When we return to Iain, we get a very summarized overview of what is going to happen. There’s be five groups, each led by one of the older kids, and one by me.
We’ll travel to the market together, but once there, we’ll split up to avoid too much attention. Honestly, I struggle to imagine how a group of 5 children without any adults nearby will not attract attention, but maybe things are different here? I suppose the old ones give it some kind of elder brother/sister effect?
I’m in a group with Mairi, two younger children, and the red haired girl that I and Rhona rushed to comfort earlier. She’s calmed down somewhat by now, even if she does still looks quite unhappy about what we’re going to do. She furtively checks around her, as if hoping to see all preparations suddenly broken off because someone thought better of the whole idea.
No situation like that materializes though, and eventually everyone seems ready to depart.
Before we leave, Rhona calls Iain, Eilidh, Calum and me over to have one more conversation. “You bring them back you hear me?” she says as she narrows her eyes at all of us in turn. I, and three other heads around me bob in unison. None of us have plans for anything less, but Rhona clearly isn’t satisfied. She pulls Calum and Eilidh towards herself, then nearly whispers so that nobody but us can hear it “At any cost. Am I clear?”
Iain looks like he wants to say something to that, but Rhona apparently knows what to expect, as she cuts him off with a glance. “We are not losing anyone else!” she practically spits. I see Iain barely stop himself from rolling his eyes, but he drops whatever was on his mind.
Eilidh looks down for a moment, seemingly staring at her shoes, but shooting glances at where I know she has a pair of daggers hidden beneath her ragged clothes. She clenches her fists, but then looks back into Rhona’s eyes and nods sharply. Calum just smiles nonchalantly and waves a sloppy salute. Unlike Iain, Rhona does absolutely nothing to suppress her immediate eye roll, but is apparently satisfied.
She looks at me with a more gentle expression, “If there is trouble, call out for Calum or Eilidh.” I nod again. I have zero confidence in my own ability to handle anything more than basic issues at this point in time.
Rhona dismisses us and we all quickly walk back to our respective groups.
The implications of this conversation were a lot larger than I expected. What exactly are they planning to do if one of these kids gets caught? What has happened to caught kids in the past that provokes such extreme measures? I’m fairly certain that was Rhona saying something to the tune of “Kill the fuckers if you have to, but make sure my kids are safe.”
When I get back, Mairi seems excited to get going, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She’s regaling the two boys and girl with her grand plans for today. “You see, there’s this store, and I’m sure, if we just… it’s simple! It’s all shiny, and probably worth a lot!… The back door… There’s barely any guards there!” there’s a lot said in her rapid speech, but I think she’s proposing they liberate a bunch of jewelry? From what little I can grasp, it isn’t even a bad plan. Certainly better than I’d expect from an 8 year old. It still sounds like an absolutely terrible idea, especially after what Rhona just told us.
Mairi doing it herself? Bad idea. Her trying to do it with a bunch of younger kids with zero experience? If I didn’t know better I’d say she were trying to get them killed.
I raise my hand, to try and interrupt Mairi, but before I can do so, an angry voice interjects sharply, “Mairi, no! No shiny stuff!” I realize that Rhona has followed me, and has been listening to Mairi too. Mairi jerks her gaze to Rhona guiltily, and her face drops. Apparently Rhona knows the little girl well enough to expect this kind of thing? She expands on her previous statement “You will stick with food!”
Mairi is clearly unwilling, “But…” Apparently she sees something in Rhona’s gaze, because her eyes widen momentarily and she doesn’t continue whatever she was about to say. “Okay” she instead agrees immediately.
Rhona taps me on the shoulder, and motions at Mairi “That’s your task.” Somehow I do not feel it’s an easy one. The moment Rhona’s attention left her, Mairi has jumped back into convincing the others that watermelons, though clearly too big for any of the children to carry with any confidence, would make a very tempting target.
I’m not sure if I should be happy that the girl turns her attention to petty thievery with this group instead of more… well, lucrative, opportunities, because this city would be in for a great deal of pain if she were to combine that talent and enthusiasm she has for her occupation with that natural presence, and grew up into something far worse.
I’m momentarily reminded of Locke, and wonder if that’s what the future holds for Mairi.
Rhona probably realizes this too, and if I understand her thinking correctly, that’s why she limits what Mairi is allowed to do. It could be really good for them, but if she got caught? I imagine people care a great deal less about the relatively abundant food being stolen than the expensive jewelry Mairi intended to take. And how would they get rid of it? Maybe the older kids or Mairi herself have connections that would let them do that?
Anyway, my task is to stop her from doing it, and that’s one I actually feel confident in accomplishing. She may be impulsive, but Mairi is definitely not stupid.
image [https://pub-43e7e0f137a34d1ca1ce3be7325ba046.r2.dev/Group.png]
We leave together, and while we’re moving as one group, it’s not as bad as I expected. The one group is mostly a reference to us all having one of the others in our sight at any other time, but it’s more of a careful weaving through the city than a whole throng of kids marching to the market.
It’s actually impressive how well this crowd of children blends in. When one of them looks a bit conspicuously alone, someone else steps in front to take the attention. When one of the little ones falls behind, there’s always one of the older children there to help. They move through the city like a well oiled machine, and I wonder if they don’t practice for this kind of thing despite Rhona’s claims that she doesn’t involve the younger kids.
Of course, it’s always possible they’re just used to this because they’ve been doing it since way before they came to be part of Rhona’s bunch. That’s not a happy thought, and I don’t dwell on it further.
Having spent several weeks in their little hideout makes me happy to be back out in the city. It’s not like that time was miserable, it was quite nice, but there’s something to be said for being amongst the people. Unlike the kids, I don’t really have to be worried that I’ll be accosted. As long as the stupid scarf stays in place anyway. Who knows whether people will decide to run or fight if I suddenly appear in the market out of nowhere.
Knowing what I know now, I guess it would be flight? Or maybe they’d fight if it was the middle of the market and they suspect a massive slaughter or something? Some day I really need to find out why these ‘scouts’ are so feared. It’s never been a term that I associated with someone terribly competent at fighting.
I’m especially impressed by Mairi. She’s everywhere at the same time, guiding a child one moment. Eyeing the goods laid out in a stall the next. Some of the people she passes by on the street actually seem to know her, and their reactions range from nervous, to apprehensive, to jovial greetings.
Calum appears from somewhere, and taps me on the shoulder, a smirk on his face as he nods at Mairi. “As you can see, there’s another reason we paired you with her.” I’m not sure what exactly he means, but I can guess. “You just watch, and learn,” he adds. Jup, there it is. I’m forced to concur. Mairi does things that I’m absolutely incapable of doing.
It’s a bit bizarre really. I’ve had this feeling before when watching children contort themselves in the weirdest ways to climb some playground tower or something, backwards, with a single hand, for reasons only known to them. Looking at Mairi feels something like that. I can’t imagine myself ever doing something like it, but I’m impressed by the ability to do so.
image [https://pub-43e7e0f137a34d1ca1ce3be7325ba046.r2.dev/Group.png]
At long last, we finally reach the market. It’s actually been only like 10 minutes walk, but it felt like a long time. Surprisingly enough, we’re in the outer city. I’d kind of expected the market they were talking about to be in the rich area, but maybe that’s too hot of a location to try stealing?
The market itself consists of a fairly large square filled with several rows of stalls. I’d sort of imagined it as a mishmash of all kinds of stands crammed together every which way, but it’s actually fairly well-organized. That’s not counting the large crowd of people dispersed through the market, making it hard to navigate without constantly bumping into people.
The five groups have now fully dispersed, and we’ve banded together in our little group. It’s just me, Mairi, the red-haired girl, and two energetic boys aged six and seven. “Just let me distract them,” Mairy whispers to us all, "then when you have a chance, you grab the stuff and disappear!” She motions somewhere at the edge of the market, “After you deliver it to grumpy Iain”—this elicits a small laugh from the two boys, at which I can’t help but smile—“come straight back!”
I guess Iain is somewhere back there gathering everything up? It feels like it might be a bit dangerous gathering it all in one location, but I guess it works for them. Not really the time to run off and ask clarification now, though I should ask about that later.
Both of the boys nod seriously, clearly anticipating their heroic exploits. The red-haired girl is still hesitant though. Mairi bends down in front of her, so that their eyes are at the same level, then she turns the girl to look at a nearby stall with cheeses. “See that small round one in the red cloth right at the edge?”, the girl hesitantly raises her hand to point, but Mairi stops it and softly says “No pointing, they’d notice us in a second.” I’m surprised she’s even seen the cheese she’s talking about, as she has had her back to the stall the whole time we’ve been here.
The girl glances between Mairi’s eyes, and the round cheese on the stall, and hesitantly nods. Mairi’s voice is surprisingly gentle when she tells the girl “That’s your target for today. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, just take it when you are ready.” It’s clear she’s not entirely convinced yet, but Mairi ruffles her hair as she stands up “Just do your best, it’ll be fine.” For a moment, I’m worried she’ll reject it, but then I see the girl glance at the two boys, Mairi, and finally me for reassurance. Before I know it, I’ve given her the small nod that she’s clearly seeking. Thus reassured, she visibly firms her small frame, and locks her eyes on her target.
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My mind is a bit of a conflicted mess though. I might have happily eaten the stolen goods before, and stolen myself, but those are apparently different to telling a 6 year old girl that it’s fine to steal. Part of me thinks I’m being ridiculous. You only need one look at the girl, then the fat merchant behind the stall to see who needs the cheese more—the act could nearly be considered noble, since she’s stealing it to feed others. The other part feels that I’m sliding deeper and deeper into a hole that I’m not sure I can ever dig myself out of. In a pattern that is becoming familiar, I’m not so much disturbed by the act itself, as the easy with which I take to it.
What causes that? Steal, check. Loot the bodies, check. Killed a man, check. Take a sword to an angry woman, check. I blame computer games, but was this always who I was? Am I just a victim of circumstance and is this something anyone would do in my situation?
Seeing the children around me preparing to do as much would lead me to conclude the latter, but it still feels off.
Mairi doesn’t wait for me to finish my ruminations, and instead darts off to do her thing. The way she weaves between the stalls, variously making the vendors nervous, or getting enthusiastically greeted, makes me feel like this is not her first time visiting this market. It does makes me question what it is those nervous vendors are afraid of. It hardly seems like she can have a reputation for stealing and still walk around like this.
Her circuitous route takes her past a variety of stalls on her way to the cheese seller, making it seem as if she’s just browsing, which looks kind of odd to me for an 8 year old, but somehow she makes it seem natural. When I consider it, I notice there’s more children out on the market, and some of them seem to be on some variety of chores, lugging bags or sacks around. I suppose children didn’t get to spend their whole childhood just playing in this era.
Then the moment comes when she reaches the stall of her target, I realize I haven’t moved from my location at all, and that the other kids have slipped away while I was following Mairi with my gaze. From the corner of my vision, knowing what I need to look for, I see them sneaking sideways through the crowd. The boys going the opposite side from the girl, and with a lot more confidence, pretending to be chasing each other, or actually chasing each other. Either way it looks natural. The girl in contrast looks extremely timid, but in the market with so many kids going about their chores, she still stands out as very young, so I suppose that might look natural too. If she were supposed to buy something from the man instead of steal it anyway.
When Mairi reaches the stall, she is immediately greeted enthusiastically. Apparently this is one of the merchants that know and like Mairi. She launches into an dramatic spiel about having run out of cheese midway through the week, and having to make do with the scraps from last week until she could manage to visit him again.
I can’t imagine he buys that for a second considering the clothes she’s wearing. There is no way that Mairi is able to buy cheese when she doesn’t even have the money to buy clean clothes. But… is that true here? There’s an awful lot of farms out there with animals producing dairy, and mountains of space to store ripening cheese in. So maybe it’s not nearly as expensive as it was in my era? Relative to clothes anyway. Of course if Mairi doesn’t buy fancy designer clothes, a clean t-shirt was about as expensive as a pound of cheese.
The thought of the girl in the ratty tunic with outfitted in jeans and t-shirt brings a smile to my face. And then I notice that the cheese in the red cloth at the side of the stall is gone! I momentarily swing my gaze about trying to locate the little girl, before realizing that is probably a terrible idea. Hopefully she’s making her way to Iain now.
I keep my out for any disturbances, but nothing seems out of the ordinary, and the merchant seems none the wiser. Mairi is making a huge show out of finding a new cheese to buy, and I wonder whether she actually bought a cheese last week. It would certainly make the story more believable. But where would she… and then I remember her talking about stealing shinies, and I wonder if she truly sticks with just food. Maybe Rhona doesn’t care, or pretends not to notice when there’s no other children involved?
This time I’m paying attention, and when Mairi reaches the side of the stall opposite where the boys are still waiting, apparently having a fight in the dirt, she appears to finally select a block of cheese, and starts haggling with the merchant about it. He grins, and—as all good merchants do—launches into a spiel about having to feed all of his seven children. The moment he does, the fight stops, and two smaller pieces of cheese disappear, after which the boys are off again, chasing each other into the crowd. I’m amazed at all the people around not having noticed anything. Apparently completely oblivious to the existence of the children.
Eventually, after what seems like much longer than I thought they would go on for, Mairi sighs, and pulls out two of the square copper coins. My eyes boggle at the absurdly low price of the cheese. That’s a pound! More even. I realize I stayed at an inn and paid just three for the privilege of staying and eating breakfast, but… is there actually a smaller denomination of coin? It seems to me bread should be cheaper than cheese, and you can hardly pay less than a single coin. Do they just increase the portion sizes to make it work?
I shake my head, and find the merchant looking at Mairi with a knowing smirk, while Mairi is staring at me with wide eyes, clearly completely thrown off her game for a moment. I have no idea what’s going on until she seems to recover, turns back to the merchant, and says “Oh, yeah, that’s my mother.”
It’s my turn to stare. I suppose that would work age wise, and that I haven’t been all that inconspicuously following everything she was doing for a while now. Mairi whispers something to the merchant that I can’t catch, which causes a short burst of mirth on his part, and she motions me over.
Not knowing what else to do, I comply. Better follow her lead for now. This isn’t my strong suit, I was always the one making things happen, not the one that talked to the suits.
When I reach Mairi’s side, the merchant looks me up and down, “It’s nice to finally meet little Mairi’s mother, I was beginning to think she didn’t have one.” I smile a bit awkwardly, that’s closer to the truth than he probably expects. I haltingly reply “Tha Màiri glè neo-eisimeileach.”
Mairi scoffs, “Ha! You just don’t want to go to the market yourself.” I’m momentarily speechless again, and the merchant barks out a laugh. “Quite a mouth on this one eh?” I shrug helplessly, beginning to enjoy this game, as long as it’s going to follow this standard introductory stuff, I might as well. “I don’t know what do do.”
“Well, she selected a most fine cheese if I say so myself. Not many have… something for cheese.” That last bit escaped me, never having heard a similar term from the children. Mairi has the decency to look embarrassed at the praise, or maybe she’s just pretending, it’s impossible to tell. She mutters half under her breath, but loud enough for both me and the merchant to hear it “I just like cheese is all…”
I chuckle, I haven’t seen any sign of that in the past few weeks, but who knows what’s true. It’s not like I’ve been paying careful attention to her eating habits.
Some other person comes up to the stall, and the merchant excuses himself to go tend to a new customer. Mairi, not falling out of her role, presents the cheese to me with a beaming smile, “Look what I got!”
I smile back at her, and tell her to keep hold of that for now. Mostly because I don’t want to lug a half pound cheese around, but partially because she seems to want to.
As we start making our way away from the stall, we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by a host of other men and women, some of them apparently having left their stalls to confront us. No, not us. Nobody is sparing Mairi a glance, they’re all looking at me. What have I done wrong? I check my scarf, but it’s still firmly in place. There is no way they can see my hair. Then what…?
An answer is not long in presenting itself though “So. You are the mother of this little menace?” an old woman with a pinched face speaks to me through gritted teeth. Oh. I guess that came back to bit us in the ass? It’s odd to realize that I’m actually feeling relieved. It just feels like a situation that’s within my ability to deal with.
I look down at Mairi questioningly, whom seems to shrink into herself, and for some reason the sight makes my blood boil. Where is the confident little girl that just bought a cheese for me? I have no doubt she’d have handled this perfectly fine if I weren’t here. The merchants didn’t even approach until we pulled out little stunt. Is this one of those dark things that I don’t know about in Mairi’s past?
I glare at the woman facing us, and practically spit “Yes, and what of it?!” The woman is momentarily taken aback at my reaction, clearly not having expected that. She quickly recovers and launches into a long tirade about all of Mairi’s wrongdoings over the years. Some of the others around occasionally interject or agree, but I’m frankly just not really listening to it.
Instead my attention is purely on Mairi, whom clearly expected something entirely different to happen. When I tore into the woman instead, she pressed herself against me, trembling, and clutching my dress with white-knuckled hands.
I just, I’ve never had children, can’t rightly say whether this feeling is normal, but… Whatever this woman is saying, it’s clear to me that it’s way out of proportion to anything Mairi could have done to her. I could… reprimand Mairi, and the lady would probably just go away. But that feels… disgusting in a way that I could never forgive myself for. Like it’s so fundamentally wrong that anything I’ve done so far pales in comparison.
So I do the only thing one can do in such a situation, I channel my inner Karen, and… well, I’m not sure exactly what I say, but it would make any suburban soccer mom proud. I’m not proud to say… well, fuck that, I enjoy the hell out of it. The way the lady is just getting steadily more uncertain, and the way that Mairi is giving me this incredulous look that tells me she never expected anyone—besides Rhona maybe—to get so viciously angry on her behalf. It feels good. It’s one of the few times since I came to this world, when I know, just know, that I’m doing something unequivocally right.
All the complainants eventually give up and leave, deciding it’s not worth their time. Mairi is still clutching me, no longer trembling but still sobbing a little. I embrace her, and just hold her for a bit, not knowing what else to do. Maybe if I were an actual parent I’d have some idea of what to do now? Or maybe if I were Mairi wouldn’t have to go through this in the first place. I find myself detesting whoever Mairi’s actual parents were. I don’t know what they did, but…
Finally, Mairi pulls back a bit, looks at me, wipes the snot off her face, then seems to consider what to say, “That was…” but she doesn’t finish the sentence, instead shaking the remaining tears out of her eyes. “Lets just go, mom?” There’s the hint of a question in that last word, one that carries a lot more weight than the words would imply. She’s not just continuing her charade her.
I could correct her, and tell her it was just pretend, that I’m not really her mother, and that the pretend is now over. But after all that just happened? I can’t deny her this. It’s just not possible. I smile at her, and pat her head. She might be a masterful thief, but in these situation it’s clear that she’s also very much an 8 year old child that misses her mother. I’m not sure if just the fact that an adult is around brings it out, or that I just pretended to be, or maybe specifically that I defended her just now. The reasons don’t really matter. I peel her hand of my skirt, grasp it in mine and say “Lets go home.”
As we make our way out of the market, Mairi is walking confidently again, occasionally waving at the merchants she seems to know, whom wave back, but are obviously confused by my presence. It’s hard not to notice that she hasn’t let go her death grip on my hand.
Eventually, Mairi takes the lead, and drags me to where Iain is waiting. I realize that I had no idea where he actually was, and am happy that Mairi recovered enough to do so.
There’s actually a fairly large haul there, and I’m happy that the place they decided to gather is nearly as sheltered as their actual hideout.
Eilidh is keeping watch, and gives Mairi a quizzical look when she sees her hand in mine, but Mairi just look confidently back. When Rhona notices, there’s a slight narrowing of her eyes, but it disappears almost as quickly as it appeared, and I find myself wondering if I imagined it. Regardless, it’s clear Mairi is proclaiming something here, but I’m not sure what.
Whatever, it won’t change my implicit promise to her, or my explicit one to Rhona. I’m not just going to disappear on either of them.