The hope swelling within me was smothered.

"Um, I can't... my feet."

I wiggled my blistered, shoeless toes. Even if my feet weren’t injured, I didn’t think I could stand, let alone walk. The hunt had left me tired, starved, and sleep-deprived.

"Oh..."

She slipped her knife into a secret pocket in her skirt and leaned towards me.

"Hold on to me."

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, and she hoisted me in a one-armed bridal carry, leaving her left hand free. The fabric of her clothes was bone dry despite getting drenched with blood only a moment ago.

Outside the alleyway, heavy footfalls pounded on the cobblestone. They were close, and we were cornered.

Was she going to fight them with one hand?

The moonlight in the alleyway blinked out. A gust of wind swirled around us, running through my matted hair and brushing against my wet, bloody skin. The next moment, my stomach lurched as the woman jumped one, two, three stories in the air!

The sudden force snapped my head back and made the wind whistle in my ears. The force was then replaced by weightlessness as she reached the top of her jump and floated down to the rooftop of the neighbouring building. I didn't have time to catch my breath. She leaped forward, bounding from rooftop to rooftop with each step.

The wind wrapped around us, creating a pocket of air that made each footfall soundless and pushed her forward as she jumped. Bobbing up and down like a leaf caught in a summer gale, I was held tight in the woman's strong arms. Below us, the heads of torches danced as armoured guards flooded the streets of the Lower District—all to hunt down the person who killed Lord Severn.

Where were these guards when that noble was hunting down me and my friends?

The woman landed on the rooftop of a building overlooking the canal that split the city. The guards were blocking the closest bridge that led into the Upper District. She let me down onto the cool roof tiles and sat beside me. From the top of the roof's gradual slope, the city's skyline revealed itself. It was a sprawling view of steep rooftops and angular spires like rows of jagged teeth bared at the sky. And that sky. Was there anything more beautiful? The full moon washed the rooftops in its silvery light. A multitude of stars stared down at me, making me squirm.

I am nothing.

The realization came with the view, my station in life laid out before me. The alleyways of the Lower District that had become my world were small compared to the grandness of the capital, as seen by those at the top. The canal cut a neat line between the rich and the poor, the people worthy of respect and the people left to play in the trash. As I took in the view, the woman laid back, her hands behind her head.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Waiting."

"For what?"

She pointed at the bridge without looking.

"For those guards to leave."

"Oh... how long will that take?"

She shrugged.

"I don't know. Sometime before sunrise. You should rest while you can."

I shifted on the roof's surface. The slate tiles pinched my skin through my threadbare clothes.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For saving me! For showing me all this…"

I swept my hand over the skyline.

"Oh, is that all?"

"Can I ask you something?”

“If you have to.”

“What are you?"

She turned to look at me. Her veiled, expressionless face was unnerving.

"I am many things, nestling. I am the Claw, a warrior and a mage. Some call me Lady Sin; those close to me, just Sin."

A nervous giggle escaped my lips before I could catch myself.

"Hah! The Claw?"

She lifted one hand, curled her fingers to look like hawk's talons and grabbed my lips together. That made me laugh harder, my giggle coming from lower in my throat. Sin stifled her laughter, but it wasn't long until she broke, laughing with me in a way that mirrored my own. As the laughter died down, my stomach sank. If only Kirk and the others were here with me.

"Was that noble a mage too?"

"Yes, a Landbound mage."

There was an edge of disgust in her voice.

"Why was he hunting us?"

Sin shifted on the tiles, uncomfortable for the first time since I met her.

“In the Abyssal Lands, all souls are equal, and all souls are valuable—even yours, nestling. Unwanted children make for easy targets and valuable commodities for men like him.”

“Oh…”

I didn’t understand most of what she said, but one word stood out. Equal.

I am equal.

It was a strange idea.

“And that blood! And you’re flying! Is that magic?!”

“What else would it be?”

There was a hardness to her voice that made me recoil.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“You’re mad at me.”

“I’m not mad. I’m… annoyed. You ask a lot of questions. How old are you?”

“The caretakers think an eight.”

“Hmph. That lines up.”

“What lines up?”

“What did I say about questions?”

I clapped a hand over my mouth.

Sin laughed.

"What's your name?"

"Jacob."

"No last name?"

I paused.

"No."

"Good. Now sleep."

# # #

Sin shook me awake a few hours later. The orange hues spreading across the sky told me it was dawn. As she predicted, the guards were gone.

"How did you know?"

She looked down at the vacant bridge.

"The guards of this city are easy to predict. To them, it's no fun waiting around while others get to crack skulls.”

Sin giggled.

“I agree with them. So, they focused on locking down the area until they had the numbers to do a full sweep of the Lower District."

I swallowed hard. I had seen the aftermath of these sweeps on the bodies of older beggars—the broken bones that weren't quite healed, the indents in the skin left by iron-tipped boots.

“We’re leaving. Hold on to me.”

Sin picked me up and floated off the rooftop with a gust of wind. Holding me tight, she moved in silence across the bridge into the capital's Upper District. The differences between the Lower and Upper districts were clear at a glance. The streets were spotless and well-lit by lanterns strung from black iron poles. The buildings were bigger and well-maintained. I gaped at each one until Sin stopped in front of a three-story mansion. She set me down on my feet, making me wince as one of my blisters popped.

Sin knocked on the mansion's mahogany door three times, looked at me and did a double take. She ran her jacket sleeve across my face. The dried blood crusted on my skin vanished into the red fabric.

"Follow my lead," she whispered.

Sin turned back to the door, arching her back to push her breasts forward while sticking out her butt. She clasped her hands together as if they would break under the slightest pressure. She held her chin so high it stretched the red stocking around her neck and added an inch to her height. With four simple adjustments, the killer died, and the noblewoman was born.

Just in time.

With a loud creak, the door opened.