Chương 17: Brother

Interesting," the scarred woman said, setting her cup down slow, like the word itself needed room to breathe. Solstice raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting?"

"What were you doing on that mountain? Rolling down a slope covered in injuries like that. Someone do that to you, or were you trying to end things yourself?" Solstice didn't answer right away.' I don't owe her the truth. No reason to. But she pulled a Nameless brat off a mountainside and patched him up instead of leaving him for the snow to finish. That's not charity. Nobody down here does anything for free, not even people who dress it up nice. That's a woman thinking of a use.'

His eyes drifted to the bandages wrapped tight around his thigh and shoulder, the white already going faintly pink where the wounds hadn't quite finished with him yet.

'And in this state, I can't afford to get thrown back out into the cold with nothing. That's a death sentence, and a slow one at that.' He met her eyes.

"I didn't try to kill myself." A pause.

"Truth is, I just survived hell." Her expression shifted, something closer to real interest now.

"Hell?"

"I'm a miner. Salt miner. We got sent to a new Pale Salt vein the Cinder Office found on that mountain." His voice stayed flat, raspy, indifferent to its own story.

"We got trapped down there. Had to find our own way out. Found it. That's why I'm here."

"The others? You the only one who made it?"

"Yes." He yawned.

"Only one there is. Everyone else is dead." She studied him a moment, expression giving nothing away either direction, the stillness of someone used to reading people for a living.

'Who is this woman, really. And why bother saving me at all. Not that I'm complaining. I'll take whatever she's offering.'

"You don't look like a miner," she said finally, tilting her head to study him properly.

"How old are you? Fifteen?"

"Don't know. Sixteen, probably."

"A miner at sixteen."

"Can you blame me? I'm a Nameless rat who wants to live. Turns out mining pays for that." He yawned again, unbothered.

"Alright, then. If what you're telling me is true…"

"It's true." He cut her off flat.

"Right. Then you'll give me your account. Everything you remember, start to finish. Your words go straight into the report."

"Report?" His eyebrows rose.

"The Saltbearer we sent out with that expedition hasn't reported back. Hasn't come back at all. A miner surviving the same site fills in a lot of blanks the Cinder Office is going to want answered eventually." Solstice looked at her a beat.

"If I agree to this report thing, do I get fed?" She laughed, short and genuine, like the question actually surprised her.

"Yes."

"Can I stay here until I've healed?"

"Yes." She stood, crossed to the window, and pulled the curtain aside with one hand. Beyond the glass, children moved through the open ground below, baskets on their arms, some chasing each other between the buildings. Solstice looked at her.

"I'm Emelia. Welcome to my orphanage." … A Week lassed. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. The wounds had closed enough that he could put full weight on his leg without his jaw locking against the pain. Lying in bed stopped making sense somewhere around then. He started walking the halls at night, when the orphanage went quiet enough that nobody asked him questions he didn't feel like answering, learning the place the same way he used to learn a alley. Which doors led where.

How many workers slept on which floor. Where the food got kept, and how many guards stood at the gate looking half-asleep doing it. Emelia was on his radar too. What she said. What she didn't. He hadn't worked out her angle yet, but everybody down here had one. The nameless runt just need to be a snake. The report was finished by then, every detail handed over except one. Solstice never mentioned killing the Saltbearer.' Not like Murren's in any position to argue.' This place ran warm.

Fed everyone under its roof without asking for coin. Hadn't seen a single worker raise a hand to a kid yet.

'If staying here means answering to some woman for the rest of my life, fine. I've bled for men who broke fingers over a dropped basket. A full stomach and someone who checks on me daily beats that. Not much of a bar to clear, but it's the only one I've got.'' Still. Nobody's this kind for free. Not in a world like this. I need to know what she wants before I decide I want to stay.' Emelia rose from her chair one afternoon and set a metal box down on the table beside his bed.

"Your clothes. One of the workers mended what was damaged. You can wear them again." He opened it. Inside sat his gray coat, seams and tears stitched clean, no longer looking like something pulled off three dead men. He ran a thumb over one of the mended lines, half expecting it to still carry the weight of whoever wore it first. It didn't. Just felt like fabric, warm and whole, and that unsettled him more than he wanted to admit. Beneath it, the red scarf, restored to a color like fresh blood.

Beside that, the goggles.

"If you don't mind me asking," Emelia said, "where'd that artifact come from?" Solstice froze half a second.' Right. Murren's.' He turned to face her, expression steady.

"Found it on the cavern floor during the escape. Figured it belonged to a Saltbearer who didn't make it out. Took it." She looked at him a moment.' Buy it, woman. Or do you really think something my size managed to kill a Saltbearer just to steal his goggles off him?'

"I see." She turned toward the door.

"Anyway, your injuries have healed well. Thigh's still stiff, but the bleeding stopped a while back. You've been keeping to yourself, though. Might be worth meeting the other kids." Solstice shrugged.

"Sure." Emelia stopped, thrown by how easy that was.

"That's it? No fight?"

"Why would I fight it." Flat. Barely a question at all.' Kids talk more than adults do. They don't know what's worth hiding yet.'

"Alright then." She smiled, recovering.

"Get dressed." Against every instinct telling him to keep his distance a while longer, he let her get him into his clothes anyway, ignoring every protest he made along the way like she'd done this exact thing a hundred times before with a hundred other stubborn kids. The coat sat close now, tailored to his frame in a way it never had before, fabric wrapping his whole body in warmth instead of hanging loose off borrowed seams.

He took the goggles and set them on his forehead instead of over his eyes, pushing the pale strands of hair back off his face. He could walk on his own now, most of his weight leaning onto the good leg, but walking all the same. Progress, however slow, still counted as progress. He'd learned that much the hard way too. Outside the room, a different world waited. Small furnaces burned on every corner, something dense and glowing worked over each one, sparks catching the wind and dying before they traveled far.

Housing stood beside them in neat, mirrored rows, chimneys breathing thin trails of smoke into a sky that never once showed a hint of sun through it. At the center of it all rose a massive stone mammoth, weathered smooth by however many winters, kids scattered around its feet, chasing each other, laughing like laughing was a thing that still came easy to some people.

Past all of it, walls rose so high Solstice's neck ached trying to trace them to the top, thick enough to swallow whatever this place was built to keep out. Emelia clapped once, soft.

"Everyone. Gather up." Heads turned. Faces lit. Kids drifted toward her in twos and threes, curiosity pulling them faster than manners did. Solstice watched them close in, some smaller than him, some older, all of them fed well enough that none had the hollow, hungry look of everyone he'd known before this place. He counted without meaning to, out of habit more than interest, same as he counted everything now. One boy stood out from the rest. Brown hair. Brown eyes.' Lere.'

The name landed in his chest before he could stop it, quick and sharp, gone again just as fast.

"Everyone, I think it's time to introduce your new brother." Emelia glanced down at him.

"This is Solstice." Every set of eyes locked onto him like he was something rare worth staring at. He hated every second of it.' Stop looking at me like that, you brats.' A voice cut through the crowd.

"Is that a girl? Kind of looks like one." Solstice's head snapped toward it. A black-haired boy stood off to the side, a mole beneath one eye, lean, a few inches taller than him.' This prick.' Solstice's mouth curved, cold and even.

"Want to find out what this girl's hands can do to your face?"