(A/N Here's chapter 4!)
Chapter 4: Cashmére Tanner
It was very late when Marcia got home. She sighed, closed and locked the door.
"Mar?" Joseph asked, and Marcia jumped.
"Don't scare me like that, Jose." she said feeble.
"Was it that horrable?" Jospeh continude when he heard Marcia's feeble voice.
"No, I'm just tired." Marcia replied.
"It reallt looks like you've had a horrable day." Joseph said, and Marcia gave him an irritated look.
"Thank's a lot, Jose." Marcia muttered. Joseph smirked, then he bowed.
"You're very welcome." he said.
"Stop being silly." Marcia replied, and roled her eyes. Joseph snickered.
"By the way, what did they want?" he asked, this time seriousley. Marcia looked away.
"Nothing." she mumbled.
"Stop mumbling Mar, it doesn't suit you. And so Augustus tanner just invited you to his ship to be nice, or something?" Joseph replied, "Marcia, we both know that you can't lie to me. Spit it out."
Marcia sighed. "Fine." she said, "They wanted me to join the Wise Seven. Happy now?"
"The Wise Seven?" Joseph widened his eyes, "You said no, didn't you?"
"Of course I did!" Marcia almost snapped, "Why would I want to join them?"
Joseph shrugged. "I don't know." he said, "And I don't care either, it's your life. But mum will strangle you."
"I don't care what mum thinks." Marcia replied and pursed her lips. Joseph smiled.
"Sure." he answerd.
"What do you mean with that?" Marcia hissed.
"Nothing, Mar, nothing at all." Joseph replied, "But wait... Didn't they know that you're Alther's apprentice?"
"I don't know." Marcia said, "Probably not, at least they reacted as they didn't know. But Ramasotti seemed to know something that the others didn't."
"Ramasotti?" Joseph almost gasped, "Is he still there?"
Marcia nodded. "Yep." she said. Joseph shook his head.
"I don't understand what Augustus is thinking." he replied. Marcia frowned.
"What's wrong with Ramasotti? Okay, he is creepy. Really creepy, but what has he done?" she asked.
"It's said that he hired a man to murder a girl." Joseph, who follow the news from the Eastern Snow Plains with great interest, answerd.
"What?" Marcia gasped, "Who?"
"I-I don't remember. Someone important." Joseph said. Marcia widened her eyes.
"Why would he do that?" she asked. Joseph shrugged.
"Politics, Marcia. Some people can do anything to get power." he replied. Joseph looked at his sister, and sighed.
"Go to bed, Mar. You looks like you've haven't slept in a week." he added. Marcia opend her mouth to protest, but then she remembered that she infact was very tired.
"Okay, Jose." she said, and Joseph gave her a hug.
"Sleep well." Joseph replied. Marcia smiled feeble, and went to her bedroom.
Joseph awoke early in the morning, which he rarely did. Marcia used to awake before him, and then do breakfast to both of them. This time, Joseph thought, he would make breakfast to Marcia. He rose up, and putted the coffe-pan at the stove. Since he wasn't very good at cooking, he decided to make sandwiches. Joseph opend the cabinet where they kept the food and picked out bread, cheese and ham. Noticing that they begun to ran out of food, he thought that he should go to the market and buy some more food. However, he begun to make the sandwiches.
"Joseph, what are you doing?" Marcia entered the room.
"I'm making breakfast." Joseph replied.
"You?" Marcia, who doubted her brother's cooking-skills, asked.
"Yes, me." Joseph said.
"By the way, I think that we are-"
"Running out of ingredients, I know." Joseph nodded.
"Do you want me to buy ingredients on the way to the Wizard Tower?" Marcia asked.
"No, I can do that later on." Joseph answerd.
"Are you sure?" Marcia said.
"Mar, I've lived alone for a while. I know how to buy things. Really." Joseph replied.
Marcia sighed. "I know, Jose." she said.
"Very well," Joseph continude, using the same tune as their mother used to have, "Go and dress up, Marcia. The breakfast is done in a moment."
His sister snickered, and went back to her bedroom to dress up.
They ate their breakfast in silence. Marcia seemed to be shocked over that Joseph had succeeded to make breakfast, and Joseph was proud to (for once) impress his sister. When Joseph was done, he rose up.
"I got to go." he said, and Marcia nodded.
"See you later." Marcia said, and Joseph went outside to take a boat to the Port (where he used to buy food and things like that, since it was cheaper than within the Castle). Joseph came just in time to get on the ferry. He hurried to take a seat, so that he wouldn't have to stand the whole journey. Once he had been forced to stand a fourty-minutes long journey, and that had been late in the autumn. When the boat had stopped, he almost had been paralized by the cold. But this time, Joseph enjoyed the boat-trip, which was unusual for him since he didn't like boats. At all.
"Quay 4, the Port." a voice announced, and Joseph rose up and quickly he went of the Boat. Quay 4 was a slum, practically. Illegal traders, thieves, darke practitioners and creatures... "Not a place you want your children to run around in." Joseph thought to himself, as he hurried out of the quay. As he got out of the slum-district, he could relax and walked slower. Now he finally could enjoy the surrondings. Despite from what most people did, Joseph loved the Port. He loved (most of) the intressting people there, and all the fascinating buildings. Suddenly, someone bumped into him. The person wailed and tried to rise up but didn't succeed. Joseph couldn't help, but help the fragile figure up.
"T-thank you." the person gasped in a strange accent. Joseph recognized the accent at once; the Eastern Snowplains.
"Wait!" he exclaimed, as the woman tried to run away.
"I'm sorry sir, but I don't have any time..." the woman replied. But Joseph refused to give up, and grabbed her red-brown cloak. The woman shrieked, as her hood fell of. Joseph widened his eyes. The hooded woman was no one more, but Cashmére Tanner.