Godsgrave

"I`ve no wish to die," Mia sighed, crushing her smoke out against the wall. "To be honest, it sounds far more interesting to be the most wanted murderer in the Republic."
"A noble goal for any lass to aspire to," Mercurio smiled.
Mia grinned. "Well, you told me once I`d never be a hero."
Mercurio`s eyes filled with tears. He wrapped her up in a tight embrace, pulled her close to his chest. And there in the dark, just the pair of them, holding the girl he thought of as his own, the old man whispered.
"I might have lied."

"Why did you come here? Why now?"
Because I wanted to be with you."
"But why?"
Mia took a drag of cigarillo, mulling it over.
"Because I was thinking. About all the things that brought me to this point. The things that made me what I am, and all the things I could`ve been if I`d been given a choice. And then I didn`t want to think anymore."
"So that`s all this was?" Ashlinn kept her face steady, her voice cool, but Mia could see the storm building in that sunsburned blue. "Just a distraction?"
"The sweetest distraction," Mia smiled.
"No jesting," Ashlinn said. "You run hot and cold as a faulty bathhouse, and if this was just a quick roll to fuck unpleasant thoughts away, that`s fine. I`d rather that than a ruse to see the ink on my skin. But whichever it was, I need to know."
"It was neither, Ash."
"I know a lie when I taste it, Mia."
Mia sighed, shook her head. She`d pondered it on the way here, stealing down through the neverending streets. Why it hadn`t been right before, why it felt right now. Her fight with Furian had left her enflamed, her fight with Sid had done nothing to sate it. But it wasn`t simply that, wasn`t the thought of her parents or the painful reminders of being locked up in that place or the thought of where she`d been or what was to come.
"I thought about all the things I could`ve been if I`d been given a choice," she finally said. "And I realized that mostly I`ve never had one. Ever since my father was killed, my feet were set upon this course. No denying it. No escape. So I wanted to choose something for myself. Something that could just be mine. My choice."
Mia looked at Ash, running trembling fingertips across her cheek.
"And I chose you."
Ashlinn simply stared, bee-stung lips parted as she breathed, and Mia found herself falling, down into a long, sweet kiss. Ashlinn surged against her, hands cupping her face, lost in the sweetness of a kiss that seemed to shiver all the way to Mia`s soul. She pulled away only with reluctance, dark eyes searching Ashlinn`s own.
"Do I taste like I`m lying?" she asked.

The doors were flung wide, and Mia looked out into a sea of curious faces. Hundreds of people were in attendance — the cream of society, gathered in pretty knots or lying on divans around the vast room. The hall was marble, frescoed, tall windows thrown open to let in the cool nevernight breeze. Plates were laden with food, goblets overflowed with wine, wealth dripping off the walls.
Mia recognized this world. She`d grown up in it, after all. Daughter of a marrowborn familia, raised in opulense just like this. So much wealth held in so few palms. A kingdom of the blind, built on the backs of the bruised and the broken.
And nobody born to it every questioning a thing.

"Fuck you, Ashlinn."
"I thought you`d never ask, Mia."
Mia tensed, springing up off the bed, hands in fists. Ashlinn stood her ground, staring Mia down, jaw clenched. Their faces were only a few inches apart, the air between them crackling with arkemical current.
"Don`t pretend you don`t feel it," Ash said. "Because it`s written in your every line and curve. You might know me, Mia Corvere, but I know you just as well. And I know what it is you want."
Mia grit her teeth, one hand curling into a fist. She didn`t know whether she wanted to punch the girl or...
There was an ocean of lies between them. Ash`s betrayal. Tric`s murder. The certainty the girl would do or say anything to get what she wanted. But there was truth in her words too. Of every person she knew in the world, the only one helping her in her darkest need was Ashlinn Jarnheim.
Ashlinn Jarnheim was made of lies.
Ashlinn Jarnheim was poison.
And Ashlinn Jarnheim was beautiful.

"She`s gone," Mia said.
Maggot looked at Mia, nodded sadly as she tied off the bandage.
"Mine, too," she said. "But she taught me all she knew. And so, whenever I stitch a wound or set a bone or mend a fever, she`s still with me."
A fine thought, Mia mused. One no doubt sung to orphans across the world since the beginning of time. But even if there were some semblance of her father in the way she fought, her mother in the way she spoke, they were still dead and gone. If they were with her at all, it was as ghosts upon her shoulder, whispering in the nevernight of all that might have been.