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I know that our curfew is fast approaching and can feel my nerves prickling.
“Take my word for it,” Riya says. “If it was just the necklace, or just the bracelet, then sure. It’s perfectly plausible somebody could have dropped it.”
I look from the empty streets back toward Riya, who is engaged in deep thought and pursing her lips.
“But two pieces of priceless jewelry, just left out in the open for you? That’s too much of a coincidence.”
“I have been going into the forests a lot lately,” I reply.
“So maybe what you’re looking at is a very deep-pocketed secret admirer,” Riya says. “Are there any guys who’ve had their eyes on you?”
I think a bit before shaking my head.
“If there was, I’m sure you’d know about it,” I say.
Riya nods.
“But when I picked up the jewelry, I did get an odd feeling I was being watched,” I say. “It made me feel a bit uncomfortable…”
“He’s probably just shy,” Riya says. “I’m sure as long as you wear the jewelry, he’s bound to notice and say something eventually.”
Beneath all my contemplation is a quiet, escalating feeling of giddiness. So many questions still fill my mind, and I’m not completely convinced I didn’t just steal somebody’s jewelry, which would be very bad.
But if Riya’s right and thesewereleft for me, as my gut says, that means there’s someone, probably a guy in Lowtown, who sacrificed a great deal to get them for me. It means that while I’m carrying about my days just trying to survive this grind, I’m occupying somebody’s spare thoughts.
I run through who could possibly be leaving me these gifts, and still, I come to no good answers.
Skye chatters and caws next to me anxiously, bored from remaining still for so long.
“We should probably be getting to bed, don’t you think?” I ask.
Riya chuckles a little.
“Oh, I suppose,” she says before launching into a poor imitation of Declan. “You never know who’s watching.”
I laugh, walking over to my own dormitory.
“I’m sorry, Skye,” I say, gesturing toward the cage outside. “I don’t want to keep putting you in a cage, but you know you can’t be in the dormitories, and youknowwhat happened last time.”
Skye shuffles sadly into her cage as I hold the door open, before quietly shutting the cage door. I've considered putting a lock on it, but I feel like I can trust her to not try to escape.
I walk into the door, past the empty, dilapidated corridors, and into my own untidy bedroom, where I dream of an approaching fire building toward Lowtown. But as I watch its approach, I am not worried. In fact, I feel extremely calm and relaxed, if not a bit gleeful.
5
THALI
The churning of gears fills my ear, the sounds of metal spinning against metal, motivated by the constant hum of magic. The noises of metal clattering, dropping, and crashing are distant, and they are close, coming from beyond the golden doors of the factory. They are accompanied by the constant emission of steam, from within the factory and from without, blowing out of the long, brass pipes at the top of the building.
Any moment now, I think to myself. As strangers in crude, tattered clothing, mostly human, glance at me as they walk past, both into and out of the factory and all of the adjacent metal buildings, I make sure to scowl at them in return.
I never noticed the crude metal symbols, engraved between the protrusions and pipes in the door, but I translate the old Elven runes for myself to pass the time.
Labor is life, flowing from blood to flesh to muscle. It ripples in and it vibrates out, guiding the child, growing the infant. Labor does not judge or discriminate. Fear not the honesty of labor, which molds the unskilled and shapes the untalented.
Adding to the noise, I hear the chiming of a distant bell, reverberating through the district. Realizing that I have very little time to get out of view, I raise my hood and shimmy to the side of the factory, cutting between passersby. My footsteps barely echo as they run over the stone pavement.
These workers are far too engaged in conversation to notice me anyway.
