Peula shuffled Shel into the small room in the front of her house. She sat him down and went to the kitchen for refreshments. The shape of the room was strange, with a third wall cutting into what should have been a large area. The third wall was angled to create a triangular aspect to the room. A small wooden table and mixed wooden chairs filled the space. A large lambs’ wool rug was pulled out in the middle of the room, the gray colors showing that it had seen better days, days before the mud and water from the outside had been shuffled across it.

Peula returned holding a tin cup in one hand and a plate of sugar cubes in the other. Shel took the cup and picked out two sugar cubes, dropping them into the cup. He spun the cup around until the sugar started to dissolve. The lemon water was warm and the sugar took only a few spins to fully dissolve. He drank the lemon drink in two gulps.

“You like? I bought the fresh lemons at the Central District. They are imported from Bansei to the south. Not the freshest batch I’ve ever seen, but they certainly are rare.” Peula nodded her head, the motion made her slack chin wobble freely, creating the illusion that her face was moving up and down free of her bones.

“It’s good, but I don’t much like lemons.”

“You looked like you had been crying when you came here. Did something happen at home?”

Shel wiped his eyes. He had not been crying. “I wasn’t crying,” he said, again wiping his eyes. “I was walking fast, and some sweat must have gotten in my eyes.”

Peula nodded her head knowingly and took Shel’s empty cup. “I can get you some more if you’d like. Or maybe you’d like to read from the Book again? Or we can talk.”

“I’ve had enough talking,” Shel said. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He could not understand why he kept visiting Peula. She had nothing to offer him and she was bad company. She did not understand him. She was older than his grandfather and while he felt pity towards her at times, the pity was more from how pathetic she looked to him. Besides the priest that one day, Shel had never seen anyone come by to visit, or seen her go to visit anyone. In fact, he did not think she met with anyone besides himself. Wait, when did a priest visit her?

“What are you thinking, Shel? You look deep in thought. Does it have to do with why you were upset earlier? Tell Peula, I can help.” Peula had taken out her scroll and had already wet the nib of her pen. She was scratching notes on the parchment. Shel saw his name written plainly on the top of the page, and the date scribbled next to her pen. Why would a priest visit her, and why did he not remember that visit until just now.

“What’s your deal with the Church, Peula?”

“You want to talk about the Church? They are a great place, a holy place. It is through them that we can know the truth. They protect us from the evil in the world and ensure that salvation is near. Did you know they protect people from death? You’ve probably heard the rumors of that. They aren’t rumors, believe you me. They are holy people, Shel. You should speak with them sometime. They are holy.”

The priest, Shel remembered her. She had a warrior with her, and the warrior’s breath smelled like fish. Fragments of their visit to Peula’s house came back to Shel, but he could not remember why he had forgotten it. It was almost as if the memory had always been there, but he never had the chance to think on it. Shel needed air. The room felt stuffy. His thoughts were heavy, as if the yoke had left his back and neck, and move to his head. “I need to get out of here,” Shel said, pushing aside the table where the Church’s Book rested. He did not remember seeing that book earlier, but he saw Peula’s surprised face. She had been reading from it, reading to him while he sat there. When did that happen?

Shel pushed the table away and made it to the door. “Where are you going, Shel? We’re not done the chapter yet. Stay, learn a bit. Would you like more lemon drink?”

Shel ignored Peula and went outside. The day was warm, warmer than it had been in a while. He opened the ties on his shirt and lifted his shirt out of his trousers. A thin film of sweat covered his torso. He must have been sitting there longer than he remembered. He ran off of Peula’s porch and into the street. A large wagon pulled by two horses pulled in front of him, and he jumped to the side to avoid it. The wagon driver yelled something, but Shel had ran past him. He looked back and saw Peula on the porch. She held the parchment and waved with the other hand, holding a pen. Shel turned his back on her, and he vowed never to return to her house. A sense of deju vu set in, as he remembered making that promise once before. It was not only once before, it was many times before, he knew. It seemed a whole swatch of his memory was missing, and he did not know what had become of it. It felt like he was pushing against his brain, and a slow film was falling off of it, as if his world had been covered for the last few weeks, and finally the covering was falling off.

Shel was not sure where he was heading. He kept moving, slowing his run to a walk. He thought about heading home, but decided he was not ready to face his mother or grandfather yet. He had thinking to do. Thinking about that chest, thinking about Peula. It was almost too much. He needed to talk to someone. He thought of Neal, but was not sure he could get Neal alone. Audrel always seemed to know what was going on in the Pretty Beak tavern, even when she was not working there.

Shel realized his mistake when only after he head approached the corner. He had been so deep in thought that he did not see the five Littlelings talking to Henry Tollernman, the son of a local blacksmith with arms the size of small tree trunks. The Littlelings looked like they were hitting him up for money. Because of his work in the blacksmith, Henry was large. But over the last couple of years, his had sprouted to the point where he was not considered a child anymore. He spent less time with the other children and more time in the forge working on the anvil. Shel was surprised to see him outside, but he was more surprised to see him surrounded by the Littlelings.

Henry held his fists up near his face, daring the Littlelings to approach him. The Littlelings were talking loudly, pointing, some were imitating him, spinning the fists one against the other in mockery. Shel hadn’t realized how close he had gotten until one of the Littlelings pointed him out to the others. They lost interest in Henry immediately and made a line for Shel. Henry looked surprised by this, sure he was going to get his chance to prove that he was no longer a child, and with Shel appearing, he lost that chance.

Shel did not wait for the Littlelings to get near him before he turned and started down the nearest street. He kept his pace to a fast walk, not wanting to attract attention. The Littlelings kept pace. They spread out, three on each side of the street, preparing to cut him off if he ran down one of the side streets. He had done this before with them, as had they. Not many children waited around to be hit up by the Littlelings, and the Littlelings, because of their size, were not fast sprinters.

He kept his pace until he found the side road he was looking for. It was narrow and zigzagged through a dozen small stands before opening up into a large road, which many of the wagons used to deliver their goods to the warehouses in the area. The warehouses held much of the storage for goods in the Central Square. As soon as he approached the entrance, he turned and ran down the street, moving people out of his way and hopefully into the way of the Littlelings who he saw give chase. They were whistling and yelling as he ran.

Three of them dropped away before he made it past the first stall. They had been waiting for him to cross, and when he did not, they could not run across the wagon-filled streets fast enough. That left only three Littlelings in pursuit. Shel slowed down, not sure that the three Littlelings would be much of a threat to him unless they pulled their knives. Unless a child pulled a weapon, the Littlelings almost never pulled out a weapon. Shel was not sure what honor was for the Littlelings, but he knew that when he fought them, the only thing he risked was a black eye or a fat lip. They would never poke holes in him. The same could not be said for adults the Littlelings fought. More than one governors’ guardsmen had learned the hard way not to treat the Littlelings like children.

When Shel made it to the warehouses of the Builders District, he took a moment to look behind him to find the Littlelings. Their short legs could carry them far, but it could not carry them fast. He slowed down to a walk, glancing behind him for signs of pursuit. He continued through the warehouse district, more and more sure that he had gotten away from the Littlelings again. The wooden warehouses ended at the Townsend corner, where the oldest fountain in Varis stood. The water had long since been turned off in the fountain, as the governors felt it attracted the wrong sort of people to it for drinking and bathing. Shel skirted the fountain and made his way toward the main avenue that would lead him back to his house.

When he glanced behind him again to check for Littlelings, he saw eight of them, and, more worrisome, he saw that they had found Tommy, and she now led the pursuit. They were running toward him, and Shel took off down the avenue, trying to get away from the Littlelings. He knew that they knew where he lived, but he did not think their little legs could carry them fast enough to cut him off. They were not good when separated, he had learned, and when the gang broke up, he could usually fool them or lose them in the streets.

As he ran away from them, the Littlelings began falling behind. Tommy, however, did not have short legs. Her legs were long and moved quickly for their large size. She had a determined look on her face, and Shel wondered why they were bothering to chase him. He had paid their parents’ tax the last time he had run into them, and they were not even shaking him down when he ran this time.

Shel made it to the street with his house. He grabbed the side of the house at the corner to allow him to change directions quickly and head down the street. When he had ran less than half the distance, he saw Tommy gaining ground on him. There were no Littlelings in sight. He did not slow down until he made it to his house. Tommy was a few steps behind him, and he stopped in his front yard.

“What is it now?” Shel asked through heavy breathing. Having found the safety of his house, he felt he deserved to find out why the Littlelings and Tommy had been chasing him. He breathed heavily and tried to swallow, his throat dry and raw from the running.

Tommy did not answer. She stepped into his yard and slapped him hard against his face. Shel yelped and took a step back.

“What is this ruckus out here,” Shel heard Audrel say. She stood outside holding a thick broomstick. She looked from Shel to Tommy and back. “Shel, come inside, and tell your friend to get out of my yard.”

Tommy stayed where she was. Shel looked over her shoulders, looking for any Littlelings that might have made it to help her.

“Audrel, I’ll handle this,” Shel said. “We’ll go inside and Tommy will leave us alone.” It was bad enough that Audrel had seen Shel get slapped by Tommy, he did not want to make matters worse, and he certainly did not need his mother saving him from Tommy. He could take on Tommy if he needed to. He just did not need to and he would go inside with Audrel, for Audrel’s sake.

As Shel started walking toward the house, Tommy stood blocked his path. “I did not say you can go inside,” Tommy said.

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