Young Flame

Ash leads me through the bookshelf and lifts some floorboards in the centre of the room. He uncovers a new opening and begins climbing down. The room behind the bookshelf is far too small to hold both myself and the three still following from behind. As I lower myself down the ladder, I hear the grating sound of the bookshelf being pulled back into its original position by the twins.

Jumping off and skipping the final few rungs, I inspect the room I find myself in. A thin, straight crack between the wall and the ceiling at the far end of the room allows in more light than the room above. The room must be mostly underground, being lower than the alley outside. We are standing directly underneath the workroom we came through. Unlike the dirty and littered floor above, this is rather clean, with a few old beds on one side of the room and an assortment of objects organised on the other.

Ash takes a seat in one of the few chairs surrounding a table with a missing leg. He motions for me to sit in the chair opposite and stares at me, or more accurately, at my neck where the cut is still visible and burning.

I settle in the provided chair as Leslie flops onto a bed, propping herself up with one arm. The twins quietly lean against the wall behind Ash.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of áed before. What exactly are you? And how did you make your body burn like that? I’ve never seen anything like it.” Ash absentmindedly scratches at a rather red patch of skin.

“Wait, really? Never?” Most ursu I have spoken to have at least heard of us, even if most haven’t met any.

“No.” he shakes his head.

“Huh.” Maybe the mountains to the west are a part of the Titan Alps, but it seems a bit too far south for that. “We mostly live in the wasteland west of here. And I didn’t burn my body, I just stopped controlling its form.”

“So, your body emits fire?”

“No? My body is fire.” It’s not that hard to understand, is it?

Apparently it is. Ash gawks at me for a moment until two knocks echoes through the basement followed by the grating sound of the bookshelf moving.

“Hey, Kerry’s back.” Leslie says.

Kerry? Looking around, I finally realise that the girl that had been beside Ash outside never followed us in. Where had she gone? Did she go looking for others to fight me? I rose from my seat and edge back towards the corner of the room.

When the girl, Kerry, descends the ladder, the sight that she is alone would have calmed me. That is, if she didn’t happen to be lugging a bucket of sloshing water along with her. I tighten the jacket around me, pulling the hood tight over my head. My legs tense, if she throws the bucket at me, I am ready to dodge.

She doesn’t even look at me, instead runs straight to Ash’s side. She places the bucket at his side before dabbing a soaking rag against the reddest parts of his arms.

“Ow, not so hard Kerry.”

Watching the scene, I know the water isn’t meant for me, but I can’t take my eyes off the bucket, wary of the danger its presence assures.

“Yo, you alright fire girl?” Leslie’s voice snaps my attention away from the water soaked rags pressing against Ash’s arms.

As I turn to Leslie curiously watching me, I realise my fear is far too obvious. They don’t know about áed, so that also meant they don’t know about how harmful water can be. Not wanting to give her any more inclination as to my weakness, I force myself to calm down.

“Yes, absolutely fine, no issues at all.” I can’t help the glances I keep shooting towards the bucket, though.

Leslie looks at me for a time. “You’re really shitty at lying, you know?”

“Wha… I, I’m not lying.”

She smirks, then looks towards Ash, where Kerry has torn off his half destroyed shirt and tends to the redness on his face that I swear my flames never burnt.

“So… don’t like water, huh?” Leslie says. “I guess that’s rather appropriate for fire.”

I clench my jaw and hold myself back from giving her any more confirmation.

Once Kerry finishes fussing over Ash’s burns, she takes a step away from him, only to glare at me. She once again picks up the bucket. I gulp and hope she didn’t hear Leslie.

Ash turns back to me. “Please, come and sit. What’s your name?” Once again, he indicates to the chair I sat on before Kerry came.

“I’d rather stay over here.” I keep the beds and Leslie between myself and Kerry.

Leslie snorts and sits up. “Kerry, drop the bucket. You’re terrifying her.”

Kerry blinks. “I am?” she lifts the bucket in my direction. I make sure not to react visibly, but I watch her intently in case she throws it. “Hey, you’re right!” she smirks, looking at me sharply.

“Kerry,” Ash warns.

“Fine.” She cuts her glare and places the bucket next to the wall behind her.

“Right, so I’m Ash, this is Kerry and Leslie.” He points to the two girls. “And these two are Demi and Medi.” He waves at the mirror duo.

Ash turns to me, waiting. Kerry hovers beside him, glaring, but not otherwise showing hostility.

“Solvei,” I say, relaxing now that Kerry doesn’t have her bucket.

“Great! It’s good to meet you, Solvei. We are glad you aren’t a mage or, more specifically, one of the albicant. Now, let’s put our mistakes behind us and let bygones be bygones.” Ash says.

I nod in agreement, I never wanted to fight in the first place.

Kerry gives me one last harsh scowl before sighing and dragging the last seat from the table beside Ash and falls into it. She isn’t pleased with me, but it looks like she is willing to talk.

“So, Solvei, how long have you been in Kelton?” Ash asks, leaning forward in his chair.

“I arrived with a caravan last night. I was planning to head to Serron with them, but, uh, it seems like my hair is rather unpopular here.”

Leslie snorts while both Ash and Kerry share a glance with wry smiles.

“Yeah, welcome to Zadok. Y’know, before you came along, our Ashley here had the darkest hair we’d seen. It’s a good thing you aren’t actually an albanic, hair that dark would scare off an entire block.” Leslie grins, turning to Ash. “That sounds like a good idea, yeah? Let’s take her to the white bloods and watch them run like rats. Contamination by association, as they say.”

“As great as that sounds, I’d rather not throw our new friend into the wolves’ den for a bit of a laugh.” Ash says, turning to look me in the eye. “No, I’d much rather do it burn the den to the ground.”

Uh, I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t want to be burning down any more buildings or dens or whatever. Too many got caught in the conflagration last time.

“No. I’m not burning down any more homes.” I say, resolute.

“Any more?” Kerry quirks an eyebrow.

“No, no, no. There’s no need to burn any houses to the ground. We would just need your help to get inside.”

Leslie jumps to her feet. “You’re not seriously considering that, are you?”

Ash lifts his shoulders, holding one palm upwards. “Why not? Most of the guards left the city and you know how arrogant they are about their automatic protections. Without a mage, it’s impossible to get in, and guess what we just found.” He says with a smirk, waving an arm towards me.

A grin slowly grows on Leslie’s face, and a brief laugh escapes her lips. “Oh, that sounds great. I never thought I’d get the chance.”

Kerry is appalled. Her eyes widen and jaw loose. “Don’t laugh. That’s a horrible idea.” Turning to Ash, she continues. “Just because some guards are away, you think we can break into the Cano’s manor? Are you insane? We’ll be hunted down. The albicant families hold no love for the impure, and even less for those that steal from them.”

“Come on Kerry, this is our chance. Do you really want to be stuck in this shit-hole until the day we can’t scrap together enough food to get up in the morning?” Ash says, rising to his feet. “This is our chance! She is our chance!”

He takes a moment to steady his breathing. “If we do this, we will be able to leave the country. We’ll have opportunities to earn our own luxuries that are forever cut off from us in Zadok. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want something more?”

Kerry bites at her thumb but nods.

Okay… have they just assumed I will help? I think they have. I’m no mage, but I assume Ash wants me to burn something to allow him to do… whatever it is he wants to do. But I would much rather not go burning through the infrastructure of the new city I find myself in. I can’t see any situation that doesn’t have me being labelled as a target. The only reason I’m not worrying about the ursu chasing me after burning down their city is because there is an army between me and them.

As much as I would be happy to work together with this group, I’m not about to risk my safety for them. Not that I would do it as a charity either, I’ve learnt not to trust that easily.

“I’m not doing it.” I say, making sure there is no room to misunderstand.

Like a wagon wheel with a spear lodged within, Ash’s speech comes to an abrupt halt.

“Huh? Why not?”

“I’m uncertain what it is you want me to do, but I know enough that my safety would be put in danger. I’m not about to get myself caught in any more trouble.”

Ash stutters, fumbling over his words while he looks at me with wide eyes.

“But… but you have the strength of a mage. You could take on anyone and they can do nothing to you.”

I shake my head, remaining firm. I can fight anyone I want? What nonsense. He had obviously never seen much of the world if he thought that was the case.

“Okay now, Ashley, calm down. We’ve just met the young… áed, right?” Leslie turns to me for confirmation and I return a nod.

I hear Kerry mutter under her breath, “áed?” Right, she wasn’t here for that, was she?

Leslie continues, either not hearing or ignoring Kerry. “And she doesn’t know much about this cesspool of a city yet. Why don’t we let her stay with us for the moment and see where things go from there?”

Ash considers it, raising his hand to his chin while he thinks. Kerry is far more resistant to the idea.

“Let her stay? After she attacked Ash?” Her face contorts, incredulous. She acts like she’s been slapped in the face.

“I think it’s fine, I did attack her first.” Ash says.

“But she left burns all over your arms!”

“I can barely feel them. They don’t hurt at all. And you’ve already done a great job of patching me back up.” Ash says, smiling at Kerry.

Kerry's cheeks flush, and she pulls back quietly. Leslie lets out a loud groan, rolling her eyes as she falls back onto her bed.

“So she’s welcome then?” Leslie asks, looking at the ceiling and pointedly not watching the two.

Ash snaps his attention back to me. “Ah, yes. Welcome to our home, Solvei. It’s not much, but it’s all we have.”

I don’t have anywhere else to go, so I might as well accept. But this time I can’t trust them like I did with Gloria. It’s clear they want something from me, but that’s fine. I can trade my help for them to allow me to stay, but I’ll make sure to first and foremost keep myself out of danger. I know now that I need to refuse if I don’t want to do something and not believe everything they tell me.

“Thank you.” I say.

I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to stay with others again, but I have no reason to believe that Serron or Ashon will be any easier to live in than Kelton. I have seen how the albanics treat their own people. The quality of life here is far lower than what ursu experience in New Vetus, even during their wartime struggles.

The roads aren’t paved, just compact dirt or loose gravel, and maybe a little cobblestone in patches. The quality of each building is far lower. On my way through the back alleys, I had seen more collapsed buildings than I could count on both hands. It is strange though, my first impression of the city was that there are many people living here, what with the size of the city and the number of people operating stalls in the main street. But moving away from the main road, it seems almost empty after passing a few alleys.

I will have to check tomorrow, but I am pretty sure there were more abandoned buildings around than those that look frequented. For a moment, I consider asking the others, but dismiss the thought. I don’t want to rely on them for things I can find out myself easily enough. Who knows what sort of tricks they might pull if I listen to everything they say?

“Well, I think it’s time to hunt. Come Solvei, we can show you the best paths through the city,” Ash says.

He tosses me a bundle of cloth. Catching it, I’m welcomed with the sight of a hat similar to the ones the people at the stalls wore. The one given to me is a faded pale pink, looking like it had once might have been red.

“Take our spare. It’s better than your jacket to hide your hair.” The five of them put their own hats on.

“Oh? How generous of you. It doesn’t have anything to do with you not wanting to be forced into the pink one again, does it?” Leslie says as she rose from her bed.

“Of course not! I just think she looks cute in it, don’t you think?” Ash says, unaware of the glare Kerry sends him.

Leslie laughs and turns to me. “Come, I’ll show you our second entrance. We don’t use this except in emergencies, but you should know where it leads.”

I follow but keep my guard up. Gloria was generous with her gifts at the start, too. I’m not about to give them an opportunity to use me.