5 The Silent Girl and the City of Shadows
The face in the mirror haunted him.
For days, Rimo was jumpier than usual, flinching at sudden movements and avoiding reflective surfaces. He'd catch himself staring at his own hands, wondering who else they belonged to. The incident with Liam had been a shock, but it was external. This was an invasion from within, a crack in the very foundation of who he thought he was.
Kai, of course, noticed. "You look like you've seen a ghost," he commented one evening as they lay in their cots.
More like a ghost lives in my head, Rimo thought, but he just shook his head. "Bad dream."
Kai accepted the lie with a shrug. "Well, I've got a cure for that. An adventure."
Rimo sat up, intrigued despite his unease. "What kind of adventure?"
"The kind that puts food in our bellies and coin in Elara's donation box," Kai said, his grin visible in the moonlight. "The orphanage funds are low again. Time for a visit to Govana."
Rimo's stomach twisted. "Stealing? But... we'll get caught."
"Not us," Kai said with utter confidence. "We're ghosts. We slip in, lighten a few overstuffed purses, and slip out. We don't take from anyone who can't afford it. Just the merchants who price-gouge and the nobles who drop more on a bottle of wine than we see in a year. It's not stealing; it's... redistribution."
The logic was shaky, but the intent—to help the only home he knew—resonated with Rimo. The guilt was still there, but it was overshadowed by a newfound sense of purpose. He nodded. "Okay."
Govana was a shock to the senses. After the quiet of Sunhaven, the city was a roaring beast of noise, smell, and movement. Streets teemed with people, carts rattled over cobblestones, and vendors shouted their wares. The air was thick with the scent of roasting meat, spices, and the underlying tang of sewage and despair.
Kai moved through the chaos like a fish through water, his dark eyes constantly scanning. Rimo, however, felt his instincts screaming. Every crowded corner was a potential ambush, every shouted word a possible threat. He had to consciously slow his breathing, forcing his body not to react to every stimulus.
"See that guy?" Kai whispered, nodding toward a merchant in rich silks who was berating a young street urchin for getting too close to his rug display. "Perfect target. Watch this."
Kai muttered a few words and made a subtle gesture with his fingers. A small, shimmering illusion of a gold coin appeared on the ground a few feet away from the merchant. As the merchant's avaricious eyes caught the glint and he bent to investigate, Kai's hand darted into the man's coin purse and emerged with a few silver marks. It was seamless.
"See? He won't even miss it," Kai said, pocketing the coins with a satisfied smirk.
They continued, a two-boy shadow team. Kai created distractions with minor illusions—a dropped basket, a phantom shout—while Rimo, with his unnaturally light steps and precise movements, did the actual lifting. His fingers were like whispers, dipping into pockets and pouches without a trace. It was a different application of the same instinct that had disarmed Liam, and it felt disturbingly natural.
As they turned down a quieter side street, Rimo froze. A girl was standing alone, staring intently at a noticeboard nailed to a wall. She was about their age, with dark hair pulled into a messy braid and clothes that had been mended one too many times. But it wasn't her poverty that caught Rimo's attention; it was her posture. She stood perfectly still, her fists clenched at her sides, her entire being radiating a cold, silent fury that was palpable.
Kai followed his gaze. "What's she looking at?"
They moved closer. The noticeboard was filled with scrawled advertisements and official decrees. The girl was focused on a freshly posted wanted poster. It depicted a rough sketch of a man with a scarred face and a cruel smile. The text beneath it read: 'BORYS THE BLADE - WANTED FOR BANDITRY, ARSON, AND MURDER. 100 GOLD CROWNS REWARD.'
The girl didn't move, her eyes burning a hole through the paper.
"Tough break," Kai said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "You know him?"
The girl didn't look at them. Her voice, when it came, was low and flat, devoid of emotion. "He murdered my parents. Two months ago. On the road to Oakhaven."
The air went out of the alley. Kai's smirk vanished. Rimo felt a cold knot form in his stomach, a sympathy that was sharp and immediate.
"I'm... I'm sorry," Rimo said, the words feeling inadequate.
Finally, the girl turned to look at them. Her eyes were a startlingly clear gray, like a winter sky, and they held an intelligence that seemed to see right through them. They scanned Kai, then settled on Rimo. Her gaze was unnervingly analytical.
"You move like a soldier," she stated, her voice still quiet. "Every step is balanced, your center of gravity never shifts. You're always ready." Her gray eyes lifted to meet his. "But your eyes are like a lost child's."
The observation was so accurate, so piercing, that it stole Rimo's breath. It was the truth of his existence laid bare by a stranger in a dusty alley.
"I... I don't remember," he managed, his standard defense feeling weaker than ever.
The girl—Athena—simply nodded, as if this confirmed something. "The world is full of people who would rather we forget. It's why I remember everything."
Kai, recovering his composure, stepped in. "You got anywhere to go?"
Athena shook her head, her gaze returning to the wanted poster with a final, chilling intensity. "No."
"Then you're coming with us," Kai declared, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Sunhaven Orphanage. It's not much, but it's safe. And the head sister, Elara, she's... she's good."
Athena considered them for a long moment, then gave a single, sharp nod. "Alright."
Their trio now complete, they turned to leave the city. But as they approached the main gate, trouble found them. A city guard, his helmet askew and his expression bored, decided they looked suspicious.
"You three! Halt! What's your business in the city?" he grumbled, stepping into their path.
Kai began to stammer an excuse about visiting relatives, but the guard wasn't buying it. His eyes narrowed on their shabby clothes. "Let's see your pockets."
Panic flared in Rimo's chest. They were caught. The coins felt like lead weights in his pouch.
But then, the cold clarity washed over him. Not the full blackout, not the voice, but the instinctual map of survival unfolding in his mind.
Guard is lazy, not vigilant. His partner is fifty paces away, distracted by a fruit cart. The alley to the left isn't a dead end; it connects to the tanner's district through a break in the wall behind the dye vats. The smell will cover our scent.
The knowledge appeared, whole and unquestionable.
"Run! Left, now!" Rimo hissed, shoving Kai and Athena forward.
He didn't wait to see if they followed. He plunged into the narrow, reeking alley, his feet sure on the slippery cobbles. He heard the guard's shout and the pounding of boots behind them, but Rimo didn't falter. He took a hard right, then a left, ducked under a low-hanging beam, and shoved aside a loose board in a wooden fence, revealing the stinking vats of the tanner's yard. They scrambled through, the overwhelming stench of chemicals and rot making their eyes water.
When they emerged on the other side, they were outside the city walls, the main gate a distant sight. The sounds of pursuit had faded.
Kai bent over, hands on his knees, gasping. "Spirits above... how did you know that path?"
Athena was watching Rimo, her gray eyes wide, not with fear, but with intense curiosity. She was barely winded.
Rimo looked back at the towering walls of Govana, then at his own hands. The question echoed in the silent void of his memory, louder and more terrifying than any guard's shout.
How did I know that path?