Chapter 145: Stowaways

Chapter 145: Stowaways

Lucia put her head down and worked until her knuckles were raw and her fingers ached with exertion. The dishes, plain creations of carved wood kept piling up before her, accumulating faster than she could clean. Lucia grit her teeth, and kept going. She didn’t stop when the restaurant owner started screaming at her and the other youths to go faster, she didn’t stop when the boy next to her was dragged away and beaten for dropping a bowl. She didn’t stop, because she couldn’t.

Two stale loaves of bread and a small satchel filled with pan seared discards were her pay for the evenings work. She didn’t complain, that would mean they wouldn’t let her back. Lucia quickly ducked out before the owner could let out his temper, she ran down the alley and darted down the poorly lit street. She ran through the cobbled roads of Kartinth until the sole of her oversized right boot finally disintegrated. She stumbled, clutching the food to her chest as she fell.

Lucia hissed in pain as she picked herself up off the muddy street. Kicking off the now useless boot and letting out a series of curses she had heard her older cousin use on numerous occasions. A lump built in her throat, remembering about the family she used to have hurt. It hurt more than the bloodied skin on her knee, hurt more than her bruised and cut hands. It wasn’t fair, nothing about this situation was fair. But life was what it was, and even if over the course of her short life it had gone from bad to worse, it was all she could do but dig down deep and survive.

Half an hour later she stumbled, half asleep into the rundown structure that was her temporary home. A large figure peeled itself up out of a chair in the main room, sunken eyes glaring at her as if she was trespassing. Which, unless she gave up a portion of what she had earned, she would be.

“One loaf, half of what I was given.” Lucia said, trying to keep the weakness out of her voice. The ageing woman before her was no different than most of the people who lived rough in the poor districts of the city, a predator who wouldn’t hesitate to pounce on any opportunity. It was greedy, shortsighted, if the woman let her keep coming back she would get more food in the long run than if she took everything now and chased Lucia away. The young girl found that desperate people rarely thought about that, and they absolutely hated it if you pointed out the flaws in their logic.

“I smell meat. Give it to me, girl.” The woman snarled, her scarred lips twitching.

“I don’t-”

“I said give it to me!” She repeated, stalking forward.

Suddenly a pair of callused, thin fingers grabbed Lucia by the collar, pulling her up off the filthy, carpetless floor. She cried out in surprise, kicking out. The bread fell from her grasp, and then the packet of meat she had hidden in her ragged shirt was taken. Despite her appearance, the older woman had several levels under her belt, and far more [Might] than Lucia had. She felt the difference between their strength when she was thrown to the floor, her face coming perilously close to the pointy end of a rusty fire poker as she skidded to a stop.

“My brother... needs that.” Lucia groaned as she rolled over. “Please, he’s sick and weak.”

“I don’t care, girl. Be grateful that I haven't kicked you out.”

Lucia sighed in resignation and stumbled over to the single loaf of bread she had left. She stalked out of the room, ignoring the wet sound of munching coming from behind her.

===

“Lucia! You’re back.” A small boy cried, jumping free from the pile of rags he was using as a bed.

“I’m back Royce, I’m back.” Lucia said, slumping down against the wall to their small, dark, mouldy room. “Look, I brought dinner.”

“Thank you big sis!” Royce said, throwing his little arms around her neck and hugging her tightly. She could feel his ribs, how diminished and skinny he was. It almost broke her heart to know she was failing him, that even with everything she did to keep them alive it wasn’t enough.

“You need to eat Roy, to keep up your strength. Here, the loaf is yours.”

Her brother looked away and coughed, then stared up at her with wide brown eyes. “But sis, you need to eat too.”

“I already ate.” She lied, ruffling his shaggy blond hair.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, would your big sis ever lie to you?”

Royce looked doubtful, something he never would have done only a few years prior. He was growing up, but in the worst possible place. He took the loaf and tore off a bite, he grimaced slightly at the taste, but chewed without complaining.

I would have complained when I was his age. She thought, closing her eyes and trying to ignore the stab of pain that shot through her stomach. Roy coughed again, and continued doing so for several seconds. Lucia clenched her fists and fought back tears, this wasn’t what life was supposed to be like, not for them.

Silence stretched in the little room for several minutes, it was only broken by the sound of Royce slowly devouring the bread, his meal occasionally being interrupted by fits of coughing.

“I heard something interesting.” She said, not opening her eyes. Royce made a noise that indicated interest. “Apparently there’s some sort of event happening in the Academy, a bunch of ships are going there, taking supplies and the occasional passengers.”

“Sis, we can’t go. What happens if we get caught sneaking onto a ship again?” Her brother asked.

“Then I’ll take the beating for both of us. But we won’t get caught, we’ll be more careful.”

“But there are way more soldiers on the docks these days, you said it yourself.”

“True, but they’re looking for terrorists and enemy soldiers, not two kids.”

“What if they think we’re terrorists?”

Lucia opened one eye and looked at her little brother. A deep frown mired his malnourished, but innocent features. “You’re eight, Roy, nobody will think you're a terrorist.”

“What about you? You’re thirteen.”

“I’m a lady. Ladies don’t commit acts of terrorism.”

“Oh, okay. That makes sense.” Roy mumbled, tearing off another bite of stale bread. He chewed, and Lucia closed her eyes. “Hey, Lucia?”

“Don’t have any, we’re leaving.” Lucia replied, quickly walking past her host and making for the room where her brother was.

“You need to pay if you want to leave.”

Lucia ignored those words, darting up to the door to their room and bursting inside. Royce lay in the blankets, pale and sickly. His eyes slowly opened as he awoke, blinking sluggishly to clear his vision.

“Sis?” Roy asked.

“We’re going, I know which ship we need to be on!” She said, her excitement bleeding into her voice and overpowering her wariness.

“You do? That’s great!”

“Yeah, we’ll be out of here in no time. And then we’ll finally know what happened to our family”

“You’re not going anywhere, girl.” The ageing woman said as she stomped up behind Lucia. “You still owe me, and you aint sneaking off without paying.”

“You only asked for payment for each night we stayed. There’s nothing we owe you.”

The woman grunted, closing in on Lucia. “Don’t care. You owe me whatever I say you owe me, girl.”

“But you said-”

Her words were cut off as the sharp sound of a slap echoed through the building. Lucia raised a hand to her face, blinking in shock. A second slap sent her rheeling, the blow knocking her head to the side.

“Sis!” Roy screamed from within the room, his next words being cut off as the woman slammed the door shut.

Lucia’s head swam as she tried to get to her feet. Her attempt was foiled as a booted foot connected with her ribs.

“You work for me, brat! You do as I say, and you will be grateful for it! You want your worthless brother to die? You don’t listen to me and I’ll kill him. You hear me? I’ll slit is fucking throat!”

Lucia’s world went very, very still. Even as the woman grabbed her by the leg and dragged her down the corridor she barely breathed. Another slap broke Lucia from her state of shock. Then she was lifted bodily and thrown towards the door.

“Bring me back double the food tonight, I don’t care how you get it. And if you get on your knees and apologise I might even let you keep some.”

“You can’t do this.” Lucia muttered, steadying herself against the wall for support as she stood.

“What did you say? Speak up, girl!”

“You- you can’t do this! We’re not your damn slaves!”

“You became my property the moment you walked through that door and asked for my generosity. And what are you going to do about it? Do you even have a class?”

Lucia didn’t, but that wouldn’t stop her from standing up for herself. She may be nothing but a street urchin with nothing to her name but the rags on her back and what little she could scrounge together. But she had once been more, she knew what it was like to be more.

“You threatened my brother.” She said, it wasn’t a question, but a statement whispered with little emotion.

“I did. And I fucking meant it. You get out there, or I’ll snap his frail little bones and dump him in the sewers.”

“I won’t let you.”

“You don’t have a choice, brat.”

It was true. Lucia didn’t have a choice. There was nothing she could do to the person before her. Nothing her meagre strength could accomplish. She looked up into a pair of sunken, hollowed out eyes, and found that she didn’t care.

Lucia dashed forward. Not towards the host, but towards the fireplace she had never once seen lit. She reached it just as she was grappled from the side by a near unstoppable force. A hand went around her throat as Lucia screamed and writhed. She was pinned, helpless, dead to rights unless she somehow fought back. But it was all meaningless. What could she do? What could she do now that she was all alone, absent everything she grew up knowing and loving except for her baby brother?

Royce. She thought, her vision going blurry as her consciousness faded. Her trembling fingers found what they had been searching for the entire time. Lucia mustered every drop of strength she had left, then the rusted poker pierced the woman’s eye and burst out the back of her skull. She fell dead, her grip around Lucia’s throat going limp.

The girl crawled to her feet, trying to ignore the corpse. She wretched into the ashes of the fireplace, took three steps, then fell in a heap and wretched again. Adrenaline raced through her body as she took several gasping breaths. Then Lucia firmed her resolve and marched to her brother's room.

Lucia shielded Roy’s vision from the blood seeping into the floorboards as they left. She shielded her own vision from the system prompt that still populated her vision. She had been offered class, but victory tasted like blood.

===

The dock workers heaved, activating skills to lighten their loads as one by one crates and barrels were placed within the hull of the merchant ship. They worked through the afternoon and well into the evening, before finally all the cargo was loaded. As the sun set and the workers left to rest after a hard day’s work, two small figures climbed up out of the water below the pier and quickly dashed up the gangplank.

In the morning, crew on board and passengers assembled, the ship departed the port city of Kartinth and began the multi day-long voyage south the series of islands the Academy resided upon. The ancient institution was rarely open to visitors from the general public, but the tournament that would soon be underway provided an exception to that rule. Among the many passengers, each eager to arrive at their destination. One stood out from the rest. He had paid, certainly. But the individual was odd for a variety of reasons. The most striking of which was the painted mask that covered his face.