1 Calrod's Mines

Rae was going to die. She knew this like she knew the suns were going to rise every morning; the three suns forming their triangle in the sky was a sight as old as time itself. Yeah, Rae was going to die, and it wasn't even her fault. She watched the line of people between her and the metal contraption that let them out of Ember, and each step forward felt like signing her own execution.

She had worked for Calrod all her life. At six years old she wandered into his mining company and demanded a job. She was angry, hungry, and tired of sleeping on the streets. The entire company had gone silent at the sight of the girl - tall for her age, even then - resolutely handing her work papers to the old miner. Surprising everyone, the man lowered himself down to her eye level and asked, very seriously, "Can you work girl?"

"Yes sir," Rae answered, and that was that.

The next eight years of her life were as close to a utopia as she ever thought she would get. Calrod started her off carrying bags. She would follow the mining teams and help carry the mana stones back. The stones started showing up when the evolution began. Humans discovered they could use them to increase the elemental energy in their body. After that, they split up the stages of elemental cultivation into five categories; the awakening, the initiation stage, the intermediate stage, the advanced stage, and the grand-master stage. Each stage after the awakening was then split into nine steps. The awakening stage was about consolidating elemental energy. The mage had to absorb elemental energy and lay the groundwork for a lifetime of cultivation. It's said that the purer the energy absorbed, the stronger the mage. The initiation stage was when a mage started casting magic. The spells available were simple, rudimentary ones. This was because, at this stage, mages couldn't conjure their own element. Air and Earth mages had it the easiest - their element was readily available in its natural state. Water and Fire mages had to carry around a mage casted pouch of water or hot coals. Of course, Water mages could sometimes count on their element to be available, but a fire mage rarely could. At the intermediate stage, mages could summon their element at will. They would have absorbed enough of their elements energy to find it in anything. For some unlucky mages, this didn't happen. They would successfully absorb enough elemental energy to ascend the nine steps but they still couldn't summon their element. No one was sure why this happened, but the theory was that their energies weren't pure enough. The advanced stage was the variant stage; this was where a mages natural talent shined through, and they would gain the ability to extend their power to another aspect of their element. This could mean control over the weather or climate; bringing forth rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes, or even earthquakes. Some fire mages could vaporize the very air within an area, making it impossible to breathe, or heat up the environment until a person burnt. It could also mean communing with land, air, or sea animals. There were legends of some mages even developing a third element like lightning or lava. Lesser talented mages would simply gain stronger control of their element, or stronger damage. The grand-master stage simply meant a mage's power couldn't be measured in such simple terms anymore. At this point, the mage is at one with their element(s) and their power was limited only by their comprehension. Going from the awakening to initiation stage required, on average, three years, and every stage after that tripled the time required in the previous stage. The age of awakening was fifteen, so most mages would reach the initiation stage at eighteen, the intermediate stage at twenty-seven, the advanced stage at fifty-four, and the grand master stage at over a hundred and thirty-five years old. Some mages couldn't make it past the initiation stage, and most mages stagnated at the intermediate stage. An advanced mage would be considered elite. As for grandmaster mages, they were a thing of myth and legend. No one had seen one in recent memory.

Mages had to fight to repel beasts or clear out land to make it safe for farming and mining, and they rarely had time to collect their own mana stones, so an entire sub-economy based on the needs of mages sprang up. If you had enough capital or clout with the right people, you could purchase land and pay workers to dig up the ores for you. Mining anywhere without a land ownership certificate, or working under someone with one was forbidden. You couldn't even leave the continent without a permit.

Most mines were run under shady characters that took advantage of the poor and destitute for cheap labor. Once contracted to a mine, miners couldn't leave for fear of legal punishment, and the owners abused this law. Calrod was nothing like that. He paid fair wages and even gave bonuses to exceptional workers. Calrod was dead now. He died six months ago and the official story was a mugging gone wrong. Rae didn't believe it. Especially not after Calrod's nephew Obed - his only living relative - got control of the mine. He was looking way too happy for someone who just lost his last relative.

Obed stood to the side and watched while his contracted miners disappeared down the elevator shaft in groups. Unlike Calrod, Obed didn't mine with them. He appointed overseers instead. All he did was watch them leave and return. Under Obed's leadership, Calrod's mining company was being run into the ground. Theft, assault and general unsavory behavior ran unchecked. Obed turned the company into just another mining job; he took away basic pay and only paid in proportion to how much a miner brought back, and he paid far below market price. You couldn't buy and sell on the market as an individual, so most people had no choice but to accept his pittance. While the miners grew poorer, Obed multiplied his riches. It still wasn't enough. Now Obed decided to venture into an uncleared mine. Uncleared mines were areas that were low danger in comparison to the rest of the wilds, but they hadn't been formally cleared out by mages. On one hand, these mines hadn't been touched by anyone else so the quantity and quality of stones were above average, and permits to them sold for cheaper since the risk was higher. For a lot of people, the chance of running into mutated beasts or plants was too much and they chose the safer, less rewarding mines; mines that had been in families for generations, or mines that had been passed around. Not Obed though. The risk wasn't his to take, and he didn't care about his miners' lives.

Rae sighed and watched the line grow even shorter. She was going to die.