Warrior King's Decree Pt.1

The winds silently whispered it's chilling tunes. He could feel it, crawling over his back and seeking out the sweat on his face and arms, turning them cold and painfull, like his pointed ears that throbbed from the constant sound of metal thumping against rock. Worse yet, Elyza Shadowflame felt the strength leave his arms as he lowered the pick with a sigh. He breathed in again, trying to raise the tool, but could only harness a hacking cough that spoke ill of his lungs, harmed by breathing in the dusty air on a daily basis.
The worker next on him could feel something was wrong as he set a concerned gaze onto the Dark Elf. He could barely see in the dark, but it was still easy to notice his shaking legs.
The miner lowered his pick and reached over for a nearby torch. It was a horrible source of light, but atleast being close to it was a source of heat. He offered the gentle flame over before he started to work again.
Elyza tried to break a smile to the fellow elf, but his malnourished features were too cold, so he attempted to voice a thanks, but was shushed back. He didn't blame him for it though, the fellow elf had already taken a risk in tampering with the torch.
The warmth was soothing, energizing. He let the embers glide just above his palegray skin as it eased the pain and vaporised the liquids. But as one pain left his body, another came. His lower body was absolutely exhausted and his stomache rumbling.
The drow took his liberty to sit down against the wall for a while, as he rumaged around the worn out satchel. Atleast the leather was still intact enough to keep his meat and jelly sandwich from falling out of the linnen binds that he wrapped up. It still smelled fresh, so he took a bite. He was delighted by the taste, perhaps this could turn out to be a better day afterall.
He kept snacking, and the lower ground he sat on along with the torch kept him protected from the winds and left him to swiftly feel better, but it also left him easily visible in the open.
The mining had kept her footsteps hidden and let the Taskmistress to creep up on Elyza from behind. She unfolded her whip and grabbed onto his shoulder from out of the cave's dark corner.
"State your name, wretch!" She yelled in his ear as she pulled Elyza up on his legs. She then span him around to face her and glared into his black eyes.
"Elyza Shadowflame, ser." He recieved a hard kick against his shin as the woman pulled him down onto his knees.
"You better have a damn good reason for your insolence." She held onto the whip in both hands, but didn't strike yet, awaiting an answer.
"I'm cold, exhaused and starving. What do you expect of me really. If you demand me to keep going you can as well kill me here and now."
The Taskmistress blinked. The hopelessness and dispair within the husk of a drow seemed to grant her a pinch of compassion. He was after all her own kin.
"I'll give you two minutes, if you ain't working by then... Remember an entire nation relies on having a proper amount of stone and coal to survive the worst of this winter." She lowered the whip and now noticed that the rebel was very young, perhaps conscripted or given away by family. A sacrifice to asure they could go by another year.
"Don't let me catch you slacking when I come back, I really do not enjoy punishing." The Taskmistress walked away and disapeared within the lightless corridors. Only then could Elyza breath out again, this time without a cough. His heart was pounding in his chest and the adrenalin he had managed to hide from the encounter served as a great encouragement for the elf to start mining again.
An hour of mining went past, and Elyza's ears hurt even worse than before, until he heard a sound he long awaited. The bells of freedom and the all too welcomed shout of the labour captain. "END OF SHIFT!" echoed through the cave's halls and soon followed the clatter of pickaxes and relieved sighs as the workers stepped out of the mine and into the cold.
Outside the snow's sparkled and the trees were covered in white, so Elya had to close his eyes not to risk going snowblind, as he huddeled out. But it would only be freezing cold for a short time as soldiers grabbed onto his arms and started to help the workers inside. Once they entered the doors, the tension he had built up in his body left and the cold started to fade away.
He opened his eyes and was met with the pleasant dimly lit lanterns, hanging from the roof within the large stone keep. He kept slowly walking while looking around, astonished on what the builders had accomplished in such a short notice, with the materials he himself had helped to gather. Now came the best part of it all. Payday.
The line of dark elves infront of him grew shorter and shorter, untill he could finally see the checkpoint of soldiers that stood on guard, along with the human servant Mitchael, a tall and lean, but friendly man who always wore a fancy black coat.
"State your name and place of labour."
Elyza smiled wide. "Elyza Shadowflame, miner at the sixth crow mine."
Mitchael signed a noteblock with ink and quill, before he placed a heavy pouch onto his workdesk, that everyone had to pass through.
Elyza took the pouch and made a short bow, before he was showed out of the line and confirmed free from duty for the night. That meant it was finally time to head over to the tavern.
Elyza followed the right corridor through a square formed tunnel. It lead him to a nice wooden room, with glass windows and chandliers, which, now that his eyes had accustomed to a more light enviroment, didn't hurt him. No, he could finally look out on the beauty the Crow's Mountains offered. The sparkling ground, large trees and white powdered shrubbery painted it in a beautiful light, and the large hearth perfected the feel of cozy.
He scanned the many tables and chairs, filled with all from grim looking workers in woolen rags, like himself, to soldiers in impressive plate. Even noble women sat in a corner with a red candle, donning expensive dresses and sipping fine wine as they peered over their servants and gossiped. One even winked to the newcomer, but she was probably drunk.
Either way, his attention was on neither of these groups, but on the one hooded man in the dark corner. He didn't approach him on instant though, rather he strolled over to the barcounter. There, a tall drow with massive muscles and a bald head stood. He turned around and looked Elyza in the eye with his one red iris.
"Elyza, my friend! You're still alive." The barkeep swiftly put a couple of shot glasses onto his counter and popped the cork of a vodka bottle and let the liquid flow into the two glasses. "One was quite worried after hearing about your little sandwich escapade." The large drow let out a rasped chuckle as he pushed the glasses forwards.
"Honestly, Vâdymir, I don't know if my body can manage this work for much longer. I can barely breath in that cave." Elyza rummaged around his pocket and removed a couple of dubloons. He placed them onto the counter before he took the glasses and looked over the clock. It was eight bells, and he'd need to sleep early to survive the comming week.
Vâdymir pocketed the dubloons as he gave the fellow drow a very serious stare. "Don't get yourself in trouble again, Shadowflame. I've already lost too many friends to these damnable conditions and I can't afford to lose you too."
Elyza shrugged. "I'll do my best, but I ain't doing any promises."
The Barkeep sighed deep, pain visible in his warscarred features. "Trust me friend, times will be brighter. We'll just have to count Draghânir's blessing." He reached over to give Elyza a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Just stay away from that woman, I don't trust her at all."
He looked around, and instantly one of the ladies started giggling, all red cheeked underneath the curled platinum hair, similar to his own. He didn't know why it creeped him out, but it did. "I will take your good advice, Draghânir's blessing my friend."
He took the glasses and walked over the floor, past the patrons and towards the hooded man, who was now casualy smoking a pipe underneath the staircase. He grinned wide as Elyza sat down infront of him with the two glasses.
"You look like hope left you, my child." Deimîtry stated as he removed the pipe from his lips, to exchange it with vodka.
"It's just... What purpose do I even serve, father. Just later today, I felt like I couldn't care less if I died, I just wanted the pain to stop, but then, something inside me just... It's hard to explain."
The old priest set down his glass and glanced over Elyza. "You're still young, barely adult. You have your entire life infront of you, my child." He motioned to the shot glass infront of the conflicted drow as he smiled genuinely underneath the hood.
Elyza swept down the vodka. It burned pleasantly, but he did not enjoy the taste. Rather, the old priest had told him that one shot a day kept diseases at bay. The fact that he always managed better than the other workers during outbreaks, spoke well to Deimîtry's credibility.
"An entire life of servitude?" Elyza shook his head.
"No my child, change is on our horizon." The priest set the pipe to the corner of his mouth again, he then let small clouds of smoke puff out from it. He then peered around him in a conspirtatorial manner. "You see, I have this thing that popped up just the other day." He grinned and puffed some more smoke. "Hold out and I'll let you in on it." He leaned back between the words and opened a ledger from his belt, pretending to read it. Then he suddenly raised his voice so people close by could hear. "Off to bed with you, my child, seems you drank way too much." He winked.
Elyza returned to his quarters early that evening. Not so much for the questions running around his head, or the priest's command, but rather because he was spent, and all his muscled hurt even more, now that they had time to rest.
He fell asleep almost on instant.