Chapter 4B - Prices and Prospects

When I awoke from a long sleep and wandered down the staircase, I found Donovan in the building’s entrance. A kind woman stood a short distance from him as a television flickered in the background. Whispered words emanated from its speakers as blurry subtitles spanned the screen. Donovan’s words were eclipsed by the television in the background, but her words pierced the ambient din.

She said as the television lit her bright blue eyes, “I swear that this place will be your demise. Please be careful, my love. I know you have a good heart, but Bellaina and her cronies are dangerous. I know she pays well, but you can’t support us if you get hurt. Andrew and Dana need their father – you know that. Don’t you think this city has enough orphans as it is?”

Donovan nodded and whispered an inaudible response. I watched them embrace each other deeply in the dark room, illuminated only by the television flicker as the sound of static stole the silence. I could feel their love from a distance, but it was a love constrained by the limits of an unfair reality. Just as I lost Alyssa to her own ephemerality, their bond was obfuscated by the trials of life. I waited for her to leave before I entered the room where Donovan stood in silence. He smiled when he saw me and motioned toward the door. I nodded quietly, so he put on his hat and exited into the street.

Donovan said as we walked together in the street, “I think the way that you speak is really neat! You probably never had much trouble with women, am I right? Even if you did something to upset them, you could probably just make up some rhyme about the lights in the sky or something. Am I onto something here?”

“We loved with a love that was greater than love. I am the dying ember in the night, and she is the wind which sends sparks to summon flames which light our world. I cannot catch fire without her, but the stars themselves envy the inferno of our blazing love; they crossed and cursed us apart because we dared to light the dark. We will meet again and burn so brightly that we will bury every star in the sky. We are star-crossed today, but tomorrow the stars will beg for our mercy. No force is strong enough to hold us apart,” I answered.

Donovan asked because he was still unclear, “I take it that means she’s no longer here?”

I had no interest in answering his question. I let his words pass into silence as we walked from block to block, passing by quiet roads lit by the orange glow of streetlights. We walked past a small park where the silhouettes of young children danced through the darkness. It was empty scenery to me, but Donovan watched it as we walked by. Two children pushed themselves on a pair of swings, almost as if they challenged each other in a contest for height.

I asked as we walked on the block just past the park, “What does it mean to be the courier for the dark?”

Donovan answered with a dejected gaze, “It’s pretty grim stuff, but at least it pays. My Anna is my life, but she has a condition that she passed to our kids. The medicine isn’t cheap, but Bellaina offered to pay for everything. She has built an underworld beneath the shadows of this city. It’s more than just buildings with tunnels that lead outside the walls; she also traffics people inside the city. She has a network of people in her employ, and she pays them with the dead. She trades favors with aristocrats and politicians alike. She’s built an empire on the graves of the dead.”

“But what is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that she built an empire and declared herself queen. Most people in this city turn a blind eye to their worries about the world outside the wall, so they convince themselves that everything here must be safe. I don’t understand it myself, but she steals quintessence from the dead. She trades that to her priciest customers. I arrange the meetings. I arrange the negotiations. I have helped deliver many vagabonds who were not seen again. I wish I didn’t have to, but it’s the price I’ve chosen to pay,” Donovan explained as if he believed there was no other way.

“I’ll admit I have never heard of quintessence,” I said, hoping to distract him from his penance.

“I can’t say I understand it entirely myself. This probably makes me sound like an insane person, but… I’ve seen Bellaina and some of her customers do some pretty crazy things. Like… supernatural things. I didn’t believe it the first time, but now, I’m pretty sure it’s somehow related to their rituals. Tell me, Asivario. Do you believe in the supernatural?”

I didn’t think of my revelation as a secret I should keep, nor did I feel much like lying through my teeth. I said as we walked past a pair of seedy bars, “I believe that our lives are painted in the stars. I believe the stars steer the course of our fate, and so we are cursed to walk the path that they state. And though I know our souls will cross again one day, I hate that I lost her more than words can say. Even if I know she will echo into my life someday as someone else, I am lost in the night like a space between what I want and what I have. I don’t want to be lost if I am lost without her. I would send the stars from the sky to strike the city if it meant seeing her again.”

Donovan shook his head and chuckled. He motioned to the left side of the street where I saw a river flow behind some buildings. The reflections of starlight shimmered on the surface of the flowing water, and streetlights illuminated the alleys that led to the river. It was a sign that we were close to our destination at the riverbed house, but a part of me enjoyed the peaceful walk with Donovan.

“It seems that we’ve both found a way to justify crimes committed for love. But to tell you the truth… you won’t find many others like us in the underworld. Bellaina is a very fair businesswoman, but she destroyed any human attachments a long time ago. She’s merciless. Morality means nothing more to her than a joke for the poor,” Donovan warned me as we walked up to her door.

Donovan took a deep breath before rapping his knuckles on the door. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound reverberate through the large structure at the edge of the riverbed. It almost sounded like a clamor in the dark when you want nothing more than to hide safely in the shadows. I measured time by my accelerated heartbeats as I held my breath. Three pairs of footsteps clattered quietly upon the floor inside her home, but I only opened my eyes when I heard her door creak open. I saw the shapes of two large men standing in the shadows, but behind them stood the queen of the dark. Bellaina glared at me with sharp blue eyes which pierced my soul.

(Please note: There is still one more part to this chapter!)