In Millina's experience, not even the wealthiest citizens of Flowave could keep the grime and the muck from invading their homes, and the Hermitages were no exception. Despite the maids fluttering about the mansion, the floors remained damp and dirty while mildew discolored the oak wood panels of the hallway. Millina often wondered just how much wealth someone would have to possess to own a truly nice home in Flowave, which always led her to the inevitable conclusion that if someone as filthy rich as the Hermitages couldn't afford it, it would just be better to burn the whole town to the ground.
"Right this way please," The butler said as he directed Millina and her partner, Rufus, to the parlor where Marcus Hermitage sat on a plush chair, his head between his legs as he ran his hands through his dark hair while his wife, Deidre, cried into her handkerchief.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hermitage," the butler announced, "The private investigators you sent for, Rufus and Millina."
"Please have a seat." Diedre said through her tears, and as Millina sat on what had to have been the most comfortable chair she had ever sat on. Especially when you factored in the truth that her one room shack only had a bed and no chairs. Which was the reason Flowave even existed. A select few could live well off of the goods that came through the harbor. Yet even as she appreciated the chair, Millina could not see how the benefits that could be obtained from such a place was worth the more prevalent misery that besotted it.
"Please, help yourself." Deidre said as she indicated a tea tray with cookies that had been set out. Millina reflected that on first glance Deidre would have fit in with the farming families she'd known before her mother had uprooted their lives to move to Flowave. Even the poorest of farming families in Avon would offer whatever food they had to share, something that few of the wealthiest of Flowave's citizens would bother to do. But then, Millina thought cynically, some of the wealthy did like to show off.
"Thank you," Rufus said as he started to fix himself a cup as Millina took a cookie and tasted it and enjoyed the delicate sweetness she'd seldom experienced within Flowave. "I wish we were here under better circumstances."
"Can you just promise me you'll get him back alive?" Deirdre asked as she leaped forward to them and fell to her knees, and Millina was surprised to find just how moved she was. Kidnappings and ransoms were so common in Flowave that most of the wealthy braced themselves for it and were shockingly numb to it. But then, this wasn't exactly a simple kidnapping and ransom.
"We'll do everything we can." Rufus said in his soothing way as Millina wondered if she should bury her cynicism just for this one case. Perhaps something good had managed to thrive in Flowave. "I presume we should just cut to the chase. When was the last time you saw your son?"
"Yesterday." Marcus said, and Millina could hardly say she was surprised by his cold and disinterested manner. "He was on his way to school in the morning and he never made it. We got a ransom note that afternoon."
It was standard in Flowave to kidnap a kid with rich parents and demand an exorbitant ransom. Often the kidnappers bought the police so they wouldn't be much help. Kidnapping and ransom was big business in Flowave, almost as respectable as gambling. "We have the money, we can easily cover it and I will do anything to get Fabian back. But then my private spy reported that someone had hired an assassin to kill him!"
That much was true. Millina's sources had confirmed that an assassin named Luke had been hired to kill Fabian Hermitage while he was in the custody of the kidnappers.
"Why would anyone want to kill my baby?" Diedre wailed as tears streamed down her face as Marcus lit his cigar and shot her a look of restrained patience. Often in these cases the parents seemed to view the kidnappings as a distraction from their important business and a financial drain, so Marcus's reaction was not a surprise. It did make Millina wonder if he thought that the threat on his son's life was an empty threat to get more money from him and he was merely soothing his histrionic wife by hiring them, "He's only thirteen! He's never hurt anyone!"
"Money." Millina said simply. "Who would benefit the most from the death of your sole child?"
"Oscar." Marcus said distastefully.
"Oh dearest, he wouldn't…" Diedre said, "He adores Fabian!"
"Who is Oscar?" Rufus asked.
"My younger brother." Marcus explained. "And after Fabian, the heir to my business and fortune."
"There you go." Millina said as she finished off her cookie with a cup of tea.
Dierdre looked at Millina in shock, and Millina wondered how someone could live in Flowave for any substantial amount of time and have held on to an ounce of naivete. Perhaps Diedre was a rich fool, or perhaps she was the rarest of people, someone in Flowave who managed to retain a modicum of sweetness.
"Is it necessary to know for sure to stop the assassin?" Marcus asked irritably.
"No," Rufus said, "Millina is about to go and track him down, while I work on negotiating with the hostage takers to get him home safely. We'll send another colleague to get a feel for Oscar, but if I'm honest the best thing you can do is talk to a lawyer and alter your will."
"We'll leave another colleague to work as a bodyguard for the two of you until this is resolved." Millina said, "And I wouldn't trust the police."
"That's why we're paying you!" Marcus bellowed as his face turned red.
And handsomely, Millina thought to herself as she let Rufus finish the details. With the amount they were set to make on this case Millina would be able to leave this dive about two months sooner than she was anticipating! As Millina briefly allowed her mind to drift to the thought of what it would be like to finally leave Flowave, a maid came back to take the tea tray. As she picked it up, Marcus shifted positions in his seat so his leg jutted out, tripping her as she turned with the tray in hand. The maid let out a shriek as the cups shattered and clashed to the floor and Diedre bounded to her feet with a look of fire in her eyes,
"You clumsy little wench!" Diedre shrieked as she slapped her, and Millina kept her face impassive as the idea that anyone could be genuinely sweet in Flowave dissolved like sugar candy left in the rain.
"This is the big one!" Rufus said as he walked beside Millina on the sidewalk. "I mean, even with the complication of the assassin, it should be easy enough to track down the kidnappers. And with the money we'll get once we…"
"You shouldn't brag so much in the open." Millina snapped as she glared at a shifty looking group of people who were taking a bit too much interest in their conversation as they walked past.
"Hey! I'm with you! Anyone who picks a fight with me right now would be cut down to size." Rufus said with a laugh as they crossed the street which was overflowing with sewage. Millina tried not to think too much about what she was walking through as her nose wrinkled distastefully as Rufus got a bit too close to her as he asked. "Come on, what are you going to do with your share?"
"Don't know." Millina lied as they got back on the rotted wooden planks that served as a sidewalk. Damn, she would not miss this place once she was gone! Of course, she wouldn't have enough to retire on. But she would have enough to put a good six months distance between her and this hell hole!
Screaming broke out from one of the streets they were approaching, and Millina saw a group of people break up a fight that had broken out between two women outside of a bar. Millina remembered being terrified by how much fighting broke out in Flowave when they had first moved there. Now it barely managed a shake of her head.
"Come on, Millina, you have to have some idea what you'll do with it." Rufus needled.
"Perhaps I'll start my own business." Millina said, "Then I'll have some peace and quiet for once!"
"Aw, Millina!" Rufus said with a laugh "Come on! You can't do it all alone. Hell, you don't even have to work half as hard as you do and put yourself in as much danger as you do. With your looks you could easily find a man to take care of you."
Millina internally seethed as she said, "I have no desire to be kept."
"Kept?" Rufus said as his eyebrows hit his hairline, "Hell, if I could be kept like Diedre Hermitage…"
"This is where we split." Millina cut him off. It was useless to explain to men the price one pays to be kept. Men assumed that every woman was waiting for someone to swoop in and take care of her so she could live a life of ease. Millina knew that unless they had valued skills and could make their own money, hooking up with a man was about survival. Some of them just survived in gilded cages where they channel their rage over their own powerlessness at their poor maids while others survived in decrepit ones.
It was the one good thing her idiot mother had done. Seen that Millina's skills as a sorceress were invested in and developed. Even if the price she paid had killed her. But it meant that if Millina ever did decide to hook up with someone, she could do it as an equal. She would never be kept.
"Were you followed?" Millina asked the boy who wore tattered, soiled clothing. Millina would have pegged him as no older than nine, but given how hard it could be for street urchins to find food, he could have been closer to eleven.
"Not a chance." Gavroche said.
"Don't be cocky." Millina said as she glanced around to see if anyone was listening as she handed him a coin, "Did you spot him?"
"This very morning." Gavroche said, "Cosette is tailing him."
"Hm." Millina said as she wrestled with her conscience. Orphans littered the streets of a place like Flowave, and the orphanages were so monstrous that the kids preferred to live on the streets. As such, they knew their way around better than any adult. There were ubiquitous so no one thought twice if they were larking about and everyone underestimated them. Especially the girls like Cosette who were pretty and sweet. So they made good spies. If you were able to put aside your qualms on the ethics of putting children in danger.
They're already in danger. Millina said, just by existing in a place like Flowave they are in danger.
"Take me to them." Millina ended up saying as she handed Gavroche another coin. She never let herself forget that everyone in Flowave was sold to the highest bidder. Trust and friendship were things that few people could afford in such a place. He smiled and started heading west, into the sketchiest part of the city where a lady like Diedre Hermitage would not be caught dead in and where they didn't even bother to pave the sidewalks with wood planks. People slept in the dirt and the muck under doorways while others sang off key songs as they chugged ale as the smell of human waste and decrepitness clogged the air that was so full of smog that you couldn't even see the stars from the street.
Millina kept her senses tuned for any sign that they had been spotted and were about to be attacked while Gavroche silently led them through the streets. He eventually stopped at a ramshackle building that looked to be filled with mold and held together by grime. Cosette sat beneath a window where the glass had been shattered and never repaired and barely acknowledged them with a nod as they approached. Millina was careful to keep out of view as she peered into it and saw that the building was a pub and mostly empty, save for a group of men playing cards in a corner.
"Luke is the redhead." Gavroche whispered.
Millina's eyes narrowed as she seethed with hatred. She despised redheads. Every woman in her family who got involved with one lived to regret it. And the cold look in Luke's eyes only served the reinforce her instinct that he was not a man to get friendly with. Factor in his status as a professional assassin, and Millina decided her instant hatred was entirely justified.
"Please be careful, Miss Millina." Cosette whispered, "He got angered when one of the players cheated him and he jumped across the room and twisted his head off. He scares me!"
"I can handle him." Millina said even if she was taken aback. Even in Flowave, that type of ruthlessness was seldom seen.
Cosette grabbed her hand, and Millina looked down at her in surprise to find that her big green eyes were wide and watery. "Don't underestimate him, Miss Millina. He's knows powerful magic."
A memory washed through Millina of when she was a girl and how she'd grabbed her own mother's hand as she told her that the redhaired stranger who she was so enamored with scared her. Her mother didn't listen. Millina had been a child then. What did she know?
Well, suffice to say, Millina had resolved never to make the same mistake.
Millina knelt down and ran a hand through Cosette's matted hair and favored the girl with a rare smile, "So do I. But thanks for letting me know. I'll be extra careful." Millina handed Cosette a small bag of gold coins, "Now I want you and your brother to get as far away from here as you can. And sleep somewhere safe and indoors tonight."
"Thank you, Miss Millina." Cosette said, and Gavroche nodded his thanks to her as she ran up to him. Millina stood to her feet and watched as they scampered down the alley together and regretted that she couldn't see that they reached a safe place. Such a place simply didn't exist in Flowave.
They hadn't even rounded the corner when Millina felt the bloodlust rise in the street, and she glanced at the doorway to see Luke standing in it. Millina's blood ran cold under the frostiness of his gaze as he asked, "What's a girl like you doing larking about in a place like this?"
AN: This fic is the result of the confluence of two factors. For awhile I'd wanted to write about Millina and the reasons she travels with Luke, especially because unlike most people I tend to doubt that she secretly loved him. It had been lowkey in the back of my mind for awhile when I read the new translation of The Ghosts of Sairaag where there was a brief mention of a slum harbor town called Flowave. For whatever reason it stuck in my mind, and my first thought was to do a story with Lina and Gourry doing a detective thing with a missing child there. Separately, I was thinking about Millina and why she traveled with Luke and started really working the idea, and at first I thought I'd have her run into a friend when she was with Luke to explain why, but then it occurred to me it would be a bit more fun to do a story about how Luke and Millina met, and given the few details we have, Flowave clicked as the right sort of background for this origin story.
I'm still planning to pick back up with Neverending, but I need a break and a palate cleanser or two from it. I've got an idea for yet another Gourrina fic, a few short things, and who knows what the new translations will kick off. Anyway, I know a lot of people aren't familiar with Millina, she never makes it in the anime, so there likely won't be a lot of interest for a fic like this, but she's one of my favorite characters and I think she deserved better than she got, so I'm writing it.
Also, FFN has been increasingly buggy for me and while I can get this story to show on preview it won't show through the link...so yeah...I may be wasting my words right now.