Pawn

Chapter One

Stop! Thief!" A loud, shrill voice pierced the cool Arlanian night, and Nami winced. Time to go.

She turned around just in time to see her Kaveri, a girl named Isla, slip out through the window out on to the rooftop, closing it behind her. Nami ran to the window, but it was locked. Nami was trapped.

"Isla you Eläin!" She had about three minutes before the Voa came, one minute for the Valvoa.

Strong arms grabbed her, pinning her arms behind her back. Great, just great, the old lady called the Valvoa.

But Nami wasn't surprised. In the case of their precious treasures, the aristocrats of the Capital took no risks. They always called the Valvoa, even for a stray cat that jumped onto their window sill. They were a paranoid, snotty bunch, and Nami hated them with every bone in her body.

If they hadn't been so consumed by their greed, they wouldn't have sent her father away when he came begging for medicine. They wouldn't have fired her mother, who had worked as a servant, when she became pregnant with Nami. If they had been at least a slight bit charitable, her parents wouldn't have died, and Nami would have lived in an actual house, with suitable clothes and food that hadn't been scavenged and begged for.

"Dirty Varas, you're coming with me." The Valvoa's voice was gruff and stern, more like a growl than a human voice.

Nami sighed. Why struggle? If she was good, they would put her in a work camp. If she was bad, then she would be killed. That was if they didn't see her tattoo.

The tattoo that bound her to the Riivaaja gang.

The tattoo that she had had for eight years.

A weak slap woke her from her thoughts. The old woman who owned the house had slapped her! Nami made a vicious face, and the woman scuttled back.

"Noble Hra, please remove this...this...Voro from my house this instant! She is a danger to my neat and orderly household! I am having a party in half and hour and my servants need to prepare!"

Nami's lip curled at the mention of servants. She hated that word as much as she hated the aristocratic neighborhood.

"A life of endless parties, that's what you've got. While people like my parents clothe their child in rags and slowly starve to death living on the streets." The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"What did you say?!" The woman's shrill voice shrieked. "I am Lady Carlotta Elizebet Valoaukko, and I refuse to be spoken to like that by a lowly Voro!" Then, speaking to the Valvoa, "I told you Hra, remove this Voro from my house now!" She stamped her foot for emphasis, but the Valvoa only shook his head.

"Apologies, Nainen, but I must wait for the containment team to arrive. I came on a hover bike since you said it was urgent. The containment team will be walking up the stairs right know." Lady Carlotta recoiled a bit at the sound of his gravely voice, but recovered herself.

"If they harm a single bit of furniture or art I will lodge a formal complaint." She tottered off, probably to inform her servants in some grave error on the gleam of a table or the spotlessness of a floor.

A solid thunk on the landing outside the door a minute or so later informed Nami that the containment team had arrived, and that they had brought a Tauko Box.

The containment team consisted of two women and two men, as was typical. They shot her in the arm, and Nami slumped, paralyzed, in her captors arms.