PhantasmicRose
Dapper Fatcat
The smell of ocean air was being carried inland by the cold winds of an approaching storm, the sky blotched with muddled grays like watercolor over a painter’s canvas. Vera looked out eagerly through the parted velvet curtains of her carriage, clutching the sill in her thin fingers to keep from being jostled by the uneven trail. Outside, gulls floated beneath the darkened clouds, stalking the fishing boats that were pulling into a bustling port town to escape the rough seas for the night.
Vera glanced across the carriage to where Orin was nestled atop some cushions comfortably, a book hanging loosely from his grasp without a page marked to save his spot. He was staring out the opposite window with a dull expression, disinterested from his constant travels. Though when he felt her staring, Orin turned his head to fix Vera with a small smile that was no less dazzling to her than anything else he did. He tapped the pane of glass with a calloused finger, pointing to the city just beyond.
“We’re just outside of Zuleidi,” he announced, though anyone would know that by the beautiful cliff faces that stood against the sea on the horizon. “Laurent has a rich port. Nearly every trade ship passes through here on their way to the rest of Yardis and beyond. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more interesting place to call home. I know you’ll like it here.”
Vera spent the entire journey in a state of shock and excitement, but the Traveler’s words sent a new wave of exhilaration through her, so much so that her pale cheeks had been stained with ruby blush and her fingers drummed incessantly against every surface they came in contact with. She’d been freed from her cage, pulled up from the underworld, and now her life was truly starting. She couldn’t begin to imagine the adventures, the stories that awaited her. If only her family had felt the same, if only they’d understood what this new life meant to her.
“Come with me!” Vera had begged of her sister as she gathered her few possessions in her arms. “We’ll live in a real house, a great one with three floors that you could explore for days and not find everything. We’ll go to parties, we’ll swim in the ocean, a-and… please come with me.”
“I…I can’t, Vera. I can’t leave mother, and Abram, and Kaleb. You shouldn’t, either. We need to stick together. We-” Her sister snapped her mouth shut when heavy fists pounded at the door. A look of guilt washed over her face and Vera instantly knew what her sister had done.
“Vera, don’ be foolish!” Abram screamed as he tried to pound down the locked door. His red face was visible in his words. “You’re only sixteen. Ya can’t run off with some stranger. Think about this!”
“You can’t tell me what to do anymore, Abram!” Vera cried as she shoved her sister out of the way, eyes stinging with betrayal. Her voice cracked with a sob that erupted from nowhere as she scratched at the window until her fingers found the latch. She pulled it away and yanked the window open with a violent lurch.
“Vera, please,” Abram called, and she could hear him struggling not to yell at her. His voice had dropped a little, though there was something strange laced over it…something like desperation. “I know we don’ get along, but I just try tah do what’s best for ya. I’m not your real father but that don’ mean I don’ try. Vera? Vera listen to me, don’ you go. You don’ know what you’re gettin’ in to!”
Vera heard him, though she wished she hadn’t. His words were true, and there was more he didn’t have the chance to say, but none of it matter now. She’d made up her mind, and there was no changing it now. Something brighter waited for her on the horizon, and she would claw her way through the world alone to find it if she had to.
Without looking back at her sister, without thinking of her mother, with Abram’s words chasing after her, Vera dove out the window and hit the ground running, her eyes set on Orin’s face in the crowd.
The bitter frost was a hard thing to ignore, even with a dead man at your feet. The demon, settled beneath Sonya’s skin like a blanket, had the luxury of feeling absolutely nothing other than a sated hunger, the life of blood infused within its essence. Sonya, too, felt a burst of renewal surge through her tired bones like flowers bursting from the last frost into warm spring. The dark circles beneath her eyes faded, color returned to her skin, and the feverish heat of dying evaporated into the crisp air. The foreign energy was like a drug, uplifting her soul for a short time and reminding her how it felt to live. It was the closest semblance to joy or purpose that she had felt in years. And with the second murder the demon felt less like a pest and more like a visitor. Her body was coming to accept the creature, or it was seeping into her being like water on parched earth. The implications of this held little interest to her.
“I’ve killed for you twice now, but you’ve given nothing in return,” she muttered, her words curling around her head from the cold as she pulled her coat tightly around her chest. The snow crunched beneath her fur-trimmed boots as she turned back for camp, leaving the body half buried with its eyes open.
There are rewards on the horizon that you cannot fathom yet, the demon whispered back. Strange, she thought, how it began to speak differently to her.
For now, let me guide your way back to camp. The royals plan to make a journey into the city once they have rested. Go with them, aid them in their quest as we have been instructed by the gods. Then, I promise you girl, we will speak of your rewards.
