Blademaster Ascension

29- Rank one breakthrough

It was a gloomy day. The sky had only one sun, and gray clouds smeared across the blue stretch of infinty. She lay on the side of the dirty, muck-filled road. Her clothes were beyond repair. The cold wind and icy dirt did their best to slowly kill her.
She didn't remember who she was, neither did she remember what she was doing here, lying on the road. However, she couldn't find the strength in herself to get up and try to figure out anything.

The carriages going by splattered more muck on her every now and then. She struggled to keep her eyes opened, despite the tremendous urge to dive deep into the solitude and silence that came with sleep.
Just as she was about to lose the war against the onslaught of vague dreams, a weak, but clear voice sounded beside her.

"Mother, I'm cold," the voice said.

Memories started rushing in. The owner of the voice was her child, a six year old boy. He was terribly sick. They hadn't had food for days. The plague had robbed her of her job and capability to work. Their home had been destroyed in the war.

The girl was confused. The memories felt strangely distant yet they affected her like a battering ram tearing down her ability to think. She felt the hunger in the pit of her stomach, she felt the burning heat of her child who snuggled closer toward her. Another tiny presence moved between them. Cracking open her eyes, she noticed a pink creature moving about weakly.

A pig?

More memories appeared. It was the last of the pigs she reared in her backyard back when she had a roof over her head. Some of its family died in the plague, some died in the famine that followed because of war. The small pig had somehow survived the cruel games of the deities and lived till this day. But the situation didn't look very good now.

"Mother, I'm hungry, " her child moaned, his voice losing strength with each syllable. Perhaps deep inside, he knew his mother could not find food for them any longer, she had long lost ability to do so. But a child he was, not caring about the clear logic, his mind only finding the sole ray of hope it could grasp at the moment, his mother's existence. That she was still there, listening to him, placated his soul in a way he didn't understand. Even if she could not find food, she was still there, there for him.

She moved, nearly spending all her strength in the process and got a clearer glimpse of her child and the pig he was holding close to his chest. She remembered how he played with it happily, a memory that felt ancient. His first playmate, the pig, treated him no different from its own mother. She wanted to say something, but a scene caught her eye.

A shiny black shoe stepped into her view, her eyes traced it upward to its owner. He was a man in his thirties. Good looking, a noble temperament and expensive clothing. He looked at her with an indifference that said aloud that he had seen similar scenes too many times.

A small smile appeared, seemingly perfunctory and mechanical. The man squatted down beside her and spoke.

"Beautiful weather, hmm?"

"..." her confusion was visible in her eyes.

"Okay, let's just get to the point. I see that you are not going to live for long, same goes for your child who would die from starvation within a few hours, just like the cute little pig he is holding. It's time for you to make a choice. Are you going to ignore his pleas for food, with the very reasonable excuse that you can not find any to sate his hunger? Or perhaps would you struggle till the very end to find something for him, no matter what you have to do, even if you must sell your soul to the filthiest evil in existence?
Or perhaps would you look for another option, something that may not even be possible for you in your current condition? Like murder in an alley or thievery? Kindly answer fast.  I have got no time to waste on dullheads."