The Forgotten Wife

Introduction

Opening Chapter - Introduction.

My Father once told me long ago that The Underground City was located under the Capital, he use to read books to me about it when I was young. He told me that the Capital was called Mitra, it's the area of land surrounded by Wall Sina. But I'm not really sure because I've never seen or visited the upper world, I was born in The Underground City. I've only ever read about the upper world in books and the books down here aren't very helpful, they were basically falling apart from their book spines.   

My parents Brock and Amelia Faith were born in the Karanese District, they had fled to The Underground City after my Father had gotten into trouble with some merchants over missing food and medicine. They had accused him of selling medicine to the poor citizens of The Underground City for affordable prices and giving food away to the homeless on the streets. He denied their claims and fled with my Mother to The Underground City before the Military Police got involved, it was the only option he had to protect his wife. My Father was a kind man, he hated seeing people suffer which made him innocent in my eyes. My parents had settled down in The Underground City, they had managed to get steady jobs in a tavern called The Red Rat in the East part of City. My Mother helped out in the kitchen and my Father became the barkeeper of the tavern, they basically ran the tavern for the old Landlord in the end. My parents lived in the upstairs quarters of the tavern with the old Landlord James Smith, they quickly became a firm family unit. My Mother became quite fond of the old Landlord over the years, she thought of him as her Father. He became my adoptive Grandfather in the end, he taught me how to play cards and chess.  He was a jolly old soul, he told me many stories about the upper world and the Titans that roamed beyond the walls.

My Mother wasn't too pleased about the stories he had told me about the Titans though, I had accidentally stumbled across some stretches of Titans in a book when I was a child.  They looked like gaint people with horrible grins and big feet, the pictures of them had given me nightmares for months. But those memories soon fated, there were far more worser monsters down here in The Underground City.  Thugs and merchants mainly used the tavern for their dodgy dealings, but the Landlord didn't seem to mind because this was the way he had made his living for years. But this was the normal way down here in The Underground City, this place was full of criminals and murderers. There were gangs of thugs who preyed on the weak, they forced families onto the streets and most of the merchants were untrustworthy. Poverty wasn't a rare thing down here, there were fatal diseases and prostitutes in most parts of the City. 

One year later after my parents had fled to The Underground City I was born, they named me Lorna Maria Faith. My life was pretty good at the tavern, I had a normal upbringing and I was educated by Mother. When I turned fifteen I started helping my Mother out in the kitchen, I also helped to keep the tavern clean and serviced some of the meals to the customers when it got busy. On the odd occasion I wasn't allowed to leave the upstairs quarters, that normally meant dodgy dealings were going on or the tavern was closed for the evening because the Landlord was expecting visitors. I use to sneak from my room and spy on the visitors from the staircase, I couldn't help myself sometimes since it was exciting to hear about what was going on in the City. I would peer through the gaps of the wooden banister and listen to everything they would say, but one night the visitors were spellbinding. Four men turned up at the tavern, they were wearing green cloaks and uniforms. 

They were sitting around a table while they spoke amongst themselves, they were eating vegetable stew and freshly made bread. My Father had even brought them four tankards of the tavern's  best ale. The Landlord soon joined them with my Father, the conversation they were having sounded quite sinter from what I had overheard. They spoke about some stolen goods, they wanted to use the tavern to catch some merchants that were planning on selling stolen weapons which had been taken from the Military Police's storage. The merchants had arranged to sell the weapons to a group of local thugs in the Underground City, luckily for the Military Police they had someone on the inside who had leaked the merchant's plan to them. 

The Landlord had agreed for them to use his tavern for an handsome price, my Father on the other hand wasn't too keen about the idea. But he had no choice but to go along with the Landlord's wishes, he was just the barkeeper after all. The conversation had lasted for over an hour, they had discussed their plan in great detail with the Landlord and my Father. They had told them that a Kenny Ackerman would be visiting them tomorrow around closing time, he would be spending the night at the tavern before the merchants arrived to sell the Military Police's property to the thugs. After the visitors had left the tavern I hurried back to my room and climbed into my bed, pulling my blankets over me I pretended that I was sleeping. The light from the hallway crept into my bedroom, I could see my Mother's shadow on the wall next to my bed. She must have stood in the doorway for a few seconds before she left, not long after that I fell asleep.