Awakening In The Trash Pile{My System is Cosmic Scavenger}

The Price of A Second

The silence after Marcus left was thick with the smell of waste and fury.

Kieran stood on shaky legs, the cracked crucible a cold, gritty weight in his hand. In the channel, Lars finally hauled himself out, vomiting onto the stones.

He shot Kieran a look of pure, unhinged hatred before stumbling away, dripping foulness, to follow his master.

Kieran knew he had about five minutes of grace. The time it would take for Lars to get to the baths, for Marcus to cool down from his rage and start planning. The beating he’d get if he was caught here would make the spirit-thorn whip feel like a memory.

He had to move.

Shoving the crucible into the large pocket of his work apron, he grabbed his hooked pole and shuffled away from the sluices, not toward the bunkhouse, but deeper into the service alleys. He needed a hole. Somewhere no one went.

He found it behind the abandoned tannery a collapsed lean-to of rotten timbers, half-buried in years of blown leaves and dirt. It was a tomb of neglect.