Starbound

1

Ever Thymeon had never set out to steal the World Heart. In fact, Ever only made it a habit of stealing from those she could escape from. This, admittedly, included quite a few figures within Orinth, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered in the end were the consequences of her actions, swift and cruel. For poaching a global treasure such as the World Heart, Ever had been sentenced to an eternity in the endless tunnels of the Fae, Revenblume.

Sighing, Ever gripped her ax, the wooden handle splintering into her blistered palms. Phenomenal. Taking a hard swing at the tree towering over her, she whittled away yet another day chopping. The Indentured around her did the same, uneven songs of wood splitting, and groaning, echoing through the forest. The same poems rattled off between them, along with the familiar shanties of those that had come from the sea before being thrown into labor eternal.

She heard the ice-shard sound of ashen iron, just before the cries gusted down on the wind. The guards were busy today. Ever briefly closed her eyes in remembrance of the Indentured she knew was receiving that beating.

Well, the Indentured she had known.

When Ever had first been thrown into Revenblume, kicking and screaming from the pain, she had been lost. This was how every Indentured started their so-called enlightenment here; lost, and left to find their way to the encampment that would be their cattle pins until the end.

Ever had been a special exception for the guards and the wardens. After being forced into the robes laced with specially crafted cold iron, they'd clamped her into chains, and strung her up for what they laughed at as preliminary lessons.

This had happened even before the Fall. Revenblume existed between two Great Trees, one to the east, and another to the west. In the center of the well forested valley lay an abyssal pit, a Rift into a conquered part of the Fae lands. Falling through without necessary protection induced pain, hallucinations, and worse. A proper welcome to Revenblume. Ever herself had been senseless and writhing for a week.

The first few days in Revenblume were a fleeting wind now, but what she did remember all came back to Briar. Ever had been found by Briar in the deadlands just outside of Revenblume, warding off invisible monsters in a stupor, and screaming from the agony of the Fall.

Even in her blind stupor, she could tell he was getting up there in years. His hands had begun to wrinkle and shake, yet he had smiled down at her with crows feet that bespoke eyes still living. Briar had mercifully knocked her into rest, before carrying her like a sack of wheat back to his tent in the encampment.

She had been nursed there like a wild raccoon. Still writhing with pain and suffering, the wardens had left her to the older elven mans care. After all, she'd be put to use eventually, and the guards didn't mind one less new animal to nurse.

Through the following week, Briar had fed her what little he had, and calmed her fits of insanity. He had been good to her. He would be the only good she would experience within the next year of this cursed pit.

Briar had possessed more of a rebellious heart than she had guessed. A few days ago, he led an assault on the main vault, attempting an escape. In all honesty, it was impressive how far they'd made it. He'd managed to take a small band of Indentured all the way to the stables within the vault, before the guards killed his accomplices, and dragged him back into Revenblume proper. The wardens had decided, in their good humor, to return him to work. There was only one slight exception, one that raked jagged claws through her heart; Briar had been given his own ashen iron.

At the end of that day, when Briar was finally dragged back to their communal tent, Ever hadn't been able to bring herself to stay, even with the fear of whipping and raking hanging over her. The sight of Briar-eyes muddied, blue being drowned in a sickly gray- had driven her into outrage. After that, the wardens had assigned sentries to cover their tent.