Gideon left the smithy and all the noise behind him. “I probably should get some of my work done on the way to breakfast,” he muttered. He looked around to see what needed done. In his eyes, Rime was a beautiful city, even the lower districts and dockside. Not that he had ever seen the inside of the walled portion of Rime in the city proper, or the vast wealth of the upper districts. The favela was his home, and likely the poorest of the lower districts, but he liked it here. From here he could see beyond what the locals called Poverty Gate up above the smithy. The morning sun reflected off the marbled stone of the buildings of Rime Proper. He swore to himself for the thousandth time, he would get a license to gain access. It sure was pretty, the white marble jutted above the walls and created an almost blinding light.
He could see the winding trade road that snaked along the walls, through the gate and down to the docks. The trade road was used to transport exports to the docks and to bring shipments up into the city. There was a dirt access road that intersected the trade road in the lower districts near the dock. The access road traveled out of the city to the outer districts of Rime. These were the farms, tanners and other businesses that weren’t or couldn’t be practiced within the city. He shielded his eyes and looked higher still, up where the wealthy merchants, politicians, and the nobles lived. The Palace in the Clouds and the Academy of the Awakened decorated the mountainside. The city was massive in size, but from this vantage point he was able to take it all in, a truly spectacular view. “Beautiful,” he said.
One day I’m going to see the Upper Districts with my own two eyes. I’ll walk their streets. His normal path should have been through the academy, the school that everyone attended for a period of time for training prior to adulthood. Some went to learn to gain control of their abilities, to learn to harness the power of the void safely. Others went for the full training term, with hopes of becoming an adventurer, a master tradesman, or crafter. That is, everyone except those like him; Scamps as some called them, or the Voidless, people with no alpha path, no future, one of the worthless and unwanted. These strictures are what made him who he was today, an abandoned child that has only known the streets. Life wasn’t all bad he thought sardonically.
He had a job, he was a street sweeper. He maintained a small portion of the lower district’s streets and he did it with pride. His area within the favela was kept pristine. He worked for Captain Daniels, the highest ranking guardsmen in the lower districts. The captain took Gideon and others like him in under his wing and paid them a modest wage to keep their part of the city clean. Gideon could hear the captain in his head now as if he were standing right next to him. “You only live in the slums if you choose to believe that way. Treat your home with the respect she deserves and she will provide for you. Appreciate her streets or they will take their pound of flesh.”
Gideon didn’t know about appreciating the streets, but he appreciated Captain Daniels. He knew he survived this long because of the captain’s intervention. As for the rest, Gideon didn’t fully understand what the captain was getting at. He figured if he didn’t view his corner of Rime as the slums and helped keep his district clean, then he did his part. That’s what the captain meant as far as he was concerned. He turned the corner and bumped into someone, which was shortly followed by a barely perceptible tug. He snatched the hand before it could pull away. A pair of vibrant blue eyes stared back at him, “Oh it’s you,” a female voice said. “You don’t even have a purse to steal,” she then looked down away from his eyes. “Are you going to let me go, or are we going to hold hands all morning? You know most would buy me breakfast first, you’re being awfully presumptuous,” she said. She looked up and the smirk on her face matched the sarcastic tone she gave him.
“Raya, good morning. Oh, uh, um yeah sorry,” he stuttered as he released her hand. Raya was a tiny wisp of a girl with fine dark brown hair, blue eyes that reflected like the ocean, and button like features to go along with her petite form. Gideon had known her for many years. Like him, she was voidless. She was younger by at least a season. Unlike him, there was real hope that her alpha ability could awaken. His finger tips still tingled where he had held her hand. Why do I feel funny? Why did I like holding her hand? It did feel nice, he thought. He got stuck on that thought as he stared into her eyes, debating on taking her hand again. He did nothing and continued to stare like an idiot.
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“You okay there Gideon? I don’t know how you get by. If you have these brain farts all the time, it’s going to catch up to you. One mistake and your caught.” She made a cutting motion across her neck.
“You should talk! I just caught you red handed. I’ve told you to stop pick pocketing. It’s going to get you into big trouble one of these days.” He tried to control his anger because this is a conversation that they have had several times. Raya wouldn’t listen, and she would run off if he pressed too hard. Then it might be weeks before he saw her again. He didn’t want that. “There are so many ways for us to survive. Captain Daniels can help you…”
“I don’t want or need his help!” She said, interrupting Gideon. “I don’t need you to go on and on about the captain. He isn’t my savior, nobody is. I survive just fine on my own.”
Gideon knew this was a hopeless endeavor. Raya had a seeded distrust in men that grew and festered daily. He could see it becoming a burning hatred if it wasn’t dealt with some day. He had a feeling some of the older boys gave her a hard time. She was pretty and had started gaining some of there attention in recent years. She even viewed good men like Captain Daniels the same as these other boys, all bad. This made helping her that much more difficult. “Okay, no Captain Daniels. Is there anything I can help you with today. I have these few blocks to sweep this morning, but I find myself really busy. If you could maybe take care of my area, I could get paid by the captain and pass the coin to you?”
She bit her lip in thought as she fidgeted, balancing from one foot to the other. “You know, maybe your head isn’t broken. How much you plan on skimming for all my hard work? People don’t do things for me for free.”
Gideon could see the anticipation in her posture, she wanted to take his offer but still had reservations. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll skim a penny for my work as the middle man, but if you’re willing to hold my hand again sometime I might forget that I’m owed a little off the top.”
She blushed before she replied, “I might have been wrong, you’re heads still broken, but a penny sounds like a fair skim. I’ll get started right away. I know where to find you to collect.”
“I was just joking about the holding hands anyway,” he said with more fervor than intended. Gideon sighed knowing his minor flirting had been discarded without even a second thought. Was he really joking? He didn’t know because the words just slipped out. She sparked funny emotions in him and his thoughts weren’t always his own when she was around. He realized what else she had just said. “So you’ll do it!” he asked excitedly. She had surprised him by accepting the job. “That sounds good, make sure you do a good job. It was nice seeing you as always Raya, but I suppose I’ll be seeing you again soon. Don’t forget I owe you, so come find me.” Gideon realized this meant that Raya was going to come to his home. Come to see him. Sure it was to get coin, but still. They had never met up with each other before, not intentionally. In the past their interactions were casual encounters, things of pure coincidence. Sure, sometimes he had went to areas that he thought she might be. Always random, always in a street in the city. Never a personal visit. Maybe this was progress. “I hope to see you again real soon,” he said quietly to himself.
Gideon began to whistle as he walked away, leaving Raya to her work, or was it his work? Maybe it was a bridge to a new world? Today is already starting out as a good day. Lets see what else the streets bring, he thought. “Plan B, How am I going to earn a few coins for a meal now? I should probably think things through before I give away my job?” he said, talking to himself. His stomach growled and reminded him again that it was upset about not having breakfast.