"I think I found a lead!" An excitable boy ran up to the girl as soon as she turned the corner into the narrow alleyway, tugging eagerly on her torn slacks. He was something like an extremely annoying little brother to her, but, because she had lost her expensive coat somewhere in the chase with the guards, she currently lacked the energy to humor him.
"Oh, really?" She muttered dismissively. "Let me just put on my coat then."
"You don't have your coat," he astutely pointed out.
"No. No I do not."
"Come on!" He whined as she continued walking past him, her hands shoved into her pockets. He idolized her for whatever reason, always running to her whenever he found himself wanting to make trouble or run away from it.
"Go away," she waved him off dismissively, the sides of her feet stinging from where her shoes cut into them. It had been years since she'd bought these ones, but she couldn't afford another pair. As much as she could pretend to play thief and had the sticky fingers to back that up, she'd never been one for stealing in general. She'd make an exception for others, but, unless something truly caught her eye–which was rare–she figured that it would be wasted on someone like her.
"What if I told you the information I had was super valuable," he tried to pitch to her, a learned master at upselling after selling newspapers on the streets for so many years. "I had to pay an entire silver to afford it."
"I'd say you wasted your money," she figured.
"You know I wouldn't waste your time unless I thought you'd want to hear it."
She gave a sigh in hearing the earnesty in his voice, turning to face him with a dramatic spin of her heel. His face lit up seeing her give him her attention.
"Alright, Teo," she humored him. "What is it?"
Mateo grinned at her.
"Rumor has it there's been a ghost sighted wandering around near the abandoned warehouse. Apparently it only appears after the sun has set and all of the lamps have been blown out."
She stared at him expecting him to continue.
He stared at her expecting her to get it.
"And?" She prompted.
"And what?"
"You're the worst," she decided, turning back around.
"Aren't you going to do anything about it?" He continued to whine, tugging on the back of her shirt now. "That information cost me an entire silver."
"What am I supposed to do about the fact that you got scammed? I told you to stay away from those boys by the lower quarter."
"How did you know that it was them?" He wondered, taken aback.
"It seems to always be them when you're losing out on a deal."
"I just wanted to help you out."
"Yes, yes," she ruffled his messy hair, making him beam at her. "But what have I told you about meddling with my affairs?"
"That you don't need help and can handle your own affairs," he muttered, used to hearing her say that same phrase over and over again. "It doesn't hurt to accept some help every now and then though, you know?"
"There's nothing you could help me with."
"Ow," he complained.
"It's what I keep telling you. It doesn't seem to keep you from trying though."
"Trying is what I do best," he agreed, puffing his chest proudly. She offered him a twitch of her lips, a slight smile as she reached into her pocket.
"Maybe I will check it out," she figured, flicking a silver coin his way. It bounced off his waiting palm as he fumbled it, watching mutely as it fell next to his foot. "Make sure that you take care, Teo. Don't go hanging around the wrong crowds."
He crouched down, watching as she left, her pale hair disappearing as she turned the corner. He looked down to the face on the silver coin, offering it a shrug.
"Guess it's just you and me now, huh? Somehow, it just seems that I can never catch up with her. There's only a year between us, yet it feels like there's something greater. Like she's distancing herself from me. From, well, everyone."
He then realized he was talking to a coin.
"Bah, what do you know?"
…
She stared at the warehouse in the darkness, seeing nothing but a warehouse in the darkness, deciding Teo definitely got screwed over.
Which now meant she got screwed over.
She decided that she might as well check it out, considering that she was already there. Without her coat–her expensive coat, something she feels bears repeating–the cold wind cut much easier through her thin shirt. She hurried her pace over to the warehouse, her thin heels clicking across the cobblestone street.
The door was locked, meaning she had to sneak up to the window, the glass already broken in for her. She leapt through the high windowsill, observing her surroundings.
It was extremely dusty inside of the warehouse, enough to make her small nose twitch. She was unable to keep from sneezing, startling some of the dust mites that had been lazily floating in the air.
Before she could figure out what she planned to do next to pretend she had fully searched the area, she found herself suddenly suspended in the air. Someone behind her had lifted her up by the collar of her shirt. She blinked up as her hair slid out of her face, surprised. She hadn't heard them step out of the shadows, nor had she seen them until they were standing right above her.
"What is a little cat like you doing sneaking around a place like this?" The man wondered. His hair was dark, so dark it seemed to stand out even in the shadows. His carmine eyes stared at her dispassionately, waiting for a response.
"The door was locked, how else was I supposed to get in?"
"What were you doing trying to get in at all?"
"I was told there was a ghost here," she explained, sniffling.
"And so you came here to exorcize the ghost?"
"I was reserving my judgment until I saw one."
"There is no ghost," he sighed, acting like he was breaking some big news to the girl. Not being a person who believed in them in the first place, she merely offered him a tilt of her head.
"Then what are you doing here?" She wondered.
"I heard a similar rumor to yours," he admitted. Her nose twitched before she sneezed again, wiping her nose with her wrist.
"Could you put me down?" She requested, gesturing with her chin down at her feet dangling in the air. He thought it over before wordlessly agreeing, setting her down–dropping her–lightly onto her feet. Seeing a thin silver crescent curling along the ruby clasp of his cloak, she spoke without thinking, asking, "are you Duke Des la Lunes?"
"How do you know that?" She was unbothered when the air became tense between them. She simply tapped her collar bone, pointing up at him.
"The moon on your neck. Duke Des la Lunes–Duke of the Moons." It was a fair enough explanation, one he seemed to accept. Curiosity once again led to her speaking. "But if you don't believe in ghosts, why did you come seeking the mention of one?"
"Because a ghost is never just a ghost," he said like it explained it all. To her blank look, he figured he could explain a little more. "Sightings of a ghost aren't actually people seeing a ghost. It could be anything from a drunkard stumbling around in the night to a magic item showing a projection."
She nodded showing that she understood.
"Which would you prefer?"
"...Pardon?"
"Well, as the duke of a house, I'm sure you have more pressing matters to attend to. For this to capture your interest, I'm guessing that you are hoping to find something here. Is that wrong of me to assume?"
"No, not wrong," he agreed, studying her face again. She sneezed under his scrutiny. "I've been looking for a ring," he figured he'd admit to her, not seeing the harm in doing so. He didn't know what to make out of the flicker of recognition in her eyes.
"Are you perhaps cursed?" She asked him.
"What a curious assumption."
"The ring you're searching for, it has the power to break curses, doesn't it?"
"How would you happen to know that?"
"Because I was looking for the ring as well. I managed to locate it, but it didn't seem to work. I think your ring is broken." He stared at her, stunned for a few moments. She was starting to realize she tended to have that effect on people.
"So a simple child like you managed to find a ring that's been missing for over a decade?" Was the first thing he asked.
"Yup," she nodded.
"Can I ask how?" He prompted.
"A good thief never shares their secrets." At his intense look, she emptied out her pockets. "I don't have the ring on me, I have it hidden away somewhere."
He could admit that currently his biggest focus wasn't on the ring.
"You need magic inside of the ring to lift a curse, not just the ring itself. It's merely a vessel. To find someone with magic high enough to lift a curse is difficult." He watched her think through that, kneeling so that he was eye level in front of her. "So will you tell me then, are you cursed?"
"My, so it seems you figured me out." The corner of her lips twitched up in the ghost of an amused smile. "You are correct, though. I am cursed."
"May I ask how you are cursed?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"It's important," was all he said, insisting on it.
"It's a simple enough curse," she figured, "though I suppose that's what makes it all the more irksome. I would have been seven when I got cursed, a claim being made that I'm living on borrowed time. For every year that I've been alive, I have that many more years to live."
"Meaning," he trailed off, unwilling to finish.
"Meaning I will die the day before I turn fifteen."