Alessandra
Alessandra awoke feeling warm. This was not right; she was never warm, even now at the start of summer. Alessandra was a street mouse, having been either orphaned or abandoned, she wasn’t sure; at a very young age, in one of the poorer parts of the Slums. For the past year, she had stayed alive off the charity of whores and beggars after the boy who had been taking care of her had been press-ganged into the army. She stole what scraps she could, which wasn’t much, from the more prosperous parts of the Slums. This is how she found herself in her current predicament of being forced to hide out in The Wet. She had been spotted grabbing a fairly intact dress from a rag seller out by the border of the Slums and Merchant district and chased by the Guards, and the merchant of course, until she was forced to slip into The Wet. She knew it was wrong to steal, but even though winter was still far off, and the dress she had was just too thin to keep her warm through another winter, and the whores didn’t think they could get enough cloth for a new one for her, business was bad with so many people getting press-ganged. She had also been told she would not be allowed to winter with them this year, being warned away by several of them for reasons she was unclear of. They had made her promise to stay away and only come to the woodshed when she needed food. She knew she had to start planning now. She was not sure how she could make it through the winter as Seth, the only other person she could count on to help her find shelter and food, had been taken away by the army last winter.
Seth had found her wandering around the streets three years ago and kept her clothed and fed. She had asked him once why he did it when he had a hard enough time keeping himself fed. His answer had been a simple one: “When my Pa died, an older boy fed me. Now it’s my turn to feed someone.”
When asked what had happened to him, the answer had been a sad frown. She had never asked again.
This led her wandering thoughts back to her current strange problem of being warm. Her stolen dress helped but wearing two sets of rags instead of one shouldn’t keep her this warm. Plus, this warmth was coming from inside. A sudden terror hit her as she remembered what Seth, the whores, and beggars had all told her about The Wet. The Wet was a place of sickness and death. Only the most desperate or insane went to The Wet, and most never returned. Of those that returned, most soon died of one sickness orther. She had only stayed on the edges and was avoiding the stinky water, trying to stay away from the sickness, but it seemed like that hadn’t been enough. She curled into a ball and cried, asking the Gods why they hated her.
When hunger, thirst, and the indisputable fact of not being dead, forced her to seek food and water, she snuck back into the Slums. After getting a small piece of only slightly moldy cheese from one of the nicer beggars, she wandered to the outer edges of the slums, away from the Merchant District, of course, to get clean water. While drinking from one of the public fountains, she noticed some people who were most definitely NOT Guards or fellow denizens of the Slums walking around. She watched them warily as they kept checking strange devices in their hands. It was likely that they were Mages tracking someone.
Alessandra knew of Mages, people with wonderous powers that brought them wealth and respect, she sometimes dreamed of becoming one, but even at her young age she knew that was just a fantasy that would never come true. When the mages started heading towards the fountain, she knew that the rag seller had somehow convinced them to hunt her down and give her to the Life Mages. She had heard many rumors about Life mages; the Guards loved taunting everyone that they arrested that they would be given to the Life Mages in the dungeons to be tortured. She didn’t know for sure what being flayed was, but with the looks, adults got when it was mentioned, she wanted nothing to do with it. She turned around and ran back towards The Wet, discarding her new dress on the way. Maybe the mages were tracking it, so best get rid of it.
Alessandra was not the only person to run away when it became apparent that the mages were searching for someone, nor was she the only one to head towards The Wet. She heard a woman yell out; “WE’RE MAGISTERS WE CAN’T ARREST YOU! WE’RE JUST LOOKING FOR A NEWLY AWAKENED! WE’RE HERE TO HELP!” She didn’t know what a Magister was, but she was probably lying. Guards and rich people lied all the time, no one but priests and priestess ever came to The Slums to help.
Alessandra noticed that most of the people running past her were scary-looking men who kept shoving her out of the way. She knew that most of them were the Bad People that Seth and the whores always told her to stay away from, but she also knew that by staying near them, the mages were more likely to find them and not her, so she picked a small group and followed them as best she could. After a while, the mean-looking men went into an old warehouse and seemed to settle in. Alessandra was not a stupid girl, just young, so she did not follow them through the same door, that was a good way to get caught, and she knew that they would turn her over to the mages for the reward that the rag merchant had to be offering for her capture.
“Why did I steal that dress?” She mumbled to herself. “If I hadn’t, I could be warm in the woodshed or getting food from a priestess right now instead of cold, wet, and probably sick.”
She started to go around the warehouse looking for a way in, or at least a place she could hear them talking to find out how bad the Bad Men were; maybe she could turn them in for a reward to whoever they were hiding from and pay off the rag merchant so he would leave her alone.
On the side of the building facing the lake, she found a small hole that she could crawl through, so she did. When she got through, she found herself in a small room that was mostly dry, but still smelled of things Alessandra didn’t want to think about, where she could listen in on the men. She crept up to the door and pushed it open a bit to peak out and listen. It was too dark to see clearly, but she could just make out the four men she had been following.
“Pass me some of that bread.” Alessandra named that one Bad 1.
“No, I stole it; get your own!” Ah! Alessandra thought the bakers might want that one. She named him Bread Thief.
“Them effin’ mages showed up before I could get into the Merchant Quarter; I didn’t have time to steal nuthin’. What were they doing in the slums anyway? No one ever awakens in The Slums,” Bad 1 said.
“How would I know, maybe the Boss finally killed the wrong man?” said Bread Thief.
“Who cares,” said a new voice, “They were probably weren't after us ‘til you idiots started to run, the Boss a’int going to be happy when we don’t show.” Alessandra named him Whiner.
“HE may be mad, but not as mad as he would be if we got wrapped up with mages? Did’nya you see that old one in the lead? He had to be some sort of noble; I ain’t messing with that. Ratha’ hide in The Wet than risk that. NO SIR-REE! Momma may have raised a thief but not no fool.” Bad 1 replied.
Another new voice pipped in, “But why did they come? I a’int never stole from a mage or a noble, want nuthin to do with that trouble, so why would they care? Did ya not see ‘em? They were making a beeline straight for us.” Alessandra named him Bad 2.
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“They may or may not have been. There were others at the fountain, they could’ve been after any one of ‘em. Probably Gunther, that idiot stabbed ‘nother merchant yesterday in broad daylight.” Whiner replied.
“To be safe, we should move the loot to another spot; the Boss always says to be safe.” Bread Thief suggested.
Bad 2 replied, “That’s a pain in da ass, an’ the other spots are so wet.”
She heard the sound of someone getting hit and heard Whiner say, “You idiot! It’s The Wet; it’s all wet!”
“Heath’s right Frank, we should move; this place stands out too much. It’s too intact.” Bad 1 said.
Oooh, real names, thought Alessandra, that would make it easier to rat them out.
Frank (Whiner) threw up his hands. “Fine, grab the chest, and let’s all go sit in sewage!”
Two men stood and started walking towards the door Alessandra was hiding behind. Being a smart girl who had hidden from people many times in her young life, she didn’t panic but started to make her way back to the hole she had snuck in through. When she was outside again, she began to run off but quickly stopped
She started to frantically look around for a place to hide and watch for which way they would go. After finding a spot behind some rotting barrels, she settled into the cleanest puddle she could find to wait. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long for the thieves as the door to the old warehouse soon opened, and the thieves exited pushing an old wheelbarrow holding a chest in it. When the four thieves had gone about half a block, Alessandra started to follow behind, scurrying from one pile of rubbish to another as quietly as possible.
After about half an hour, she heard Whiner moan, “Really, Heath! This is the hideout you want to use! The floor is rotted. I don’t want to sit in the mud all night!”
Bread Thief (Heath) punched Whiner (Frank) in the gut. Whiner doubled over, puking his guts out.
“Shudd up! I’m tired of ya whining all the time. If you don’t like where I pick to hide, then leave. This is one of the first spots the Boss will look for us if we ain’t at the warehouse, so this is where we’ll wait! Anyone else want to complain?” he asked glowering at the others.
Bad 1 and 2 quickly shook their heads and started to drag the chest inside while Whiner continued to puke.
Meanwhile, Alessandra crouched lower behind the rotten fence she was hiding behind. She DID NOT want Bread Thief to find her if one punch to one of his friends could make him throw up, she would probably die. While she didn’t have any friends since Seth went away, she did know you were supposed to be nice to your friends. If that was how Bread Thief treated his friends, she didn’t want to know what he would do to someone who wanted to sell him out to the Bakers Guild.
Alessandra was about to sneak closer to the thieves’ hideout when she heard some splashing and someone saying words that the whores would slap her for saying, so she hurriedly re-hid herself. Peaking between the rotted slats, she saw a man walking by her fence and into the hideout. He looked different from the other bad men, being dressed in nicer-looking clothes and tall leather boots. His face was mean-looking and scarred, so while he would never fit into the nicer parts of town, he wouldn’t be chased out by the Guards because he looked like he had money. Alessandra decided that he was probably The Boss that Bread Thief was scared of.
After a few minutes, Alessandra decided that they were going to be inside for a while and snuck closer to try to hear what they were talking about. Hopefully, she could quickly figure out who she could sell The Boss’s location to and get away from here before she was spotted. She might get a lot of coppers for him if he had stolen from a merchant! As she was looking for a hole to listen through, she heard a voice yelling that she hadn’t heard yet.
“Of all the bad luck!” probably Boss Man bellowed. “Some lucky prick just had to Awaken today! And you idiots didn’t even have the sense to know that those were beacons, not tracers, and run off at the site of Magisters, WHO WERE YELLING THAT THEY WERE LOOKING FOR AN AWAKENED. They weren’t even guards, but Magisters, YOU FUCKIN IDIOTS!” Alessandra heard the sounds of someone getting a beating and winced. She hoped that he didn’t kill Bread Thief. She still needed to sell him out. “Magisters (thump) can’t (snap) arrest (smack) Normals (thump)!”
By this time, Alessandra had found a hole and peered through it. She could see enough to figure out that it was Bad 2 who was getting the beating. Good, she thought, I can still sell out Bread Thief. Suddenly The Boss stopped kicking Bad 2 and started looking about.
“What’s wrong, Boss?” asked Whiner.
“Quiet! My magics tingling. Someone might be spying on us.” Boss Man replied. He then stopped moving. Alessandra knew magic could do amazing things and that she needed to leave, so she started to back away carefully. When she started moving, Boss Man’s head snapped in her direction.
“IF YOU RUN, IT WILL BE WORSE FOR YOU! MY MAGIC HAS YOU NOW. I CAN CHASE YOU FOR DAYS! IF I HAVE TO CHASE YOU, I WILL TORTURE YOU FOR WEEKS WHEN I CATCH YOU!” she heard Boss Man bellow. Alessandra ran for her life.
****
Alessandra was tired. She was more tired than she could ever remember being. She had been running from the Boss Man for almost two days now and could barely keep on her feet. She had tried hiding under rubble, in buildings and in basements but the Boss Man always found her. She had also seen the other men from the warehouse searching as well, causing her to run in circles. She only kept getting away because her chasers were anything but quite.
One time when she had rounded a corner she ran into Bread Thief. She thought she was done for when he had grabbed her, but she felt a strange warmth in her chest, and he had fallen asleep letting her escape. She didn’t wait for him to wake up and ran off again while the warmth slowly went away.
She had also tried heading back to the Slums, but when she got close to them, she had seen one of the Mage Bounty Hunters waiting for her, so she had headed back into The Wet. She wished everyone would leave her alone so she could find some food and a place to eat, she was so tired and hungry.
She knew she couldn’t run much longer, she was running out of energy, but she refused to give up yet. A few hours earlier she had gotten desperate enough to drink from one of the cleaner puddles knowing that she would get sick, but she had been to thirsty to care. The warmth in her chest had come back for a few seconds when she had taken the drink and the water had tasted surprisingly clean. She really wanted to know what was causing that feeling, but even if she could get away from the Boss Man and Bounty Hunters, she had no idea who to ask. Maybe a priestess? Peaking around yet another corner, and not seeing anyone; she quickly started making her way down yet another street. With a crash someone broke through a wall behind her, causing her to screech and jump with fright.
“I GOT YOU NOW, YOU LITTLE RUNT!” Boss Man bellowed, grabbing her from behind. Alessandra felt the warmth start to come again, but it didn’t seem as strong as before, the warmth fleeing as fast as it came. Boss Man turned her around and grabbed her throat with one hand picking her up.
“You have led me on quite the fuckin little chase, you fuckin little runt, but it’s all over now. I would love to torture you for weeks to find out who sent you to spy on my crew. While skinning you alive while my pet Healer regrows your skin would amuse me immensely, but I’ve already wasted too much time on this,” pulling Alessandra closer to his face, he snarled, his putrid breath causing her nose to wrinkle in disgust despite the terror building in her heart, “You know how it is, people to kill, merchants to rob, whores to fuck, so as much as it pains me it’s time for you to fuckin die,” he growled, tightening his grip.
Alessandra was having trouble breathing, and everything was getting dark. Strange that the sun had just come up. She hated her life, but she didn’t want to end, especially at the hands of this Bad Man who dressed like a rich man. She tried to bite his and but that just made him laugh and slap her mouth, causing her to bite her tongue and lower lip. Still struggling feebly, now bleeding from her lip and tongue, she saw one of the bounty hunters round the corner. He was saying something, but it was hard to hear anything at the moment, her head felt fuzzy and she felt like she was drifting away despite being the hand around her neck. Why was it getting so dark? She felt cold and wished the warmth would come back.