Cutlery hiccuped. Jake came down to her with a shit-eating grin. Half-formed plans for sneaking up to speak to him faded away.
With distinct focus, Cutlery walked out of the growing crowd of evening dancers and met Jake at a small table at the edge of the fenced stage area.
"So, uh, patrolling?" Jake inquired.
"You didn't hear?" Cutlery asked.
"Hear what? The Temple came and went without me noticing?" Jake asked sarcastically. Cutlery looked around and then leaned in.
"I got caught switching statues and was waiting here to tell you they know I'm some kind of traitor now," Cultery said. Jake raised an eyebrow.
"So you're here, dancing, and drinking?" Jake inquired. Cutlery nodded.
"I wanted to tell you and figured I could blend in. I mean look, a dress! No one would suspect me to wear a dress. Plus the last place they saw me was like a mile north of here." Cultery explained. She hiccuped again. Perhaps she was a little buzzed. Men bought drinks for others it seemed.
"Hmm. So you're not coming back to the tower. Let's keep this meeting short so they don't torture me to death." Jake said calmly.
"Yea. So uh, what can I do out here." Cutlery asked. Jake had the bigger picture of the rebel plan. Cutlery would hide the fact she was probably a fourth sliver now. Mostly for fun. Jake scratched at his chin and hemmed and hummed.
"Since you're a known traitor you can do anything. How about you draw some attention to the heretics and assassinate someone dressed as a heretic? Rumor has it they are still near the dock district. The golds seem to think they are planning to light the city on fire or something." Jake said. He looked at her.
Cutlery nodded and stood. This could be fun, just do what she wanted! Then without a goodbye, she skittered off into the night to do a few things before escalating her betrayal.
Hopefully, no one had seen them meet. Cutlery found her way through the streets till she returned to the familiar blocks of her childhood. Was it still called her childhood?
The festive areas fell behind her. The cheap taverns and pink houses came forward. Before, places like these might be hidden in alleys or between streets. In the shadier districts, they were at the forefront.
Cutlery sniffed the familiar barf and rot stenches. Alcohol drifted about in waves of breath and sweating skin. Cutlery made it to an open square she had done most of her work in. Here merchants without connections, enough to pay tolls, or smugglers, set up shop. At the far end of the square stood her old home. Mome. Many Home.
-
Cutlery climbed into Mome through an unlocked kitchen window. Some sweet buns rattled on a shelf as she crawled onto the counter. Cutlery stayed crouched on there and looked up at them. She could simply stand and grab them. Her past self begged for a bite.
Her world had expanded greatly since then. As Cutlery proudly stepped off the counter without stealing sweet buns, she saw the door creaking open. she quickly dropped to the floor with nothing but a whoosh. The door finished creaking open and a little orc child came sauntering in. He was skinny and underfed. Orcs ate quite a lot, so an underfed one was like saying the fat one had eaten only a normal man's meal that day.
The child saw the sweet buns and not Cutlery. The orc waddled forward to the counter edge and reached up. With surprising strength, he pulled himself up high enough to swing a leg up. After three swings the leg caught on the counter's edge and they awkwardly rolled onto the counter.
Then the door creaked open a little more. Cutlery watched as Mother came in. Her face was haggard. Cutlery saw that for the first time. This woman was worn to the bone. Cutlery saw something that surprised her though. A deeply hidden grin. Mother was having fun. That was likely why she hadn't stopped taking in kids yet.
The orc was focused on testing the shelf's ladder potential. They for the sweet buns. Mother closed in. The child turned as Mother lifted her arms. A scream, the sound of clothes, and then laughter.
"Sweet buns are for workers! If you're hungry go lick some alley slag!" Mother said.
"I can't eat alley slag!" The orc child said. Mother cackled and set the child down.
"Off to bed Axe, hungry stomachs train the mind." Mother said. The child looked longingly at her but found no mercy. He walked off in defeat.
Cultery slowly stood. Mother turned around to check the sweet buns and saw her. This time mother almost screamed. She held it in though. She had frozen a hand over a nearby rolling pin. Mother narrowed her eyes.
"Cuddle?" Mother said. Cutlery melted. tears, snot, and an invisible hand geyser from her stomach to her throat.
"Urherm." Cutlery choked out. Mother also choked and they hugged. They fell to the floor.
-
Mother did not ask about the Tower. They simply sat together and drank water. Cutlery asked about the kids and how things were.
"The same the same." Mother said. She sighed and ran a hand through her wispy hair. Cutlery saw so many more details about her now.
"The gangs are trying to recruit from me even more now. They want their pickpockets badly. They even come and ask some of the kids directly. They don't care about them. The kids get beaten if they get. They can't pick a damn pocket at four. It's nothing to them." Mother sighed.
She went on about hiring local strong arms to push the young gangs away from Mome. All she wanted was to keep these kids off the streets as long as she could.
"There's one gang. They're marked by these gaudy tattoos of gold. All they do is talk about how they're gonna take over this district. They picked up a lot of fights with the older gangs. Long-term gangs have been this area's law for a long time. At first, everyone thought the old guys would put them down. Then some tower slivers showed up!
They made some kind of deal. Then the slivers put down the older gangs! Like they were nothing. At least two dozen of the older member disappeared in one night. The gold gang moved in. Then the slivers left and now the golds are all that's left.
They walked around recruiting and doing things we haven't seen for a decade or so. Beating shop owners, extracting tolls, and taxing on top of Tower taxes. Whenever people try and stand up to them they just swarm them with dozens of young new members. No one anyone can do anything alone.
No one wants to team up either. Children spy in the alleys, listening. The kids start to work right out of the crib. We have half as many Silver Sashes as when you were living here. Fewer kids are getting brought here cause the golds just take them as soon as they can walk. I've seen one too many dead kids in alleys in my life, and there's even more now." Mom said.
The words tumbled out of her like a waterfall. Cutlery listened. Snoring, feat sneaking about, and hungry groans from the upper floors were dismally quiet at best. Cutlery nodded.
"I could do something about it." She said. Mom looked at her sympathetically.
"Oh, honey that's what we all think but-" Mom said then cut off as Cutlery stood. She pulled her rapier and from a standing position front flipped onto the high counter and expertly slashed all of the sweet buns.
"I've got a better idea, what if I just take down the tower itself and become queen?" Cutlery asked.
