Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

Anomaly

The girl in front of them spoke Feyshan.

Though she was clearly human. Short by Rulin standards, with grey-green eyes, dark skin and tightly curled black hair, there was nothing Feyshan about her. In fact, she barely looked Clairvalan, despite her accent. 

It was a surprise, though not completely unheard of. Eikos had been to the small communities of humans living within the Wild, being taught to by the Feysha and choosing a more peaceful life over than of Clairval. They taught children alongside Feyshan children in three languages, and if some had the aptitude to fight, they would have been taught to fight and hunt from the moment that they could walk.

What was odd was that the girl, if she had been part of such a community, was now a prisoner with associations to street gangs reportedly stretching back several years. There had even been a mention of an orphanage that had been run away from. Why would the girl have left the village? And why would the Feysha let a young child go off on her own, to be lost in the city's underbelly, only to fall into an under-funded orphanage? The Feysha should never have let an orphan go.

The charge of theft, and the report on exactly how much, was rather vague and there had been no mention of anything other than gold being stolen. The girl had broken into the residence of a Peer of Clairval, stolen, got out, then somehow captured a few hours later. Even if Treasa had been a young woman, an adult, that she was here and the report they had seen would have sat oddly to them.

But the girl was insisting on going to the work camps. Was terrified of remaining her in camp, hiding something, but not in a way that was malicious. Eikos had been a little insulted, but there was something about the girl and her attitude, even facing all this, that he liked.

That felt right. Like there was something incredibly important in this girl's crossing his path, and the path of all of them. So he inclined his head, because it was something he felt he had to do, though Nero had been adamant that they would not send a child to the camp.

"Very well. The party will go out for two weeks, come back for a day or two before going back out. Not including travel time. We'll see you in a month, and we'll see if you have changed your mind." Nero said slowly to her, having understood Eikos' nod and enough of the Feyshan to get an idea of what was being said.

The girl looked up at Nero in surprise, and Eikos sensed only relief and bone-deep exhaustion coming from her. She nodded, that anger and stubbornness that had been burning in her eyes guttering out.

"You have the evening to rest and eat. Meals will be served soon. The Guard will show you where you need to be. We will reevaluate you assignment when you return." Nero's voice remained gentle but firm.

Eikos watched the girl stand, offer another rough bow and turn, walking back towards the exit of the tent, where Lianza guided her towards where she would sleep for the night. "She hasn't even completed puberty yet. I don't know human ages very well, but she is younger than my little sister, in physical terms."

They watched the doorway she had left from for a long several moments, processing the confusion and the knowledge that they were missing a very integral part of the story when it came to Treasa.

"What else did you get from her?" Nero asked after a moment, reaching up to rub his temples, his expression pained.

"Sadness at first. Desolation, but that's normal. Fear, not of us, but of something else. Especially when she was asked about her crime. Anger when I mentioned her mother, and grief... more fear, desperation. The woman assigned to watch her said the kid was asking about the closeness of the city, people coming and going. But she's not trying to stay close to it, she's trying to run from it." Eikos tried to work through it all as he spoke, frowning to himself. "Doesn't matter what she's done, she should not be in a work camp. But she needed to be there. I felt it. She's not a normal kid on the wrong path."

"Few criminals can speak three languages, let alone fifteen-year-old kids. How does a street rat learn Feyshan?" Nero stood then, stretching out for a moment and shaking his head. "Not important for now. I'm going to send off a report... to the King. The Guards will watch her. We'll get answers before we decide to tell the Queen that the Kingdom she remembers has fallen rather far in the scant decades since she left."

Eikos let out a breath and shook his head as he thought of his mother hearing about this story. "It'll break her heart, I think. She used to take us there as kids all the time. I can't remember the last time she went."

Nero chuckled and reached over to ruffle Eikos' hair. "Which is why I'm talking to your father first. Maybe he can break the news to her."

Eikos made a face, tilting his head away from the man's reach, giving him an amused look. "I would like to set more of a watch on who is coming into port and showing interest in the prisoners, too. Something about all this doesn't sit well with me. She smelled like she was running from something. And expecting it to follow."

"Or, she could be playing a game. Maybe she just has no sense, has little respect for laws and authority and needs a couple weeks' labour in the forests to make her realise that not everything is as easy as the city." Nero said stubbornly, though Eikos could see that the other man didn't feel the words that he was saying.

Eikos offered a shrug. "Anything is a possibility, General."

"And your feeling of her going? Was that her need or your.... Feysha-ness?"

Eikos let out a slow breath and shook his head, looking to his General, then back out the door, listening to the sounds of the camp, smelling the breeze that came in through the open tent flaps. "Both. I don't think it's going to solve our problems with her, and I don't know if it's justification for sending her out there, but she needed to go. When it comes down to it, and I know you're the General and my father will be angry at you regardless, but when it comes down to it, I think it's one of those things that... they'll understand."

"I'll send Lianza out with this team going out. He'll keep a watch on things, and we can watch for any odd visitors. We'll let the City Guard know that there might be something up, as well, though it won't do them much good, with such a vague warning. Humans are always bringing their issues and crimes into our streets." Nero was jotting down notes as he murmured, half distracted with the reports he would be sending about the newest shipment of prisoners from Clairval.

"Rulin cause their fair share of issues too, according to my brother." Eikos chuckled and moved to sit down beside the other man, pulling a couple of folders from the pile and assisting in the work that would take the two of them most of the night.

"Since when do you talk to your brother?"

Eikos laughed and offered a shrug. "Despite what you all think, Davanos and I can be civil with one another. It doesn't always devolve into us trying to murder one another."

Nero snorted in response and shook his head, putting another stack of papers in front of Eikos and grinning.