Participation in a campaign is often rewarded through land grants. After a campaign is over, soldiers can be given a specific plot of land to start a life on. However, these land grants are often taken from civilians of the annexed territory.
***
I stared at the space where my arm should be and attempted to study it to the best of my ability. Despite being almost entirely transparent, there were small flickers and smudges, like the distortions in air caused by a flame. It was impressive, but imperfect. It had been 5 days since I had discovered my ability to manipulate ambient light, and I was still perfecting it.
Time felt as though it had been speeding up steadily as the days approached. The only times when time felt slower was whenever I would study the small timekeeper Galen had so kindly given to me. 15 days was not a lot of time, but it was enough to know that I could make potential changes in case something went wrong. I was still struggling to keep control on Nicole, who was now my one persistent headache. While I still lacked trust in her, she was doing her job of recruiting people to the cause. I hadn’t exactly gleaned the full number, but Sera and Elina felt as though they were now surrounded by supporters.
A silver tongue has its uses.
“Well, it’s not perfect, but it’s still fucking scary. How’d you manage that?” Elm was sitting across from me in the workshop, watching me experiment. His curiosity had been piqued ever since I introduced it to him and he’d been working with me on better ways to utilize it. “Wasn’t it just one big fucking black spot at the beginning?”
“Sort of. I could still make out some stuff behind it, but getting rid of the light around my hand just made it completely dark. I’ve been asking the light to reflect what’s around it rather than just avoid my hand, and it seems like it worked.”
Elm scoffed at the word ‘asked’, but I ignored it. Getting the light to do it around my entire body was my current struggle. Being able to completely remove myself from people’s vision, even partially in case I couldn’t master it, was a big step in the right direction. The only problem right now was that I couldn’t appear to change ambient lighting around other objects, only myself. Unless it was a condensed area of light, I couldn’t change its flow.
As I continued to play around with my hand, Elm sighed, leaning back in his chair.
“If you weren’t in here you’d be considered a fucking prodigy.” he muttered. It was a compliment that I wasn’t expecting, nor one that I thought I entirely deserved.
“I have a good teacher.” I responded, letting my hand fade back into reality.
I could hear a soft chuckle come from him as he leaned forward, his hands now resting on his thighs.
“Shit like this doesn’t just come to people though. You’re still only on the basics, but most people don’t progress this fast. It usually takes a year to get where you are, and you’re already connecting concepts together and modifying the flow of ambient elemental mana. You’re still half-baked and would probably die on the real battlefield in a few seconds without someone backing you up, but you don’t really have someone to teach you combat.” His eyes were distant again, looking back into his past.
“Could you teach me that?”
“Don’t push your luck.”
I shrugged before heading to the door of the armory, prepared to make my short trip back to the bunks. Before I could leave, Elm spoke up again.
“Hey kid?”
“Sir?”
I turned back to him only to find a deep look of worry on his face. It was an emotion that I hadn’t really seen on him before.
“Stay safe.”
I smiled, hoping that I could give him some ease. He’d helped me so much, and it was the least I could do to help him.
“Of course. Can’t die before the big day, now can I?”
I walked out of the armory and into the darkness of the night, Elm’s face still etched into my mind.
“Slave, get the fuck over here!”
***
I turned to see a guard, waving in my direction. He was currently sitting around a fire with a few other guards who looked to be warming themselves and having casual small talk.
I tepidly walked over, my heartbeat increasing with every step. Something about this felt extremely wrong. Elm’s words of warning felt prescient as I edged closer to them, finally taking my spot to stand directly behind one of the four guards who were sitting around the fire.
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“You’re the other one who does tech, right?” he said, his hands still extended out to the fire. I could see the burner hanging on his hip, and recognized the tag on it. The names of the guards who severely screwed up their burners or other tools constantly were now very familiar to me, especially those who had etched their names onto the tubes.
“Yes. You’re Ian, right? I fixed up yours about 5 days ago?”
The guard named Ian looked at me, shocked. “Damn, you memorize the names of everyone you repair?”
“Only the ones who have their weapons appear in the shop over and over because they can’t stop breaking them.”
There was a collective laugh from the circle of guards. I gave the best fake smile I could in response, still fearful of them. I didn’t sense any form of malicious intent, but any misstep could lead to a new potential issue. The guard across from me finally stopped laughing and looked up at me. There was a large scar on his left cheek which looked like it had been hastily stitched up, causing his face to have a slight slant.
“Maybe they’re training him up so they can get rid of Elm.”
The other guard to my right, another repeat offender of the workshop named Scott, lifted his head up from the fire to respond.
“Nah, they ain’t throwing him away. Galen’s too attached.” Scott said, before turning to me. “Tech boy, they training you to be his replacement?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“See?”
The man to my left who looked to be half-conscious finally lifted his head to look at me, his eyes struggling to stay open.
“Huh. So this means we got 3 slaves wandering around at night?”
Wait, 3?
Before I could ask who the other was, Ian responded.
“That one don’t count. They ain’t up at night all the time like him.”
I wanted to ask, but knew that doing so would only lead to them getting more interested in me. I wanted to end this situation as fast as possible and get back to the bunks. Ian had already turned to me and was now taking some time to size me up.
“Galen seems to like you too for some reason. He using you for things other than technician shit?”
I pondered for a moment until his words clicked in my mind, resulting in an immediate reaction of disgust. It didn’t help that the people in front of me were also the same people who repeatedly abused the penal laborers. Sera’s face quickly flashed into my head until I physically shook it out of my thoughts. They’d get what they deserved soon, which meant I couldn’t let my anger cloud my better judgment.
“No sir.”
Ian sighed before turning back to the flame.
“Didn’t think so.”
I needed to take the risk.
“Sir, may I-”
“You can go. Y'all gotta do shit in the mines and I don’t want you passing out cause of exhaustion. We already got the kid to watch over, and Galen’s gonna get pissed if she dies before the other bitch goes.”
I clenched my fist and nodded before briskly walking back to the bunks. The way they talked about Sera and Karla was infuriating. It showed just how little they cared. It wasn’t something that could distract me. As I toyed around with the pocket watch in my hands, I took a moment to stare up at the stars.
The penal laborers were right. We couldn’t let a single one live.
***
Hearing them talk about Karla had made me confront the smaller headache that had been brewing in the background. Nicole was doing her job and was working with us for the moment, but Karla was someone who needed special attention. Specifically, what to do afterwards with her. She was just a child and someone needed to look after her so she could grow up right, but she was also going to be a fugitive of Arlin for the rest of her life when the sun rises the day after the revolt.
That came along with another problem.
I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I had only really put all of my focus on the revolt because placing it on the future would further my problems. Nicole’s suggestion was the most logical one from a survival standpoint. Heading to Mylia from Boralis was a way to finally escape the empire’s grasp and move out to new locations. The empire was constantly expanding, but they never did two campaigns at once. The 11th campaign in the west looked to be a long one, which meant we had time to make our move across the continent. Once we got to a port, we could go our separate ways and go where we wanted to. My personal preference would be for a good portion of us to stick together, since I think that having more people is better than only having a few, especially since the empire would probably come at us with good numbers.
But there was another part of me that hated that idea. For some stupid reason, stopping with this camp felt empty. I had seen a wrong in the world with my own eyes and knew that I could change it. Going south would mean going further into Arlinian territory, but it would also mean there would be other camps we could liberate. We had the numbers and understood how the places worked. If there was anyone out there who could fight this fight, it was us… but it was a juvenile dream.
I remembered during my early days as a slave I would dream about killing all of the guards, of escaping to freedom. The tales of valiant warriors that were told in my village rattled around in my head, the songs and hymns of heroes dancing in the back of my mind as I chipped away at stones. But I knew that my hopes were in vain. No one would save me, and I didn’t have the ability to save myself. All I had were dreams and memories.
Yet things changed. I had allies and abilities which could push forward. It was there in front of me, and I could take that first step. I could take back my freedom.
But I didn’t know what to do with it. I had spent so many years trapped in the system that I had no idea what to do even if I left. Alex said it himself that he was struggling to imagine there was a life outside of this hellhole, and I sort of understood him. I had no idea how the world had changed, and I was jumping into the unknown. Thinking about Nicole’s suggestion to go to Mylia felt like running away. Maybe it was stupid or juvenile but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that not continuing down this path would be just as bad as standing by and watching the sins of the empire occur on their own. All that Nicole wanted was control, and following her plan was the same as submitting to her whims.
However, I couldn’t truly decide our fate. It was up to the slaves of the empire to decide which path to follow, and I was praying that it would be the right one.