Book 1: Youth of Delarn

Chapter 13: Price of Peace

Delarn knew a man that lived on the fringes of town. She never found him living in the same place, but he was always content wherever he was found, whether it was an actual house or a pile of crates.

"My name? Call me—I don't know. What do you want to call me, squirt?" He laughed, patting Delarn on the head. She was like a feral cat, untouchable and often hostile, but there was something foreign about the way he talked to her that made her feel comfortable around him. She didn't mind that he treated her like a child. She was.

"I'm not good at names," she said.

"Anything," he said, smiling, his light brown eyes liquid in the sunlight, but not quite golden like hers.

"Sunflower," she said.

"Sunflower?" He scoffed, ruffling his messy brown hair. It was shaggy, but not really long. "I think I like that. Sunflower."

He wasn't like the other Salvikans she had met. He seemed so soft. She thought he might be like Hyde, but there was something rougher and harder about him.

"Chaos doesn't have to be violence," he told her, and she grinned, finding that comforting. "It's about change." Things won't be the same forever.

"What do you do?" She asked.

"What do I do for what?" He asked.

"Work, I guess," she replied, scuffing her shoes.

"I do a lot of things," he said. "Sometimes I'll catch fish down the way and sell it over yonder in the square. Sometimes I'll get on my hands and knees and beg like a cat. Other times I'll take bets over in the slums, and sometimes I'll win, and other times I'll lose, but I'll always get something to eat by the end of the day."

"So you don't fight? You're not interested in fighting the Danzers at all?" She asked.

"Well," he replied, "there's something I tend to do, but it's more like a game. I know this guy from Theyonkerg. You could call him an old friend, but we do this thing where we—well, why don't you come with me? You can see for yourself. We meet on the east side of town this afternoon, actually."

"That's awfully convenient," she replied.

"The more you realize all of this is a story we're living in, the easier life becomes, especially after you know how to interpret the meaning of the literature."

Her eyes were wide. She never heard someone say something like that before, and it sounded mad, but she liked it.

"Come along," he said, extending his hand. She stared at it for a long time, but finally took it. It didn't seem to bother him how she hesitated, and he didn't move until she did. It might have been because he knew she wanted to, or maybe because he didn't want her to refuse.

As they walked, they passed a man that was big and scruffy, and she recognized him as a man from the sewer army, though he didn't have his armor out on the street.

"What are you doing with the chosen child of Salvika?" He asked, his voice thick with sarcasm. "Are you going to play some of your games, then? Are you using little girls now?"

"I can't imagine what you're implying, but you can wipe that look off your face," he answered. "Delarn here is my friend."

"Friend?" He said. "She doesn't have any friends. She's bad luck, and that's all she's good for. One of these days she'll outlive her use."

"That's how your order speaks about children? Not much of a future for your lot then, but I can't say much for myself either," he said, unbothered. "Cruelty isn't chaos. Cruelty is predictable. That's how you can lay her fate out like that. Not that I believe it. Not for a second."