Mistia was strangely beautiful at sunset, the mist glowing with the same orange hues as the setting sun. But only those who lived in the upper levels of the city ever glimpsed that beauty.
Ashen had heard stories of how the city looked ethereal beneath the full moon, bathed in silvery grey light shimmering through the mist. The orphanage lay deep within the city's shadows, that when he looked up at night, all he ever saw were the towering silhouettes of highborn castles and the swirling mist that clung to them like a heavy cloud.
Another reason he'd never seen the full moon was that Mistia became dangerous after dark. This was because the shadewrights came alive at night, free to wield their magic while most of the city slept. Their clashes often led to battles that spilled into the streets, endangering anyone unlucky enough to be caught between them.
Ashen's thoughts drifted to Simeon, one of the older orphans who had died at the hands of a shadewright, burned to a crisp by fire magic. The memory of seeing his burnt skeleton still left a cold knot in Ashen's stomach and made him walk faster toward the orphanage, lest he get caught up in a battle of shadewrights, or worse, between the Black Guard and the rebels.
Over the past few months, the rebels had been intensifying their activities, especially in Mistia. A couple of minor houses had been attacked, and it wasn't until they attacked House Hersch, one of the thirteen major houses, that the Black Guard started taking them seriously. They increased their patrols, sometimes even enforcing lockdowns whenever there was an attack by the rebels, which was quite often.
Ashen found himself despising the rebels. They did nothing good and only made the lives of those they claimed to fight for worse. For him, pickpocketing had become even more dangerous, and the streets held fewer targets.
Why don't they just accept their fate like everyone else? He thought. Nobody could defeat an empire ruled by an immortal emperor who'd killed a god. All they could do was accept and live, rather than fight and die.
Finally, the orphanage came into view. Looking at it from the outside made Ashen wonder how, in all of his fifteen years living there, it hadn't collapsed. The building was old, its walls covered in soot from the factories and moss darkened by the mist. Different mismatched bricks showed where repairs had been done whenever the wall was damaged. Still, he wasn't complaining as the terrible wall was how he managed to sneak out of the orphanage.
Before he could slip around to the back, where the orphanage shared a wall with a church, the familiar beggar stationed outside spotted him.
'Ashen!' The man shouted, baiting him into approaching before Jorren's loud voice could draw the matron's attention.
'Don't you know I snuck out? Why are you shouting my name?' Ashen hissed, keeping his voice low.
'I know, but would you have come to me if I hadn't?' Jorren asked, lifting a bowl containing a few coins. Ashen glared at both the bowl and the smirking beggar, then sighed and handed him two silver coins.
'Looks like today was fruitful. I should be a pickpocket too,' Jorren joked, though Ashen didn't find it funny. Jorren was missing a leg and could only walk with wooden crutches.
'If you wanted more coin, you shouldn't beg outside an orphanage.' Ashen gestured to the nearly empty street around them, populated only by lowborn citizens.
'Huh. You have a point. I thought the highborn who come to adopt children would spare some coin for a cripple.' Jorren laughed at that, and Ashen joined him, though only because of the bitter irony. Few people ever came looking to adopt. In fact, it had been years since any child was adopted from the orphanage.
'Sometimes it seems you're only here for me. What will you do when I'm gone?' Ashen asked and that only made Jorren laugh again. 'Anyway, take care. I've heard the black guards have been ruthless lately.'
'Luckily, I'm just a harmless beggar.' Jorren waved him off, then turned to someone passing by. 'Help a needy person!' The person ignored him, as expected. Out of pity, Ashen handed Jorren yet another coin. The man needed it more.
From inside the orphanage, the matron's voice echoed, calling for the children to hurry or risk missing supper. That was Ashen's cue to sneak back in. He jogged around to the back, removed the sheet of iron covering a gap in the wall, and crawled through, making sure the small bag of goods he'd bought wasn't crushed.
'I'll take this.' Came the matron's harsh voice as she seized the bag from his arms. He'd been caught.
'Will you believe me if I said I worked in the factory?' Ashen grinned, trying to appear innocent. That trick might have worked when he was younger.
'No,' she said flatly. The matron was a large woman in her fifties, the closest thing most of the orphans had to a mother. She was strict and could be terrifying when she wanted to be, as she did now.
'Well, I wasn't in the factory… I was…' Ashen realized he didn't even have a lie prepared.
'You were robbing people in the street?'
'Hey, I was pickpocketing. There's a difference.' He defended himself.
'It doesn't matter, because it was wrong.' She sighed, mist puffing from her lips as the night grew colder. 'I'm not going to give you another lecture. I've given you so many, and nothing has changed.'
'Phew. I thought I'd be punished.' Ashen turned toward the dining hall, where lively chatter echoed.
'I didn't say you wouldn't be punished.'
'I'm too old for a spanking.' He chuckled at the thought.
'But not too old for missing supper.' She smiled at his look of dismay. Even though the food was terrible, he'd grown used to it that it now tasted good.
'That's cruel.' He began to walk away, then stopped. 'There are some sweets in there for the little ones.'
'They'll get them,' she promised, her tone softening. Though she liked to act tough, she was still the sweet, motherly woman who'd raised them all. Luckily, she hadn't searched him for the pouch that held some of his coins, and the strange orb he planned to sell the next day.
Even though he wouldn't be eating, Ashen went into the dining hall anyway. It was the best part of the day for the orphans, a time to trade stories, sing, and relax after an entire day of work and study.
The sudden warmth and bright lantern light hit him as he stepped through the door. Inside, the mist was barely visible, another reason Ashen loved supper time.
The orphanage housed about forty children, ranging in age. Ashen was among the oldest. At sixteen, they'd be forced to leave and start their lives outside. The older kids were fewer in number since some left earlier. They all sat together at the back, as though they were kings and queens over the small kingdom that was the orphanage. The younger ones sat at the remaining tables, one of which was reserved for the matron and staff.
Though Ashen had never had a family, this was what he imagined one felt like, and it was why he'd never left.
As he made his way through the room, younger children crowded around him, excited. They all knew that whenever he snuck out, he usually brought back gifts.
'Not today. But I hear Mother has some for you,' he said, and the children cheered excitedly. They all knew the gifts were from him, which made him smile. It felt good to be needed, and to help others.
'I take it you won't be eating,' said Kith, one of the older children, as Ashen sat down.
'I'd say I didn't deserve it, but I do.' Ashen turned to the five-year-old child on his lap. 'Isn't that right, Liora?' Sith and Liora were siblings who'd come to the orphanage five years ago, when Liora was only two months old.
'You disobeyed Mother. You should be punished,' Liora said, her gap-toothed smile bright.
'So…' Ashen pulled a sweet from his pocket. 'Because I stole this sweet, you shouldn't get it?'
'Uh!' Liora's brow furrowed, her mind racing to solve the dilemma. But Kith quickly took the sweet and handed it to her.
'Don't bother her with tough philosophical questions yet. She's still a child,' Kith said, protective as ever.
'She is, but in this cursed world of ours, one should learn early that life isn't so black and white. Sometimes, doing bad things is good.' Ashen grinned as Sith glared at him for saying something so contrary to his moral worldview.
'You shouldn't say that to a future black guard,' Laina, a girl their age, teased. It was no secret that Sith admired the Black Guard and wanted to join them. Like Ashen, he was a shadewright, though his magic was still weak, especially compared to the highborn woman Ashen remembered from earlier who had the same magic as him. Still, Sith never gave up as becoming a black guard meant he could provide for his sister.
'It'll be good to have a black guard for a friend. He could bail me out of jail if I ever get caught.' Ashen winked at Sith, knowing it would bother him.
'Nonsense. He'll probably arrest you himself,' Laina said, provoking Sith further. She turned to Ashen. 'Who did you rob today?'
'Pickpocket.' He corrected. 'It was a highborn woman,' Ashen said. Sith shook his head in silent disapproval. 'She deserved it, though.' Ashen continued telling them how the woman had chased him with black guards in tow, exaggerating the story to make himself sound more heroic. Even the other children at nearby tables were listening, much to the matron's annoyance.
'You should be more careful. Your actions have consequences,' Sith warned once Ashen finished.
'Obviously,' he paused, a smile forming on his face, 'the sweets you're all enjoying.' That made the children laugh, and soon they were cheering for him.
Soon, it was time for bed. The older children helped clear the dining hall while the younger ones went off to sleep. Only Liora lingered, refusing to leave her brother's side, which made Ashen wonder how she'd manage when Sith was gone. Under the matron's watchful eyes, they then cleaned the hall before being sent to bed.
'Laina.' Ashen called softly as he approached her, aware of the matron's hawk-like gaze. 'Here. I remember you said you wanted a hair clip.' He handed her a hair clip he'd stolen.
She blushed as she took it. 'Thank you. I didn't expect you to remember.' For a moment, it felt as though the world beyond the two of them didn't exist.
'I… well, I bought it so you'd stop bothering me.' He tried to appear indifferent, but her knowing smile told him she didn't believe it.
'Still…' Her smile faded as realization struck. 'Did you buy it with stolen money?'
'Uh… no.'
She raised an eyebrow.
'I assure you, I didn't buy it with stolen money.' Technically, he wasn't lying.
'Well, thank you.' She smiled again, but the moment was shattered as the matron snapped her fingers.
'Laina, stop listening to his lies and go to sleep.' She turned to the boys. 'And the rest of you, don't go sneaking into the girls' dormitory!' She barked, reminding Ashen of the several boys who'd been caught trying exactly that a few nights earlier.
Ashen was the last to enter the dormitory. Nearly everyone was already asleep. He slipped between the narrow beds to his own, which wasn't even made. He promised himself to fix it the next day as he crawled under the thin blanket.
He removed the pouch and tucked it beneath his bed. Tomorrow, he planned to take the coins to a hiding spot he'd dug outside the city walls, where he kept most of his savings for the day he would finally leave. He would have to find a buyer for the strange orb though, hoping to get some coins from it.
He found himself thinking of what he'd do once he was on his own. He couldn't work in the factories, that much was certain. He couldn't be a pickpocket forever, either. He needed something more.
Maybe he could join Sith and become a black guard too. The idea made him chuckle as he imagined himself in the black leather cloak of the Guard. But he quickly dismissed it. His magic was too weak for anything other than pickpocketing. Maybe he could join an adventure guild in the dark lands, or even a gang in the city.
As his eyelids grew heavy, distant sounds of battle echoed through the city. It had to be a shadewright fight, but between whom? Two gangs? Rebels and the Black Guard? Or a highborn feud between rival houses? Tensions were rising everywhere, even among the highborn.
Just as he was drifting off, the door creaked open. Ashen almost dismissed it as the matron's usual check, but then he saw her eyes fixed on him.
'Ashen?'
He groaned as he climbed out of bed. 'What is it?' He asked, annoyed at being woken when he'd finally been about to fall asleep. Didn't she know how hard it was to find sleep on these thin mattresses?
'Come with me.' Something in her voice made him curious. It wasn't strict or harsh, but tinged with fear. Was one of the children sick?
He followed her into the dining hall, where the lanterns were lit. The moment he stepped inside, he understood why she was afraid.
Standing there were the two black guards who'd chased him earlier, and worse, the familiar face of the highborn woman he'd robbed.
When she saw him, her lips twisted into a sadistic grin. 'I bet you didn't think I'd find you, you thieving, disgusting orphan!'
'Ashen, what have you done?' The matron asked, her voice full of concern. Finally, the consequences of being a pickpocket had caught up with him.