Pharmacist Penumbra (Draft)

Prologue: Humble Beginnings

It was a rainy day, as the rain pitter patter falling from the eaves of a humble small apothecary. A grumpy old man sat hunched over a grinder wheel, muttering curses at the terrible weather. The stench of herbs and medicine filled the room to the point it was stale, a rapid desperate knock resounded. The old man stopped for a brief moment looking at his door but resumed his work without a care. The rapid knocks came again but with more of a violent force behind it. He groaned as he stood up from his all his sitting down. "I'm coming. I'm coming. No need to break down my door!" complained the old man in a hoarse voice.

But as he opened the door, it revealed no one. He curses yet again at some random youngest trying to prank him. As he closes the door, a sound cry of a baby startles him. He looks down.

In a woven basket, a baby is wrapped in many layers. As it babbles away with it little hands grabbing nothing. Its cheek was soft and dewy and it eye filled with an utter innocence that makes you protect it with all your heart.

The old man steps out to find a figure that could have been the guardian of the child, but the streets are wet and empty. Not a single soul. The rain pelts down in buckets, as the old man retreats back into his home with the child.

The baby starts to whispering, as tears rolled down it's cheek. Not knowing what to do, as he checks for any abrasion, injury or fever. None appear, perhaps the child is hungry. He rushes to the well known Golden Lotus brothel house. The woman there who work do not use their bodies as a way of income, but rather their art such as music, poetry, art, song, dance and dining and but rarely use their bodies. Most of the lower income use their bodies, while the more invested woman sells their art. He rushes to a woman he knows will help, as the woman sits in her private quarters. She is the untouchable Princess and has only ever given her body to one man, but she was the one who very fond of children. So she had gladly helped the old man.

"So Old man, where have you found such an adorable child. Aren't you the cutest?" cooed the woman, as she was a natural beauty and didn't need the assistance of makeup to make her look beautiful. Her soft gaze and beautiful is breathtaking, as the child grabs the finger if the woman.

"She was left at my doorstep." he blurted.

The woman looked shocked. "How can a person so cruelly left their child to the hands of a complete stranger?" exasperated the woman. The old man simply shrugged, but something shiny catches his eye in the folds of the baby's blankets.

As he grabs it and lifts it to inspect more closely, "Now what do we have here? It seems that this child has a rather high background." stated the old man.

"How can you tell by just a simple look of a pendant?" deadpan the woman. The old man smiles mischievously.

"I only think of one noble family who has their pendants specifically designed this way," he states, as the woman takes a closer look.

It was an impossibility smooth and round. It was so polished that you could see your own reflection. The design if a hydrangea flower engraved and craved expertly into the middle. As silver wire wrapped elegantly holding it's host secured to a durable black string. "But I thought they were exterminated out of existence." whispered the woman.

"To think they leave a child of that household onto my doorstep, " sighed out the old man. As the opened window let in peeking warm rays of sunlight, the rain was only a light drizzle and a rainbow appeared. "Seem she's a blessing from the gods?" asked the old man.

Smiles, as the new rise of a bleak normal day.