Ashes

A thick fist, pummelled against the side of a cheek in a roaring backlash, sending the young girl crashing through the space around where she once stood. At first, she was blinded by a haze of her own outstretched limbs, but a more urgent blindness ensued as her head hit the cobblestones and a crimson pool began to stream around her. Tori had expected the pain, it was something she was used to, having lived too long on the streets. “This is the third time in as many weeks," an accusatory figure bellowed at her from high above where she lay "Try to steal fro’me again scum and by the sovereign, you'll wish you were dead."

'I think we are long past that point,' the comparatively tiny girl dared to mutter as the threat of tears welled up inside her. There were no tangible emotions as such, just the usual expression of futility, that she knew was likely to placate the man, perhaps even afford her some pity. She winced as she reached up for her head. No, she had winked. Only a very astute person would have been aware of the difference, or perhaps someone waiting in a nearby alleyway waiting for a signal.

Two heavily dirtied boys approached the stall from behind, one silently instructing the other but both as ragged as Tori in appearance. The taller of the two reached up and began gathering the most exotic and tasty looking of the loaves, passing them into the improvised sack the second boy was holding open. Tori observed them in her periphery, as they quickly filled the sack. Two shadows approached her from behind, and it was the familiar crunching of metal, the slow but confident rhythm of feet moving purposefully that Tori immediately she knew she was in trouble. She cursed herself, ‘The patrol was not supposed to be through this part of the Atrium for another seven hundred paces,’ her mind racing to her observations from the day before.

“I trust this problem has been dealt with?” a gruff voice asked of the merchant, his leather squeaking as is muscle-bound frame turned in place.

‘Tammund, get out of here.’ Tori pleaded silently to herself, unable to move under the weight of the men’s gazes.

“A street thief, Captain” he explained, “caught the girl trying to nab one of m’flatbreads. Stupid creature hasn’t got any sense in her, it’s not the first time.”

“Tiny thing isn’t she,” the man uttered to his escort dismissing the merchants’ comment.

“I suppose so Captain. Do you want me to take her back to headquarters?”

“Speak girl, tell me your name.” Landis knelt, fingertips brushing Tori’s long dark hair back from her face in an attempt to examine the wound. Tori flinched away instinctually, her piercingly dark eyes cutting him deeper than the depth of any wound he might have found. Tori often overheard tales of how esteemed members of the Emberon used the vulnerable to satisfy their guilty curiosities. It was common knowledge that some establishments in the northern part of Downs often tended to officers and sentries of the Ember judiciary. She had heard one boy speak of how he was beaten, almost to death in the sanctuary by an officer, of course beatings were a common occurrence, but Tori was unsure of this man’s intentions and her skin prickled as he touched her. She was not going to take any chances. Besides, she knew it was only a matter of time before the merchant’s attention turned back to his stall, time was running short.

Rising unsteadily to her feet, Tori took the opportunity to study the captain’s attire. She noted his insignia was different somehow than the one she had seen yesterday’s patrol wear, it was more intricate, the flame sported more curls. She committed the snippet of information to memory. ‘Why aren’t you wearing armour?’ He was not a priest. No, the priests she had encountered wore long robes decorated in the Emberon colours. This man’s attire seemed more practical, and as she observed his hands, she noted just how little they were worn, yet they remained strong somehow, as if he had spent years working in the industrial sector, without the same ragged edges. Those same hands reached out to steady her as dizziness caused her to sway unsteadily, but before the captain could blink, the starved figure had darted and was already disappearing around the corner of a nearby alleyway.

‘Captain?’ The uniformed man prompted, unsure whether to pursue the slim figure or not.

“She has had enough for one day, Regimir.” The well-dressed captain explained as he too rose to his feet. “Come we have more urgent matters at the Seminary. You have your wares, the girl is gone, no harm done.”

“Yes Capt’n, could’ve knocked s’more sense int’her though.”

“I think you did enough of that. Do you have no Sympathy for her?”

“Sympathy, yes Captain, Tol’rance No.”

Tori stopped between two towering stacks of hovels and pulled herself onto a low roof, her body buzzing with adrenaline and every action was somehow easier than ever before. She felt her heart beating hard in her chest, but familiarity guided her easily over rooftops, up beams down ropes knowing exactly where to place her feet as to not tumble the many stories to the ground below. She caught herself smirking as words echoed metallically from the direction she had come. “Sovereigns Ashes, where did that little rat go!” The disgruntled voice she recognised as the trader barked. She considered taking the time to look down for his face, she could disappear one of a hundred different ways if she were seen. “No, that is how people remember you” she muttered to herself, but that did not stop the desire for wanting to.

Tori had always been incredibly careful, meticulous even when it came to these sorts of plans, and she cursed herself for not knowing of the captain’s patrol beforehand. Once Tori felt she was far enough away from the Atrium, she took a moment to pause. She chose to perch upon an apex that overlooked the river and Ups on the other side. She thought about the people that inhabited the lifts falling from the city above carrying the wealthy and powerful down into burrows. She saw a patrol pacing the meandering path that followed the river, sporting the same uniforms as the escort she had just encountered, and a haunting memory reminded Tori of how Randon’s hollow body echoed as it was dragged from the streets and discarded into the river below, the bloodied and broken remains of a small heart shaped locket dragging from his fingers... ‘How could I have been so stupid? I should plan better, got more information.’ Tori’s stomach gurgled angrily at her, it had been four long nights since she had last found anything substantial to eat and having amassed her aches and her pains from the day, she was suddenly filled with the anticipation of the meal that was waiting for her. With an excited spring to her body, she effortlessly navigated one of her many secret passages to the ground.

Having walked upriver, following the rising thunder of the waterfall that streamed into burrows from the mountain range bordering the city, Tori turned into one of the many back alleys nestled between the vast warehouses that bordered the lake. Great heaps of soot, slag and cinders covered the small street, “Tammund?” Tori whispered as one of the piles shifted under her weight, causing her to reach out to keep her balance. “Eris?” Her eyes were wide with suspicion expecting the two boys to surprise her from a hiding spot among the dark, but there was no reply, no movement not even a breath of wind. ‘They were supposed to be here,’ she had only taken a small break.” No, they had waited for until half-light for her the last time. ‘Maybe they were caught?’ and doubts filled her mind as she stood stunned. Tori had only collaborated with the brothers on one other occasion where they had picked four cops from a man’s pouch, but she knew they survived long enough to know what was good for them. She observed the undisturbed piles, and a heavy weight replaced the hunger in her stomach. They hadn’t been here. Tori looked down at her hands that were covered in a thick layer of charcoal, and she realised what she had already known. She was one of the Ashes, she was stupid to think she mattered, that she a hungry homeless girl could possibly make a difference without messing up. People would use her and then discard her when they realised their mistakes.

The floor scratched at the soles of her feet as she bounded towards the water, tears now very real in her eyes. A loaf of bread could last a few days easily, a week if Tori rationed it carefully but it wasn’t her empty stomach that was causing her pain. It was the knowledge that her mother had been right. She was not worth it. Nothing she did amounted to much no matter how hard she tried. Somehow her mother had known, seen it in her while she was still young, A thin jaw clenched as she pictured the relief, she must have felt being rid of her “! I’m sorry mama. She sobbed as she scrubbed at her skin violently in the shallows, “I know it’s my fault, I can do better, I promise.” It was a long lonely while she sat scrubbing with her thoughts.