KGWrites

James

The Kindling, Winter District, Kingdom of Aldiron

The collection of rickety homes that formed the square in which Alyx and James made their home was called “The Kindling” by the residents of the Winter District. It had earned this name on the fact that it was made from cheap wood that had been shoddily thrown together in the vague hope of creating homes. Even one stray spark was thought to be enough to cause the entire square to catch alight. Somehow, James had his doubts about this, even if a spark did land, the damp that had long since permeated the entire area would smother it in moments.

He grunted as he shifted the makeshift bed that he’d built for Lillian into place in the corner of their little basement home. The girl herself was outside in the square, haggling for rags to use as bedsheets and curtains for privacy with an old man who lived in one of the houses.

“What’s gotten itself into your head James?” Alyx asked, her voice betraying the frustration he’d known she’d had building since they’d left the Oasis a couple of hours earlier. Alyx had barely spoken since, only speaking when she was replying to a direct question from James or Lillian. James was thankful that his sister had at least remained kind faced and civil around Lillian.

“What do you mean?” James replied, turning to face Alyx. She was sat on the edge of her own bed, using a rag to carefully clean Spyder’s blood off of her dagger. Her eyes found his immediately and locked, engaging him in a totally silent battle of wills, attempting to intimidate James into surrender without needing to speak. Over the years, James had found that if an argument between the two occurred, he could easily outmanoeuvre Alyx purely through speech, her mind worked too quickly, she got angry and when she got angry, she made stupid mistakes in arguments. It was the reason James handled the money and most of the bargaining and haggling for the two of them. But if an argument got physical, Alyx won easily, she was tougher than James, having spent her late childhood and teenage years struggling to survive in the Winter District. Both siblings knew how to fight, and both knew when to run, but Alyx was better at it. She was faster than James and could throw a punch harder. It was how they worked, James was the brains and Alyx the brawn. And James knew Alyx would be worried about exactly how Lillian fit into that dynamic. But the fact that she was trying to intimidate him meant she knew he could talk her down. James refused to hold her gaze for long, looking away. He knew if he carried on challenging Alyx like that she would win the approaching argument. There was a very simple reason that James couldn’t stand against Alyx when she attempted to intimidate him.

She looks so much like mother when she glares like that. He thought to himself. He’d never tell Alyx that their mother’s eyes had had the same determined glare, or that her jaw would clench in the same square way when she was annoyed, or that the single lock of hair that kept falling onto her forehead had been something their mother had also possessed. He’d never tell her these things because it wasn’t fair. James could remember, and those memories haunted him like ghosts in the night, torturing his every moment. But Alyx had been spared most of them and had therefore been able to live a life unburdened by the nightmares of the past. James refused to let his little sister feel that pain.

But he needed to win this argument. He had no doubts about that.

Alyx gave a short, exasperated huff and flicked her head, attempting to move that ever present rebellious lock of hair from her forehead.

“We can barely feed ourselves. We spend plenty of nights shivering beneath these shit blankets and we’re being constantly hounded by Trident, the guards and now Spyder as well. Just how in the hell are you expecting us to be able to care for a little girl too?” She demanded, lifting the blanket on her bed to show what she meant.

James moved up next to the door to the home, looking out through a gap between the wooden planks towards Lillian, checking to make sure she wasn’t close enough to overhear them. He didn’t turn to face Alyx as he spoke, keeping his voice calm, hoping that might keep her the same way.

“What would you have us do? Leave her to the Winter District’s mercy with no-one to rely on and Spyder hunting for her? I don’t need to tell you how that goes.” He said. At the edge of his vision, he saw Alyx lower her head, shaking it slightly and shifting her jaw. He knew she understood, that what he was actually arguing against was Alyx’s anxiety about what they now faced, probably tinged with regrets over how she had handled Spyder.

James knew she’d been caught up in the moment, and that there was little doubt that Spyder deserved what he’d been given. If he was fully honest, he was proud of his sister being the one to best and leave such a painful mark on Spyder. But that didn’t change the fact that by crippling him as she had, Alyx had moved the two of them all the way to the top of Spyder’s long list of grudges. And that his men would be on the watch for them from here on.

“No, you don’t. But come winter, if we make it that long, we’ll have another mouth to feed. And the last few winters haven’t exactly been easy with just us two.” Alyx sighed, conceding the point to James before she raised another concern.

“Then we’ll have to work harder.” James responded evenly. Then he turned to face Alyx, leaning himself against the wall.

“Besides, she’s not exactly a novice. She picked Spyder Xeros’ belt. And did you see the way she gathered up the coins from everyone else when she thought no one was looking? She’s got skills, and good instincts. She’ll be more than able to help us out.” He reminded Alyx and she locked eyes with him, her mouth forming a tight line and her brows furrowing into a frown.

“She got caught.” Alyx said simply. James threw his hand up, gesturing towards Alyx.

“Oh, because you’ve always done so perfectly. How many years’ worth of experience did you have before you slipped in that ice and broke your nose?” He asked and Alyx groaned in annoyance, lying back across her wooden pallet bed and running her hands across her face. She was silent for a moment after that, clearly processing James’ words. Working out that even if Lillian wasn’t perfect, they had the better part of a year to refine her skills with her and get her ready for the tougher times of winter. Eventually she removed her hands from her face and rested the back of one against her forehead, staring at the ceiling in silence.

“James?” She said quietly after a moment, her voice seeming calmer and less sure of herself. Instantly James was looking at a young teenage Alyx, still firmly under her brother’s wing and lacking the surety he knew her to have. He stepped forwards from the wall, coming to sit next to her on the edge of her bed.

“Yes Alyx?”

She looked up at him, her hazel eyes searching his with a question.

“What about when we get enough? When we make it, and we can run from here at last? What happens to Lillian then?” She asked and James’ heart skipped a beat. He wanted to tell her that of course Lillian wouldn’t be abandoned, that she’d come with them. But looking at his sister next to him, the person he’d gone through so much pain to keep safe and had done the same thing for him, both praying for the day they could escape to safety and comfort, the words caught in his throat. If the opportunity came, and Lillian was all that stood in the way, could he bring himself to pass it up, or leave the girl to whatever fate awaited her.

“I… I don’t know Alyxandra.” He said after a moment, reaching down to take her hand in his, fingers interlocking, as much as they could.

“I’d like to say we keep her safe, that she comes with us to safety. But when that day comes for you and me… maybe…” He trailed off, unable to put voice to the dark thoughts in his mind.

“Her problems will be her problems.” Alyx finished, her voice barely above a whisper. James chuckled. They were his words, he’d used them plenty of times, ironically it was usually to justify avoiding the type of situation they were in now. He nodded slowly, lifting Alyx’s hand and kissing the knuckles gently.

“And ours will be ours.”

They sat like that for a while, both lost in thought, before the door opened and Lillian walked in, struggling under the weight of a thick fur blanket that her black hair blended into.

“Can you help me with this?” She groaned, straining under the weight. Both the Cobalt siblings looked at her in amazement.

“Where… where the hell did you get that? How the hell did you get that?” Alyx asked, standing and walking to Lillian, lifting the blanket from her and grunting with surprise at the weight. Slowly, she carried it to Lillian’s new bed and dropped it with a solid thump onto the wood.

“One of the men living in the next street over works for one of the furriers outside the walls. He takes some home if the cuts were bad… and the bosses aren’t watching carefully. He had this old bearskin that he wanted to sell. I figured Spyder could help us out a bit and paid with a few of his coins. There’s a curtain to separate the space in a crate out in the yard, I didn’t want him to see exactly where we lived so I asked him to just drop it out there.” Lillian said simply, spreading out the black bearskin over the pallet and gesturing to the door.

James stared at her, blinking slowly. Ten minutes unsupervised and she’s found a local furrier and haggled a damned bearskin off him? Alyx turned her head to look at him, her mouth hanging open slightly, clearly in as much bewilderment as he was. Slowly, Alyx turned towards the door, and she opened it gently, as if she was prepared to find an ambush on the other side. Then she stepped through and disappeared into the square.

James looked down at Lillian, who was now testing out her new bed, rolling from side to side on the wood and shifting, looking for the most comfortable place to sleep on it. Or at least, the least uncomfortable place to sleep on it. Up close with her now, James could see how painfully thin she really was, though he could see there was a nimble, wiry strength beneath the hunger panged frame. Her dark hair was matted and twisted, and it reminded James of Alyx soon after they’d ended up on the run. He’d tried in vain to keep it clean and brushed out like she’d always had it, but eventually he’d had to cut away the dirt and matting with a knife, leaving her with the short hair she now wore. Lillian’s eyes never seemed to rest, even as she lay still on her bed, darting around the room, searching for threats in every corner. James winced, only able to guess at what she’d been through to cause that paranoia.

“Okay Lillian, start talking.” James said, causing her to look up at him and narrow her blue eyes in confusion. James gestured to the black fur she lay on.

“You’re a pickpocket with some really impressive sleight of hand, you’re clearly a good haggler and you know how to find whatever it is you need. That’s not something people are born with, you’ve learned that. And someone as young as you likely didn’t learn it all themselves. So, who taught you?” He asked and she shrugged.

“No one really, I just… watched people.” She replied, sitting up.

“Really?” James asked, his voice thick with suspicion and scepticism. He didn’t want to immediately accuse Lillian of lying to them, but if someone was going to come looking for her, he wanted to know. But she just nodded earnestly.

There was a creak to the left as Alyx re-entered the home carrying a wooden box that contained a folded cloth sheet, along with some string to attach it to. She lifted the crate to show James, nodding silently to him, a signal that Alyx now believed Lillian was telling the truth. And maybe even that she now believed James’ arguments about surviving winter before she quietly began tying the string up, letting them continue talking.

“Yeah, I learned just by seeing what worked for people and trying it myself. Sometimes it would work for me too. Other times… not so much.” Lillian explained and James sighed sadly. He knew what she meant, he’d suffered enough kicks aimed at him when he was younger. But still, Lillian was younger even than he’d been when he and Alyx first found themselves as urchins in the Winter District.

“No parents? Siblings? Friends?” Alyx asked from somewhere behind James and Lillian shook her head.

“There were a few of us when I was small. But then we stole from one of Trident’s warehouses one day…” She trailed off for a second, shuddering, her eyes distant with memory.

“Not many left after that, and we didn’t stick together. I’ve been on my own since.”

“I’m sorry.” James told her and she looked at him, blinking in confusion.

“Why? Won’t change the fact they’re dead. And I’m still here, still breathing. I’m not sorry for that.” Lillian replied, causing James to take a long, deep breath. That was the brutal way of thinking that the Winter District drove people to, he knew it well, but to hear it from one as young as Lillian…

“How long?” Alyx asked, beginning to thread the string through the sheet to make the curtain.

“Three years.” Lillian replied and both Cobalt siblings sighed. Far too long alone for someone so young. After a second though James gestured towards the cookpot against the wall and the small sack of kindling next to it.

“You’ll know how to light a fire then?” He asked and she nodded, already shifting towards the edge of the bed to get to work. He smiled.

“Good, if you get the fire lit, I’ll get some food ready for cooking and Alyx can finish setting up your room. Then once we’ve got you settled in and fed, we’ll talk about what you know, and what we can help you learn.” Lillian nodded, striding over to the fire and beginning to build a little pyramid out of kindling.

James looked at Alyx and was surprised to see his sister was smiling at him. She tilted her head in a silent nod and James smiled. Maybe things were looking up after all.