Pawn

Prolouge

Äiti! Äiti!" A little girl is crouching at her mother's side in a lean-to shack on the roof of a building.

    Her mother is lying on the lone bed on the floor, if it could be called a bed. It is really no more than a mat made out of old bags, scraps of cloth, and other assorted bits and pieces found on the streets below. Her face was once beautiful, but know is ravaged by the sickness that has swept the city.

    "My Kulta, everything is going to be alright."

    She tries to reach up to touch her daughter's face, but finds she doesn't have the strength, and covers her hand instead.

    "I am going, but I will always be with you in your heart, and as long as you live, I will be watching over you. Hyvästi, Kultaseni, don't forget t..."

    Her voice failed her, her hand slipped away, and she died.

    "Äiti! Äiti!" Her daughter cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.

    "Kyky?" five minutes later, her father stepped into their house. "She's gone, isn't she?"

    The little girl nodded, and looked up at him with watery eyes and a tearstained face.

    "Isä, what are we going to do?" He shakes his head, like a dog trying to rid itself of water.

    "I don't know Kyky, but we'll find a way. We always have."

    "Isä, I'm ten know, maybe I can go find a job somewhere."

He turns his head, and looks her straight in the eye.

    "That's my girl, always doing her part and more!" She grins at him through her tears.

    "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you when Abella...left, but I was arranging for you to go work in the house of one of the more fortunate merchants. You will be cared for and looked after, and  your  monthly  wage  will help put food in our mouths."

    She looked up at him. "But Isä, where are you going?"

    He looked down at her, suddenly downcast.

    "I have been drafted into the All Capital Worker's Relief Service. I leave tomorrow for who-knows-where. This will probably be the last time we see each other, so I got you a gift."

    Again, the girl looked up at him, but this time with eyes full of doubt.

    "But Isä, we don't have enough money for gifts." He looked sadly at her.

    "Kyky, you have grown up so fast, I would think almost too fast." He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a small wrapped bundle.

    "Here you go, I hope you like it." She took it from him, handling the bundle as one might handle something made of glass, delicate enough to shatter into dust at the slightest gust of wind. Slowly she unwrapped it, and gasped.

    "Isä!"

    "Yes, Kyky?"

    "Is it real?"

    "Of course it is."

    Inside the wrapping was a beautiful silver locket. The front is an intricate design of overlapping tree branches.

    "Open it, Kyky."

    Her fingers eagerly opened the locket, her face alight.

    There was an inscription on the inside of the locket.

To my darling Kyky

You are so much to me

I know you will succeed