The path to the docks was as twisted as the people who dwelled there. Rune once asked a fisherman if he could earn a fish for every haul he made, but the man spat at his foot, muttering the words street rate before turning back to his nets. He understood why icy stares would follow him whenever he visited the place. It was common knowledge that he was associated with the Madam; however, since the Reapers owned most ports, unease spread whenever he visited due to the Madam's history of overtaking territory.
Reaching the docks, Rune entered the fish market, his eyes searching for a short seven-year-old boy with dark brown hair cut close to the scalp.
"Ru, look over there, grilled fish." Elsie waved her hands in front of his eyes, blocking his view.
Rune pushed her arms to the side. "I know Elsie."
"Then let's go, Ru."
"We'll go once I get our coins."
"But Madam said she won't give us coins."
Rune didn't bother explaining to Elsie because he had locked eyes with a pair of honey-gold ones that widened in recognition. Right when Rune took a step in their direction, the owner of those eyes took off running.
"Oh, no, you don't." Quickly, Rune undid the satchel holding Elsie on his back and placed her on a barrel by Mavrik's stall, who had previously dealt with Madam. He was familiar with Elsie and Rune, often providing them with information about which streets to avoid on days when disputes broke out between the Reapers and vendors.
Not bothering to tell her where he was going, Rune looked at Elsie, pointing at the stall. "Wait with Mavrik, I'll be back." Then he took off sprinting in the same direction as the gold-eyed person.
Without Elsie on his back, Rune was faster than the Reaper's delivery boy, who did not have to carry twice his weight when making deliveries.
Weaving in and out of alleys, the distance between himself and the boy shortened until Rune grabbed onto his waist and tackled him to the ground. The two rolled on the ground, each grappling for the upper hand. A crowd started to circle their brawl with the other street orphans, edging them to unleash blows.
Just when Rune had an opening, he raised his fist and brought it hard to the face beneath him but only met empty air. A firm grip pulled onto him, ripping him away from the boy right when he was about to land the punch. Members of the Reapers suddenly surrounded them, dragging them apart.
Rune felt winded. His exhales came out in short, heavy pants as he tried to get air back into his lungs. He hadn't eaten for two days, and exhaustion from the brawl hit him hard. The honey-eyed boy with shortly clipped hair wasn't faring any better; his breaths came out in raspy gasps. However, the anger reflected on Rune's face did not mirror that of his opponent. Instead, the boy had a crazed look in his eyes as he flashed a toothless smile at Rune.
"It's good to see you too, Rune." The boy said, signaling to the Reapers to let him go.
"You're a rat!" Rune yelled as he struggled to release himself from the grip of the Reaper.
The boy snickered. "It's not like you never sold information for a couple of copper--"
"You almost cost me a limb selling my route to Frendil!" At that, the boy winced.
"They ordered me to--"
Before the boy could continue, a voice cut in.
"Now, now, Bane, don't bother refuting. You've made a mistake, don't deny it."
Bane shut his mouth, his gold eyes wavering as the informant, Silus, of the Reapers, gave him a sharp glare, commanding him to cease talking.
Rune turned to look at the newcomer and narrowed his eyes.
"Street law says I can bash the living daylights out of the bastard. Why are you interfering."
"You aren't wrong, except you forgot that Bane here is one of our own, and I can't have our delivery boy get beaten now, can I? We've got packages to send and a business to run, so how about we resolve this in a more," Silus hesitated, his lips curling in displeasure as he gritted out his following words, "civil manner."
There was nothing "civil" when it came to the Reaper's informant. Silus had a reputation for having a hand in all the secrets that went in and out of Alta, but that wasn't his only rise in fame. According to many merchants, the teenage boy tended to do anything to get the information he wanted through any means, including violence and torture. There were even rumors that he had killed the previous informant of the Reapers after discovering him speaking with a western Nythos diplomat about a business deal that involved smuggling blue rye crystals from the Reapers supply chain.
Rune couldn't believe what he was hearing. It only took a couple of sentences to condemn him to live forever without an arm or a leg, to say the least, but here Bane stood without much of a beating after being close to maiming someone. This exact situation was the very reason he hated dealing with the Reapers. The streets of Driftwood held mutual laws agreed upon by most of its street dwellers, but the Reapers had their own and refused to follow them.
"You can't just change the law."
Silus feigned cluelessness as he stared at Rune, amusement spread across his sharp, angular face. "What law? Do you mean the set of rules set out by a bunch of street orphans who wanted to try and play enforcer decided to conjure so gullible individuals like yourself could think they had some right?"
Rune was angry. He could tell Silus knew what he was trying to get across, but the Reaper didn't budge from his stance to protect Bane from the retribution Rune sought.
"Then have him pay one silver coin's worth in coppers. Surely I can ask for that much, seeing that he almost caused the Madam to start an all-out street war against Frendil."
Silus milky eyes shifted, looking back to Bane. "Explain. What does he speak about?"
Rune watched as Bane gulped, his clasped hands fidgeting, while his eyes darted to look at his own as he tried begging Rune to say something to the informer.
Rune kept his mouth shut.
"Speak up. Anytime now will do, else you have me draw conclusions that you won't like."
Bane opened his quivering mouth. "They offered me a deal."
"What deal?" Silus asked, narrowing his eyes.
Rune watched as Bane's hand lightly rested on the small pack strapped to his waist. "She said she'd supply me with blue rye crystals for a month."
The informant's raspy laugh rang out as he looked at Bane dumbfoundedly. "Who is this 'she' you are referring to?"
Rune decided to speak up as he watched Bane fall silent once more. "He told Frendil."
"Ah, Frendil. Good ol' Frendil." Silus stopped his laughter, his angular face suddenly twisting.
"And you fell for her lies!?" Silus grabbed Bane's shirt, lifting him off the ground. Pulling him close to his face, his ghoul eyes bore into Bane's face, pure rage written across his face.
"Are you naive or just simply an imbecile?" The informant's voice lowered, causing Rune to shrink back and second-guess his choice of not speaking up when Bane pleaded with his eyes.
"Did you think she would let you live after supplying a seven-year-old boy with crystal batches worth more than a single person's year's worth of wages!?"
He tossed Bane to the ground, his boots digging into the frail boy's leg, his eyes devoid of mercy.
Rune took a step forward, causing Silus to glance back at him as if he had forgotten that he was still there.
Lifting his boot off of Bane's leg, the informant adjusted the sleeves of his black linen shirt, turning back to Rune.
"Apologies for not recognizing the seriousness of the situation. You are right to seek retribution." Silus stepped forward, his milk eyes focused on Rune.
Chills crawled up his spine as Rune's instincts told him to take a step back. Forcing his body to stand still, he looked back at the informant, hoping his face masked his fear.
"20 copper coins will do."
"Not enough. Bane should pay with a limb of his own, don't you agree?"
Rune shook his head, quickly glancing at Bane, who held the leg Silus had stepped on, while quiet tears rolled down his face.
"In the end, I wasn't hurt. Nothing happened, so I think 20 coppers is enough."
Silus opened his hand to which a Reaper placed a bag of coins. "That doesn't sit well with me. Rune, was it? You have my word that Bane here won't be making such errors anymore. Isn't that right, Bane?"
"Yes. I won't do it again."
"Excellent. Now that we are all on the same page, Rune, take the coins."
The bag sailed towards him, and Rune caught it, realizing instantly it carried more than 20 coppers. Seeing Rune had caught on, Silus raised his hand, stopping him from saying anything further.
"Keep it. 20 coppers in addition to goodwill that the Reapers won't cause you further nuisances in the future."
Tucking the pouch into his pockets, Rune looked back at the informant, who continued to peer down at him.
"May Terra guide you home, Rune. As for you, Bane, a conversation is due."
Knowing when someone was dismissing him, Rune took a hasty look at Bane, who was already staring him down, vengeance sprawled in his expression.
Don't look at me like that. We're now even.
Even when Silus called out to him to follow as the Reapers left, he didn't quickly fall in line, his eyes lingering on Rune's face.
Having enough conflict for the day, Rune walked back to where he had left Elsie. The docks lay empty, a stark contrast to the activity before his encounter with Bane and Silus.
The evening was fast approaching, and the sun began to set, causing the sky to appear bright pink and orange.
As he approached Mavrik's, panic crept into his heart; Elsie was nowhere to be seen, and the barrel where he had left her stood empty.
"Elsie!"
Running toward the stall, a burly man came into his view, grilling a pair of fish over the open flame. Hearing his cry, the man's gaze caught onto Rune's alarm-filled ones.
"Ah, Rune, it's good to see now, boy."
"Have you seen Elsie?"
"Woah, calm down now, youngster."
"I can't calm down when my sister is missing! She was here on the barrel when I--"
"Ru, where were you?" Elsie came out from the back of the stall, dragging her body on the ground as she came out, stopping once reaching Mavrik's side.
Rune felt his heart settle.
I'm going to one day die of a heart attack worrying over her.
"Mavrik said you were a bad brother for leaving me here."
"He did?"
She nodded. "Mavrik also said you should take me to see the lights and have grilled fish."
"So you've teamed up against me?"
"She's asked you multiple times now, Rune. She is right to be upset."
"Yeah, yeah, go on, blame me. It's always my fault."
Mavrik grabbed his chin, scowling. "Who gave you that new bruise you've got here?" Rune pulled his face from Mavrik's grasp, annoyed by the stall owner's awareness.
"Bane."
"I've told you to stay well away from that Reaper boy. He's a ticket full of trouble."
Rune burst out in frustration. "Why do you always think it was me? He almost cost me my life by selling me out to Frendil!"
"Maybe if you left Elsie with the Madam, you wouldn't be a target for every street rat looking to exploit your weakness."
Rune didn't want to argue with the old man any further. He'd had enough. Fatigue crept into his bones, and Elsie still wanted to see the lights at Central Square.
"Let's go, Elsie."
Noticing Rune's weariness, she took the bag of grilled fish Mavrik had left at the side and dragged herself towards Rune.
Crouching, he felt her sink onto his back, her little form wrapping around him. He wrapped the satchel around her, then had the thick fabric go over her legs once more to ensure she was secure.
Without another word, he walked in the direction of Alta's center, pausing to give his thanks to Mavrik, but the elder beat him to it.
"Watch your back out there, ay?"
He nodded, bringing his right hand to his forehead—a sign of thanks in Eastern Nythos—before following the trail of people who shared the same destination as they did, all traveling toward the iron clock.