Three girls shaped by the horrors of society find a quiet and lethal survival. They are fire, ice and wonder, they couldn't be more different. Yet their fierce loyalty and friendship is the anchor in the storms that they must withstand. They are not...
I'm a survivor I'm not gon' give up I'm not gon' stop, oh I'm gon' work harder I'm the survivor I'm gonna make it I will survive Keep on survivin' - 2WEI , 'Survivor'
We sat at the old wooden table that I and Clarrisa had purchased after I moved in. One of its legs was a little wobbly, but the rose wood carved with honey-suckle flowers and vines was most artful. Sofie did not want to buy it, she had wanted something dainty and small, so much so that our dishes would have barely fit. So I and Clarrisa vetoed on this one, we agreed that it had character. Sofie had filled up three plates for us and as I took the first bite the was a little plunk on the wood and something was set in front of my plate.
"Got some new Jewelry, Scar?" Sofie asked still apprising the necklace, from where she sat opposite to me. I choked a little on my food and sipped water to clear it.
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Sitting on my left Clarissa's eyes were fixed on the ruby too, this was not going as I had planned. Sofie was still on about how I made a bad deal by purchasing a poorly cut ruby stone and that her jeweler may fix it, but Clarissa's eyes shifted to me and she asked
"Scarlett?", she was not one of many words but my name was inquiry enough.
"So, you know how I went to Foxstride earlier this month, for a consignment given to me by Lord Ellen"
"Yes, he wanted to remove an old merchant on the merchant council who voted against his sea-trade policy, right?" asked Sofie.
"Well turns out the old man was no noble soul, he kept foul company. His Right-hand man was Edger"
"Edger your cousin?" Asked Clarissa
"Yes, the same, who I was betrothed to, the one whose parents slowly poisoned my father's head and forced his business to fall apart, the one who orphaned me and destroyed my life."
I remembered it then how we used to be a lovely family of four ;my parent, my little brother and I. We lived along the beach itself and my father owned a few merchant ships, my uncle had always been jealous or he thought my father a fool because my father was not a very ambitious man, he did not attend the merchants' council nor did he barter for profitable export-import policies from the government officials. He was happy with us in his own little bubble, where my mother tended to her rose gardens and my baby brother and I enjoyed the endless sunshine on the shallow beach-side making sandcastles.
Until my uncle, unsatisfied with his own positions. dragged my father into his messes. He forced my father to join his rebellious moments against the policies curbing the merchants' profits. My mother's garden soon withered because while huddling us into the house, to protect us from any soldiers who might come looking for the rebel families, she often forgot to water those roses.
I saw less and less of my father in those last few months. The smell of his butter cookies, the only thing he knew how to cook, faded from out house. He came in late at night and kissed our sleeping heads and then headed back out a few hours later. He put in all he had for the cause my uncle advocated, but what he did not know was that my uncle was a double agent. He was the crown's dog and was only attempting at depleting the finances of our and many other merchants' households so that they would become weak when the soldiers officially strike them down. He made us spend on sticks, banners and wine when really the rebel forces needed swords and spears, not to kill but to defend.
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People still talk about it, 'Fire of Maw-Bay' they call it. My parents were there in one of those council meeting on a slice of land in the deep of Maw-Bay when the officials set that luxurious merchant's office on fire. The fire kept burning for more than 24 hours but I never saw it because I took my brother and ran. More than 50 were charred to death.
"I couldn't help the urge; I killed him when he stumbled in the old man's study after I had crumbled his brain." I said to my friends.
"The Ruby was on the hilt of the dagger my devious uncle used carried, Edger carried it now. How could he live in such luxuries when I have starved for each morsel and so I paralyzed him and broke the hilt of the dagger with an handy tobacco-grinding stone. This Ruby Shard I took as a reminder that I have settled some score with my devil of an uncle."
"I hope you were inconspicuous in the face of revenge" Clarissa said, so calculative even in the midst of an emotional turmoil.
"I slit his throat with the dagger" I admitted with a little guilt now that I had slept on it for a while.
"What! So now there is going to be a murder investigation. How could you Scar, you know those royal hounds are always sniffing us out." Worried Sofie.
But she need not remind me, I knew why we were the preferred girls. No patrons that contacted us wanted the trail of a bloody murder leading back to them and our magic, specially mine allowed them this secrecy. And then there was another problem,
"They might think it you, after all it is your style." I said looking over to Clarissa.
Let's cross that bridge when we come to it was her only reply before she resumed eating. I knew people saw her as most unfeeling and aloof, among us three. But she was not so, she was just a rock in the storm that often did not waver. I knew she would not hold it against me that I jeopardized her safety, and so I followed her advise and did not fret.
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