Danica stood at the top of the Barracks tower, looking out over the city as the sun set beyond the horizon. The cold wind from the north blew gently across the land, but could not completely bury the warmth of spring. Off in the distance, massive trade ships freed from their winter berth began to make their way out to sea. It was almost tranquil and serene on the outside, but she now understood that the core of this city was apparently filled with rot.

She had enjoyed her excursions into the night, stopping criminals from preying upon the weak. It was vigilante justice, and they could not allow anyone to know their ties to the city guards, but it was justice nonetheless. Unfortunately Landon had to pull her from it as Rowan demanded he do something about the masked people attacking citizens in the night. The plan hadn’t bore anything of much worth, but Landon was proud of the work she had done regardless of the outcome.

Lorik came to stand beside her. “What do you see out there?”

She looked over at him for a brief moment before gazing back out to the city. “From here? I can see everything on the surface, and nothing underneath it.”

He stopped to think about it, and nodded. “You’re a stranger in your own home. You care about the people who don’t give a damn about you. Why is that?”

“It’s the right thing to do.” She pointed off into the city “Over there is the orphanage where I spent my youth. The matron there was cruel towards everyone, but me especially so. I believed the world needed some sort of balance for her wicked ways, and so I took up the mantle of trying to be good. It seems ridiculous saying it out loud, but sometimes it helped me handle everything that was happening then.”

He looked to where she had pointed. “How do you deal with things happening now?”

“By swinging a sword at people who deserve it.” She sighed mournfully. “I’ve gotten used to it over time, but that evil witch did something to me. In addition to giving me this garish reminder on my face, she stole a part of my soul. It’s rather difficult to explain that.”

“Well then,” he said, “Don’t bother to explain it unless you feel you need to. I think you know who you can talk to if the need arises.”

She nodded towards him. “I do. Thank you.”

He gave a small chuckle. “I don’t mean me. I’m leaving.”

She gave him a surprised look. “What? Why?”

He rubbed his chin. “Well, It’s supposed to be a secret mission, but they’d probably tell you anyway. Do you remember some time ago Angela talked about how Rowan's father was supposed to arrange for his son to marry a noble lady from Vadona?”

She nodded. “Something about that really intrigued her.”

“Apparently so,” he said. “She asked me to go there and look into it. I was heading that way anyway to see my brother and his family. Now that the weather is clearing up, it’s as good a time as any.”

She looked back out at the long shadow hanging over the city, watching as the people lit up their lights to guide their way home. Here and there, the windows in the houses would illuminate, and soon the city would bathed entirely in the night. The darkness falls, but the city watch does not. It was a phrase inscribed on a plaque downstairs by the entrance and she’d grown fond of the saying over time.

She turned to Lorik. “And my training?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “You’ve learned most everything I could possibly teach you about sword fighting. All you need now is to practice and keep in shape. Outmaneuver your opponents with blinding speed and precision, they’ll fall before your fury.”

“Will you be coming back here?”

He shrugged. “Not for some time. Maybe you’ll one day make your way to Drakkenoir and find me there instead. If you’re good enough to beat me in a duel, I’ll reward you with that silver rapier I showed you when we met.”

She remembered that sword, how beautiful and perfectly balanced it was. It belonged to someone he cared deeply about, and the thought of having that blade was intriguing. It was an honor, and she tried to dig deep to feel that dulled emotion.

“I’ve never traveled outside this city. My whole life has been here, trapped within these confines. Perhaps one day I’ll see Vadona, see what the world is like. Maybe I’ll meet some non-humans and see how different they are. I can’t imagine I’m the only one of my kind out there.”

He looked as if he were about to say something, but changed his mind. Instead they stood there in blissful silence, watching the darkening sky over the city. The beautiful clear night, filled with stars and a brilliantly shining moon casting its soft light across the world.

****

She watched from a distance as he saddled up his horse and rode away. He didn’t need stablehands to prepare the mount or to pack anything for him. He may have taught her what he knew about fighting with the blade, but he hadn’t taught her everything she wanted to know. That seemed to be weighing heavily upon her at the moment.

What other skills did she actually possess?

“I’m an expert at scrubbing floors and dirty dishes,” she quietly mumbled to herself.

Too much was happening recently, and she had no meaningful way to handle the building stress other than to focus on her training. She decided to take a walk to try and clear her mind of the malaise that had settled into it. Perhaps she’d go by the orphanage and walk the areas she remembered as a child. Something about the place seemed to be drawing her there ever since she’d mentioned it earlier.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She adjusted her prowling attire and tightened the sword against her back. It was a personal preference that Lorik found odd, but eventually conceded to her point. She simply did not like running with the sword at her side and it moving around too much. It’d taken several adjustments, and some help from Dannig, to make the back mounted scabbard work, but it did end up quite functional and comfortable to use.

She slipped quietly into the dark, avoiding the guards or the occasional soul wandering out into the night. She hurried through alleyways, nose curling with disgust at the stink of discarded refuse or waste. Every so often there would be rats or a random stray animal alerted to her presence, but they usually just scurried out of the way and focused their attention on finding scraps of food.

Down one corridor she came upon a man lying against a stone wall. He smelled horrible as if he had soiled himself, and at first she mistook him for dead. His muffled snores however indicated that he was alive, just simply passed out. An overturned bottle at his side gave an indication as to the most likely reason. It was a sad sight to see someone throw their own life away like that. She stepped quietly over him and went on her way.

Soon she stood before the Norport orphanage, looking at the very building she’d spent so many years toiling away in. How different would her life have been had Landon not saved her from that horrible place? Would Stenouse have really sent her to the brothels? Knowing what she does now, that fate wouldn’t seem so uncharacteristic of the wretched woman.

Instantly she was on high alert as a scream echoed into the night. It sounded like a man and had come from the direction she had just come from. Was it the person she had seen only a moment before? Perhaps he’d awoken to a rat being on him or something else inconsequential. It had, after all, been only that one time calling out and then total silence.

Her gut instinct told her to go and see. She ran hard, dodging around the debris scattered about, careful to keep her approach quiet. Soon she entered the alleyways where she had only been moments before, expecting to see him there.

He was there, but so was another man crouching over him. Appearing small and thin, he worked under a very dim light, cutting parts of meat from the corpse with a dagger and placing it into a small bag. The lantern was obviously hooded, and turned so low that it hadn’t even changed her vision spectrum. She could see all too well what he was doing.

She watched stunned at the grisly scene for a moment before regaining her wits. “What in damnation have you done?”

He looked in her direction with an expression of panic upon his face. “I found this man wounded. I tried to render aid, but…” He let the words trail off to make a point.

“Do not lie to me,” she stated flatly. “You were carving his flesh from bone and smiling the whole time.”

The smile crept back onto his face. “Fascinating. You must have perfect vision or,” he paused for a moment. “Or you can see through the darkness! The elf girl.”

She drew her sword and held it steady. “You presume to know who I am?”

He pulled the bag closed and hooked it to his belt. “I do. Never met a human that could see so well in the dark, and you’re the only non-human in this wretched city. Simple really.”

“Well if you know who I am,” she said with some amount of confidence, “then you know who my associates are. Come quietly and you can plead your case before the courts.”

He let out a sinister chuckle and stood. “I’m rather fond of my freedom. You’re full of heart, girl. I look forward to trying it.”

Before she could respond to that odd statement he fully lifted the hood of his lantern, temporarily blinding her as her vision shifted into the normal color spectrum. By the time she could see again, the blade was already near her throat. She quickly leaned back, barely avoiding the slash of his dagger.

Again he came at her, swinging wildly with that wicked blade and again she had to back up to avoid his attack. He was keeping her on the defensive, and it was difficult to gain her footing against him. Even worse was that he had managed to negate her reach advantage by staying in close. This man was a fighter and for the first time in her life she faced someone outside of practice that knew how to handle a weapon.

Out of pure desperation she jumped back and stepped in with a feint, trying to bait him into defending. Unfortunately, the maneuver didn’t pay off and he dodged out of the way. He came back in with a wild slash that only seemed to graze her left arm, but it was enough to send a bolt of fiery pain through her.

Adrenaline surged in her veins as she desperately fought for her very life. He came in again and again, striking faster than she’d ever expected an opponent could. He thrust the dagger forward towards her heart, but she was able to grab his wrist with her left hand and redirect the strike. It gashed her side, biting through the thin leather, but it also left him slightly off balance.

Danica swung her rapier around and smashed him in the face with the guard, and for her efforts, was rewarded with the sickening sound of cartilage and bone being snapped apart. He yelled in pain and staggered back, blood already gushing from his broken nose. Without wasting a precious moment, she launched into the offensive, forcing him to fall back with every swing. He tried to recover, dodging and attempting to parry her moves but she would not let up on the assault. He’d wanted a fight to the death and she was going to give it to him.

“Damn you,” he growled.

In a move that seemed like pure frustration, he swung his lantern hard towards her in an overhand strike. She expertly dodged it and then lunged in for the finishing blow, It never landed it. There was a brilliant flash and a loud boom as the lantern exploded, knocking them both back and to the ground. Excruciating pain shot up her right leg, but she managed to quickly right herself by shifting her weight over to her left foot.

The spots in her eyes quickly cleared and she could see the strange man staggering off down the street. She tried to follow him, but every time she put weight on her right foot, she’d nearly fall over. She seethed with anger and desperately tried to force her body to obey, but it was no use. The fight was over and he was escaping.

A moment later, she saw the lights coming from behind her and people were coming to look out of their windows at the noise they’d heard. She quickly realized that if she stayed out here, she’d be discovered and that was something Landon had expressly warned her about. She scrambled into the darkness of the alleyway and pulled her hood back over her head.

Danica looked down at her right leg and saw a steady stream of liquid pouring out a little above the boot top. She didn’t need to see colors to know what it was. She took off the black cloth she used as a face mask and created a makeshift bandage with it. She tied it tightly around the wound, trying to stem the flow of blood. The pain was beginning to get more intense and she knew the adrenaline of the moment was wearing off.

Before Danica could escape into the darkness, she was bathed in flickering lantern light and a voice called out “Who’s in there?”

It was a thankfully familiar voice. “Erinore, is that you?”

“It is,” he said, much to her relief. “Who wants to know?”

She turned to him, revealing her face with a sigh. “I need to get home, and quickly.”