Chapter 30: Chapter 27: A Day Out 1

The port city of Ithea was everything Chris imagined it to be, and more. It was easy to remember the textbook descriptions of the city from her past memories. Ithea was the crown jewel of the Lorien kingdom, the hand which gave the island nation claim over thousands of miles of surrounding sea. 

Seeing it firsthand, however, was a different experience entirely. 

The city presented itself proudly on a descending set of cliffs, surrounded by a natural barrier of water and bare to the midday sun. Below it stood the docks themselves, where several massive ironwood ships lay anchored. Smaller vessels drifted in the water at various distances away from shore.

Their carriage –more inconspicuous than what the royal family normally traveled in– passed inspection with little trouble and made its way into the city’s heart. Chris looked outside in a trance. There was a blur of people in motion, some with exotic animals on their shoulders and others with goods carried from every corner of the world.

A hand rested on her shoulder. 

“You’ll get many more chances in the future to tour around the city.” Elanoa said to her gawking daughter. Her lips were curled up in amusement. “But for now, please remember what our reason for coming here is.” With Lysander gone for Silvine, and Edward and James holding the kingdom’s reins in his absence, the two of them prepared to embark on their own journey.

“Yes mother.” She tried to sightsee more subtly before they stepped off the carriage, the two of them wearing nondescript clothing and a matching set of cloaks to hide their features. Even in their disguise, the way they carried themselves drew a few looks and stares. Elanoa still had the bearings of authority, and Chris couldn’t get rid of the “graceful gait” that her mother had drilled into her. 

“It’s easy to get lost in Ithea.” The queen grasped her daughter’s hand. “Don’t let go of my hand, Christiana. We want to avoid any trouble before we head to the Duke’s mansion.”

While they walked, Raisendel spoke in her contractor’s mind.

[Try to look at things from a different perspective. This is something that you’ll have to do as both a future ruler and a growing warrior. Survey your surroundings, and be aware of every movement and peculiarity.]

Chris was skeptical at first, but decided to follow through with the spirit’s advice. Ithea assailed her senses with everything it had to offer. Her hair was whipped by the breeze, carrying with it the smell of the day’s catch from lower in the city. She noticed the telltale glint of weapons half revealed under belt buckles and sheathes. There was precious little sign of coins or other valuables.

She squinted her eyes, making sure that the Ordainer was kept safe in her pocket while tightening the hood of her cloak around her head. It didn’t seem safe to stand out in this city. 

Elenoa, meanwhile, scanned the streets while making sure her daughter was closeby. She noticed Christiana perk up at a nearby stall selling fluffy hotcakes, before turning a pair of begging eyes towards her.  

“Alright then, let’s get some for you and me.” She chuckled. They still had time to kill before meeting with the Duke, so it wouldn’t hurt at all to treat her cute and loveable darling. Children only stayed young for so long, after all.  

You were right, Raisendel! It does pay off to look at my surroundings more. Chris celebrated this small victory with an ecstatic expression.

[...I wasn’t aiming for this outcome, but so long as you pay more attention in the future. By the way, girl, check your pocket.] 

“Hm?” With growing worry in her heart, Chris passed a hand over the pocket where she left the Ordainer.

Nothing. 

“Eh?” With worry now turning into full blown panic, she looked around frantically, but a deluge of people flooded the market square from all sides, preventing her from catching sight of anyone suspicious.

Did someone take it?! She screamed into her mind.

Raisendel gave an extremely long sigh of disappointment. 

[To your left, a dozen paces forward and into the alleyway.] 

Got it, thanks! She sprinted off, darting between bodies and ignoring shouts and disarray from passerby, forgetting about something that was equally important at the moment.

“Here you go, Christiana. Let’s eat them while they’re still–” Elenoa stopped, realizing the absence of a certain girl. Her shoulders drooped. Part of her considered dropping everything immediately to find her, her mind racing through every possible scenario. It seemed more likely that her daughter went off looking for trouble, rather than trouble looking for her. Sighing, she began to gently nudge people to make way.

“They stay young for so long.” She grumbled while balancing stacks of street food in her hands. She was going to have a stern talk with the girl. Elena just hoped that she would find her before her daughter went and did something that would give her a headache.

________________________________________

Chris raced through the streets trying to catch onto the trail of the pickpocket under Raisendel’s directions. She noticed how the streets became narrower, the houses more ramshackled, and the air slightly staler as she went. Gone was the hustle and bustle of the open street market from before, and now an unnerving stillness took over her surroundings.

These must be the slums. Every city has one, I guess. I think I can already tell how this is gonna go. She’d read through similar developments countless times in the past. And she could say without a doubt that things were about to get messy.

Still, how exactly is House Pergeus taking care of Ithea for this part of the city to have gone so far into disrepair? She frowned.

She channeled some more mana to sharpen her senses, with Raisendel summoning her own winds to pursue their culprit.

Don’t I look pretty suspicious in a cloak while I’m running at this speed? 

[Focus. Right turn at the last building. We’re getting closer now.]

She heard a child wailing and crying from the direction she was headed, and immediately quickened her pace, pulling the cloak’s hood further down her head. The situation was no longer as simple as it seemed, but there was no time to hesitate. Turning the corner, her blood began to boil at what she saw. 

Three men jeered and kicked at a girl lying prone on the floor. Another had a vice grip on the arms of a young boy calling out to the fallen girl, crying for his sister.  

Chris saw the girl clutching onto the Tidal Ordainer in her hands, tightly and desperately as if it was life itself. The artifact seemed to have lost its luster in her grasp. The girl’s gray hair was matted with dirt and grime, and her lavender eyes glared fiercely at her attackers. She had scrapes and injuries all over her. Some of them were old, but most were fresh. 

[Doing this to children… what scum.] Raisendel expressed her disgust. [We’ll have to deal with them before things get out of hand.]

But Chris had already taken action. With frightening speed, she’d already dashed to the man holding the boy hostage. 

They were all facing away from her, but that wouldn’t be the case once things started going down. Best to make the most of the first strike. She slammed a mana-charged fist into the back of the first man’s neck. His head snapped backwards, and he let out a groan before collapsing onto the floor, releasing the boy who looked up at her, his teary black eyes layered in fear.

“Stay over here,” was all she said before advancing. The other three thugs looked up in surprise, before seeing their buddy passed out cold on the floor. Their faces contorted into disbelief, then anger. 

“What the fuck?” One of them stepped forward, a mass of bulk and brawn compared to her shorter stature. He had a mop of greasy black hair and a derisive sneer. “Did he get done in by a kid?” He snorted. “‘And he only had one job. Tch.” The man cracked his knuckles. “Not gonna talk, pipsqueak? You ain’t right in the head or somethin?” The other two grew emboldened from the first.

“Look at this lil shit shaking in er’ boots.” A bald-headed man said.

“Scared, are we?” Another mocked. The three of them drew closer nonchalantly, leaving the beaten girl on the ground. Chris couldn’t help it anymore. She snickered.

“What’s so funny?” They glared.

“Even rats and insects know when to run away.” Her smile was without mirth, but instead contempt.

“What is this brat saying?” One of them growled.

Chris tossed away her smile, her expression morphing into one of simmering rage. Her eyes were cold, and brimming with unleashed mana. All her being was calling for her to enact judgment on them, but not with Raisendel. These shitstains didn’t deserve that special treatment. 

No, she would do this the hard and brutal way. 

“I’m saying that you morons are worse than vermin in every measure. Capisce?”

The men froze, some instinct in them finally warning them all too late of who they were truly facing. One of them, the first man to speak to her, roared out while charging at her. 

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“You cocky little bitch!”

“Miss!” The boy from earlier cried out in alarm.

Chris threw her cloak into the incoming thug’s face, blocking his line of sight. As he scrambled to get the sudden obstacle out of the way, she struck. 

“Fool.” 

In that brief moment, she crouched down and launched herself upwards, kneeing the distracted man directly in the chin. Her movement left a trail of her exerted mana, a mix of blue and green aura. When her blow connected, its force briefly lifted the man into the air before his head snapped back, knocking him out. 

She twisted midair to kick his body into another one of the approaching thugs, sending both of them crashing to the ground. 

She turned towards the last remaining piece of trash to take out. The same arrogant baldy from before was now standing like a deer in headlights after seeing the other two taken care of so quickly. 

“Don’t look down on me!” He rushed towards her, motes of mana forming around his hands to form a pair of earthen knuckle dusters.

“Oh?” Her brows raised at the sight, in intrigue instead of alarm. A different kind of energy now started to boil up from within her, snapping and crackling. She met the man’s wild charge by darting into his range, catching him off guard. In that moment, she grabbed his throat with inhuman strength, as if handling a child. The man was even more shaken when he looked into her eyes, which flashed a pale yellow in that moment, like a monster peeking out of its disguise.

“That power. That bond. The likes of you aren’t worthy of it.” Her voice was cold.  

“W-what is!”

 Violet and indigo lightning coursed up her arm, the thug having only a second to look on fearfully as the pure energy ran its course towards his mortal form, with the intent of annihilation.

[Enough, stop now!] Raisendel warned her. 

Chris dropped the shaking man on the ground, his body falling limp. His summoned spirit was long gone, his own Will having been broken long beforehand. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell of urine, and turned towards the girl from earlier, who was staring at her with wide, fearful eyes. 

“Can you get up, or do you need help?” She offered a hand.

The girl shakily responded. 

“I-I can.” She hesitated, then decided to take the offered help.

Chris then faced the boy, who unlike the girl looked awestruck. An idolizing light showed in his eyes.

“Tch.” She just wanted some food, damn it. Everything was so messy all of a sudden. She stepped out of the alleyway, and took a deep breath of the much fresher air, the two kids following after her like a pair of sheep.

________________________________________

Quinn thought she was being blessed by the Heavens at first.

It wasn’t easy to find good scores in Ithea; most people living in the city had the sense to keep their valuables well hidden and guarded. Slum dwellers like her had to survive by preying on each other. It normally took an extraordinary mix of luck and tenacity for her to get anything out of prowling the market district. 

So she was pleasantly surprised, elated even, to find an easy mark in the main plaza. Quinn had her eyes on the pair since their carriage had left. Something about the way they carried themselves exuded an air of some pompous nobility unused to how rough life was outside their mansions. She caught one of them –a girl around her age, from the looks of it– check her pocket earlier, briefly revealing one of the most luxurious necklaces she’d ever seen, something that only the wealthiest merchants in Ithea could even think of wearing! There was no entourage of guards surrounding them either, which made her wary about it being a trap. 

But she was desperate, and money didn’t come easily the honest way.

She struck on the first opportunity, almost feeling that it was too easy. The ditsy girl didn’t even notice that her precious jewelry had gone missing. Excitement powered her steps back into the slums, where Dreve was waiting for her. Pawning the item wouldn’t give her even a quarter of its worth, but she was desperate, and she didn’t have the time or the power to argue. 

Admiring her catch, she noticed a seam on the side, and only then realized that it was a locket. A part of her felt sorry now, realizing that the locket may contain an image of someone who was important to that girl. She didn’t try to open it, out of guilt. Once sold, it would be out of her hands. 

But when she found Dreve in their meeting place, Keith and his gang were already there.  Ruffians, scumbags, no other words were needed to describe them. They’ve been on her tail ever since she stole a coin purse that they’d hustled out of someone else. She could’ve avoided those meatheads on any normal day; she was nimble and quick enough to slip by most of the trouble the slums threw at her. Her little brother wasn’t as fortunate.

“Oh? Looks like you got something good there.” Keith, the black haired man who’d been a thorn in her side lately, smiled cruelly. Behind him, another man restrained Dreve by the arms, holding the boy hostage. 

Damn it! How did they find us?

“Hand it over.” He eyed the locket she tightly clenched in her fist. She hesitated. This was their ticket to a good life; no way in hell was she giving it to these sleazeballs! 

Just as she prepared to step back, Keith shook his head in disappointment. 

“Hit ‘em.” One of the men with a bald head smirked, before slamming an uppercut into the boy’s stomach. Dreve cried out, curling up into a ball and gasping for air, tears escaping the corners of his eyes.

“Fine, fine, I’ll give it to you! Don’t hurt him!” 

But the bastard didn’t let it end there.

“I didn’t do this just for that little trinket, girlie. You shoulda known better than to mess with me.”  His sadistic grin grew larger. “Get her.”

What could a half-starved kid do against three fully grown men? Too distracted by Dreve’s predicament, she was surrounded before she knew it. All her attempts at fighting back were met with even harder retaliation. It wasn’t long before she was knocked to the ground, bruised and battered. 

“Sis!” Her brother cried out, trying to escape the thug . But no matter how much he struggled, a malnourished child of the slums couldn’t escape a grown adult. 

Her day had gone from good to downright horrible.

She was helpless.

Lord Deura, God, if you’re watching this and listening to this sinner’s last request, please send these assholes to Hell together with me. And keep my brother safe.

Her prayer was answered right away with an unexpected newcomer. Quinn's eyes widened as the girl she’d stolen from earlier on entered the alleyway and knocked out the man holding Dreve without breaking a sweat. 

She taunted Keith and the rest of his men without a hint of fear in her voice, but instead with disdain and absolute confidence.

In the next few seconds, when the girl threw off her cloak and revealed her beauty, Quinn realized that life was too cruel. Here she was, powerless and beaten. Over there was someone blessed with strength, beauty, and wealth. Everything she’d ever longed for, and more. 

And this girl was now saving her and Dreve, as well as beating up Keith and his men, without much effort at all. She wanted to laugh, if her sides didn’t hurt so much. What was the point of all their struggles?

Their “savior” looked towards her, and she shivered. Wasn’t she holding this girl’s precious item in her hand? Would she be dealt with just like those thugs?

“Can you get up?” The girl offered her a hand. 

Her thoughts raced quickly, her mind coming up with ways the situation could develop from here. Quinn had the gut feeling that her day might not be so bad after all.

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