As far as she could remember, she knew her mother was not like other mothers. She was still a very young girl on the cusp of eight years old, but she had realized that there was nothing normal with her remaining family. For one her mother had always been very distant. She did not hold her or her brother's hand very often. In truth, she did not touch them much. She never addressed them directly if it could be avoided. There was something in the way she was looking at them that made her skin crawl a little. Some hostility hidden behind sweet words. Most of the time, they were left to their own devices, or under their grandmother's supervision. Lena did not like staying with the sly old woman at all. Her grandmother was odd at the best of times, and she knew better than to question anything coming from her.

Mother would work within the inner walls, somewhere she and her brother were strictly forbidden from going. She only came back when grandmother went to fetch her, or when the evenings were so quiet the streets were empty and if you'd strained your ears you could hear the storm raging just outside the walls. As far as Lena knew, there was always a storm outside the walls, but most of the time you could not hear the thunder crashing from within. They were safe and sound, always. And maybe she hated that just a little bit, this sickly sweet sense of safety and secrets that could kill. She was under the impression that the relative peace in which her family was living could vanish at a moment's notice. She might have grown restless, but she could never afford to as long as her grandmother lived. The old woman had all of them on a tight leash as the head of their family, and she would not let them go so easily.

For the longest time, Lena thought she did not have a father either. Arc, her brother, wiser than her by a few years had endlessly laughed at her when she had asked him how their mother had made them all on her own, and if she too could have a baby to hold. He told her their father had left one day and never came back. When she asked her mother, she had said the same and added wistfully that maybe he was still outside, drunk on the beauty of the endless plains beyond the walls, lost on his way home.

Lena once thought that maybe it would not be all that bad if someday she could walk through the gates with the scouts in green and see for herself. But she also knew with a certain sense of finality that people couldn't fly and that as long as her mother lived, she would be bound to the firm ground beneath her feet. Her grandmother found endless amusement in telling Lena and her brother about the outside world, about fields of fire, plains of ice, and endless lakes so big it would take days on end to reach the other side. However, Lena had decided long ago these fairytales were not for her and did not pay any mind to the old woman's rambling that would have twisted brighter minds. She might have yearned for her father, but in the end, she did not know him, and never would.

Upon her grandmother's suggestion, she had decided long ago that she would become the greatest dancer there ever was within the wall, and enjoy a simple life of luxury and safety. Her grandmother was the harshest master there was, but they both knew that Lena had the potential needed for greatness.

The old woman had been a dancer of renown in another life, and she had deemed Lena worth teaching. There was a natural grace in her step she had nurtured and burned in her every move through years of training and practice. Dancing is like battling, she would tell Lena. "You must conquer, Leni", she would say. It required one to be decisive, and never waste a breath. It was beautiful, she thought, the way the best dancers looked like they were effortlessly flying, so light and fast, how every move was so graceful without a single movement wasted. Lena, still a child, had no patience for endless practice, but she knew the meticulosity of the greatest would be beaten into her all the same. She had been daydreaming, again.

"Again" Grandmother demanded, her sharp voice coming into focus. No matter how many times she asked, Lena would rise to her feet and retake her stance, flex her knees and soar, lift her feet high above and bring them down to crash on the ground. Her ankle had hurt the first time, and once again, she muffled a scream and wondered why. She wanted so much to do well, but she never did.

"Again. That was unsightly. I'm sure the whole neighborhood heard that. You're not supposed to make any sound at all, you know ?" Grandmother's voice was hard and dry. She did not bother looking at Lena's swelling ankle. For months, she had been even more ruthless than usual when supervising her practice.

"- And how do I do that ? I can't not make a sound at all, at least not when landing, right ?" She asked more than a little annoyed. This would hurt and heal ugly, but Grandmother would call for a doctor. Surely. She rewarded her with a hard slap on both cheeks. Lena felt tears roll down her reddened cheeks but she knew better than to make a sound.

"- You should never make a sound at all, not when you walk, not when you jump, never. Tread so lightly no one will ever know where you are without looking, breathe so softly and deeply no mist ever clouds your face on cold mornings. Move like flowing water, bend and bend until you have reached the full extent of your joints. And some more. You won't be going anywhere like this, you want to be the best? Then act like it".

The words always stung more than the slaps anyway.

"-How many times should I do it again ?" She asked with gritted teeth

"-Until I say it is enough." Grandmother's face was partially hidden in the shadows. But Lena knew all the same that the smile on her face did not bode well for her.

"-... And maybe some more" Lena finished for her, an edge of something sharper than madness to her grin, and she knew that despite her aching feet, sore legs and bruised ankle, she would train until her jumps were as light as a feather and silent like death. There was no other way.

"-Be more careful when you jump. Choose a direction and an angle and stick to it until the very end. Once you are in the air, there is nothing left to be done, you must be in control of your initial impulsion to have control over your course once you are off the ground. Use your weight when you propel yourself to start spinning and then let it guide you. Do not waste any energy trying to change your course once it is set, and then strike the ground with as much force as you can, to get back up higher. Do not lose your footing. "

The day was coming to an end, and the night was still warm at summer's end. The air was heavier still in the outer rings. Numerous houses had been built by the wall where the stones were burning hot from the accumulated heat of balmy summer days. Lena wiped some sweat from her brow and turned to her Grandmother.

"-Say, Granny, you sound like you're asking me to sprout wings and take flight. How am I supposed to do that ? " She asked unironically.

"-You silly girl. People don't fly. We're all bound to the solid ground. And we, even more so." She gave Lena her sharped grin "What you need to learn is an illusion. Your weight and the pull of gravity are not your enemies. They are your greatest allies. You need to use all your weight to gain enough momentum in order to execute more sophisticated moves. You are constrained by the physical limitations of your body, yes. But these are natural and should be accepted as thus. These limitations, in order to attain brilliance, you must push them back." She insisted. And Lena suddenly remembered that her Grandmother had been born and bred in the underground of the City, where the weak did not survive very long. She had thrived in the harshest environment, against every odds. Down there every street rat was deadly, and the older ones were deadlier still.

"-Granny, are you really teaching me how to dance ?" Lena asked wearily. The old lady smiled, and there was something dangerous to the glimmer in her eyes. What a smart child. That was to be expected from someone who, she was sure, sometimes showed signs of a potential for greatness. Now that she thought about it, She remembered a young boy from the underground with just the same kind of looks to him. A street rat not worth a second glance to be sure, certainly not worthy of her notice, but still. His face would sometimes come to her mind when she looked at her granddaughter. He had been too thin and ugly to look like her grand-daughter, but they sometimes shared the same weary and animalistic gaze she had seen on the boy. She had briefly wondered what had become of that boy she had met so long ago, covered in blood and grime in the darkest corners of the most dangerous part of the underworld. She had been surprised to find someone so deep in the underworld. Someone looking so alive, and relatively well that is. None of the blood covering him from head to toe had seemed to be his. He had fled, off course, and he was no one so she never bothered to seek him. But the encounter had been peculiar. Underground rats were all but feral after all, although some more than the others. At least, the ones invested in surviving were.

"Why, of course. What else would this be about ?" And for a moment she was glad that her grand-daughter was not as thick and stupid and she too often seemed to be. What a good grand-daughter she had. That filthy blood, that must be her very own filthy blood proving true, she thought giddily. Filth like that was hard to come by these days. This accursed blood, it did come with advantages. Her grand-daughter might have been a sharp, intelligent child in her own right most of the time, but she could never obtain the kind of strength she would need to survive in this world without an edge. And what kind of parent would she be if she did not provide her with one ?

Lena looked upon her warily, and still, she turned to face the mirror and fell back into her previous stance. She had to do better than that. She had to succeed. There was no choice, and she knew deep down that if she were to fail to meet her grandmother's expectations, there would be nothing in the world to prevent her from discarding Lena, and turning her interest to someone worthier. If she were not able to live up to her teachings, she would turn to someone who could. And that could not happen. As much as she resented her grandmother for her brutal treatment, she thought she could not live without the careful attention she was showering her with. She had no father, her brother was too unfeeling and her mother hated her, but grandmother, for all her harshness and sometimes madness, was the only one willing to acknowledge her. It had to be enough. She had to be enough.

"You may stop when you are a cripple. Not a moment before." The old lady piped up helpfully.

Lena knew better than to complain, so she fell back into her initial stance. There was not much of a choice, and it would never be a good idea to disobey her grandmother. She hoped that someday she would be enough for her mother and grandmother to be proud of her. She hoped that someday she would earn a decent living so that she would never have to work so hard again, marry a handsome young man and live in a pretty neighborhood in the upper ring of the inner wall. That was all she really wanted from her life, something of her own. Maybe if she could become a famous dancer her mother would be nicer, and her grandmother would be gentler.

She was running faster now, despite the constant ache in her legs and the throbbing pain in her chest. She had been running for hours, and she dared not think about what would happen if she stopped. Due to some obscure accident on the other side of the city, the water pipes connected to the upper city had blown up within the confines of Wall Rose. As a result part of the streets in the lower city had been burst open, revealing a portion of the underground inner ring main access open. That had happened before, but there was only so much the heads of warring criminal organizations could do to prevent their hordes from fleeing their not so tender mercies. Soon after, refugees had begun to gather on the edge of the wall. Shingashina, one of the most remote districts of wall Maria, had seen thousands of people arrive in the last few days. They would keep coming until the mouth was sealed shut once more.

The last Mouth of Rose had opened once before, decades ago. It had caused great panic within the military, because some tunnels were said to lead outside the walls, and it could have been a fatal breach. Many scouts had been sent under to assess whether titans could be getting inside wall Maria, and the operation had been something of a success. The access leading outside had been deemed too small and too few for their existence to pose a real threat to humanity, and they were thus quickly sealed and promptly forgotten. The scouts had wandered the upper parts of the labyrinth and mapped what they could. But there was nothing worth using in the war against titans, and the idea of using the catacombs for fast traveling and outside exploration was soon dismissed. Refugees had been pushed back to the underground, and if some were killed in the process, there had been no one to complain.

On the other hand, the Military Police had lost many of its members trying to restore order. Of course, they had mostly succeeded, but Grandmother used to say that they had lost track of some of the most powerful crime lords of the city in the process, who had mingled amongst the masses of refugees to evade their arrest. There had been an increasing number of arrests recently too, and Grandmother had forbidden them to set foot in the Old Mouth's neighborhood for the last past months. It had blown open again just the day before, and now everyone was scrambling in the confusion. No one in the slum had been too surprised to hear about the explosion beyond Wall Rose.

Soon the neighborhood would swarm with fugitives. She dodged something thrown her way without looking and caught a glimpse of a group of dirty children gathering near the fresh corpse of a beggar, looking for anything worth stealing. Lena pushed herself to run faster. There were children of the deep bowels of the city and they would not hesitate to attack if they felt they could. She held her satchel a little closer to her chest and took a sharp turn to the left. Grandmother had sent her to retrieve a package that had been delivered on the other side of town days ago, and she could not afford to wait any longer. There would be blood on the street by tomorrow when the Military Police would take charge of the situation.

There weren't many people who knew how to navigate the slum as well as she did, but Lena had always lived on the edge of the sun, between the poorest section of Shingashina and its lush merchant district. Her grandmother was not exactly poor by any means, and neither was her mother. But they had always insisted on remaining close to the edge of the city when the children had asked why they could not live somewhere nicer. Life within the upper walls was easier, but there were other advantages to living near the slums. For one, the military police largely turned a blind eye to what was going on beyond the city lines, and so long as nothing too big happened in the open, there was no law. It might have been a harsh life, but it was not so bad when one knew how to navigate the danger of these unsavory neighborhoods.

Lena was starting to tire. Grandmother's home in the slum wasn't too far now, and her lungs were starting to burn. She had left at dawn this morning to pick up a precious package for her grandmother on the other side of town. The trek had been long and stressful. It usually was easier, but today she had to circumvent the worst of the angry, panicky crowd that had fled from the Mouth days earlier. The further they were from the inner walls, the better. And there was no place further from Wall Sina's looming shadow than the very edge of Shingashina. There would be riots soon though, Lena thought. Too many refugees with nothing left to lose, and too little resources to share. When Lena finally reached the old oak door of their home, she fumbled for her key and slipped through the opening. Only when she securely closed the door behind her did her breath ease and her heartbeat start to slow. She almost did not hear her grandmother and older brother approach.

"-Took you long enough." The old lady did not even have the common decency of looking the least bit concerned about her.

"-Well it's chaos down there, I had never seen so many people in the streets ! And the people from the underground... They look sick. I reckon it's easy to guess at their origins" She handed the package to her brother who quickly rushed back inside to set it in their grandmother's room.

"- Life underground is harsh. When you have no citizenship, you can never go outside. Some of them have seen the sun and sky for the first time a few days ago. The ones looking sick are the strongest because the rest are dead or died on the way. Should they survive the next few days and the purges that are sure to come, they will thrive up here." Grandmother said absently.

"-Say… How big is the underground ?" Lena did not dare ask often about the underground, and despite their grandmother's numerous connections to the underworld, they had never been allowed to follow her down when she visited an acquaintance for business. To Lena, it was a place shrouded in mystery and somewhat exciting. However, although the old lady was very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the buried city, she fiercely guarded that knowledge to herself. There was some unspoken rule in their household about not questioning this arcane knowledge even their mother did not know much about her activities, and everyone assumed it was probably for the best. What they did not know, could not be used to hurt them. Therefore, everything Lena knew about the underworld, she had patiently pieced together listening intently to her grandmother's fairly rare musings.

"-Bigger than you can imagine. Bigger than the outside city, that's for sure." Grandmother had the absent look that meant it was safest for Lena to ask more questions before she changed her mind. Grandmother knew things, and there was usually hell to pay if one were to ask too many questions. Knowledge is an edge like any other. A weapon best kept hidden

"-How can it be bigger than the city ?" The tunnels of the underground did not extend beyond the wall. That was a well-known fact.

"-There are layers, Leni." Her brother answered before their grandmother could.

"-Go on boy." She acknowledged.

"-Well there are three layers, right ? Three layers for three walls. The upper layer is where people live, it's closer to the surface, and so crowded it's difficult to navigate. It only covers Wall Rose. That's also where the businesses happen since it's easier to access from the surface. Its layout is similar to that of the sewers, and it was mapped by the Scouts when the Mouth first opened. The two other layers are meant for fast travel. The second layer is only a little deeper than the first layer and it only covers walls Sina and wall Rose. The Palace guards know about part of it, but it's a hush-hush kind of thing. And they definitely didn't map the whole thing. The last layer is the deepest, and this one reaches the edges of wall Maria. Very, very few people know about it, and it was never mapped. It's meant to be a maze, easy to get in, impossible to get out. Rumors say a scouting squad found the entrance years ago. They never made it back." He said proudly.

Arc had always been their grandmother's favorite. He was the heir to her knowledge, and for that Lena was a bit jealous. She also knew that she lacked his sense of leadership and the willingness to use this knowledge. She had the mindset of a perfect little soldier, obedient and instinctive. He had the mindset of a general.

"-There is a map. The best map in the world." The old woman piped up, viciously smiling.

"-How come ?" Arc asked, only a little surprised. They had long ceased to question the seemingly endless knowledge of the old woman. It was not something they talked about. They depended on her protection, after all.

But once again, something churned in Lena's gut. She had enough of a street rat in her to know that her grandmother knew far, far too much to be just anyone. And that the knowledge she held was too dangerous. That everything she learned from her could very well be turned against her at a moment's notice. For a moment she was terrified of that slight, ruthless old woman, and what she would do to her. Lena had no doubts that she had no idea what type of game she was playing with them, but she knew that she was nothing but a pawn for her grandmother, and that the moment she would run out of uses, she would be discarded. Trying to keep her trembling hands in check, she carefully met the eyes of her grandmother.

The old woman hummed and began unlacing her sleeves. Although she must have been well over 70 years old, her skin had retained a certain smoothness. With a start, Lena realized that it must have been from lack of exposure to the sun, and that it would be the first time she saw her grandmother's naked arms. "Tell me, what do you know about the foundation of this city, children ?".

As she was talking, she kept on slowly peeling off layer upon layer of clothing, revealing dark ink markings coloring her arms in intricate patterns.

"-The city was founded by King Karl Fritz a few hundreds of years ago. From all accounts the walls were erected overnight to protect us from the titans. We don't know how". It was what children learned at school. She might have never been to school herself, but her mother had not let her go uneducated. "It's a legend... We… We don't know how the city was founded." She stumbled a little on her words. Grand-mother never asked such pointless questions. While she was talking, the old lady had finished taking off the last layer of her clothes. Her bare arms were milky white under the intricate webs of tattoos covering them. They appeared to run down her back as well, curling behind her neck and plunging downward. The patterns seemed perfectly random at first glance, too rough and too messy to be considered remotely pretty. Upon further observation, Lena realized that her grandmother's tattoos were covering a large array of scars and burns, integrating them into their design. It was disturbing, just enough to make her nauseous.

"- Yes that would be it. Well, they were erected overnight, believe me or not. But that's another story for another day maybe." She flexed her arms to give the children a better view of her tattoos. They were the ugliest thing Lena had ever seen, and even Arc, ever the favorite child seemed a little disgusted.

"-The city was here before the wall thought. And it is much, much older than the walls. It had another name before King Fritz claimed it as its own. Paradise… a stupid name chosen by a stupid man" She paused to make sure the children were carefully listening.

"-Of course, none of the previous inhabitants were all too happy to find themselves trapped within the walls with him and his people. Let's say the new Lords of the city were all too happy to send them out as titan feed. They inherited this fortress, without knowing anything about its secrets. They were so proud in thinking they were safe. But not everything is so easy, is it ?" She let out a mean laugh and bent down to look the children in the eyes.

"- They killed the vast majority of the city's previous inhabitants over the years. The peasants, the poor and the rich, the architects and the military obviously. Some of their people too. And in time, they forgot how little they knew about the outside, and the inside of their world. Those who survived had to blend in. And blend in they did. But that does not mean they forgot where they came from. And where they were." She let the idea sink in. It was not too far fetched, and it was still more plausible than the story of King Fritz erecting fifty-meter tall walls around the city overnight.

"-Now, have you ever wondered why no one in power on the surface seems to interfere too much with what is going on in the underground? Certainly not because they don't care" The air around them had grown tighter around them with the intensity of the old lady's questioning. Lena thought that she would snap if they so much as moved an inch, and it took all her restraint not to flinch when her grand-mother set her crazed glare on her. She had taken many beating from her, and this look on her never meant anything good.

"-I didn't think so. But I suppose that is to be expected coming from you. Nevertheless, that should not be a problem. You can afford to be ignorant as long as it does not hamper your capacity of staying alive." Lena did not dare to let out the breath she had been holding. Her grandmother grabbed her arm with deceptive strength and firmly led her into her room.

"Make no mistake, girl. Here there be monsters worse than the titans. The only reason people like us get to survive each generation is because we made our survival everyone else's business. There are very, very few of the family left. But we are as safe as can be as long as there are walls around us, and a city under our feet." She smiled deviously "And that must always be the case, girl." Arc was scrambling to catch up with them. When they reached the door leading to their grandmother's room, she turned to him abruptly, never letting go of Lena's arm. Lena did not dare complain, she was used to the manhandling. Her grandmother had always been somewhat unhinged. There was nothing she could do to free herself from her grip, and a wrong move might very well push her further over the edge of reason.

"Come Arc, we will be needing your help. Bring me back a solid rope, clean rags and boiling water." She turned to Lena and gestured to her bed. "Sit child". She began carefully opening the package Lena had just brought back. Lena cautiously peaked at its contents, hoping her grandmother would be too busy unpacking to see her looking. It contained a pair of beautiful thin knives with shiny gilded hilts. Lena had never seen anything so beautiful in her life, and the contrast between the pretty bejeweled knives and her grandmother's scarred hands and grotesque tattoos sent her stomach lurching again. The blades looked to be made of silver. They were by no means destitute, but it was probably the most expensive items she had ever seen from up close. Her grandmother was lovingly cleaning the blades. When she finally put them down, she lit a candle and started heating the blades. In the fire, they shimmered strangely, and Lena realized that it couldn't be silver. She had to restrain herself from asking about the strange knives to her grandmother. She had grown weary of addressing her when she was armed. A shiver went down her spine.

"Do you have any idea what this is ?" The old lady asked, holding out one of the knives to Lena so she could get a better view. It looked even more precious and refined from up close. The metal softly glistened in the partial obscurity of the room. Lena absently realized that Arc had come back and was busing himself with pulling the curtains. Before Lena could answer, she felt a blinding pain erupt from the side of her head. Before everything went completely dark, she saw her brother holding a bloodied lamp, and the eerie flash of her grandmother's smile. Lena felt herself fall from the bed face-first to the ground and knew no more.

"There're flaying knives" said the old lady all too pleasantly.