Elysia slumped down next to the iron door, her hands still trembling.
It had all been too fast. The guard. The bullet. Tuck.
She was covered in his blood now, and she noticed her hands shaking.
But it was done. There was nothing she could do now.
In the distance, she could hear screams, but they were starting to fade.
Everything around her became distant.
*******
The air in the mines had always been thick. Chalky with obsidian dust and the bitter smell of sweat.
A dark hole in a mountain where she would slave the rest of her life away mining for the Royals.
Elysia had just arrived there after she was given her first assignment.
Her first day was brutal. Her muscles had burned until they went numb. Sores had opened up on her hands and bled.
When the shift finally came to an end, she'd collapsed next to her pile of obsidian, breathless.
"You did good, kid," a voice said from behind her.
