“Mama! Mama!” Pari Clansnarl pestered, tugging on Mother’s tail. “I want to eat!”

“Pari, what did I tell you about pulling on other people’s tails?” Mother scolded, her voice weary from a long day of housework. “Dinner’s almost ready. We will eat once your father comes home from work.”

“But I’m hungry!” Pari whined.

“You can hold on a little longer,” Mother assured her. “Erdi, play with your sister for a while.”

“Wha-! Do I have to?” Now it was Brother’s turn to whine.

“Yes,” Mother said sternly. “Go try the candle-making equipment your father brought home for you 3 days ago. He’s going to be very upset if he comes back and finds you haven’t used it even once.”

“Fine...”

Brother went into the storage room and returned a dragging a large sealed wooden box with smooth lacquered sides. The contents let out a series of clanks and clangs as he set the box down rather indelicately.

“Hey!” Mother called angrily from the kitchen. “Be careful with that, your father spent a lot of money on it!”

“Mama, what’s money?” Pari asked. She’d heard that word before, but the fuzzy understanding that came with it only made her more confused. Why would people give up good things like food when given stupid circles?

“You don’t even know what money is?” Brother scoffed. “You’re so dumb!”

Pari’s face went red with embarrassment after being called out so suddenly. Why did Brother have to always be such a big meanie?! She sniffed.

“Erdi, what did I tell you? Don’t be mean to your sister, she’s only three,” Mother called again, wearier this time. “You were just like her once, you know.”

“I’m not three, I’m almost four!” Pari declared hotly. There was a big difference and it was important that they know!

“Of course you are, sweetie,” Mother replied. “Just like how Erdi is almost nine.”

Brother just rolled his eyes.

Still, Pari’s confusion remained. “Why does Papa say that we moved to Zuk... Zuk...”

“Zrukhora,” Brother prompted her.

“Zukhora! Why does Papa say that we moved to Zukhora for money?”

“Because he can make much more money here than he could back in Lita. The people here want to open lots of mines in the mountains to the north, and they need good prospectors like your father to find the ore.”

“But I don’t like it here,” Pari complained. “I miss home.”

“This is home now,” Mother told her. “We need this money to pay off the last of our debts and put Erdi and you through school. Think about it like this: with all that extra money, we’ll be able to buy lots and lots of toys for you!”

Pari gasped. Lots of toys?! She didn’t really like Zukhora; compared to Lita, it was cold and it smelled weird. But she loved toys! If being here meant more toys, then maybe she liked this place after all.

“Whatever, let’s just do this stupid thing,” Brother muttered, opening the box.

Peering inside, Pari found it full of pieces of string, metal containers, and blocks of some white substance, none of which made any sense to her young mind. But before she could even ask about any of it, the sound of a key being inserted into the front lock caught their ears.

Pari spun around in excitement as Father opened the door and stepped inside for the first time in six days.

“Papa!” she cried, rushing for the doorway and jumping into his waiting arms.

“Heeeeeyyyy, how’s my little dumpling doing?” he asked as he wrapped her up into a strong hug. “You too, Erdi, you miss me?”

Brother arrived just a moment after Pari and joined in with the hug party.

“What’s that you were messing with when I came in?” Father wondered, glancing over at the open box. “Is that the candle kit I bought you two before I left? You haven’t even opened it until now?”

“We were saving it for when you came home, of course,” Mother replied. “So we could do it together, as a family.”

“Awww...” Father sniffed, his hug intensifying. “The spirits have blessed me with such a wonderful family! That sounds great! Let’s make dozens of candles! But first, that smells delicious and I’m starving!”

Together, Pari sat down around the table with Mother, Father, and Brother and ate a delicious meal. Pari was happy. She had the best family, and yummy food, and lots of toys coming soon as well! What more could anybody want?

Yes, Pari loved her family. She loved Mother, with her long golden hair and olive skin. The way the sunlight reflected off her ears and tail struck Pari as incredibly pretty. Pari wanted to be pretty just like Mother, but she was dark as the night just like Father instead, which wasn’t nearly as good. When she’d told Mother this, Mother had just laughed softly and said something about finding Father’s dark appearance pretty in a different way.

Pari didn’t know what was so pretty about Father. His skin was such a dark brown that it was nearly black. His short hair, his ears, and his tail were actually black, the color so dark that they seemed to absorb the light itself. Pari loved Father, especially the way he smiled and the quality of his headpats, but there was no prettiness to be found there.

Brother, on the other hand, took after Mother. Pari couldn’t help but be jealous. He got to look pretty while she didn’t! It was so unfair! And he was also a big meanie all of the time, always calling her stupid and other bad things! But she loved him anyway, because he was Brother, and he’d been around as long as she could remember.

They were all a big happy family, and they would be together forever.

*     *     *

Dip.

Remove.

Dip.

Remove.

Pari sat in the corner of the family room near the hearth, making candles with the candle kit while basking in the warmth of the fire. Ever since that first night making candles with the whole family, Pari had fallen in love with the activity. She made candles so often now that she’d exhausted the large supply of wicks and wax that had come with the equipment, so Father had to buy more.

Pari loved everything about candle making. She loved the slow, calming routine of dipping and removing the wicks over and over again. She loved to watch the candles grow with each dip, slowly and steadily. She loved the colorful candles that came out at the end of the process. But more than anything, she loved the scents. The warm fragrances of the melted wax especially tickled her fancy.

The morning had only just begun, the sun still low in the sky. Pari had woken up early as she often did, while Brother slept in as he often did. Meanwhile, Mother and Father were both up as well. Pari couldn’t help but hear their conversation at the other end of the room.

“Do you really have to leave again already?” Mother sighed in frustration. “You just got back a few days ago!”

“I know, I know, but I agreed to this as part of the conditions for the job. Just hold on a little longer. A few more excursions and we’ll be able to completely pay off the debt and the bank loan in less than a year! Then I can lower the frequency of my trips, or even get a job here in the city if that’s what you need.”

“Just promise me you’ll be safe. It’s hard sitting here every day not knowing if you’re alright.”

“I will, I promise,” he said, embracing Mother and giving her a quick kiss. “Tell Erdi when he wakes up that I said goodbye.”

“You could just wake him up, you know,” she returned.

“Nah, kids his age need their sleep. This is a short trip anyway, I’ll be back before he even knows I’m gone.” Father turned towards Pari, bending down and spreading his arms wide and his smile wider. “Pari, give me a goodbye hug.”

Pari put her half-formed candle down for a moment and sprinted over with her stubby little legs, reaching up towards him as best she could. Father scooped her up and spun her around playfully as Pari giggled like crazy, before pulling her in for a strong hug against his well-muscled chest. Pari did her best to return the favor, but her arms came up short.

“Come back soon, Papa!” she said. “Bring me more toys!”

Father chuckled as he put her back down and ruffled her hair affectionately before turning and opening the front door. “I will, I will,” he said as he stepped out into the street. “I’ll see you in a few days! Be a good girl and behave for your mother and brother, alright?”

“Okay! Bye-bye, Papa!” she said with an energetic wave.

He waved back as he started jogging down the street before turning a corner and leaving Pari’s sight.

Pari never saw Father again.

*     *     *

Dip.

Remove.

Dip.

Remove.

Pari sat in the corner of the family room, making a candle beside the cold, empty hearth. The house was quiet now, as it often was these days. Ever since Father stopped coming home, Mother no longer smiled the way she used to. She always seemed tired and distracted. Before, Mother spent much of her day taking care of the house, cooking food, doing laundry, and other Mother activities. She still did those things, but these days she would also put on a pretty dress and leave after it became dark. She would not come back until late in the night, haggard and weary for reasons Pari didn’t understand. Pari had tried to ask Mother what she was doing every night, but all Mother would say was that she was taking care of Pari and Brother.

Everything was weird and strange. The house felt empty, especially now after all the times that Mother had taken items from the house and returned later with nothing more than a small bag of metal discs called ‘coins’. Pari didn’t like it.

Several nights ago, Pari had woken up to the sound of sobs and walked out of the bedroom to find Mother covered in bruises all over her visible body except her face. Mother didn’t go out at night the nights after that. Today, however, looked to be different. Today she was putting on the pretty dress again.

Pari didn’t know why, but she felt afraid every time Mother left. Father had never come back, what if Mother also never came back one of these nights? Ever since the thought had first come to her, it had persisted, a gnawing worry in her gut that never left.

“Mama, don’t go!” she pleaded as her mother finished putting on her night outfit. “I’m scared!”

“I’m so sorry, Pari, but I have no choice,” Mother answered.

“But Mama! I... I...”

Still almost four years of age, Pari found it hard to transform her vague feelings of distress into words. It frustrated her and only made her feel worse. Luckily, Brother was there to help her.

“Do you really have to keep doing this? It scares us, and I know it scares you too!” Brother asked, tears in his eyes. “Why can’t you do something else?”

Mother seemed to wilt because of Brother’s words, but she reluctantly shook her head. “There is no time. You saw the collectors that came five days ago. Without your father, we don’t have the money to pay off the debt. Soon they will come again. We must be gone before that happens, and so I must get as much money as I can as fast as I can. Don’t worry, in just another day or two I’ll have enough money for us to escape this place and make our way to Eterium. Trust me.”

She gave them each a quick kiss on the forehead.

“Erdi, please watch over Pari until I return,” she said as she headed for the door.

“I know, you always say that,” Erdi groused.

“That’s because I know I can trust you. You’re a wonderful son and you made me very proud,” she told him with a soft smile. “Don’t stay up too late. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With that, she turned towards the door, took a deep breath, and left the house.

Pari never saw Mother again.

*     *     *

Dip.

Remove.

Dip.

Remove.

Pari shivered as a chill draft flowed through the orphanage bedroom. The weather had turned cold recently as winter fast approached, and the building’s crack-lined walls did a poor job keeping the warmth in. Not that there was much warmth to begin with. The only truly warm place here was the warden’s rooms on the other side of the building. There, he drank and smoked in the glow of a warm fire all by himself. None of the orphans were allowed into that side of the orphanage, especially not her or Brother.

From the first day she and Brother had arrived at the orphanage a season and a half ago, the warden had taken a strong dislike to them. He would call them “mongrels”, whatever that meant, and she was sure that they got fed less food than the others. Pari didn’t understand why the man hated them so much. They tried their best to beg for money every day like they were told, but even on the days when they came home with a better amount than normal he would still be really mean to both of them.

Today, however, had not been one of the good days. For some reason, Pari had been unable to get even a single one of the coins the warden liked so much. He had taken her failure poorly.

Pari momentarily brushed fingers across her swollen right eye, the flesh around her eye socket so inflamed that she couldn’t open her eyelid, but the pain that flared up put an immediate stop to that. She sniffed heavily, trying to stop the flow of snot dripping from her nostrils, but neither that nor her tears would stop this time. So instead, she just sank her mind into her task.

Dip.

Remove.

Dip.

Remove.

Dip.

Yuck.

The odor was driving her nose crazy. All of the nice wax and wicks from Father’s gifts had run out long ago. Now, she was dipping thin slices of cloth into a small vat of gross liquid. Brother said it was some sort of animal fat and some other words she didn’t really understand, but she didn’t need to understand them to know how bad it smelled. Still, it was all she had to work with now. Brother had been kind enough to beg for a little from a butcher, and she couldn’t let his kindness go to waste.

“Pari...” a voice whispered. “Pari!”

Pari gave a start as the voice dragged her from her thoughts. She looked up to see Brother crouching down in front of her, a furious look on his face.

“Pari, I need you to concentrate,” he told her as he grabbed the vat, the candle still inside, and pulled it away from her.

“Ah!” she cried out, grabbing onto the lip of the container. “M-my candle!”

“Pari, stop! This is important!” he hissed as he wrested it from her grasp and lugged it across the large room, ignoring her protests and the gazes of the other orphans. Pari chased after him but he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away, leading her forcibly back to her original position in the opposite corner. Clamping his hands onto her shoulders, he looked at her with a seriousness that reminded her of the face Father would make when she’d done something bad.

“How much alcohol is the warden drinking tonight?” Brother asked. “How strong is the smell?”

Pari took a deep sniff, letting the wide bouquet of aromas fill her nostrils. Mother had always said that women from her family had a great sense of smell, but Pari’s nose was the best. She could smell so many things if she really tried: the musty aroma of the moldy floor, the unique signature of one of Amor’s farts let out about half an hour ago two rooms away, the acrid stench of the urine somebody had peed onto a building in the alleyway across the street, and, very notably, the pungent smell of alcohol coming from the other end of the orphanage. That side always smelled of booze—the warden liked to drink heavily no matter the time of day—but right now the stench was so strong that it almost reached out and smacked her across the face.

“It’s super stinky,” she replied.

“Alright, thank you,” Brother replied. He glanced around the room. “Go to sleep. You don’t want to be tired tomorrow.”

“But I’m not tired!”

“Pari, please, just go to bed,” Brother pleaded.

“Okay...” she acquiesced, going over the middle of the wide room and lying down on the cushions. Pari wished there were real beds here instead of the lumpy mats on the floor that everybody shared at night to keep warm. It didn’t help that the other kids had bugs that would get on her and make her itchy.

Even though she’d just complained about not being tired, she found herself losing consciousness quickly, and she soon faded into the land of dreams.

“Pari, wake up,” a voice hissed in her ear, pulling her back into the waking world.

Pari opened her eyes—well, eye, since her other one still wouldn’t open properly—to find herself surrounded in darkness. She let out a “nya?” of confusion.

“Shhh!” the voice—Brother, she quickly realized—whispered.

“What is it?” she wondered quietly as Brother pulled her to her feet and led her from the room.

“We’re leaving,” Brother told her.

“Where are we going?”

“Away. Anywhere but here.”

“B-but the warden-”

“The warden is so drunk that he wouldn’t wake up if I jumped on his face,” Brother told her. “This is our chance to run away.”

“R-run...!?” Pari gasped. She was only four, but she knew how big a thing it was to run away from home, even if it was a home you didn’t like. The idea scared her.

“Look, Pari...” Brother lowered himself down to her height and looked her in the eyes with a grave expression. “I promised Mom that I would take care of you, and what kind of brother would I be if I let you stay in a place where this happens?”

He lightly brushed her swollen eye, causing her to flinch involuntarily.

“Now come on,” he said, grabbing her with one hand and a large burlap sack filled with unknown items with the other.

Pari followed along behind him, pushing her fears away for the moment. She could trust Brother. Brother was smart and good. Everything would be okay.

*     *     *

If any place in Scyria could be correctly labeled a boomtown, it would be Zrukhora. With its explosive growth came one of the side effects of every boomtown: architectural anarchy. The layout of the city was only several steps above complete chaos, with a maze of winding alleyways, buildings encroaching on other buildings, and the like. With that came a plethora of unfinished and scrapped buildings in various stages of construction.

It was in these half-finished shelters that Pari and Brother now lived, moving from place to place to avoid the city watch as they searched for someplace that they could use to keep the cold away just a little longer. Today’s shelter was an unfinished house, its roof collapsed into a large, jagged pile of wooden debris a good fifteen paces wide and six paces deep. The jagged mass of wooden planks and other assorted construction materials was impossible to get into as an adult without slowly moving the pieces away, but a child could still squeeze into several holes and climb deep inside.

Here, in the small spaces amidst the rubble, Pari huddled, tucking her legs up against her chest in a fruitless attempt to lessen the bite of the chilled air. Cupping her hands together, she concentrated on the space between her palms, watching as a small flame, no larger than a candle’s, sputtered to life. The fire eased her suffering for a few moments before Pari’s strength gave out and it evaporated into nothingness.

This little flame was all Pari could manage right now. Brother said that her abilities would grow stronger as she grew and as she practiced, but he also forbade her from making fire while in the rubble at the same time, saying that she could burn herself to death. Pari felt bad about disobeying him, but the few moments of relief the flame brought were too good for her to stop.

For the hundredth time in the last hour, Pari’s stomach groaned, protesting the fact that it had received no food for nearly two days now. Sometimes it felt like the hunger inside of her was eating her alive, and at that point, she grew so desperate that she even wished to be back at that terrible orphanage. There, at least, they got some food every day.

Brother was out trying to get some food for the two of them, which generally meant he would try to steal something. He wasn’t very good at it, unfortunately; his bright hair, ears, and tail caused him to stand out too much, or so he said. Pari knew that Brother was trying his best, though, so she waited patiently for him to return. She had faith he would have something to eat this time.

“This is it, that’s where I saw him hide last night,” an old female voice said not too far away. “Now where’s my fee?”

“You’ll get your fee if and when we have him in our hands,” a gruff male responded.

Pari went silent and still as she listened to the footsteps grow closer. One person walked around the mass of rubble and stopped just outside the hole she used to enter and leave the pile. Ducking down, he shined a light inside the pile, illuminating Pari within the depths of the debris. She froze as the light washed over her, staring back at the man with wide, fearful eyes.

Pari scooted back as far as she could. The man stank of sweat and smoke, with a whiff of stale alcohol somewhere in the background. Her nose said that this man was a bad man, one not to be trusted.

“Well what do we have here?” the man asked. He looked off somewhere to the side, towards somebody she couldn’t see. “Pay her.”

“...you sure?” another man replied. “He’s in there?”

“No, but something close enough.” The man turned back to face her, his light still shining into the hole. “Hey there, little girl, are you cold? Come on out and I can take you to a nice warm place.”

“N-no...” she replied. As if to add in its own response, her stomach let out a loud growl.

“Somebody sounds hungry,” the man chuckled to himself. He reached into a pouch on his side and pulled out a fried dough pocket. Breaking it open to reveal the still steaming-hot ground meat inside, he extended his hand with the food into the hole. “Look what I just bought. Doesn’t it look delicious? If you come out, you can have it.”

Pari shivered with desire as the scrumptious aroma washed over her. The savory oil of the meat mixing with the delectable spices, all wrapped up in a buttery crust... she could smell it all. It was, without a doubt, the greatest smell she’d ever experienced. And it was coming from that hand right here, just paces away...

But no, the man was a bad man! But was he? Would a bad man offer her food?

She sniffed deeply once more, luxuriating in the divine scent. Part of her mind realized she was drooling so heavily that it was almost pouring down her chin, but the rest of it was too busy focusing on the meal just out of reach.

No, this man couldn’t be bad. He had food and was offering to give it to her. How could he be a bad person?

Food. It was right there! All she had to do was crawl forward a few paces.

Slowly she crept forward. One pace. Two. Three. It was right in front of her now. She reached out and-

“Who are y-AAAHHH! LET ME GO!”

Pari froze, her hand half-extended towards the proffered treat as Brother’s voice woke her from her stupor and sent alarm bells ringing in her mind, but it was too late. The man’s other hand shot forward with uncanny speed, his hand latching onto her wrist with brutal strength and dragging her from the pile like she would drag a small doll.

Pari screamed and struggled, but she could do nothing to stop the man as he pressed her against the ground and tied her hands behind her back with strong, thick rope.

“Think they’ll pay for a kid that tiny?” the other man asked.

“A body’s a body, and she’ll grow soon enough,” the man laughed. “I’m sure they can find some use for her up north until then.”

Half an hour later, the two mean, terrible people dragged Pari and Brother into a large building near the outskirts of the city. There, Pari saw hundreds of other thin, feeble people shackled to each other and the walls, their bodies slumped over in defeat and despair. She didn’t really understand the meaning of the sight, but she didn’t have to in order to feel a chill of dread rush through her. She didn’t know what these people were doing, but this was surely a bad place.

A woman sitting at a small table looked up from her paperwork to inspect Pari and Brother. Her mouth tilted slightly in wry amusement as she asked, “Picked up some strays this time?”

The men laughed.

Pari resumed her struggles, but she was a small girl, barely four years old. She would have been at the mercy of her captors even at full strength, and she was far from that now. Her body, malnourished for over a season and subjected to the harsh elements, couldn’t even manage half of her normally paltry power. She felt so weak, so tired, so empty.

The men dragged her to a long, thin table and roughly heaved her up onto it, holding her face-down against the wood and pulling her hair back. Pari barely had time to wonder what was going on before something searing hot pressed down hard against the back of her neck, filling her mind with agony.

Pari barely had the energy to scream.

*     *     *

“Hurry up, you little shit! Get in there!” the mine foreman barked, his boot against her back shoving her forward. Causing Pari to stumble and bump her head against the rough rock. The mean, brutal man kicked her again and she cried out in pain and fear as she scrambled into the crack in the tunnel wall. There, momentarily free from the man’s anger, she paused and let out a long, exhausted breath.

Hands shaking, Pari fished out the candle given to her that morning and held it in her stick-thin fingers. Closing her eyes for a moment to steady her mind, she willed a tiny flame into existence, holding its form just long enough to light the candle. As soon as the soft glow of the candle flame appeared, she released the conjured fire with a violent shudder. She felt so tired these days that even the tiniest Observation was like lifting a house.

Holding the now-lit candle before her, Pari slowly crawled deeper into the tight opening, her eyes sweeping all across the sides for the telltale glint or signs of rust she was hoping for. Sadly, she quickly came to the end having found nothing but stone. Pari couldn’t help but tremble. The foreman would be angry because there was no metal here. That meant more beatings.

Slowly, hesitantly, she pulled herself back to the mine tunnel. She wanted to stay in the crack where the foreman couldn’t reach her, but that would just make the beatings worse when she finally got hungry enough that she needed to come out to eat. There was no escaping his anger here.

“Well?!” he snarled as she crawled out.

Pari shook her head silently, bracing herself for the whack to the head. Instead, she got a kick to her side that sent her tumbling awkwardly down the tunnel. She coughed heavily in agony, spraying the tunnel floor with blood.

“Fuck!” the foreman snarled. “How am I supposed to increase production if the fucking mountain is so fucking barren?!”

Luckily for Pari, he proceeded to storm off elsewhere while muttering to himself, seemingly having forgotten all about her existence. He didn’t need to concern himself with the wellbeing of a slave like her, after all.

A moment later, Pari pulled herself to her shaky feet and headed up the tunnel. Lit by the occasional lantern hanging from the ceiling, the passageway rose and rose, joining with other tunnels as it grew until it finally ended at the mine entrance, the door to the outside. As she shuffled along, she passed by other slaves chipping away at the walls, their bodies frail from malnourishment, ill-treatment, and overwork just like hers. They avoided looking her way as she stumbled past them.

Shivering as she approached the mine entrance, she slowly made her way past the guards stationed there and headed towards her shack as the bell signaling the end of the workday finally rang. The other miners followed behind her, their steps kept short by the tucrenyx shackles connecting their ankles with a chain. Pari didn’t have to deal with that sort of thing just yet. Apparently, making shackles for somebody so small would cost too much, so they were just waiting for her to grow big enough for what they already had. Plus, they needed her to be able to light her candle in the cracks. What was she going to do, run away with her tiny legs?

Staggering into the shack that she shared with nine others, she sank into a corner, leaning her back against the splinter-filled wood. The cracks between the boards were so large that it might as well have been a fence. Only a few tattered blankets were on hand to protect against the cold, and did it ever get freezing cold up in the mountains north of Zrukhora, especially now during the winter season. The ground outside was covered in snow that went halfway up her shins and had been ever since she’d arrived. Even the mines, deep in the mountain core, were chilly enough to make Pari shiver.

She was largely numb to the omnipresent cold, having spent most of a season here. She was numb to a lot of things at this point. She wanted to cry, to sob, to wail, to do all the things a terribly upset four-year-old girl was supposed to do, but she couldn’t. She’d already done all that until there was nothing left inside. No tears remained in her anymore, no matter how much she wanted or needed them.

Instead, Pari looked down at the candle from before, still clutched in her tiny, bony hands. With great effort, she brought forth a speck of flame once more and re-lit the wick.

Staring into the tiny flame, she felt the rest of the world melt away until there was nothing but her and the dancing glow. The pain, the misery, it faded to nothingness as she entered a world of happiness and joy. Nothing could hurt her here. Here, she had everything she ever wanted. Father was here; Mother too. Together with Brother, they made candles and laughed and played and loved each other forever. They would never leave her again. Not in here. Never in here.

“Pari... are you alright?” Brother asked as he entered the shack. He looked just as weary as she felt. Perhaps worse. Unlike Pari, who was mainly used to explore cracks in the mine and find out where the precious minerals were, Brother had to help pull the carts full of ore back up to the surface. If they caught him—or anybody else for that matter—resting for more than a few moments, they’d whip him until his back was covered in bloody gashes. The one time that had happened to him, they’d made her watch. That was the last time she’d been able to cry.

Pari barely nodded her head in response to Brother’s question, her eyes never leaving the flame. He let out a sigh and sat down next to her, wrapping them both up with a blanket. Together they just sat for a little, no words being exchanged. None were needed anymore. There was nothing left to say.

In a few moments, the bell would ring again, signaling meal time. They would trudge over to the food tent, receive their bowl of flavorless gruel, and eat it in silence like always. They would need to save all their strength for the coming day.

At least, that was what she’d expected. Instead, they heard a loud series of crashes outside the shack, followed by full-throated screams. The cacophony broke Pari from her trance, and the two siblings crept up to the shack’s door, opened it a crack, and peeped outside.

The chaos Pari found shocked her. Something had happened to the huge carts used to transport the ore from the mine down to the city. Each cart was twice the height of a man, and four of the ten carts had tipped over onto their side, spilling countless amounts of ore onto the mountainside and sending the pieces scattering down the slope.

To make matters worse, the tipped carts seemed to have fallen onto people, crushing them beneath their weight. With the way the guards rushed to rescue the people, Pari knew the victims were not slaves but other guards. The third day after her arrival here, she’d witnessed a slave get crushed beneath some falling rock and the guards hadn’t even bothered to try to save them.

“This is our chance! Let’s run!” Brother said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the shack. Running as quickly as he could with the chains on his ankles, he led her away from the accident and towards the edge of the mining camp while the guards were too distracted to notice their escape.

Or at least, too distracted for a little while. Between Brother’s bindings and the uneven, snow-covered ground, their progress was slower than they hoped. They only made it perhaps seven hundred paces past the edge of the camp when a shout went up behind them.

“Runaways!”

Mere moments later, Brother jerked violently and fell, an arrow sticking from his leg.

“Brother!” Pari cried in despair as he let go of her hand.

“Run! Get out of their sight and hide! I’ll try to slow them down!” he gasped.

“But-”

“Go!”

Tears in her eyes for the first time in nearly a season, Pari turned and ran as fast as her tiny legs could carry her. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very fast. She heard a whistle in the air behind her, and suddenly a cold, sharp pain shot through her chest, sending her tumbling to the ground.

Pari tried to cough, but all that came out was a pain-wracked wheeze. Something had pierced through her right lung, driving in through the back and going all the way through to poke out of her chest. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to everything. The red splotch on the snow beneath grew with every moment as her life quickly ebbed away.

So cold. She felt what little warmth she had left leaking from her body, but she couldn’t find the energy to stop it. The pain... it burned inside her, yet with every shallow breath, it became more and more covered by the numbness. So very cold.

The last thing her mind registered was a large, sudden shadow passing over her momentarily. Then, at long last, she entered the eternal sleep.