“Deadra, Deadra you clever silly girl.” Leandra stared up at the moon. Its silver was a balm for her worried soul, A touch of light in this dreary place.
Anadrea stood behind her, his arms clasped in front of him. There was little of the stress that had gripped him when the news first came in. Only a slight tension remained and his dark cloak hid it well. He waited for her order.
With effort, Deadra pushed aside her relief and considered what to actually do with the fruits of the hour long interrogation. Though a glaring fact made rational thought hard.
Her niece would be sold by daybreak.
Just thinking about it shot a lance of fury through her. The feathers adorning her head road like a forest of daggers. She fought the impulse down and returned to her contemplation. She once again turned to the moon.
It seemed to loom now. Its position in the sky’s centre a threat and reminder.
And though worry gnawed at her heart she couldn’t go charging into the enemy’s heart. There was hope if Deadra was carted away by whomever had hired these ruffians. That hope died if she fell during an ill concieved rescue. So though she loathed to be daunted by the tsh that ruled over this derelict place Leandra would not underestimate this ‘Daisy’.
That was before she considered who would dare purchase one of Salen blood. The thought sent her essence roiling. Streams of the unseen energy slipped through her control. Only to be swallowed by the gluttonous city seconds later.
They thought they could get away with this.
Leandra came to a decision. “Anadrea.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Her aide said voice tight and rigid. He could feel his wrath and she knew it weighed on him like a leanden blanket. Even though he was bolstered by a modest cultivation.
Slowly she restrained herself. Until her essence was once again an orderly mass of taut wire and impatient steel. “Are the horses rested?”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He said tension eased.
“Send a runner to the governor’s palace. They are to give this to the angels.” She retrieves a letter from the inner pocket of her cloak.
“Right away Ma’am” he bowed and took the letter, he almost bounced away. Eager to do something useful.
She thought of another question in need of an answer, “Also, Bring me the girl.”
One might think a lifelong thief would have some experience with the law. That was not the case for Two. She had started young and quickly learned the guards and their like were best avoided. Especially on the rare occasions, they stuck their noses into the slum.
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So when the flock of guards clad in deep brown trimmed by burgundy started firing very pointed questions, he had little experience to fall back on. She settled for the unpolished truth and simple answers. Her vocabulary became defined by yes and no sir.
Her interrogator’s distaste sat thick and heavy in the air and showed in the reproachful locks of the predominantly avian guard. Yet she was thankful for the bitter taste. Even as they gave her a pat down so thorough it seemed they were trying to beat her scales off. They loathed her so much that her taint found little room to make things worse.
With new sores, one less knife and bereft her few coins the ordeal ended and, Two was left in a dark comer. She stared at the wall and pondered what to do with her wounded pride between calculations of the odds she’d see tomorrow.
She was soon dragged from her contemplations when the noble summoned her. In her brief time noted a spattering of cultivators amongst the guard. None had the suffocating essence of the noble but it was enough to confirm she had no hope of running.
The noble did not turn when a pair of unfriendly pale feathered owls escorted two out. Nor did she turn when they retreated into the warehouse, whose door groaned shut.
She simply stared at the moon while it bathed her deep red cloak in shades of silver and the night breeze danced through her dark feathers.
Two snuck a cautious breath and sipped lightly from the woman’s essence. She tasted thick worry, and hints of heart-stopping fury that struck Two’s tongue like spiteful paper. But below that was iron. Cold unflinching iron.
And that worried Two because she didn’t know what it meant. Daisy’s was the closest but she rarely tasted it under all that incense.
“What are you doing?” the noble said without turning.
“Nothing Ma’am” Two answered and froze as she noticed the lie and its potential consequences.
They hummed unconvinced and turned the full weight of their attention on her.
Two shivered. She remembered the feeling of sharp blades pressed against her skin. When the woman’s anger was more than an odd scent.
“You are a cursed child.” The woman stated their hard eyes scanned Two’s face. Two was unsurprised by the statement.
She’d never admitted the fact during questioning, going so far as to call her promised artefact one of concealment. But, everyone could tell something was wrong with her, and those more attentive? They could tell what.
Two remained silent. “That alone is not unheard of in Spes nova. People venture into the labyrinth below with some regularity and a few return to serve as examples of why that is such a poor idea. A tainted girl is unremarkable, it is understandable”
They looked at Two but were not speaking to her. She was simply a canvas for the noble’s thoughts. Two’s patience was wound thin. Her loathing for this situation and her place in it grew, but she held her tongue. She kept her features still.
She could count her grievances some other time.
“But what I don’t understand is how someone like you ended up in this position. Why were you trusted to find my niece, why are you in a gang? The wretched superstitious lot here should have killed you and burned your body to be sure.” They scoured her face for any reaction.
Two offered none.
“Yet here you are alive, betraying the trust your master gave you.” The noble sighed.
Two was surprised there was even that much give to her.
“I’m tempted to believe this is some ill concaved plot to spread your corruption to us but if your ‘Boss’” she spat the word. “Is as powerful as you believe they should know better. So tell me child what’s special about you? Give me a reason not to snip the loose end you represent.”
Two’s heart clenched then fell to a peculiar calm. The woman’s essence did not expand into a cutting domain. The night remained, quiet and unbetrothed. Yet death never felt nearer and Two met it with a deep breath.
She spoke slowly “I was born with very acute senses. I can taste the feelings of others, smell a mood’s shift and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember.” It was a secret she held close to her heart. The one thing that let her live when a miss-step could see her undone. Even now it told her of the noble’s curiosity. How interest and pity mixed to blunt their wrath. Two used that knowledge to tip the scales a little more. “One day, during the rains Daisy took me in and in the months that followed I told her what I’ve told you and ever since she has ‘pushed’ for me to work with and for the gang.”
The noble hmmed. “Yet you betray her tonight of all nights.”Her contempt rose, a sickly bitter taste.
Two thought for a moment. “I don’t want to but I feel I must. I want to leave this life behind but I can’t do that without her aide.”
“Your little trinket of concealment?:
“Yes.”
A ghost of a smile touched the noble. There was pride in her voice, pride and mounting anger. “And you on her when risks grow too large. When you realize she has poked my clan.”
Two took another moment to parse her words. “I did when it realized I was just a thing she wanted to keep. That I could never be free with her.”
“And you didn’t think you could escape us by your lonesome.”
Two risked a smile. “Could I have Ma’am?”
“No,” her certainty was absolute.
“So I made a third choice.”
The noble fell into contemplation. Two sent her gaze to the moon. She prayed to whichever spirit might be listening that the die would fall in her favour.