Kira woke up to an unsettling emptiness. The fire had died down to embers, casting faint shadows on the walls. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, realizing the boys weren't around. A mix of unease and curiosity crept in. Where had they gone?
She crawled out from the heap of torn rugs, her feet touching the cold floor. Kira's stomach growled softly, reminding her of yesterday's sparse meal. Wrapping a torn rug around thin clothes, she rose and padded quietly through the dim house.
Stepping outside into the crisp air, Kira saw them. Sapphire, Kealor, Nirro, and Lucian were trudging back, looking like they'd done something clandestine. Their expressions were guarded, but there was a hint of accomplishment mingled with weariness.
As they drew closer, Kira saw bits of food wrapped in clothes they carried – scanty pickings, but enough to eat. Sapphire noticed Kira watching and gave a small nod.
"We weren't gone long," Sapphire said, handing Kira a bit of stale bread and some cold cooked greens from their haul. "Not much, but we ate some on the way."
Lucian hung back slightly, his eyes flicking to Kira before turning away. His distance felt like a wall she'd bumped into before.
Kealor, meanwhile, slipped past them into the house with a gleam in his eye. "I'm gonna check out this dump's crazy old stuff," he said, vanishing inside like a kid in a treasure cave.
After eating quietly with Sapphire and Nirro – who handed her food with a silent gentleness that spoke volumes about his care without him saying a word – Kira found herself beside Sapphire on a worn couch.
"Kira, did you have some you knew before we met ," Sapphire asked, Kira's heart aches, her voice low. "My mummy."
"You have a mother!" Kealor echoed from on of the rooms ,where stacked of junks were
Sapphire eyes widened slightly. "You're not an orphan"
Kira curiously asked. "What is an orphan"
Sapphire stumbled on his words he didn't know how to explain, but Lucian was faster than him.
" Someone whose parents are dead"
"Lucian!"
"what?, she asked, I answered, there won't have been a better way to say it"
With a hopeless sigh he turned his attention back to kira but was shocked to see tears already flowing down kiras face. he hurried to explain, "Ignore what he said, you mother is not going to die"
"Mother is sick, would she die?, I want to go home" Kira cried profusely, Sapphire was at a lose for word he could only console and calm her down with a promise that they would take her home_ where could they even start, does she know her home all they could do was give her words of hope.
Nirro sat beside Kira, quiet. when she had finally stop crying he tapped her head and offered her some water to liviate her hiccups.
Lucian stood apart, near a shadowy corner. His expression was shuttered, unreadable like stone, but there were whispers of tension in how he held himself – like he guarded secrets heavier than the air itself. His eyes flickered inward sometimes, as if recalling things he'd rather forget.
Inside one the rooms, Kealor was skimming through aged, mysterious items – old books with strange symbols, dusty trinkets, a weird clockwork thing with broken gears. He loved junk digging; his grin grew as he flipped pages of a leather-bound book filled with sketches of odd contraptions and foreign diagrams.
"Guys, check this out!" Kealor called, there were item he couldn't get understanding of but nonetheless he seemed eager to dive into the house's curios except Nirro, who after a while silently appeared beside Kealor, examining a peculiar box with carvings. Nirro's face showed intrigue without him uttering a sound; he reached out carefully to touch the box's shimmery patterns, he traced the pattern and the boxs mechanism began to operate, the sound of gears shifting was heard before anything else could happen Nirro took the box and left to another room.
Lucian didn't move toward Kealor's finds. He stayed peripheral, like he orbited their group at a remove. "I'm gonna go check elsewhere," he said abruptly, low-voiced, slipping out into a room adjacent theirs without looking back.
Kira watched Lucian go with a sense of him being unreachable – like he bore weights he wouldn't share. Sapphire seemed to notice Kira's gaze and spoke softly, "Lucian...keeps to himself most of the time but he will come around."
The night closed in subtly as they settled into sparse comforts of their temporary shelter. Kealor kept muttering about "awesome junk" he'd found. Nirro's quiet actions kept conveying his watchfulness. And Lucian remained an enigma outside, darkness swallowing his distant form.
The crumbling house had become a patchwork shelter and home for Kira. Six months had woven threads of routine – except for Lucian, whose distance remained like an unbridgeable gulf, especially toward Kira. He spoke rarely to her; when he did, dismissal tinged his harsh tone like an unspoken rebuke.
Sapphire, meanwhile, had taken Kira under her wing, teaching her urban tricks – how to dance fingers into pockets for scant coins, how to blend into markets for gleanings and when they get caught in order to escape. Kira learned fast, sometimes staying at the shelter digging through dusty items with Kealor's manic enthusiasm, other times venturing bushward with Nirro's silent watchfulness to gather odd plants. On heists, Kira often paired with Nirro on lookout; Lucian kept apart, cooperating minimally, his motives inscrutable.
Some day, they decided to sell some items they found in their shelter – trinkets, curious contraptions – for coins. Kealor loved haggling; Sapphire handled deals warily. It brought them money… but drew unwanted eyes. Especially one gaze in particular – a man with smooth gestures, eyes that lingered too long. his dressing signifying his dealings in dark goods and Kira just happen to be the fruit fallen from the tree.
He approached Kira with feigned kindness; before he spoke much else, Sapphire stepped fluidly, hands guiding Kira behind him.
"Good day sir, my sister doesn't need your help, we can do just fine" Suspicion hardened Sapphire's face.
The man sensed it, raised hands in mock surrender and backed off.
"who is that" Kealor asked, munching on food
"i don't know. Kira do you him? " Sapphire inquired, to which Kira shook her head saying no.
"huh" Sapphire said, looking in the direction the man went.
"Is something wrong" Kealor asked.
"He seemed weird," Sapphire said afterward, shrugging it off. Kealor laughed it away. Lucian said nothing. Nirro watched quietly.
They went on with their day with this accident behind their mind, Unknown of the shadow trailing them
The same man from before was keeping tabs, tracking them covertly until they entered an alley shortcut leading home. He followed to the alley's maw – but they vanished. Dead end greeted him; bewilderment flickered. How did they disappear?
A plan formed: strike before they reach safety next time. He acted. At the market, there are many clusters of people today unlike any other day. Kira was buying something from a nearby stall, unknown to the hidden danger apparent, Just before she could escape his site he kidnapped her, thinking unseen… but Kealor saw. Breathless, Kealor found Sapphire, Nirro, Lucian. "He took Kira!"
Without questions asked, Sapphire told Kealor show them according to him, he followed the some distance before going back to tell then
Kealor led them tracking-distance; halted frustrated. "Lost 'em." Sapphire, Nirro scoured ground for prints. Lucian diverged – others puzzled, asked what drove him, but trailed because splitting felt riskier.
Lucian stopped abruptly, finger extended stark. "There." They followed gaze: smoke coiled, brightness licked surroundings – campfire, brutish men around… cage. Kealor's voice low-pointed: "its him." The kidnapper.
Kira lay bound hands-legs, ropes cruel, unconscious near cage. The man dropped her carelessly.
"huge prize," he told cohorts. "Sell her high. Got plans."
"Secure?"
"Yeah. Night watch split. so she can escape."
"escape, who thinks we are? against all of us"
"yeah you joke"
the cohorts said to the man but all he did was chuckle. Sapphire, Nirro, Kealor exchanged shocked looks – rescue glimmered… then they heard the men cold commerce.
"…part of big deal… flesh trade…"
"…children… buyers want…"
Traffickers. The boys realized stunned – they hadn't known.
Lucian… didn't want in on rescue initially. Others did; he joined begrudgingly.
Plan hatched in whispers: free Kira under night cover. Almost worked… but traffickers had baited trap. They caught the boys – slippery fighters met power-users among captors. Before Sapphire fell, she cut Kira's binds. "Run!"
Kira fled.