"Gosh it's exciting, isn't it? And such beautiful weather to be setting out with, it's almost too perfect."

Sophia was lacing up her boots—big, heavy, dark brown leather travelling boots with complicated laces. She looked up at Alicia as she struggled with them.

"You're ready, aren't you?" she asked.

"I've been ready for some time," said Alicia, not allowing even the trace of impatience to enter her voice.

"Sorry, I should have practised with these clothes first—but I wanted to wait until I was setting off before I put them on. Um ... there, that seems fine."

"They're too loose," said Alicia, as Sophia straightened.

"Pardon?"

"They're too loose, you'll get blisters if you wear them like that. Here."

Sophia stiffened as Alicia knelt beside her, quickly and deftly undoing the laces then retying them tightly.

"Isn't that a little TOO tight?" Sophia asked, as Alicia tugged at the laces.

"Nah, you've gotta have it like this to start. Probably you should've started breaking them in before we set out proper. Too late for that now though."

"Oh," said Sophia, looking down at her boots. "Well, I suppose you're right, it's too late to worry about that kind of thing now. How about the rest of my clothes?"

Alicia looked Sophia over. She had on her new boots, of course, and a pair of black trousers, and a fine dark red shirt with a wide, slightly ruffled collar. Over this she wore a splendid dark brown frock coat which reached almost to her knees. On her head was a cream-coloured cloth cap, and she'd tied her ash-blonde hair into a short, sensible ponytail. As Alicia watched, Sophia picked up a sturdy tan leather satchel and slung it over her shoulder to complete the ensemble.

"Well, you look good, that's not in question," said Alicia.

"Oh, thank you!" Sophia did a little twirl, then smiled shyly at Alicia. "You look good, too."

Alicia was dressed in a black sleeveless vest, sturdy-looking tan linen trousers, fingerless black leather gloves and somewhat odd slippers—they were made of soft red leather, the colour faded and dull with age, and were split at the toes, reminiscent of a cow's hoof. She also had on a mercenary's pack, a kind of half-backpack that nestled into the lower back, small and flat and made of soft strong cloth. This in addition to a small green canvas satchel.

"This is just my usual gear," said Alicia, looking down at herself. "Nothing special, just what I'm comfortable with."

"Don't your arms get cold?"

"Sometimes, but that sort of stuff doesn't bother me."

"I wish I was so sturdy," said Sophia. "I know it's getting warmer now but even so I'm a little bit nervous about how cold it might get. Do other places get colder than Unity?"

"Dunno, haven't been here that long. Aegis gets pretty cold in the winter, though."

"I suppose I can always buy more clothes later if I need them. Um, for you too, if you want. I mean, you're my bodyguard and I know I'm paying you, but I don't mind buying you things you need. Um, can I ask, those knives—"

"These old things?" Alicia had them drawn in an instant. "Pretty usual for couriers, nothing special about 'em."

"Oh. I thought maybe they'd have some story behind them. The black and white, um, what do you call them, is that the hilt? Do those colours have a special meaning?"

"Nah, used to have both of 'em black but I lost one. Picked up this white guy to replace it. Dunno why, just thought it'd be more interesting to have 'em different. Lot of couriers have lucky colours, not me though." Alicia grinned at Sophia. "I make my own luck."

"Do all couriers use that kind of knife?"

"Yeah, pretty much. They're nice and light and don't get in the way even if you're running, not like a sword or something would. Don't have to think about these guys until I need 'em." Alicia gazed at her knives, then had them back in their sheaths. "Girl's gotta have someone looking out for her, right?"

Sophia smiled at Alicia. "Should we get going?" she said. "I'm quite keen to set off!"

"You're the boss."

"I suppose I am, but don't think of me like that," said Sophia. "Let's just travel like friends, okay?"

Alicia almost said something, but just smiled brightly and nodded instead.

"Okay, then." Sophia couldn't suppress an excited little giggle. "Let's go!"

"Are you gonna say goodbye to your parents first?"

"I already did that this morning, they're not even here right now."

Again, Alicia almost said something but stopped herself.

"Anyway," said Sophia, as she looked around her room one last time. "I don't think I'm going to get more ready. First stop, Unity!"

"What? We're already here, though."

"I know, but I've never really been anywhere except the rich parts of the city. I want to go to the poorer parts and see how people live."

"Well," said Alicia, as she shouldered her bag, "if you say so."

----------------------------------------

"To be quite honest I don't see what was so wrong about it. I was just buying an apple, for goodness sake."

Alicia's mouth tightened, then she forced herself to relax.

"It's just ... look," she said, "when you do anything in a place like this, you've gotta keep it quiet, understand?"

"I don't think I was particularly noisy."

"It's not just your voice, it's ... it's how you look, and what you say, and the way you move, and using a gold piece to pay for an apple is—"

"I only HAD gold pieces, I have lots of change now, though—"

"Yeah, I noticed, you cleaned that stall owner out. Did you notice he short-changed you?"

"He what?"

"Counted the same silver three times, for a second there I thought he might try for a fourth."

Sophia pulled out her purse and clinked through the coins inside, then her mouth went thin and hard.

"Right," she said. "Well, I'm going to just have to give him a thorough talking-to—"

"That's just what I was talking about. Pulling your purse out in the middle of the street like that, it's just asking for trouble. And you can't go argue things now, apart from anything else this is his house."

Sophia frowned. "He lives on the street?"

"Nah, this area, this is where he lives and works, right? All these people around, they know him—and I'll bet you whatever you like that he never even thinks of cheating any of 'em. You try anything and you're gonna find yourself real alone real fast."

"You mean you'd abandon me?"

"No, I mean all these locals are gonna gang up on the rich uptown type who's arguing with one of their own."

"'Rich uptown type'?"

"Well ... yeah, I mean ... that's why he cheated you. Look, you wanted to learn about the world, right? Think of this as a start. Expensive apple, cheap lesson."

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Sophia pursed her lips a little. "I suppose it's just a couple of silver," she said.

"Yeah, not like you ain't—whoops."

"What, 'whoops'?"

"You know how I just said about keeping quiet? About how pulling out your purse in the middle of the street's not a great idea?"

"Yes?"

Alicia pointed past Sophia. Sophia turned, but couldn't see anything out of place, just a busy, bustling, afternoon street in one of the poorer parts of Unity city.

"What?" she said.

"You couldn't see him? He's gone now, ducked into that alley up there, there was a guy wearing a brown cloak and green leggings. You really didn't see him? He was the one with 'I just pinched some rich girl's purse' written all over his swagger."

"WHAT?"

Sophia's hand flew to her pocket, which was flat and empty. She stared at Alicia.

"Well?" she said, after a second. "Don't just stand there, get after him!"

"Eh, not really my job. I'm just supposed to protect you, not your money."

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, but the way I see it leaving you alone here's gotta be worse than you losing a few coins."

Sophia's face was flushed now, her expression angry.

"Fine!" she said. "I suppose I'LL have to go after him, then. Which alley was it?"

"Are you crazy? He's well gone!"

Sophia was looking up the street, standing on tip-toes to try to see through the crowds of people.

"That one up there, I assume." She shot Alicia an annoyed glance, then she was away, awkwardly making her way along the crowded street. Alicia watched her for a moment, then clucked her tongue and started after her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Alicia demanded, as she smoothly slipped through the crowds, close to where Sophia was clumsily (but politely) pushing forward. "What are you gonna do even if you catch him, ask nicely if he might consider giving your money back?"

"I don't know. But I can't just do nothing. Apparently I'm not like SOME people."

"You don't even have a weapon!" Alicia side-stepped around a large man then ran to catch up to Sophia, managing to grab her arm just in front of the alley.

"Sometimes," said Sophia, trying to pull away, "it's better NOT to have a weapon."

"What?"

Sophia tugged free of Alicia's grip. "I'll be seen as less of a threat," she said, as she started into the alleyway, which was narrow and littered with garbage. She hesitated as the smell hit her, then pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and held it to her face as she walked in, Alicia close behind.

"You don't want to seem LESS of a threat," Alicia said, as she neatly avoided stepping in a dead cat, "in this type of place you need to make yourself as big as you possibly can!"

"Oh? I thought you had to be 'quiet'."

"This is different now! Once there's trouble you ... look, just give up on your purse, okay? That guy'll never be stupid enough to—oh, what kind of thieves do you have in this city?" Alicia cried, as they rounded a corner into a squarish area formed by the backs of a couple of buildings, to see the thief standing with Sophia's purse in his hands, staring into it. He looked up sharply at Alicia's voice, scowling as he glanced around—he realised that he was blocked in by the two girls at just about the same time they did. The purse disappeared, replaced by a long knife—little more than a bit of sharpened metal, but no less scary for that. As Sophia stared, and Alicia sighed and drew her own knives, the thief assumed a low stance, carefully advancing on them, his step assured and smooth.

"He's good," Alicia hissed to Sophia. "Get back a ways, looks like I've gotta guard you now."

"I'm sure this doesn't have to turn violent," Sophia replied, her face pale but her voice strong. "This is a situation ripe for negotiation, something I happen to be quite good at."

"WHAT?" Alicia stared at Sophia, then turned her attention to the thief, who was less than a dozen metres away now. "Buddy, hold up there," she called out, her voice hard but not unfriendly. "We don't want any trouble."

"Exactly," Sophia added. To Alicia's shock she smiled at the thief, and spread her arms wide. "I'm unarmed, and I don't know the first thing about fighting."

"Well don't TELL him that!"

"But it's clear," Sophia continued, as the thief stared at her, "that both you and I want something. I want my money back, and you want to get out of here unharmed." Sophia half-turned to indicate Alicia. "I happen to have with me one of the greatest fighters in the world." Alicia gritted her teeth—it didn't escape her notice that the thief had gotten over his shock and was now advancing on them again, slowly but surely getting nearer and nearer. "Now, I'm sure you know how to use that ... knife, I suppose it is, but let me assure you, Alicia here—"

"Shut up," Alicia hissed, her eyes fixed on the thief as he approached—only half a dozen metres away now, his own eyes flicking between her and Sophia.

"—could certainly give—excuse me?"

"Shut up and get back!"

"Really now, I—AAH!"

Sophia screamed as the thief came at her, bringing her arms up instinctively as he slashed out at her—at first it felt like an intense impact, like he'd struck her with a hammer rather than slashed her with a knife, but then came the pain, cold and sharp and overwhelming, and she felt the wetness on her arms, and then another impact—he's killing me, said the tiny rational part of her brain that wasn't busy screaming and sobbing and flailing wildly along with the rest of her. He's stabbing me and slashing me and I've gone into shock so I can't feel it, and soon I won't feel anything any more because I'll be dead. When did I fall over?

"Come on, get up. Come on, I said, that's not more than a nick."

Sophia blinked, and the tiny rational part of her brain suddenly received and subsequently processed a large amount of information all at once, and at the same time she realised that the rational part of her brain WASN'T tiny, it was pretty big, actually, and in fact—

With Alicia's help, Sophia got to her feet. For a moment she just stood there, then she was about to say something like 'Oh, you're right, actually there's not much pain at all' before she realised that this would be perhaps the biggest lie she'd ever tell.

"It hurts!" Sophia wailed, as Alicia took firm hold of her wrists and tried to examine her wounds.

"Stop thrashing around like that! What's the matter with you, never been—well I guess you haven't. Stop squirming anyway, you're embarrassing yourself."

Eventually Sophia managed to calm herself down from 'wailing incoherently' to 'sniffing and hiccupping and letting out a shuddering kind of semi-sob from time to time', and Alicia managed to get a good look at where she'd been cut.

"Like I thought, it ain't bad," Alicia said after she'd finished, as Sophia examined the cuts herself—there seemed to be an awful lot of blood, which she wasn't exactly comfortable with, especially seeing as it was HER blood. "Long cuts, but real shallow—your coat helped you out there. I reckon we should find a healer anyway, get you cleaned up and dealt with proper."

Sophia appeared not to have heard Alicia, she was still staring at her arms. The bleeding had slowed to a seep, this helped by the cloth of her shirt being stuck to her skin by blood. She drew in a long, shuddering breath, forcing herself to be calm and controlled and sensible and tough.

"What do we do?" she wailed. "I don't even have any bandages!"

Alicia sighed.

"Come on," she said roughly, as she put a hand on Sophia's shoulder and gently encouraged her to start walking. "Just follow me, you'll be all right."

----------------------------------------

"YOU KEPT ALL YOUR MONEY IN ONE PLACE?"

"I ... but you didn't ... I thought ... I mean I didn't..."

The healer looked from one girl to the other.

"Well," he said mildly, "I hope someone's able to pay me. Otherwise I'm going to have to take this scalpel and open those wounds right up again."

Sophia stared at him, unsure whether he was joking or not, then looked at Alicia pleadingly.

"Could you ... could you please lend me some money?" she asked. Alicia glared at Sophia, then she made an annoyed noise and reached for her purse.

Several minutes later they were out on the street once more. The sun was only just visible in the sky and everything was beginning to go soft and warm; even this poor part of the city looked inviting and friendly in the golden hour before sunset. This was a quiet area and there were only a few other people on the street, all of them hurrying some place or another.

As soon as they left the healer Alicia started away immediately, arms held out a little way from her body.

"Alicia, please don't walk so fast! I'm still recovering!"

Sophia's injuries weren't bad, not requiring much more than a few bandages, but they still hurt quite a lot, and she felt a little bit dizzy and a little bit sick. Alicia stopped and waited, not looking back, until Sophia had caught up, then she started walking again.

"And, um, I don't like to have to bring this up," said Sophia, "but I am sort of in charge here, I should be the one saying where we're going."

"I thought that'd be obvious," said Alicia, still not looking back. "Your home."

After a few seconds she stopped.

"What?" she said. After a further second she turned her head to see that Sophia was standing with her hands clasped together, her back straight and her face set.

"Why would I be going back there?" Sophia said, her voice just as firm as her expression. "I just left this morning. I have a lot more travelling to do, I've barely even begun."

Alicia turned to face Sophia properly.

"What?" she repeated.

"I think we should probably find somewhere to sleep for the night," said Sophia briskly. Alicia gaped at her.

"You haven't got any money!" she cried. "You're hurt!"

"That's no reason to give up," said Sophia. "It just makes things a little harder, that's all."

"Where are you going to sleep? In the gutter?"

"I thought perhaps an alleyway or a park? Somewhere out of the way?"

"Are you crazy?"

"No. I'm not. And to prove it, I'm not the one raising my voice."

"That doesn't prove anything!"

"Regardless, I'm very grateful to you for protecting me and for paying the healer, and I'll pay you back once I'm able to—"

"You can pay me back," said Alicia, "once we return to your house. It's only about an hour away, come on."

She turned and started walking. After a few steps she gave an exasperated sigh and turned back to face Sophia. She hadn't moved.

"What's wrong with you?" Alicia demanded. "You got a death wish or something? This ain't the kind of place you can just hang around in after dark!"

"I'm sure you know," said Sophia. "That's why I'm relying on you to keep me out of trouble."

"How am I supposed to do that when you don't listen to anything I say?"

"I listen to everything you say," said Sophia, her tone a little hurt. "I have a lot of respect for your streetwise wisdom."

Alicia's left eye twitched a little.

"Okay then," she said. "Listen to this bit of 'streetwise wisdom', then: if you've got a bloody home to go to then you DAMN WELL GO TO IT."

"No," said Sophia, with a little stamp of her foot. "I am NOT giving up so easily. It seems like I was wrong about you, I thought I sensed some kind of connection between us but obviously I read your character completely wrong. Thank you for rescuing me from that thief, and thank you for paying the healer. It seems I won't have the opportunity to pay you back, but I'm sure the money you received from my parents will more than cover it, seeing as you won't be needing to work for the rest of it. Goodbye Alicia."

She turned and stomped off, away from Alicia, who watched her walk away, her jaw clenched. The former bodyguard took a breath, and another, then shook her head and turned away, once more aimless and without direction.