"Roach, ya' lazy urchin, geddup!" Viper said, delivering a quick kick at
the boy's side.
"Vip, you's supposed'a be my friend," he whined, slowly dragging himself up onto his feet. As soon as she was sure that he wasn't going to fall back down again, she started dragging him through the mass of sewers they called home, cursing him in every language she could think of.
"We'uz supposed'ave meet Weevil and 'is group a quarter hour ago," she informed him, stopping for a while to catch her breath. "It ain't everyday you gets inviting to go theivin' with the bigger rats in the gang," she added, but she knew that he already knew that. She waited for the impending question.
"Why da they want us?" he asked her, almost not sounding childish. She restrained herself from trying to drown him in one of the deeper tunnels, and took a supposedly calming breath.
"How'd I know if you don't?" she snapped at him. "All I know's that I 'ope we're needed 'nough soz they won't beat us." He was silent for the rest of the trek to Weevil's place, while she continued to mutter curses at him.
When they got there, Weevil was standing in front of his hole, most of the best thieves in the gang standing there with him. Everyone except for Dancer, the youngest person allowed to be in Weevil's group, bore the double-X. Looking around, she realized how serious this job was going to be. They even had the Thieflord's pet, Slug, a rat who happened to have what he called magic, but what was really just an ability to create allusions. "Where've you two been? I thought I told you," he looked sharply at Viper, "to bring your little bug friend and be here at dawn." He shoved her into one of the walls, and she winced as she felt her flesh being torn. She cradled her arm and silently followed Weevil down the sewers to their destination, wherever it was.
Roach put his hand on her right shoulder, the uninjured one. "Sorry, Vip, I didn't-" she silenced him with a wave of her hand.
"It doesn't matter. It'll heal," she said non-chalantly, as though she were a noble discussing the prices of tea in Emelan.
They trudged on for what seemed like hours, and all she could think about was her throbbing arm. She hadn't had time to soften her fall, and most of her left arm had gotten torn up badly. She felt Turtle, one of Weevil's goons, bump into her left arm, and winced, but he didn't seem to notice anything was off. She instinctively reached up and grabbed her stone, which was held on a piece of twine around her neck, and then a tingling feeling exploded through her arm. When she stopped to check it, it was completely healed. She stared at Roach's back for the rest of the walk, which had only really taken about thirty minutes, wondering how in the world he had done that. Weevil stopped the group, and motioned for them to go up a narrow passageway.
He waited for them all to file through, and as she watched Briar go up, he grabbed her arm and leered over her. "Don't think I'll let you go unpunished after this," he said, and then scrambled up the tunnel, leaving her stunned and alone. She contemplated running right then, but with Roach already up there, she couldn't. She followed the same path the rest of them had and came up in an alleyway in an obviously rich district of the city.
The 'job' turned out to be a simple raid on an upper-class hotel, and she and Roach were needed only to fit through the back fence and open the gates up for them. It was a successful venture, and she was sure that they were at least twenty blocks away with all of the goods disguised before the alarm was raised. She almost let a victorious smile slip onto her face as the crowds migrated towards the source of the noise. With nearly everyone gone to hear the gossip about the robbery, Weevil decided that a raid on a fabric store would finish off the day nicely. She was completely against the idea, but didn't say anything. Weevil appointed Slug as the look-out, because that was all he was good for.
As she and Roach searched behind the counter for the cashbox, she heard a shout of alarm from Weevil. Apparently Slug had not been doing his job very well, and at the moment she was all too aware of the two Xs on her hands. She ducked under the counter and threw some cloth bolts over Roach and herself, trying to make it look as natural as possible. Roach was very still, and she tried to be, also. The street guards left on patrol had probably seen one of Weevil's goons doing something incredibly stupid and alerted others. They were searching the shop now, and she could hear their footsteps getting closer and closer. The guards turned around to leave, and were walking out of the shop when the box that had been on top of the cloth fell as an errant breeze came through the room. Viper closed her eyes as she realized what would happen.
It seemed like a dream when the guards came back in and threw the cloth off of them, put chains on their wrists and half-dragged them through the streets as people muttered things about them and cursed them, threw things at them and made swings at them. It still seemed like a dream when the guards threw them into a holding cell, which she realized she had been in two other times. She followed Briar over to 'his' moss patch, and looked around. Leech and Hare weren't there, so she could safely assume that they had gotten away. No one had ratted them out- a symbol of a true gang. But Slug- everyone in the room as glaring at him, and she wouldn't be surprised if before long he was battered and bleeding. Right now, she thought morbidly, it would please her very much.
But she leaned against Roach instead, nursing the cuts and bruises that she had gotten whilst she was being ridiculed. Roach didn't seem to have as many injuries as she, but then she remembered that she had placed herself on the outside of him, towards the crowd, and that Dancer had been on his other side. At least the stupid girl had been useful for something. Life was a short thing now, she thought. With my luck I'll be dead within the week. She looked around the cell, at its moldy darkness, inhales its dank smell that held hints of rotting flesh, and felt its somewhat slimy walls and damp floor. It wasn't better than her hole, but it was safer, in a way.
She felt Roach put his arm around her in an effort to comfort her. "I'm sorry," he told her. "I was supposed to protect you."
Viper let out a shaky laugh. "Naw, Roach, I was supposed to protect you." She fell asleep momentarily, slumping over onto Briar's legs.
She was very disappointed when she woke up and saw that Slug had already gotten what was coming to him. She reached out, with her eyes still closed, and made faint grabbing motions. She finally hit something warm, and grabbed onto it, pulling herself into a sitting position. She let out a short yawn, and surveyed her surroundings. Viper saw that everyone was awake save Roach, and she intended to keep it that way. Slug was sitting by himself in a corner, whimpering slightly. His left arm looked to be a little out of socket, and he had a gash on his head. She winced in spite of her newly-conceived hatred of him, and felt something remotely like pity.
Any traces of what could have been pity disappeared when the grating sound of the cell door opening reached her ears. Roach was sitting up groggily, fingering his moss. She wanted to sulk in the back so she could sit with him during their hearing, because, for all she knew, it could be the last time she saw him in this life. But the guard called out her name far before Roach's, and she knew that it was because she was much more wanted than he, because for all of Roach's swift fingered-ness, he could never quite match her ability to spot out the heaviest purses or how to remove necklaces from rich ladies' necks. She sighed, and followed Weevil out of the cell. She'd just have to leave Roach with no good-bye. But those things made parting ever so much sourer, under circumstances like these.
She sulked out of the cell and lined up behind Weevil. If she had to go, this would be the best way, going out knowing that she was one of the best thieves this city had ever seen. She sighed heavily, and looked up at the ceiling, closing her eyes as everyone lined up. She opened them only after she heard Weevil start down the hall, and snapped back to attention as they were led through a maze of corridors under the main justice building, and brought up stairs that led into the trail room.
Viper looked up at the judge, and sighed again. It was the crotchety woman that had given her the first X, the one on her right hand. She wasn't likely to show mercy to anyone, not when the Sotatian laws were written so clearly. She was shoved down onto a bench, and watched Weevil be sentenced to the docks. She was brought before the magistrate and Viper's hands were slammed down onto the table. She and the judge both saw her two Xs, and she almost smiled when the judge gave her docks, too. Out of all three places she could have gone to, she had been praying that she got docks, because that was by far the easiest place to escape from. Considering that she was a great swimmer and all. She was led to a separate holding pen than Weevil, because she was a girl.
Now that she was in the back of the room, she could see everyone that was sitting in it. There were few people besides the sentenced sitting in the room, and the one that drew her notice was a tall Bag. He was sitting towards the middle of the room, and glancing around at all of the thieves in there. His gaze fell on her, and she stared defiantly back. His eyes widened for a moment and he focused a mirror-like object on her, and she froze. He smiled, and turned around. When Roach got up, he was sentenced to docks, too. She smiled then. Perhaps she would see him- to plan an escape.
But the Bag went up to the front and talked to the magistrate, and then began to argue in hushed tones about something, and he turned around and looked at her. The magistrate gave Roach a choice on whether to go to the docks or to go to some temple - Winding Circle, was it? - and she gasped slightly. He chose the temple, and she heard him change his name to Briar Moss. The little twit was just going off with the Bag like that, and he didn't even spare a glance towards her as he slouched off after the Bag. An empty void suddenly filled her heart. He was almost like family to her, and she couldn't remember a time when Roach hadn't been with her, ever since, well, forever. She started to mentally curse him, but a guard helped her out of her cell and led her, unviolently, to a nice, if not minimally furnished, room.
"Master Goldeneye says for you to stay here until his return. We aren't to harm you if you don't misbehave," the guard paused there, letting her sink in her instructions, "but we could always make up an excuse for killing you if you try to run away." He sauntered out of the room, but then stopped again before the door. "And if I were you, I'd be thinking of a new name." Then he left for good, shutting the door behind him. She waited for the click of a lock, but one never came. I suppose, she thought, that this is a test for me.
Viper leaned back onto her bed. A new name, she thought. What should it be?
***
Roach/Briar trotted after the Bag that had saved him for the docks, trying to appear willing and helpful. He gave up that façade a little before they reached the first hotel, and started sulking. The Bag seemed to be deep in thought, but Bags were tricky like that. You never knew exactly what they were thinking until they chose to tell you. Unluckily for him, he thought, that this Bag didn't seem to be very dull. He decided to go with him until they got to Emelan, get a few good meals under his belt, and then run. Emelan was fresh territory for him, a new start.
His plans changed when he found out that he could work with plants if he went to the temple, although the thought of smiling dedicates handing him the keys to their treasury was first in his mind. That was something that Viper would never be able to pull off. Viper, he thought suddenly and remorsefully. He had forgotten to say goodbye. And she was as good as dead. Trying to put the thought of Viper dead out of his mind, he followed the Bag-mage into their bedroom, unknowingly subjecting himself to a bath.
"Vip, you's supposed'a be my friend," he whined, slowly dragging himself up onto his feet. As soon as she was sure that he wasn't going to fall back down again, she started dragging him through the mass of sewers they called home, cursing him in every language she could think of.
"We'uz supposed'ave meet Weevil and 'is group a quarter hour ago," she informed him, stopping for a while to catch her breath. "It ain't everyday you gets inviting to go theivin' with the bigger rats in the gang," she added, but she knew that he already knew that. She waited for the impending question.
"Why da they want us?" he asked her, almost not sounding childish. She restrained herself from trying to drown him in one of the deeper tunnels, and took a supposedly calming breath.
"How'd I know if you don't?" she snapped at him. "All I know's that I 'ope we're needed 'nough soz they won't beat us." He was silent for the rest of the trek to Weevil's place, while she continued to mutter curses at him.
When they got there, Weevil was standing in front of his hole, most of the best thieves in the gang standing there with him. Everyone except for Dancer, the youngest person allowed to be in Weevil's group, bore the double-X. Looking around, she realized how serious this job was going to be. They even had the Thieflord's pet, Slug, a rat who happened to have what he called magic, but what was really just an ability to create allusions. "Where've you two been? I thought I told you," he looked sharply at Viper, "to bring your little bug friend and be here at dawn." He shoved her into one of the walls, and she winced as she felt her flesh being torn. She cradled her arm and silently followed Weevil down the sewers to their destination, wherever it was.
Roach put his hand on her right shoulder, the uninjured one. "Sorry, Vip, I didn't-" she silenced him with a wave of her hand.
"It doesn't matter. It'll heal," she said non-chalantly, as though she were a noble discussing the prices of tea in Emelan.
They trudged on for what seemed like hours, and all she could think about was her throbbing arm. She hadn't had time to soften her fall, and most of her left arm had gotten torn up badly. She felt Turtle, one of Weevil's goons, bump into her left arm, and winced, but he didn't seem to notice anything was off. She instinctively reached up and grabbed her stone, which was held on a piece of twine around her neck, and then a tingling feeling exploded through her arm. When she stopped to check it, it was completely healed. She stared at Roach's back for the rest of the walk, which had only really taken about thirty minutes, wondering how in the world he had done that. Weevil stopped the group, and motioned for them to go up a narrow passageway.
He waited for them all to file through, and as she watched Briar go up, he grabbed her arm and leered over her. "Don't think I'll let you go unpunished after this," he said, and then scrambled up the tunnel, leaving her stunned and alone. She contemplated running right then, but with Roach already up there, she couldn't. She followed the same path the rest of them had and came up in an alleyway in an obviously rich district of the city.
The 'job' turned out to be a simple raid on an upper-class hotel, and she and Roach were needed only to fit through the back fence and open the gates up for them. It was a successful venture, and she was sure that they were at least twenty blocks away with all of the goods disguised before the alarm was raised. She almost let a victorious smile slip onto her face as the crowds migrated towards the source of the noise. With nearly everyone gone to hear the gossip about the robbery, Weevil decided that a raid on a fabric store would finish off the day nicely. She was completely against the idea, but didn't say anything. Weevil appointed Slug as the look-out, because that was all he was good for.
As she and Roach searched behind the counter for the cashbox, she heard a shout of alarm from Weevil. Apparently Slug had not been doing his job very well, and at the moment she was all too aware of the two Xs on her hands. She ducked under the counter and threw some cloth bolts over Roach and herself, trying to make it look as natural as possible. Roach was very still, and she tried to be, also. The street guards left on patrol had probably seen one of Weevil's goons doing something incredibly stupid and alerted others. They were searching the shop now, and she could hear their footsteps getting closer and closer. The guards turned around to leave, and were walking out of the shop when the box that had been on top of the cloth fell as an errant breeze came through the room. Viper closed her eyes as she realized what would happen.
It seemed like a dream when the guards came back in and threw the cloth off of them, put chains on their wrists and half-dragged them through the streets as people muttered things about them and cursed them, threw things at them and made swings at them. It still seemed like a dream when the guards threw them into a holding cell, which she realized she had been in two other times. She followed Briar over to 'his' moss patch, and looked around. Leech and Hare weren't there, so she could safely assume that they had gotten away. No one had ratted them out- a symbol of a true gang. But Slug- everyone in the room as glaring at him, and she wouldn't be surprised if before long he was battered and bleeding. Right now, she thought morbidly, it would please her very much.
But she leaned against Roach instead, nursing the cuts and bruises that she had gotten whilst she was being ridiculed. Roach didn't seem to have as many injuries as she, but then she remembered that she had placed herself on the outside of him, towards the crowd, and that Dancer had been on his other side. At least the stupid girl had been useful for something. Life was a short thing now, she thought. With my luck I'll be dead within the week. She looked around the cell, at its moldy darkness, inhales its dank smell that held hints of rotting flesh, and felt its somewhat slimy walls and damp floor. It wasn't better than her hole, but it was safer, in a way.
She felt Roach put his arm around her in an effort to comfort her. "I'm sorry," he told her. "I was supposed to protect you."
Viper let out a shaky laugh. "Naw, Roach, I was supposed to protect you." She fell asleep momentarily, slumping over onto Briar's legs.
She was very disappointed when she woke up and saw that Slug had already gotten what was coming to him. She reached out, with her eyes still closed, and made faint grabbing motions. She finally hit something warm, and grabbed onto it, pulling herself into a sitting position. She let out a short yawn, and surveyed her surroundings. Viper saw that everyone was awake save Roach, and she intended to keep it that way. Slug was sitting by himself in a corner, whimpering slightly. His left arm looked to be a little out of socket, and he had a gash on his head. She winced in spite of her newly-conceived hatred of him, and felt something remotely like pity.
Any traces of what could have been pity disappeared when the grating sound of the cell door opening reached her ears. Roach was sitting up groggily, fingering his moss. She wanted to sulk in the back so she could sit with him during their hearing, because, for all she knew, it could be the last time she saw him in this life. But the guard called out her name far before Roach's, and she knew that it was because she was much more wanted than he, because for all of Roach's swift fingered-ness, he could never quite match her ability to spot out the heaviest purses or how to remove necklaces from rich ladies' necks. She sighed, and followed Weevil out of the cell. She'd just have to leave Roach with no good-bye. But those things made parting ever so much sourer, under circumstances like these.
She sulked out of the cell and lined up behind Weevil. If she had to go, this would be the best way, going out knowing that she was one of the best thieves this city had ever seen. She sighed heavily, and looked up at the ceiling, closing her eyes as everyone lined up. She opened them only after she heard Weevil start down the hall, and snapped back to attention as they were led through a maze of corridors under the main justice building, and brought up stairs that led into the trail room.
Viper looked up at the judge, and sighed again. It was the crotchety woman that had given her the first X, the one on her right hand. She wasn't likely to show mercy to anyone, not when the Sotatian laws were written so clearly. She was shoved down onto a bench, and watched Weevil be sentenced to the docks. She was brought before the magistrate and Viper's hands were slammed down onto the table. She and the judge both saw her two Xs, and she almost smiled when the judge gave her docks, too. Out of all three places she could have gone to, she had been praying that she got docks, because that was by far the easiest place to escape from. Considering that she was a great swimmer and all. She was led to a separate holding pen than Weevil, because she was a girl.
Now that she was in the back of the room, she could see everyone that was sitting in it. There were few people besides the sentenced sitting in the room, and the one that drew her notice was a tall Bag. He was sitting towards the middle of the room, and glancing around at all of the thieves in there. His gaze fell on her, and she stared defiantly back. His eyes widened for a moment and he focused a mirror-like object on her, and she froze. He smiled, and turned around. When Roach got up, he was sentenced to docks, too. She smiled then. Perhaps she would see him- to plan an escape.
But the Bag went up to the front and talked to the magistrate, and then began to argue in hushed tones about something, and he turned around and looked at her. The magistrate gave Roach a choice on whether to go to the docks or to go to some temple - Winding Circle, was it? - and she gasped slightly. He chose the temple, and she heard him change his name to Briar Moss. The little twit was just going off with the Bag like that, and he didn't even spare a glance towards her as he slouched off after the Bag. An empty void suddenly filled her heart. He was almost like family to her, and she couldn't remember a time when Roach hadn't been with her, ever since, well, forever. She started to mentally curse him, but a guard helped her out of her cell and led her, unviolently, to a nice, if not minimally furnished, room.
"Master Goldeneye says for you to stay here until his return. We aren't to harm you if you don't misbehave," the guard paused there, letting her sink in her instructions, "but we could always make up an excuse for killing you if you try to run away." He sauntered out of the room, but then stopped again before the door. "And if I were you, I'd be thinking of a new name." Then he left for good, shutting the door behind him. She waited for the click of a lock, but one never came. I suppose, she thought, that this is a test for me.
Viper leaned back onto her bed. A new name, she thought. What should it be?
***
Roach/Briar trotted after the Bag that had saved him for the docks, trying to appear willing and helpful. He gave up that façade a little before they reached the first hotel, and started sulking. The Bag seemed to be deep in thought, but Bags were tricky like that. You never knew exactly what they were thinking until they chose to tell you. Unluckily for him, he thought, that this Bag didn't seem to be very dull. He decided to go with him until they got to Emelan, get a few good meals under his belt, and then run. Emelan was fresh territory for him, a new start.
His plans changed when he found out that he could work with plants if he went to the temple, although the thought of smiling dedicates handing him the keys to their treasury was first in his mind. That was something that Viper would never be able to pull off. Viper, he thought suddenly and remorsefully. He had forgotten to say goodbye. And she was as good as dead. Trying to put the thought of Viper dead out of his mind, he followed the Bag-mage into their bedroom, unknowingly subjecting himself to a bath.