When Remel jabbed the key to the back door of her boutique that morning, the doorknob came loose and rolled off the doorstep.

"Not again"

She muttered to herself, hands on her hips. Looking up at the second floor through the rim of her hat, she narrowed her eyes.

"Can you believe this?" pointing at the decorative door ajar, she complained. "At least they didn't break in through the windows this time!"

Ten out of ten times her shop was robbed in the past, Remel had to replace the windows on top of the loss, adding insult to the injury.

Though the display glasses were intact, the door needed repairing. That would cost a small fortune. Remel sighed wearily and surveyed around to find bloody footprints going in, but none coming out.

"I know, I know" Remel swatted her hand, looking around for something to defend herself with. "But rent is cheap here, you know this."

The sun was already out and shining, but people in this part of Frostgate did not start their day until noon. They drank until wee hours, went home to beat their women and children, and slept until lunch. On their way home they broke into unsuspecting shops, mugged passersby, or stabbed someone to death.

After a few minutes of scavenging, Remel settled for a glass wine bottle she found abandoned on the street. There was a wide range of those to choose from, casted aside after they ran empty. The entire back alley smelled like soured wine, rotten sick, and pee.

Remel gathered her black skirt in one hand, and swung the bottle into a wall, full force. The bottom shattered with an air splitting crack. Glass shards rained against cobble stone, collided, and crushed.

"That will do" she nodded to herself, inspecting the glass fangs. Clutching the bottle neck, she stomped over to the door, determined to dig them into whoever had enough audacity to lounge around after breaking in. She gave the wooden door a gentle push, and it opened with a loud creak that sent her teeth on edge.

The makeshift weapon poised over her head, Remel took a cautious step inside. The boutique smelled of dust and linen. Sunlight filtered in through the windows, making her awkward wooden mannequins draped in fabric look hauntingly alive.

Her eyes darted around, trying to find the culprit. Nothing was stolen or damaged.

Then she paused, like a cat hearing the footsteps of a mouse.

"What? What did you say?" Remel looked to her right, her eyes widened. Taking a step back she bent down, looking under her table. "Where?"

She narrowed her eyes. Wasn't that a mannequin? She grabbed a thin leg and felt the soft flesh sink under her grip.

It wasn't.

"Kiddo!" She grunted, poking the sleeping figure with her finger. "Get up and leave before I call the guards on you!"

There was indeed a pale looking kid curled under the table, asleep or unconscious. Judging by her long hair and petite frame she could not have been older than fifteen.

Remel scrunched up her face at the sight of the runt. There was a stab wound on her midriff, causing blood to soak deep into the rug. The blade had not gone through a vital organ it seemed, but she had bled for a while now.

There were four large kingdoms and this brat had to bleed so dramatically on her new rug. That is going to be another month's worth of food, wasted on cleaning.

"What do you mean she is dead?" Remel quipped, crawling from under the table. She dusted her skirt in dismay. Her eyes ballooned again. "That's a boy?"

She sighed in exasperation. Drunk robbery is one thing. A dead body is another.

There was another hour or so before the client came to pick up the ball gown. Remel looked at the glamorous pink satin dress on the mannequin and felt like it needed more sparkle. She swore to herself she wouldn't touch the dress again to add more details, but the neckline looked rather empty.

"A string of beads?" She wandered. Yes, she could do that.

So, the next hour was spent threading white beads in the neckline.

It was not every day an elite client came along with a fat pouch, asking for a dress from her. Rich people shied away from downtown Frostgate like it was plagued, and it was, in a sense. Business was good when the sea was kind. Sailors would come to get a consolation gift tailored for their women or pick up a cheap accessory. Some would try to sell her fabric from other kingdoms.

Yet, those trades could barely cover her food expenses. That paired with how often these buggers robbed her, she might just give up this business and sail back to Sandgil.

After the last sparkling bead was threaded into place, she ran a palm over the skirt, ridding it of any non-existent wrinkles. Her eyes shone, giddy at how lovely it was.

Exactly and hour later, the client arrived. The lady was a spoiled little missy, a daughter of some military officer. She waltzed into the boutique like the place offended her dead ancestors, her lustrous curls bouncing with each step she took. She sneezed all the while she criticized the gown, complaining how the fabric was not shiny enough, and how gaudy the beading was.

"I hope it doesn't shrink after washing" She pouted up at Remel, covering her nose with her fingers. "This place smells like servant's quarters"

Remel smiled down at the girl and nodded politely. "M'lady has nothing to worry about. It won't shrink."

"It better not." She glared at the gown. "My father is holding a dinner party for his squad leaders. They have been working hard to find an offender past week or so."

"Did they find him?" Remel questioned, folding the gown neatly.

"N-Not yet" She sneezed again into her perfumed handkerchief. "Do you ever dust this place?"

"Then why are they celebrating?"

Remel and her client looked at each other for a while, silently.

"What do you understand about the military affairs?" The girl rolled her eyes, the overdone blush and lip stain making her look like a haunted doll. "Just pack the gown."

"Certainly. M'lady" Remel bowed and nimbly stuffed the ball gown into a box. "What offence is he charged with?"

The girl shrugged. "His majesty ordered to arrest him."

"And no one asked what crimes he committed?" Remel chuckled, securing the box with a complimentary ribbon.

The lady shook her head and crossed her arms across her bosom. "King's words are god's words. We mere mortals shouldn't t question them. Just so you know he is about this tall, pale with long-"

"He's under that table" Remel nodded nonchalantly at the tabletop overflowing with a mountain of fabric. "Please take him away and give me extra ten coins for the doorknob and the rug."

The girl reddened in the face. "Did you take me for a joke?"

"We are not making fun of M'lady" Remel courteously bowed her head. "Please forgive us. We simply do not know how to dispose the body."

The girl eyed Remel from top to bottom, a deep frown marring her chubby face. She then snatched the box from her hands.

"Whatever! Mad woman!" She huffed and fished for a handful of golden coins from her embroidered purse.

"Keep the change!" She threw them at Remel, before storming out of the boutique. The lady slammed the door so hard that even the glass rattled.

"You two-eyed freak!" she yelled behind her shoulder before hopping on her carriage.

Remel watched the horses galloping away, with an amused expression. "Don't we all have two eyes?"

She took her hat off, unable to bear the heat inside the boutique anymore. Sweat dripped down the sides of her face and back of neck.

"That was quite an eventful day" she fanned herself with her palm, blowing air into her shirt. Rubbing her calloused hands together Remel walked around the boutique, gathering the strewn golden coins.

She counted them one by one, biting the inside of her cheek.

"What change? One coin short" She giggled to herself and pocketed the rest in disappointment. If she didn't have enough to pay, she should have just said so. Why be so dramatic?

"You missed this."

Remel's heart skipped out of her ribcage as a small voice broke the silence of the empty boutique. With a high-pitched cry, she stumbled backward, her hands flying to her chest. The pins holding her cherry-red hair in its severe bun gave way, cascading around her shoulders like a fiery waterfall.

"Dear Southern God!" Her voice trembled as she struggled to catch her breath, feeling her pulse pounding in her ears. In all her twenty-seven years, she had never been so thoroughly startled.

"I thought you said he was dead!" She scolded, turning to her right.

The boy crawled out, holding out a single golden coin in a bruised palm. His clothes were hanging in tatters, blood marring them. There was a deep gash on his left side that he was clutching with his hand, and it was still profoundly bleeding, ruining her rug further.

A thin sheen of sweat glistened on his pallid skin, hollowed cheeks and chapped lips speaking of prolonged deprivation he had suffered. Each ragged breath he took sent trembles down his battered frame, knees wobbling.

Yet his eyes shone with the ferocity of a demon that crawled out of damnation. Face void of any emotions except barely restrained tears of pain, he held the coin out for her.

Remel took a step back, eyes widened. "Who are you, wicked kid?"

"Remel and Whisper?" he asked, jumping a brow. "Thank you for not ratting me out."

"We did! She was too-" Remel halted mid-rant, her jaw dropping on to the soiled rug. She snapped her head to look at her right side yet again, this time in aghast.

Remel grabbed her beloved bottle neck from the ground in the blink of an eye, fully prepared to stab the boy to death.

"What do you mean I can't?" Remel yelled into the empty air, stomping her feet.

"She means you have to help me." The boy flopped into a chair nearby with a pained moan. "Unless I bleed to death."

Remel scrutinized the boy, the hip length hair, eerily blue eyes. She couldn't recall meeting him before or even hearing about him. But then again, her memory was not in the best condition. Her gaze fell on a black ring glistening on his fourth finger, stark contrast to his bloodless skin. The ring looked somewhat familiar, where had she seen it before?

Is that a serpent sigil on him?

"You know Rae" She whispered after a long pause.

"I know him." The boy nodded in agreement. To Remel's immense disgust he pressed a folded-up piece of finest silk to his slash.

"He doesn't know you are here. He thinks you are somewhere else."

A brief look of pain cracked through boy's stony expression, but he quickly schooled it back to neutral. "That's correct."

Remel shook her head side to side. "There's nothing I can help you with, nameless one. Be gone."

"You can call me River" he pressed the cloth firmly against his gash, biting back a scream. "And you will help me."

"But you are not River" Remel sighed and clattered around for a needle. "You look like River, but you are not her."

The boy looked taken aback, widened azure eyes darting between Remel's eyes, from the amber one to the brown one, back and forth.

Remel picked a needle from the pincushion. "You did not come looking for answers. So, you will not receive them from us."

The boy watched Remel closely as she unhurriedly lit a candle on the tabletop. "I want you to seal a soul."

"I know" Remel brought the needle close to her nose, making her go cross eyed. She peered at the gash and pulled a black thread through the eye hole. "You can't save them."

"That's something for me to decide."

Remel giggled. "Whatever you say godling."

Holding the needle against the candle flame, the red-haired woman contemplated weather she should ask what she wanted to ask him or not.

"Lord Aithan is doing fine."

Remel snapped her head up from the flame to look at him. "I know"

The boy gave her a tight-lipped smile. "He misses his little Lyn. He wanted me to tell you that."

Remel nodded solemnly. "I didn't know that."

"He knew"

There was another long pause between them.

"I will help you." Remel closed in on him, and knelt in front of him, needle pinched between her fingers. "This once, godling. Only because I owe Ai and Rae, and because you are doing this for them as well."

The boy nodded resolutely. His blue eyes gleamed under sunlight, like two gemstones. Beautiful yet strong.

"I don't know how to stitch. Wolfram Sculz taught me once, I have long forgotten now." Remel declared, pulling his shirt aside. "Should we clean this first? And I have no painkillers except strong liquor."

"I'll take that." The boy giggled bitterly. "Is my niece safe now?"

"yes"

"Is everyone safe?"

"Yes"

"I see" He closed his eyes, a small smile ghosting his bluish lips.

Remel pulled out a half empty bottle of liquor from a nearby drawer and handed it to him. "I'll start now."