Hey there!

I'm really sorry for taking so long to update! I hope you enjoy the next chapter :-)

A biting wind had risen above the hills of Flevance and blanketed nature with a thin layer of ice. No signs of life could be spotted at the northern border except for two dark shapes creeping along the iron fence. "I have a bad feeling about this, Catch…" The first stopped and tugged his scarf purposefully over nose and mouth. Behind him, his companion rolled his eyes. "What? Afraid they wake up and give you a hard time? This isn't your first grave robbery, Fetch!"

Catch attempted to push him forward but Fetch's feet were frozen to the ground. "It's not them I'm worried about," he said with his eyes glued to the snow on the other side of the fence. "Haven't you heard of the sickness? They said it's so contagious it wiped out the entire country. I don't think we should be messing with this."

A heavy mass of snow pushed down on the remains scattered over the plane, leaving it to the thieves' imagination to piece together what happened there two days ago. Catch did a good job faking indifference but even he couldn't help avert the gaze from the icy skin piercing the snow along the fence, Amber Lead celebrating its silent, final victory.

"Fairy tales," he grunted then. "Grab brought back suitcases full of gold and silver from the southern border. He touched them and nothing happened."

"I don't know…"

"Good that Louise doesn't pay you to know, then. We have a job to do and the sooner it's done, the sooner we're out of here."

With empty bags hoisted on their shoulders, they slipped through the child-sized hole in the fence. Of those who had made it to the other side, all bodies had been dragged back on Flevance territory so they had to be careful not to crush any bones. Sound traveled far in the mountains. If someone as much as saw them near the infected, both would be shot on sight.

Eyes on the watchtowers, Fetch followed his companion into what had once been the home of the wealthiest people in the entire North Blue. Wordlessly, he watched as Catch went through pockets and suitcases, bagging all the jewelry he could find. "Be careful…" He didn't need superstition to believe Flevance had been punished for its greed. He didn't want them to meet the same fate.

"Yeah, yeah… Just watch out for the guards."

Watching Catch unbutton a dead man's coat, Fetch felt his stomach skip dangerously and he decided to take a few steps back. Of all the small raids he had done, this one truly made him wonder why he had gotten into the business in the first place. He wasn't a

gifted thief. He had left home with the same ambition as everybody else. Money. But instead of going to sea like he had always wanted, he stayed on land relieving people of their possessions. If it was courage or honor he lacked, he still couldn't decide.

When his shoe accidentally touched a woman's hollow cheeks, he finally dared to give the corpses a close look. Those weren't the kind of bodies he'd dug up in the port cemetery. These were eerie, unnatural corpses. Like they weren't dead at all but frozen in time, limbs contorted, fighting some ancient, invisible battle.

"Fetch! Come here and give me a hand!" Unable to rely on his hollering voice, Catch was now wildly gesturing at his partner. Fetch sighed. He was about to turn around when a feeble grip closed around his left ankle.

The thief suppressed a cry so it came out as a whimper. It was about to turn into a wail when he saw small fingers clinging to his socks. He wanted to run but couldn't move. Scarcely visible among the snow-covered limbs, a bony arm reached out for him.

"No…no…This can't be happening!" he yelped. "Be gone!"

As if on purpose, the hand strengthened its grip. Fetch whimpered some more. Then, after summoning the entirety of his courage, he faced the source of evil.

It wasn't a vengeful spirit or a reanimated corpse.

It was a child.

Wrapped in a bloody cloak, the girl was half-hidden underneath the body of an elderly woman. Dirty, silver hair stuck to a bruised forehead, blood splattered over bluish lips and drained cheeks. "Holy mother of Roger… !" He was cut off by large, white eyes meeting his. There was little life left in them but what remained stared venomously back at him.

"I don't … want… to… die!"

The plea hardly rose over a whisper, yet it sounded more like a warning. Fetch recoiled and stumbled on uneven ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I saw something move on the tower…." He was just about to insult Fetch when he realized what the other thief was staring at. "I'll be damned…"

"She's alive…" Fetch mumbled half-drunk with fear. For the first time, the brave, broad-shouldered, barrel-chested Catch didn't know what to say. The girl didn't speak again but somehow her hoarse, animal-like breath grew louder in their ears.

"Must be some rich kid," Catch muttered with little conviction. "See those earrings? Real diamonds, I can tell by the glow." Tentatively, he turned toward Fetch.

"Are you insane? I'm not taking them!" Fetch almost shrieked at the thought. It wasn't the idea of touching her that repelled. The child was breathing her last breath.

"Why not? It's not like she needs them where she's going." Catch was positively morphing back into his old self.

"What? You just want to leave her here?"

"What do you think?! Apart from chopping her into little pieces and hanging her over doors and windows to scare people off, there's not much else to be done with her. And I'm not carrying extra weight for that."

When he was about to go for the earrings, Fetch held him back. "You can have them," he said. "But only once she's taken care of."

Had Catch cared enough to ask what his partner hoped to gain by bringing the girl along, Fetch wouldn't have been able to say. He only knew that something very bad would happen if he didn't. He waited for Catch to object, but the other thief shrugged. If he felt the growing threat in the air, he didn't admit it. "Fat Louise will be delighted to shovel another grave," he chuckled. "But what do I care? Do what you want as long as I don't have to carry her." Without looking at the girl, Fetch lifted her light body off the ground.

Savenna didn't feel the arms around her as she was carried over endless stretches of white. The glittering snow burned her eyes as she drifted slowly into unconsciousness. All she remembered from the last days was an elbow digging into her ribs after she'd been moved back to Flevance territory. She remembered wanting to cry but as if disconnected from her brain, her face remained motionless while her eyes watered against the punishing wind. Merged with the leaded bullets in her back, Amber Lead pinned her down like a soaked piece of paper.

Crazed with cold, Savenna was convinced there was going to be a sign. Something that told her, no, guaranteed her that Law had made it. But there wasn't. She saw nothing. She replayed in her mind the light footsteps in the snow until the memory ran dry and she didn't remember if she'd watched him leave at all. When the sun set over the Flevance mountains, she crawled under the limbs of a corpse where she'd waited frantically, encased in death and misery.

Now that the ground under her feet started moving again, Savenna told herself she'd rest. Just for a little bit…

The thieves ventured through a deserted landscape of icicles hanging from the leafless trees and old mining huts collapsed under the weight of last winter's snow. Wrapped clumsily in a smelly fabric that used to be a sail, Fetch hoped to protect the girl from the elements as they retraced their steps over the border.

"Let's hope the boat is still there…" Fetch muttered.

Barely looking up from the map, Catch grunted in return and quickened his pace. Behind the ruins of an old fishing town, they finally laid eyes on what was left of a tiny harbor. The channel that split Flevance's neighboring country in two before meeting the ocean in the east, was partially frozen over. To Fetch's relief, the dinghy they'd borrowed for the crossing was still moored at the jetty.

Catch tossed his treasure into the boat and settled onto the thwart. Not expecting any help, Fetch placed his charge among the other bags, unbuttoned his coat and spread it over her. Wordlessly the two thieves rowed.

"Please tell me your mother let you fall on your head one too many times," hissed a short, ridiculously muscular woman in a bloody apron that had once been white. Face red, Butcher Louise shook her round head at the body on the wooden table.

She had closed up shop, a front so obvious even Catch happened to cringe while walking by - even organized crime had its standards - as soon as she heard her squad return. Expecting money or nice possessions she could sell on the black market, she was disappointed to be greeted by charity instead.

Fetch hovered over the girl, listening to the slight whistle of her breath. Catch meanwhile had deposited his loot on the other end of the table and was now going to the cupboards in search of a cup of sake. Savenna's earrings had already found a new home in his pocket.

"Fine, don't explain anything to your boss!" she called, brushing her graying hair behind her ears. "But tell me at least what you want me to do with her."

"Fix her."

The middle-aged woman guffawed. A quick look at the girl's skin was enough to understand what she was dealing with. "Do I look like a magician to you? Of all the trash you could have brought in, you give me a Flevance girl? Not even Roger could do something about that."

Fetch scratched his own whitening hair, as he felt her staring at him. His pale eyes rested on Savenna. "It didn't seem right to leave her there…"

Louise felt the need for some clarification. "The only brats useful to us are the ones who bring in more than what they cost. What should we do with an orphaned rich girl? Even if she survives the night, she'll be too weak to steal and too young to offer other services. Besides, I've seen marines searching the city for fugitives. She'll only bring trouble."

She was right, of course. Fort Esperance, a small and rather insignificant port compared to its neighbor, was now teeming with Marines. Fetch had seen ships with white-striped sails dock in Fort Esperance the day of the military alliance. Before the march on Flevance and the smoke in the sky.

During the last months, the marines had destroyed all Flevance cargo and arrested every infected who'd crossed the border. Hundreds of refugees had been turned in by the town criminals to make up for the money lost to the high law enforcement. Maybe bringing the girl here hadn't been such a good idea…

Still, he resisted Louise's sharp glare. "I'll take full responsibility for her. If she survives and doesn't bring us any profit, I'll turn her in myself. Until then, I'll feed her from my share and see that she won't draw any attention to us."

The butcher made a face. She couldn't say she wasn't surprised, though. Fetch had always been of the quiet kind, had never been to prison and seldom raised his voice. With a face so ordinary you forgot it the moment you looked away, and hardly any muscle on the bones, Fetch seemed as if he was constantly hiding from somebody. Now Butcher Louise figured that he simply hadn't cared enough before.

"Fine. I'll try. But I can't promise anything," she sighed reluctantly. Then she turned to Catch who was sucking on a fresh bottle of sake and following the conversation with bold disinterest. "Go grab a shovel instead of sitting around like an idiot."

"Me? Why?"

"Because I don't feel like shoveling graves. I really doubt my methods are fine enough to keep this little princess among the living. An urchin might pull through, but this one?" She examined Savenna's smooth fingertips. "She is way too delicate."

Just as Catch was out of the door cursing, Louise reached for his bottle and took some generous gulps herself. "Let's do this!"

Butcher Louise didn't have to be a doctor to see that the girl was suffering severe hypothermia and that she had lost a significant amount of blood. After rolling the girl over, she squinted at the two gunshot wounds. The girl had been lucky. Parts of the splintered bullet had been caught by the thick fabric of her dress. Curious, the butcher cut off a piece of the cloth and chuckled darkly.

"What is it?" Fetch mumbled, his face resting in his hands.

"Do you see this? These people were so greedy, they stitched their precious metal into a little girl's dress." After spewing some curses, she pulled a skin-thin Amber Lead shard out of the dirty fabric. "How ironic… After sealing the fate of her people this little thing saved her life."

"What do you mean?"

"The bullets in her back were fired by a long-range weapon. They would have torn her apart if it wasn't for this. I bet she wasn't even aware she was wearing armor."

Nevertheless, the wounds were deep and needed cleaning. Butcher Louise reached now for the half-empty sake bottle, and poured it over the girl's back.

A dry roar shook the room and Savenna's eyes flew open. The hot, airless room around her was spinning. The man whose face she had already forgotten was watching her. Before Savenna could make sense of it, scalding pain shot through her body. She screamed even louder.

"Would you shut up now?"

Savenna didn't listen to the irritated voice above her until a bottle was pressed to her cracked lips. Mouth dry from the cold, she started to suck on the bottle until realizing that she was gulping down sake instead of water. It burned down her throat, fueling the spinning nausea.

"That's right, princess. Just keep drinking," the same voice muttered, almost gently. Savenna didn't want to but was too weak to resist. A warm, humming lightness filled her but it didn't last.

"You were lucky. If it hadn't been for the cold, you'd probably have bled to death." Savenna heard someone going away and coming back. It was a woman. She was now holding a pair of pliers in her right hand, an already bloody cloth in the left. "But unfortunately, you are bleeding into your lungs. I need to remove the bullet fragments."

Savenna's eyes widened with panic. But before she could say something, cold metal dove under her skin.

These weren't Dr. Trafalgar's steady hands examining her or Magdalena brushing the hair from her shoulders. All those gentle gestures were gone and they weren't coming back. As the first splinter came out, Savenna didn't cry out of pain but because everything from her life before had ceased to exist. Whoever was halfheartedly patching her up, didn't care for her and could simply let her die if she felt like it.

As the second splinter fell on the wooden table, she sobbed soundlessly at the injustice of it. Why did she have to go through this? Why couldn't she just have died like everyone else? Why did this have to hurt so much? How could they do this to her?

Blood was now pouring out of Savenna like water into a sinking ship. The butcher reached for another piece of cloth but the bleeding didn't stop. When the girl had stopped crying, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and she stemmed her hands onto her hips. "Well, I told you, Fetch. She was never going to make it."

Suddenly there was the dreadful sound of fingernails on wood. Looking down, Louise met Savenna's reddened eyes, smoldering with rage. "Shut up, you peasant!"

For the first time in years, Butcher Louise was speechless. With trembling hands, Savenna reached out for the bottle. It almost fell on her face when she took two full gulps of the lukewarm liquor before shattering on the floor. When Louise was finally ready to respond, her patient had already fallen asleep.

Even though Savenna's resilience might have impressed Fort Esperance's least likable underground physician, she remained in pretty bad shape. Her fingers and toes had suffered frostbite, and the sake hadn't helped with the dehydration.

Louise wrapped her in a patched up blanket and put her next to the poorly lit fireplace to keep her warm. The butcher pretended not to care about her insolent patient's condition, but her pride also wouldn't allow her to die. Louise washed Savenna's wounds with all kinds of spirits, reexamined the stitches every evening and even cooked something resembling broth before forcing it down the girl's throat.

Meanwhile, like a mute guard dog, Fetch watched over his charge day and night in the

quarters behind the butcher's shop. He aired out the room while making sure the ocean wind wouldn't make her shiver and fed regularly new wood to the fire. However, no matter their efforts, the girl's wounds closed painfully slowly and she didn't seem to recover.

One night he asked Catch, "Would you do me a favor and keep an eye on her while I'm away?"

Catch didn't really care what happened to the Flevance girl as long as he didn't have to fill up her grave in cold weather. "Sure... It's not like she's going anywhere," he replied then and let himself fall on a nearby chair inside Fetch's quarters, where Savenna was tucked under three blankets.

Fetch muttered a quick thank you, put his hood up and shut the door behind him. It would take several hours until it opened again. Catch had fallen asleep and banged his head against the wall as Fetch rushed back into the room. "Where the hell have you been? I'm not your freaking babysitter!" he snapped after secretly checking if the girl was still where he had left her.

"At the market," Fetch said, peeling himself out of a worn out coat. "There was a pirate selling stuff and I got her this," he said, holding up a little bottle filled with green liquid in. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Catch gave it a closer look and frowned. "What's that?"

"Medicine. Apparently…"

"You know what it's for?"

"Not really… He stole it from some sick kid a couple of days ago. Couldn't really tell me what it was." It was the best he could come up with. After Louise had warned him that

her wounds could get infected, he preferred doing something stupid instead of doing nothing.

Fetch went to the rusty sink and poured a glass of water where he diluted a couple of green drops. He pressed the rim of the glass to Savenna's lips but it was no use. Half awake, half asleep, she was mumbling names he didn't know while her limbs were twitching as if in a dream.

The thief sighed. "I'm sorry… This won't be pleasant." He pinched her nose shut until her mouth flung open like a fish's. Then, carefully he poured the liquid down her throat. The girl coughed and almost choked before swallowing it. Only when he was sure she would keep it down, Fetch allowed himself to return to his chair for a few hours of sleep.

Savenna woke up two days after arriving in Fort Esperance. The first thing she noticed were the hard floorboard under her back and the returning pain simmering in it. She forced her eyes open through the throbbing sensation in her skull.

The room was about the size of her family's garden shed, where decaying wooden walls desperately tried to trap the heat emanating from a filthy fireplace. A table and chairs that looked as if they were stolen from a yard sale took up most of the space. The pile of rags that served as her mattress reeked of smoke and raw meat and made her gag.

Looking up, Savenna spotted a man sleeping in a chair. Shit. Her mind, clouded with sake and expired painkillers, jumped to only one possible conclusion: Whoever was keeping her in this awful place, was making sure she wouldn't escape.

But if she had learned anything from her books it was that this was the moment to make a run for it. She had to be quick while her guard was asleep.

Savenna slithered out from under the smelly coat but overestimated the capacity of her unexisting muscle mass. Instead of getting up she fell face-down on the floor. Instantly, Fetch leaped to his feet, eyes wide open.

"Don't move!" she called out.

Confused, Fetch watched the girl as she grabbed a piece of firewood and wriggled it in front of her like a sword. Again, Savenna overestimated her strength and the weapon landed on her foot, followed by a long line of cursing. She noticed a glimmer of amusement in her captor's face. She didn't appreciate it. "What is it? What do you want from me?"

Surprised by the harsh sound of her voice, the thief took a step back. "I'm glad you're feeling better…"

He didn't know what he'd expected but it wasn't this. This weak little girl would probably have murdered him in his sleep if she'd been able to move.

They stood in silence for a while until Savenna finally recognized the man from the mountains. Her fingers loosened around the firewood. "How long was I out?"

Fetch scratched his head. "Two days, maybe? But I don't know how long you've been up there, so…"

Internally, Savenna cursed some more. Law must be on the other side of the world by now. But there was no reason the man needed to know that. "I crossed the border the day the soldiers marched into Flevance," she said.

"That makes…" Fetch calculated. "Four days."

"Four days?! I was out for four whole days?" Her voice was high-pitched now. "No, no… That's too long!"

"With Amber Lead poisoning and two bullets in your back you should be glad you're alive at all,"Fetch argued but was immediately interrupted.

"No, you don't understand! I have to find somebody. I promised I would…"

This time she wasn't allowed to finish her sentence. The door banged open, making room for a large, red-faced woman. The smell of raw meat grew so strong, Savenna had to hold her breath. "Look who's awake!" Her voice sounded like the bottom of a barrel. "By the way, that bottle of sake you smashed was older than yourself. I hope you're planning on replacing that?"

"I'm sorry, I don't remember…"

"Well, good thing is I do," she barked. "You're awake now, so you'll start working soon. Fetch here will show you the ropes."

Savenna had a hard time not to stare.

She had met a lot of different people in her life but she was pretty sure she'd never seen anyone so filthy. Sailors after six months on the Grand Line looked neater than whatever was splattered over that woman's apron. But then again, Savenna had never met a gang leader before, or any kind of leader who didn't fly their own flag. "I'm sorry… who are you again?"

The woman laughed loud enough to make small furniture move. "I'm Butcher Louise. The others here call me Fat Louise but if I hear that name come out of your mouth, I'll slap those little cheeks of yours until your ears ring. Got it?"

Savenna nodded. There were times for disobedience but this was not one of them.

"Also, it's me you have to thank for saving your life," Butcher Louise added, raising her nose in the air. "Or what is left of it anyway. Which means you owe me, princess!"

Again, Savenna nodded silently. She had been surrounded by doctors for months but this woman surely didn't look like one. But the longer Savenna listened to that awful, brawling voice, the more familiar it started to sound. Her memory was no help and either way, she had no choice but to accept the butcher's authority.

"Miss… Louise," she began. "I certainly will repay you for your services. And I am very grateful for everything you have done for me. However, would it be possible to receive a new set of clothes? Due to… unfortunate circumstances, my current attire isn't suited for going to town, and I have a very important person to meet."

Savenna had no idea if there even was a town, or any kind of civilization. She could have been lying in a barn in the middle of nowhere and she wouldn't have known. But she had to try.

The butcher let out a giggle that sounded like someone choking. "How she talks… Do you hear that, Fetch? A true upper-class brat! I'd get rid of that accent if you don't want to be shot again." She shook her head dismissively. "Your pretty speech won't get you anywhere, princess. I won't have any Flevance scum walking my streets. If somebody finds out I'm hiding you, the marines will take this place apart. Poke as much as your nose out of the door and I'll put those bullets back where they came from."

Savenna's instincts hadn't betrayed her. She was a prisoner. And by now Savenna had seen enough to know she wasn't strong enough to pick a fight with her captor.

"Come on, Fetch! We have work to do." With that, the butcher and the man from the mountains headed toward the door, and Fetch shot her an apologetic look before locking it behind him.

Savenna was getting out of there. She'd just escaped the army, no chance she was going to be held hostage by some bandits with pitchforks. But one look at herself was enough to realize she would be going anywhere unnoticed. Her dress had been reduced to a bloody rag, the stockings were threadbare and both her shoes and her cloak were missing.

Bandages covered her waist and chest, and when she touched her back her palm came back bloody. Whatever they had patched her up with, it was leaking. At least old Trafalgar wasn't around to see this… She would have to find a real doctor soon.

would have to find new bandages once she had managed to leave this place.

Jaw clenched at the pain buzzing through her bones, Savenna tried to stand up. In a hazardous balancing act, she reached for every object able to support her weight, and after knocking down three bottles, a pile of books and a tool kit, she landed on her butt with a curse. This wasn't good. If she didn't step up her game she'd end up like doomed little Lamie.

Savenna was staring at the ceiling, obsessing about fire and traps, when somebody knocked on the door. It was the mountain man, holding a bag. He shut the door quietly and smiled. "I thought you might be hungry."

Ignoring the mess she had caused, Savenna eyed the bag with suspicion before snatching it out of his hand. Inside were two slices of dark, dry bread and a piece of smoked ham. Instantly she forgot everything her parents had taught her about not accepting food from strangers and wolfed it down.

"Is she always like that?" Savenna chewed loudly. "Fat Louise?" She didn't have to know the man well to guess that they weren't the closest of friends. He gave her a surprised look. "Pretty much…"

"Are you afraid of her?" Before further escape plans could be made, Savenna needed to know where those people's loyalties lay.

The tired-looking man shrugged. "She's like a dog who barks but rarely bites. You need to be careful with that name, though. She's quite sensitive."

"I see…" She kept munching until her stomach felt like it was going to twist itself into a know, and handed the rest back.

Savenna couldn't make sense of the mountain man. He was a complete stranger. There had been no reason for him to help her. But she was smart enough not to complain. Instead she asked: "What happened exactly? How did I end up here?"

Fetch had no gift for telling stories but this time she wasn't interested in one. His voice was flat when he spoke of her rescue. Turns out she wasn't in a barn in the middle of nowhere but in the industrial port of Fort Esperance.

On a different day Savenna might have laughed at the irony. Fort Esperance had been one of North Blue's busiest ports until miners struck Amber Lead further down the coast. It had been declining in the White City's shadow for years, and now the few ships they had left traded coal, iron ore and the occasional contraband. Or at least that's what she'd been told.

Looking through the fogged, dirty window, she remembered that the air here was known to have been heavily polluted by the coal mines located too close to town. Before the Amber Lead epidemic, hundreds of Fort Esperance residents had crossed the mountains to Fleavance to find work. Half of her former house staff was from here. Her mother had always pitied the men and women with the gray suitcases and pretended to be charitable by giving them a job.

Savenna smiled bitterly. Then she looked at Fetch. He was a bandit, that was certain. Though he didn't seem like someone who would have attacked Magdalena at the docks. Even though he couldn't be younger than her father when he died, Fetch's goofy limbs made him look like a teenager who had aged too quickly.

Somehow Savenna knew that Fetch would never harm her. Or anyone, for that matter. She wasn't sure he would know how. She cocked her head to the side. "What kind of a name is Fetch?"

"It's more of a nickname," he said.

"What's your real name, then?"

He hesitated. "Herbert… But nobody calls me that anymore." A new tone rang in his voice. Savenna recognized it. Regret."What about you? Do you have a name?" he asked carefully.

The question hit her like a hammer. Savenna looked away. Why it was the name that got to her she didn't know. She couldn't help but think of the people who used to pronounce it every day, with love, anger or just to tell her she was late again. Voices she would never hear again. She tried to think of someone whose memory wouldn't cause her any grief. "Sava… My name is Sava. No last name."

Lamie had turned out to be good for something at last, Savenna thought, missing the feeling of disdain for the little sister she had never had.

They sat in silence for a while. Then Fetch asked: "How are you doing with… this?" First Savenna didn't understand, then looked at her outstretched arm. "Oh, Amber Lead you mean? It's fine. Better than that woman's stitches."

Fetch didn't seem convinced. "But your skin is entirely white. You should be…"

"Dead?"

Fetch nodded.

"I don't know, really. Somebody once said I was tougher than others and I like to believe that too." Modesty wasn't one of her virtues and she stopped pretending it to be one.

Fetch didn't know what to reply. She didn't seem like other kids he'd come across knew, in fact she hardly seemed like a kid at all. There was something almost serene about the way she chewed on the rest of her food amid death and destruction. Fetch scratched his head and said the only appropriate thing to say, "I'm truly sorry for what happened to your people. You must have lost a great deal. We didn't like Flevance very much but you didn't deserve this. We would've helped if it wasn't for the marines and the government, you know…"

Fetch didn't seem like somebody who was good with words but it still made Savenna feel a little better. "Thanks. I'm sorry too…"

"What for?"

"You seem like you have lost somebody too. It sucks, I know."

Fetch looked at her, stunned. "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," she replied. "No one digs up half-dead strangers because they're a good person. You had a reason, didn't you?"

Fetch didn't know if he should be scared or relieved. There was something deeply terrifying about the girl, like she knew his thoughts before they could even cross his mind. Yet, she'd been the first one to ask.

"It was a long time ago," he began. Savenna shot him an encouraging look. "I lived in a small village with my family. I always dreamed of going to sea but my wife refused, saying she didn't want our daughter to grow up without a father. But money was short and I had to do something. Fishing wasn't really paying off and there wasn't

anything else I could do. So, I signed up for the marines."

"What did your wife say?" Savenna asked.

"She didn't know. I left a note on the table before docking off. I know I'm not very bright, but that was the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"What happened? Was she angry with you?"

Fetch shrugged. "Probably. I never found out. After three months, I came back to find out that pirates had burned the village to the ground. My wife and daughter died in the fire."

Mechanically, Savenna stiffened. Instead of seeing Fetch Herbert's family, she was watching Law in front of the burning hospital, lost, confused. Mad.

"I haven't gone back since. I'm too much of a coward. I didn't even put flowers on their graves…"

Savenna swallowed hard. She had read so many books on pirates and Gold Roger's crew that she had completely ignored the fact that they plundered town and killed people. Thinking back to Magdalena's brother who had died in Impel Down, Savenna began to understand that there were always two sides to one story.

Fetch had old grief written all over his face. "Sophie…My daughter. She would be your age now. So no, I didn't save you because I'm a good person."

Savenna smiled absentmindedly. "I'm sorry, Fetch. I am, really… I wish all of this would have happened to somebody else."

"What about you?" she suddenly heard him ask. "Who are you looking for? Friends or family?"

Savenna hesitated. "Family… He's family."

"Well", Fetch sighed and rose. "Then we have to find him."

"What..?"

"You left the city together, I suppose? Four days isn't that long, we still might find him in town. There's one refugee camp the marines haven't found yet. But we have to hurry and get there before somebody sells them out," Fetch replied.

Savenna couldn't believe it. "Wait! What about the butcher? What if she finds out?"

"I'll take care of Louise," he said, rummaging in a wooden box under the table for a woolen shirt and a pair of worn-out pants. "I think that will do. As long as you stick with me and cover your skin, nobody will notice." He tossed the clothes to Savenna. "And you'd better get rid of that dress. It might have saved you once but we shouldn't push our luck…" With that he showed her the Amber Lead splinter the butcher had retrieved.

Confused, Savenna's face twisted into a grimace. Surviving the attack hadn't been enough. Amber Lead would follow her wherever she went. Disgusted, she waited until Fetch left the room, peeled herself out of the bloody dress and threw it into the fire.

"Why are you doing this for me? You don't even know me," she wanted to know, tugging at her new, slightly smelly clothes. It was one thing for him to save a little girl from the cold but another to disobey direct orders. Then, for the first time, she saw confidence spark in Fetch's eyes. "I won't see my family again, no matter what I do. The least I can do is help you find yours. Makes me feel less guilty. A little at least… "

Somewhat glad to have discovered a selfish motive behind his kindness, Savenna decided she believed him and let herself be wrapped in a large leather cloak. Ignoring her bleeding back, she climbed on the thief's back, arms securely around his neck.

With the hope of seeing Law again, she allowed herself to smile with both corners of her mouth. Maybe not everything is lost after all…