Last Bastion

Food was scarce those days. When the war that had been waged for nearly twenty years finally ended, the battle for survival had begun. Fathers worked themselves to death just for the fuel to keep their family’s hearth warm, and mothers who could not stand to see the shrunken faces of their starving children would sell their bodies for a mere morsel of bread.

Children were not spared from the harsh realities of the world either. Though their parents did everything in their power to protect them, every child in those days knew the pain of hunger, the cruelty of strangers, and the uncaring bitterness of a world that preyed on the meek.

But despite the hunger, and the desire to feed her family, Elena would never accept the fat sack of silver her brother proffered under her nose. The man who traded in the lives of their parents would have to offer more than a coin purse to earn her love back.

“Elena please,” he said, jingling the money slightly, urging her to take it.

He stood on the threshold of her tiny shack, dressed in fine leathers, and standing with a proud and noble stature he never learned during their childhood. Everything about him now made her nauseated, his long greased black hair, and his pale features, but the most sickening thing of all was the pity on his face as he held out the sack of coins.

“Your children are hungry, and from looking at you I’d wager that you’re hungrier than them.”

It was true. Every scrap of food since the end of the war had gone straight into the bellies of her children. She could never bring herself to eat unless her babies were fed first, and the evidence was in her gaunt visage, and her jutting ribs, but she still would never accept his money.

“I don’t want your blood money, Alek,” Elena said through gritted teeth. She struggled to stand as her head began spinning from hunger, but she managed to hold her ground out of spite.

“Elena, if you starve, who will be there to care for your children?” he argued.

Anger welled up in her, and the last dregs of her energy were summoned forth as she slammed her fist into his face.

“You killed our parents!” Elena cried, tears welling up in her eyes as she swayed dizzily. “They would’ve been here to care for them if I couldn’t!”

“They would’ve gotten us killed Elena,” he said angrily while rubbing his cheek.

“No.” Elena denied, shaking her head emphatically, “They did nothing to oppose the empire.”

“Our mother was a Tsija, and our father had always made his opinions of the Red Reform clear!” he spat, “It was only a matter of time before the Krar would’ve arrived at our door to round us up and send us all to the mines.”

“And that is who you support now.” Elena mocked, “The Krar who came in the dead of night and stole our parents away?”

“It’s better than starving in the slums.” Alek snapped.

“I may be the one living in the mud, but you’re the pig Alek, just as the emperor you serve!” Elena said scornfully, earning a frightened look from her brother who hushed her frantically and glanced over his shoulders.

“Shut your mouth Elena.” he hissed, “What if someone heard you?”

“Then they would ship me to the mines, and I’d die in the darkness just like our parents!”

“Elena please, just take the coin. I didn’t come to fight, I only came to see you and make sure you and your children were fed.”

He looked truthful, but she could never bring herself to trust him.

“Just leave Alek.” Elena sighed wearily, unable to tolerate his presence a moment longer. “Please just leave, and take your only worth with you.”

“If you take the money I promise you will never have to see me again,” Alek begged.

Elena’s curiosity was suddenly piqued. For eight years her brother hasn’t cared at all what happened to her, but now he shows up to force a sack of coins on her and just leave?

“Why do you care what happens to me? After what you did to our parents I find it hard to believe that you care if I live or die, so what is it? What’s the truth?”

Alek looked at her with a mixture of hurt and anger.

“I do care if you live or die Elena. I did what I did to keep you safe. Everything I’ve done has been to keep you alive. To protect you.”

“That’s funny.” She scoffed.

“Yeah well, when you fall dead from starvation no one will be laughing,” Alek said, tossing the sack of coins at her feet and turning to walk away.

She didn’t go to stop him and was honestly quite glad he finally left, but when she looked down at the sparkling silver that was scattered at her feet, she couldn’t bring herself to turn her back on a chance to feed her children. Sometimes accepting silver from a snake was a mother’s only choice.

And the silver was put to good use too. She managed to get some wrinkled apples, a few potatoes, a head of cabbage, a dense loaf of barley bread, and a hunk of salted pork thrown in. With plenty of silver left over, she was confident she could make the rest last the entire year if spent wisely and prices didn’t increase any further.

The marketplace of Brikshir wasn’t a place to drop one’s guard, however. Pickpockets amassed among the stalls searching for the next unwary victim, and many of them wouldn’t refrain from simply stabbing you to death and taking what they wanted from your corpse.

But Elena wasn’t unprepared. She had her weapons, and they were all strapped to her belt at her waist.

“Interestin’ belt you’re wearin’,” an elderly woman commented as she handed Elena a bruised onion. “What’s in the bottles?” she asked.

Elena’s hand went down to the leather belt that had belonged to her mother, feeling the comforting smoothness of the glass bottles that held several different poisons in them.

“Oh, nothing.” Elena said smiling as she slid a coin towards the woman, “They’re just decoration.”

Her hand remained at her belt the entire way back home, hovering over a particularly nasty poison that she knew would bring a quick, but definitely not painless, death. Only when she reached her dilapidated shack with thatch roofing, and wattle and daub walls with greying whitewash did she relax and allow her nerves to settle, but she wouldn’t have had she seen the cloaked figure that had followed her home.