The Red’s name was simple to understand. It was the color of blood and they were creating a river of it on the streets. They were taking over the city block by block, pushing established the established gangs and thieves guilds out as they went. And then they settled in and ruled the streets with an iron fist.

They were restricted to the slums, but rumors said that they were supported by some noble houses who stopped the guards from wiping them out. Cass could believe it, Red thugs, the ones from the main gang, not the conscripts they swept up from the ruins of their enemies, even wore leather armor and were well fed and well armed. You avoided them if at all possible, unfortunately, Cass’s luck had run out.

The trash heap outside a restaurant nearby the Church used to be the Masher’s territory, but it was a Red who had rounded Cass up as she scavenged for food. She was brought to a run down warehouse with other orphans, prodded along by the mostly silent thugs behind them. Honestly, the silence was the most unnerving thing, when they did speak, their words were rough even for the streets. They seemed to speak more in snarls and growls then in words.

At the warehouse a leather armored thug gave the gathered orphans a choice.

“You can drink this vial,” he sounded bored as he spoke, as if he had said this dozens of times. “Or I can have those puppets cut you up. You choose.”

Red Water. Cass had thought it to be a superstition, a myth brought on by the aggressive expansion of the Red’s. The rumors said Red Water was an addictive drug that turned people into slaves, and as the growling thug shoved her forward, Cass realized that those rumors were right!

Did she care though? She struggled with her emptiness for a bit before deciding that for now, she still did care. Cass did not want to be a slave and she did not want to die yet! Some of the other orphans had already taken the vial and had sunken to the floor in a stupor, a few had tried to run and were cut down, and a few were like Cass, desperately trying to look for a way out.

There wasn’t one. She was pushed ahead by the thug behind her and she found herself in front of the table. She reached a shaky hand towards the vial and picked it up. The liquid inside was mostly clear, but tinted red, as if an amount of blood had been mixed in…

As a last ditch attempt, Cass raised the vial to her lips and pretended to drink while the man was checking over the orphans who had collapsed to the ground after the drugs took hold. She let the drug run down her neck and pretended to have it take effect, letting herself fall over and closed her eyes down to slits.

The armored Red gave order for them to be watched and left, the thugs drifted off, taking small vials from their pockets and drinking. Cass figured that the Red’s would get them hooked on it and then use them as disposable fodder. She figured she would never have a better opportunity and carefully inched her way to the wall. The windows were shuttered, but Cass saw where they were hooked together, ever so slowly she inched her way up and began to slowly undo the latch.

Suddenly she heard a shout and realized she was discovered. Cass abandoned stealth tore open the shutters, jumped out the window, and ran. She darted through the streets, running into the main road and slipping through the crowd. Any orphan learned to use their small size to run away, slipping through openings in crowds and debris, and Cass made full use of that now. It helped that the thugs were not very careful due to the drugs and caused a stir in the crowd when they tried to move through it.

Cass had to gather her courage for what she was going to do next, it went against her every instinct as a street urchin, but she called out for the guards that patrolled this road. When they saw her, their faces twisted in disgust and contempt.

“What do you want, dreg?” A guard spat at her feet, his eyes promising violence if she wasted their time.

“Sir!” Cass gasped, trying to catch her breath. “The Red’s gang is abducting dregs and forcing them to take drugs! Their warehouse is just over there!”

The guards exchanged looks and then laughed. “And? What do you expect us to do about it?”

The other guard chimed in with, “Look kid, if we go in there with just the two of us we will be carved up like a pig at a noble’s dinner, and if we go for reinforcements, by the time we get there they will be gone.”

“The Red’s are in deep with some noble or another anyway,” the first guard sighed. “Order came down from the captain to leave them alone as long as they stay out of sight.”

Cass did not know how to react. Corrupt and lazy guards were nothing new, but they rarely missed an opportunity to flex their muscle in front of local criminals and gangs. The reminder served to make those gangs remember to pay the guards to ignore them, and the guards often pocketed the ‘confiscated’ goods. She started to worry that they might just give her back to the Reds…

The second guard had a sympathetic look on his face, he seemed the kinder of the two in general. “Kid, orders said to ignore them if they stay out of sight, if they were chasing someone through a crowd that is not out of sight.”

In short, these guards wouldn’t turn her over to the gang and would stop the people chasing her, but nothing more. Honestly, Cass was grateful for even that much, but she worried that it wouldn’t matter. The Red’s were already pushing in on the Masher’s turf, Cass had no place to go if they went further… But she could not press the guards to help or she would likely end up in a prison or worse.

That night, Cass heard fighting in the back alleys. Like other dregs, she was faced with a choice. Either she could run away now in the hopes to avoid trouble, or she could go and see what was happening to see who the winner would be. Both options had their pros and cons, but for Cass the answer was simple, she snuck out to see what was going on. She had no way to leave this area after all, not really.

Cass snuck up on to the roof of a nearby shack and crawled over to watch. As she expected, the Reds and Mashers were fighting. The Mashers were a pretty brutal gang, but they considered it a waste of energy to cut up orphans and the like, so this area was relatively safe for children. Cass suspected that the Church had something to do with that, years ago Heather had made allusions to bribes paid to them to ignore the people who came for the charity and sermons…

Cass fervently prayed the Mashers would win this fight, because she doubted the Reds would accept the same deal. However, her prayers clearly went unanswered and the Mashers were all dead, fleeing, or had turned on their former allies as soon as the tide of the battle had turned. What happened next though was surprising.

Cass heard the clanking of metal and people running towards the scene of the fight, it was the city guards! This was only a small portion of the Reds, but if the guards eliminated this group Cass would at least have some time to figure out what to do.

The leading Red stepped out to talk to the guards, it was the same man who had tried to force Cass to drink the Red water.

“I presume you know the deal,” He didn’t sound bored this time, just nervous. “What are you doing here?”

“I have a message from a mutual friend of ours,” A guard sneered. “He wanted to remind your leaders that spreading that filthy water of yours was not part of the arrangement.”

“We have done nothing of th-”

“Quit the act,” another guard laughed. “A girl on the street ran up to us and told us the whole fucking story earlier today.”

That was… The guard that Cass had thought was kind before, he was apparently much more involved than he had let on earlier! He probably worked for whomever was behind the Red’s rise to power…

“That little cunt…” The Red hissed, “So how is this going to play out then? Am I taking the message back for you?”

There was another option that the thug clearly hoped was not chosen….

“In the sense that we will dump your body with the message carved into it on your leaders doorstep.”

“Fuck! Kill them!” The thug screamed to the henchmen and drug puppets and Cass slipped away.

The Reds would get their message, Cass assumed, but they would still take control of this area. She had a little time, but not much. She would have to leave, and that meant she would likely have to start stealing… Cass was not sure how much longer she would care to try...