The new guy, Phil, introduces himself, and then collects thaums from the prisoners. I let him know that I need to test thuam production. He grumbles about it, then lets the prisoners know the thaum collection will work differently for the next hour. They are to put ten thaums out every time they get full, and the winner who produces the most thaums gets a day off, with no thaum production required.

The prisoners appear to have learned not to say much, and they silently do what Phil asks. A subjective hour later we have our answer. I can increase thaum production for the whole room, and they can produce at 20x the rates they were working at. Instead of six thaums an hour, they produce over a hundred. It looks like we’re on a sixteen month plan.

Having figured out that it's doable, I settle into the work. I drum 20 hours a day, and then getting out of the underground room. Unfortunately, with the time dilation in the room, that doesn’t work so well; 40 minutes is not enough time outside. Because that doesn't work, I switch out to a weird schedule that gives me two hours outside the pressure pit every six days. The schedule is weird and not symmetrical, but the math works out, so the topsiders just grab me at noon each one of their days, and send me back down at 2pm. Getting out regularly turns out to be good for me.

The Thuam collection process becomes more efficient as well, partly because it has to with the quantity of thaums being generated. Prisoners drop thaums outside their doors every several minutes, and at the beginning, someone comes to pick them up daily. Eventually, I just bring them up each day on my break. The current amount is right about four hundred red thaums per person per subjective hour, with 34 people for twenty hours a day, at six times speed. That makes about 2.5 yellow thaums per day of production. That's better than what this group could probably make hunting, even with ten of them.

Subjective days becomes subjective months, and a real couple of weeks. I convince the leadership that being complete assholes isn’t a win, mostly because it doesn’t help much. We agree that when I’m not drumming, the slaves will have free time, and are not required to meditate for thaum production. That's 2 hours each day, and then they get a full twelve hours off when I'm topside. Even though I only get 2 hours off, that's 12 hours of break for them because of the chronomancy. 

With security as good as it is in the air pressure bubble, I even get the team to let the prisoners come out of their cells once in a while during break time. I also start adding a couple extra minutes of drumming so the prisoners get some of their own thaums. When they give too many thaums, I leave anything extra in their cell. And sometimes I manage the same thing with a couple minutes of fifth or sixth level thaum whorls. I also pull out my shower, set it up in the cavern, and let the prisoners shower when they have time. A lot of them are suspicious on the first week, but after half the folks have gotten clean, and commented on how nice it was, eventually everyone gets a turn. It’s not much, just showering once a week, but the prisoners still appreciate it.

I think I've at least reached the status of good cop with the folks below. It's been hard because I've had to act like one of the slavers while trying to help them. If I acted like a captive, and on their team, I wouldn't get the freedom I need. I'm at least convinced they hate me less than the others.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

After a month of real time--six months subjectively in the pit--and we’ve made seventy-five yellow thaums. A couple months past a year, and the slavers will have made their green. Then they’re probably going to kill everyone, maybe me included, but I’m not sure about that. I’m really useful, and they might decide to take me with them. On the other hand, if the gang movies are right, they’ll make me do the killing to be part of the team.

I’ve accomplished my primary objective and have gotten the slaves a less bad life. I’ve gotten a secondary objective by getting some partial trusted status with the bad guys. They let me run around in the camp, even at my speed. We have agreed that so long as I’m not leaving camp, they won’t have to resort to more serious measures. I still mostly don’t know what the measures are, and have no intent of finding out.

I’ve seen one of the bad guys, Sharon, do the whole Mystique thing, and shift from her look to a different one. I don’t know what the limits are, but it’s kinda scary when she’s talking with Chuck and wants to get a rise out of him, so she transforms to look just like him, and has the rest of the conversation with him as his twin. He doesn’t react or even crack a smile as far as I’ve been able to tell. Getting a reaction out of the accountant is hard.

Another thing: In the last month, they caught three more people, and brought them in unconscious while I was aboveground. There was apparently some resistance in them when they arrived in camp, and one of them jumped up to fight, and then fell back over asleep. I could see that it was Charlie doing that. I don’t know how it works but somehow the humorless accountant has the ability to put people to sleep. Perhaps that’s his idea of a joke. I really want to know what’s going on.

My next topic is how to get out of here, without killing any of the prisoners. If I’m going to do that, I have to figure out who the participants are.

I know Sharon, who must have been pretending to be Randi on the way here. She’s the only woman in charge, and she can look like anything she wants to. We end up having a friendly running joke about her sex life. Her line is that she fulfills fantasies so everyone wants to sleep with her. My line is that she can put sharp teeth in all sorts of places. How could anyone be willing to risk that? She insists that she only does human shapes. I act like I don’t believe her. Also, I claim she could shift and look like Charles, halfway through. That’s scary.

I also know Charles, who puts people to sleep. He doesn’t laugh or even smile at jokes, but he has become friendly as I make the thaum-collection process ever more efficient.

Jerry is the aeromancer, who gives us the high pressure zone. Tim is the chronomancer, and Danny is the biology student and drug dealer who became a shroom-o-mancer. I’ve seen all of them, but haven’t gotten more than a few words with each. I think that Danny was captured like me, but he’s happy to be part of the crew now. Tim and Jerry founded this, and are happy to be doing it.

Phil and Svetlana, who both sometimes come down to pick up the coins, are mysteries. I know basically nothing about them. There's also Dr. Jones, who is always dressed in a labcoat, and manages a Lex Luthor vibe while he’s wearing it. I think he's the boss. He has not said a single word while I was aboveground. The whole scientist thing makes me think he might understand that I can use sound to hear well also. There’s supposed to be two more. I don’t know who they are. In theory there’s a geomancer, and I’d bet on both wood- and metal-mancers as well, given the supports in the cavern. Though, both Phil and Svetlana might be in those categories.

I guess the only thing to do is wait a bit longer. It’s a little bit tricky, I guess, to get everyone to trust me in a month, even if it’s been six months for me. I head back down to the mines to work out an escape plan.