Chapter 4: The Shadows

Valkyrie stretched her coins as long as she could but it wasn’t long before she had to start begging on the street corner. Her first day she managed to collect a full twelve drets. Val scampered back to her growing nest and added the coins to her leather pouch which she hid under a board pressed against one of the metal walls. She had fortified her little home after she had to move away from her mother’s body due to the smell.

Now her nest was in the deepest shadows of the ally, still within sight of her mother. She had dragged over more pallets and made a full wall out of them laid on top of each other. Even if a strong wind came, she didn’t think it would be able to defeat her fortress.

 Valkyrie had managed to find a large canvas a painter had tossed in the garbage and happily brought it home, dropping it over her fort and then stacking more pallets on top. Every day, the local factories would toss out several pallets and she would gladly collect one at a time and drag it to her fort, expanding it a bit more each time.

She now had a sleeping room, which was large enough for her tiny frame and the two coats she had found. One had a large hole in it, but it made for a decent pillow. She had also set up another room where she could watch the street, weary of any one finding her.

On her next venture to the street corner, a group of kids spotted her. She was elated to find some friends her own age.

A larger boy of about ten had paints that were a size too big and had grimy brown hair. He rammed his thin finger into her shoulder. “Hey, what do you think you are doing? This is our corner.”

“Your… corner?”

“Yea, this area. It’s ours. We claimed rights to this corner.”

“I am just looking for some coin,” Val said. “I don’t want to be in your way.”

“Any coin earned here comes with a fee. Pay the fee or piss off.”

“Fee?” Val asked.

“That’s right. 50% of anything you earn. And we expect you to earn. A sad little girl like you ought to be bringing in a good Dret or twenty.”

The other kids stood behind their chosen leader with their arms crossed.

“Percent?” Val wasn’t sure she knew how to factor precents. If people were going to ask her about such things, perhaps she needed to find out about it.

“Half you twit. Half of what you make is ours. Consider it rent.” The boy continued. Then under his breath he said, “shoulda said 80% and she woulda believed it.” Louder he said, “the guild wants their cut from us, so we need a cut from you.”

Val wondered if she could get away with not paying but figured it would not be good to challenge these four. They were each several inches taller than her, including the girl in the back. Val had not noticed her before, being preoccupied with the boy in front of her. the girl looked to be a year or two older than herself, and had her black hair tied in two braids down her back.

Val considered that if they let girls into their gang, perhaps it would be better to try to become a member. “I only have two drets today.” She offered.

The boy snatched them both. “We will be back later to settle up for the day. You had better earn more than this!”

Val pouted as she watched the kids run off to another street corner, weaving through the crowds. Val gawked as she saw the girl bump into a man in a suit and come away with a pouch. The girl noticed Val watching her and flashed a grin while holding up the coin purse, then turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Val was curious about this method of ‘earning’. It seemed the other kids felt it fine to simply take from others. Her mother had never had reason to address such, but instead has spent her days giving to those poor in the city not far from their mansion. Now, Val was one of those kids and her mother was not going to be coming around with food and small coins for her like she had the poor. She decided that it would be best to not follow the kids lead and continue letting people choose to give to her.

Her young mind turned over the word ‘earn’. She wondered what it would take to actually earn coin instead of just standing on the corner begging.

Val began wandering down the road, exploring the shops as she peeked into windows. While doing so would cost her time and likely a decent bit of coin she might collect, she had enough stashed that she could still eat for a few days. Besides, if those kids came back, she could honestly tell them she had not collected more coin. Val approached a large building made out of white marble with wide steps. Across the top were several letters.

LIBRARY

Val stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out the card she had found on her mother. The letters matched! Val hurried up the stairs and walked into the huge building. Inside, it was like walking into a fairytale. Tall shelves fanned out in every direction. In the middle of the room there was a broad open area with a circular desk. Val spotted a white-haired lady with thick glasses sitting behind the desk reading from a thick tome.

Val wandered up to the desk, her eyes barely coming to the edge. The elderly librarian peered over the rims of her glasses. “Can I help you, dear?”

“I… can I have a book?”

“Depends. Do you have a library card?”

Val reached up and slid her mother’s card across the desk.

“I see. Do you have a book in mind?”

“Ummm. Do you have a book about how to earn coins?”

“Earn coins? I suppose we do. Are you sure you don’t want a picture book or one of our princess adventures?”

“No ma’am… not… not this time. I really need to learn to earn drets.”

“I see well, let me see what we have. Just a moment.”

The librarian disappeared into the depts of the stacks of books, returning a short time while with a handful of books. “Here we are. Annabell’s lemonade stand, Katies Dog walking, and Emma the baker.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Umm, may I read in here?”

The woman took a look at her again, and Val realized her clothes were dirty and bloodstained.

“Well, card or not, you will not be taking a book out of here, not looking like that. where are your parents anyway?”

Val hung her head fearing she would not be able to read here at all.

“I see, one of those. Well, dear. I would prefer it if you found some clean clothes before coming in here. Don’t take this the wrong way, but while you have a card, I don’t think you are in a good condition to take care of my books out there,” she indicated the street behind Val.

“Because you have a card, I will be happy to let you read in here any time you like. I do ask that you wash up when you come in though. Perhaps we can find you a change of clothes if you are going to come in here regular?” She said with pursed lips. “Perhaps visit the washroom over there.” She indicated a door to her left.

“When you are done washing, we have a reading section right over there.” She pointed to a wide bay window with several cushions.

Val ran to the washroom and marveled at the running water. It had been days, maybe weeks at this point since she had last had a shower in anything other than the rain.

When she was finished and had dried her hands, Val carried the heavy stack over to the window and set them next to the sill. She hopped up onto the cushion and fished up her first book. The hard cover filled her lap as she began to read the words around the pictures.

A while later, Val slid her books one at a time back onto the desk. The librarian looked down at her in surprise. “Not to your liking dear?”

“No Ma’am. I actually learned a lot. I am already done.”

“Done, but you only just… ok then. Do you want some more books?”

“Possibly tomorrow! I need to try some of these out. Do you know how much sugar and lemon costs?”

“Sugar and lemons? For a lemonade stand? Well dear, lemons are a winter crop. They can still be found up in the upper city but down here… It would be very expensive. You might get three lemons for a dret, dear. If you plan to have a stand, you will likely need a whole basket of lemons. I think my recipe calls for fifteen. So you would need at least five Drets. Likely another dret for sugar. Then you need clean water.”

“So much?” Val asked in dismay. Six drets just on supplies? Earning coin sure required a lot of coin.

“Well, that should make you about sixteen cups if you are charging a dret a cup, then you could earn ten dret after your expenses,” the nice lady offered.

She paused before saying, “There is always a chance you will find a merchant down by the docks bringing in fresh wares who might be trying to sell out of season fruit from somewhere else. You should check market street. It is just two blocks west and goes all the way to the docks. Merchants set up there every day with various things they have imported.”

Val thanked the librarian and made her way back out onto the street. This market street was farther than she had ventured from her little fort home, but if it was only two more blocks it might be worth it. Val joined the throng of people and slipped between bodies as she made her way in the direction the librarian had indicated.

When she turned the corner, she panicked and hid behind the corner of a shop. This street was filled with people, carts, and loud merchants shouting to get customers’ attention. The noise was defining but that was the least of Val’s fears.

Weaving through the crowds were many of the shadow creatures! They seemed to be drawn to this crowd of oblivious people. As she watched the street, two shadow creatures each grabbed a big man. The two men spun and faced each other with anger clouding their faces.

Before Val knew what was happening, one man slugged the other in the face, nearly driving him to the ground! As the other man staggered back to his feet, a small crowd began to circle the men, jeering and hollering for more violence. The scene seemed to attract more of the shadow creatures who each took up position behind some of the angrier bystanders.

Were these creatures influencing the people to be more violent?

Another shadow suddenly passed by where she crouched, its vaporous hand sliding up her back and across her scalp as it brushed past. Red hot anger like nothing she had felt before surged through her at the touch. The shadow didn’t even seem to realize it had touched her, drawn as it was to the fight.

Val withdrew her blade dagger. As her hand gripped the blade, red outlined the shadow creatures all around her. The one just inches away had a red circle near its middle and a line across its neck

Val lunged from her hiding spot and stabbed at the creature’s middle, slashing up and across the back of its neck as she had with the last one. Its head tipped back in silent agony as its form was absorbed into the blade. The runes glowed bright and as the last of the vapor was absorbed, letters scrolled across her vision.

[ Lurker wrath: second encounter. ]

[ Analysis: Minimal Plasma. 1 unit ]

[ Role: Watcher, influencer. ]

[ Thread: Minimal direct threat, significant threat from secondary attacks by influenced beings ]

Hu. Well that explains a thing or two. Val thought. She wondered if she could free the people being influenced but thought that a small girl wielding a dagger might be more attention than she wanted. As it was, she was lucky no one had been paying attention to her.

To her horror, when she looked back around the corner, the shadow creatures seemed to be in a mad frenzy, looking all around them and traveling in pairs. The fight they had provoked had broken up with the arrival of a city guard and people were returning to their normal lives. Had the Shadow’s heard the silent scream of her victim?

To Val’s relief, it wasn’t long before the shadows dispersed, seeming to want to avoid this area for a time.