Ashfall: City of Shade (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 2 | Worms

ENOCH

Nothing like waking up to an angry mob of women.

My guards keep them at bay while I make my way to Brommy's estate.

Amidst the chaos of screaming citizens and bustling streets as others go about their day, Greta stands between Brometheous and his wife.

The krexbin looks terrified. Her eyes bloodshot and wide with fear.

"Why are you hiding your siblings in their home?"

Oh no. What has she done now? It pains me to turn around and face the growing crowd. No one off the streets was supposed to find out about the women's shelter Mirth has.

They need to go back inside.

"Take them back in my advisor's home," I demand my guards. Greta lunges at me, making me jump back. "H-hey! Easy."

"You will let them go free!" she tells me all serious with those pouty lips of hers...little red lips to match her baby-like face. Her big round eyes and soft face works better on my sick father when she tries to have her way. "Enoch, please," she adds in a quieter voice as tears well up in her eyes.

The same tears she showed for Adler.

Ugh!

He's gone. I need to enjoy his absence. I can't blame Greta for acting in such a way.

Lucas and I were talking last night. He suggested she may not have had the chance to fully develop a matured mind in the environment she was in for her entire childhood. She may view him as a parental figure now since she knows he's not really a god.

I still don't know what he was doing down under the docks with her and it pisses me off.

"Greta, there is nowhere else to go for them-"

"You need to give them a chance. They can work...when will you free the slaves?"

As soon as I can. I just have to think about housing. She's not going to understand if I tell her 'no' in any form though.

I have to try to calm her down.

"You have other things to worry about right now. We are to make the morning now. Shall we go?"

Suddenly, her eyes clamp shut. My heart races as she crumples to the street floor with an ashen complexion and a violent cough. Brommy and Mirth help her to her feet, but her eyes remain shut and her body limp.

"Emperor!" Brommy cries out in panic.

Mirth shakes Greta's shoulders, but she remains unconscious.

"Let's take her to the hospice," I announce. "I'll take care of this mess after we get her over there."

Once we make it to the hospice, we put Greta in her bedchamber.

Her little body doesn't even stretch halfway down the bed. The hospice keepers swarm around her. It looks like Greta is sleeping, but she coughs every now and then.

The old women poke her with needles and cover her with rags.

Her eyes have yet to open though. Her grey skin looks almost white.

I sent my advisors away before arriving here, but my guards still remain in the bedchamber with us. I dismiss them after catching sight of a piece of parchment sticking out from one of the creases in her tunic.

When the old hospice keepers leave for prayers, I sit down on the bed and pull the piece of parchment out from the fold in her tunic.

"Oh...he has given you this. What else has he given you?" I murmur seeing a newly sharpened execution knife tucked inside the star map. I hide the map and knife in my own tunic when the old women return. "What more can I do? Tell me. If you need money it will come. I'll do anything, please."