Sapphyre

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2Sapphyre's earliest memories go back to when she was five winters old and living on the streets, doing what she could to fill her belly and keep safe. Orphans and homeless children are a common sight in the city of Thorenn, the capital city of the Kingdom of Martell, located in far-east Arstevia. It is the largest city on the continent and home to the Imperial Palace, as well as the main port on the eastern seaboard. The city is broken down into districts, with the biggest being the Emerald Center, where most of the trade takes place. This is where you can purchase various foodstuffs, weapons, clothing, gems, and almost anything worth a kendra. It is bustling during the day, but once the sun goes down and the shops close up for the evening, it's a ghost town. Dock Bay is where the sailors congregate and is crowded with inns of ominous repute and whorehouses for seafaring travelers. Granite Loop is home to the laborers, with family restaurants scattered throughout. Skid Way is the dark side of the city, where thieves congregate and the authorities turn a blind eye to all happenings. The gambling houses provide entertainment for the masses and dozens of taverns line the streets. The Guild of Slight controls Skid Way. Almost all illegal activities go through that organization. There are a few other notable gangs in the area, and there are always new groups challenging the rule of the Guild of Slight, only to find themselves destroyed when they gain too much power. The Royal Compound is where the truly rich reside, as well as being home to the Imperial Palace and the barracks for the large Imperial Army. The Royal Compound is fenced in and patrolled by the Imperial Guard to keep out the undesirables.

Sapphyre surely fits into the category of “undesirable” and has only seen the Imperial Compound from afar. It is while she is looking at the magnificent castle from a rooftop in the deserted Emerald Center just past midnight that she is approached by the first person to have a real impact in her life.

“It is beautiful, isn't it?” asks the stranger, who startles Sapphyre to a point where she almost falls off the roof. “Please calm down as I mean you no harm.” The stranger appears to be a young teenager. He takes a piece of berry cake out of his pocket and hands it to Sapphyre as a gesture of friendship. She hesitates to take it from him. With a light smile, the young man breaks it in two, starts eating his half, and hands the other to Sapphyre.

She grabs it with her small hands and starts devouring the delicious treat. She nods a thank you. As she looks at the young man, she sees in him a sense of strength and a calmness that puts her at ease. He is about five feet ten inches tall, tall for his apparent age, which Sapphyre guesses to be at about twelve winters. He has long black hair, large oval brown eyes, and a small scar beneath his left eye. His garb is similar to most of the young people who wander the streets of Thorenn; however, his clothes are absent the filth that covers most of the downtrodden homeless of the capital city. She doesn't spy any weapons on him and that is not alarming, as she has no weapons of her own. As he finishes his half of the tasty morsel, he extends his hand and introduces himself. “My name is Katrivus, Kat for short, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Sapphyre,” she replies softly and accepts his hand, “and thank you for the cake.”

“I've seen you around here before. You need to be more careful when you're stealing bread in the middle of the afternoon. You don't want to be thrown in the jailhouse, believe me. I've had to break out of there once and they are not kind to pretty girls.”

Sapphyre, still very much hesitant to engage in conversation, just nods.

“So you steal during the day, engage in frivolous dreaming from rooftops at night, and steal sleep in garbage heaps and abandoned lodgings when you can. That doesn't seem like the proper way to spend one's time,” whispers Kat.

“I do what I have to do to survive.”

“I also do what I must to survive, Sapphyre,” says Katrivus as he stands up and kicks a pebble off the roof. “I lived for a long time just the way you do until I realized that if I kept going it alone I would die on the streets. So I formed a group, and now we have a place to stay. We have food to eat and have over fifty kendra saved.” He pauses for a moment and continues. “Do you know of the Black Pearl in the Row?”

Sapphyre nods yes.

“My people have a place in the basement there,” continues Katrivus. “There are fourteen of us at the moment. The proprietor lets us stay there in exchange for the occasional favor. It's not much but it's warm and dry. Please accept this formal invitation to join the Pugs. If you decide not to come, please forget we ever met and good luck to you.”

Sapphyre stands up and looks at Katrivus who is taking short steps backwards to the roof's edge. “Why are you doing this? Why do you want to help me?”

“Like I mentioned, I've seen you around. And I need more people in the Pugs,” Katrivus replies smiling. With that, he jumps off the rooftop and disappears into the dark of the night, leaving Sapphyre on the roof pondering her thoughts. As the night turns into early morning, Sapphyre shuffles down the ladder on the side of her favorite escape and searches for a place to sleep for a few hours.

The following day is cold and wet and Sapphyre finds herself walking the streets of the Emerald Center as the various shops are opening for business. She notices one shop owner being especially careless as he unloads goods from his wagon and she slides into a corner to observe. The man is taking his time going from the wagon to the inside of his shop and back, leaving plenty of opportunity for a thief to snag a bag while his attention is elsewhere. The hour is early, with not too many people out and about. Sapphyre decides to make a move. The man grabs a wool bundle from the back of his wagon and retreats into his shop, and at that moment Sapphyre slides in silence to the opposite side of the wagon and waits patiently for the man to head back outside. She sees the man grab another sack and as he is turning to enter the building, Sapphyre reaches up to steal a bundle. As she touches the top of the sack, a hand grabs her hair from behind and throws her to the ground with such force that her breath is knocked out of her. The man then puts a foot upon her chest and yells, “Hey, Floren, I nabbed myself a little w***e thief!”

Sapphyre tries to struggle, but it is of no use as the large man has her small frame pinned down to the wet pavement. Floren then comes out of the shop and reaches down with one hand, grabbing Sapphyre by the hair, and slapping her across the face with enough force to draw blood. “You think you can steal from me, you little brat? I don't know if I'm going to hand you over to the authorities or if I'm just gonna sell you m'self!” He brings Sapphyre to her feet, and as his face comes inches away from hers and she can smell the mead on his breath, he whispers, “You're a pesky little thing, aren't you? She'll fetch a nice price with this long brown hair and them dark brown eyes, won't she, Stormm?”

“She will,” he responds smiling. As the two men engage in a small bit of laughter, a dagger flies through the air and lands in Stormm's throat, forcing him to release Sapphyre as he clutches the bloody wound with both his hands. As soon as the man drops to his knees, four boys emerge from the shadows with clubs at the ready and surround the shop owner. Katrivus removes the dagger from the dying man's throat and pushes him onto his back. The air emerges from the gory wound with a gurgling noise while his mouth gasps ineffectually for breath. Red bubbles froth around his throat and trickle from his lips. Slowly he begins to suffocate on his own blood.

Floren is in shock and starts to inch away when he is struck in the back of his knees from behind by one of the club-wielding boys. He falls down to the ground, bent over in pain. Katrivus whips his head up by his hair and puts his dagger only inches from his eye. “If you'd like to live, you will not only keep your mouth shut but you'll gladly hand over to us the remains of what you have on this wagon.” He then cuts the man from his eye to his mouth, deep enough to leave a scar. “Let this scar serve as a reminder of our little meeting today. Bother this girl again and I will cut out your tongue. Do you understand?”

Floren nods in understanding and Katrivus kicks him in the back as the four other boys take the contents from the wagon. Grasping the shaken Sapphyre by the arm, Katrivus leads her away.

That night, as Sapphyre is eating in the basement of the Black Pearl Tavern, discussing the terms of her membership in the Pugs, she feels a sense of family for the first time in her short life. After eating her fill and bathing for the first time in many weeks, she falls asleep on her bed of straw with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Over the next three winters with Katrivus and the Pugs, Sapphyre learns various ways to earn a profit and is trained to use a dagger and pick a man's pocket without him feeling a thing. Kat's skills are advanced beyond his fifteen winters. He teaches everything he knows to the aspiring thief. She is a quick study and after only a few winters in the service of the Pugs has gained herself the respect of the small brotherhood.

At night, when they are not out stealing, Katrivus and Sapphyre engage in conversation about all aspects of life. Kat does most of the talking. Sapphyre is quite happy to listen to the young man pontificate with passion about the empire he plans to build. He talks about his admiration of the Guild of Slight and how they have used their power to control most of the gambling in the city and even have politicians in their back pocket. He talks of philosophers and entrepreneurs, of trade and commerce, and it all fascinates Sapphyre. When she inquires as to how he knows so much, to her amazement he responds it's from reading books on history. This is something that is foreign to Sapphyre, as she has never known anyone who was able to read or write.

That is when her education truly begins. Katrivus spends hours at a time teaching Sapphyre. He steals books just so he can read them to her and have her read them back to him. Sapphyre buries herself in her studies and if she was a quick learner with a dagger, she is even better with the written word.

Katrivus warns her, “The less people know about you, the better, so there is no need to advertise your ability to read and write. The knowledge you can gain from appearing ignorant is beyond measure.”

As the Pugs gain in power and size, they expand their operations beyond petty theft. The kendra they acquire over the winters enables them to purchase a small hovel in Dock Bay, believing if they situate themselves by the pier and away from Skid Way, they will keep from being discovered by the Guild of Slight. Some of the older members of the Pugs even get legitimate jobs on the docks for the purpose of finding out information. One of these acquired tidbits lead to another monumental point in young Sapphyre's life.

The rumor was that a barge would be arriving from the far northern continent with goods of unimaginable value. Assailing the ship would be out of the question, as it would be guarded at all times. Katrivus decided that they should obtain a copy of the shipping manifest and see where the goods were being distributed.

After obtaining the inventory list, they peruse it and come up with a plan of action. Katrivus, looking over the list, quietly summarizes, ”Most of the goods are being sent to the Imperial Palace, and that will be out of the question. A handful will be immediately put to sea again and we can't risk our contacts on the docks to attempt those. There are goods being distributed to the wealthy citizens of our own capital city.” With a grin on his face he decides, ”That is where we shall make our move.”