Chapter Text
Lavenia Ilvera ran.
Signs, lights, places, streets, all flashing by her in an instant, there and gone like quicksilver. The soles of her feet, thudding against the uneven ground and pushing her forward as fast as her burning legs would go.
She sucked a breath of smoky air into her lungs, aware of only what stayed with her.
Isaia, yelling something ahead of them, the purple of his shirt, something she could focus on, disappearing around a corner only to come back into view as soon as they rounded it. Her brother Arian’s hand in hers, gripping her fingers so hard it hurt and dragging her forward. Zaisiya behind her, drawing nearer so they were almost in step, her shallow breathing sending a jolt of fear through Lavenia because what if she fell behind.
Faster.
She was being whipped around another corner by Arian, sprinting up one flight of stairs, then two flights, three.
“There’s a place!” She could barely make out Isaia yelling in his rough core accent, “Up two city levels!”
Behind her Zaisiya let out another ragged breath as they stumbled off of yet another stairway. Without a second thought, Lavenia had looped the satchel around her shoulder and stuck out her now-free hand for Zaisiya, who took it in her light green fingers, also holding it much too tightly.
“ Almost there.” Arian forced out between two breaths, tugging on her hand.
Almost there.
Lavenia relayed the encouragement back to Zaisyia. “Almost… there.”
“I-” Zaisya sucked in a gasping breath, “-know.”
Isaia was turning round another corner, Arian close behind, still dragging Lavenia and Zaisiya. Lavenia nearly tripped, but she regained her footing, tightening her grip on Zaisiya and Arian’s hands.
And then there was a door that hadn’t been there and they were tripping down a flight of stairs and the door was sliding shut and-
-Darkness.
Lavenia let go of Arian and Zaisiya’s hands, immediately shaking out her aching and crushed fingers.
“Lav! You have the light.” Arian was saying somewhere to her left.
Lavenia drew in another ragged breath and reached into her satchel, fumbling for the lantern and flicking it on, bathing the room in soft light. The space was bigger than she had imagined in the minute of darkness.
“How big is this?” Arian asked Isaia.
“Four meters… something like.” Isaia shrugged, thought for another moment, then said, “four and a half meters by six.”
Bigger than anything else any of them had ever had.
Zaisiya squinted at one of the dusty crates in the corner, flipping one of her lekku over her shoulder. “And who owns this? Last time I checked, we did not want to have total strangers come in here and maul us for being in their… basement.”
Isaia had moved to a crate and wrenched off the lid. “Only one who knows about it now is me.”
He pulled out a bag of puffed cheese chips.
Ew.
As if mirroring Lavenia’s thoughts, Zaisiya said. “Do you realize those are probably at least five years expired?
“They’re puffed cheese chips.” Isaia said, as if that somehow made what Zaisiya had just said any less true.
“More like puffed cheese rocks .” Zaisiya muttered.
“They are not rocks.” Isaia said, ripping open the bag and popping one into his mouth.
Zaisiya rolled her eyes. “So they’re stale?”
Isaia didn’t respond, still chewing, so Zaisiya took the bag from him and ate one too. She made a face. “Those… are disgusting.”
Lavenia had to admit she quite enjoyed watching Zaisiya bicker with anyone, but Isaia somehow managed to make it even more interesting.
“They taste fine!” Isaia protested.
Zaisiya looked like she was having trouble swallowing it down, but she did, saying, “Dude, those are so stale.”
“The point ,” Arian interrupted, “Is that they aren’t gonna find us here. If we’re careful, they’ll give up looking.”
Lavenia settled herself down next to him, tucking the folds of her white dress around her legs. He put his arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him, drawing close a small breath.
“Oh.” Zaisiya said.
She sat down too, tucking the pencil—it was her only pencil, and she practically guarded it with her life—into her pocket.
Still nestled next to Arian, Lavenia exhaled and looked down. It was so much, so fast, all crashing down on her before she was quite ready to accept it.
Because now they had to choose what to do.No more syndicate telling them to go do this or else or to go do that or no dinner or to stay in one place or they’d come find you.
And choosing… that wasn’t easy.
By crazy luck—or perhaps something far worse—that syndicate was gone. Lavenia still did not fully understand how. Arian started to stand up, probably to help Isaia, but Lavenia grabbed his hand. “What happened?” She asked quietly.
He looked at her, then sat back down. “The syndicate is gone. Someone dissolved it. We didn’t stick around long enough to find out who. They won’t look for us.”
Her stomach twisted into a knot.
“I don’t care about the syndicate.” Zaisiya said, sitting down on the other side of Lavenia, “I care about how we’re supposed to fund Isaia’s puffed cheese chips.”
Isaia looked up from the stack of blankets he had just pulled out. “Hey!”
“We have Lav.” Arian said, giving a playful shove at Lavenia’s shoulder.
“I’m not doing everything .” Lavenia replied.
“But it sure is easier to walk into a casino with forty-five credits and walk out with a thousand three hours later.” Arian said. He gestured at Isaia, who was halfway inside a crate looking for something, and then at Zaisiya. “Besides, it’s not like anyone else here can do that. We just happen to be good at other things.”
Lavenia rolled her eyes. “It’s not easier and you know it. And I can’t play sabacc if I have no money . I don’t even look old enough to be two thirds the age to get into a casino.”
“You’re twelve .”
Zaisiya, at this point, had migrated across the room and started to look for something, drawing material probably. Neither her nor Isaia ever stuck around once she and Arian started disagreeing.
“And I look like a baby .” Lavenia retorted.
“Fake a core accent and put on some makeup. Anyone will believe you. Zaisiya is probably desperate to try makeup artistry.”
Zaisiya had looked up at this. Lavenia met her gaze. Zaisiya shrugged.
Lavenia looked back at Arian, her lips forming a slight frown. “I don’t know how to fake a core accent.”
It wasn’t technically a lie.
“Are you kidding? Lav, I’ve seen you do it a million times.”
“That’s a hyperbole!” Isaia called out from the other side of the room, his exclamation followed by a heavy thunk of Lavenia knew not what.
“Doing it in a slapdash spur of the moment thing is not the same as carrying on a believable one for an entire game of sabacc.” Lavenia sniffed, looking over at Isaia to see that the room around him had become a total mess.
Zaisiya came back over to them, slapping a pad of drawing flimsiplast onto the top of the crate Lavenia was sitting on. “Can you please, please figure this out later?”
“Second.” Lavenia said, standing up without hesitation and shooting Arian an annoyed look, as if this were his fault.
Which really, it was.
“So what’re we doing?” Lavenia asked.
She was asking Zaisiya, but Isaia piped up in her place. “Setting up, figuring out what we have, and deciding what we need.” He gave Zaisiya a pointed look. “Art supplies are not a need.”
“ Yet. ” She replied almost primly.
“Yeah, okay.” Isaia said. He threw something at Lav. She caught it one handed. “Find all the food and…” He grabbed a smaller, now empty crate and pushed it at her, “Do your organizy things with it here.”
“It’s all stale .” Zaisiya said.
Isaia handed Lavenia another box of puffed cheese chips. “That’s why Lav is organizing it and not you.”
Lavenia nodded slowly and put the puffed cheese chips into the crate.
Not gonna be eating those.
On the plus side, having a task was a distraction, and it meant, at least for the next fifteen minutes, that she wouldn’t have to actually think about anything important.
Arian looked at her. “We’ll figure this out later.”
Later was good. Not as good as never, but still good.
Lavenia gave him a thumbs up.