Jack exited the tent, sandwiched between two guards that had come to take him to join “the others”, whoever those were. He’d braced himself or what he’d see, and was unsurprised to be met by the sight of more tents, surrounded by a stockade wall.
The bright sunlight made him squint, but after his eyes adjusted he noticed that even the sky here was a different colour to what he’d seen when under the care of Confucius. Blue, but with a tinge of green.
The encampment was small, and after passing a few tents they came to a rutted path, the guards turning left. To his right, he saw a structure resembling a sand castle made large.
Passing through a sturdy gate, he was surprised to see that it led to another smaller camp of shabbier tents. He didn’t fail to notice that the wooden stockade around these shabbier tents was double sided, with a few bored looking guards keeping a lazy eye on the area.
“All yours”, the guard in front suddenly spoke, addressing a dark skinned man with tight grey curls that was waiting on the other side of the gate.
“You must be the new recruit the Captain told me about”, the dark skinned man greeted Jack with a large smile. “Of course you are. Come, come!”, the man said jovially as he walked up to Jack and lay an arm over his shoulders, urging him to walk alongside him.
“Recruit?” blurted Jack.
“A little joke to break the ice, we are all little more than slaves here”, the man replied, chuckling. “My name is Isaac”. He paused, giving Jack a chance to reply.
“Jack”, Jack replied. “Slaves?” his mind was screaming at him. What kind of a joke was that? He eyed out the guards on the stockade with this new information at hand.
“Don’t even think about it”, Isaac warned in a much softer voice, still grinning as if Jack was his best friend.
Jack could feel that the friendliness was genuine, even if the smile was plastered on. “Sorry, I didn’t expect to find myself in a situation like this”, he explained. “Where are we? What is this?”, he followed up with questions.
“Why are you here? Does your family owe a debt they can’t pay? Some petty crime?”, Isaac countered.
“No, nothing like that. I was.. somewhere else… and then I woke up in a tent, here”, Jack wasn’t sure how to reply. “I’m not a criminal!”, he added vehemently. “I really don’t know what’s going on”.
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“Strange. How unfortunate, for you to wake up here of all places”, Isaac said, only half to Jack. “But let me tell you where you are”, he continued. “This is one of the Bairid Kingdom’s secret earth element mines, and we are the Kingdom’s humble servants. Indentured servants, that is”, he chuckled at his own joke.
“Indentured servants?”, Jack asked. “Bairid Kingdom? And what are earth elements?” he filed alongside the growing list of “Things Jack Knows Nothing About”.
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Isaac eyed the boy out of the corner of his eye. Too pale to be native to this desert Kingdom, lacking the build of someone used to hard labour, too open to be a successful criminal. “Probably some poor scion sold off to pay the family debt, but too embarrassed to admit it”, he placed him as. Although he had arrived outside the usual schedule; the kid obviously had his pride and his secrets.
“Yes. We are all here to pay off debts; some their own, some the debt of their families and others their debt to society. Petty criminals and the criminally poor, you could say”, he elaborated. “We are not slaves”, he added with a hint of affront.
“And which are you?”, the boy asked.
“Mine is a debt of honour”, he said wryly.
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“Sorry”, Jack said as he sensed the man’s mood growing somber. “So if you’re not a slave, does that mean you can leave here?”, he asked.
“We’re not slaves”, Isaac corrected pointedly. “I wasn’t much older than you appear to be when I was sent here. What do you think?”, he continued. “But don’t despair! I’m the exception here; my debt is simply too great to be paid off”.
“The more fortunate will have their debts paid off by others. Family. Friends. Lovers. The Kingdom doesn’t care as long as the debt is paid” he elaborated further. “The less fortunate, and those sent here for petty crimes, can usually work their debt off in a few years”.
“Are there any other ways to leave? Escape?”, Jack probed.
“Escape? Pfft”, scoffed Isaac. “The guards you see are symbolic. Where would you escape to, when it’s a thousand miles of desert in any direction?”, he asked. “Besides which, there’s always the Captain.” he added, not explaining.
“Are you close to awakening? Good in a fight?”, Isaac asked Jack. “And I don’t mean a street brawl, I mean a fight to the death?”.
“Awakening?”, Jack thought to himself. “I’m not a trained fighter, no.” he replied to Isaac. What did that have to do with leaving here?
“Then the answer for you is no, there is no other way to leave”, Isaac smiled.
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Jack was still mulling over what Isaac had told him. He wasn’t a criminal - petty or otherwise - and he certainly didn’t owe anyone money. So why was he being treated like this?
Isaac led him to one of the tents, slightly less shabby than the others. “Welcome to my humble abode. Here, put this on”, he tossed Jack a change of clothes that had been lying on a bedroll and waited. Jack saw that there were two bedrolls in the tent, and one side had a chest and a few personal belongings. The other looked newer, obviously placed there for him.
Dressed in basic but sturdy work clothes, Isaac walked with Jack towards a decent sized shed that stood out as the only wooden structure inside the walls. Where was everyone, or was it just Isaac and himself here?