(A few minutes ago)
Arba blissfully ignorant of the world-shaking events that were currently occurring inside of him was busy catching up with a world that had suddenly left him behind. Arba sat on a hay cushion in the hovel he had called home for the last few months. It was a small space barely a dozen paces wide with a slanted ceiling sitting on the edge of one the better slum districts in Miletus. A dozen people crammed the small room gesticulating and arguing around a table that was really just a slab of wood that came a few inches off the ground. Each figure was ragged and emaciated their figures filthy with accumulated grime and muck, despite that they laughed and shouted like they owned the world. The figures ranged from around ten years old to the crying infant in Arba's arms at a whopping six months.
Arba who was busy shoving broth into his mouth rocked the baby with one arm as he turned to his sister who was trying to catch him up on events whilst poorly trying to steal mouthfuls of his food. "So, I was asleep for three whole weeks?!" Arba asked disbelievingly, his sister nodded poorly brushed red hair moving in clumps as she nodded her head. With bright red hair and piercing blue eyes his sister Hanna was even as a street urchin cast a striking figure. He was sure that given a little work she would become an unparalleled beauty, if only …
"Huh! You calling me a liar short stuff! If you're gonna be rude you don't deserve that food!". A hand lashed for his food which Arba hurriedly forced down his throat before pushing the empty bowl into her face in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life.
If only her personality wasn't like so much like a starved boar, he was sure she would have long since escaped the slums with her looks alone. "You're thinking of calling me a boar again aren't you! Bastard! I'll kill you!", "You show concern in the worst ways, boar!" Arba shouted at her as he positioned the crying infant between him and the boar that was trying to tackle him. "Coward! Stop using a baby as a shield!", "Stop trying to kill me boar!", "I'll show you who's the boar!".
Hanna leapt at her brother tackling the smaller boy who desperately fought for his life whilst trying to not squish the baby in his arms. "Stop trying to kill Mika you pyscho boar!". Mika the infant unexpectedly let out a giggle at the siblings bickering, the pair glanced at each half-entangled with each other before shrugging in unison and began to fuss over the adorable baby.
An annoyed grunt caused Arba to break from his revery as an annoyed three year broke from the Sister's embrace and marched over to him. The small girl tugged on his arm and demanded in an imperious tone, "Ups" as she raised her hands above her head expectantly. "Of course, your ladyship", Arba handed the placated infant to his sister as he picked up the little lady. Path a skinny thing seemingly made of nothing but skin and bones with a mess of brown hair graciously accepted her squires lift and was deposited in Arba's lap. Arba pretended not to notice the mocking look she shot Mika as he ruffled her hair affectionally.
"It must be tough being popular pretty boy", Hanna mocked as she suppressed a chuckle, "You little!" Arba muttered to himself but restrained himself. "Path" he said looking down at the still smiling three-year-old, "No matter what happens you must never turn out like your older sister okay, you have to promise me", "Hey!" Hanna cried, Path hesitated but nodded after a second with a serious expression, "O,Okay brubber", Path lisped adorably. "No!" a random boar cried.
Path let out a giggle as Arba squeezed her in a bear hug. "Brubber, brubber, show me a magic trick, brubber, brubb- … ", "Hmm? What's up Path?" Arba turned to the little girl as she suddenly stopped talking, "Are you okay, what's wrong?", concern tinged his voice as he stared at Path's worried expression.
"Hey what's wro- … "Hanna stared but also stopped talking as she stared open mouthed at Arba's face. "What?" Arba asked as one by one people stopped their conversations and turned to stare at him, "Do I have something on my face?". After several seconds of absolute silence Hanna stood up and walked to the corner of the room and picked up a bucket half-full of rainwater, "Okay, this definitely isn't weird or anything guys, what's … ". Arba stared into the water. A boy that looked just like Arba stared back.
Except for his eyes.
As he stared his own mouth opening in confusion his eyes colours began to shift. His eyes had been a deep natural brown with flecks of green but as he watched the last dregs of that colour began to vanish. His left iris as he watched turned a perfect silver whilst his right iris turned jet black making it almost impossible to distinguish between iris and pupil. Arba was shocked into silence as he stared uncomprehendingly at the scene unfolding in front of him. He touched his eye and watched the unfamiliar figure reflected back at hm do the same, "What by the dead gods!", he swore softly.
Silence filled the room.
Path let out a long-excited breath. "Brubber! Do it again, do it again!".
Several minutes later Arba and Hanna slipped from the hovel that they had called home for the last year or so. They had made their excuses and left the gawking others behind, Arba had three week's day's worth of meals to make up for. Sister Merlina may have had a bleeding heart but that only extended to children under six, anyone that stayed under her room over that age had to scavenge for their own food. "Another debt", Arba cursed, but considering that the alternative would've him starving for three weeks whilst he was unconscious it was an alright trade.
Arba rolled his shoulder as he stretched his muscles chasing away the stiffness in his limbs, his body felt better than he had expected, apparently, he had been treated by a healer which explained why he could even move. When he had heard that he had panicked thinking he now owed an even larger debt but apparently some kind of disaster had occurred, and the city healers had been treating everyone for free.
Arba almost wanted to thank Darius and his cronies for beating him half to death, or actually killing him, he still wasn't sure what had happened but whatever the reason the healers had done their job and Arba's body hadn't felt this good for as long as he could remember. Stretching Arba bent over a puddle and stared at his new irises, a mixture of confusion and a strange sense of pride filled his body as he looked at his new eyes. A childish part of him thought they were fascinating but a much larger part of was petrified that his body was suddenly changing, "Is this puberty?", he whispered to himself. According to Sister Merlina his body was supposed to start changing in a year or two but maybe it had hit him early.
Perhaps he should have been more concerned, but a tingling sensation in his gut told him that the change in his eyes was nothing to be concerned about. When he tried to focus on what could have caused the change a migraine sharp pain lanced through his brain and the tingling in his gut became intolerable until he was forced to think about something else.
"How long do you plan to stand there admiring yourself pretty boy!", Arba was snapped back to reality by his sisters voice, "You of all people don't get to complain about other people being pretty", he shot back as he walked over to her. She grinned at him and ran her hand through her filthy clumped hair, "Awww, your gonna make me blush", she cooed sarcastically at him. Jerking a thumb over her shoulder she pointed at an alley, "We'll be able to make a good haul if we work near Brewer's quarter", the duo began walking leaving their hovel behind them and slipping into back alleys that were like a second home to them.
"Wouldn't lurking near Luleth district be better?", Arba asked as they moved through the labyrinth of intersecting streets with absolute confidence. "Nah", Hanna answered as she kicked an empty bottle shattering it against a nearby wall, "Yesterday Gol's boys moved into old man Zac's territory, everything from Luleth to crafter's street is a bloodbath right now".
Arba shrugged as he walked clinging to the shadows, he used his small frame to his advantage melding into the shadows of high walls and melding into the background. Hanna on the other hand stuck out like a sore thumb, where Arba crept she strolled utterly unconcerned, where Arba leapt over obstructions gracefully she kicked them down forging her own path. "You're going to get us caught one day if you keep making a ruckus like that", Arba complained.
Hanna snorted in reply, "Let tomorrow worry about itself twilight eyes". "Twilight eyes!", Arba rounded on his sibling who shrugged. "What?", she complained, "It was the best I could come up with one on the spot, besides have you seen your face recently, who are you twinkle twinkle little star, oh hey that's a good one", she added the later part under her breath as her brow creased in concentration. Arba let out a small groan as he realised the boar was going to create a whole new string of nicknames for him.
"You couldn't choose something cool like", Arba posed one hand covering his silver eye dramatically, "My cursed eye trembles, the time of awakening is near", he spoke dramatically as he changed his pose covering his black eye. "Or, Arba scion of prophecy, servant of the Gods".
…
The silence that followed that statement was very loud.
"Freak", Hanna said as she distanced herself from her brother to avoid catching his stupid. "I think they have same real potential!", he called at her departing form, "You have some real potential as a headcase", she shot back. The pair chuckled and fell into their usual rhythm of bullying disguised as bantering. A smile spread across Arba's face as thoughts of his death and miraculous survival were buried beneath genuine sibling abuse, sibling love he mentally corrected himself before smirking at that obvious lie. Before they knew it, they had arrived at Brewer's quarter.
One of the smaller districts of Miletus it was the hub of the city's alcohol distribution and distillery which had creatively earned it the name Brewer's quarter. As the emerged onto the main street thy found their path immediately blocked by a sea of bodies. The whole district was packed end to end with crowds of people, it looked like a small shanty town had suddenly appeared on the once quiet streets. Hawkers sensing an opportunity in the crowd had set up shops and pitched tents criss-crossed the streets as a market formed.
Arba let out a whistle as the pair skulked near the edge of the crowd. "It's a pickpockets wet dream", he said wistfully, and his sister nodded a feral grin on her face. Forget paying for the last few days of meals with a crowd this large Arba could pay off his entire debt to the Sister and finally cross one of his many debts off his ever-increasing list.
"How come everybody's here anyway?", he called out to Hanna to be heard over the hubbub of the crowd as the pair began to scavenge their way through the sea of people. Hanna made a shrug and then disappeared into a group of people; her voice came shouting back to him a few seconds later as Arba descended on his own prey. "Where have you been the last three weeks!", "Asleep!", he shot back as his hands found loosely secured coin pouches and wallets.
When he encountered resistance, he simply moved on, it was not worth risking an altercation when there was so much prey around. As he moved, he glanced at other urchins enjoying the seasonal glut, he nodded to some and quickly vacated the area when he encountered others that he knew to be more violent.
"There was some big explosion the other day", Hanna's voice came to him from somewhere deeper in the crowd, "Levelled something like a third of the city, Brewers is the closest district to the blast zone where houses survived so most of the refugees came pouring through here, looks like a lot decided to stick it out here". "A third of the city", Arba mused to himself as his hands moved quicksilver fast lancing in and out of jackets, pockets and even the odd dress. That would explain why everyone here was so ramshackle and dirty, perhaps an ordinary person would feel bad at stealing from the newly homeless, but Miletus was a dog eat dog city and Arba honestly couldn't be happier at the rare opportunity in front of him.
Still he had to wonder at just what could have caused such a cataclysm. Shrugging he dismissed the thought after a moment, it didn't have anything to do with him after all