"It appears the little lamb believes himself to be a lion..."
The crimson haired prince smirked, smacking a frail-looking, young blonde boy with pale skin to the dirt. Unsheathing his sword, a beautifully crafted crimson blade with a black hilt, the prince raised the boy's chin with the tip of his sword so that his exhausted, violet eyes would meet the prince's scarlet eyes.
"Tell me slave, what is your name?"
Silence. There was nothing to hear but the crackling of fire around them. Nothing but the smell of burning flesh in the air. But the surrounding inferno was but a fleeting flame in comparison to the burning hatred growing in the boy's eyes.
"What a shame, I had hoped you'd roar for me. I don't know what I expected from a little lamb. After all, what use does a slave have fo—"
"Eros... That's my name."
"Ah, I see. So that was the name she was screaming? It was hard to tell what she was saying without her tongue."
"I'LL KILL Y—"
With little to no effort, the prince sticks his sword through Eros' chin, cutting his tongue out. The prince yawns while Eros clutches his mouth and chin, screaming in pain.
"A slave has no need for words. A slave must only obey. Therefore, a slave has no use for their tongue."
Blood still leaking out of his mouth and chin, Eros spat out his tongue so he wouldn't choke on it. As the prince laughs, Eros let out a bloodcurdling scream, grabbing a rusted sword off the ground and charged towards the prince. The prince smiles devilishly.
"Finally, the little lamb roars..."
*EARLIER THAT DAY*
Love is a powerful word.
Eros loves his family. He loves his people. He loves his home. Even if the world despises them. Even if they view them as monsters, he loves them regardless. They are his monsters, his kin, his fellow slaves. He would die for them. He would kill for them. He would do anything to see his own prosper.
His mother named him after the god of love from her favourite fairy tale. She was a joyous woman who loves to sing and dance, the polar opposite of his father. Eros and his younger twin sister, Elise, would fall asleep every night to the sound of their mother singing, drowning out the sounds of constant drilling outside their mining settlement.
"Good night, my sun. Good night, my moon." Their mother would say.
They were born in the boiling pits of Sunrock Settlement, a mining colony under the city, Solhaven. It is a city the size of a country with a huge crater in the middle of it, large enough to store the sun inside of its dark, deep crevices, never to shine light again. Its citizens carry on leisurely with their lives, oblivious to the torturous labour taking place beneath them, oblivious to the many lives lost so that they can fuss about not getting new clothes or having enough followers on their LivePulse accounts.
They have never known hardship, never known what it's like to work until their hands bleed knowing no one will help wrap their wounds, to go to sleep hungry knowing tomorrow will be no different, to start a family knowing your children may very well die before reaching their first year of life.
Their mother always told them that they were special because they were born during a solar eclipse which is why she calls them her sun and moon. Every day feels like a solar eclipse in their settlement. There's no sunlight at all, just overwhelming darkness and barely sufficient lighting.
Unlike them, they did not earn wages to buy the things they needed. Instead, they were generously provided with food supplements, pills that are barely sufficient enough to feed a young boy. Families must split the supplements and make it last a week until the next one descends, each portion smaller than the last. That is how they keep them weak, and that is how they keep them obedient.
Their faulty helmet flashlights are not efficient enough to stop miners from drilling into the wrong wall, causing lava to pour in and fill the tunnels. Eros lost his Uncle Gero and his two younger cousins, Kit and Korn, this way. His father and him were forced to close the giant metallic gate on them before the lava reached their settlement, permanently sealing off Tunnel 13 and the fates of their flesh and blood. They listened to their screams and cries while holding the gate shut until that too was drowned out by the roaring river of fire. The next morning, Aunt Hertha smothered her newborn baby and then slit her own throat. Elise and their mother cried for weeks, while their father just focused on work, completely detached from the reality of his own brother's death.
The cheaply made mining armour is not enough to protect them from Shadow Worms in time before they burrow their way through the skin to lay its eggs inside of the heart. The dead are not buried, they are taken to incinerators by the Astrean soldiers so that Shadow Worms do not possess the corpses and attack the rest of the herd.
Herd. That's all they are to them. And they themselves are the shepherds, promising that all of the pain and suffering will be worth it in the end once they extract all the astralytes from deep below the world's surface. The Astreans claim that these astralytes helped empower their military which allows them to protect everyone. Ero's people believe differently, they believe that these astralytes are minerals infused with the powers of their forgotten gods.
They believe that one day when all the astralytes are extracted, they will give birth to a god who will liberate them from this hell and lead them to the heavens. They believe every life lost and every soul that has suffered is worth it, fueling their saviour. "We do not suffer, we endure…" as they croak their last breaths. They named their saviour, "Sepheros."
"Yeah right." Elise snorted, stroking through her tangled blonde hair with a wooden comb she crafted herself. "It's only a myth. There are no gods. Only slaves and humans who believe themselves to be gods."
"But mother sings of the gods to us every night." Eros scratched his head. "Of how they used their powers to cultivate everything from the ground we stand on to the sea of stars we see in the night sky."
"You're so gullible Eros. Mother also sings of dragons on the moon and angels that can deceive and of a world beyond our own. It makes for a good rhyme, not reality."
Eros turned away, unable to hide how bright red from embarrassment his face had gotten. "Whatever, I believe mother!"
"Of course you'd believe her, you're her favourite after all..." Elise muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Eros, get your ass over here! Our shift starts in 10 minutes!" Eros' father screamed into their small little hut.
"I'm coming!" Eros screamed back, quickly putting on his mining armour with the help of Elise. "At least you're father's favourite. He didn't even care I mined over 100 astralytes last time."
"Father loves you in his own way." Elise kissed Eros on his cheek, giving him a soft smile. "Now be safe! And remember, if you see a Shadow Worm, RUN AWAY! I don't want to have to incinerate you too, my dumb older brother."
About 5 hours into their 14 hour shift, Eros' mining team found a weak wall to drill into in Tunnel 7 about 30 kilometers away from Sunrock Settlement. The team leader, Lucos, ordered them to drill into that wall. As Eros' father began to drill, Eros grabbed his arm.
"FATHER WAIT! I hear something from the other side!"
"What ar—" Eros was too late, the roaring river of fire began to slowly pour in through the tiny hole his father had drilled.
Even if we run now, that wall will hold for maybe 5 minutes before it's completely gone. Eros thought frantically. A 5 minute headstart won't matter when you have a raging river of lava in pursuit of you, we'd last maybe 30 seconds before it catches up to us, a minute if we're lucky. It was already a 5 hour walk here, we're dead. It'sover...
Most of the other miners had already started sprinting back frantically, not realizing it was pointless. Some of them drilled themselves through their skulls so they wouldn't have to endure what was coming next. A few of the others frantically searched their tool boxes. Do they have something that will help us in there? They pulled out bottles of alcohol they had likely bribed the soldiers for. Oh, I see. It's something that will help them... One man got down on his knees and started praying to his forgotten gods.
In the 10 years Eros had lived, he had never once sung with his mother. She always asked him to join her. "Singing is what connects us to the gods. Whether it's singing a beautiful melody or screaming to our heart's content, it symbolizes our love and pain. Our songs will travel through the stars, carrying the voice of our people."
As the raging inferno approached him, Eros couldn't help but think of one thing in his final moments. Mother. Elise. You'll finally hear me sing to my heart'scontent...