The mine had collapsed. She realized that, now.
It had started with a rumble only she had heard, far enough away for her guards—or as her father would put them, her 'chaperones'—to pay them no mind. By the time it had become loud enough for her guards to hear it, it was too late. It had been only seconds since then, but it was impossible to tell for sure in the abyss she wandered in. Utter darkness. Even when a pop or burst of Dust brought light, it was swallowed up by the cloud of dust that left her coughing and heaving. The rumble, once imperceptible, was now her entire world. She thought it was fading, but it could've just been wishful thinking.
There! Her stumbles and swings of her arm had finally left her hand impacting a rough, rocky wall. She clung to the wall as if it was her life. Yet only one step closer, she felt hers start to slip. Weakened from the dirty air, that step nearly brought her to her knees.
Something mumbled to her. Another cough wracked through her body as she looked around. More blackness. More flashes of color that only let her see herself. It came again: someone calling in the distance?
The crack of a rock beside her was just loud enough to pierce through the rumbling.
"Up here!" A young voice, perhaps that of a boy, was shouting to her. Another cough, this time from her helper, followed.
She forced herself to stand tall and look up, her hand clapped over her mouth. There, in another flash of light, she saw the silhouette of a hand reaching out. Her lone lifeline. Without complaint, she latched onto it and scrambled for purchase. Heels didn't help her climb, so she kicked them away. The rough and jagged mine walls bit at her other hand and foot, but with the other person helping her, it wasn't long before she was crawling up into what felt like a small tunnel barely three feet tall. Cramped was certainly an understatement.
But the air was cleaner, and that was all that mattered. After taking a few deep breaths and only coughing once, she noticed whoever helped her shuffling further away. Faint veins of Dust granted her sight as she followed behind, needing to crawl on her knees. Soon, they came to rest sitting against the walls of that cramped tunnel where the air was clean enough to breathe with ease and the constant rumbling had begun to fade in sound, though certainly not in the shaking she felt in her bones.
Only then did the girl bring herself to look over at the person her rescued her. The first thing that struck her was how young he was: it was indeed a boy, features lit just barely by a small, pale, Wind Dust crystal clutched in his hand. Brown hair lay messy and marked by dirt and dust, but she doubted hers looked any different. Probably worse, considering hers was white.
Emerald-green eyes stared back at her.
"No 'thank you'?" the boy asked.
She blinked. "Apologies. I am still catching my breath. Forgive my lack of manners: thank you for helping me. My name is—"
"Winter Schnee, right?" the boy finished. He leaned forward, squinting. "Aren't you a little young to be down here?"
Winter turned her nose up at how forward this child was. Thirteen certainly was not young. "I could be asking you the same."
"Yeah, but I work here, so I..." The boy hummed to himself. "I guess that's more reason not to be rude, then. Right?"
He offered his hand.
"My name's Adam. Adam Minier."
Altebrucke
Old Bridge
The roar of an electric guitar shook Adam Minier from his sleep. With a groan, the young boy swung over and blearily slapped around the radio to turn it off. Top of the line—for Mantle, anyway—and a present from his dad for his tenth birthday. A present he quite cherished, even if he wanted to smash the thing every time it woke him up at four in the morning.
Dragging himself from his bed, he wiped at his eye and flicked the dim, bare bulb on. As a faunus, it was all he needed, anyway. His tenth birthday had brought him a 'gift' from the SDC, as well: a job. A little over eleven now, he still wasn't yet old enough to start full mining work, but he was small enough to fit into some of the more cramped tunnels, shoving around carts full of expensive Dust crystals he could pull free by hand. He still hadn't gotten used to the hours of work, though.
Their house was cramped like those tunnels, just tall enough so that his father only needed to hunch over a little. A bedroom that doubled as a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and the oversized closet known as his room. According to his dad, it used to be smaller.
But, such a small house meant that things traveled quickly, and the scent of breakfast was one of them. Brushing back his loose mop of brown hair—he didn't care much about it, why bother when the mines got it messed up—Adam slipped out of his room and zipped over to the bathroom.
He heard his father laughing in the next room. "See, Bloom? I told you it'd wake him up," he said.
When Adam had come back out, he huffed at his dad sitting back at the table with a mug of coffee in his hand. Adam's eyes were drawn to the plates set out, stacked up with eggs, bacon and sausage. That was unusual. In fact, as he looked over his dad, something was off about him too. He was already dressed up: the cream-colored shirt and dark-blue coat he wore was almost pristine. Adam saw that when he was going to meetings or speaking with overseers, not on some normal day.
His father noticed him staring. "Don't worry: I was about as surprised as you were." He laughed again. The two were polar opposites: Adam didn't care much for his short hair, but his father had a full mane of the same color that he took pride in, despite how messy it could get in the mine. He was still thin and short, but only one person stood taller than his positively gigantic father, and that was Vizesteiger Almond. His horns were stubs, his father's were large enough to need holes cut in his helmet for.
Ironically, they shared the same name. His father just went by Minier Senior—or just Minier—more often than not. 'Adam Junior', however, preferred his first name.
"Special orders from the Vizesteiger: he's to look his best!" his mother, Bloom, said with a smile as she set out her own plate. "He even managed to get us some extra groceries for the best breakfast we can make." She was the one he got his vibrant eyes from.
"Just him?" Adam asked.
Minier clapped a hand on his shoulder. "That's right! I forgot to tell you the good news: you and your mother get the day off! Why, they're even making it paid!"
His shoulders slumped. "So you're saying I woke up for nothing?"
"Do you consider this breakfast nothing?" His father said with a grin. When Adam sighed, he chuckled and pat his shoulder again. "Aah, don't look like that! Remember: chest out, head held high. By my estimate, we should be out of here and on the first boat to Vale in three years, tops! Just in time for you to join one of those combat academies you love talking about."
"... Point." Adam zipped over to his seat, unable to keep his eyes off of the biggest breakfast for any longer. As he scarfed it down, the conversation on exactly what was going on faded to the back of his mind. His mother wondered if it was some kind of promotion for Almond. Adam doubted it: he didn't need to be an expert on the mines to know that even though Vizesteiger Almond was second only to the steiger, ruler of their entire section of the mine, Almond was just a glorified messenger.
And he didn't need to be an expert on Mantle to know that the reason why was just as easy to see as the little horns on his head.
About two hours of napping and six songs into being awake, Adam found himself tapping his foot against the metal frame of his bed. Each flip of the page of his book was punctuated by his gaze flicking to the frosted window. He could hear laughter outside from some of the other kids playing outside the house in the early morning, but couldn't see them: his room didn't have much of a view. Snow, ice and a lift's entrance. The latter might've been interesting just to see people go in and out of if it hadn't been broken for as long as he could remember.
He was getting bored. Worse, he was getting curious. What was so big that all of the guys got to gather up in the mines, but not so important that everyone was brought there? Why was it in the mines in the first place? He was old enough: why wasn't he invited! Adam groaned and snapped his book shut. He was going to run himself ragged thinking about this.
It was when he'd turned to set it aside that he saw movement near the lift. He blinked once. Twice. Something shifted. Furrowing his brow, he rubbed at the window until he could see more clearly through it. He couldn't make out any facial features, but he could definitely make out three or four people in white uniforms he'd never seen before getting in. Someone looked in his direction, and instinct drove Adam to lean back.
The next time he'd looked back out, the lift was empty. No. More than empty: the lift was gone! It'd been working this entire time? Or did these people just get it working, just like that? After this many years, it was bound to be frozen...
Adam shifted his jaw. He was way more than curious, now.
He didn't take his eyes off of the lift as he reached for his coat. It was black. He'd stick out like a sore thumb in the snow if he tried to sneak out.
"Hey, Mom? I think I'm going to go play outside for a little..." A white lie wouldn't hurt. All he wanted was a peek...
'A peek' lasted him all the way until he peered into the lift to find nothing there. Just a vast, dark pit. The cold had already started sinking in through his coat, but he didn't care. Something scratched at the back of his mind. Something was wrong. He looked back at his house, then lowered himself to the edge. He could see a rusty service ladder: from there, he could get into the tunnels. He knew Altebrucke like the back of his hand. Every nook and cranny he was forced to climb through...
"Welcome to Altebrucke, Miss Schnee!" The 'steigers'—leaders of this mine—practically fell over themselves bowing as she approached with her guards at her sides. Winter thought they couldn't possibly stand out more: the stark whites of her guards' uniforms all but shined against the claustrophobic, dark walls, and her own pale-blues and whites managed to fit even less. But, such were appearances.
"I thank you for the opportunity to visit." Despite the numerous thinly-veiled demands she needed to make to do so to her father. She offered a pleasant smile and a simple curtsy nonetheless. "I believe it is my duty as heiress to understand the workings of the Schnee Dust Company. Please, show me."
"Of course. I am Henry Steel, and I would be glad to show you around." The thin man with graying hair in a coat one size too small took the lead, cane clacking against the ground with each step. At his side was his gargantuan, steely-gazed partner who loomed over even her own guards. A red bandana was tied over his mouth. She couldn't help but wonder why, but she had more than enough manners not to ask.
The thin steiger and his vizesteiger led her deeper through the mine. Her eyes traveled across the well-dressed men—mostly faunus—striking away at the walls, lit only by small, dim lights from blue Dust crystals. Energy: Fire Dust could set something off. The sounds of their footsteps were soon lost in the cracking of stone, calling of orders and the occasional chuckle or laugh. Winter had wanted to see what these mines were like. What was so 'controversial' about them that it led even the peaceful White Fang to label her family as foes. What was behind the pretty curtain her father insisted she not worry about.
Right now, she couldn't understand why. As the steiger led them to step aside for an automated cart that brought Dust back the way they came, all she could see was a job like any other... at least, at first. Perhaps the dim lights and dirty grounds were not the best environments, and the dust-clogged air left her needing to clear her throat more than once, but things seemed normal.
But by the time Steiger Steel had begun speaking of numbers, it was the absences that Winter noticed. The cart moving to and fro was pristine. Seldom used. There was too much space between miners: photos and the very statistics he spoke of showed that there would have been enough for twice as many people. The stains of soot and dirt had only just begun to gather on the miners, the rest of their clothes clean. The clothes were new. Tunnels too small for even a man on his hands and knees to comfortably fit in stood empty.
Only the human miners—their strikes clumsier and showing a lack of experience—ever looked back to nod or smile. The smiles were strained.
She kept her poise, but within, she seethed. This was the reason why he agreed to let her look upon the inner workings of the mine: he'd set everything up beforehand and let her see only what he wanted.
The steiger led them into a lift, and it slowly descended. The air grew frigid, and she could feel a charge running through the air: the Dust vein was plentiful. With Winter in the back and no eyes upon her, she stood a little straighter and brought her aura to life. Weak and awakened without her father's knowledge nor his permission, it was enough to keep her warm.
"Deeper is where the vast majority of our profits are made: Electric and Gravity Dust lay scattered, but plentiful. If one came here with no knowledge of its rarity, you might think it just as common as mere ice and fire!" the steiger explained.
"Quite interesting." She tried to keep the boredom from her tone: it was something she knew of. She could do research, too. "Is there a quieter place that we can speak? Something has caught my eye."
Steiger Steel stood rigid, eyes darting to the gargantuan man beside him. The vizesteiger—who only now she recalled never hearing his name—stared back and crossed his arms. An unspoken conversation started and ended in the blink of an eye as, with a false grin that fooled no one in that lift, Steel turned to her and bowed.
"Of course, ma'am."
The tunnels were where Adam was home. He'd only been working for a few months, but he could show even experienced miners through Altebrucke. In part, this was born from his constant study of the maps: ventilation shafts, minor tunnels, connecting 'bridges' both large and small between shafts, everything. The other was that the humans didn't know every nook and cranny.
It was easier to hide from whip-wielding steigers and furious foremen if they hadn't the slightest clue where you were.
Adam shivered, glad for his coat as he crawled his way through a connecting tunnel. From the lift to ventilation, from ventilation to Shaft 3F, down two connectors. He'd escaped the watchful eye of many a human to get back to his usual workplace before. Now, he passed it. The rhythm of picks and clattering crystal was constant and familiar: what was the big deal, then?
It was only when squirming through a vent that he'd outgrow by the year's end that he heard something unusual: Steiger Steel. He was pretty far off the beaten path.
"I understand that you may have your beliefs from the outside, but I can assure you that nothing of the sort happens here, Miss Schnee!"
Schnee? Curiosity driving him ever further, he slipped into one of his least favorite kinds of tunnels: sure, it was actually spacious for him, but high off of the ground and slanted down. A good source of black gravity and white wind Dust, too. If only that stopped him from falling out a few times.
"The presence of picks much too small to be wielded by fully-grown men say otherwise," a girl's voice, young yet cold as ice, said. That must've been Miss Schnee.
A sigh of exasperation. "Winter, your father gave explicit instructions—"
"When I personally requested you show me the inner workings of this mine, Henry, I believe my exact words were 'without obfuscation'."
Adam crouched down and was glad that humans weren't as good at seeing in dim light. Steel's back was turned to him, but he could get a good look at the source of all of this panic and sudden good will.
Even if he hadn't known who she was, her importance was clear from just how much she stood out: ice-blue in both blouse and skirt, broken up by only a vest the same color as ocean waves. This 'Winter Schnee' looked barely older than him, but she certainly had a presence to her. At least, considering how the steiger was shaking.
"Make no mistake, Steel," Winter growled, "I did not come here with the intent to judge, but the intent to learn. Or should I find a new steiger who can? Perhaps..." Her gaze shifted onto Almond.
"Edward Almond." Adam didn't need to see Almond's mouth to know he was smiling at the steiger's distress.
"Yes, Steiger Almond has a good ring to it." Winter turned back to continue tearing into the steiger when Adam noticed something: the faintest vibration, like a hum he felt only from his closeness to the walls. There was a quiet rumble that grew louder and louder. He couldn't make out what it was, but he could see one of the Schnee's guards nudge the other and check their watch. Almond turned his head up, and for the first time in Adam's life, he saw panic in the giant's eyes.
Then came a blast that left Adam squeezing his eyes shut and clinging on to the walls for dear life. The mere rumbling had become a constant screech and crashing of earth and elements. It felt like the entire world was breaking apart: hot, dusty air blew upwards into his tunnel, and when he peeked an eye open, all he could see ahead was smoke and dust. Even when the shaking faded enough for him to afford to let go of the rough surface of the tunnel, it didn't stop the roar of the earth from being almost deafening.
Whimpering, he scrambled for the exit. It was a miracle that he'd heard someone not too far from him. Adam's eyes turned to the exit, then to the dark cloud below. No... no, it wouldn't be right to leave while someone else was in danger, right?
He swallowed down his fears. Chest out, head high. Chest out, head high...
Adam turned back.
Adam held his hand out for a couple seconds before realizing the Schnee wasn't going to take it.
"We do not have the time to sit here and waste it," Winter said urgently. "There was a catastrophic explosion that has left this mine unstable."
Wow. Okay. Adam didn't know exactly what had just happened, but now he wasn't going to let her know that.
He turned his nose up, copying her. "I knew that," he lied. "Follow me: if there's anyone who'll have control of this, it's my dad." Adam turned away and, with more speed than he needed to use, started climbing up the tunnels, leaving the heiress to the SDC scrambling to follow. He was petty. Sue him.
Winter raised an eyebrow and held back what would have been an unladylike grunt as her bare knees scraped against the rock and crystal. She was fortunate for her aura.
"You are the son of the steiger?" she asked, and crinkled her nose at the boy ahead laughing.
"No, but the next best thing."
"... The vizesteiger, then?"
His continued laughter didn't help her mood in the least.
The good news was that the rumbling had stopped by the time they'd gotten to the connector to Shaft 3F. The bad news was that it had partially collapsed, the already-cramped tunnel full halfway with earth. Impassable. Winter only knew because Adam had told her: it was pitch-black in these tunnels now. Most of the lights had been taken out entirely.
"We'll need to take a detour: how good are you at climbing rocks?" Adam asked.
At the thought of her hands needing to take any more punishment than they already had, Winter groaned. "No, absolutely not. Move!" She pushed her way past him, despite his protests.
"You've got a really bad temper, you know that, lady?" Adam grumbled. He could at least find humor in her glare being aimed at the completely wrong place. He watched her blindly pat around the earthen walls for something before her hand reached a crystal. With a grunt, she pulled it free. With it so dark, even his night vision couldn't catch the colors.
"Gravity Dust," Winter explained, as if sensing Adam's lack of understanding. "My aura is fully unlocked, which should let me us this to its fullest extent, impure or not."
"You're, what? Twelve? Thirteen? Why's your aura unlocked if you're just some heiress?"
Winter scoffed as she made her way to the rubble. "Well, that is a foolish question. You are even younger than I am: why is your aura unlocked?"
"Uh, it's not?" Adam said. "I'd get in a lot of trouble if it was."
"Well, you were lighting up that Wind Dust crystal rather nicely," Winter said with a roll of her eyes. She decided to hold onto questioning why him having aura would be so problematic.
"Oh, that! My dad's said that it's just starting to do that on it's own from working so much: it's a sign of having a lot of it, I guess. Not enough to protect me, but I can force it out to activate Dust, at least." Adam watched her push the crystal into the rubble and retrieve another to do the same. "So, are you actually gonna explain what you're doing?"
"Actually using this Dust." She placed a hand on the earth, and with a thrum of energy... nothing happened.
Adam had just opened his mouth to speak when Winter crawled forward and tossed back an armful of dirt as if it were just weightless dust.
Staring in shock and awe, by the time he had thought to move up and help, Winter had already tossed most of it aside. She looked back.
"Are you going to keep gawking or follow me?" she challenged with no small amount of pride in her voice.
Adam didn't think to call her out on the fact that she couldn't even see him. Cheeks burning with embarrassment at being caught, he scoffed and looked away. "I-I'm the one who knows how to get out of here."
"Then you can tell me where to go." With a sickly-sweet smile, she moved ahead.
Adam followed behind, grumbling under his breath: last time he checked, he was supposed to be the savior here! He had half a mind to lead her the wrong way, but the situation was too dire for that. When the tunnel widened up enough, he took the lead once more, leading them through the labyrinth that was Altebrucke and making quite an effort to avoid any paths to ventilation ducts taking Dust-clogged air up.
The main shaft wasn't that much better than the one they had escaped, and the way down was a passage a fair distance up, one made thinner by rubble. Easy enough for him to squeeze through, anyway. Adam dropped down first, the crystal in his hand shining, yet already turning dim with the amount of energy he was clumsily using just making a bubble of comfortably breathable air.
Winter had a little more trouble wriggling through the space, able to get halfway out. And only that. Growling, Winter swallowed her pride and glared down at the younger boy, who was already looking around for other people. Her patience had long since run thin.
"Are you not going to help me?"
Adam looked back, surprised. "Did you really get stuck?"
The girl's cheeks burned red. "That does not matter! Just assist me, you fool!"
With a melodramatic sigh, Adam turned back to the wall, braced his foot and raised his hand up. "You're very bossy."
Winter snatched his hand, and Adam pretended her icy glare didn't scare him. "And you are very obnoxious."
Adam huffed, but left it at that... at least, until Winter was almost fully pulled free, just enough to where she still needed his support. "You know, I could just drop you."
Winter froze. "You wouldn't dare," she hissed.
Sure, he had absolutely no intention of doing so, but Winter didn't know that, now did she? So Adam smiled, nodded, and loosened his grip.
His smile became a lot more strained when he remembered that an active aura was supposed to make you stronger, just as her formerly dainty grip on his hand became crushing. He helped her down without complaint and, when she walked away, finally let himself wince and grab his aching hand.
The dome of swirling air Adam created left little for them to see beyond a few feet ahead before it was swallowed up by dust again. At the very least, the lights hanging along the walls let them see one another. They could hear voices echoing from up ahead: loud and numerous enough for no one word to stick out. It was chaos.
"Is it common for children to work down here?" Winter asked with faint suspicion as they made their way through, Adam beside her.
"There's a few of us, at least," Adam admitted with a shrug. "I'm just one of the newer ones."
She pursed her lips. "That explains much of what the steiger was hiding. Are you at least treated well?"
He laughed. "Yeah, no. Twelve hours of crawling around, pushing carts and getting yelled at. Or whipped. My coat's thick for more than one reason. All for a twenty lien card at the end of the day."
Winter was quiet for a moment and looked the boy over. He was wearing sturdy clothes, yes, but nothing she would ever consider to be thick. All black, as well. She understood that, at least: harder for all of this dirt and grime to show. She shuddered to think of what she may look like, now.
"I expected better from him," she mumbled under her breath.
Adam looked back over his shoulder to respond when he suddenly stood upright. "Someone's coming."
Bursting forth through the dust was a tall man with thinning, gray hair: Steiger Steel. His small coat of fittingly-steel-grays was torn and dirtied, and with the dust over his face, he could've been mistaken for any other miner. His eyes were wide and animalistic, mouth pulled back in a scowl deep enough to show his gums.
While Adam stepped back, Winter only balled her fists in the face of such anger. She kept her head held high, no matter what appearance she had right now. She was used to seeing that expression.
"Steiger Steel, it is good to see that you made it out safe—"
"Quiet."
She was used to his expression, but the sheer hatred behind his voice left Winter taken aback. It was only then that she began to notice differences between him and her father that all put her on guard: there was nothing restrained in his stance, no panting in fury. Just a stillness that carried with it an intent she couldn't put her finger on. Her aura warned her, but she wasn't experienced enough to understand it.
All she knew was that they were in danger.
