Honest Citizens

[Cor Alspach]

37 × Winter × 515

It was late. The time when honest citizens were resting in their beds, safe from the cold harsh world of the outside. The time when even the torches on the walls seemed to dim under the great weight of the dark. Everything was far more silent. Far more still. Yes, there was still movement for the city was a large one, but compared to the movement of the day, it was nothing.

Cor was not an honest citizen.

The boy’s footsteps only made a light tik tik sound as he walked. His cap was pulled low and the shadows of his face covered his red sleep-deprived eyes. A small pack was strung over one shoulder. Any passers-by might have imagined he was a runaway. Perhaps the more naive guessing he was on his way to or from a late shift. That’s what he hoped at least, and it wasn’t far from the truth.

The boy made his way down a quieter street and nearly couldn’t believe his luck. A torch was nearly out. Just smoldering but that was a lot less light as it sat next to a door. Those shadows would be useful. Now, to check the door. Cor reached into his pack and pulled out a simple contraption. A listening cone. With a quick check of the hall, he placed the cone up against the door nearest the torch then scowled. Snoring gave away the occupants inside.

Next door he had better luck as it was silent. That meant one of two things -- either the person inside was a quiet sleeper, or they were out at a tavern. Better luck if they were out of the city altogether. Surely if someone were awake at that time they’d be making some sort of noise? Surely. There was no light coming from the crack under the door either. Risky business but the door was as good as any.

Cor nearly jumped out of his skin as a drunk came rambling down the passageway. He was laughing to himself and it didn’t seem like he even noticed the worried boy standing awkwardly against a wall. As soon as the man passed Cor let out a breath from between his teeth. Next person could easily be a Knight, he’d have to move quick.

He didn’t bother to check with the cone again and swapped it with his lock picking tools. Now came the hard part. The two metal pieces were inserted into the lock and he starting his fishing. His father had taught him how to pick open their own door when was just young, in case he was ever trapped outside and something had happened to Gran. He probably hadn’t counted on it becoming so handy for the boy on the other doors of the city. With a few close attempts and lots of clicking and scrapes, the lock gave way.

Cor turned the handle and slipped inside, closing the door quietly before turning to face the room.

Cor / Others / 497 words

[Coryn]

Nighttime bought with it two things. The first was a dramatic change in Coryn’s appearance. Her pale skin and hair darkened, the former turning rich and pearlescent, almost marble-like in it’s smooth and flawless appearance. Her eyes, which in the day held a mirror image of Laviku’s aquatic domain, fell deep and violet. She grew in height, as well, stretching up and up until she stood a good five inches higher than her diurnal self. But that was not enough: her face angled and became sharp, but magnificently so. The stares that others gave her were out of appreciation, she knew, but that did not stop Coryn’s bitterness and intense desire to hide away.

But the horns! The horns were the worse part of her nighttime transformation. Dark emerald, they twisted towards the back of her head. There was something… strangely pleasant about stroking at them, she had found, and even now the Ethaefel touched the pointed tips of them, almost fondly as she sat miserably on her bed, engulfed in the darkness of her room.

That second gift from Leth - how his name made her grimace like a bad smell! - was the distinct souring of Coryn’s mood. She could hardly be described as positive or pleasant in the daytime, but in the evening she became all the more bitter. Her resent swallowed her up like some half-tamed beast turning on it’s master. There was nothing the female could do to stop it, either. Not that she had found so far in her miserable earth-bound existence.

So Coryn drank wine. This new habit of hers was incredibly hypocritical; she worked in the taverns in the daytime, condemning the men and women who walked in and swaggered out bells later, slurring and pissing themselves and stinking of ale. She found them pitiful and pathetic, little better than the rodents that skittered across her home in the night, picking up any crumbs she had dropped during her mealtimes. But as soon as Leth ascended into the sky, Coryn suddenly found her own self to be just as pathetic as any daytime drunk.

And so she would buy a cheap, poor quality bottle of wine, which typically lasted her two nights, and sip from it for as long as she was conscious to do so. She would extinguish all the candles in her home - and sometimes even those in the outer hallway too, lest the candlelight leak into her home under the crack of the door - and sit in the darkness, stewing in her own suffering.

Tonight was no different, and she was on good form. More than a quarter of the wine was gone already, which was a miracle as it was truly vile stuff. Bitter and acidic, it made the Eth wince and scowl each time she took a gulp, but the taste alone was not enough to stop her habit. Her mind was fuzzy already, and thought processes delayed and blurry.

So, when Coryn saw the tiniest slip of dim light crack through her now open door, she said nothing, and merely leant deeper into the bed to avoid the unpleasant brightness. She should have been panicked, or at the very least annoyed that she had an intruder, but instead she felt nothing, and said nothing. Drunkenness suited her remarkably well indeed.

ledger-10GM for 1 bottle of wine

[Cor Alspach]

Darkness surrounded the boy. The room thick with it. Darkness and only the mute sounds coming from the street. Cor swallowed and the sound filled his ears. Blinking his eyes a few times didn’t even help. The boy had never been in housing that sported windows, no everything was the same in the depths of the castle so he wasn’t expecting that. He had at least imagined that the hearth would be burning low. But nothing. Perhaps the owner had gone away? If that was the case then he couldn’t count on any valuables left behind. If all else failed there was usually at least a blanket on the bed and that would have to do.

Stealing right from people’s homes wasn’t a new thing for Cor. He could remember slipping into someone’s apartment as a four year old. Of course he was caught and thoroughly punished by his grandmother but it had just been the start. His eyes had been opened to the fact that some people had more stuff than he did. Some people had really nice stuff. The only thing that stood in his way was a door and after some practice that wasn’t hard to get through either. As he aged the thrill of it was starting to pale somewhat in compared to being hauled off to the tanks. They would usually leave kids with a slap on the wrist and deliver them home but Cor’s face was changing into that of a teenager. Tonight was just a random jaunt. One of the last few before he submitted himself to earning honest coin. Quit while he was ahead, quit before he was caught. That was what a smart person would do.

Now thoroughly positive that he was alone, Cor swung his bag around and placed his tools back away then began digging in it. He gave a hiss of frustration as he realized that he had forgotten his flint and steel back home. Hands out in front of him he guessed a direction for the hearth and headed for it. He gave a loud “oomph” as he tripped over something that responded with a very cat-like snarl. Well, that answered his question on whether there had been someone here recently or not. Surely no one would leave a cat for very long? As he fought to keep his balance and not step on the creature again he crashed into a chair and collapsed to the ground with it. It didn’t take long for him to scramble to his feet then proceed to plow his knee straight into what could’ve been a wooden chest and could’ve been the corner of a bed.

Cor / Others / 445 words

[Coryn]

The intruder was a boy. Though he was now plunged into the same darkness as Coryn, she had seen his short form slip through the doorway into her apartment. But now the door was sealed again, and she had no clue where in her small home the lad might be. It wouldn’t take long for him to explore the entirety of her almost bare apartment, and soon enough she figured he would approach the bed, whether intending to or not. So she buried down into the covers, gripping her wine bottle with one hand and the blanket with another. She wanted to avoid being discovered as much as she presumed the thief did, though for very different reasons.

Where was he now? She strained in the shadows to track his movements, flinching when she heard a thud, like something being dumped onto the floor or table. He was currently near the hearth — for a tick Coryn could see the mental image of her left over coins lying on a table beside the fire place. Not that she cared about the money; there was less than five gold coins there, if she remembered correctly, which wasn’t even enough to buy wine. What good was money if it couldn’t be swapped for poor quality alcohol?

Kitty suddenly exploded in a rage of angry hisses and spluttered growls. Coryn grinned in the darkness, thankful for once for her feline companion. If nothing else, he was a great tattle tale and seemed far more concerned over their intruder than the Ethaefel was. By contrast, Coryn was finding this whole ordeal amusing rather than troubling.

The collision with the cat seemed to have knocked her intruder’s confidence and swagger, and she heard him bump about clumsily in the darkness. She tried to remained still, even taking the precaution of exhaling under the covers to mask the sound of her breathing and the smell of wine of her breath. But eventually, when the boy tumbled against the bed and almost joined her on top of it, she couldn’t help herself.

Coryn chuckled.

The laughter was quiet, but she was sure he could hear her. Clasping her free hand over her mouth, Coryn shimmied under the bed covers to slid across the mattress, leaning away from where the teenager had thudded against her bed. If he had heard her, she could only hope that he would attribute the sound to people outside in the hallway. Slowly Coryn planted one of her feet onto the chilly floor of her apartment, but her other leg became tangled in the blankets. She was, at least for the next chime or so, stuck.

[Cor Alspach]

Cor gave a screech. He couldn’t help it. It wasn’t just any old screech either, it was a screech from a voice that was in the process of breaking and sounded completely ridiculous, skipping an octave. He had been positive. POSITIVE that the only other being in the room was the cat. Who did that? Hiding out in the darkness laughing at people as they broke in? Was it another thief? Surely if it was the owner of the apartment they would have stopped him by now?

Even while in the middle of shock, the boy made a mental note in his head to be more prepared next time. It was poor show not to bring a light when one was entering darkness. Especially when that one couldn’t see in the dark. Normally he would expect at least some embers crackling in the hearth as the owner spent their evening laughing away in a tavern. That was if he could get into the apartments in the first place. This one had been particularly easy and he was feeling rather smug about it. A thought ran through his mind as he wondered if the door had even been locked in the first place. He hadn’t even checked it. No wonder.

Cor no longer felt quite so proud of his achievement.

“Who’s there!?” he demanded, finally stabilizing himself and shuffling back slowly as to avoid yet another collision. He could hear the whatever it was easing out of the bed, shifting linens. The different monstrous races told to him in bedtime stories as a child started filing through his head. Surely a human wouldn’t act this way? Then that would mean...It could only be a creature of the night. Was he about to be eaten? Visions of fangs and claws and scales and wings raced through his mind. At least as far as he could tell the other didn’t have glowing eyes. Driven by his imaginations, Cor started rambling, not even waiting for the response to his original question. “I-I’m sorry, I got lost, I don’t know where I am, what are you doing in my apartment? Is this not my apartment? I’ll just be on my way, don’t mind me.” His head snapped from side to side but with all of his spills he had been completely turned around. Where was the door again?

Cor / Others / 394 words

[Coryn]

The lad’s screech, followed quickly by his demanding who Coryn was, merely amused the Ethaefel further. Still tugging at the blankets and trying to free her leg from it’s cottony clutches, she giggled in the darkness, but said nothing. Instead she was waiting to hear the lad’s story, to see if he would come up with some false story to explain his uninvited presence. And, true to form, he did.

Finally free from the blankets, Coryn stalked away from where the boy’s voice had come from. Her intention was to disturb and surprise him with her stealth, but her footing was clumsy and she suspected that he could have easily tracked her drunken movements. “Oh, no boy.” She said coyly, hiccuping and then sipping at her wine, “you’re young. But you’re not that young. You—” She paused in her smile-shaped monologue to swill at the alcohol again. “—you knew exactly what you were doin’. Don’t lie. I don’t like liars.” She jerked the bottle towards him - or where she expected the young wannabe thief to be, in her lightless apartment. The action was fruitless, she realised, and so Coryn pulled the wine back to her chest, cradling it preciously. “I’d offer you a drink, but I think you’re a little young.”

She continued to pace around her apartment, every so often bumping into the wall, the hearth or even the cat. Eventually, and unsurprisingly, she came across her intruder. “There’s you are!” She claimed with proud smugness, her free hand roaming about his face and head, trying to gage what he looked like. Yes, he had a nose, and two eyes. But as her fingers traced up to his temples, she felt no horns. He was a normal boy, not someone like her. How boring.

Huffing, she plopped back down onto the bed. The minute ounce of irritation she had felt earlier about the interruption had been quelled. “So. Do you break into many apartments, or are you more selective about your choices?”

[Cor Alspach]

Cor shuffled backwards as the clumsy movements moved toward him. He backed up until he could go no further, stuck against a wall. Something did break through his thoughts though as he finally caught a whiff of the wine. This was backed up by the noticeably loud swig she -- for he picked that up by now -- took.

“—you knew exactly what you were doin’. Don’t lie. I don’t like liars.” Okay. That didn’t work then.

The boy opted not to respond to her prompts and instead stay quiet. If she was as drunk as she sounded all he would have to do would be to shuffle along the wall and find the door, then he’d be gone, quick as that. He’d be gone and she wouldn’t remember a thing, especially as she hadn’t seen him. Even if she did, what would she tell the Knights? No, he’d be safe enough if he could just find the door…

Cor’s hand grazed the handle at the same exact time someone else’s found his face. His first reaction was to bite but already the hand was moving up his face. The smell of her breath was revolting from this distance and he wrinkled his nose. All it would take would be a punch to the gut, she’d be shocked and would step away for long enough for him to make his escape -- and yet something kept him still even under her very much unwanted touch. She didn’t have claws, that much was noted. His curiosity was at it again.

The woman let out a huff, then returned to the bed. “So. Do you break into many apartments, or are you more selective about your choices?”

The boy let out a breath, forcing himself to relax slightly. If she already wanted to eat him, she would have. It was strange though that now she should choose to ask him a question instead of shouting for a Knight. He slowly found his voice. “I didn’t think anyone was here.” His confidence was slowly building as well, now that he could gauge roughly where the other was. “What are you doing here sitting in the dark anyway?” Was she blind? That would explain it and the treatment on his face. “Do you have something to light the fireplace with? It’s awfully dark in here.” It sounded a little silly saying it considering the darkness was the only reason he chose this apartment. If she was blind though, he wouldn’t have to worry about her turning him in and he might as well be able to see what he was up against.

Cor / Others / 435 words

[Coryn]

Coryn couldn’t believe it. The same boy who had broken into her apartment was now complaining that her home was too dark. Delightedly amused with this, frankly, solemn circumstance, she let out another burst of erratic and drunken laughter. “Of course! Of course! I’m such a poor hostess!” She clambered over her bed and staggered not towards the hearth, but the door.

She yanked the door open a crack, placed her wine bottle down and then closed the door again. The bottle became wedged between the door and the frame, resulting in a fine crack of light to fall into her apartment. It was hardly enough to light up every inch of her tiny home, but it was enough for Coryn to see Kitty, and indeed the boy by her bed. She squinted towards him, let out a somewhat disappointed, “oh.” And then shuffled towards the hearth.

Lighting a fire was no easy thing for Coryn to do at the best of times, let alone whilst she was tipsy. After poking tentatively at the ashy remains of last night’s fire, she sighed and sat herself on the cold floor. Two lumps of firewood and kindling were thrown onto the hearth, and then Coryn began to bash her flint and steel together in hopes of creating a spark. On half of her attempts the stone and metal did not even come into contact, and the Ethaefal would almost tumble into the fireplace. After sitting herself up and laughing, she tried again. None of her poor attempts created a single spark, and after squashing her finger between the flint and steel, Coryn was thrown into another stint of exaggerated, drunken laughter. “I caught it between a rock and a hard place!” She said, her words malformed thanks to the bruised finger held between her lips. “Oh, your turn with this pointless farce.” The flint and steel were suddenly flung towards the lad, with little care as to whether he caught it or not. “I only really light the fire for the stupid cat, anyway.” She grumbled miserably, as aforementioned stupid cat began rubbing his large head against her shoulder.

“Isn’t your mother wondering where you are?” The question came suddenly, and out of the blue. Even whilst saying it, Coryn’s attention still remained fixated on the large feline before her, who she was now stroking almost fondly. “I can tell it’s nighttime because of these.” And she tapped the emerald horns on the side of her head, her expression bleak and grim.

[Cor Alspach]

“Of course! Of course! I’m such a poor hostess!” Cor pressed himself back against the wall once more as the woman was moving again. He winced slightly at the pinging sound of glass against the stone floor as she wedged the door open. Then he noticed the woman looking straight at him and he nearly yelped again. She was human shape but she definitely had two horns protruding from her head. Maybe he wasn’t so far off with the whole monster thought.

It was a sorry sight watching the woman trying to light the fire. Cor stood there awkwardly, almost wishing he hadn’t asked. He could just easily slip out the door and be gone but leaving the woman there alone in her state that was becoming more pathetic by the chime felt a little low even for him. Even if she had horns. Still, she hadn’t eaten him when she had the chance so she got one point there. He frowned at her garbled words about the rock and hard place. Was he meant to be laughing along with her? It didn’t seem that funny. Then he let out an “Oof” as both the flint and steel caught him squarely in the stomach. He fumbled around and caught the flint but dropped the steel which clanged to the ground.

Cor scooped up the steel and tip toed over to the fireplace. It was somewhat more difficult to keep his distance as the woman was perched in front of it petting the cat. If he would feel bad for leaving he’d feel bad for pushing her out of the way -- though it was an option. Instead he just shifted himself so that he was crouching as far away from her with his arms stretching out over the wood. He balanced himself so he could quickly leap out of the way if needed, then he got to work.

“Isn’t your mother wondering where you are?” The question took him by surprise. Partly because he didn’t expect it and partly because one of the sparks finally took hold at the exact same time. The boy leaned over the fire and blew. Then scowled as the spark vanished.

“No one is wondering where I am,” He replied curtly. His hands went back to work striking the flint with the steel.

Another spark caught and the boy blew it lighter this time. To his delight it took hold of the kindling and so his work there was done. He turned to the woman just as she finished mentioning about the night and tapping her horns. His face curled into that of confusion. “That doesn’t make sense,” he told her. “Can your...horns? -- Sense the night? Why d’you have them anyway?” Somewhere deep in the folds of his mind he knew that he had seen people like her before but couldn’t remember if he had ever been told why. His eyes glanced at the crack of light coming from the door. A few questions, quell his curiosity, then he’d be gone. It was turning into a most unusual heist indeed.

Cor / Others / 515 words

[Coryn]

The kid’s frosty reply to her initial question did not go unnoticed by the tipsy Coryn. Quite the opposite, her attention lingered on his tone for a while. Perhaps he was an orphan, or had an unloving or even cruel mother. Or, perhaps more likely, he simply a boy with a bad attitude. He had broken into her apartment after all; he could hardly be classed as a model citizen.

But then, neither was she. For all the kindness Coryn had been shown since her falling, she had given little back. Certainly, thanks and appreciation were both rarely given by the Ethaefal. She was too bitter, too emotional. It was far easier to simply break the bridges that connected her to other people rather than try and cross them to make peace. Why would she need friends on this world, when she belonged in another?

So – about the boy. Coryn’s head tilted as she watched the blackness, following the sounds of his movements. And suddenly a spark caught, and then there was a little burst fire in the hearth. “Oh, well done!” She praised, her voice excited and her delight genuine. “You can break in more often, I’ve been freezing for the past few nights!”

Coryn shifted forwards, half-crawling and half-crouching as she ambled towards the flames. Briefly she held her hands out in front of her, allowing them to warm up and tingle until the heat became too much. Without moving her violet eyes off the flames, she explained: “They appear at night. My entire appearance changes at night, in fact. I’m what they call—” She swallowed down a curse word that had bubbled up to her lips. “—an Ethaefal. I have only been here for a season. And by here, I don’t just mean this shyke-hole of a city.” She snorted derisively and waved a hand in the air, indicating to the small, standard apartment in which she lived. Then, with the fire now crackling strongly, she crawled back towards the door and retrieved her wine bottle. When the door clunked to a close, she leant against it, still sitting on the floor. “So do you live here? Nearby, I mean. Also in the gut of this horrid castle.”