Young Flame

I follow Leslie through a tight passage under a partially collapsed wall. A pathway that’s impossible to notice unless you know where to look. The alleys and buildings around the home of the five seem to be filled with these hidden paths.

Leslie spent the last hours showing me all the routes she considers necessary. Many of them far too tight to allow any adult to traverse. I may not know much about this country or how the people live, but it is plainly obvious that the teenagers are accustomed to running away.

“What do you need these paths for? What do you need to run from?” I ask as we crawl out of the debris into a semi-burnt building.

“Oh, you know, the typical shop-keeper, guards, travellers. Anyone, really. People usually aren’t too happy about being robbed their gid,” Leslie says as she peeks through a gap between wooden planks nailed in the wall.

“You steal?” I ask curiously. “Don’t you work for it?” I remember what that man amongst the stalls said about earning gid.

Leslie lets out a short sharp laugh. “Yeah? And who would let us work?” She stops looking at the street outside and turns to me. “You really haven’t been here long if you don’t even know this. In Zadok, the shit-can that it is, family is everything. That extends to jobs as well. An employer won’t touch those of lesser purity, cause it’d be an insult to his other, purer employees. Nobody’s gonna hire anyone with hair darker than a certain point. It’d be suicide. Someone who does so is more likely to have their family disown them than succeed.” She says, scowling.

“So, yeah, theft is the only way we can keep ourselves fed. Why do you think Ash was so excited when he realised you were a mage? One that isn’t an albicant.” Leslie continues.

“I’m not a mage,” I remind her.

“Right, right. But you’re close enough. Ya see, nobody in the city has much gid. Even those of decent purity don’t have much. But to get outta the country, we need enough to pay the smuggler. Unless we go for the only rich family in the city, we’ll be stuck here forever.”

Finally satisfied that she doesn’t see anyone outside, Leslie pulls aside a portion of the wall that isn’t as connected as it looks. She pushes me through and follows close behind.

“Then why don’t you just leave? Why pay someone when you can leave the city yourself?”

Leslie stops to look at me, gasping as she puts a hand over her mouth. “Sacred Belobog shit, girl. Why did I never think of that? We could’ve been free from this dump years ago! Oh, if only you had graced us with your wisdom earlier, our lives would have been changed for the better.” She stares me dead in the eye. “Of course it’s not that fuckin’ easy. It’s impossible to get past the wall without permission from one of the albicant.” She says, turning on her heel to stomp down the street.

I hurry to follow close behind. “The wall? What’s that?”

Leslie keeps her pace, striding down the street, passing many other albanics. “The wall stops us from leaving. The only way past it is through the north gate that connects Serron to Kelton. Can’t get through it unless you have a proper merchant licence or high enough purity that you would have been adopted into one of the high families, anyway.”

So I won’t be able to get through either. That is… less than ideal. I imagine their hair is too dark to head into the theocracy to the east, so our positions are far more alike than I’d expected.

That is, assuming she isn’t lying to me.

It is definitely possible. The wall might be a fabrication to make me stay and help them steal from the most influential family in the city. I doubt that part was a lie. The family with the most gid will also be the most dangerous, assuming money is as important to them as it is to the other albanics in Zadok. If she is going to lie about that, she won’t want to scare me off by saying it is more dangerous.

It’s hardly helpful if the only things I’m sure are not lies are statements of danger. Then again, even those might be lies. They could easily be trying to keep me away from something or someone by telling me it’s dangerous.

I bite my lip. There is no way I’ll ever truly be able to differentiate lies from truths. How do I deal with it? Do I assume everything is a lie? No, if I worry about every little thing people say, I’ll never stop stressing. But if I don’t prepare myself for lies, I’ll be taken advantage of again. I’m not sure what I should do.

Unaware of my internal conflict, or just wilfully ignorant, Leslie leads me to an alley off the main street where Ash and the others are waiting.

“Yo, Ashley. How goes the scouting?”

All four of them turn to us upon hearing Leslie’s voice.

“Great actually. With the army heading for New Vetus, there’s a lot of movement hitting us at the moment. We have our pick of pockets.”

“Oh? So no need for a store hit?” Leslie asks.

Ash shakes his head. “How’d your tour go? No issues, I assume?”

“None. So, see any particularly fat looking bellies out there? Who are we hitting first?”

“What about him?” Kerry says, pointing at an angry-looking man with nice looking clothes pushing people out of his way as he storms down the main street.

“Nah, he’s already been robbed everything he has, unless you wanna try taking the clothes off his back?” Leslie says.

“I think that one is our best bet.” Ash says, nodding towards a man riding a wagon pulled by one of those pholo. Four guards surround the man and his wagon, watching their surroundings with wariness. Hands on the sheathed blades at their sides.

“Ash, are you sure? We’ll never get to the wagon with those guards there, even with a distraction,” Kerry says, eyeing the tall stature of each male guard and the weapons they carry.

“The wagon isn’t our target. After Demi and Medi distract the guards, you and I will jump the driver. We’ll be in and out quick. Set up at point B. Any complaints?”

The group accepts Ash’s plan, and although Kerry seems worried, she follows along without complaint. I follow them as they move through the alleys perpendicular to the main road until I find myself alone with Leslie again. The other four walking off in different direction to wait for their target. Leslie and I stop to watch the main road from around a corner.

It’s good that they haven’t asked me to help. I am not as willing to take the risk against armed men as these five seem to be. But even if I will not take the risk myself, I still want to watch. The group of them are taller than me, but definitely not yet adults, so I am curious how they plan to fight against them.

It doesn’t take long before the guarded wagon comes into sight. The pholo trotting along at a pace matching the guard’s stride. Loud voices fill the air as people crowd the wagon in hopes of a sale before it passes. The guards never allow them too close, pushing them away if they try.

A loud clatter breaks through the commotion, dragging both my attention and that of the guards to a stall that toppled behind the wagon. I catch a glimpse of someone running back into a gap between buildings.

The yelling of the guards pulls my attention back to the wagon. One of the twins — I’m not sure which — jumps off the carriage and runs for an alley down the road from where Leslie and I wait.

Two of the guard run off chasing the boy, leaving two to protect the wagon. As soon as the guards are out of sight, Kerry and Ash launch themselves to each side of the driver. I hadn’t seen where they’d come from. Had they been hiding amongst the crowd of pedlars?

The guards, too busy watching behind the cart, are far too late to react to the yells of the driver. Ash and Kerry already sprinting away… in our direction.

Leslie takes a step back and picks up a wooden beam I hadn’t noticed leaning against the wall beside her. “You might wanna step away a bit, we’ll be running real soon.”

She holds the wooden club at shoulder height, standing right beside the corner to the road. Kerry is the first to turn the corner, shouting “close,” the moment she reaches the alley. The instant I see Ash turn the corner behind Kerry, Leslie swings. The wooden plank only barely misses Ash’s ducking head as it passes over him and straight into the head of the guard following at his heels.

The man’s feet lift off the ground as Leslie slams his head in the opposite direction. I wince as the man lands on his back, blood gushes from his forehead.

I’m not given any more time to watch as Leslie shoves me. Forcing me to move. I run after Ash and Kerry as they sprint down the alley. A glance back shows the guard sitting up with a hand holding his head. At least he isn’t dead.

Ash and Kerry don’t take us to their home. They lead us to a place a few streets away that I remember Leslie showing me. It is an abandoned building with five or six exit points. We wait here for a few minutes until the twins join us.

“So? How much we get?” Leslie asks.

Kerry opens the pouch she nabbed from the driver and counts the coins inside. “Ninety thousand.”

“Is that it?” Leslie asks, disappointed.

“It’s enough to feed us for the next few days, but yeah, I thought they’d have more too,” Ash says.

“It will get us through. How about we head to Ari’s? I’m starved.” Tying off the coin-pouch, Kerry tosses it to Ash.

Twenty minutes later, we approach a store with a large window on the front wall. Well, I say window, but it is nothing like the glass ones in New Vetus. No, this window is nothing more than an array of iron bars that let you look inside.

Ash leads us to a similarly reinforced front door. He stops in front of it and turns to me.

“Since you’re new here, you should know Ari’s rules. First: no stealing. If you ever get caught stealing from her, you’ll find nowhere else that’ll sell you food. Second: Always keep your hair covered. And finally; do not question her appearance, ever.”

“What’s wrong with her appearance?” I try to ask, but Ash is already pushing through the door. The others follow close behind.

I scoot through the door before it closes behind them. A counter table splits the room down the middle. On the left side is a selection of breads and on the right are fruits and vegetables, although a very limited selection compared to what I’ve seen at the ursu Bratchinas. The wall behind the counter is lined with containers full of grains, nuts, and cheeses.

As my eyes lands on who is probably Ari, I now understand why Ash doesn’t want me asking about her appearance. The woman doesn’t have any hair, instead the entire top of her head is a scarred mess. The jagged misshapen skin reaches as far down as her ears. One of her eyelids look like they melted together, leaving only one eye open to watch us enter her store.

Ash approaches the counter. “Hey Ari, how’s things?”

Ari hums in response. “Can’t complain. I see you’ve another in your group. A recent oust, I assume?” she begins to collect an assortment of goods into a bag.

“Actually no. She’s not from the orphanage. Solvei’s from New Vetus.”

Her hand stops reaching for a round shaped vegetable and turns to me. “Is that so? You lived with those ursu?”

I nod to her, thankful that Ash didn’t reveal I’m not albanic.

“I have to know, are they as bad as they say? I grew up in the Theocracy, so I never heard too much until I came here.” Ari says as she leans over the counter.

“They used to be nice, but they changed during the war,” I say. “Though, some were rather cruel even before the war began and some that I still wish to see again.”

“Well, I’d love to say Zadok is better, but I prefer not to lie when I can. If you’re already with these brats, I can’t see things being too easy for you,” she says and finishes packing the bag with a few loaves.

I look at the others, but none of them seem fazed by Ari’s insult.

“Just this once, thirty-five,” Ari says to Ash, whose eyes widen.

“Really? Thank you, Ari,” Ash says. He places seven coins on the counter and grabs the bag offered.

As we leave, Ari calls out, “Good luck.”

Back in the group’s home, I am offered a piece of bread along with some cheese. I refuse. I don’t want to feel indebted to them, nor do I want to give them a reason to ask me to help them with that plan of Ash’s.

“You can’t not eat. Don’t feel shy, Ari was nice enough to give us a discount because of you. That doesn’t happen often.” Ash says.

I lift a plank of wood I’d taken from the streets and ignite it. “This is good enough food for me.”

“You eat the things you set on fire? That’s sick!” Leslie says. “What’s wood taste like?” she leans in, having already scoffed her slice of bread.

“Like… wood? I don’t know, it’s hard to compare,” I say. My thoughts cycle back to what was said in the store. “Back in Ari’s, she called me an oust. What does that mean?”

“She was talking about the kids that get abandoned by the orphanage. That’s what our little group is. Ya see, if ya haven’t been adopted by the time you’re ten, ya get kicked out. Like everything, being adopted relies on your purity. Some get booted even before if the orphanage caretakers believe you are too impure to be adopted,” Leslie says with a frown. “You’ll never see an albanic darker than Ash because they aren’t kept long within the system.”

“But you said family is important, right? Surely there are some families with children of darker hair.” I remember Leal’s fur coat was a different shade than both her parents, which she’d explained as genetics, something I didn’t understand.

“Why do you think orphanages are even a thing?” Kerry says. “I don’t know how it was for you, but here, you get to choose your family. Many children born with less purity than their parents get tossed out to the orphanages. I’ve heard it gets worse the purer the family is. They say the Cano family has tossed out fifteen kids in the last ten years alone.”

“Talking about the Cano family, is there anything we can do to convince you to help us against them, Solvei?” Ash asks.

I raise an eyebrow at his question. “Unless doing so doesn’t involve making me an enemy of this Cano family, then no.”

I ignore the disappointed look they all give me.