She slept like she was still in a cage.
Her rail thin limbs twisted and dug into her stomach, unmoving and silent. The wounds from her own digging had barely begun to scab over, laying dull, red ridges at the end of her bicep.
She laid motionless as if any movement would push her weak body into the cold iron bars.
If my eyes weren't so sharp, I might have mistaken her for dead.
But my only fear was what she would do once she realized that soon enough, there wasn't a cage that could hold her.
Well, for now, the patch of hide and and cotton I laid her on was an upgrade.
Even if my personal grodo wasn't glamorous.
I had made my little nook in a previously sealed off basement, a grate in its flooring connected to a covered up side path in the city's sewers.
No one would find us here...
"Big bro? You're back already?" Came an amazed voice from below the grate.
Well, no one who would slap a collar on us...
"I don't remember saying that I would be gone long..." I sigh, flicking a chain towards the heavy grate, piercing the metal. "Besides, the festivals in town."
[Hollow chain]
The moment the grate went up in flames, a form summersaulted out of the small opening; the shape unfurled into a young girl, who landed deftly on her feet.
"But you did say you'd be on a mission the next dome over~" she hummed with a sly smile. "Did you finally sell out to the gate authority?"
"Like they'd want us slumdogs on their payroll..." I chuckle.
"Keep trying, big bro, taking a day trip across the world has always been a dream of mine" she coo'd, clasping her hand together. "A morning in the gilded city, lunch by the sea of Olicar, dinner in one of Koli's terrace bistros, and then..." She said, falling down to lay demurely on floor for flourish, "watching the sunset in the floating city..." She ended her laundry list with a whistful sigh.
"Are you sure you haven't thought of selling out?"
"No, but if you keep listing domes, I'll tune you out." I bat, moving my chain back over the open pit.
[Empty, Floor Grate]
A flash of blue flame filled the hole before vanishing to reveal the same grate, returned without a sound.
The wistful girl jumped back on her feet, sticking out her tounge at my words.
I chuckle and send a chain to wrap over my palm.
[Empty, Slaver Camp Sketch]
A roll of frayed parchment flickered into my hand.
"Instead of selling out, your big brother was looking out for our little family." I chide with a wave of the scroll.
The girl's green eyes sparkled as she bounced over to my side, pressing herself against my shoulder.
"Ouuu...! What is it? A treasure map? A deed to the city? A-A...map?" She said with a pout as I unrolled sketch of the slaver's camp.
"I have no idea why you're surprised, Daisy. Information is our bread and butter."
"Treasure maps are information too..." She pouted resting her head against my shoulder. Her hand playing with her long, red braided ponytail.
"True, but I wouldn't sell one to a client." I say. "But if I do come across one, you get dibs."
"Really!?" She sparkled, bouncing to her feet.
"Sure." I say with a sly grin. "After I take the treasure for myself, you can have the map."
Now, in my defense, she deserved that for implying that I'd ever sell out.
And I deserved the kick in the ribs that came after.
"You're rotten..." She huffed, turning away from me.
"Oof...yeah, yeah..." I nod, nursing my side. Sheesh, sometimes I forget she's an associate. "Now, about the rest of the family.." I try.
"...."
"Daisy?"
"...."
"Right..." I sigh, "Sorry for getting your hopes up, Day."
"...mmm.." she hummed, before turning back to me meekly. "Sorry for kicking you."
I nod, turning my attention and chains back on the sketch. They go up in flames a second later.
Daisy returns to sit by my side, pressing her index finger to her chin.
"The guides have been busy with the festival in town and Ink and biggs have a been up to their ears with all the rumors coming in."
"Any trouble at the tavern?" I probe. Festivals are our best times of the year, but with opportunity can come trouble.
"Not yet; but the Grey and Gris were hounding Yuri about wanting to explore the festival..." She let out a low sigh, "meaning she's been hounding me about it..."
"The perks of being number two." I muse.
"Rotten..."
"Sorry, sorry..." I chuckle. "Tell them to be patient, I'll cover them for an hour when I go check in with Roland."
"The duties of being number one, huh?"
"Of course." I nod, "How did Hull and Fiddle's side hustle turn out?"
Daisy flashed me a grin. "Great! He even asked if he could take some of the bigger boys out to help, cover more ground and all that."
I return her grin. If our family was anything, it was industrious.
It's time to show them why I'm the head.
"Tell him to take the Hardy twins and the basin boys, if things go well, send Tulius to help out." I get to my feet with a puff, stretching. "Enough dawdling, ready to earn your keep, Daisy?"
Daisy didn't hide her excitement as she flew up.
"Aye aye!" She cheered, pumping her fist. She looked ready to take on the world. "You too, newbie. No point in acting like you're sleeping!" She teased, moving towards Alyn.
"Don't bother her, Day." I said nodding my head towards Alyn. "She's been asleep since we got back."
Right, she was still all balled up and motionless...too motionless. I sharpened my eyes, picking out back muscles tight and primed.
And a wisp of purple.
"Daisy! Get back!" I roar, snapping my chains into being.
A purple flame roared. The violent fire morphed, taking the form of a arm, swinging at Daisy.
Without missing a beat, Daisy ducked the swipe before bounding back in the same motion.
As Daisy landed by my side I cursed.
Was it already too late...?
Was I a fool for thinking this would go any other way?
I shook my head and crushed my Indecision.
I unfurled my chain.
I raised my hand towards Alyn, her red eyes shaking.
"Daisy, stand ba-"
"Ah! I'm so sorry!" Cried Daisy.
Huh...?
I flicked my eyes to Daisy who was remorse fully wringing her hands.
"Are you okay? We didn't mean to scare you..." Daisy called out.
Alyn didn't respond. She didn't even look like she could; she was crouched on all fours like a tiger, her wild bloody eyes twitching from my face to Daisy's.
Even now I could see wisps of purple flames smouldering around her.
"It's okay, I promise..." Daisy smoothed, her voice soft. Too soft for the monster in front of her.
I only need to see Daisy lift her foot before I grabbed her arm.
"Daisy, I said-"
"Gilligan-!" She hissed, flashing an incredulous glare at me. "What has gotten into you?"
What has gotten into me? She was about to throw herself to the worst villain of the age and she's acting like I'm in the wrong for stopping her! Like she doesn't see it! Like she doesn't know! How could she not know!
....
I release her arm.
How could she know?
"Please...let me handle this..." I whisper to Daisy.
She held my eyes for a long moment, confusion overwhelming her frustration.
"Okay..." She whispered stepping behind me.
I turned to face Alyn, to take her in. Purple embers and tuff of flame heaved and gasped around her, making her red eyes glow in their light.
But beneath all that, I saw what Daisy saw:
I saw her shaking form, her weak arms fighting to keep her from collapsing to the floor.
I saw how her thin and shunken face bled sweat.
I saw how her chest shook and heaved out of time.
I didn't see the Vile Witch, only her flames.
"Enough, you're going to kill yourself if you keep burning Artia like that." I softly chided, retracting my chains to rest around my hand.
Alyn's form faultered for a moment, she didn't move a muscle for a long moment.
"Touch me and I'll...I'll..." She hissed like a broken whistle.
I could see her eyes glaze over as her mind fought to form the words.
"What? Kill me?" I shook my head.
[Empty chain, Pop-fruit]
A vine of blue beads flickered into my hand, a fruit not too dissimilar to grapes.
"You'll collapse before you can reach my neck." I sighed, tossing the fruit to land just next to her sagging head. "We can worry about killing each other after you've eaten."
With my piece done, I got to watch as Alyn's fear and her hunger bare knuckle brawl behind her eyes.
Fear was a fighter, but hunger is a monster.
It was grizzly sight. not wanting to waste energy on plucking the blue gems off the vine, she instead bit branches off the vine, swallowing fruit and stem whole.
"She's in bad shape..." Hushed Daisy as she softly clutched my arm.
"Horrible shape." I agreed.
"I was too, when you found me."
I turned to fix my eyes on her with a squint.
"You didn't try to attack anyone." I hush.
"Would you have left me to die if I had?"
"Daisy...this is..."
"Different?" She chided softly as she squeezed my arm. "Were Grey and Gris different too?"
I couldn't say a word.
She leaned on my shoulder, running her hand over an old scar beneath my sleeve. "I guess they were...they drew blood."
"I get it." I hissed.
"I know." She smiled softly, letting my arm go.
I turned my eyes back to Alyn to find she was almost finished massacring the Pop-fruit.
Somewhere in the struggle she had cut off her Arte. Whether that was a sigh of surrender or exhaustion, I couldn't tell.
It wasn't long before she was chomping down on the last branches. When nothing remain but blue stains, she stilled.
Her breath was still rough, but it was breaking on an even pulse.
I let the forced rhythm play out, letting it fall into a quiet lull.
"Can you stand?" I finally asked.
She turned her eyes up to me. She made no attempt to hide her suspicious.
But whether it was indignation or something else, she moved to rise.
She shoke as she did; her hands came to choke her forearms once more.
To say she cut an imperious figure would be a cruel joke, she was almost hunched over as she searched my eyes.
"Who are you people?" Her voice was tight, winded from the small movement. "Slavers?" She hissed. Her fingers threatened to break her arm's thin scabs as.
"Do you still feel a collar around your neck?" I motioned to her bare neck.
Thankfully, she took a hand from her arm to rub the pale skin.
"So what?" Her eyes aimed at the chains wrapped around my hand. "You could probably change that in an instant..."
"I could." I admitted evenly. "But if I was going to, why didn't I collar you when after you tried burning my friend alive?"
Alyn's face twisted at my words; she might have seen my point, but a reminder that she's at my mercy didn't appease her fears.
Not that denying the fact would go any better, underplaying your hand works for narcissists, not the paranoid.
Alyn shook her head, "fine, if you're not slaver, what do you deal in? Drugs? Women?
"We-" I heard Daisy start before I rose a hand.
"Information."
I am under no impression that Daisy's words would have been inherently harmful, she's one of the kindest in the undercity. However, her words, especially when dealing with the vulnerable, are soft, nor definite. Sadly, the same length you let a paranoid run is the same length of rope you hang yourself with. I need to funnel this; Just like I've done dozen of times, I have to get to the point.
"We" I start motioning to myself then to Alyn, "are Urchin's Street. We sell information to interested parties." I say
"We?"
"Yes, We."