all I heard was ooohh weed hare vewy weed hair fank yew Ri—"

"Do not joke about gods brother," he said with a look of disappointment on his face. "For they always listening". He lifted his cup as gesture as if they could really see his praise.

"Ah yes, the bloody gods," Aleus spewed with disapproval. "2000 years it's been brother, and yet not a single sighting since. Funny that... isn't it?"

"You know stories as well as I, despite each culture views, they all same". He guzzled the last remnants of his water, wincing as the final loud gulp of disgust went down his throat. You would think it was a sip of nikser.

"2000 years ago, darkness took over earth," he began to lecture. "Destroying gods of purity, poisoning man sending us to dark age..."

"Yes yes", Aleus hastily intervened to speed up his scolding. "The darkness poisoned man," he laughed. "Because we were so bloody perfect and civilised before. Such a pity."

Huan sighed and closed his eyes upheld at the sky, talking to his god with his silent replies, Aleus assumed.

"I'm sure he's giving you some bloody good advice", he joked sarcastically.

"I believe he will when time comes, I truly do," a calmness flowed melodically through his voice almost proving it true. "A man backed by gods will set us free and propel us into an age of peace and prosperity, we call them Al chi in my religion. He will rise and topple Galdian empire and all evil that lurk in the shadows, I know this". Again, he placed his hand on heart however it felt wrong to make jest this time. Aleus admired his brothers hope for this world and its unworthy residents and couldn't bring himself to spoil that optimism.

"When you see this... Al chi, put in a good word for me will ya". At first Haun tilted back in confusion but that turned to laughter which spread to Aleus as it always did. Huan had a rather unique laugh. A cross between a horse gone mad with disease and a deranged baboon. Nevertheless, it was an infectious one indeed.

"Kuh Kuh Kuh. Perhaps you Al chi brother, then would be no need to tell you. Although you such idiot you probably not realise." Alues paused for a second, unclear on how to respond to such a thing.

"You got a higher chance of a bulg slug beating you in a race then me being some bloody prophet of peace."

"Don't forget prosperity brother!"

"Ah... Prosperity. Because I yearn for it so." Alues stood up and began to gesture with his hands. "I can't go to bed without thinking about it. It haunts my every..."

"Alright brother, I understand." he said signalling his hand to calm Alues down.

Alues looked at his brother and smiled then plumped himself back on the barrel.

"Look all I yearn for is our freedom. You and me, fuck everyone else. You are all that matters." Alues leaned in and gripped the back of Huan's neck with firmness. "Alright."

Huan nodded and placed his hand on Alues's extended arm.

"You correct though, peace and prosperity words unknown to man," he said unbothered. "A foolish comment indeed." Alues tensed his grasp for a second, pinching against the roll of fat drooping behind Huan's neck. Then released it, and leaned back with a very slight discomfort in his eyes.

"What do you mean foolish," he began slightly agitated. "You think I'm incapable of such things. And what's with this unknown bullshit. Ill bloody make it known. No in fact ill...".

"I joking, of course you do it." Huan said with proud admiration.

"Oh...of course, next time don't make it so obvious. It will make the joke funny.

He laughed at that remark for some suspicious reason however laughter was then met with tears stimulating slowly under the eyes of Huan.

"Didn't think it was that funny brother," he said, softly chuckling confused, conflicted if they were tears of laughter or sadness.

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"I fear summer will take toll on you brother," Huan said scarcely as his eyes scrutinized Alues's body. The sun hadn't reached its full glory yet and Aleus could already feel his bones submitting to its wrath, peeling his pasty skin, replaced with raw red. He had cuts and tears scattered haphazardly across his body from head to toe. Some had been sheltered with a brownish midnight crust that he would often pick and scratch, which on occasion would seep out blood again. "It's part of the healing process," Huan would say. "By picking it you're delaying the body's natural way." According to Huan he learnt about it from the local healer in his village but Aleus found a slight comfort in removing the dark crust, but his trust towards his brother outweighed that comfort so he made haste to stop the habit.

"Don't worry brother I'm fine," he answered reluctantly with a nervous chuckle. "My skin may be unequipped but my heart stays Bradian no matter how long I stay shackled". Aleus was anything thus yet he wouldn't dare to make that apparent to his brother. He knew Huan spoke sense, he had already struggled last summer, just scraping through half dead and breathless yet this heat made the last child's play. Aleus grew up in the Westlands of Bradia, a small country - to some considered an island, renowned for its people's outlandish brazenness. It took the Galdians three long years to subjugate the land due to constant prevail of the Bradians refusing to submit. It was a cold country, the polar opposite of Carthodia. Aleus grew kind to the icy winters wrapped in big fluffy furs, the very air freezing your speech and fat brooding men walked around with their big bushy beards, ungroomed like wild vines. At its peak Tsunamis of snow would form, devouring all in its path, sealing the land until the faint light of spring revealed it again. When first arriving at Carthodia, Aleus could feel the drastic change in the atmosphere, something he'd never experienced before. He feared that this was the worst place he could have possibly been brought to. With the several years he had already endured, one would have thought he would come to be familiar with its nature, yet it couldn't have been more foreign to him. His blood was thick with snow and soot and no years under the sun would melt it.

"I know you Bradian" Huan said rolling his eyes. "But what will that do when air abandons us and sun are all that re..."

"Listen brother" he said calmly, leaning in closer. "I don't give two flying fucks how hot the sun gets or how thin the air, we are going to be free."

"Look at you Aleus," pitying him by his tone. "you've got fresh cuts... some obedient to heal, how we going to buy freedom if you dead". Alues looked at his body vaguely and could see some of his cuts were not as fortunate and had no shelter to protect them. He would wince when the dirt of the mines glided past them, Huan would clean his wounds after everyday so the dirt couldn't corrupt them but despite even that, after the ceaselessness of the mines, they would beat like a heart as if they had conscience. But he never subdued, never fell short of those hacking away beside him and never made his struggle apparent, for the path he was adamant to walk didn't end in the dirt.

Alues began gliding his fingers across the dirt and plucked a handful off the ground, his nails now imbedded with fragments of grey and brown. He began switching it up and down between his hands watching it fall every time he dropped it to another, enjoying the tickling sensation as it passed through the tight gaps between his fingers and the warmth it possessed from the sun's presence, along with the few tiny pebbles that trickled softly down the back of his hand to the ground where they came.

"Alues... Alues!"

"Yes..." he said shocked in disarray.

"You not listening again..." he sighed. "Were you?"

Aleus could feel the concern residing in his brother. His head now faced down like a man defeated as he picked and flicked the freckles of mould off his bread.

"Look at this damn bread, hard as my cock when I see your mother," Aleus taunted at him. "Better chance digesting stone then this shit". Haun suddenly stopped picking and looked up slowly with ill intent although, Alues couldn't read his eyes all too well as they lacked fluidity and stayed somewhat stagnant, thus the result of his people. Haun came from the far East residing in a small fishing village call She Tie maybe even She Tay although Alues was never great at remembering the names and words of his people as they never flowed off his Bradian tongue. Perhaps he wasn't made to speak such words although he liked hearing about Huan's past despite the challenge. He would often tell Alues of his peaceful upbringing with his father. Mostly fishing stories involving the numerous sea creatures they caught. Batches of silvery serpent like fish that would fall carelessly to the simplest of bait, Huan called them silver fins, which were the most common occurrence and popular amongst his people. He once said he and his father caught 100 of them in one fell swoop and earned a week's worth of wages that day! Apparently this one time he saw a pristine fish called the lilac fantom. Stripes of ominous purple contoured with a faint auburn gold. The name was given due to its rapid nature and inability to fall dire to the net of a fishermen. According to Huan its kind are so scares no one has seen one. Apart from him of course. When he went to tell his father of his great find he laughed at him talking about the running imagination of a child. It's also said that the fish is a bad omen and brings tragedy to all that encounter its being which coincides with Hauns story as the Galdian empire stormed his village not long after. Huan still had hope his father were alive like him. It was his dream one day to reunite with him and fish one last time. We didn't even have to catch anything he would say. I just want to see his face transfixed as he holds the net and stand beside him. Aleus would promise Huan that one day he would have the answer. He didn't know when or how, but he would tell himself every day that their life would not be bound to that of chains and today was no different.

"There he is," he said with a smile on his face.

"Must you use such vulgarity in words," Huan replied.

"Oooooh vulgarity, that's a big word. Where'd you learn that? Cause I definitely didn't teach you it.

"I know common tongue before we meet," he answered.

Alues paused for a second and let the silence play out.

"Must you have to be so depressing," he sighed with his eyes closed. "You're ruining my energy." Alues started to wiggle his hands in a circular motion.

"What are you doing?" Huan questioned.

"Shhhhh. I'm tapping into the spirit realm, silence please," he answered.

"The... the spirit realm! Talking to spirits is sacred art to be done in monastery not in some damn mine! Stop this disgrace brother before spirits cur..." Alues began to hum in a deep tone, then breathed in once his breath was short and began to hum again.

"I'm sorry brother but did you say something? My sincere apologies if I ignored you, I was entranced by the spi..."

Alues's face was met with a piece of bread, hard as a rock as it clashed with the end of his nose. He opened his eyes and cocooned his nose after a loud grunt of pain passed his lips.

"I guess you right brother," Huan said with a slight chuckle under his breath. "The bread really hard."

"Barley even hurt brother," he said unheeded. "I'm made out of something that makes even bastmartium feel like a new-born's ass."

"Clearly," Huan responded in awe of his brother's resilience. "But remind me again how you know what new-born ass feel like?"

Aleus twitched his eyes, conjuring up an adequate response to ensure his brother wouldn't outwit him as he wouldn't stop hearing about it for the days to come. Ever since Aleus met Huan they had a bond incomparable. It was a bond that would compete and test each other at any given chance. Whether it was fighting or knowledge it mattered not, any opportunity to topple the other was challenged without second thought. Around two summers ago was the first time Huan beat Aleus in a race. A simple sprint from the mines to the pits that they would do once a week. Nothing special right? Well to Huan it was if he'd just been handed his freedom there and then. He couldn't contain his excitement, jumping up and down, belly out jiggling for all to bear witness, but he cared not. In all honesty Aleus couldn't help but smile with him, despite his disgust of defeat. Then next week came as monotonous as the last however when the time for racing was upon them, Huan declined. "I'm retired," he said. Alues responded in a fit of rage. "Retired! you're not bloody retired. Retarded yes but retired... no no no! we are racing today." Again, obnoxious as ever he responded the same. Alues beat him the previous 58 times but Huan's ideology was its not how you start it's how you finish and ever since he would taunt Aleus at any chance he got. At that moment he outwitted Aleus and here the two of them were again.

"Well back when I was in Bradia I used to be a wet nurse didn't I." He answered with conviction.

Huan looked puzzled which then led to a head tilt of acceptance. The victor was Alues.

A loud call came from above the mine pit.