𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐 - 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐌

"𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍. 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐒 𝐈 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄"

The sound of thunder boomed across the room causing Aurelia to look towards the window. In the hours since they had been stuck in this room dark clouds had covered Kerch. She hadn't noticed the change in pressure, too focused on the plan.

Lighting would only aid in her plans for tonight, then it would be a mere background light to their celebration. 

Her companion in the room seemed slightly unsettled by the light rain beginning to pour down. He wasn't from here, didn't know the drastic and temperamental whether that Ketterdam attracted. The chaotic and unplanned strikes of lighting were perfect to match the city of chaos. 

The man was a rich nobleman from some small island in the Wandering Isles and had come to Ketterdam in search of his kidnapped daughter. Aurelia had a reputation, one that was said in dirty alleyways from crooked criminals and from kings in ballrooms. 

The gilded witch was a hero in some eyes and a villain in others. 

But Aurelia took pride in the name that had been bestowed to her from others. Adjusting the mask they weighed heavily on her head she sat down near the man. In a just world, she would jump at the chance to help a poor man find his daughter. 

But Ketterdam was not the land for the just, and many men had claimed to be lost fathers, brothers and uncles in hopes of reclaiming the girls they had stolen. 

The horns of her mask weighed the heaviest, crusted in expensive jewels, and part of the reason why she earned the nickname the gilded witch, yet the irony did not escape her and she wouldn't allow it. Then she would be just like them.

Lighting always made Aurelia's soul light up, the colour bright and golden as the day she was betrayed by him. The brightness was a stark reminder about how dark, how faint the glow had become. Slowly she was beginning to fade.

But that was only more motivating, fired the need to atone her soul, to save those like her.

The man's heart was weakening, probably due to the stress of losing his daughter. Aurelia could see it, see the golden hue he glowed when speaking of his daughter.

Aurelia was glad she could help, glad she already had. That his daughter had been lucky, had been intercepted by Aurelia and her paid crew before she landed in the pleasure house of Ketterdam. 

That she was safe, surrounded by the other children and survivors that Aurelia had saved from Ketterdam. That she had a warm meal three times a day, and clothes that were warm.

She had not suffered further on Aurelias watch, and she would not. She would help arrange a safe transport back to the Wandering Isles with the girl's father.

A loud rumble of lighting echoed through the room, seconds later the light listing up the velvet fabrics and expensive artworks that decorated the gilded witches liar.   

──────⊹⊱✧⊰⊹──────

It was a while later when Aurelia left the room above The Snuggly Duckling, a bar that attracted all the wrong kinds of people, and the ones who were often the most interesting. 

The rain was still in a heavy downpour when Aurelia exited the bar. A spring was in her step, it often was when there was a promise of revenge. 

Her mask was a comforting weight in her bag and helped to block the downpour from ruining the plainer clothes she had changed into. 

Tonight she was not Aurelia Rosewhirl, heiress nor was she the elusive gilded witch. No tonight she was a tourist in Ketterdam, an easy target. One distracted by the never-ending street tricks and music, one that took extra time exploring the tourist spots. One that constantly checked to see if her valuables were still on her.

She became an easy target, one that the pleasure houses loved to draw in. 

Aurelia began to add a stumble into her step, a quick almost fall here and then. The distraction of her little falls around her time to discreetly reach into her bag and spray the bottle of alcohol, allowing her to successfully blend in with the other drunk tourist.  

Once she was successfully alone in the room in a pleasure house she began her plan. The weight of her guns her hips and in her boot, as well as the small knife in her hair. But the real plan was a safe and discrete one.

She could have come in storming in, but girls could've been hurt in the crossfire. The goal was to get them to a safe location so they could recover, so they could choose their futures for themselves. Not to traumatise them more or kill them.  

Mask up, another comforting heavy weigh, Aurelia opened the door. 

A young girl no more than fourteen entered the room, looking more terrified than anyone, let alone a child should be. 

Minutes of conversation and convincing and the young girl and the filed witch headed through the winding streets of Ketterdam. No one looked twice, masks were common, identities needed to be hidden in plain sight were often occurs in Ketterdam.

But if one looked closely at the gold mask one would notice the jewels were real unlike others, and the gold seemed to glow. But no one looked further.

Falling into a facade that she had mastered centuries ago, a drunken tourist with a young daughter, Aurelia began her search. She had felt the gaze of someone, not a gaze of lust from a man but a gaze full of secrets from the shadows. 

And up behind a cluster of bricks that could have once been a chimney was the wraith.