Broken Steps

Note: This is a short story written for my book, Luminous. No need to read the other chapters I've posted, because Luminous has changed a TON since then. Ryn's character is a bit different, she now has a sister, I've added new characters (also got rid of Santhi), and the plot has changed significantly. I heard that writing short stories about the world/characters of your book is helpful in getting to know your world/characters better, so I tried it out. :)

-

Idenrae, the city of rain, was a different place at night.

Wide, crowded streets lost both life and color as the sun fell. People made their way home like the last grains of sand trickling through an hourglass. In Market Square, wares were packed away and stands abandoned as their vendors left the streets in search of dinner and warm beds. Ships creaked and groaned at the boathouses and docks along the black Crescent River.

Some nights, when millions of stars spanned the sky and the moon was full and white, the river seemed to glow like silver.

But Auri was not watching over Idenrae that night.

So, the river was ink, the sky was boiling pitch, and waves of windblown rain slashed at the streets as the city clung to the foot of the mountain.

-

“Are you cold?”

Two girls sat on the broken steps of an old sanctuary, sages’ distant night songs echoing from inside the ancient building. The overhang did little to keep them dry; they looked as if they’d just climbed out from the river.

It was the older sister who had spoken. Pale and black-haired, Ryn was wrapped in a faded cloak that might have been red once. With thick eyebrows, an angular face, gray eyes, and a dark expression, she looked older than her ten years.

Her younger sister, seven-years-old and small even for her age, barely resembled the older. Her wispy brown hair was rain-soaked and her pale eyes watery and red-rimmed from crying.

“Kaisa. Are you cold?” Ryn repeated.

Kaisa’s lip trembled and she remained silent.

Ryn moved closer and draped her cloak over the girl, ignoring her own chattering teeth.

Despite the many fights she’d gotten into to defend the honor of her sickly sister, Ryn knew that Kaisa was weak. Pallid and thin, she’d almost died from a cold the year before.

Ryn could suffer being a little wet. I’ll live, she thought wryly.

“When will he come back?”

Kaisa’s voice was small.

Ryn clenched her fists. A lump rose in her throat. She tried, but couldn’t speak over it. Instead, she stared at the buildings of Idenrae as they rose steadily up the mountainside.

She thought she could make out the palace in the darkness, a mass of blue aelium lamps, imposing white walls, and lofty towers. There slept the tyrant king, only a vague and faceless figure in the back of the ten-year-old’s mind. Her world consisted only of Lower Idenrae, its dockworkers, its merchants, the children of laborers who she played with after finishing her daily chores.

The family that had twice abandoned her.

Rain pounded the streets. Lightning flashed and lit up the mountains across the great expanse of the Crescent River. Behind them, the sages in the sanctuary silenced their singing for the night. Ryn shivered.

“He’s not coming back.”

“Why? Did we do something bad?”

Ryn shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. She knew the facts, the given reasons, but still couldn’t understand it herself.

A young unmarried girl with a small child and a baby. She couldn’t care for them on her own. Leaving them in the care of her brother and his wife, she left and didn’t return. The man, his wife, five children of their own. Two unwanted. Six years passed and money dwindled.

Extra mouths to feed. The wife’s words.

In these times, it’s hard to care for yourself and your own family- let alone someone else’s children. His words.

It made sense. Why did she not understand?

The storm’s rage subsided and the rain died to a drizzle. The night wore on. They waited on the broken steps. No one came.