As the end of the alley neared in sight, the child was alarmed by a clamoring noise that seemed but a short distance away. Many thoughts raced through his mind, yet few courses of action could be taken.
The boy did not scramble to escape, instead holding his ground as he gambled that they were not coming his way.
With the city still under lockdown, he ruled out the smugglers coming through this way this early in the day. And he considered the fact that the entrance to the alley was disguised to look like a regular wall, blending with its surroundings. He had observed its opening before and memorized the incantation used. Having not heard it spoken, he was sure that the approaching stomps were not the hymn of his doom.
The child crept forward, careful not to make a noise as he approached the false wall. He found tiny cracks by the rays of light that seeped through them, and he peered out inspecting the group that blocked his path.
They numbered four in total, rough and unruly men with more dirt on their heads than hair. They gripped their wooden clubs and encroached from both sides with menacing intent. The moment the child glimpsed the girl that stood in their midst, it became clear to him that he was not their intended target. She lingered with no sense of worry, with the smell of roses she radiated drowning the stench of her assailants.
The girl looked so out of place with her high boots white and unmuddied and her face clear without a blemish. A pointy hat sat on her head, rivaling it in length, and from it hung a little fur ball that jiggled in the breeze.
She wore a purple dress that raced her blonde hair downwards, both stopping just short of her knees. On its back sewn in glittery gold was the sigil of a candle flipped on its head.
The boy glanced all around, hoping to find a way to slip past unnoticed should a chance present itself. He knew that the alley opened to a dead-end on his left, so no route of escape was open save for the one on the right. That is when he noticed a sixth figure hiding further back, its features obscured from him by a scarf and nature by a loose fitting robe.
The child recognized the way the scarf was wrapped around its head. It reminded him of a man he once saw riding atop a giant crowned bird whose wings were unfeathered, guiding people through the land.
He strained his eyes to take a closer look, noticing it was somewhat different than he remembered, and the figure suddenly looked his way. The child nearly fell on his butt as he quickly moved away from the wall, in his panic he hesitated to even take a breath.
After a long moment had passed with nothing happening, he questioned what he saw and rejected the notion that he had been discovered. Again he approached the gate, and his eyes circled around the four, carefully scanning their faces. When he found that they bore no resemblance to any he knew, he breathed a sigh of relief.
That relief stemmed from the fact that, in order to survive in this hellish place, the boy was forced to familiarize himself with his surroundings. He knew every nook and cranny like the back of his hand. For powerless, he had no recourse to confrontation but flight.
He lived his life in isolation, sleeping in ditches covered by leaves in the summer and on rooftops in the winter, never in the same place twice, and for a few hours at most. Still, he strove to know the people around him, should he ever interact with them. Every time he ran into someone he deemed dangerous, he made sure to carve their face into memory.
Gradually, his eyes became trained to recognize those who were either willing or able to do him harm.
The child was small and weak, even by the lowest of standards, so the ones who fit that description were many. The task of keeping up with hundreds, if not thousands soon proved strenuous, prompting him to think of a better way.
In a place devoid of law where the use of violence was seldom pondered beforehand. A misplaced glance, an absent minded remark, or a sleight of hand exposed was all it took for a man to spill the blood of another.
He filtered out those who would perish like so, and soon the pecking order that was in place unraveled. He held no interest in people's names, without one of his own it meant little to him. Instead, he used numbers, the lower the number the more dangerous and cruel the individual.
This had the effect of both trivializing them in his mind and providing a frame of reference that helped him better weigh his options and overcome his fear of confrontation.
Sixty-four, that was the number he reached so far. In a list he took to calling "The list of eschew", avoiding its members like the plague.
As for the rest, the many masses who would vanish out of mind as quickly as they did out of sight, he referenced by their traits.
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With his preferred tactic of flight no longer an option as the child had no hope of outrunning a pursuit, he had little choice but to wait for this matter to settle.
He shifted his weight off his wounded foot, finding a more comfortable, or at least less painful, position to wait in.
The four men did not seem like much to him. Indeed Vagren had no shortage of such vagrants who were up to no good. He took notice of their varying sizes and decided to call them Small, Medium, Big, and Bigger.
Next was the guide; still with lingering doubts about what happened earlier the child decided to err on the side of caution.
'Sixty-five, for now at least...'
Then he turned his full attention to the girl, as something about the way she stood tall and confident despite the gravity of the situation vexed him. Whether that is naivety or courage, the boy did not need to speculate, for he will soon find out.
"So, this is her?" Said Bigger as he swirled his tongue around in a menacing grin, revealing a row of crooked teeth that belonged on a decaying corpse. "You people weren't lying, she does look a rich cunt."
The guide simply nodded in response, and Bigger turned to the girl as he relaxed his grip on his club and scratched his protruding underbelly with his left hand.
"Now then young lady. I hear you have been traveling for a long way, you must be so tired by now. But not to worry, I will let you rest with us for a while, so you can your breath."
"I really shouldn't mister. My ma and da are expecting me soon, they are gonna miss me dearly."
The child raised a brow at the monotony of her delivery, and started to wonder if she was truly dull. Still, though heavy of heart he held no foolish notions nor did he feel a sudden burst of courage. He had one priority and no other, and knew certain death was his should he be discovered.
"Oh dear! Then we should let them know where you're staying, shouldn't we?" replied Bigger, "I shall send a courier at once. Tell me, where should we send it to?"
"Um-I come from" The girl hesitated for a moment before answering " From Psilos, in the Aternos league."
"Oh my! That is a long way from here, and we are poor folk with no means to pay. Would your father be able to foot that bill?"
"Oh yes, he would!" Nodded the girl, "My da is the count, he has lots and lots of money."
"Wow," Big whistled, sweeping his eyes over the girl from head to toe, "About time we saw some big action. I already know what I am gonna do with my share."
"What else but whores and drinks?" mocked Small, "Ever since the sack of Verila you became obsessed with the two."
"You say that as if you didn't partake that night," Big remarked slyly. "I saw you dragging that little boy by the feet into a dark alley. Even so, this time is different."
The child's stomach churned from what he heard, and now he had a reason to remember a new face. They were deserters, he concluded, no doubt have been here for some time since they weren't brandishing blades.
They must have stashed their weapons somewhere. Sharp edges are the rarest commodity in Vagren, and few dare to walk around with them in public, fearing the target it puts on their backs.
"All of us did, well, save for a certain idiot," Small replied as he glared at Medium. "So tell me, how will it be different?"
"Well, I'm saving for a visit to the Bordello once the city reopens. I'm sick of the women here, if you could even call them that."
"You think someone like you can set foot inside the Bordello?" Small snickered, "Take my advice and stick with Marha and her harlots, what's wrong with them?"
"Screw Marha and her whores. Bald skanks the lot! Why, the last one almost looked like you. Hahahaha!"
The child, still fixated on Small's face, saw it turn orange and then red as he grimaced in a struggle. And before long, he burst into a wheezing laughter that sent snot and spit flying out all over the place.
"What, what's so funny?"
"It's funny because," Laughed Small as he wiped his face into his elbow, "It was me!" He said more, but the rest of his words were incomprehensible as the chuckles shook his thin frame.
"What do you —" Big stumbled words for a moment, confusion clear on his face before the realization set in and he grabbed Small by the collar, shaking him like a wet rug. "You bastard! What do you mean it was you?"
"What do you want me to say? You were blind drunk that night, so I took the whore's place and got your money," Shrugged Small, "I wanted to try a threesome for once, so I used your money to do that and got me two girls."
"You wretch! Is that why I had bite marks all over my co—"
"You two! Stop messing around and grab her! " Bigger barked an order in frustration as he rushed to break them apart, and Medium was the one to follow it.
"Those two crass idiots, the foul things they say in front of a lady." Medium spoke with a stutter and kept shaking his head to the right as he approached. "I am not like them, I am saving myself for someone — someone special. Say, you are like me, aren't you? You haven't done yet too right?"
Medium reached forward with nails filled with dirt to grab her, the girl did not resist, but pulled him closer with a strength unsuited to her thin frame and whispered a word in his ear, her breath a greenish dust.
Medium froze for a moment before grabbing hold of her, his movements more labored than before.
"You are hurting my arm!" Moaned the girl, the phoniness of her scream not heard by any save for the boy over the shouting of the others.
Bigger eventually managed to separate the two, but not before Small got a black eye and a split lip from the pounding he received.
"What the hell?" Small lisped as he recoiled away, his hand holding his bleeding nose. "You broke it! You broke my nose."
"Wait till I get my hands on you again," Big threatened, barely being held back by Bigger. "I'm gonna string you by your innards."
Fed up, Bigger shoved him away, his skull banging against the wall in a loud thud.
"What are you pushing me for?" Big protested, "You heard what he's done that- that devious knave!"
"I don't care, Cut it out! Once this job is over you can buy every whore and drink wine by the keg if you want to."
"It's definitely broken, look how it twists like clay," Small cried out with tears in his eyes, "Boss, you still have that elixir right? Give it to me."
"Quit your wailing," Threatened Bigger, "Be grateful you got away scot-free, you're giving him half your share you hear me?."
Small opened his mouth to voice a protest, but instead mumbled "That ingrate, is this my reward for that back-breaking work?"