Chapter 2
A Note to the Reader
Not all stories begin where you expect them to.
Some beginnings are hidden.Some are forgotten.Some are better left that way.
This is not the start of Venya’s story.
This is where it breaks open.
L
Chapter Two
Venya leapt across the roof.
Her feet skidded dangerously close to the edge, the wind buffeting against her face.
She kept her balance and glanced down at the street, eyes scanning for pursuers.
There were none.
She darted around a chimney and took a leap onto the next roof, finding her footing sure and stable. It had been years since she had bounded across the treetops in the Yen Forest during her eighth year, but her body remembered the careful balancing movements as if it had been yesterday. Growing up, they had learned to find the joy in climbing wherever they’d lived - houses, treetops, sanddunes. Anything to keep a child entertained.
The first signs of daylight trickled across the landscape, bringing with it a renewed sense of urgency. The streets would turn dangerous by daybreak.
An open window high in a turret was cracked open. She slipped in with ease. The room’s interior was simple, practical, nothing remarkable. She blinked hard against the sudden gloom.
A figure detached themselves from the shadows.
“Did they see you?” The voice was soft, concerned. The figure came closer, the growing light bouncing off young female features.
“No.”
The stranger’s eyes darted down to the satchel slung across Venya’s shoulder.
Waiting.
Expecting.
Venya hesitated for the briefest of moments.
Betrayal at what she was about to do bit into her. Her father’s voice echoed in her mind. His disappointment that she would break the law. That she would steal from someone.
Don’t give them any reason to single you out.
She unclasped the satchel and felt for the contents within.
Her fingers brushed cold metal.
She withdrew a large cylinder, a flash of pre morning light glancing off its exterior as she did so.
In her hands she held a golden scroll case - heavy and dangerous. The outside was etched with beautiful golden carvings, twirling up the case to a pointed tip.
Venya could not take her eyes off it.
It called to her - as a soft lullaby calls a baby to sleep - but behind the song, something stirred.
Something watched from within it.
Not alive.
But not empty.
She had not been told what it contained, only that for the price to steal it, it must have been devastatingly valuable.
“Here,” Venya said as she extended the scroll to the girl. “Take it.”
Doubt flashed across the girls face as her eyes remained transfixed on the scroll case.
Venya’s brow furrowed. “Take it.”
The scroll hung between them, the value of it oppressive in the small room.
Venya took a step towards her. The girl retreated half a step.
“Take it now,” Venya growled, thrusting the scroll towards the girl.
A beat.
“I can’t.”
Venya’s mouth went dry.
All she had risked. All that she had sacrificed to get the scroll. All that it would mean to her.
This was not how it was supposed to go. The girl had begged her for the case - offered her the world for it.
“You wanted this,” Venya growled as she forced the scroll into the girls’ hands. She shook with it.
“It was just a game,” the girl whispered. “It was never supposed to go this far. I never thought-”
“I’ve done what you wanted,” Venya snapped. “A deal is a deal.”
By now the sun had broken the horizon. The room expanded as the shadows banished to corners to wait until the next night.
“Please,” the girl crumbled to her knees as she thrust the case towards Venya. Desperately trying to give it back. “I never thought you’d actually do it.”
“You expected me to fail?”
“No,” the girl said. “Only take something of lesser value. I didn’t expect you’d actually be able to steal…that.”
They both looked at the scroll in her hands.
It sat silently between them. Silent and watching.
Something dark and ancient sat within that case.
Venya wanted to get as far away from it as she could.
“What you do with it is not my problem,” Venya said. “Just…give me what you owe me.”
The case whispered to her. Drawing her in.
“I’ll be punished,” Rayn said quietly in defeat.
Venya turned her chin coldly, unable to look at either the girl or the case in her hands.
“I did what you asked,” Venya said evenly.
The girl blinked up at her. Realising that she was all alone.
With shaking hands she fumbled in her cloak.
A small pouch clattered to the ground between them.
“Take it,” the girl whimpered.
Venya bent down and lifted the purse, hearing coins clink within. She weighed it briefly in one hand and nodded.
“The job is repaid,” Venya said, trying to keep her tone even and strong.
She turned toward the window, unlatching it as the morning light streamed into her eyes.
She’d been awake for 24 hours. Her body was exhausted, her mind drained from the night. She yearned for her bed. With hope her father would still be asleep when she arrived home.
Venya looked back at the crumpled girl on the floor who stared at the scroll case in her lap with unseeing, defeated eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Venya said and leapt out the window-
wondering if she had just made the worst mistake of her life.
