CHAPTER TWO:

DAMNED INVALID

The stench of the fish carcasses was unbearable, but Siggy had no other choice. He held his breath as he heard the guards' footsteps getting closer. His heart beating in his throat, on the verge of crying. He knew that if they found him, his life would be over.

"God dammit!"

"I take it this is our man."

"Yeah, fucker got stabbed and bled like a stuck pig, doubt the big man will be pleased."

"Let’s check his corpse, the package should still be on him."

The two armour-clad men walked up to the robed corpse. They flipped him over and as his body rolled on his back, a clump of intestines spilt out from the large gash on the man’s stomach painting the ground with more blood and filling the air with a stench of iron and human excrement.

"Gahhh! How did this guy even get this far, it was a miracle he could even walk, let alone run away."

"Yeah, that’s impressive and all, but where the fuck is the package? The regional governor said it’s in a small cylinder with runes of preservation on it."

The other noticed a metallic glint on the ground.

"Huh, wait a minute."

He bent down and reached for the object. It was the metallic cylinder that contained the artefact. Already opened, with its contents missing.

"This is not good! He will have our asses for dinner when he finds out."

"Well, it’s not our fault this numpty went and got himself ambushed by a bunch of random nulls."

"Think for a second you thick bastard! We are still part of the town guard whilst the viceroy is visiting, as we are part of his retinue and this is his town despite that buffoon being in charge here for the time being."

He briefly paced around with his left hand on his lip, staring at the ground, thinking to himself before he lightly waged his finger and spoke.

"Alright, let’s calm down, we better find whoever stole it or we will be in deep shit."

The other guard gave a nod.

"Agreed, you continue down the path, I’ll go and retrace our steps, maybe they are trying to be clever."

"Finally, I can’t stand to stay here a minute longer with that stench, the fish over there certainly aren’t helping."

The two split up and left the alleyway with hurried steps, leaving Siggy alone in a pile of rotting fish gore.

He waited 2 minutes before finally emerging from the pile, covered in slime, bones and expired flesh. If his stomach wasn’t empty already, he’d make sure it was. As he finally stopped heaving from the nigh unbearable smell, he composed himself and made a quick decision.

‘I need to get out of here!’

Hearing armour rattling from around the corner he started panicking.

He placed the orb in his pocket and made a quick retreat stepping over the body to continue down the alleyway that ends in an intersection. He headed left.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck! I swear to all the gods in this world that I will never bother another guard if I make it out alive. I just want to go home.’

Tears welled up in his eyes as panic and stress were starting to overtake his mind. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t even know why he didn’t just put down the artefact where he found it. All he knew was that he MUST GO.

As he made his way out of the alleyway, he didn’t bump into anyone.

"Huf, huf, huf."

‘I think I am good.’

"Huf, huf, huf."

‘Why did I take it with me?!? I should have dropped the damn thing there. Agh, I can’t go back now. Oh well, might as well try to make the best of it.’

However, right now he was covered from head to toe in all manners of rotten viscera.

‘Ugh, I can’t walk around town looking’ "Sniff." ‘Much less smelling, like this. Guess I gotta take a dip.’

He made his way back to the docks, trying to avoid people as much as he could, whilst covering his face, appearing like a leper.

His advance was suddenly halted when a pair of watchmen appeared down the street.

He hurriedly sat down and made himself seem as small as possible while acting like a diseased beggar.

As the guards passed him by, one of them sneered at him whilst covering his nose.

"Damned invalid, just croak already. This town doesn’t need you. Clear off!"

"What the hell are you saying to a sick child you absolute twat?!? What if that was your kid?"

"There is no way my kid would end up like this sorry pile of rotting flesh!"

"Sure everyone says that until disaster strikes them."

The more accommodating guard looked at Siggy with a pained expression. He reached out his hand but stopped himself. He looked reluctant to touch the sick boy, lest he himself contract something. He bent to his right and reached into his purse. He produced a silver coin.

He tossed the coin towards the lad.

"Here, at least have yourself checked at an apothecary. Maybe it’s not too late for you."

Siggy slowly lifted his head and looked through the tainted rags without revealing his face. He saw a silver coin lying at his feet. Slowly reaching his hand out, as if he were on his last legs, he grabbed the coin and dragged it towards his "withered" body. Then said in a hoarse voice.

"Thank you, kind sir, may Kartara bless your kind heart."

"Bah, waste of money. This wretch hasn’t got long left. Then it’ll be either us hauling his carcass off or the body collector."

"A heart of gold you got, truly."

"Whatever, let’s carry on, we wasted enough time on this vagrant already."

The two moved on. As the sound of their steps became more and more distant, relief washed over Siggy. He slowly stood up and checked his surroundings. The coast was clear. He continued his way to the docks.

He held out the coin he just received, held it up to the light and studied it.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

‘Doesn’t seem to be fake.’

He smirked under his improvised hood.

‘I guess there are decent people even amongst those pig-headed lot.’

The guard before in the alleyway who stood up for him and other nulls, albeit in a condescending manner, also came to his mind.

‘Well, not decent enough to sort this shithole out. Why else would there be so many war orphans in this god-forsaken town?’

As he was thinking of today’s happening, he arrived at the docks.

The water could be barely recognised as such. It was slick with all manners of gunk and residue, with an unnatural smell. However, this was the nearest source of water he had access to without trespassing on someone else’s property.

"I had enough trouble for today. Might not be ideal Sig, but it’s still better than being covered in decaying fish guts."

He murmured to himself before he jumped in the water and washed himself of the putrid remains. Despite the weather being amicable, the water was freezing cold from the shadows of the surroundings and accumulated waste. He climbed up to the pier and wrung his clothes out, spilling dirty water on the wooden platform. It was midsummer and the sun would quickly dry him off. It was finally time to go home.

— — —

A large, exquisite clock showed the time to be nearing noon in a room filled with lavish, but not tacky decorations.

At the centre of the room by a large window sat a man at an ornate office table. He had shoulder-length hair tied into a small ponytail with locks of hair adorning his fairly handsome visage.

The man was arranging paperwork and reading through some reports when a knock came on the office’s door.

"Enter."

After the door opened, a portly man with a moustache and gaudy clothes entered.

"Greetings Lord Lucius, might I say that you have a most magnificent style today, did you change your hair?"

The man in the office glared at the visitor with stern eyes. He did not seem impressed or thankful.

"Cut the flattery, Alderic, did the item I sent for arrive?"

The governor broke out in cold sweat at the steely gaze of his superior.

"The man delivering the package has been ambushed by unknown assailants. According to the information we received, the assailants did not use any disciplines. This could mean that they were of a lower station of the population, unlikely to be someone’s retainers, possibly even kiin if the men on the ground are to be believed. This begs the question as to how they were able to overpower your aide. Another, more likely scenario would be if one of your rivals caught scent of the operation and sent an operative disguised as a common thief, led a group in acquiring the delivery for their lord and thwarted your efforts in the process."

Lucius closed his eyes and pinched the ridge of his nose. He continued to gather his thoughts for a minute before responding.

"Any news about the package’s whereabouts?"

"None, your Lordship."

"Continue the search, and do not rule out kiin."

"Understood. But how could those "people" be responsible, they can’t even use aether."

Lucius’ eyebrow twitched and he answered after a brief sigh.

"Do not underestimate them, they may be less powerful than us who were blessed by the aetherial flow, but they are more than capable of being a threat."

Alderic looked at Lucius with a confused expression.

"With all due respect my Lord, what could the common rabble of this country ever do to oppose us? The mere thugs from the syndicate should not have caused your aide any obstacle. Unless… you don’t think they could be from Dominion remnants?"

Lucius looked grimly at his governor and gave a slow nod.

"Indeed. They could be responsible, they are nothing if not resourceful."

"I think it is Sire that overestimates them, they are nothing but a bunch of null lowlives. Surely no threat to us."

Lucius chuckled for a moment.

"No threat, huh? Yet, they have carved an entire realm for themselves during the most brutal ongoing conflict since the War of Sorrows that saw our species almost wiped from the face of this world. A people that know only war. Many that remained of them on this island after the war with Banatton and the Thal'Washuth are still living out in the wilderness among creatures that haunt most people’s nightmares. If that doesn’t sound like a threat to you, Alderic, then I may have to re-evaluate your position on this island." he said as his tone grew colder and colder.

Alderic paled and stood quiet after the sudden reprimand

"Nevertheless, I suspect that bits of their more advanced gear have started to appear on the black markets as we began to unearth and implement what little we can discern of their technology in our manufacturing processes..."

He stopped for a moment, contemplating the prudence of his decisions up to this point.

"I believe we have been too hasty. If we don’t slow down we may run out of nearby resources or worse, some overenthusiastic scavenger will stumble on an unawakened nexus or something worse. If that happens, we will have another incursion on our hands by those accursed abominations."

"I think that dabbling in such he…. unorthodox practices was a mistake in the first place, sire. We mus-"

Lucius looked back with dissatisfaction apparent in his eyes.

"You and I both know what the country would gain by implementing them. We merely need to prove those blockheads on the mainland wrong…." He clenched his hand in frustration, crumpling the paperwork held in it.

"But we digress, I will not be debating this any further. Did my previous point get across?"

"S-should I notify the industrial district to scale back production?"

"Do so, we never know when those clanking monstrosities are watching. We are finally making gains on this island, we cannot afford to mess up."

"By your will."

Alderic bowed respectfully and left the room in haste.

Lucius cupped his hands together and placed them against his forehead with his elbows on the table.

"By God, I hope we aren’t too late.

— — —

Siggy looked down at his hand and saw a spherical object with a somewhat transparent but distinctly white colour. It had ornate markings that ran along most of the orb, except for the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ where the lines terminated after colliding with a circle at each end. The lines themselves had a wondrous azure glow to them.

‘I sure hope this thing was worth it, I almost got killed over it.’

As he was contemplating his potentially lucrative find, he finally arrived back in the slums. Dilapidated buildings in disrepair, barely a soul inside, with dirty, muddy streets littered with refuse, including but not limited to human waste. Light barely made it to the area as other, larger buildings towered over it. The air filled with the stench of decay and burning trash. It was no place for any human to live, let alone a child.

But to Siggy, this was all he knew, this was home. He made his way down the ramshackle pathways with the squelching of mud under his feet. As he was leisurely walking back, he made sure to hide any potential clues to his findings in his "clothes".

After a short five-minute journey through this earthly paradise, he started to hear faint sounds of children playing. He turned around a corner and found himself in front of the entrance of a large, dilapidated courtyard. As he entered, he could see a group of small children ranging from around four to eight. Very few of them were above ten and they were the ones looking after the younger boys and girls.

A girl around seven suddenly jerked her head up as she was playing with some of the other youngsters.

"Siggy!" she shouted in joy.

He looked towards her with a toothy smile.

"Vivy! Your big bro is back!"

He opened his arms wide and she jumped straight in them giving him a tight hug. They stayed like that for a couple of moments until Siggy put her down and rubbed her head.

Vivy held her nose shut whilst looking at Siggy with teary eyes.

"Ugh you are stinky, did you swim in a sewer or something?"

Siggy shrugged.

"Something like that."

"Awww, I just got these.!"

"Is that so? Where did you get them? Are the others back?"

"We are doing good Siggy, they are back, and you wouldn’t believe it but they came back with fresh food and clothes! We can eat plenty for a while!"

He gave her an endearing smile.

"That’s good, but look here, good ol’ uncle Sig has not been slacking either!"

He held out his hands to show two purses, one of which was full to bursting.

"Hehehe, you are not an uncle, silly. What's in them?

"Oh, am I not now? Ah well, I guess I’ll just keep these 3 gold coins to myself."

Her eyes widened and she almost lost her footing.

"What, how, when?"

He gave a cocky smile.

"Heh, I guess we won’t have to worry about food and clothing for a bit longer ey?"

"Thanks, Siggy! You are the bestest uncle in this whole wide world!"

"Now I’m an uncle again? Make up your mind missy!"

"Hehehe!" She giggled impishly.

"Where are the others at?"

"Gwen and Leo are handing out food and clothing, Tristen is playing with the smaller ones, and Lewis is slacking as usual."

"Ah, that layabout if he doesn’t get his ass in shape then Leo is gonna kick his ass again." he looked to the side and spotted a young lad laying on the ground relaxing without a care in the world. "I might do it myself at this rate." he said with a sneer.

"Anyway, have you seen Lisa? I have a feeling she has gotta be around here somewhere."

"I don’t know where Lyssandra is. She left somewhere after she helped the others get things from the shop."

Sig pondered for a few seconds before speaking.

"I might know where she is. But, first, I’ll talk to Leo."

"Okie dokie. Stay safe Siggy!"

"You too kiddo!"

Vivy skipped back to her group and continued playing.

Siggy continued walking through the courtyard, as more and more children started to notice him, the atmosphere almost visibly felt brighter. Everyone greeted him and some asked about his day. He didn’t go into great detail and gave a brief account of his eventful foray into the town.

"Siggy!"

He heard a shout from his left side.

"Gwen! I see the hunt went well for you guys."

She gave a triumphant grin.

"You bet! We hit it big with that merchant. How much did you get? I bet that big bastard had at least some money on him."

"Yeah… about that."

Before he could start bragging, they both heard a third voice enter the conversation.

"Sig, I am glad to see you made it back, safe and sound. You made sure you weren’t followed correct?"

It was Leo.

"You bet. I think I may have done my job too well."

"That’s good to hear. How much did you manage to take?"

Siggy gave a shit-eating grin and rattled the coins in his bag.

"Round about three dennies."

"Holly hell!" Gwen shouted in exasperation.

"Excellent, Al! You have outdone yourself today."

A foul stench assaulted Leo’s nose making him scrunch his nose.

"From your smell, I can tell your day was a bit more adventurous than what you just told us. Go wash up, we also bought some new clothes with the coin we made, help yourself to a set."

"Awesome. Will do, however, I need to talk to you afterwards, something might have come up."

Leo gave a nod.

Before Siggy could leave, however, he felt an arm on his shoulder.

"Sig, keep two gold coins from the money you took from the guards, consider it a bonus. Lisa will probably want some of it for training anyway."

Siggy beamed an elated smile.

"I am friggin rich! Ah, I can actually eat as much meat as I want! I can’t wait!"

"Don’t spend too much of it. We have drawn quite a bit of attention with our little heist. It’ll have to last you for a long while. Well, should be enough for a bit of celebration."

His mood somewhat cooled down but he grumbled a reply nonetheless.

"Uum, sure..." he gave a half-hearted answer, looking sideways.

They soon parted with Siggy heading off to wind down from the day’s events.