Mand sat in darkness as she waited for Brenda's return.
She had thought about making a break for it, and sneaking off into the forest beyond the farmstead, but she wasn't sure if that was her best option. She was once so confident in her plans, for the past two years she had successfully kept her and her sister alive and fed, but the missteps that she had made lately made her doubt herself.
In her mind, Mand replayed the incident with the shopkeeper. That kind woman had attempted to help her and her sister back in Cain's Point, and had lost almost everything. Because of Mand and her sister, that shopkeeper not only got threatened with assault, but had also lost her business.
Mand wanted to blame the kidnappers for the fire, but Mand knew the truth.
"That was entirely my fault," Mand told herself. "I was the one that led them into the shop. I was the one that asked for help. Ultimately, I was the one that kicked over the lamp."
"That poor shopkeeper lost so much on my account, and for what? Despite all the misery that I created for that woman, Claire and I were still taken."
"It's those few months after Val and I left Ulareg all over again. Just a series of misadventures and near misses - only I'm not confident that I'll be able to get away this time."
Mand still remembered those days vividly. Following the fight with Doyle, they had snuck aboard a ship and hid in its cargo hold. Mand and her sister huddled under a tarp behind some barrels for two days, trying their best to not make noise, lest they be discovered. They didn't even dare leave their spot to seek out food and water, fearing that they might be discovered and returned to Ulareg. The gangs in the city had a long reach, and there was no guarantee that the sailors aboard this particular ship was not on their payroll.
Hiding aboard ship was the first time that either sister had experienced true hunger. Apart from the loss of their mother at an early age, their lives had been quiet and peaceful. While their father wasn't always around, he did make sure that they were clothed, sheltered, and had plenty to eat. The man did his best for his daughters and even went so far as to give his life to ensure their safety.
After their escape from Ulareg, all the responsibility of keeping them fed and safe then fell on Mand's 15-year-old shoulders. While they lived in the city, Mand hadn't had any particular plans for her adulthood. She had just assumed that when she got a little older, she would just get a job in Ulareg or one of the surrounding communities and live out a normal life. After all, Val had been the chosen child, the one with the gift. After the night that Doyle's men came for her sister, she was suddenly the one in charge, and apparently a metalmancer herself.
When the ship docked and they had snuck ashore, Mand had falsely believed that they would be safe now that they were away from Ulareg. She should've known that by breaking the gang leader's legs during their escape, he would be on the lookout for revenge and would extend his reach beyond Ulareg to seek them out. A pair of sisters who were metalmancers and who had foolishly made little attempt to cover up their identities were easy targets to track down.
"How stupid we were," Mand thought. "Metalmancy was our ticket to quickly earn the money that we so desperately needed. We just took the first job that we came across and settled down. I should have known better."
"Another should've moment," she thought bitterly. Mand felt like she was having more and more of these as she got older. Her life was quickly becoming a pile of should haves.
Doyle's men came for them about a month later. One foggy night, the sisters were returning from a job refurbishing antiques, when four large men stepped onto the road and blocked their path. Mand recognized one of the men - he had been there when the gang came for Val after she had turned 13.
There was no exchange of dialogue or negotiation. Both parties knew why the men were there - the gang leader felt like he had been wronged and these men would make things right. The girls ran.
The four chased them through the streets and alleyways of the town that the sisters had only just started to think of as their new home. Mand wished that the men had carried knives, or some sort of metallic weapon, but knowing that they were facing metalmancers, the gang members had wisely only armed themselves with wooden cudgels. Mand was only starting to familiarize herself with her powers at the time, and there was very little in the streets of that small town that she could utilize to throw the gang off of their trail.
It was only by sheer luck that they had got away. From their limited time in the small port town, they had discovered a short cut that they had made use of several times. There was a large fence in an alley that had a few boards missing, creating a space just large enough for the sisters to squeeze through. The men were too large to follow, and by the time that they found an alternate route, Mand and Val had disappeared into the fog and shortly left town soon after. It was then that the sisters had made the vow to keep moving to keep out of trouble.
"And how has that promise worked out for us? Val and I are separated, and I'm hiding in a farmer's shed on an island in the middle of the ocean."
Mand thought about the others who had escaped with her. She had dragged them into this plan as well. She only hoped that they were doing better than she was at this point.