Calm; Decay Volume 1: Who Killed Cock Robin?

2 - The Lily Well - 2

Following the winding walkway that led to the riverbank and Ashra's home, the nineteen-year-old could not help but imagine eyes upon him.

Strict laws governed the spectrum of creatures who lived in the Decay Belt, dictating everything from social protection to what districts were permissible to travel through. There were no specific laws a person like Ashra could break, however, because the very nature of his existence was a broken law. Ashra Swallow was described in the world of taboos as a "half-breed." Douglas Swallow, a citizen of Passerine, had crossed the overlap twenty years ago, creating a child with a Chryssian woman.

In the early days of the overlap, half-breeds like Ashra had been far more abundant, the excitement of bumping worlds leading to a curiosity about the other's inhabitants. More than a few propositioned Decayers accepted these offers, seeing the Passerinians as vehicles of survival in a new world. Verbal agreements, however, more often than not turned to violence when Decayers robbed, disfigured, or outright killed their proposers. Scientists at the turn of the age had been baffled by the compatibility of genetics, once again crediting some inevitability in mutual evolution.

From everything Douglas told Ashra about his mother, who had vanished, presumed dead, shortly after Ashra's birth, she had been nothing like the dangerous Decayers portrayed in newspapers.

"She was a wonderful woman. She could be cold, but had a wonderful heart and loved you before you were even born," he had consoled Ashra whenever her name was brought up.

Ashra wanted to believe this. From the few accounts given by neighbors and friends of his father, Youka Swallow had been a spitfire — holding court in whatever room she occupied. She had been beautiful, Ashra saw this in the single photo that his father kept hidden in a book of deep-sea fish. This photo also served as Ashra's only clue to the second side to his heritage, becoming a time-frozen mirror of his own features developing to reflect his mother's more with each passing year. While her hair had been jet black, and his an iron gray, there was a matching ethereal air to their personas that was impossible to mistake.

Like so many issues of justice, the law had been far more concerned with the lines of morality than flexibility. Youka had been driven from her family when the Royal Guard raided the River Roost complex on the bank between the Decay Belt and the Calm Channel shortly before Ashra turned three. The tenement, a co-mingling of Decayers human enough to pass in society and Passerinians too apathetic or poor to find more distant lodgings had been Ashra's home ever since.

A younger Ashra had believed his mother would come back when the time was right, but like so many of the stories begun in that complex, his hope had trailed away with the passing years before vanishing entirely. The world was unforgiving enough for even the most hardened people, much less those expected to survive alone. Many of their less-than-legal neighbors, watching the struggle of a single father, had stepped in to lend a hand, bringing an unanticipated happy note to Ashra's childhood.

One of those families filled the street ahead of Ashra, their chirping voices talking over one another on the wide sidewalk.

"Ashra!" A plump hand found Ashra's arm, pulling him into a shoulder-height hug.

"Mrs. Egret," said Ashra, succumbing to the woman's gravity. Feeling he could relax among the familiar faces, Ashra allowed himself to be swallowed by the family's chatter.

Lotti Egret's strawberry blonde hair matched her bouncy smile, one that was all gums and teeth. "You look like you've seen a ghost, Ashra. What's the matter?" said Mrs. Egret, putting a warm palm against his cheek.

"The crowds getting to you?" asked a similarly rosy-cheeked girl next to her doting mother.

"Not even a little," said Ashra reflexively. He was not about to let Lily Egret use her single year's age difference to push any further superiority over him.