The woman sighed at her silence and said, “Think about it. What do those with more power than others do at the first sight of trouble?”
“I don’t know.”
“They step on those beneath them, climb to the top where all of the comfort is, and live like they don’t have a care in the world while the rest are down here to suffer.”
They continued at a slow pace down the dirt road. She avoided small rocks and lumps along the way, careful not to step on anything that may break the skin on her naked feet. Evidently she hadn’t the rationality to wear shoes before raising the sea and destroying Club Hel.
“Wait here,” the stranger said as she stopped in front of a single roomed home. “I’ll go see if she has anything you can wear until we can figure something else out.”
Xia nodded and stood with her arms crossed over her chest. She studied her surroundings and found that this part of the village looked just as the beginning had. Everything was made of graying, uneven wood and looked like it could collapse at any moment. Most of them were too small to house a hearth, so rings of rock and charred grass sat near many of them. She imagined it had many uses. Warming their hands, drying their clothes, boiling water…
Nothing like the luxury she was used to.
She found that she liked it.
Xia would trade material things for peace any day.
“Here you go.” The woman came bouncing down the two steps with what looked like a brown knit sack in her hand. A few more pink curls the color of ripened berries fell across her foreheadand she tucked them away hastily before handing over the cloth. “It’s not much, but it’ll cover all of your business and keep you a little warmer.”.
“Thank you.” Xia slipped it over her head and put her arms through the uneven holes. The edges at the bottom frayed and had several lines of old stitching that tore the fabric in places. She realized that it really was a sack. One that had been mended too many times to hold anything properly. Evidently that meant it was to be repurposed to a shirt.
She found the extremes fascinating. Club Hel reveled in sin and luxury. Everything was expendable– even the daemon. But this village used every resource until it couldn’t be repurposed any longer. She was sure that even at its last stop before death, the sack she wore would serve a final purpose.
“Did I hear you tell Ariadne that you wielded water?” Pink eyes to Xia. They moseyed through the village, away from Nyx’s home and toward an open field.
“I do.”
“That’s great! I don’t know where you came from, but it seems the taint hasn’t reached out so far.”
“Is it affecting chaos too?”
“Oh, yes.” She nodded and scrunched her nose. “Those who only had small amounts are completely powerless. Even daemon with pure-blooded ancestors are feeling drained.”
“I can’t say I’ve felt any loss.”
“Do you have pure-blooded chaos in your line?”
Xia dropped her features into what she hoped was neutral and answered, “No. I don’t. My father was a water nymph and my mother a healer.”
Lies.
Xia kept her heritage close to her heart and for good reason. The Lord of Nightmares coveted her because of what she was.Whoshe was, and Xia would not be chained again because of the blood running through her veins.
“That would explain the affinity for water then,” the woman nodded. “Do you think you could help me wash the hides and linens today? There’s usually a big group of us who do it, but some have gotten too weak to carry the water pots back from the river.”
“Of course. It’ll be no problem.” Xia plastered a reassuring smile and the woman nodded in return.
“Great! It’s just over here.”
After a short distance, a clearing came into view. It was settled along the river bank but not so close that it would be washed away in a flood. Several large buckets were positioned side by side with wooden washboards in each.
“There are three stations with three buckets on each. One is to soak, the other to wash, and the last to rinse. From left to right and in that order.”
“Got it.”
“We need water in all nine…” she trailed off, a hesitant question unspoken.
“I can fill all nine.” Xia smiled softly and turned to walk toward the river bank.
