Volume I: Ant. Chapter 6: Innocence Gone:
With all their efforts, the siblings were barely holding by a thinning thread. Their sister did her absolute best to try and provide. But with her being the only one with a job, positive results that could make a difference were almost unrealistic.
Sometimes, things would get to a point where they were so low on food, their sister would force herself to fast so her siblings could eat and be less hungry. Sometimes she would go a day or two without food. Other times, she would simply give herself significantly smaller portions compared to what her younger siblings had. She had lost a lot of weight because of this. On top of that, this would lead to their sister suffering from pains in her stomach and lethargy.
Sophia and Lucius saw the extreme lengths she was going to for them and would regularly try to offer her food. They would also bring home snacks using the money they'd scrounge up so she could get something in her.
On top of food, there was the matter of the house. The siblings faced a very steep uphill battle to maintain their grip on the house. And their grip was starting to slip. The siblings had to resort to using certain tactics to prevent from using house resources and spend as little money as possible. One of the ways they would try to save money to keep this grip was to severely lessen the amount of times they used water. As a substitute, the siblings spent their money on big, inexpensive packs of water bottles. They used them for bathing themselves and washing their hands. They also set up a basin outside for rainwater as well so they didn't need to spend as much on water bottles.
Going through all of this and seeing her siblings go through it too drove Sophia mad. At this point, she was desperate and impatient. She was not going to wait until she turned 17 to get a paying job. At this rate, they wouldn't last long enough anyway. She felt she needed to do something now to make a difference and keep her family afloat before it was too late. She didn't want to see her sister have to starve herself for their sake. She didn't want to be forced to rely on water bottles and rainfall for basic necessities. She didn't want to keep going to bed the next day wondering how many more days they had left.
. . .
"Hey, Lu. You head home, okay?" Sophia told her brother. "I'll go look for some more money."
Lucius and Sophia, as usual, were traveling around the area trying to gather money. And as usual, Sophia was sending her brother home, presumably so she could steal any extra lien.
"Alright. Just-"
"Yeah, yeah. I know." She interrupted him. "'Be safe and don't stay out too long.' I don't know why you feel the need to remind me every time."
"I just worry, okay?" His voice was slightly irritated and apologetic.
"Well don't." She softened her voice a bit. "That won't do us any good."
"It's hard not to these days."
"I know." She said understandingly. "It's easier said than done."
Sophia could tell from his face there was a question on her brother's mind.
"What's on your mind, Lu?"
"Sophia, do you think we'll ever get out of here?" He sounded scared of the answer he might get.
Sophia didn't know how to answer at first. She didn't have a concrete answer for these uncertain times. So she said what she thought was the best, honest thing for her to say.
"I hope so." She told her younger brother.
Lucius didn't look too pleased with her answer. But he would silently accept it.
"I'm going to head home now." Lucius turned.
"Alright. I'll be home as soon as possible. I'll see you then!"
Lucius waved to his sister before running off in the direction of his home under the transitioning sky.
As she watched her brother disappear in the distance, Sophia wondered what she was going to do. Usually, in times like this, she would pick pockets and maybe steal from a stall or too in the market. But these days, it hardly made a difference
"What am I going to do?" She let out a long sigh. "Nothing's working anymore. Scrouging for lien, our sister's job, pickpocketing. It's just not enough anymore!" She put her hands in her pockets and kicked an empty tin can at the wall. "I thought I had Marcus to help us and things would be okay, but I lost him too. I need to find other ways fast."
With that, Sophia would begin to look around. She toured the area as she searched for a means of quick money in big amounts- or at least bigger than their usual. Sophia would eventually stumble across a bar. Through the window, she could see what looked like a group of people huddled together at a table in a back corner. It appeared they were playing a gambling game They all had cards in their hand. It seemed the game had just ended as one celebrated while others slammed their hand of cards to the table and forked over their lien. The amount of lien was what caught her eye the most as she watched the winner put a considerable amount in his pocket.
Seeing this, Sophia felt that maybe this could be her way of making big money fast and help her family. She had never gambled before, but she figured she'd learn as time went on. But there was a small feeling tugging Sophia back. She was hesitant. This reason was because of one big problem.
In Mistral, gambling is highly illegal and usually met with a harsh punishment if caught. But this has more than just to do with it being illegal and having harsh punishments. Gambling in the Mistral slums in particular can potentially open up and expose one to Mistral's criminal underground. Mistral has a very well-established criminal underground. And gambling was one of the primary ways these criminal organizations and networks such as the Mistral Black Market would get their funding. To try and combat organized crime in Mistral, the Mistralian Council banned and outlawed gambling throughout the kingdom. They shut down and raided multiple casinos that most of which turned out to indeed have connections to the Mistral Black Market. Once gambling was made illegal and these casinos were raided, it seemed that organized crime in Mistral drastically decreased. But in reality, they didn't go away. They just migrated deeper underground... where no one could notice them.
Due to the neglect the Mistral slums suffers, almost anything goes unnoticed down there. And rather than going away, the illegalization of gambling only pushed these criminal organizations to move operations to the slums. The outlawing of gambling was made to cripple criminal activity in Mistral, but all it did was turn its most vulnerable community into a magnet for organized crime. As a result, the slums would then become even more crime-ridden and dangerous as there was a massive spike in criminal activity. The slums became a cesspool for the Mistral Black Market to operate. And in turn, this increased gang activity as the Mistral Black Market would pit gangs against each other to conquer the area. In addition, they would then ally themselves with other gangs and set up proxy gangs that they would operate through and puppet. They were now deeply rooted with little to no chance of being noticed. And the Mistralian Council only made it easier for them. Organized crime in Mistral became more powerful than ever.
With all this in account, gambling is incredibly dangerous in Mistral, especially in the slums. It would be the equivalent to dipping a bleeding toe into shark-infested water.
As Sophia contemplated her next act, she was eventually able to put her thoughts away. She needed to help her family no matter the cost. And with that, she marched through the doors and headed directly to the table where the gamblers were.
"Hey, let me play." Sophia waved to the group as she approached their table.
One person looked up and eyed Sophia for a moment before speaking.
"This ain't a kid's game." He told her as he tried to blow her off.
"I have money." She flashed a wad of lien to them.
They all looked at the stack of lien. They then consulted with each other with unimpressed faces as they seemed to come to a consensus.
"Nah, not worth it. Now get lost." One person stated. They decided she didn't have enough money to entice them into letting her in.
They all turned back to their game, expecting her to leave. But instead, Sophia stepped up and planted her foot on the edge of the tabletop. She was not going to take no for an answer.
"That wasn't a request. Either you deal me in, or I'm kicking this damn table over!" She threatened.
"You've gotta be stupid if you think you'd do that without getting the shit kicked outta-"
Sophia then interrupted the man with a sudden kick to the bottom of the table. The impact made a loud bump, causing the cards to shift and the stacks of chips to tumble down.
"Hey! What're you doing?!" One woman at the table yelled.
"You really think I care what you do to me? Deal me in, or chips and cards go everywhere."
The players at the table exchanged looks with each other. It was as if they were having a silent conversation. All their expressions matched to one of agreement.
"Grab a chair..." The woman at the table told her as they relented.
"Thank you." Sophia grabbed a chair and sat down.
"By the way," The woman added. "If you tell anyone-"
"I won't." Sophia cut her off. "I know the law down here. Or lack thereof..." Sophia muttered that last part. She slightly caught the woman off-guard before she leaned back in her seat.
In Mistral, when it was still legal, you had to be at least 19 to legally gamble. Allowing people who were under the age to gamble was not only illegal, but also generally taboo. Even when it was made illegal, gamblers would still operate under the mentality of the gambling age law and refuse anyone under 19. But in the slums, the amount of money you had in your pocket and the ability to get your way was valued much more highly then the amount of years you have on your life. Down there, you can get and do almost anything for a price and no one will bat an eye. And it is not like authorities or any form of law enforcement will get involved. Most crimes in the Mistral Slums will go unnoticed anyway. This included huntsmen and huntresses too.
In Mistral, regarding law enforcement, the way things work is that law enforcement will send most reports up to the Mistral Council. The Mistral Council then posts the top priority ones down to the lowest priority ones for huntsmen and huntresses to look at and accept. Priority is usually based off both the urgency of the situation as well as how quickly the report gets to them. Huntsmen and huntresses that accept a mission then get stationed in those areas.
However, almost all crimes in the Mistral slums go unreported. This is partially due to corruption in law enforcement that are pressed under the thumb of the Mistral Black Market combined with Mistral's reporting system. This is why the area is so neglected and why the crime down there is practically invisible and flourishing. If the people in the slums had to voice their needs or problems, no one was ever going to hear it, let alone hear it in time. It was like screaming in a vacuum with a muffle.
Another thing, the speed at which reports reach the council all depend on the part of the kingdom you are in. The closer you are to the top in Mistral, the more likely your reports will be seen in a timely manner. Meanwhile for those in the slums, their reports never get seen because of how far down they are from the council. This means that it takes reports from the slums significantly longer to get to the council and pend before they are looked at. These reports spend most of the time in the back of the line of priorities and will usually gather dust before eventually being tossed. So if by the off chance a report slips through the cracks of corruption and the Mistral Black Market and does make it to the council, it usually gets tossed aside anyway because of how long it took to get there. And as a result, huntsmen and huntresses almost never get stationed in the slums. Seeing a huntsman or huntress in the Mistral slums is the equivalent to spotting a flying pig. The last time a huntsman was seen in the slums of Mistral was when Sophia was 5 years old. The slums were being terrorized by a Slit-Mouth, causing a sharp surge in missing persons cases and grimm attacks on the outskirts of the slums. A huntsman named Shiro Wan, who kept calling Shiro Han or Shiro Tan or Shiro Khan because she couldn't remember his name, took up the assignment and put a stop to it.
As a result, the slums get neglected as crime thrives as a business. And living normally is a constant, never-ending struggle and fight for survival. This is precisely why the Slums are nicknamed, 'Little Vacuo'. For those in the Mistral Slums, they have an old saying: "Down here, you're either invisible, nonexistent, or both."
. . .
Throughout the card game, Sophia struggled as she tried to pick up the rules. By the end of it, she was able to gain some grasp of it and leave with a decent amount of lien,. But it was nowhere near the amount she had seen that one man win before she entered. But still, Sophia felt she was short on options. She felt this was her best bet and would continue getting deeper into gambling to try and win money for her family. On top of this, Sophia had to make sure her family never found out.
To prevent this, Sophia devised a way to handle her gambling without ever being discovered. She would go home with the money she pickpocketed and put it in her and her brother's stash of loose lien she found earlier that day. Then, late at night, Sophia would sneak out of bed, which was not too difficult since her siblings are heavy sleepers, and swipe a portion of the pickpocketed money from their stash. Sophia would then use that amount for gambling.
Sophia was decent at it, but not great. However, she was decent enough to get results as she would usually come home with more money than she left with. She would then divide her money among two hiding spots. Sophia made sure the amount of money she put back in the stash was equal to the amount she took out so Lucius wouldn't get suspicious. The remainder would go into a new hiding spot that only Sophia would know about and had access to. Her ultimate goal was to make enough money to get them out of the slums for good.
Sophia wouldn't have too much difficulty keeping this up. Her older sister was too distracted with work to pay attention and her brother was never that difficult to sneak something under his nose. And on the weekends, Sophia and Lucius would head to the market with money from their shared stash along with a bit from Sophia's secret stash that she would sneak into her pocket when Lucius wasn't looking. They would then buy enough food and snacks and other things they needed, sometimes to the point they needed to use their shirts as pouches to carry.
Sophia had found a new way to keep her family sustained while slowly and gradually building money with her gambling to get them out of the slums, completely apathetic toward the legality of it. She was making a difference and that was all that mattered to her. Sophia would carry this on for months. But the following year, just days before their sister's 20th birthday, she would get found out by her brother.
Sophia was returning home late at night from one of her gambling expeditions. She quietly opened the front door and snuck in as she tried to gently close it as quietly as possible.
"Sophia?" Her brother called out from the stairs in a tired voice.
Sophia gasped from the slight startle her brother gave her. The 16-year-old whipped around as she hastily hid the sack of lien she won behind her back. There was a look of guilt spread across her face, highlighted by the dim light.
"You scared the shit outta me, Lu!" Sophia blurted. "What're you doing up?"
"Well, I woke up and saw you were gone, so I assumed you went to the bathroom." He answered her. "But then I heard the front door open and came down to check and saw you."
"Well now you know where I am." Sophia responded in a hurriedly dismissive voice. "Now go back to bed."
"Where were you?" Lucius ignored her and began to interrogate her.
"...What...?" Sophia did not have an answer prepared.
"You heard me."
"Nowhere." Sophia poorly lied.
"Then why are you coming in the house fully dressed as if you've just been somewhere?" Her brother began to descend the stairs.
"Is it wrong for a girl to get fresh air?" Sophia tried her best to dismiss him and took a step back. She instinctively turned her gaze away as she was backed against the door. The girl had nowhere to go as Lucius persisted.
"Where were you?" He asked again.
As he approached his sister, Lucius could see something on her face that caught his attention. A red mark on her face and her cheek was swollen. This prompted a sudden sense of urgency in him as he suddenly rushed her sister.
"What happened to your face?" Lucius questioned her with urgency.
"I... uh..." Sophia was caught by surprise by that and tried to turn her head away again. But Lucius simply turned it back so he could see, completely focused on her cheek instead of the sack of lien she was holding behind her back.
Sophia had gotten into an argument while she was out gambling, leading to her taking a punch to the cheek. She had forgotten all about it when Lucius found her entering the house.
"What happened?" Lucius continued. "Who hit you?"
"It's nothing..." She muttered. "Seriously."
Lucius didn't have any of it and gave a sigh. He dragged his older sister by her hand to the freezer, against her protests as she kept trying to dismiss it. He then put some ice cubes in a paper towel and stuffed them into a plastic bag and handed them to her as she pressed them against her face. The entire time, Sophia was still hiding the sack.
"Now tell me what happened." Lucius urged.
"I just got into a fight is all." She told him a half-truth.
"Well where were you and what were you doing that you ended up getting into a fight over?"
"Lu, we live in the damn slums!" She snapped at him. "You can be on your own front lawn minding your own business and you can get decked in the face for ending up in someone's line of sight. Now stop interrogating me!"
"Hey, I just wanna know why my own sister is coming home late at night looking like she just got punched in the face. Excuse me for caring!" Lucius was annoyed.
Sophia felt a sense of guilt for snapping at her little brother. She retracted herself a bit as she did not respond.
"What's behind your back?" Lucius spoke up as he finally noticed Sophia was hiding something.
"N-nothing!" Sophia stammered. She sounded like she had just been caught red-handed. She had a guilty look on her face. She also started to break a sweat, as well as break eye contact. For Sophia, these were the tell-tale signs of someone who had just been caught doing something they shouldn't have.
"Bullshit!" Lucius said. "Tell me now, Sophia. You're really worrying me."
Sophia, feeling the guilt of stressing and worrying her brother, someone she never wanted to cause to feel this way, eventually spoke up with a deep sigh.
"...Fine... Do you promise to keep it a secret...?" Sophia hesitated to say.
"Yeah, sure." Lucius lied as he just wanted to get his sister to talk.
With that, Sophia slowly pulled out the sack of lien and opened it for her brother to see. Lucius' eyes widened by how much she had on her. It wasn't a lot by any means, but it was much more compared to what they'd find on the street.
"Sophia, how did you get this much money?" Lucius asked with suspicion.
"I..." Sophia sighed. "Gambling... I've been gambling to win money..."
"Sophia...!" Lucius exhaled. His voice conveyed that of shock and disappointment.
"I need to keep us afloat, Lu. And nothing else we're doing is working." Sophia excused.
"Do you have any idea how illegal that is? And dangerous!? For starters, you're gambling with our money-"
"Actually I'm gambling with money I pickpocketed from other people..." Sophia muttered as she corrected.
"That doesn't make it any better!" Lucius told her with exasperation. "Even then, not only is it illegal and risking getting arrested, you're risking your life! You're putting yourself in danger!"
"You think I don't know that?" Sophia raised her voice slightly. She sounded almost resigned to the risks of what she was doing with little regard for the consequences.
This brought a silence between the two. Sophia rested her head in her hand and averted her gaze to an empty spot on the counter.
"Sophia, what's wrong?" Her brother asked with a concerned look.
The girl remained silent.
"Sophia..." He spoke up again. "If something is-"
"Everything is wrong, Lucius." For the first time ever, Sophia used her brother's full name. "And I'm trying to fix it."
"Well, you're not." He told her bluntly. "This is incredibly reckless and you're going to get yourself into trouble if not killed."
"Lucius, I know it's reckless," Sophia looked back up to her brother. "...but what other choice do I have? I'm too young to get a paying job and so are you and I'm not going to wait until my sister is a walking skeleton to start making money legally. Face it, Lu! We're struggling… and we're dangerously close to sinking. And my gambling is preventing that by keeping us sustained. I'm making sure that we don't sink. On top of that, I want to get us out of here! And as for my safety, I don't give a damn about my safety! Our own sister is starving herself on a regular basis just so we could eat the meals she makes with the money that she makes that is barely even enough to keep us above water. Meanwhile, what are we doing? We can scrounge day and night for lien and we won't get anything out of it to make a difference. It practically does nothing now. So that's why I chose to do something that will actually make a difference in this family. I've been chased down, physically assaulted, and even shot at for the sake of this family. And I'm not sorry for having the guts to do what I can for us. I'm not stopping, Lu... and I'm not apologizing either!"
"Sophia, please." Her brother pleaded. "I don't wanna bury you, too."
"...No." Sophia rejected. "I can't do that. We need this. I just want things to get better. I need to keep us sustained this way. Just for the time being."
Lucius looked at his older sister with disappointed and concerned eyes.
"Fine..." He stood up. "If I can't get through to you, maybe she will." Lucius gestured his head to the stairs, indicating he was referring to their oldest sister.
"Lucius, don't you dare!" Sophia told him with desperation.
"Why shouldn't I? She's the only one who'll get through to you before it's too late." He began to make his way to the stairs.
"Because if you really cared about this family, you won't say a damn thing!" Sophia desperately told him. To get him to stop, Sophia aimed to guilt trip him.
"Excuse me?" Lucius stopped in his tracks before he even placed a foot on the stairs. He turned around to face his sister. "What's that supposed to mean?"
In an act of desperation to not get found out by her sister, who would definitely take a harder approach, Sophia did something she knew would work on him. But she also knew it would be something she would regret.
"When you go up to tell her what I'm doing for us, take a good long look at her. Look at how thin she's gotten. Our sister's deprived herself of basic essentials just to make sure we're okay. She's suffering and puts herself through a lot for our sake. And you're just gonna let that continue? You're gonna let all of this continue? The struggling? The suffering...?"
"Sophia, don't you dare do that to me." Her brother pleaded as his words and tone hit her right in the heart.
But she continued anyway.
"Lucius, if you tell her, we'll go back to sinking if she makes me stop. And we'll be under in no time before I can even get an actual job. You're going to make us struggle more than we need to, you know. More than that, you're going to sink us if you carry this through. Despite the risks it has, it's keeping us afloat. And I know you're now aware of that. But you don't seem to care about that, do you?"
"Sophia..." He muttered as if he wanted her to stop. Lucius was aware of what Sophia was trying to do.
"Do you want to keep seeing your sister starve herself and complain about her stomach hurting everyday? Do you want to see her like that?"
"Sophia." He repeated with a bit more emphasis.
"I'm the main reason we haven't sunk, you know. Do you really want to make things harder for us, when I've gone through so much for us? I've put myself through stuff like this," She gestures to the welt on her cheek. "...and then some to help us. And you just wanna go and undo all of that? Do you really want to make everything I've done for us and put myself through for us to amount to nothing? Do you have any idea how much that will hurt us? How much you will hurt us? What kind of brother-?"
"Sophia!" Lucius had had enough as he shouted at her. "Shut... up! Just shut up."
Lucius' voice broke. In response to Sophia's attempted manipulation, he couldn't help but feel a sense of both deep anger and betrayal. His expression was filled with defeat.
"Sophia, I understand you want to help. And I understand we're not in the best position right now. I really do. I get scared just thinking of the very real possibility of things getting worse. And as your brother, I'm worried for us. I'm worried for you. I'm scared, Sophia. Everyday, every minute, I'm scared. And I don't know what to do."
Upon hearing that, Sophia tried to approach her brother.
"Lu..." Her arms were open as she was intending to comfort him. But Lucius stepped back.
"But what you just tried;" He continued. "...you don't do that! I don't care how badly you want to help out, you do not do that! Especially not with your family. Genuinely, fuck you for even trying that on me." Every word stung her heart. "You don't want me to tell her? Fine. I'll give you what you want. I won't say a word. I trust you to keep yourself alive. But she's going to find out regardless. And when she does, you're on your own. You got that?"
Sophia's attempts to stop her brother worked... to an extent. However, it came with a price. Sophia essentially put her relationship with her brother on bad terms. She knew he was in a vulnerable state mentally and emotionally. They all were. But the fact she even tried anyway deeply wounded him. Lucius felt betrayed.
The boy stormed up the stairs, his footsteps disappearing rather quickly. She knew full well what she did and as she predicted, she immediately regretted it. But she saw it as a necessary evil to continue to provide for her family the most effective way she knew how that was available. Even if it meant they hated her for it, Sophia was willing to go low to keep them up.
Sophia felt a heavy sense of guilt perch on her shoulders. The girl moved back to the kitchen counter and sat herself on one of the chairs. Her chin rested in her hand. Sitting beside Sophia was a small picture frame about the size of her palm. Within it was a photo of her and her siblings when they were small. Ages 4, 6, and 8. Noticing it, Sophia turned her head and grabbed the picture. Her eyes rested on the image with a longing expression. Sophia would then proceed to take the picture out and slip it into her shirt.
The girl wished they could all return to that time. A time where they were small and innocent. A time where things didn't make sense, but that was okay.
But now, she was no longer small or innocent. Things still didn't make sense. And it was no longer okay.
**Chapter End**
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Hey, everyone!
We are almost done with Sophia's backstory! We only have a little bit more to go. Next chapter is going to probably be the biggest one of this backstory and will basically be the rising action.
As for this chapter, this one was basically a bit of an exposition dump. In this one, we learn about Mistral's politics and policies. One of the purposes of this chapter was to show why the slums were so infested with crime and take a peek at how dangerous the slums really can be. On top of that, it also explains why huntsmen and huntresses aren't seen as much in the slums. And we also learn about the combination of corruption and the Black Market dictating down there plus the neglect from the Mistral council that make the slums the way they are. This is basically meant to explain the "Why?" and "How?" for the slums' climate.
On top of that, this chapter is also meant to show the mental and emotional toll everything is taking on the siblings and how it affects each of them. With this, we see that the oldest sister is just getting worn down, especially physically, with the measures she takes to make sure her younger siblings can keep going. Lucius is just scared and confused and doesn't know what to do anymore. And Sophia is desperate and is treading in dangerous waters to try and fix things. And in turn, she's even willing to jeopardize her relationship with her family to reach her goal of getting them out of the slums. Overall their situation combined with the weight of the death of their mother and getting abandoned by their father is taking a toll on everyone. On top of that, for Sophia personally, losing Marcus hit Sophia pretty hard as he was the only person who could make her forget about how things were currently. She basically lost her only form of escape.
On top of this, focusing on Sophia a bit more, constantly losing people in her life in some shape or form such as her mother's death, her father leaving, and Marcus disappearing, has put her in a bad mental state. And she's bottling up. And in the next chapter, it's all going to blow up.
Anyway, with that said, the next part will be a bigger one and I'll start working on that one soon.
Fun fact #23: The small mention of Shiro Wan killing a slit-mouth was the same story I mentioned in the grimm profile I wrote on the slit-mouth way back in chapter 7 of this fanfiction.