9 years ago

Celia was running through a dark, humid tunnel. She was late and cursed herself for being so caught up in her newly found book about airships that she almost completely forgot about such an important meeting.

Lady Luck has finally smiled upon her. Celia's efforts were noticed, and she was promoted to crew leader. She already had a few members that naturally followed her, like Theo, but today Lin was about to present recruits that had to be assigned to new teams. Her stomach crunched at the thought that this buffoon, Hector, had already grabbed the best people for his extortionist crew. Even though Celia was still young, she understood that she needed the best possible people with useful skills and dependability to succeed in anything. She alone could not carry them.

Celia entered the spacious cave in a full dash, almost crashing at the mass of gathered people.

"You are late," said a dry voice. Lin sat at the pile of crates, looking like a queen on a throne, with a pad and pen in her hands, her face screwed up in a usual scowl.

"Well, at least I'm here?" Celia smiled charmingly, but Lin only raised a brow, clearly unamused.

"You'll be the last to pick then. You know the rules."

"Do I? I have a feeling you made up those rules as suits you," Celia mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Celia shrugged and turned to look at the gathered crowd of fresh recruits. They had all been in the cartel for a few weeks and got Lin's approval to be accepted as new Plunderer members. Though there were plenty of young people of various ages, one caught Celia's attention instantly. He towered over the others as a mountain peak over the forest. While most recruits were anxiously looking around and shuffling their feet, apprehensive of what was coming, he was perfectly still, with massive, muscled arms crossed over a broad chest. The flickering flames of oil lamps make his brown skin glow like a burned amber.

He would be a perfect addition to Celia's crew. Most of her people focused more on being quick and crafty, but a blunt strength was occasionally necessary. But someone else would surely pick him first because she was so stupidly late.

Celia clenched her fists and waited as other crew leaders inspected gathered people as if they were cattle on the market and started picking the most promising candidates. But to Celia's surprise, no one seemed interested in the giant man that caught her eye. She narrowed her eyes. Something was not right here.

When Hector was passing her, she grabbed his elbow.

"Why haven't you picked that big guy?" she asked. "He would be perfect for your crew. You're all about strength, no?"

Hector scoffed, wrenching his arm from her hand. "He might be promising, but it's a package deal. I'm not taking a bloody parasite to slow my crew down."

Celia blinked, confused. "Parisite? I don't...." But then she finally saw it. Behind the big man cowered a tiny little girl, no more than twelve, with her arms and legs thin as sticks, and though her skin had the same tone as her protector, hers had a sickly grey tint to it. A shiver ran down her spine when Celia met the girl's eyes. They were covered with white cataracts.

The big man must have noticed her stare because he scowled and shuffled on his feet, hiding the girl from view.

"Right, as everyone else made their choices, it's your turn, Cee-rat," Lin announced with a bored tone.

Celia crossed her arms and rubbed her chin. With only a few people left, no one except the giant man seemed like a good fit for her current crew. He would be an obvious choice, but if she took him and a child, they would have to care for her. There was not much food to go around, and having someone on the crew who didn't work was inefficient. She had to think about the interest of the whole company.

"What will happen to those I won't pick?" she asked Lin.

The young woman put down her pen and looked at her. "They will get assigned to non-vital work for Plunderers. And if they can't keep up...." She shrugged. "We get rid of them."

Celia knew the non-vital work was a code for the most degrading and brutal jobs that needed to be done around the base, like taking care of latrines and such. The kid would never survive this kind of work.

Could she make it work?

Celia walked to the man and had to look up to meet his eyes.

"What's your name?"

"Zedock." His voice was a low rumble.

"And the little one?" Celia leaned sideways, trying to look at the girl, but she hid further behind the man shyly.

"Mahala," said the man quietly.

"I'm Celia. Zedock, I'd like to talk to Mahala. She's your sister, right?"

The man only looked at her with narrowed eyes but did not step away.

"I will not hurt her, I promise." Celia put a hand on her heart. "I'd like to take you both to my crew, but first, I need to know that we can make it work."

Zedock looked at her for a moment and then reluctantly stepped aside. Mahala grabbed his big hand and, with the other, nervously tagged on a single long braid plaited with red thread.

Celia crouched before her and smiled, even though she knew the girl couldn't see it.

"I like your braid. It's gorgeous."

"T-thank you," Mahala replied in a quiet, trembling voice.

"Did you plait it yourself?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You can call me Celia. Tell me, Mahala, is there anything you like doing?"

"I... I like sewing. And making things from scraps. I made this...." Mahala reached into the pocket of her dirty dress and took out a little rag doll. Even though it was made from different patches of scavenged materials, it was surprisingly well made.

"That is the prettiest doll I've ever seen," Celia admitted.

Mahala's gaunt face instantly brightened, and a small smile tugged on her plump lips.

"Really?"

"Really. I think you will do fine in my crew, Mahala. Actually, there is someone I'd like you to meet. I want you and your brother to come with me. Do you think you can do that?"

Mahala turned her unseeing eyes toward Zedock and tugged on his hand. "Can we go with her, Zed? I like her."

"Fine, if you say so," the big man nodded, but his dark eyes still studied Celia carefully, trying to discern if she was trustworthy.

"That's your pick?" Lin asked with a raised brow. "Another cripple? You are so weird, Cee-rat."

Celia got back to her feet and shrugged. "What can I say? Where others see only flaws, I see opportunity."

***

Later that day, they sat on crooked chairs in a little cave taken by Celia's crew as their living quarters. On the other side of the room, Theo sat at his tinkering table and showed Mahala how to assemble the little components they used in their smoke bombs. The girl listened attentively and enthusiastically touched every part to get her fingers accustomed to the different shapes of all elements.

"Mahala is doing better than I expected," Celia said, sipping a lukewarm tea from a chipped mug.

"It's been a while since I saw her this happy," Zed said quietly, his eyes never leaving his sister.

"She's sick."

Zed nodded.

"Is it recent or..."

"She's been like this since birth. Everyone thought she would die in the first few days." He smiled gently, and it made his serious face seem kinder. "But she's a fighter. Her body is weak, but her soul is burning bright. Always have. I..." He turned to Celia and bowed his head. "Thank you for giving us a chance."

Celia smiled. "Don't thank me yet. I will work you to the bone, Zed."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, boss."

"I knew you would fit right into our little family. Glad to have you with us. Both of you."