Sabrina – Part 2

Sabrina and the rest of the orphan women got ready and bathed after the morning events; Isabella did nothing more than give Sabrina a contemptuous look as they passed each other. Sabrina’s cheek still flared brightly and burned fiercely throughout much of the early day. Isabella must have believed it warranted enough punishment, as she did not probe Sabrina further after the little prank.

When the young women lined up for their inspection by Lady Tabatha; ensuring the women were clean and ready for work. Tabatha looked at Sabrina scornfully, checking for dirt under her fingernails.

“Sort your cheek out girl,” Tabatha snarled snatching at her fingers tightly. “One rosy cheek makes you look ridiculous. I’ll gladly redden the other cheek for you if you prefer.”

Sabrina clenched her teeth tightly but said nothing, if she were lucky, her cheek would return to its normal colour soon, and she need not suffer another slap on the other cheek to balance out the palette. Tabatha’s job, after all, was to get the orphans of Leeside (all female) into work, so first impressions were often everything.

It was a difficult task, to say the least given most of the orphans did not have any particular skills. Many of the male orphans would be scooped up by the Empire, as boy soldiers or laborers. The woman replied more on business owners seeking cheap worker’s, or skilled laborers seeking apprentices. Every day Tabatha would send her orphans out on volunteer jobs and almost all returned without paid work.

When Tabatha was content with her flock, Sabrina left the Torrent Orphanage and out into the city of Leeside. The noise of the city was loud and suffocating, its people having to shout to be heard over street vendors and rolling carts.

Sabrina made her way throughout the streets, feeling little more than an ant in a thriving colony of dung beetles, and headed towards her workplace. She managed to find volunteer work in a small apothecary, brewing simple potions and ailments for a Bruno Chatsworth. He was old and frail but saw talent in Sabrina and believed she had an aptitude for alchemy (when focused). Sabrina supposed she did in a weird kind of way; she enjoyed the scents of his workshop and the precision required in brewing potions, Bruno had caught her doing what she did best: nosing around. But this time in a book labeled ‘Aspiring Widow Poisons’ and she almost found herself thrown out into the street. Almost, until she started asking questions as to why Bruno had the book in the first place, and then he just decided it best to drop the whole ordeal.

It was when Sabrina was almost at Chatsworth’s shop on this hot early summer morning, when she suddenly halted in her stride, overcome by the sudden sensation she was being watched. She had never felt this electrifying itch before; as if her entire skin was crawling with insects. She turned and caught the eye of an elf; he was short, slim, and hooded just watching her; he looked almost startled when Sabrina turned and looked at him as if caught snooping.

The next sensation she felt after looking upon the elf was bizarre, it was as if for the first time in her life she could crack open and see into a person, similar to a person cracking open an egg.

‘Theo’ was the word that struck her mind from the tip of an invisible arrow. Sabrina reached up to touch her temple as the lightning of pain exploded in her head. By the time she got her bearings again, the elf was gone.

“Out the way” yelled a baker pushing a heavyset cart of bread. Sabrina fell to one side of the street, her head pounding from the word that exploded in her head as if it came from a locked room within her mind. She coughed, and her eyes widened in horror when more spider silk trickled out of her mouth like a spindle ejecting its string.

She pulled at the webbing anxiously to conceal it from the people that passed her, tears welling in her eyes.

What is happening to me? She cursed.

“Are you okay?” came a voice close to her, Sabrina had not heard the man approach and when she looked up (spider silk still clinging to her lips), she noticed it was the elf, the same elf as before.

“Theo” she heard herself say. The elf looked taken aback.

“Yes…” he said unable to hide his confusion “How did you-"

“I don’t know!” Sabrina snapped, “It just hit me I can’t explain” She raised her hand to massage her temples that now pulsed with white-hot intensity.

Theo looked intrigued and at the same time weary.

“Have you had an appraisal? He asked. “It’s a test to find if you have any—”

“I know what an appraisal is,” Sabrina interrupted, the pain demanding this conversation move along more quickly. She knew some people could read minds, perhaps pull from minds information they want, like names and such. Perhaps she was gifted in such a way. “I’m an orphan, how could I afford one?”

“All citizens, even orphans are given them at the age of eighteen,” Theo said matter of factually.

“I’m seventeen” came the irritated response.

Sabrina wished she never left the orphanage today, wished this elf would leave her alone. But when she looked up into that elf’s bark brown eyes, she could not help but sense he was going to help her in some way, that he wished her no ill will. It was the same sensation she had before that told her so, and Sabrina couldn’t doubt the fact she needed someone right now, the pain was almost causing her to collapse on the ground and beg for relief.

“Whoa, hey, stay with me.” She heard the elf say. But Sabrina felt her head overload with sensory. For half a heartbeat she could hear the pounding of feet on the cobbled ground several streets away, taste the salted pheromone of the sea on the air from the other side of the city, and smelled the coming rain from several miles away. Her mind had awoken, and after its brief blinding birth, the darkness consumed her.