Shadow Slave: The Sound of Glass

"I repeat! Your service in these mines is over! Drop your pickaxes and equip your memories! There is no room for negotiation—this is the will of Ki Song!"

Waynie had no idea if invoking Ki Song's name without permission would get him into trouble, but the matriarch didn't need to find out.

He shouted a third time, louder, making sure everyone in the cavern heard him. "Citizens of Ki Song! You have been drafted. It is your glorious honor to serve in the Song army. Obey—or be terminated!"

His fingers crackled as glass shrapnel surged beneath his skin. The four miners hesitated only for a moment before dropping their pickaxes and stepping into formation. Nobody argued. Nobody ran. They had seen enough to understand they were dealing with a master.

Waynie couldn't tell friend from foe in the dimly lit mine, but he remembered where the guards had been when he entered. The melody of the tears whispered to him, revealing the positions of nearby Awakened. Some were approaching.

He pointed deeper into the tunnels and barked an order at the four miners. "Go. Tell the others—they've been drafted too."

The group scurried off, leaving only Florian, the young man who had led him here.

"I sent them away because something dangerous is about to happen. You should leave too," Waynie muttered, shooing Florian aside.

He stood alone in the cavern, veins of gold and bronze glinting in the lantern light. Four abandoned pickaxes lay at his feet.

The guards were close now. He could hear them, voices echoing through the tunnels, arguing over which direction to take. If they didn't come to him, that would be a problem.

Waynie plucked a tear from his left arm and smashed it against a rock. The sound of shattering glass rang out. A moment later, three masters stormed into the chamber.

"Finally," Waynie sighed, relieved.

"You there!" one of the masters barked. "Why are you not working?"

Waynie didn't answer. He simply raised his hands and walked past them toward the exit.

"There is nowhere for you to dodge."

He opened his palms. A storm of glass rained down on the three men, slicing their skin, peeling it away in countless shimmering cuts. One of them tried to retreat, but there was no exit. The assault continued for half a minute before Waynie finally exhaled, exhausted. The three masters lay dead.

"Crazy. So violent."

Waynie turned at the voice. Florian stood at the entrance to the deeper tunnels, watching. He hadn't left.

As if to punctuate Florian's words, the entire mine rumbled, a deep tremor shaking the ground. Then—silence.

Waynie shrugged. "Talk time was over."

Why did people expect him to negotiate with everyone? He was a reasonable person. Wasn't he?

Outside the chamber, two more Awakened guards stood watch. Waynie didn't feel like talking to them either.

The first fell with a glass shard buried in his forehead.

The second had one lodged in her throat, another through her ear. No chance of survival.

More people had gathered now, spilling from deeper within the mine.

Some were hiding in the shadows. But some guards also had stripped their shirts, trying to blend with the miners. But the largest group stood in the main hall, staring at Waynie. No one dared to speak.

Waynie repeated himself. "Your time as miners is over! All of you have been drafted to fight for Ki Song. There is no room for negotiation. As a citizen of this part of the Dream Realm you are obligated to do your service. I know it is tough for you but there is no choice! If you object or desert, you will die!"

Most fell into formation. Some wandered in confusion.

One of them was Florian.

Waynie grabbed him by the collar and shoved him toward the obedient ones. "Don't make me angry."

"But you said you'd give me gold…" Florian protested.

"Quiet! Get in line, or I'll kill you!"

That shut them up. Even the hiding guards stepped into formation, sensing it was safer to obey than resist.

Waynie surveyed his new makeshift army—sixty people. He scoffed. They were too weak to fight their way out.

"Quiet! I will kill you!" The tough words had an effect. Nobody really wanted to be on his bad side and even the guards that had robbed their shirts off were now standing in file. Waynie didn't bother to call them out since they were already cooperating. "All right." There were around sixty people. Waynie tried to assess their combat strength and determined that it was invalid, too weak to help escape from the bunker. "You guys stand here and wait for instructions. I'll clear out the hostiles."

"Sir."

`?`. A voice.

Waynie turned. "What?"

"Sir, what hostiles?" Florian asked.

Waynie clenched his jaw. The brat had just called him out in front of everyone.

Waynie internally cursed the young boy. Why did he have to call him out like that in front of all these people. "I don't think it's right how people are treated here. I only took a loan for 16 shards, and they said it's 22. Am I not in the right to murder them?"

Nobody dared to disagree with Waynie on this. His face had turned into something very threatening.

Waynie went up to the third level. But alas on the staircase two more masters were waiting. "You can't pass through here."

On the tight staircase, they had no means to escape when another salve of shrapnel hit them. One went down but the other managed to get a couple steps back. Waynie used 'Fogthorn' to lop off his knee cap. The Master fell down the stairs and directly into Sunny's arms and crushed one of Sunnys tears with his fingers. "Oh no, you didn't just do that."

There was no hope of escape. Another dagger penetrated the Masters skull. Then Waynie was on the third floor, his cloth bloody and with some of his tears missing, he stared at the poker gamblers with a grim face. Florian was behind him.

"They are all insiders. They work for the Shaking Fist clan."

"Is that so?"

Florians interjection caused fire in Waynie's eyes. Did these people just fool him the entire time into thinking he was playing a fair game? What an unbelievable trickery.

When the gamblers saw Waynie's bloodshot eyes and his bloody clothes, one appealed to him. "Sir, yes, it's true that we are working for Shaking Fist, but the only reason is that we had to deal with our own debts. This was the only way out. You must understand!"

Waynie growled at the man like a wild animal. Then he caught his nerves again. "All right. It doesn't matter. Y'all serve Song from now on. And give me all your shards."

Faced against overwhelming power, the men accepted the robbery and The gamblers had no choice. Some miners dragged them back to the formation that was now growing on the third level.

Waynie tried to approach the next level but there was a sudden 'zzup' and the door slammed down, tight like a submarine lock closed shut. They were trapped. 'What the hell'. Behind a little round glass window in the door a face became visible. It was the guy with the cap who had helped him on the first and second floor. He just stretched his hands and made a shrug with a smug grin on his face. As if he could do nothing about the door.

Waynie banged against the glass. "Open it, dammit!"

Then he summoned a glass shard and started to penetrate the window with it. But to no avail, the strong material wouldn't budge.

"You think you're very smart, yeah?" Waynie screamed through the window.

The capped mans eyes were wandering around as he was looking through the glass window and then he shrugged again. Still a smug smile on his face.

Florian walked up to Waynie. "Sir commander sir, does that mean your revolt has failed."

Waynie's eye was twitching. He was in fight or flight mode. And as it stood, he was all out of flight. At this point, he didn't like to be bothered by the young Awakened.

"Open the damn door, or I will kill you!" Waynie banged aggressively against the door then he turned to Florian. "You! You're second in command now. Get these Awakened to open the door." Waynie pointed at the little army that had formed a little century behind him. "One of them must have some ability to get through the door."

Florian nodded and rallied the others.

Then, the door opened anyway.

"Back." He addressed the Awakened that Waynie had gathered together. "Is this some kind of rebellion?" Behind the bald man, the Awakened with the cap appeared and leaned against the door.

The Awakened miners recoiled, gathering behind Waynie.

"You take this guy." The bald man pointed at Florian, who had appeared behind Waynie. The Awakened with the cap nodded.

Waynie roared and pointed at the capped Awakened. "If this guy attacks any of you, ALL OF YOU attack him!" Waynie turned around and faced the bald-headed man. "The baldie is mine."

"Oi." The bald man was angry now. "That is not nice to say."

"Shut up. In my mind it is your only trait."

"Then let me educate you."

A whip appeared in the bald mans hands. Then he lashed at Waynie. A lightning strike flashed through the rope and exploded on the tears of Waynie's left arm. The glass shards exploded, many of them inside Waynie's body.

The bald man stepped forward. "Your flaw is obvious. It's the shards."

Waynie shook the glass shrapnel off his left arm. The tears on his right arm resonated with the glittering mess of glass in the air and a snake slithered off of the bald mans arm.

The bald man gestured towards the snake. "What are you doing? Come back!"

The next second, Waynie pulverized the snake with more Glass shrapnel.

"The legacy artifact!", the capped Awakened snorted, horrified.

[You have killed an Awakened Beast.]

[You have received a memory. The 'Hollow Haven of Farraday'.]

Waynie had no time to check what the memory did. Instead he decided to just summon it.

The memory activated from his hand and then steel rods started to form around himself and the bald man. Both of them were now trapped in a large faradaic cage. Its steel rods were too tightly packed next to each other for either him or the bald man to get out.

Waynie blasted two salves of glass shrapnel at him. But in difference to all the other opponents, he had fought so far, the bald man did not get stunned and instead rushed forward and bit into Waynies right arm. Countless glass shards exploded and only two were left under Waynie's right elbow.

"Almost got you." The bald man rushed closer towards him. He still believed that Waynie's tears were the way to kill him. "You're out soul essence from summoning that shrapnel."

Waynie summoned the 'Phantom Grasp' into his left. The bald man was kneeling and biting into his right hand. Arms stretched forward to smash the last two glass tears. The bald man pushed.

"Not quite, I always keep enough to finish off somebody." Waynie swung his sword. There was a push. The last two tears shattered. The sword shifted through the bald mans back and neck. There was just no way to defend. And because the bald man was biting, his only option to dodge was spent. With the head split off, the bald man's body fell to the ground.

But there was no time to enjoy the victory. Tears swelled up in Waynie's eyes.

He sight exasperated helplessly. His arm was broken. The bone had cracked.

'Shit, I'm screwed'.

[The 'Hollow Haven of Farraday' has been destroyed.]