As the sun began to set, everyone who lived outside the walls of the city scrambled to get back to their homes as quickly as possible. Things like candles were precious resources that only the rich could afford. Lighting one was seen as literally burning money.

Consequentially, whenever the sun went down, absolute darkness settled on the slums. The people outside the city rose and set with the sun.

Well… most of them did.

As always, there are a few outliers, and a few anomalies. Soft foot was one such anomaly.

While Sarah and the Fool were cuddled together by the embers of a fire, Soft foot was skulking around in the shadows of night.

Each step he took was calculated and purposeful. In order to make as little noise as possible, he would only walk on the balls of his feet, padding like a cat might through the alleys and dingy streets of the slums.

One important thing to note about the slums is that, as you might expect, not everyone who lived there did honest work. Some, like Soft Foot, were thieves. Others did even worse things to get by.

Soft Foot’s commission tonight was a strange one. A day earlier, when the collectors had come to gather the monthly ‘Donations’ as they were called, a tall man who wore all black had joined them.

At the time of the collections, Soft Foot had been doing what he usually did during the day, sleeping. When one of his friends, a big burly man called Patchy had woken him up with his heavy fisted knocks on the flimsy door to Soft Foot’s shack.

“Oi Softy! Get up! Some guy from the city wants to see you,” Patchy had yelled.

And despite how loud he was yelling, it wasn’t till Soft Foot had heard mention of the city that he truly woke up.

His initial reaction was terror. Had they found out about his stealing? If so, why did they care about a small-time thief like him? Were they going to kill him?

As these questions swirled around in his mind, Soft Foot opened the door robotically and followed Patchy to where the collectors were waiting for him. He had walked through the streets like a man going to be hanged, his face was grim, and his steps were stilted and slow.

“Speed up there Softy, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Patchy had said with a laugh as he patted the thin man on the back.

“Why would I walk to my death faster?” Soft foot asked glumly.

Patchy burst out laughing, “Hahaha, death! What death? Some guys from the city are asking for the best thieves in the district for some…” Patchy coughed slightly before whispering the last part, “Unsavoury business as they called it,”

At this, Soft Foot’s ears twitched slightly. He was an expert in unsavoury business. A veritable master of dishonest and questionable conduct. This sounded like it was right up his alley.

Never mind the fact that he would probably make a quick buck, when someone from the city asked you to do something there wasn’t the option to refuse.

“What kind of unsavoury business?” Soft Foot had asked slyly.

Patchy winked and elbowed him in the side, “You’ll see,”

…

That brought Soft Foot to where he was now. His mission was simple. Find a man who had fled the city.

It seemed too good to be true. Sure, it might take a while to find one person out of the hundreds of thousands who lived outside the city, but it could be done.

What was more surprising was that when he was given such a simple task, it wasn’t just him who was asked, but every reputable thief and crook from here to the next district. At least 100 of them had been recruited in total.

But the reward was too good to pass up. It was something worth more than money. Worth more than gold. An entrance to the city. To a person like Soft Foot, such a thing would be wasted, but if he ever had kids, he could send one of them to the city to live a proper life. A life better than his.

It was obvious that he couldn’t give up such an opportunity so naturally, he would do his all to find this man.

The target's name was Leo Remit, a small-time bureaucrat from a big family. At an early age, it was discovered that like most people, Leo couldn’t cultivate and as such, he had been sent to become a scholar who would help oversee the finances of the family.

Until one day, Leo went missing. The Remit family had suspected foul play and spent the last six years searching the city for him to no avail. Now, rather than foul play, they suspected Leo had abandoned the family and fled outside the city.

Soft Foot’s job was to find this man and as he stole through the night, his footsteps not making a single sound, his thoughts were preoccupied with dreams of what he would do with his reward.

…

“Don’t lie, I’ve already heard all your stories,” the Fool said with a pout.

“Not this one,” Sarah said knowingly.

“Hmph, we’ll see,” the little boy said suspiciously.

Sarah giggled at his childishness and hugged him tightly. While her son wriggled violently in the blankets, trying to escape her grasp. Sarah began to tell her story.

“Not so long ago, in a slum just like this one, a little girl was born. Her parents weren’t the richest nor were they terribly poor. They were honest folk and wanted the best for their precious little daughter.

After trying for years, she was the only kid they had managed to have and as such, they loved her dearly and wanted her to be successful.

The father was a man who had spent years in the fields and was well respected by most people. He was easy going and anyone you asked would have nothing but nice things to say about him.

The mother was a strict but fair woman. She prided herself on being well educated and wanted the same for her daughter.

Although her mother prided herself on being well educated, she was only well educated by the standards of people from the slums. But for her daughter, that wasn’t enough. She wanted more than that for her.

At first, her parents had prayed for their precious little daughter to be born special. If only she could cultivate then her life would be easy. She could go and live in the city and become an immortal. Alas, no matter how many times they prayed for such a thing, it never came to pass.

So, they decided their daughter would be the smartest person in the slums. A humble dream if you ask me,”

“Don’t interrupt the story mum,” the Fool mumbled from beneath his mother’s chest which he was currently being squished into. Clearly, he had lost the battle and resigned himself to his fate of being hugged.

“I was just giving my opinion,” Sarah said defensively.

“ok ok, just hurry up and get to the good bit.”

“Alright then… where was I? oh yes. Since they wanted their daughter to be smart and know many things, the couple had to find a suitable teacher for her.

Luckily, her father had plenty of friends and after asking around, he heard about a strange old man who lived out past the fields on the edge of the forest. This old man was said to be very reclusive but was also rumoured to know many unusual and wonderous things.

After finding out where the old man lived, the couple brought their baby daughter to him and asked if he would teach her.

Well, the old man took one look at the baby and said, “Fuck off, what can I teach a child? And why would I even teach her if I could?”

“Mum! I thought you said swearing was bad,” the little boy cried out.

“Yes… well, it is… I was just quoting the old man so it’s not the same as me swearing,” Sarah said defensively.

The boy frowned as he mulled this over and Sarah continued her story.

“The little girl's parents begged the old man to teach her, but he kept saying words which I will not repeat here, and, in the end, they left in disappointment.

However, the girl’s parents weren’t the type to be discouraged easily so once a week, they would gather up half their food and the father would take the long walk to the old man’s hut at the edge of the forest.

They continued to give their offerings to the old man for five whole years before finally, one day he accepted to teach her.

Growing up, all the girl had ever heard her parents talk about was the strange old man, so she was very excited and also nervous to meet him.

What if she was too dumb to learn anything from him and all those years of offerings were for nothing? What if he changed his mind and didn’t want to teach her anything after all?

When she arrived at his house for the very first time, he greeted her gruffly and handed her a broom.

“Clean the hut and then I will teach you something,” he had said snappily.

The girl didn’t complain and did as she was told. After spending a long time cleaning the house, she finally finished and once again, stood in front of the old man, waiting to hear his next command.

The old man glanced up at the sky and squinted slightly at the sun that was directly above his head. Finally, he lowered his head to look at the girl and smirked.

“You arrived here at 10 in the morning. It took you 2 hours and 35 minutes to clean the house therefore the time is now 12:35 in the afternoon. There are 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day… Now make me lunch,” He had said without pause.

The girl was dumbstruck and could only do her best to remember this information while she scrambled about in the pantry, trying to find something to make lunch with.

However, despite her best efforts, the food she made was terrible. Of course, she could hardly be blamed. Food was scarce in the slums and as such, she had never had the chance to do much cooking. Never mind the fact that her parents gave half their food away to this old man every week, what could she cook with?

After cooking a rather terrible soup for the old man. He ate it with a scowl before setting down the bowl.

“Water boils at a temperature of 100 degrees, it freezes at 0 degrees and this soup was freezing cold, did you even cook it?” The old man had asked with a face carved from stone.

The girl had apologised profusely and from then on, things repeated themselves in a similar fashion. She completed a chore and was taught something related to it.

Sometimes, the old man would just get bored and teach her something completely random. After spending years with the old man, she learned to read, write, and count. She had finally become just as smart as her parents had always wanted.

If they were still around to see her… I’m sure they would be proud,” When Sarah said the last part, her voice was slightly choked up with emotions.

“One day, when the girl, who had become a woman now, was staying with her master, a young man from the city came to visit. Naturally, the girl, who had never met anyone from the city was extremely curious and couldn’t take her eyes off the young man,”

Sarah coughed into her hand slightly.

“For more reasons than one. Her teacher and the young man talked for a while before her teacher introduced her to the young man.

“Sarah, this is one of my old friend’s children, Leo.”

“Wait, is this story about you?” The little boy asked intently.

“No, it’s a different Sarah,” Sarah said, casually dismissing the claims.

“But I’ve also heard you refer to my dad as Leo,” the little boy said while squinting at his mum suspiciously.

“Haha, well that’s a coincidence,” Sarah said while laughing dryly. “Anyway, I think that’s enough for tonight, go to sleep,” she said before kissing the little boy on his grimy forehead despite his struggles to avoid the blow.