Warning: There's a lot of talk about torture, suicide, and graphic suicidal ideation in this chapter. If you'd prefer to skip it, scroll till the next section :)1

The young dwarf Maru stared blankly at the entrance to the mine. Through the thick iron bars, he could see the village where the dwarves had once lived in peace.0

Each day in the mine was spent scraping by, surviving on nothing but potatoes or sweet potatoes while struggling to meet the crushing workloads assigned to them. If even one dwarf failed to meet their quota, the Black Wizards would unleash their dark magic, inflicting unbearable suffering on the poor soul. Any attempt to rebel resulted not only in the death of the instigator but also in the execution of several young dwarves under the rule of collective punishment.0

"Will we really..." Maru murmured, trailing off before finishing the thought.0

Will we really be able to survive this?0

The older dwarves constantly told the younger ones to endure just a little longer. That their kin would come to rescue them. That their people hadn't forgotten them. So no matter how painful and degrading their captivity became, they had to hold on until help arrived.0

Maru had clung to those words and chosen to endure. He had endured the endless diet of potatoes and sweet potatoes. And when those ran out, he endured by chewing on unprocessed grains of wheat. Sometimes, he even had to take on the workloads of the elders, whose bodies had long...0