Elena

 

It had been several days since I’d claimed my freedom from the man that had held me prisoner for my entire life. At first, I’d struggled to survive. Safe places to sleep were few and far between and the number of folks that were homeless outnumbered them by a wide margin.

I also discovered that finding enough food to eat was way more difficult than I’d expected, but I was too stubborn to allow myself to starve. The port city of Emslet Harbour had a lot to offer if you were wily and brave enough to take it.

The first few nights had taught me to remove my hooded mask as soon as it began to get dark otherwise I’d end up scaring people. It may sound like it would be quite helpful but when you startle some thugs and end up being chased for half the evening it’s less appealing.

Tonight I’d been wandering the back alleys for an hour or so in the hope that I would find a doorway or crate that I could hide under until morning, but everywhere that looked promising was occupied or turned out to be too exposed. The weather was freezing and damp, and I’d been shivering for the last half an hour.

Eventually, I came across a young blonde-haired girl in a heated argument with an older boy about a spot underneath the awning of a tannery. The stink that those places give off could curdle milk, but I guess when you’re that desperate you’ll sleep anywhere.

He shoved the girl away, sending her sprawling into a filthy puddle, making my blood boil. I couldn’t do anything against him directly, so I kept well back and watched. I just about managed to keep my calm before I did something stupid – like get myself involved in something that wasn’t my problem.

I had to stifle a laugh as she threw a ball of mud at the boy, shouted an insult and made her escape.

It only took me a few minutes to catch up with her and I asked her if she wanted to look for a spot that we could use together. At least that way we’d stand a better chance of shooing away any competition. She was hesitant at first but after a little more talking she seemed to trust me enough to let me tag along.

She introduced herself to me as Wynn, and together we wandered into a richer part of town. It was a far less common sight to find many orphans and pickpockets in these parts, she’d told me, because the richer folks paid for more town guards to wander the streets.

I found it simple enough to evade them, though, so clearly they were wasting their money. Eventually, I came across a first-floor balcony that looked empty and unwatched and we decided that it would work as a place to stay for the night.

Together, we managed to scale the wall. I gave her a boost up first and then she reached down to pull me up behind her. Wynn took stock of the situation while I glanced inside the balcony window. It seemed to be empty inside, although it was far too dark to tell properly.

Then we settled down for the night. The air may have been chill and thick with drizzle but we were out of the worst of it and I fell asleep almost instantly.

 

The next morning, I awoke with the first rays of the sun as they pierced through the dawn fog. Everything still seemed to be where we’d left it – not that I had much besides the clothes I was wearing and the items I’d stolen from the Den. I still needed to get those valued.

“Good mornin’!” Wynn greeted me happily as I sat up. She was sitting on the rag that she’d used for a blanket, doing what she could to tidy herself up. The poor girl still had muddy streaks up the front of her dress but she’d been able to clean most of it from her face. 

I rubbed at my eyes and yawned, tiredness beckoning me to lie back down to rest but I ignored it for now. The pleasure of waking up above ground was still a new experience for me and I wasn’t going to squander it.

“Good morning, Wynn,” I answered back, turning to look at her. “How’d you sleep?”

“Pretty good,” she replied, her eyes shifting to the little satchel that she carried around with her. “You didn’t take any of my stuff while I was sleepin’.”

Although her tone was matter-of-fact, she sounded surprised at what she was saying.

That made me blink in bewilderment. People actually did that? Then I thought back to the things that The Razor and his gang had boasted of doing and it made sense.

“Well, you didn’t steal any of my stuff either,” I said, patting my cloak down just to make sure that this was actually the case.

My stomach chose that moment to make itself heard, voicing its displeasure like an enraged cat. It made me chortle, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. Wynn looked at me with a warming smile and rose to her feet.

Now that I could see her properly, I noticed that she looked to be a couple of years younger than me – so in her early teens – but only about an inch or so shorter. Her shoulder-length hair was scraggly but beneath all the grime I could tell that it had once been a pale blonde.

I felt my heart stop as I realised that I’d forgotten to put my mask back over my face after waking up, and I rushed to find it in my pile of things. Wynn watched me with bemused eyes, snorting once she saw me pull the garment over my head.

“What in all the world are you doin’ wearin’ that? Are you cold?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

My hair was still down from where I’d loosened it during the night and I hadn’t spent the time putting it back up again. This made the mask looser than it otherwise would have been, and I struggled to get it comfortable. Damnit.

She squinted at me when I ignored her, completely distracted by the emotional disaster that was unfolding. At least she hadn’t run away screaming when she’d seen me, which was always my first worry.

“Look, Ellie, if you ask me you’re lookin’ a bit silly. Why don’t you just take it off?” she finally suggested, folding her arms.

“But people will see my face and… and that’s… not good.”

She lifted her hands to shoulder height as she shrugged, “What do you mean?”

Tears were beginning to swell in my eyes, and I tried to tame my hair back into something like a simple ponytail. I refused to remove the mask while I did it. It was my safety blanket and I’d come to feel protected from the judgment of others behind the fabric.

“I… I scare people. I’m hideous and I know it, so I-” I began, feeling the tears begin to dampen the cloth.

“Hideous?” Wynn interrupted, breaking into a laugh. “Ellie, you are not hideous. Believe me, alright?”

She was obviously just being kind, and I pressed the heels of my palms into my eyes to try to stem the weeping. “Thank you, but I know that people are scared of me.”

Her response was to stare wide-eyed at me, and then she began reaching for her satchel and rag on the ground, “Time to go!”

I was confused until I heard someone scrabbling at the door behind me. Right – someone owned this balcony.

The sound of muffled masculine shouting came from inside and a shadow shifted around on the other side of the window. Then someone was scrambling to unlock the door, but I had ample time to pick up my cloak and wrap it around my shoulders before it burst outwards.

“Oi! What do you think you’re doin’? You can’t just-” he shouted at us, stepping towards me. l threw my hand towards him, fingers spread and willed him to stop.

He came to a sudden halt, yelping in pain and holding his nose as if he’d just walked into an invisible wall.

“Sorry!” I called to him and gestured towards Wynn to make her escape.

 

~*~*~

 

We ran giggling from the building, darting through the backstreets and along the edges of more open streets until we were back in the more familiar territory of Lowtown.

“You’re a mage!” Wynn finally declared at me once we found time to catch our breath, standing in an alley just off from the market square.

“Yeah, probably,” I answered, not entirely sure what she was talking about.

“There’s no probably, Ellie,” she said, shaking her head, “you’re certainly a mage. You’re like the first I’ve ever met in person, too. Wow. This is amazin’! What’s your Facet?”

That’s where she lost me. I’d heard people mentioning Facets before, but it was always in hushed tones and guarded sentences. Nobody ever bothered to mention them to me, though. I clearly wasn’t worth it.

“I’m not sure I follow.”

She narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down, “You still don’t trust me – fine. Maybe you’re right to be careful. I heard stories of kids gettin’ snatched for their Facets.”

Not entirely sure how to respond, I just nodded my head awkwardly and crossed my arms.

“You should take the mask off now, though. We’re goin’ to go see Maya. She’s the one what gives us food, but we gotta cross the market to get there.”

The mention of a meal made my stomach gurgle in anticipation, making Wynn break into a grin. With a loud sigh, I reached up and pulled the mask off my head. She studied my face closely, her eyebrows lifting in curiosity, “Yeah, I have no clue how you think you’re hideous, honestly. You’re really pretty.”

My cheeks reddened at the compliment, but I gestured with a flick of my hand for her to lead on. She smirked but did as asked.

The market was relatively busy considering how early in the morning it was, despite it mostly just being the traders and merchants setting up their wares. Wynn knew where she was headed, though, and dragged me through the maze of stalls and produce.

I noticed her slip a couple of apples beneath her jacket as we passed particularly close to a fruit stand, and she was promptly shooed away by the owner. She giggled, skipping away from him and tossing one of them to me. I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw the grocer shaking his fist in our direction. Laughing, we continued towards one of the alleys on the other side of the square.

We walked through a dizzying number of dark and dingy backstreets until we arrived at a narrow, squat brick building tucked between two larger ones. The door had been wedged open and children were freely moving in and out.

Wynn led me inside, squeezing past two older boys that were squabbling over a crust of bread. They didn’t pay us any attention, they were entirely too caught up in their own problems to look our way.

The entire ground floor was taken up by a single room, with a table set up at the far end. There was a set of stairs that led up to the second floor but it was blocked off with a piece of frayed rope. A number of young women were giving out food to the orphans and street urchins, all of them queueing up for their share of the handout.

Every time a scuffle erupted over someone barging or pushing, one of the helpers would send those responsible to the back of the line, much to my amusement. Couldn’t they just– 

That was when someone tried to cut in front of us, elbowing Wynn aside and moving casually to block me, as well. Our would-be bully was a tall boy, easily a year or two older and much stronger. He gave me a wink and a smirk of smug satisfaction.

My eyes narrowed back at him and he didn’t seem to notice when I flicked a finger in his direction. When I reached for Wynn’s arm, to pull her back in front, the line moved forwards another step. The boy tried to push me out of the way, but he found his movement blocked by an obstacle that no one could see. His expression of both confusion and frustration made me giggle, and I turned back to the front.

The more stern looking girl was watching us and I felt the urge to flash her an innocent grin. She squinted back at me, suspicion thick in her gaze, but she went back to feeding the shortening line in front of us. Once we had a good half-meter distance on the bully, I allowed the barrier I’d created to fade and he stumbled forwards a couple of steps.

The Razor had known early on that I could create my invisible walls. He’d often asked me to use them to protect him whenever he had someone untrustworthy coming to strike a new deal. I’d only ever dared to misuse them once before, which had been a mistake. He’d flown into such a rage that I’d missed a whole day of food and been confined downstairs for the week.

No amount of healing would save me from starvation and believe me, I’d tried.

Our turn came soon enough. I ignored the grumbling of the boy behind us as we were given a piece of bread, a small piece of cheese and a slice of meat each. I wasn’t all that experienced with identifying the different pieces of animal flesh, but it looked tough and chewy.

Wynn opened her satchel and pulled out a paper-wrapped package, handing it over to the girl behind the table. “Here, Maya. I got this for you,” she said, beaming a happy little smile at her.

“Thanks, Wynn. We’ll make sure it gets handed out tomorrow,” Maya answered back delightedly.

My eyes were drawn to the girl, and I found myself looking her up and down before I realised what I was doing.

Her smooth skin was a rich ochre while her hair, pulled back into a plait, was the colour of deepest midnight. I was struggling not to stare at some of the most beautiful features I’d ever seen in my life, especially her soft lips when she smiled at Wynn.

Not that I’d seen many women in my life, but of those I had she was at the top. She had an exotic quality that no one else around us did and I found it hard to look away.

“Was there somethin’ else?” she asked, her eyes now resting on me. She was probably commenting on the fact that I hadn’t moved on yet and instead stood staring at her like a fool.

I floundered, my mouth opening and closing a couple of times before I managed to reply, “O-oh. No. Th-thanks! Have a nice day!”

With my cheeks burning a bright crimson, I turned to rush outside.

Wynn rejoined me outside, looking confused by my rushed departure. She chose not to mention it, though and found us a secluded place where we could eat in peace. Together we shared the enjoyment of my first real meal since I’d run away.

 

~*~*~

 

“So… what’d you think of Maya?” she asked, glancing towards where I sat next to her on a low garden wall. The question made me choke on a mouthful of cheese, and Wynn reached over to pat me on the back.

“What… what do you mean?” I enquired once I had my breathing back under control.

Wynn wrinkled her nose, giving me an appraising stare, “I mean, did you think she was nice? I like her.”

Oh. She meant what I thought of her in a normal kind of way.

“Oh y-yes, she’s… uh... very nice.”

I can be very well-spoken when I want to be.

My new friend watched me, an eyebrow raised in confusion. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way or nothin’, but you’re a bit weird, Ellie.”

“I guess I am,” I replied, grinning.

We finished the rest of our food in companionable silence. I kept the piece of mystery meat for later but took the opportunity to devour the apple that Wynn had stolen on the way through the market.

Then we set off again, with her leading the way back to the market square. She spent most of her time there from what she’d been telling me, looking for things that she could steal or discarded items that she could scavenge.

Our path back through the labyrinth of side streets took us past other turnings and blind alleys, and I recognised none of them. We’d just passed the final backstreet before the square when I heard a faint whimpering coming from somewhere within. 

“Hold up,” I said to her, my heart crying out for whatever had made the call. As I took a couple of steps in, I noticed a white-tipped tail with red fur resting limply on the ground just behind some crates.

I inched my way further into the alley, finally seeing the poor little creature that it belonged to. I’d never seen anything like it before, but that wasn’t saying much. It had four legs, pointed ears and a long, red-furred snout. It watched me as I approached, its eyes wide. When I stepped close enough to touch it, the animal began to try to struggle, trying to get away. It pulled its tail in close to its body, whining a pitiful cry.

“What’s that?” Wynn asked, calling out to me.

“Somethin’ is trapped. I’m going to help it,” I said back.

The reason for its whimpering was clear – it had caught its leg in a device with sharp metal teeth. When I tried to reach down to release it, it growled and snapped at my fingers. I yelped, snatching my hand back out of instinct.

“Fox trappin’ is pretty common here, Ellie. The trappers don’t like it when us kids get involved.”

What kind of monster would hunt these poor things on purpose?

I was frustrated with myself for flinching but I closed my eyes and focussed on the space around me. Reaching out and pulling from the air in that instinctive way that I’d learned, I created an invisible cover over my hand to stop the fox’s teeth from sinking into my skin. With that done, I reached out again.

This time, when the beast tried to bite me, its teeth were instead met by the barrier. I could see the confusion in its body language as it shifted to try to get away, but the trap held it firmly. It took me a couple of attempts to pry it open but the instant I succeeded it pulled its leg back and tried to limp away from me.

I knelt down, pulling out the meat that I’d been saving for later. It was probably used to better food than this, but when it noticed the morsel, its hunger overrode its wariness.

As it hobbled for the food, I used my other hand to gently touch its injured limb. The creature’s leg glowed faintly as the healing went to work, its bones clicking back into place, and I let it have its reward.

When I glanced at Wynn to give her a reassuring smile, her eyes were wide and she was staring at me.

Uh oh. What had I done now?

The sound of raucous male voices nearby brought me back to the moment and I leapt to my feet. I rushed to leave, grasping onto Wynn’s arm as I passed her. 

“Time to go, Wynn,” I called out, but she still was refusing to move. I reached for her hand instead and pulled her after me, dragging her along as we left the alleys with all haste. A red-furred blur followed behind us.