Tristan looked up at his uncle in shock. The mines? How could he work in the mines. He was sure that involved swinging around picks and carting around large pieces of ore. Still it would be better than whatever the acolyte had planned.

  Struggling to his feet, Tristan took in the foreman again. Now that he knew he was looking at the mine manager little things stood out. He had dirt under his fingernails despite the rest of his body being clean. Scars ran up his forearms, they were narrow and barely visible. He was wiry with chorded muscle built with a focus on endurance.

  There was a good reason he had never met this man before. The mine doubled as a type of prison. Criminals or problem citizens were sent there, that or one was brought in as muscle to control the inmates. Tristan suspected that he wasn’t going to be muscle.

  The foreman pushed up the brim of his straw hat and squinted at Tristan, “Boy, Elder Forest says you got yourself a metal affinity. Is that true? “

  Tristan wished he could lie, but that would be foolish right now. He took a few moments to catch his breath, the foreman patiently waiting, “Unfortunately, I do,” Then he quickly added, “But I’m not evil, I don’t eat people.”

  The foreman chuckled. He was missing one of his canines, “Thats good, I wouldn’t want my men to get chomped on,” Tristan relaxed a bit at the term men as opposed to prisoners. The foreman continued, “I’m hoping you can direct us to metal deposits, digging through dirt wastes most of our time. So you might be a literal gold mine.”

  Elder Forest froze from where he was walking away. Tristan glared at his uncle when he saw a greedy smile cross the Elder’s face. At least his uncle’s avarice would keep the Temple’s people away.

  There was just one issue with this plan. He had a tier zero kern. If metal artifacts existed, he could use them, but he had never heard of one. How much use could he be in a mine, even with a metal affinity.

  He had to tell the Foreman, he seemed to respond well to honesty, “Uh, I don’t know how much help I will be. I only have a tier zero kern.”

  Maybe he would be tossed back to the acolyte. Maybe the foreman would choose to use him as manual labor. That wouldn’t be the end of the world. Tristan was sure one lung would be enough.

  “Thats not a problem. Every kern has its advantages,” The foreman shrugged, “Air kerns breath out oxygen, that can save lives in a tunnel collapse. Water kerns are resistant to dehydration. You might be a magnet.”

  “I, I don’t know how to do anything like that,” Tristan rasped.

  The foreman’s smile fell a little, “well, let’s see what we can do about that then.”

  Tristan returned the smile. He did not know what the future held, but at least he knew that he had one.

  Elder Forest had a serious expression, “Conni, taking him is also taking responsibility for both his actions,” he paused as if not wanting to finish, “and his well-being.”

  It was clear that the mine would not be good for Tristan’s health. However, it was the only place that viewed his progress in a positive light. If people would not support him because they cared for him, then they would support him because he made their lives easier, at least that was the case if he could do anything.

  “Do you have his papers?” Conni asked.

  Papers, why would he need papers? Tristan was not familiar with the apprenticeship process, but no documents needed to be exchanged. Also Conni was a strange name for a foreman.

  Elder Forest seemed just as confused, “What are you talking about.”

  Conni raised an eyebrow, “You are sending him as a criminal, is this assumption correct? I need the debt receipt for his crimes.”

  “He can’t pay it off, his crime is being a Silver Devil,” Elder Forest waved dismissively.

  Conni tried again “Are you sure, the law is very clear…”

  “Yes, I’ll send someone along with the papers,” Forest sighed.

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  “Thank you, I will obey,” Conni bowed then turned to Tristan, “This will take a day or two, do you need to say goodbye to anyone.”

  Tristan shook his head. Two days was not very long and his father was lined up beside the other managers. They made eye contact and Shadow Fist gave him a nod of encouragement.

  “Good, lets go meet the others,” Conni left the sand filled sifting grounds.

  The foreman led Tristan out of the sifting grounds and around the corner of a general store. There was another group of people here, only a handful that were standing around. One of them was clearly a security guard of some kind, he had a war pick dangling from a loop in his belt. The rest were rough looking men who were what Tristan pictured when he thought of an indentured criminal.

  Most had dark kerns, judging by their pale complexions and purple eyes. However one stood out for a few reasons. He was the only one around Tristan’s age, though even he was at least sixteen. Also he looked to have an air kern. Tristan wondered what he had done to end up getting sent to the mine.

  Conni clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention, “Alright, who’s ready to get to work?”

  None of the gathered people seemed happy about this arraignment. Tristan thought that he might have the best attitude, and even he thought of the mine as the best case for awful circumstances. There were rumors about the mine, the air was hard to breath, the walls were to close, and monsters lurked in the mine shafts. Tristan did not ascribe to these beliefs, but the rumors still had to come from somewhere.

  Once Tristan had heard his uncle guess that the mine was the remnants of a fallen civilization. The metal was mostly steel, and construction grade at that. Tools and bones had also been unearthed, leading to the theory that a mythical beast had wondered through and wiped the unfortunate people out.

  In the end, the mine served the community. It was a hard job that the Forest Caldera had decided to outsource. Nothing about it was supposed to be enjoyable. Each caldera had some valuable resources nearby, Tristan just had to count himself fortunate that the Forest Caldera’s main contribution was metal and wood.

  “Everyone, I want you to march at Tristan’s speed,” Conni said, “We may all be outcasts, but you can at least be descent outcasts.”

  Tristan frowned as he caught the manipulation that Conni was weaving. He had already started using ‘we’ instead of ‘you’ to build common ground with his workers. There was also ‘outcasts’ pushing the moral issues of the group onto those who convicted them. One did not need to be a criminal to be sent to the mine, simply disruptive.

  Conni was his only hope, so Tristan would go along with it. He was at the rear of the procession, hoping to be left alone with his thoughts. Someone fell into step beside him as they exited the Forest Caldera’s gate. He looked up expecting Conni, but a older boy walked beside him. Tristan scanned the person closest to being a peer for the foreseeable future.

  He was older, but despite the three or four year age gap they were the same height. Tristan was tall for his age, making him only slightly below average. Blond hair, pale skin, and emerald eyes made Tristan suspect an air kern, but he couldn’t be sure. He wore a tunic and pants covered in grass stains and worn through knees. Overall, he looked like he had walked right off a farm.

  “Hey, the name is Luke,” The boy held out a hand. He was on Tristan’s right side, so he had to manage his crutch, walk, and shake hands.

  After a few attempts, fumbling his crutches, Tristan offered his left hand, “My name is Tristan. Why are you talking to me?”

  Luke didn’t react to the rude question, considering it seriously, “So, here’s the thing, I think you’re quite strange and it makes me curious.”

  Tristan decided to ignore the farm boy. Getting offended over insensitivity after being rude himself was a bit hypocritical, but Tristan had been having a bad day. Either way, Luke was a farmer, Tristan was the next in line to be elder. Was the next. A heavy weight seemed to fall on his shoulders when that thought finally became real to him. He would be a miner, possibly for the rest of his life.

  Luke didn’t seem to care that he was being snubbed and continued talking, “Soooo, was what Elder Forest said true? Do you have a metal kern?”

  The blunt question shattered any resistance to conversing with Luke. Tristan glared at the older boy, “Of course I do. Do you think my uncle would lie about something so easy to prove?”

  “Of course he would, thats how elders work,” Luke nodded as if he was sharing sage advice. A glint entered his eye, “So are the legends true? Can you kill a thousand men? Are you only satisfied by shedding the blood of the innocent? Do you eat souls?”

  “What?” Tristan almost tripped over his crutch, “I have a tier zero kern, I’m basically harmless.”

  “So you can’t kill a thousand men,” Luke said. He seemed way too excited about this, “So what about a hundred-,”

  “No, I can’t,” Tristan yelled. Most of the people walking to the mine were now paying attention to their conversation, “Why would I even want to do that? Also, I’m on crutches! And stop starting every sentence with ‘so’.”

  “So…” Luke trailed off at Tristan’s glare before restarting, “Well it would be cool to be able to defeat a thousand people, I’m only a hero could do that.”

  The sudden turn from Tristan’s nightmare to his dream nearly gave him psychological whiplash. Tristan, and most other young boy, dreamed of growing to tier six and entering the heroic tiers, like the Grand Ancestor. Unfortunately, artifacts were expensive, and draining every single one in the Caldera wouldn’t push someone to tier six, so it remained a dream for every child.

  Luke’s face scrunched up as if he was having a seizure, “S-well, do you have the desire to murder people? Or eat their souls?”

  Back to the nightmare. Tristan opened his mouth to say no, but he was feeling a growing urge to beat Luke with his crutch, so he answered, “There is a distinct possibility.”

  Luke smiled happily, “Cool.”