Downwind was well named, there’s a prevalent wind coming off Lake Tansee blowing north most of the day. It briefly reverses direction around sunset as the temperature differential between the air over the lake and over the shore reverses. It’s not that time yet and Downwind reeks of fish guts. It’s not as bad as Luscin expected, after a few minutes she hardly notices it. Wendy isn’t doing as well; she has her blouse pulled up covering her nose, exposing her tummy. The two explorers keep walking with the wind in their faces, staying on the larger streets. There’s a surprising number of people about and none of them look bad.
“Luscin this place smells terrible, we should leave.”
“It’s no worse than the fishing boat.”
“We were only there for a few minutes. We’ve been walking towards the fish market for ten minutes.”
“Don’t be a baby, it’s been maybe five minutes. The dare is to see a bad person. I’ve only seen merchants, and some of them are my neighbors. I don’t think any of them are bad people.”
After a pause in the conversation, “Wendy, where have you been going? I’ve not seen you in study until today for a week.”
“Nowhere. I mostly stayed home and helped mama with chores.”
“You don’t have chores, you have servants.”
“There are some things too important to leave to servants. I do those.”
Wendy wanting to change the subject, “Maybe we need to get off the streets and go down an alley to find a bad person.”
Luscin not wanting to look scared says, “Ok” and turns down the next alley.
It’s a narrow walkway between two shops. One sells fish and cavi meat, the other was some sort of chemical supply store. The ground debris was a collection of crushed paper containers and animal viscera. Not a lot, the people of Thuma take care of their city but some garbage is bound to end up in infrequently traveled alleyways. The two daring explorers pushed on, gently stepping around the occasional squishy animal remains and stomping on the paper containers, some giving up small clouds of dust of their unknown content. The alley opened up onto a deserted street. A dilapidated warehouse is the only standing structure on the block. They would have turned but the sounds of kids’ laughter drew them towards the warehouse.
With no more than a glance and a nod to one another they move towards the busted lift gate, climb up the ledge which is set to the height of an Inu driven cart and peer into the dark interior. The laughter and voices that had lured them this far fell silent when they reached the ledge. Without that reassuring familiar sound both girls begin to lose their nerve.
“You wait here, I’ll go first,” whispers Wendy.
“Since when did you get brave?”
No longer whispering, “’I’m brave, braver than you. Now stay!”
Wendy places both hands on the wall and jumps up, kicking one leg out to catch the ledge’s top and pulls herself up. Turns and points at Luscin, “Stay until I call you. When it’s ok for you to come in.”
Something seems off to Luscin, Wendy being brave and wanting to go first. But she did have her left hand behind her back, like always. Whatever she’s pulling it better be fun or dangerous.
Luscin didn’t have to wait long to find out. Her friend Wendy, who disappeared moments ago into the pitch-black warehouse suddenly shrieks in terror and yells for Luscin to get away.
Luscin doesn’t run away, not even from Father. The ledge that Wendy scrambled up is behind her in a bound landing her on two feet and running. She forces her eyes to adjust to the dark in an instant, she sees her friend Wendy has been forced to the ground by two boys that are close to grown. Her shirt is being pulled up by one of them as he gropes her. Standing around are more than a dozen other younger kids who start cheering the two attackers on. Wendy’s shrieks turn to laughter and all the kids turn to look at Luscin.
Eyes glowing, breathing with purpose, instinctively in a loose fighting stance, Luscin doesn’t know what she should do. Eye’s skipping around the room assessing everyone, she holds.
Wendy’s voice now muffled by the boy’s chest she’s wrapped her arms around, “Like I told you, she’s gullible as a baby. Now stop tickling me.”
Realization hits Luscin that her friend Wendy set this up to make her look dumb. Her cheeks flash red and she starts to shake as she winds down the energy within that was about to go wild.
The other boy, the one not kissing a compliant Wendy tells the other kids to go play somewhere else and approaches Luscin.
“I’m Alfie and my friend over there with Wendy is Felix. She told us you’re bang-up and we should give you a chance.”
No longer shaking but with red cheeks on display, “a chance at what, being groped? I guess this means I finished my dare and can go.”
“No, no, not yet. I need to talk to you,” turning back to the now wrestling couple behind him he adds, “You two should go somewhere, you’re not animals.”
Wendy starts woofing like an inu as her and Felix pick themselves up and run off somewhere behind a pile of debris.
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“I know you don’t have much time, but I think we can help each other. If you hear me out, I think you’ll agree. We can talk here or head back to the offices and sit down.”
“I can sit here,” Luscin drops into a crouch ready to move quickly if needed.
Recognizing her resolve to try and regain some control, Alfie joins Luscin on the floor but with legs crossed and elbows on his knees.
Now that Luscin isn’t concerned about her friend’s safety she takes a moment to assess Felix. He has green eyes, and a narrow nose, thin lips and the whisps of a yellow moustache matching the yellow mop of hair tied off in a knot behind his head. He appears healthy, maybe a little tired. His height at about 50 inches puts him around age 14 but he acts more grown up than that.
“How old are you and Felix, and who are those kids,” demands Luscin.
“It’s that way with you I see, but that should be expected you’re only six years old. Practically a baby still, can’t stop yourself from asking questions.” Alfie pauses to read her face, one thing for certain she wears her emotions on the outside. She looks angry at that little dig.
Changing to a new tactic, “That’s a good thing around here. All those kids you asked about, those are mine. Not for real though I’m not their father. I take care of them since they don’t have homes or parents. Kids like that always end up in Downwind. That stink of fish and bleach that everyone moans about starts to smell tasty when your belly’s been empty for days. We keep our eyes peeled for any new strays. That’s how we found Wendy. She was wandering about looking all lost. Of course, it turns out she was just bored and looking for something to do. She’s been back almost every day since. She’s been a big help at marking targets, but we’ll get back to that. For now, I’m offering you something, we can discuss the price later.”
Alfie pauses again to assess the five-year-old in front of him. He only called her six before to butter her up before calling her a baby, he learned that complimenting and then insulting girls in a way that sounds innocent is a good way to make them seek his attention. They’re all the same, they want some boy to see them as valuable. Too bad they’re all gullible trash. Even this little girl after a few minutes is already looking at him with wonder.
“Luscin, has anyone ever told you your eyes glow when you get mad?”
“Only Wendy has said that, but she’s the only one that makes me mad.”
“Well, I’m telling you too, because I just saw it. Do you know what that means?”
He can practically read her thoughts; it’s written on her face. A mix of hope and fear battle for control over her expression, her eyes going wide with a spark of fire and at the same time she’s crunching her brow in consternation, she knows exactly what it means but is too afraid to say it aloud in case it’s not true or some joke, or worse Father finds out and puts her to work.
“It means you can hold. You know what that means right?”
She boldly nods her head a little.
“You can get out of here, write your own story, you can escape your father.”
Too far, her eyes that were looking all dreamy snap back to reality when he mentioned her father. Wendy filled him in on the details she knew. He was abusive, often beating Luscin and his wife. Luscin never complained and went through a lot of effort to hide the damage. Her latent abilities have probably protected her from the worst of it. Absorbing impacts, healing bones and bruise in days instead of weeks. Wendy says she once disappeared for ten days, he must have broken a dozen bones to lay up someone like Luscin for that long.
“What kind of lies has that bitch been saying about me!”, explodes Luscin while abruptly standing.
“No, listen, it’s not like that. She’s worried about you and wants you to get away from whatever is hurting you. She’s seen the bruises you think you keep covered. Nobody misses that many days of study unless their home life stinks like the Downwind. Please stay, hear me out.”
“You said you had something for me, what is it? Tell me now,” sapphire eyes glowing with power!
“Ok, ok, just don’t hurt me,” pleads Alfie.
Luscin demeanor softens immediately. Alfie barely suppresses his urge to smile at how easy that was. Luscin has only ever heard those three words, ‘don’t hurt me’ in her head when Father is mad. Hearing someone else saying them because of her was chilling.
“I can introduce you to a Master, a duelist actually, but they take on students. You’ll have to work out payment and stuff, but I think you have a good chance. You’re young and strong, I’m sure she’ll overlook how reckless and scary you behave.”
Alfie pauses again to take stock of his handywork. Luscin is now trying to look as calm and unintimidating as possible. She really is gullible even for a five-year-old.
“All we need you to do is crawl through a window, pick up a chest and drop it down to the street below. None of us can do it because it’s too heavy for us. But not you, I bet you pick up super heavy stuff all the time, don’t you?”
Luscin, wanting to make amends for scaring Alfie, nods affirmative. She’s been lifting her mother, and all sorts of things considered heavy. Whenever she needs to lift something impossible, she somehow becomes stronger. She isn’t strong now, but she could be in an instant if she needed to be.
“What’s in the chest?”
“Coins, jewelry, a lot of gold. That’s why it’s so heavy.”
“Why do I have to drop it out the window?”
It’s an old strong box, locked tight. But the sides are wood reinforced with iron bands. A drop like that should bend the iron and pop at least one board loose.”
“What do you need it for?”
This part is important to make this work so has to be the absolute truth, “I feed and clothe my kids. We have twice as many brothers and sisters as last winter, we need coats and blankets and coal for the stove. I need that money so I can protect my little children.”
Luscin hearing those words, ‘protect my little children.’ warmed her very spirit. Alfie isn’t just a proper father to these kids; he is their Defender.
Eyes now wide and full of admiration, “Yes, I’ll do it.”
“Don’t you have one more question?”
Luscin stares blankly for a moment, “Oh, who am I robbing?”
“That’s the best part. It’s the mayor’s mother. She’s the one that closed the Thuma Orphanage. Because of her, Felix and I were put out in the streets when we were four. We had to fend for ourselves, that’s why we do this now, so no kids have to go through that alone again.” Every single word of that was a lie, but Luscin was all-in emotionally and would believe anything he said now.
“When do we do this, now?”
“No, no, we need to wait until the old hag isn’t home. That won’t be until the weekend. She has a vacation home on the shore, she spends half her days there, the other in her townhome. We’ll hit the townhome when we’re sure she’s gone.”
Alfie doesn’t even bother assessing Luscin at this point, “I bet Wendy is ready to go by now, you two should stay away from Downwind until we come collect you. We don’t want anyone wondering what you two are doing in here all the time.”
That sounded reasonable to Luscin, she agreed to stay away until the weekend.