Originally, this was going to be just about Amei, what happened with the
Shang Phoenix, and her trying to stay out of the grasp of the Crown and its
wrath, but I decided I wanted to get someone into enough trouble so they
would get tortured or equivalent (okay, just tortured. The equivalent part
just sounded cool), which needs at least one more character to work. And so
the plot thickens.
Oh yeah, Kayden's story 'To Play with Fire' gave me the wanting to torture someone. I swear (yes, my mother told me not to swear (and then I remember the last place I read that, sorry Kay), 'Under' has the best torture scene I've read for ages.
Speaking of Kayden Eidyak, she reviewed. Kaydie, I can't believe you reviewed me back! I was going to actually ask. You're so cool, and a really good writer too! I found the spelling mistake with Scanra (Scandra. funnily enough, that's the way I think it, which is probably why I misspelled it in the first place). Thank you for saying you liked my new characters. A certain someone who is in my Lit class said she didn't like Sheiya, so I'm going to have to deal with that. Although I do see her point in Sheiya being excessively mean, but I hadn't thought of it that way and its kinda hard to change anyway. Oh, yes, I plan lots of funfun.
Nefertity, yes more. I haven't gone back to read Tortallian Fire in. I'm not sure how long it's been since I've read it. Probably because I go on Fanfic every day at school, and I lose track of time. I remember now though. It took a while to get into, but it's pretty good. I'll read the next chapter when you get it up.
Elspethelf. Me? Switch from one character to another? I guess I did. Well, now because I have two characters, plus the people searching for Amei, I think I'll be doing a bit of that. Having multiple characters is fun!
Oh yeah, Kementari: thanks for telling me not to say it was a bad summary and a bad title, even though I do think the title was pretty bad and pretty non-descriptive. Lots of people reviewed me!!!
Spoilers: none. Going into original character mode now.
A/N: I've just figured out the years for chapter 1, and I'll upload the changes when I can be stuffed. Speaking of changes, Mouse lived in Port Caynn (the city near Corus), not Port Legaan, which has a cooler name and is a bit further south than Port Caynn.
Oh, yeah, this Friday's my muck up day (or the last day of the last year of school, for those of you who don't understand that phrase). So I'll have exams, and then I'll have months to write fanfics! And get a job, and study up on the Chinese revolution coz I wanna, and maybe even finish that non- fanfic story that I started in year ten. and lots of things.
I think I babble too much. I'm rather happy I don't talk as much as I write.
* ~ * ~ *
Raine
Chapter 3
That night, the rain poured down in sheets, never ceasing except for the odd shower of hail which caused Raine to pull down the hood of her cloak and run like the Black God was after her. Which, in a way, He was.
Lightning flashed, illuminating her destination: the Palace gates. Thunder boomed immediately after, shaking the ground ominously. Her back ached dully, where her master- she pushed the thought away. All she needed to think about now was getting into the castle, nothing else.
She ran straight up to the front gate, where a guard stood to admit those whose reasons for entry were sincere, and to turn away those who had no reason to be there. Like her.
"Who are you, and what business do you have here?" one of the guards demanded.
She had to be brave, and try her best to fool the guards. If she didn't try, she wouldn't survive the night.
"My parents have sent for me," Raine said, trying to ignore the fact she was lying. Hoping neither of the guards had the Gift and could see through the lie. "It is an emergency, but they couldn't write what exactly and I don't know why. You must let me in!" She hated lying more than anything.
The guards exchanged a dubious glance. Raine buried her head in her hands in dismay, and burst into tears.
"My papa, my brothers," she continued, hoping they would take her tears for worry. She was glad she did not have to look them in the eye. "Jeysin, Auders. one of them could be." She gasped for breath.
Her tears were enough to convince the guard. "Open the gate," he commanded.
"Thank you," she whispered through her sobs. "You don't know how much this means to me."
"Don't mention it, lass."
Raine silently passed through the iron gates and made her way into the castle. If the Protector of the Small wouldn't take her in, no one would.
* ~ * ~ *
The day after Mouse and the Shang Phoenix left Port Caynn was overcast, drizzling the whole day. The open fields were muddy, which made Mouse glad that the Shang had bought her new clothes and good travelling boots before they'd left the city.
Mouse sorely needed to rest after three hours of walking, and was quick to tell the Shang so.
After a few seconds she stopped. "If we don't stop now, I suppose you'll complain until we do."
Mouse sat straight down on the boggy ground.
"I guess you were tired." The Shang sat down next to her. "I expected you to start complaining hours ago. I guessed right. You are stubborn."
Mouse didn't know quite what to say, so she didn't say anything.
"Girl," Sheiya started, "What's your name? I don't think you've told me yet."
"Does it matter?" Mouse said. "I haven't had a proper name for years. My friends call me Mouse, because I'm quiet, but that's no real name."
"Quiet? You ain't gonna be quiet after you've been with me a few months. Why don't you give yourself a real name? I can't just call you Mouse all the time."
Mouse thought quietly for a moment. "If I give myself a name, I'll want to change it in a few weeks time. You should give me a name. Then I won't be able to change it."
"Intelligent, too," the Shang remarked. She gazed at the young girl's mouse brown hair and brilliant green eyes. She had a mouse-like look about her, but there was a lot more to her than that. There was something about the girl that reminded her of Yamani noble-ladies, delicate like a cherry blossom yet courageous and just, like a chivalrous knight.
"I'll call you Amei. It means beautiful, in Yamani. After I had been there, I have always wanted to call my first born girl Amei."
* ~ * ~ *
Kel was woken hours before dawn by quiet but persistent knocking on her door. It took her at least an entire minute to drag her lifeless body and sleep dulled mind from beneath the warm, soft covers to walk across the hard, icy cold floor to open the door.
The girl standing at the door had long, straight chocolate brown hair and the brown eyes of a sad puppy. Her clothes of brown and undyed cloth were sopping wet with rain, as was her hair: there was already a small puddle forming around her feet. There was something about her that reminded Kel's semi-functioning brain of a wild sparrow, a little creature that could be intensely curious, but would fly away at the slightest disturbance.
She curtseyed lower than a commoner should to a noble, pulling her reluctant wet skirt away from her legs, then dropping it, allowing it to again cling to her legs. "Your fame has spread far, Lady Knight," she started precariously. "Your kindness to commoners is legendary."
"Not at this hour of the night, it isn't," Kel grumbled. "What do you want?"
"I have heard of what you did for Lalasa, when you were a page," the girl started, uncertain this was as good an idea as it was when she'd been- "I ask you to allow me to work as your maid. I do not care if you cannot pay me."
Kel started to close the door. "It's too late for me to make decisions this big. Come back in the morning, and I'll think about it."
"Please?"
There was such desperation in her voice that Kel immediately opened the door. When she did, she noticed that the girl's face was tear streaked.
The sharp pain in Raine's back flared up again, causing her to stumble. Kel caught her. For the first time that night, Raine realised she was short of breath, and knew exactly why.
"Oh, Goddess," she gasped as she started to black out.
Kel caught her before she touched the floor.
* ~ * ~ *
Amei stopped by the tavern of the Rogue, the Dancing Dove, to meet with her current boss. The man she was searching for was no associate of the Court of the Rogue, but she assumed he preferred to hide among men of the dishonest trade so his every dealing would be counted as one of theirs. She didn't even have his name. He, as a scholar-mage, did not fit the image of a member of the Court, but she, having about ten daggers on her person and dressing much like a man, did.
The tavern was noisy, as was usual. The Court was not in session, but that did not mean that its members were not present. She knew some members by name, others by face, and had met the Rogue once or twice; but this place was by no means a haven for her. Even a Shang trained street rat could be beaten by those who hide in the shadows.
A spark of cherry red fire in her mind's eye alerted Amei to the scholar's presence. Her gift often showed her glimmerings of magic in her mind's eye, and the ability to sense people's aura: the energy they project which gives others the feel of who they are. That ability, along with her training and the other aspects of her gift, made her valuable as a thief-assassin.
She sat down at the scholar-mages table. He looked like he was in his early thirties and dressed as lower nobility would, even though she had long ago read his bourgeoisie descent from his aura. His ice- blue eyes could almost pierce steel when he was angered, but he would twist strands of his blue- black hair when he was anxious.
"You have it?" Although, phrased like a question, it was closer to a demand.
"Possibly." Amei loved playing these sorts of games, the more dangerous the opponent the better, the more exiting. Only a quick tempered fool would try to kill her for running rings around him. She did not have the stone with her, he would not be able to take it from her before she was given her due.
"Either you have it or you don't, kit." He ground his teeth in irritation.
Amei leant forward, resting her head on her arms. " I am no foxling," she said, "and you shouldn't grind your teeth like that just yet. You'll have nothing to chew your food with after we've finished negotiating my payment."
He growled low in his throat. His anger would be hot and untamed, that of an injured panther, when he decided not to control it.
"What do you want, then?"
"I want my freedom. I long ago tired of doing what other people want me to for a living. I hate living in the shadows of the underworld. I want to feel the sun on my face."
The man barked in laughter. "All who have lived in the underworld can never live in the sun! Do you not fear the wrath of the Lord Provost, Foxling? An attitude like that will land you on Traitor's Hill!"
Amei glared at him, her beautiful green eyes cold.
"After I lived in the streets of Port Caynn, I lived in the light. I travelled; saw things I had never dreamed I'd see. I've travelled to the Roof of the World, south of Carthak, north of Scanra." She had never told anyone about the Shang Phoenix, not since they'd been parted. She didn't think she could handle it if anyone knew.
"I want to travel the world again. I want my freedom. I need it. If I stay in the shadows of the underworld for too long, it will kill me. I'm sure you know the feeling." His aura gave off a subtle feeling that this was not the first time he had been involved with the criminal underworld. "Give me enough money to live off for a month, make me look a little less disrespectable, and I'll hand you the Jewel. Do we have an understanding?"
He leant back in his chair, not quite far enough to tip it onto two legs. "What makes you think I'll do all of this for you?"
Amei smirked at him. "What makes you think I won't sell it on the black market to the highest bidder?"
Leave it somewhere in the castle and beg for spy's work, more like.
"You would risk being exposed as a traitor to spite me?"
"Every trade has its risks. Death is the risk of the mercenary." She gazed at him coldly to make her point clear. He was not pleased: he believed her.
She wished he didn't. She may have had the skills of a mercenary, but she didn't have the heart of one.
"You wouldn't dare," he hissed, unaware she had seen his belief in her words.
Amei simply stood up and headed for the door.
"Wait."
Amei stopped and turned around, but didn't join him back at the table. If she did, he would think she was backing down.
"I can't give you everything you ask. I am not a wealthy man."
Amei sneered at him. "You dress like a noble, yet you cannot fulfil my demands? The Dominion Jewel cannot be bought for a silver penny!"
He paled. Amei wondered how he managed to make himself look sick so realistically. "But I am only a low-"
"You are middle class, I know," she interrupted, giving him a moment of relief. Only a moment. "But nothing can hide the fact that you reek of wealth. You look like it, you act like it. I can read it on your aura like a seer can read the cards. Do not pretend you cannot give me what I ask. You could easily grant me triple what I ask."
He gave her a bitter look. "You drive a hard bargain, Kit. Bring the Jewel to me at the riverbank near the west bank of town, at sunset tomorrow."
"If you insist," Amei said smugly, dropping her tough exterior in triumph. "I will see you then." She walked up to the table and shook hands with him.
"Nice to be doing business with you."
He watched her walk out the door and smirked at her back.
"Nice to be doing business with you too."
* ~ * ~ *
Awww, no one wanted to discuss my weirdness with the Hawaiian shirts. I take it as agreement that Hawaiian shirts are cool. Please click on that little purple button (or blue, depending on what colour your brain is telling you it is) in the bottom left corner of your screen and review. Or click on the one on the other left and re-read, and then review (I live in hope). I thank all reviewers, and hope for more. C ya.
Oh yeah, Kayden's story 'To Play with Fire' gave me the wanting to torture someone. I swear (yes, my mother told me not to swear (and then I remember the last place I read that, sorry Kay), 'Under' has the best torture scene I've read for ages.
Speaking of Kayden Eidyak, she reviewed. Kaydie, I can't believe you reviewed me back! I was going to actually ask. You're so cool, and a really good writer too! I found the spelling mistake with Scanra (Scandra. funnily enough, that's the way I think it, which is probably why I misspelled it in the first place). Thank you for saying you liked my new characters. A certain someone who is in my Lit class said she didn't like Sheiya, so I'm going to have to deal with that. Although I do see her point in Sheiya being excessively mean, but I hadn't thought of it that way and its kinda hard to change anyway. Oh, yes, I plan lots of funfun.
Nefertity, yes more. I haven't gone back to read Tortallian Fire in. I'm not sure how long it's been since I've read it. Probably because I go on Fanfic every day at school, and I lose track of time. I remember now though. It took a while to get into, but it's pretty good. I'll read the next chapter when you get it up.
Elspethelf. Me? Switch from one character to another? I guess I did. Well, now because I have two characters, plus the people searching for Amei, I think I'll be doing a bit of that. Having multiple characters is fun!
Oh yeah, Kementari: thanks for telling me not to say it was a bad summary and a bad title, even though I do think the title was pretty bad and pretty non-descriptive. Lots of people reviewed me!!!
Spoilers: none. Going into original character mode now.
A/N: I've just figured out the years for chapter 1, and I'll upload the changes when I can be stuffed. Speaking of changes, Mouse lived in Port Caynn (the city near Corus), not Port Legaan, which has a cooler name and is a bit further south than Port Caynn.
Oh, yeah, this Friday's my muck up day (or the last day of the last year of school, for those of you who don't understand that phrase). So I'll have exams, and then I'll have months to write fanfics! And get a job, and study up on the Chinese revolution coz I wanna, and maybe even finish that non- fanfic story that I started in year ten. and lots of things.
I think I babble too much. I'm rather happy I don't talk as much as I write.
* ~ * ~ *
Raine
Chapter 3
That night, the rain poured down in sheets, never ceasing except for the odd shower of hail which caused Raine to pull down the hood of her cloak and run like the Black God was after her. Which, in a way, He was.
Lightning flashed, illuminating her destination: the Palace gates. Thunder boomed immediately after, shaking the ground ominously. Her back ached dully, where her master- she pushed the thought away. All she needed to think about now was getting into the castle, nothing else.
She ran straight up to the front gate, where a guard stood to admit those whose reasons for entry were sincere, and to turn away those who had no reason to be there. Like her.
"Who are you, and what business do you have here?" one of the guards demanded.
She had to be brave, and try her best to fool the guards. If she didn't try, she wouldn't survive the night.
"My parents have sent for me," Raine said, trying to ignore the fact she was lying. Hoping neither of the guards had the Gift and could see through the lie. "It is an emergency, but they couldn't write what exactly and I don't know why. You must let me in!" She hated lying more than anything.
The guards exchanged a dubious glance. Raine buried her head in her hands in dismay, and burst into tears.
"My papa, my brothers," she continued, hoping they would take her tears for worry. She was glad she did not have to look them in the eye. "Jeysin, Auders. one of them could be." She gasped for breath.
Her tears were enough to convince the guard. "Open the gate," he commanded.
"Thank you," she whispered through her sobs. "You don't know how much this means to me."
"Don't mention it, lass."
Raine silently passed through the iron gates and made her way into the castle. If the Protector of the Small wouldn't take her in, no one would.
* ~ * ~ *
The day after Mouse and the Shang Phoenix left Port Caynn was overcast, drizzling the whole day. The open fields were muddy, which made Mouse glad that the Shang had bought her new clothes and good travelling boots before they'd left the city.
Mouse sorely needed to rest after three hours of walking, and was quick to tell the Shang so.
After a few seconds she stopped. "If we don't stop now, I suppose you'll complain until we do."
Mouse sat straight down on the boggy ground.
"I guess you were tired." The Shang sat down next to her. "I expected you to start complaining hours ago. I guessed right. You are stubborn."
Mouse didn't know quite what to say, so she didn't say anything.
"Girl," Sheiya started, "What's your name? I don't think you've told me yet."
"Does it matter?" Mouse said. "I haven't had a proper name for years. My friends call me Mouse, because I'm quiet, but that's no real name."
"Quiet? You ain't gonna be quiet after you've been with me a few months. Why don't you give yourself a real name? I can't just call you Mouse all the time."
Mouse thought quietly for a moment. "If I give myself a name, I'll want to change it in a few weeks time. You should give me a name. Then I won't be able to change it."
"Intelligent, too," the Shang remarked. She gazed at the young girl's mouse brown hair and brilliant green eyes. She had a mouse-like look about her, but there was a lot more to her than that. There was something about the girl that reminded her of Yamani noble-ladies, delicate like a cherry blossom yet courageous and just, like a chivalrous knight.
"I'll call you Amei. It means beautiful, in Yamani. After I had been there, I have always wanted to call my first born girl Amei."
* ~ * ~ *
Kel was woken hours before dawn by quiet but persistent knocking on her door. It took her at least an entire minute to drag her lifeless body and sleep dulled mind from beneath the warm, soft covers to walk across the hard, icy cold floor to open the door.
The girl standing at the door had long, straight chocolate brown hair and the brown eyes of a sad puppy. Her clothes of brown and undyed cloth were sopping wet with rain, as was her hair: there was already a small puddle forming around her feet. There was something about her that reminded Kel's semi-functioning brain of a wild sparrow, a little creature that could be intensely curious, but would fly away at the slightest disturbance.
She curtseyed lower than a commoner should to a noble, pulling her reluctant wet skirt away from her legs, then dropping it, allowing it to again cling to her legs. "Your fame has spread far, Lady Knight," she started precariously. "Your kindness to commoners is legendary."
"Not at this hour of the night, it isn't," Kel grumbled. "What do you want?"
"I have heard of what you did for Lalasa, when you were a page," the girl started, uncertain this was as good an idea as it was when she'd been- "I ask you to allow me to work as your maid. I do not care if you cannot pay me."
Kel started to close the door. "It's too late for me to make decisions this big. Come back in the morning, and I'll think about it."
"Please?"
There was such desperation in her voice that Kel immediately opened the door. When she did, she noticed that the girl's face was tear streaked.
The sharp pain in Raine's back flared up again, causing her to stumble. Kel caught her. For the first time that night, Raine realised she was short of breath, and knew exactly why.
"Oh, Goddess," she gasped as she started to black out.
Kel caught her before she touched the floor.
* ~ * ~ *
Amei stopped by the tavern of the Rogue, the Dancing Dove, to meet with her current boss. The man she was searching for was no associate of the Court of the Rogue, but she assumed he preferred to hide among men of the dishonest trade so his every dealing would be counted as one of theirs. She didn't even have his name. He, as a scholar-mage, did not fit the image of a member of the Court, but she, having about ten daggers on her person and dressing much like a man, did.
The tavern was noisy, as was usual. The Court was not in session, but that did not mean that its members were not present. She knew some members by name, others by face, and had met the Rogue once or twice; but this place was by no means a haven for her. Even a Shang trained street rat could be beaten by those who hide in the shadows.
A spark of cherry red fire in her mind's eye alerted Amei to the scholar's presence. Her gift often showed her glimmerings of magic in her mind's eye, and the ability to sense people's aura: the energy they project which gives others the feel of who they are. That ability, along with her training and the other aspects of her gift, made her valuable as a thief-assassin.
She sat down at the scholar-mages table. He looked like he was in his early thirties and dressed as lower nobility would, even though she had long ago read his bourgeoisie descent from his aura. His ice- blue eyes could almost pierce steel when he was angered, but he would twist strands of his blue- black hair when he was anxious.
"You have it?" Although, phrased like a question, it was closer to a demand.
"Possibly." Amei loved playing these sorts of games, the more dangerous the opponent the better, the more exiting. Only a quick tempered fool would try to kill her for running rings around him. She did not have the stone with her, he would not be able to take it from her before she was given her due.
"Either you have it or you don't, kit." He ground his teeth in irritation.
Amei leant forward, resting her head on her arms. " I am no foxling," she said, "and you shouldn't grind your teeth like that just yet. You'll have nothing to chew your food with after we've finished negotiating my payment."
He growled low in his throat. His anger would be hot and untamed, that of an injured panther, when he decided not to control it.
"What do you want, then?"
"I want my freedom. I long ago tired of doing what other people want me to for a living. I hate living in the shadows of the underworld. I want to feel the sun on my face."
The man barked in laughter. "All who have lived in the underworld can never live in the sun! Do you not fear the wrath of the Lord Provost, Foxling? An attitude like that will land you on Traitor's Hill!"
Amei glared at him, her beautiful green eyes cold.
"After I lived in the streets of Port Caynn, I lived in the light. I travelled; saw things I had never dreamed I'd see. I've travelled to the Roof of the World, south of Carthak, north of Scanra." She had never told anyone about the Shang Phoenix, not since they'd been parted. She didn't think she could handle it if anyone knew.
"I want to travel the world again. I want my freedom. I need it. If I stay in the shadows of the underworld for too long, it will kill me. I'm sure you know the feeling." His aura gave off a subtle feeling that this was not the first time he had been involved with the criminal underworld. "Give me enough money to live off for a month, make me look a little less disrespectable, and I'll hand you the Jewel. Do we have an understanding?"
He leant back in his chair, not quite far enough to tip it onto two legs. "What makes you think I'll do all of this for you?"
Amei smirked at him. "What makes you think I won't sell it on the black market to the highest bidder?"
Leave it somewhere in the castle and beg for spy's work, more like.
"You would risk being exposed as a traitor to spite me?"
"Every trade has its risks. Death is the risk of the mercenary." She gazed at him coldly to make her point clear. He was not pleased: he believed her.
She wished he didn't. She may have had the skills of a mercenary, but she didn't have the heart of one.
"You wouldn't dare," he hissed, unaware she had seen his belief in her words.
Amei simply stood up and headed for the door.
"Wait."
Amei stopped and turned around, but didn't join him back at the table. If she did, he would think she was backing down.
"I can't give you everything you ask. I am not a wealthy man."
Amei sneered at him. "You dress like a noble, yet you cannot fulfil my demands? The Dominion Jewel cannot be bought for a silver penny!"
He paled. Amei wondered how he managed to make himself look sick so realistically. "But I am only a low-"
"You are middle class, I know," she interrupted, giving him a moment of relief. Only a moment. "But nothing can hide the fact that you reek of wealth. You look like it, you act like it. I can read it on your aura like a seer can read the cards. Do not pretend you cannot give me what I ask. You could easily grant me triple what I ask."
He gave her a bitter look. "You drive a hard bargain, Kit. Bring the Jewel to me at the riverbank near the west bank of town, at sunset tomorrow."
"If you insist," Amei said smugly, dropping her tough exterior in triumph. "I will see you then." She walked up to the table and shook hands with him.
"Nice to be doing business with you."
He watched her walk out the door and smirked at her back.
"Nice to be doing business with you too."
* ~ * ~ *
Awww, no one wanted to discuss my weirdness with the Hawaiian shirts. I take it as agreement that Hawaiian shirts are cool. Please click on that little purple button (or blue, depending on what colour your brain is telling you it is) in the bottom left corner of your screen and review. Or click on the one on the other left and re-read, and then review (I live in hope). I thank all reviewers, and hope for more. C ya.