Chapter 1: Those Who Run
The Underground, Mitras, Wall Sina
Year 841
Rose met Kenny the Ripper for the last time on the night of her escape. It was just a couple of hours before she ascended the long staircase that connected both faces of Mitras: its Underground and its Aboveground. The man and the girl stood at the center of her room like many times before, but tonight, she wasn't his whore, and he wasn't her client.
Or at least Rose could no longer see Kenny as merely a client. He was instrumental in her escape plan. She couldn't help but see him as something of a savior, now.
"Will you help the other girls too?" Rose asked.
Kenny shook his head. "Darlin', I'm the Guarantor of Rose of the Night, not Rose. I'm paid to serve the whorehouse, not ya. Ya know that. I do what the Whoremaster says. I just made exception for ya 'cause ya," he fished around for words, then gave up and threw his hands up, "…'cause ya did whatever ya did to convince me."
She had begged. At the end of the day, that was what she had done. She had begged Kenny to help her pull the sale off, to find some lord or whoever from the Aboveground had enough money to buy her off this whorehouse and take her to the sun. It wasn't her most elegant performance — she should never have to beg to get what she wanted; her way was supposed to be more sophisticated — but it was also the performance that would get her up there, to a new life, something else to see.
"Can't you make the same exception for my sisters?" she asked again.
Kenny laughed. "And how d'ya suppose I do that? Gettin' ya out was hard enough, and ya just one person. Can't be smugglin' y'all in a bag, y'all no babies." Kenny looked at her — carefully, then sadly. "Forget it, Rose. They not gonna come with ya now. Not possible."
Rose turned away and tried very, very hard to not drown in guilt and regret. Yes there was a real sun up there, but the whorehouse had become a shelter and a home to her; the girls had become sisters, and the Madame a mother; this was the only kind of family she knew. It must be stupid to throw all of that away for a pipe dream of freedom. It must be selfish to want something more, something else.
But she did want that. And her sisters did say she was right to want it.
Go see the sun for us, they had said. At least one of us should. And if you can get up there, maybe one day we'll join you too.
"Sorry can't grant ya this wish, but I do have a parting gift for ya." Kenny grinned and reached into one of his coat pockets, pulling out a chain with a glittering something hanging from it. He presented it to her with a flourish.
It was a necklace, with a shining white crystal as the pendant. Rose's eyes widened.
"Ya can sell this for near six hundred gulden, if ya haggle fine. That's somethin' to survive with," Kenny said.
Rose reached out and took the necklace in her hand. "Thanks," she whispered.
"Ya have a place to hide it in yer bag?"
She nodded and fetched her bag; her sister Marigold had sewn a secret pocket inside. The necklace was quite small, it fit into the pocket well.
"Should work fine. If they found it, tell 'em it's a memento from a former lover, and give 'em those doe eyes ya do so fine. They might just let ya keep it."
"You're not a lover. Never were. You were just another one of my clients," she said reflexively.
Kenny pouted. "I ain't payin', so I ain't a client."
"You were a client. You've paid with your own services, so stop bothering me about it."
The man grinned. "I'll miss yer sharp tongue, Rose. Thorny women are just my type."
Rose kept her face impassive, but underneath, her mask cracked. There was a part of her that wasn't "Rose." "Rose," after all, was only a character. There were other characters in Rose of the Night: Marigold, Lily, Hyacinth, Daffodil, Iris, Daisy, Poppy, Dahlia, Rose; each of them a whore, each of them a character; a whore with a character, her own trademark personality and allure. They were called Flowers, and Rose was the foremost of the nine Flowers.
Rose had a lot of things, but most importantly she had thorns, as Kenny cleverly pointed out. Thorns were very useful indeed in this cruel world, and that was why she preferred to hide behind Rose's facade most of the time. If everything went according to plan, though, she wouldn't be "Rose" anymore in a few hours.
She tried not to think too much about how that would feel. Later. Everything in its own time.
"So have ya selected a name to go by up there? I don't even know yer birth name. I only know ya as Rose, and Rosebud before that. Or were ya born Rosebud?"
"No," she said. She neglected to mention she didn't remember her birth name either.
"Not Rosebud? Curious. So what will it be, then? They'll ask, ya know. For yer citizenship and such. Better be prepared."
Rose was prepared. She'd thought about this carefully. But Bell and Madame Bergmann and everyone else had strongly advised her to keep her identity secret. It was safer to leave her old name down here and wear a new name up there, they said. Your past would be less likely to find you that way.
But she wouldn't even have a past or a future if it wasn't for Kenny, in a way. She would just have this present.
"It's Maya," she said.
Kenny mouthed the word as if memorizing it for himself, then nodded. "Nice one. Fits you."
"Thanks," she nodded back.
The door opened. Madame walked in. The Madame, the Director and Housekeeper of the whorehouse, the person who kept Rose of the Night up and dancing for its clients and owner. Here was another woman who needed no name other than the role she was performing.
But the Madame's real name was Rosario. Rosario. Maya. They all had actual names, now, whether or not they deserved one.
"Rose. Are you ready?" Madame Rosario said in a clipped tone.
"Aaawwwww," Kenny groused loudly. "I haven't even fucked her goodbye."
"If you'd still like to do that, maybe you should've been the one to buy her," Madame snapped. "Come on, Rose."
Feeling slightly numb, Rose — Maya, now, she had to practice her new name — slung her bag over her shoulder and followed Madame out of the room. In the last second before walking over the threshold, she looked back to the bedroom she had lived and worked in these past years. Kenny remained in the middle of the room, like so many of her clients had. She committed the picture to memory, despite herself. She felt a lump in her throat, despite herself.
She looked forward again and held her head high. She was still Rose, now. She would play her last few moments as perfectly as she had always done. Head proud, face soft, lips halfway between a smile and a smirk, eyes like fire, to warm and to burn. Thorns and petals, at once.
She didn't know what exactly the future held for her. She had an inkling, yes, and she had prepared her thorns for what was to come, but there was no way she could know the things she would go through.
For now, though, Maya took her last walk as Rose. And then, up the endless staircase, to the world under a real sky, two thousand feet above.
Trost District, Wall Rose
Four years later
"No," Levi said.
Erwin sighed. The 13th Commander of the Survey Corps knew his Captain would react this way. Still, he had held on to a small, faint hope that Captain Levi would take his suggestion without much resistance, if not enthusiastically.
Levi met Erwin's eyes and promptly sensed the dozen arguments the Commander had armed himself with. Levi braced himself for the ensuing debate.
"You must see the utility of this plan," Erwin said. "No matter how you cut it, there's more benefit than harm to be reaped."
"With all due respect, Commander, I don't believe so. We have an entire Training Corps to train cadets. We don't need our own. I don't need to be training new recruits."
"The Training Corps does a poor job in training soldiers to actually fight titans," Erwin countered. "And you're wrong about us not having our training division. The other squad leaders do hold some training for their new recruits, as I'm sure you know. You're the only one who doesn't, since I have given you the privilege to just select your men from among our most experienced soldiers."
Levi noticed Erwin's subtle emphasis on the word I there, and he immediately got what the Commander was insinuating: that Levi had what he had only because Erwin had given it to him. Levi's Special Operations squad was one of Erwin's first innovations when he took over as Commander less than a year ago, and so was Levi's title as "Captain" instead of the usual "Squad Leader." If Erwin wanted things differently, he could make it happen with a snap of his fingers.
Levi gritted his teeth. "It's not like I've just been lounging around with my squad members."
"I know you haven't," Erwin replied. "I don't mean to cheapen the labor you've done with your squad, but I'm really just asking for a small favor. It's just one soldier. I'm not asking you to train a bunch of newbies, like the other squad leaders are doing."
"You've never told me to personally train anyone."
"These are days like no other."
"I'm sure. I still don't understand why I have to train her."
"You're the best we have."
"I'm not an instructor."
Erwin's gaze was steady when he looked at Levi, with a hint of sharpness. "You can try to be one. I'm sure a lot of people will benefit from it."
Levi froze, though no one would be able to tell anyway; his face was already an icy stillness. His mind took him back to the plains outside Wall Maria almost a year ago. Him riding out with his brand new squad, his first expedition as Captain. Him riding back alone, covered in the blood of his own comrades.
Benefit? What benefit?
Levi's face twisted up in disgust. "Tch," he spat. "Don't give me your pep talk."
"I'm not. It's just what it has to be."
Levi stood up and sauntered to another side of Erwin's office. Erwin watched the Captain's back, watched him as he leaned against the window sill. It was never easy dealing with the Captain, and Erwin never expected it to be easy. He knew he had Levi's respect and trust, but Levi also never reserved his questions and objections when he had any. And he would say them out loud publicly, too. Erwin didn't mind, for the most part. It worked well for this impression of Levi as humanity's strongest soldier, and it lent Erwin himself much credibility every time the Captain ended up doing as Erwin ordered, which he almost always had. It worked well for all of them.
"Don't we have more pressing concerns right now? Training newbies has got to be the least of our problems, after that shitshow in Shiganshina," Levi said. He looked out of Erwin's third floor window, to the city outside. Trost District. After Wall Maria's fall, the outer gate of Trost was now the only thing standing between them and titan-ridden wilderness.
"You're probably right," Erwin said. "But still, I think it becomes even more urgent that we improve the quality of our soldiers as soon as possible. Our missions are going to be even more dangerous, now."
Levi grunted. He couldn't argue with that.
"How much time do you think the refugees can buy, working in those fields?" Erwin asked. He was referring to the more than fifty thousand people displaced from Wall Maria after the fall of Shiganshina a month ago.
Levi raised his eyebrow at the sudden turn in the conversation, but he played along. "Not long. Why?"
"How long?"
"Perhaps a few weeks, at best. Maybe the current food storage can get us up to the first harvest, but beyond that, I'm not sure whatever meager crap the field could get us would be enough."
"Precisely. And what do you think the government would do, after?"
The frown on Levi's forehead became more thoughtful than frustrated now. But Erwin didn't really need him to give an answer. He didn't really want to know the answer himself.
"I'll need a new weapon soon, Levi," he said. "Make me one. This is your task."
Levi frowned. "You already have many soldiers. Any one of them is gonna be more capable than a cadet just fresh out of the Training Corps."
Erwin had indeed considered that. He gestured to the large blackboard that stood near the wall to Levi's right, supported on two sturdy legs with wheels under them. He had that board made for him not long after he became Commander. It was special: instead of having only one surface to write on, the blackboard functioned like an oversized sketchbook, but instead of pieces of paper, it had sheets of wood treated into blackboard surfaces. On its top was a pair of huge hooks from which he could hang different slates. He had almost fifteen blackboard sheets in total now, the pile of them leaning against the wall behind the board. Each was filled with details of his various plans for the Survey Corps: sketches of his long-distance scouting formation, notes on logistical issues, long series of numbers denoting the Corps' ever-periled budgets.
The piece hanging on the blackboard right now, Levi saw, mapped out the Corps' four squads and ten teams. The names of each squad leader were highlighted in pink chalk, and under them were written the names of their executive officers in yellow. Each team leader also had their names written in pink. The rest, common soldiers, were written in plain white. But Levi noticed a handful of those names in white had green ticks next to them.
"See that? Pink ones are current leaders. Yellow ones are their second-in-command, who would take over in the event of their deaths. But what happens if the second-in-command also died?" Erwin paused, staring at the board. "I was trying to make this line of succession at least three people deep. That was when I realized we didn't have quite enough soldiers who could take over a leadership role in a pinch. Not enough green ticks there, you see?"
"Funny how you're already planning people's deaths when they're still very much alive," Levi said, staring at the names on the blackboard. He noticed he didn't have any yellow names or green ticks on his own squad.
Erwin ignored his remark. "We need fresh blood. I'm thinking more long term. Train newbies with the goal of getting them to be good enough, so that soon they can both survive an expedition and lead their own team."
"And this girl is it?"
"Perhaps not," Erwin said. "But I wasn't sure you would be the one I needed either. Still, I placed the bet. It was a reasonable bet, and it paid off. Of course, my bet necessarily won't end with Miss Keller, but she's a start."
Levi sighed. His face had lost some of its belligerence, but Erwin could still read reservation and contemplation. A frown stayed between the Captain's brows.
"Just try training her," Erwin encouraged. "It's fine. You wouldn't ruin it."
"I didn't say I would," Levi said sharply, turning to face the Commander again.
Erwin smiled. "Of course."
But Erwin had seen how Levi shut down after his first squad got wiped out a few months ago. Those soldiers were so proud to fight alongside the man who was humanity's strongest; they perhaps thought they too were somehow humanity's strongest. A fatal mistake, it turned out. No matter how much they learned from Levi and fought alongside Levi, they weren't Levi. And Erwin suspected that Levi had understood this far too well.
Erwin rubbed his temples. Everything was starting to give him headaches these days. Levi watched him with a calculating look on his face, and Erwin let him watch.
"What's her name again?" the Captain asked.
"Maya Keller," Erwin answered.
"Never heard of her."
"She's new, and she's in Hange's squad now. Graduated eighth place in her Training Corps."
"Eighth?" The Captain didn't sound impressed. Erwin didn't respond to his thinly veiled condescension.
Erwin idly leafed through the pile of paper before him: a collection of reports on their newest recruits, written by the team leaders and squad leaders in charge of them. By this point he had come to know all pieces of information in those reports by heart. It had taken him a long time to decide which new recruit he should assign Levi to train: weeks discussing with the other squad leaders, doing so behind the Captain's back, since he didn't want to give Levi a lot of time to nag him about it.
"Is this an order?" Levi finally spoke again, drawing Erwin out of his thoughts.
"It's a request. A very important one."
"An order, then."
Erwin gave him an amused smile, but didn't outright contradict him.
The Captain glanced back at the board and the intricate details of the Commander's machinations. He looked at the report the Commander was leafing through, and the other sheaves of paper scattered on his table. Levi knew those reports contained meticulous details on the newest members of the Survey Corps, and he could guess the care with which Erwin had selected Maya Keller.
He also knew that one of those files had nothing to do with the new recruits, because it was his file.
He realized, not for the first time, how neatly the future had been mapped out from this room, from Erwin's office. It made him grit his teeth for a few raging heartbeats, because it made him feel like a puppet on a string, and he didn't like that. But then he remembered what Erwin said to him the day he lost everything he knew, everyone he held dear: If you don't know what else to live for, dedicate your heart to me. I won't let it go to waste. This man was gazing at something Levi couldn't even see, and that was why Levi decided to follow him.
"Fine. I'll give it a try," Levi finally said. "That's all I can promise you, though."
"That's good enough."
Levi nodded. He wandered back to the window and leaned against the wall, staring out.
The clock had just finished chiming in the sixth hour of the evening when a knock sounded at the door. Levi looked away from the window just as the door was swinging open to reveal Hange with a young woman, who he supposed was Maya Keller, his new student.
"Package delivered." Hange grinned. "One student for you, Levi. Hope you'll have fun."
"Shut up, four eyes," Levi said.
Hange grinned at the girl and said, "The Captain's always crass to everyone. Don't take it to heart. It really isn't your fault." The girl quickly glanced his way before giving Hange a weak smile, looking totally unconvinced.
"Thank you, Hange. We'll take it from here," Erwin said. Hange gave him a salute and turned around to leave, closing the door shut.
"Maya." Erwin gave the girl a calming smile, but Levi saw she was unaffected. He watched her face closely and found himself trying to decide whether she looked scared, wary, annoyed, or excited. She had a polite smile on her lips, but her brows were ever so slightly drawn together. She stood up straight with her shoulders neutral, but her hands were balled up into fists. Her eyes had steel in them, but he wasn't sure whether it was from determination, or, like his own steel, something else quite unrelated.
"What has Hange told you?" Erwin continued.
"Just the gist of it, Commander. That I am to be personally trained by Captain Levi," she responded. Her voice was quiet but steady.
"And what do you think about that?" Erwin asked.
The girl paused. "May I ask what's the reason behind this, sir?" she finally said.
Erwin answered in a steady, efficient tone; something about preparing soldiers for harder missions and command successions, blah blah. Levi noticed the girl's eye twitching and her shoulders tensing at the mention of command succession.
These were all very, very slight reactions, though. He probably wouldn't have picked them up if he hadn't been watching closely. And even then, he wasn't sure he saw them right.
Erwin finished his explanation and waited for her to say something in response. She took her time. Her eyes darted to Levi a couple of times, as if sizing him up. He was starting to think she wasn't very accepting of Erwin's plan either. Her mannerisms reminded him of a cornered animal trying to decide whether it should fight or flee.
"Does this mean I'll be in the Captain's Special Operations Squad?" she asked at last.
"No," Levi said before Erwin could say anything. The Commander gave Levi a side eye, but didn't contradict him.
"No," Erwin eventually confirmed. "You'll still be in Hange's squad for missions, chores, and such. The training with Levi will be in addition to all that. You three will work out the schedule."
She nodded. The information seemed to put her more at ease, though she still didn't look particularly excited. But eventually she relented.
"If the Captain is willing, I will be honored to train under him," she said slowly.
"Very well, then," Erwin smiled. "You two should start tomorrow. For now, good night. You're dismissed."
She gave a politely perfunctory salute and turned toward the door, throwing Levi a cool glance on her way out.
The Crooked Cook Inn and Bar stood at the southeast end of Trost, not exactly an upscale neighborhood. Not at all, actually. Southeast means away from the canal and too close to the outer wall. The street where it was located had more seedy bars than respectable ones, and the businesses that stood around the inn were rather sad-looking. The Crooked Cook itself drew a pretty orderly crowd, though. Its façade was plain gray stones and dark wood, but it looked well-cared for.
The doors of the inn were shut, and hanging above them was a board with the word "CLOSED" carved into it. The Crooked Cook was closed to the general public every Wednesday, though this didn't mean its common rooms were hosting no patrons. Right now, six figures were sitting at one corner of the main room, nibbling away at an early dinner.
"I can't believe you almost turned him down!" Eloise said to Maya. The young women were both wearing Survey Corps uniforms, though they had discreetly replaced their forest green capes with plain black ones, to cover the Wings of Freedom insignia on their jackets.
Maya threw Eloise an exasperated look. "I didn't turn him down, though. That's the problem." She picked up her fork and stabbed at her pieces of mushrooms, feeling glumly murderous. She panicked when Squad Leader Hange knocked on her bedroom door to take her to the Commander's office. All sorts of bad scenarios drowned her mind, but what actually happened was milder than what she expected — and yet still unnerving.
Private training sessions with Captain Levi. Blood and bloody murder. If they had offered her this a month ago, she would've been ecstatic. Now, though…
"Well," said the young blond man sitting across from her, "I'm surprised you actually took the offer. Aren't you supposed to lie low?"
"It wasn't an offer, Ethan. It was a command from the Commander himself," Maya said. "Of course he didn't know about my predicament, and of course I couldn't tell him or say no. Please don't look at me like I got myself into this shit."
Ethan mumbled an apology. His concerned frown highlighted the scar that cut across his left eyebrow, marring his otherwise smooth and well-hewn face. When he smiled he looked like a well-mannered gentleman, but one glance at his calloused fingers and broad shoulders could tell you he was no stranger to hard work either.
"Oh, it can't be that bad," Eloise said. "The Captain is famous for sure, but it's not like you're gonna be as famous as him overnight."
"Girl," the man sitting next to Ethan said pointedly. "Ya the only one at this table who's not a Rat. Ya don't know shit."
"Geri…" Maya warned. Eloise might not have been a Rat like the rest of them, but if it hadn't been for her help they wouldn't have been able to sneak Timi, the little boy sitting next to Geri, out of the refugee camp. Eloise had proven her trustworthiness. And she was Maya's only friend in the Corps.
"No, listen to me," Geri insisted, waving his fork at Eloise, his prematurely white hair swinging lightly around his tan face. "I know ya been on the run too, girl, but ya just a Sina citizen escapin' some cozy Sina estate. Ya can't compare yerself to a sneaker from the Underground — especially not if this sneakin' Rat has no citizenship."
"Maya has citizenship," Eloise mumbled, but her cheeks had turned bright red with shame.
"Yeah, and look where that's gettin' her," Geri said. "Ya think a flimsy piece of paper can buy a Rat safety for the rest of their life? Think again, yer sadly mistaken. Somebody's after her now, lass. She needs to lie low. Ain't riskin' nothin' if is up to me."
For a moment there was only the clinking of forks and knives. Maya chased her mushroom bits around her plate, suddenly losing her appetite. Her mind could feel the outline of the letter she kept tucked in her jacket pocket. She had folded and unfolded it and read and gripped it too tightly a thousand times; she could recite it from memory now.
My little flower,
Congratulations on making it to the top of your class. Very happy to hear the news. Doggy heard it too and missed you so much.
Sorry can't come visit, too far away. Also got new job here. Sun is nice this spring. The roses pretty like you.
Thinking of you always. Watch your back for me.
—K
The letter arrived less than a week ago. A harrowed mail runner on horseback skidded to a stop outside The Crooked Cook, out of breath and sweating profusely, stumbling through the door looking for Helga DuBois, the madam innkeeper. He said he came straight from Mitras, been riding almost non-stop; his order was to get the letter here within a day. Helga cocked her eyebrow at his account. Whoever paid for this express service was either very rich or pressed by utmost urgency. The mail runner handed her the letter, and upon reading it she knew exactly to whom it was really addressed. She sent little Timi to fetch Maya right away.
It was a sweet letter, except for the fourth line. Doggy heard it too and missed you so much. Translation: he heard it too and he's coming for you.
It took Maya only one painful heartthrob to understand who "doggy" referred to. She'd been under that disgusting man too many times to forget so easily. Lord Otto Weimar must've somehow gotten access to reports on the Training Corps' activities, including the list of best graduates of the 102nd Training Corps, which had her name on the eighth place. The list must've been accompanied by detailed descriptions of the best soldiers' statistics and features, probably even sketches and portraits. That must've been what gave her away.
For the millionth time, she cursed herself for not trying harder to fake incompetence. She never should've gotten good enough to make it to the list of top ten cadets. Competence meant attention. Attention meant risking discovery by the vengeful master who had spent a fortune purchasing her from Rose of the Night, only to have her escape a few months later.
But on the other hand, she also didn't want to slack off and actually be incompetent. She didn't want to die in battle. She wanted to survive. That was the only reason why she joined the Survey Corps in the first place: because this was the least likely place her old master would look for her; no one would think a whore would make a good soldier. So here she hid, and hoped to survive.
"Whatchu gonna do now, Maya?" a childish voice yanked her out of her spiraling thoughts. She looked up and found Timi peering at her from behind pieces of his unruly blond hair. The little boy looked concerned.
Maya tried to give him a reassuring smile. The boy was just eight years old, and he'd been through so much after surviving the Shiganshina attack, and now being separated from his parents, who were still stuck in the refugee camp.
Maya shifted her gaze to Helga, who had been eating and listening to the conversation in quiet. "Any news?"
Helga shook her head. She was more than middle-aged, but the skin of her face gleamed smoothly under the torchlight. "Nothing yet," the madam innkeeper said in her velvety voice. "I've sent a message through the merchant network, but your… benefactor is notoriously hard to catch, as you've probably known."
"This K person?" Eloise asked.
Maya nodded quickly. She had let Eloise read the letter, so Eloise knew about the initial at the end of it, but Maya didn't tell her about Kenny. Rats didn't go around divulging the identity of other Rats, not even to fellow Rats. It was the community's most sacred rule, most pivotal to each member's safety. Maya would never betray Kenny like that. The only reason why Ethan, Helga, and Geri knew about her and Kenny was because they had known Kenny from before, and had found out by themselves.
"How much time do you think she has before the lord gets to her?" Timi asked Helga in a small voice.
"Honestly," Geri grumbled, "I dunno how nothing's happened yet. A man with that kinda reach and that kinda grudge, you'd think he'd get his act together stat."
"You're just exaggerating," Ethan said and glanced at Maya.
"I'm not, though," Geri replied. "Used to be a thug for them lords too, remember? Small-time thug and it's been a while, but I did know stuff."
That silenced the whole table. Maya let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hand. She really didn't need any of this.
"It's getting late," she eventually said. The sky outside was the orange of a cloudless sunset. "We should head back. I have a training session with the midget captain tomorrow."
"I'll go with you two," Ethan said and got up to fetch his coat.
Maya tried to stuff the rest of her mushrooms down her throat, not even attempting to taste them. As she did so, Geri fixed his eyes on her contemplatively.
"Ya know what, lass," he said. "I know ya gave the impression you no likin' this captain, but he might've somethin' to teach ya. Levi, ya said his name was? Small guy?"
"Yeah. But he's good at killing titans. Doesn't mean he's any good against thugs."
Geri looked like he was going to say something, but hesitated and decided against it. "Suit yerself." He shrugged. "I'm just sayin', maybe ya give it a shot, eh? Might come in handy, that brat."