Early Summer, 4704 (Korvosa)

It was really just dumb luck. Kali was idling around an artists’ stall in the Gold Market while her mom shopped for some fresh produce when a boy maybe a couple of years younger than her caught her eye. He had the look of a Shingles kid. Kali had been to Korvosa often enough that she could generally pick them out even when they were “cleaned up” enough to prowl the crowded streets for easy marks, and sure enough, she saw him move in behind a tall, wiry man with short black hair that was not paying close enough attention to his coin purse.

Kali watched him bungle the theft. Just as he reached for the small, leather pouch, the black-haired man stepped back unexpectedly and the boy bumped into him.

“Excuse me! I’m sorr…Hey! THIEF!”

The boy had made the best of the situation by just yanking the coin purse away and bolting. He had the advantages of a head start and a bustling crowd where no one knew what was happening.

Except for Kali, who watched it all unfold. The boy’s escape route would bring him right by the stall where she was standing. He was so focused on getting out of the plaza and into the streets—and away from his pursuer—that he didn’t notice her at all, the only face in the crowd ahead that was staring directly at him. She stepped into his path as he darted around an elderly woman, brought up her foot, and sent him sprawling onto the pavement. The coin purse flew out of his hand.

And that should have been the end of it.

Two days later (Korvosa)

Kali allowed some fear to show on her face. That was probably for the best since it was what they were expecting to see and she didn’t want to make this worse. In all honestly, she wasn’t really all that worried: it was the middle of the day, plenty of people saw them jump her, and it sounded like one or two had even gone for help, so whatever these kids were going to do it was going to have to be fast. And, most important, they hadn’t pulled out anything lethal.

She just wanted them to get it over with, really, but showing indifference would send the wrong message. Life was hard among the Shingles: you weren’t just impoverished, you were also at risk from the imp, spiders, and everything else that stalked the rooftop. To survive that, especially as a kid, you had to be clever or tough; preferably both. The last thing she wanted to do was give them an excuse to have to prove this to her. She already expected this to be bad.

So she was completely shocked when the first punch landed in her abdomen. So shocked that she almost forgot to crumple forward in response. Are…are they trying to knock the wind out of me? This wasn’t how things went back home. If Ianca or the twins were to ever trap her like this, they would just get to the point, and likely break her nose (or try to, at any rate).

Kali let her legs give out and she sagged forward, forcing the two boys holding her up to support her full weight. Not prepared for this, they chose to drop her to the ground, instead, and she curled up into a protective ball. A part of her appreciated the irony of this situation. For two years, now, she’d been the subject of regular poundings, and for the first time she was getting one that she had actually earned, and this is what it amounted to.

They started kicking her—painfully hard, she had to admit—along her back, arms, and legs. She withdrew into herself, drawing upon all she had learned over the past year and a half from studying Unbinding the Fetters, and found a center of calm inside her own thoughts. The blows slowly receded into the distance until they were inseparable from her body’s own rhythms, and the pain faded with them. There was no sensation and no time, just the regular thump-thump of her heart beating.

And then the kicking stopped. She expanded her awareness, opening up to let in the world around her. She heard the oldest boy talking, saying something to her about having taught her a lesson. About interfering? Or something. A lesson? she thought. I get worse beatings twice a month just for breathing. From kids half your size. Part of her found the whole thing kind of pathetic and sad. But she wisely said nothing, instead laying motionless on the ground. It’s what they expected, after all.

She heard their lookout shout a warning followed by the sound of them scattering, then some new voice yelling something she couldn’t make out. Heavy boots ran past. She opened her eyes and lifted her head just in time to see a large figure crouching down next to her. He was dressed in the gray uniform of the Korvosan Guard.

“Miss! Can you hear me? Are you hurt?”

Kali sat up, said “I’m fine. Thank you,” smiled weakly at him, and started rummaging through the folds of her sari for her pouch.

“Young lady, I saw what they were doing to you. Are you sure you are not hurt?”

“Hmm? Oh. Yeah. They were kicking me,” came her distracted reply.

The guard looked incredulous. “It seemed much worse than that! We should—”

“They didn’t hit my head. And I’m not bleeding. And nothing’s broken.”

Kali stood, holding the pouch she had pulled from inside her clothes.

He stood up beside her, looking concerned. “I don’t think you should be getting up just yet.”

“What? Why not?” She pulled a small vial out of the pouch and removed the stopper. There was some writing in Tien on the label stuck to the glass. The guardsman just stared at her, bewildered, as his partner, a woman with short black hair, came running up to them.

“I couldn’t catch any of them. How is she?”

“I’m fine,” Kali said, downing the vial’s contents. She immediately felt the aches, bruises and scrapes vanish.

“What was that?” the woman asked.

“Just a healing potion.”

“You just said you were—”

“I don’t want to be sore tomorrow. And covered in bruises.”

The two guards looked at each other as Kali put her pouch away. There was faint tinkle of glass as she did so.

“Why…? Wait. Just how many of those do you have?”

“Only the three.” Kali frowned briefly. “Well, two, now.”

They looked at each other again. This time, the man spoke. “Are your parents nearby?”

Kali started brushing the dirt off of her clothes as best she could. “Hmm? Oh. Probably. Why?”

“We should talk to them! Tell them what happened to you!”

“What? Why? They’ll just worry.”

The guards exchanged inscrutable looks. Kali ignored them as she finished tidying up. She’d need to find a shop with a mirror to fix her hair before getting back to her grandparents’ home, but this was good enough for now. She bowed slightly to them and said, “Thank you for running them off. I don’t enjoy being kicked.”

Then she walked away, leaving them standing in the alley.

 

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