Nathan faced the miners as they stood half awake in a crooked line. “The amount of food I get is determined by the weight of crystals you mine. Today that was about one hundred kilos’, so I only got one fifth what I normally get. I know it’s the first day, so you probably didn’t work too hard, but that won’t cut it here. If—”

While Nathan spoke, the knees of a kid half his size buckled. Two others reached out to grab him but were dragged down as well.

“If … you don’t we’ll—s” Nathan stumbled through his speech as he watched the awkward fall and the man who had confronted Nathan the other day stepped up.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t work any harder.”

Nathan turned to him wide-eyed, caught off guard. “Sorry?”

“We can’t work any harder. We have no strength, not to mention we’re just two adults.”

Nathan looked up; the man towered over him. From far away it wasn’t so obvious as he was emaciated, but he was tall and had a firm voice … like Grega.

“N… No,” Nathan stuttered. His mind was fuzzy. Why would anyone try their hardest on the first day? They were nearly dead last night. He’s probably just trying to get a leg up on me. “No! Look,” Nathan began to explain anew. “If I don’t get enough food, I won’t be able to power the mining carts, and if that happens you won’t be able to haul out the crystals, and you’ll get less food.”

But the man didn’t look concerned, raising a sense of dread in Nathan’s heart.

And then he said it, the words he would kill not to hear. “Our food doesn’t depend on our production.”

It was over. Nathan’s face crumbled, and he looked to the door, where the Overseer’s spirit roamed. “Fuck!” He couldn’t help but yell. “No! Don’t fall for it, they’ll make you think that you’ll be fine, but then take it all away!

Before you, I was with another group of miners, and their food depended on me. Now they’ve switched it up. Can’t you see that they’re playing with us? I don’t need you to mine five hundred kilos. Just half that, two hundred fifty. That’s all. I just need enough food to survive.” Nathan implored, looking over the kids, but they answered with despondency. Only the living skeleton spoke.

“We can’t. I feel sorry for you, but even if we were to try our best, we wouldn’t be able to do so. I can barely see you right now; everything’s blue. Don’t blame us, blame those who make us do this. We don’t have the strength to do anything more.”

Nathan wanted to calm down, but he couldn’t. This was his life, his future, and his past.

“No! It only took me a few days to reach the four-bucket mark. They wouldn’t give you an impossible task. After all, if I die, who’s going to dissolve the crystals to power the mines. Who are you going to work with! You all are lying!” Nathan pointed to the group, taking steps back. “You’re trying to starve me and take my position, to take my bed I worked so hard to get. To take everything that belongs to me.”

All these people always wanted to one up him, to push him further into the muck of the earth. They were jealous. They knew that without magic they wouldn’t amount to anything, and so instead of accepting Nathan as their superior, they elevated themselves by standing on his back.

It was the Overseer who didn’t warn him of the miners and why he needed to work, and it was the miners who beat him to a pulp for his ignorance.

“No, it isn’t them! It’s you, all of you. You are all shit that like to see me suffer. You said it yourself, ‘even if we try our best’ Which means you aren’t trying your best.” Nathan cracked. His face turned crimson. “Tomorrow, I need you all to mine at least two hundred kilos of crystals. Else… Else I’ll beat you.” His fists were balled up and his knuckles white.

“I already told you that it’s not physically possible for us to mine that much and beating us up won’t help … and that’s if you can.”

“What?” Nathan grew enraged.

“We won’t be pushed around by a mad man like you. You cannot ask a sardine to fly and expect him to try.”

“How can I not! I’m a mage! A mage! I can do anything to you, and you can’t do anything to me.” He couldn’t be more infuriated. “How can you just ignore my orders? You know nothing of this place. It’ll chew you up and spit you out as a soggy clump of snow. I can’t deal with you guys anymore.” Nathan stormed off.

#

Outside, snow fell, and a strong wind blew, but it did nothing to cool him.

He ran further and further away into the darkness. Looking back, he saw his igloo glowing orange and white smoke rising out its ventilation hole. He turned and continued to run further away into the darkness until he reached a wall of snow.

He tried to dig his fingers in it. To climb it. But it was frozen solid, and his strength seeped away. The wall was enchanted. He had to act fast.

Stepping back, he kicked the old and frozen ground in a pile, but he couldn’t amass more than a few centimetres. It would take him an entire day to build a ramp that would let him escape. He stared up at the top of the wall twice his height, and then to the stars and moon.

Nathan sat against the wall, all balled up, his arms wrapped around his knees. Everyone and everything was against him.

“Do you need help?”

Nathan searched for the voice. Standing in front of the igloo’s glow, a human’s silhouette approached. It was the Overseer.

Wanting to get up, Nathan pushed against the ground, but all his strength had left him. “I don’t want to go back.” Nathan cried. Tears streamed out of his eyes, and he wiped away his snot with his hands. “I’m tired, I want to sleep, I want my bed,” he muttered.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The Overseer stayed a distance away, his face still hidden by the igloo’s cast shadow. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing I, nor you, can do about that. You’ll remain locked within these walls until this life of yours comes to an end.”

“NO!” Nathan slammed his fist on the ice wall. His strength continued to be sapped, and he struggled to keep his eyes open and his torso up, but his rage kept his voice loud. “And do what, forever be hungry, forever dissolve crystals. Forever be a slave?”

The Overseer crouched, getting on Nathan’s level. “I’ve been here for more than a decade. You’ve only seen this snow for a few months, and if I can get used to it, then so can you.”

Nathan wailed. “But I wanted to see the magic tower, learn its secrets, and become great. I wanted to engrave my name in history, not in these mines. Not this!” He only had the strength to hit the wall before his eyes began to close. “This isn’t fair.”

“Nothing is, but it’s up to you whether you accept it or not. I did, and look at me now, I get to have a cushy life looking over a spoiled brat.”

Nathan couldn’t speak anymore; he had no strength left for words, and so he drifted to sleep with the Overseer’s words.

#

Nathan woke up under the igloo’s ice dome and in the corner of his eyes, he spotted the miners heading out.

Nathan grabbed his head. A headache assaulted him, but he still got up and looked around. He had been sleeping on the ground without even a fur or fabric…

Nathan’s eyes snapped open, and he headed to his bed.

“Who!” The luscious troll’s fur had been slept in. There could only be one person with such audacity.

“I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him,” yelled Nathan, digging his fingers into the snow. He ran up to the bed and grabbed it with all his might, trying to pull the leather to parts. The shards in his hands punctured his now thick skin and stained the pearly white fur crimson.

Unable to pull it apart, he threw it to the ground and kicked it around.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! I’ve been working with all I have for three months, yet they stroll in and push me aside and make me sleep in the back next to their pickaxes and shovels! I’ll kill them!” He couldn’t hold it in anymore.

Nathan raised his hand towards the door. He wanted to kill all those people, every one of them. He controlled his aura and shaped it into a pellet, but nothing happened.

A knock came from the door.

Nathan’s heart jumped and he stepped back.

“It’s time to go!”

But thankfully it was just the Overseer. Nathan lowered his hand and gave another good kick to the fur before walking out with rage-filled eyes.

“What happened?” asked the Overseer.

Enraged, Nathan couldn’t see the smirk plastered on his face.

“I want to kill him. I want him dead!”

“How am I supposed to know who that is?”

“The tall man! The one with your eyes.” Nathan stared in the direction of the mine and caught a glimpse of his back. “I don’t know his name, but it’s the one that takes himself for the leader, even though he knows nothing of shards.”

“Hmmm…” The Overseer blocked out the sun, using his hand as a roof for his eyes. “The tallest one?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know…” He looked down to Nathan. “He’s skinny, but he looks a lot taller and … more experienced than you. Not to mention the others seem to be on his side, and you haven’t learned offensive magic.”

Nathan thought back to his father and how he easily handled the snow trolls, silver wolves, and every other beast that roamed the Northern edges of Grival.

What were a few humans to a mage?

But he couldn’t do anything yet. He hadn’t formed his mana circuits. How could he be expected to use magic? “I can’t, I’m still not even a first-ranked mage. But I can at least activate spells by channelling my mana through simple glyphs. That should be enough.”

The overseer jerked back his head. “Mana circuits? What’s that?”

Nathan turned to him. “You can’t use offensive magic if you don’t develop a mana circuit, that’s the basics of magic.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but every seer is able to use basic offensive magic.”

“No, a mage has to awaken his—”

“A mage!” exclaimed the Overseer. He slammed his palm over his forehead. “It’s been a while since you said it, but I forgot you took yourself for someone else. I don’t care if you or a talking turtle calls you a mage; or even a mage for that matter, but when I look at you, I only see a boy with silver hair. That is the mark of the Spirit of the North. And regardless of what anyone calls you, you cannot deny your blood. Now tell me, do you care more about going around telling everyone you’re a mage or do you want to kill that fucker.”

Nathan looked to the side and remained silent.

The Overseer crouched down. “Listen kid. The power of seers comes from the devotion of your ancestors to the land. Seeing this, the Spirit of the North admitted these humans into her family, turning them into her kin. You are her kin. You are a beast, you are like the snow trolls, like the silver wolves, and bears. You are an intrinsic part of this land and will never not be!”

Overwhelmed by the man’s barrage of words and strong gaze, Nathan closed his eyes.

“That’s why you were sworn to protect it. Because if it dies, you do as well. But now that you have lost the heart to fight, you are being swept aside and ignored. Yet, the strength to fight back is still there! I love this land, but you have ruined it. Seers have abandoned their duties, and it has made us, those who followed your wills as our guardians, lose our way of life, our happiness, and our future. Perhaps it can still be retaken, but it will never be the same.” The Overseer stood straight and stepped back. He had said his part. “You know what? Fuck it, who cares anymore, I’ve had enough of these games. Keep your eyes closed and open your hands, and point your palms at me,” said the Overseer.

Nathan did as told. He heard the crunching of snow, and something cold touched his hand.

“Grab it,” said the Overseer in a firm tone. Nathan did with his left. “Now imagine the snow transfer from one hand to the other. Wait. Do you know the different types of seers?”

“No.” Nathan kept his eyes closed.

“That is the problem with our old traditions. We were too discreet and didn’t pass on our knowledge. If I wasn’t trusted with this information to raise our village’s seer, the knowledge would have been lost. Anyhow.” The Overseer closed his eyes. “There are three types of seers. Those who create, those who become, and those who act as convectors to snow. Now get a good feel of the snowball and imagine it appearing in your other hand. You just need to envelop it in your aura.”

Nathan gave the snowball a good feel. It was cold, but cold no longer hurt him. Cold was the natural state of his body. He accepted the cold of the world, and it accepted him. A white line appeared in his mind, cutting the darkness in half, and a hail of snow followed close behind.

His left hand became hot, and his right was now cold.

“You’re a convector,” said the Overseer. “It’s not the best for combat, but it’s not the worse.”

Nathan opened his eyes; a great weight lifted off his consciousness. He didn’t know why nor what it related to, but his heart was a bit more at rest now that he could use magic. Yet this was only the first step.

“Now to—” the Overseer was about to explain how convectors fought, but Nathan acted first.

He spread his arms wide. From his right hand, he accumulated the cold air, snow, and moisture. He accepted all of it and let it traverse through his arm, into his chest where it mixed with his heart and blood, and then out his right. Out came tiny, but sharp ice shards.

He had done it. He had used his own magic. He was a real magician now, and that was even before becoming an adept I and awakening his mana circuits. Wouldn’t this mean he’d be all that more powerful! He smiled a broad smile; he wasn’t all waste. He was better than those useless miners. He could show them who was the strongest. He would rectify the insults which had been smothered on him.

“Wow … good job, it’s a rare sight to see a new seer pull it off on their first try. But you were also quite quick when it came to increasing your production, so I suppose you are just a talented one, a talented slave.”

But Nathan didn’t hear him, he was already heading back to the shack—no.

He would go straight to the mine. He’d had enough of the abuse. He needed to put down his foot and take back his place as the leader of this group.