After the Night Chapter 8: No More Heart to Bruise, a his dark materials fanfic

Penny Sahren (sa-rain) trudged back and forth across the small one room apartment, and paused to stare out the window again. Her entire body was thin and small, and she looked young for her age and scared. She needed food and drugs, and how would she get them when the sickness was in the city? There were no customers, because everyone had been worrying about it for months, and the virus was said to be sexually transmitted. So she had no customers at all.

Thank the Gods she didn't have her daughters to take care of. She had been so close, but the man she had been going to marry--for money, not love-- left her when he found out that she was a prostitute.

Yes, she regretted her decisions. Oh yes! And if she could go back everything would be different. Penny was not stupid. She just made dumb decisions. She knew it tore Ariu up that she had no idea who her father really was. Ariu didn't know what her mother did was bad until she had told someone's parent about it once. After that, things had never been the same. She had always known that eventually that same thing would happen with Lucy and she would lose another of her children.

She had nothing to look forward to except for whoring herself for twenty more years and never making enough money to do anything with.

Hopefully Ariu had used the money for something good, like an education for Lucy.

So , if she wasn't working, every night Penny sat, looking out the window through the smog to the few stars that were left and prayed. But not for herself. It was much to late for that, and she knew where she was going after she died. No. She prayed for her daughter. In the whole ugly world, Ariu was the one last beautiful thing, and that would not be ruined. And she prayed that someday everything she had done would be forgiven.

She looked out her peephole, when she heard voices outside of her door. It was that handsome man from next door, who had once brought her a rose.

And standing next to him--

"Ariu?" she whispered, catching her breath and yanking open the door. Because there was no way it could be true. She was not a psychic. "Ariu!"

The girl turned and looked at her. "Hello--"

And Penny burst into tears. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I'm sorry!"

Ariu and the other two girls standing nearby looked at her. "Hush up," Ariu snapped. "I am the one what should be crying! Get back inside. Aaliy, Ryanna, get inside. " They left the two boys outside and slammed the door.

"What were you doing with those men? Oh God."

"Nothing, Penny. I am not like you. We just needed a ride to get her from the School of the Mind."

Penny stared at her. "Baby... Please don't hate me."

"I don't hate people. I hate what they do. But you're my birth mother, and every adult in the city is going to die soon, and I had to say goodbye."

Aaliyah noticed how an awkward silence was about to start. She said, "Hullo, Mrs. Sahren. I'm Aaliyah, and this is my friend Ryanna."

"Hello girls. How are you?"

"Fine."

"So am I. My name is Candy, but you can call me Penny."

Ariu tutted and sighed. "See? That is what I'm talking about. Your name is PENELOPE! Not Candy Bar!"

"Okay!"

"Look," Ariu said. "I only need to have some questions answered. Like who is my father?"

"Shit. I knew you would really want to know someday."

"Well?"

Aaliyah and Ryanna sat down on the window seat and watched.

"The King. I was at the castle with the man I was working for at the time and the King hired me and well, it could have been the other man, but I had some of his Majesty's hair, and a DNA test."

"You're a princess!" Ryanna exclaimed. Aaliyah glared at her.

"A bastard princess. So I thought I'd never tell you."

Ariu looked distraught. "Another lie! I hate liars!" She pushed back her hair with both hands and patted Aruin's head. "Okay. Okay. And Lucy's?"

Penny shook her head and sat down on the floor. "No. I am not going to tell you. You are my daughter, Ariu. And it is not any of your business."

Ariu looked down at the floor, trying not to feel bad. This was the woman who had abused her for years, and she felt pity for her? "Do you know who it is?" She wanted Lucy to at least know who her birth father was.

"It was--"

Ariu looked at Ryanna. "Ry?"

Ryanna concentrated for a second. "It was the same man," she answered, as Penny began to cry.

"Please don't read my mind!" she moaned. "Stop!"

All three of the girls looked startled. "I am so sorry," Ryanna apologized.

"I'm a princess!" Ariu declared. "Let's go find my father!"

Wait!" Penny gasped. "You can't. I am the daughter of a Duke, and when I had children with the king, no one care until the queen began to get angry. She said that the reason she couldn't get pregnant was because I stole his seed. So we were banished and they said they'd kill us if we ever returned to that kingdom."

"Was it a different kingdom?" Aaliyah asked.

"Yes. Thilia."

"Well," said Ariu. "Good-bye, mother. We'll be sure to visit soon."

"Wait!" the woman exclaimed, but the door was shut in her face, and she sat in the dark shivering for a long time.

"Well that settles it," said Ariu. "We're going Thilia to find my father!"

"We're what?" the other girls asked in unison.

"After we visit your family and get Lucy."

Ryanna's mouth dropped. "Uh-uh. No way, Ariu. I am not going to Litha."

Ariu looked at her, then turned to Aaliyah. "What about you?"

"Are you for real?"

"Yeah. All the adults will be gone soon, and I've always wanted to get revenge."

Aaliyah looked at her funny.

"I've always wanted to meet my father, especially since the fire."

"Well," said Ryanna. "Bye. I suppose I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Bye Ry," Aaliyah replied. "See you."

Ariu said nothing, but she didn't like it when people didn't do as she said.

They walked down the stairs in silence, and Ariu and Aaliyah turned one way, while Ryanna walked by herself the other way.

"Have a great time in Thilia," Ryanna shouted back. "Say hello to the king for me!"

Ariu and Aaliyah stopped, because Ariu had no idea where they should go.

"We aren't really going to Thilia, are we?"

"Of course we are."

Aaliyah wasn't sure if they really would go, and she wouldn't put it past her friend. And if they were going? Well, she had nothing holding her back here, and she needed an adventure.