Lifelines 2 - "Imprisoned"
Today had started like any other day. I woke up in the beaten up old house I was able to procure for us in Alexshire. It's a shabby old place to call home, but it's all I can afford for the moment. And hey, at least Keanu and I have that now. We've been essentially living on the road for the last two months. After mom died almost a year ago, I was advised to go to Hesia, that they'd take care of us there, but I won't let that orphanage anywhere near my baby brother. Especially not with how old he is now. It's bad enough that they took Mom's new born away before I could get back... They said that I wouldn't be able to take care of an infant. That my body wasn't developed enough yet.
Of course I wasn't developed enough yet. I was barely seventeen.
Being a half-nymph on your own isn't an easy thing to do. Thankfully Keanu was born without wings due to one of my mother's extra-marital relationships. However, the fact that mom was exiled from Nymph culture when I was what, eight? Meant that we no longer had any reliable ties in the nymph community. Spending the next eight years in Acheron's Fort wasn't so perfect, either. People didn't always respond well to half-breeds, especially when you're mother's an outcast and you look like an Anyeli but age so much faster than one. By the time I was sixteen I was already a teenager, whereas the other children I'd played with when we moved there
still looked (and acted!) like kids.
At sixteen mom sent my twin sister, Dora, and I off to her old commune in Evgenia. She said not to give our surname, to conceal our wings, and that they would not hold her banishment against us now. Dora resisted at first, but with our father already dead and the way the two of us aged so quickly... there was no guarantee that we would be able to make it in Anyeli training. I didn't resist at all because, of course, I wanted nothing more than to be exactly like my mother... except for the getting banished part. I admired her kindness and compassion, and idolized her command over water. I also deeply respected that she would stand up for what she knew to be right... even though it ended up in her losing everything she held dear.
Well, anyways she was right. The Naneth of Evgenia accepted us and allowed us to take on the rite of passage. But... a year into the rite... mother died in childbirth. A messenger was sent to find us and they eventually found me first after many, many days of searching. I had no choice but to prematurely end my rite in order to care for Keanu. By that time mother had already been buried according to Anyeli custom. Our home in the fort still remained and we lived there for a time... but neither Keanu nor I could stand the looks, or the pity. Also, being grey-winged made it extremely difficult to find work there, as most of the fort revolved around the soldiers living there. We were only lucky enough to have housing still as mother was the widow to an Apali soldier.
As the funds my family had saved dwindled, Keanu and I took our leave of the anyeli outpost. The peering eyes and judgmental looks were just too much to bear. It took a lot of traveling... but eventually we did end up at Hesia. It was beautiful, and people were helpful, but it was not where I wanted to be. Every night there I awoke from a nightmare that they had forced me to give up Keanu because it was "in my best interests." It was driving me crazy. Having still not heard from Dora I assumed that the messenger had stopped looking for her after he'd found me, and so I took Keanu and we headed toward New Alexandria through the portal.
It was so hard to find a job. The only things I could find that would hire me did not pay enough to feed, clothe, and house two people. Especially not a growing sidhe! I resorted to the only thing I knew I could sell to make enough... and then I stole whatever else I needed. It wasn't difficult after the first few months, I found, and New Alexandria allowed for plenty of customers and marks alike. But eventually the city guard started to notice me... probably because I managed to make off with a sack full of xanthos that belonged to one of the captains. The law men hold terrible grudges.
Without the funds, or the desire, to uproot Keanu and I once again and move to another place, I did the next best thing. I stopped hiding my wings and jumped through the portal to the Cloud Palace. There I could pull off the orphan-of-war routine and then when some kind-hearted fool pitied me enough to drop a xanthos or two I'd slyly make off with their entire purse. It might seem wrong, but you try living on a loaf of bread, and nothing else!, for a
week and then see what you'll be willing to do to make it stop.
Well, as I said, today had started off like any other day. I woke up, pulled together something to eat for Keanu, and then headed off to "work." Of course Keanu doesn't know what I do. He's barely twelve, he wouldn't understand. He knows enough to take care of himself during the day, and we get by just fine. With any luck he'll be able to head off on his rite of passage in four years and I'll be able to pull my life together. Anyways, I headed off to the portal to try and scrounge up enough to get through a few more days. I swear, not enough people carry around large sums of cash on their bodies, and jewelry is so much harder to swipe cleanly.
After I made it to the palace, I made it through a few people and was only able to swipe a poultry twenty-five xanthos. I decided to stop trying to get trainees, and go for someone who looked a little more... important. I spotted a skotadi general who looked vaguely familiar and headed up to him. A quick bump, "a thousand apologies" spiel, and then I started in explaining how I was "just trying to get to work, you see, I have five siblings to feed and make only five xanthos a day" and he seems to take it hook line and sinker. he reaches into a satchel and pulls out a couple coins and tosses them to me. I then do a stern assessment of how his bag's secured to his belt and discreetly follow him to the best of my ability.
Apparently I wasn't very discreet, as the moment I tried to snag his money and turned and grabbed my wrist.
“Five siblings, eh? More like five fingers!” he said, dragging me forward to a guard.
“You, there, take this pickpocket to a cell! That's an order!”
And so of course the guard did as he was told and I was dragged away to this dank, musty, ancient dungeon. I'm not really sure which tower I'm under, or if I even am under one, but if I am it's probably the tower controlled by the Skotadi, seeing as that's the faction I just censored. I really hope all those stories they used to tell us in Acheron when I was younger are
just stories. I would hate to have my body gnawed to bits by a horde of shadow carsers...
For now I guess I'm just waiting... I haven't been able to find an escape route just yet... Hopefully I'm not here for too long, because Keanu's waiting for me to come home. He needs me... I'm all he has left.
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