Welcome to Gaia! ::

Len hesitated only a half second on the thought before responding truthfully.

“Lenila.” She picked up her mug, focusing on the soft white creamy warmed foam at the top before sipping and letting her eyes shut with content. She could feel the warm milk leave a mustache on her upper after she’d gulped down several greedy swallows, and when she finally made herself slow, her tongue darted up to lick it clean. “I dunno my surname, m’ mum’s a whore—or she was, when she was young ‘nough t’ be, now she still works down there as a head o’ staff. Lennart is who most know, though. Don’t think I’ve told hardly nobody.”

You want something?

Immediately, Len nodded. She ate now, at least, on a fairly regular basis—the Boss, or one of his company, afforded her a small bag of ‘compensation’ on the days she performed tasks specific for them—but it wasn’t the most reliable of incomes, and she tended to spend most of it near instantly. The small space she’d used to inhabit had been taken over, the owners of the building finally discovering her hideaway and banishing her from the property, so now she vacillated between holing up in portions of the thieves’ guild (which made her anxious, since most of them knew her sex by now and she didn’t trust any of them with her body or her limited coin), or hiding on the outskirts of the city in whatever place she could find dry and shielded from the wind.

In the colder months, she generally had to resort to the guild. Her ‘spare’ coin, however, she had hidden, buried outside the city walls where no one would find it without looking. Perhaps one day, when she had enough, she could clean herself and start fresh in another city—or even another land—before something happened to her which made it impossible. This, though, was a thought for another time.

She’d never been much good at ‘planning.’ “Anythin’,” she said eagerly. “I think I could eat a house.” A pinch of color dusted her cheeks after as she shot Jal a squint. “But I’ve taken lots from you…ya sure I couldn’t do somethin’ in return?” Not that she had many marketable skills. “I know how t’ clean floors an’ make beds.”

The full result of her ‘studies’ at the orphanage in her years there.

Lenila fiddled, and then blinked, squinting.

“Somethin’ like what?” she asked, suspicious. If it was a job offer, she’d be eager enough to take on most anything for coin that wasn’t her mother’s business, but: “I don’t much like most guards save you. The city don’t like me, an’ I’m just tryin’ to put together enough t—”

Well, maybe he didn’t need to know all that. She finished her milk instead of her sentence.

“I’d take anythin’ that gave me a spot o’ pay tha’s not sellin’ me. I ain’t on the table. But if they want some’on t’ come in an’ scrub the place down s’pose I could do that. Less chance o’ some’on gettin’ piss cross ‘n pullin’ knives.”

There they were.

She’d known they’d come eventually, but at least he’d let the topic wait a moment, and any nerves she’d had prior had lessened with milk in her belly—further still, when she saw food approaching—and it was all she could do not to bounce in her chair. The moment the server set her plate down, Lenila drew it to herself, utensil already in hand and digging in to whatever it was.

A thick, meaty and potatoed stew, it seemed, rich with hunger-inspiring scent and drizzled with a thick, melted cheese. “Coul’ be a coincidence,” she managed around her first mouthful. But, since she knew Jalase wouldn’t take that answer in the long term, she debated, chewing on a full square of potato before answering more properly. “Right now, anythin’ I eat or put on me is on coin ‘at comes from workin’ for…my boss, I s’pose. I don’t know all much exactly what he gets up to an’ I’m not trusted or important, but he likes that I remember things. Sends me places sometimes, t’ look an’ see so he can plan. Has me draw up stuff, an’ gives me a spot of coin for it. Tha’s what I was up on, just lookin’ about. Also was t’ read.”

She probably wouldn’t have learned but for her memory, but even with only the most minimal ‘tutelage’ at the orphanage, letters and numbers had stuck in her head, and as a grown young woman, she certainly knew them by now. Being able to skim for important documents was not an unappreciated task among the company she sometimes kept.

“If I had somethin’ else,” she said with a shrug. “Sure, ‘course. But not a whole lotta folk want or trust a dirty orphan boy or girl. Mum-” She frowned. “Well, was said I could have work if I wanted it, but I don’t want the work she did, an’ couldn’t never find any other place for me. She’s the one ‘at—”

-sent me to him in the first place.

But that probably wasn’t necessary to say either. Len stirred her stew. “Anyhow, I would if I had somewhere safer, but I know you ain’t got no reason t’ want me about an’ am sure even if you did, wouldn’ be a one o’ your ‘friends’ that took very well t’ me. I don’t suppose I look all that impressive even clean, an’ I don’ know what I look like clean. You don’ need t’ worry ‘bout it.”

She fiddled, frowning uncertainly.

As much as she might like to, she wasn’t actually — not that the opportunity was presented — certain that ‘leaving’ would even be so simple as that. “‘M not…the most sure the folk I…‘work’ with’d be so pleased t’ have me goin’ anywhere even if I wanted so…figure I’ve seen some things, don’t much want me crawlin’ too far away. Which…” This was probably too much to say, but by the gods, she didn’t have anyone she spoke to consistently that she trusted even the slightest, and it was different and nice to have a conversation with someone who she didn’t think would stab her and toss her out like tomorrow’s trash run if her tongue slipped too far.

“Which is why I s’pose I thought I might like t’ eventually have enough together t’ not be here at all…stick about an’ earn a bit ‘til I got enough t’ disappear.” The other option was to climb the ranks of the thieves’ guild, which she seemed to have unwittingly done some already, if by no intention of her own. She didn’t see herself remaining with them any longer than necessary, though. No matter what anyone else said or thought, she wasn’t so dumb as to think that if she stuck around, she wouldn’t eventually be hung (at best) or suffer some nastier fate at the hands of her own ‘employers’ if she was perceived to have betrayed them.

I’m going to assume you had help getting into that building tonight.

In spite of herself, Len’s shoulders dipped a touch at his assumption and inquiry, eyes darting down to her food as she grunted. “Mmmm…” She ladled in a mouthful, chewing more than necessary for stew before reluctantly swallowing. “Aye, and aye, I s’pose…” She frowned. “Though ‘m not much lookin’ to return t’ them immediately…figure I’ve already missed th’ spot and I’ll need t’ catch up with ‘em all...later.”

She eyed him. “I think I ought say my thanks…for th’ food…” She hesitated a moment, “…an’ not snitchin’ on me…and comin’ on fallin’ all so many messy times into my life, y’know? Might…be nice if mayhaps once or twice we met when it wasn’t one o’ us bein’ poisoned or beat straight up or gettin’ the local authorities sniffin’ round for our footprints…”