1
He is a bad man. The thoughts flashed through Penelope head as she watches the War Hero General parade around to the cheers of people surrounding him, she would have liked to think that she was mistaken with her quick judgement of the man but she knew she wasn't. Her father had told her to trust her instinct, he told her that it was the only thing she could trust in life and right now her instinct told her that this man in front of her was no good.Of course her instincts has let her do some foolish things too, like running away from home only to arrive in the lion den because she had thought it would be safer. From her crime yes but for her survival? She is doing a poor job at it, it has barely been three months since she left home and came to the empire capital and yet she was already half starved to death, her bones showing but the goodness with her new appearance is that she had lost some of the baby fat she had on her and that made her look more like a street boy which she was pretending to be. The streets is no place for girls, she knew this fact more than she should. Penelope closed her eyes as she tried to block out the scene she had witness a week ago from evading her mind, the scene giving her sleepless nights but she couldn't.
A slave was raped in her presence by so many boys, people she stayed on the street with. She could do nothing other than report to the guards she saw, by the time they returned, the girl was already half dead. Penelope heard later on that the girl died when she was returned to her master's house, her wrists were slit and the case was covered as a suicide.
Penelope knew better.
"Watch where you are going. Fly." A big bully spat at out Penelope, shoving her aside even though she had done nothing to him, when Penelope glared at him he turned to face her.
"What? You have something to say?" He taunts.Penelope gritted her teeth and gave a stiff head shake and turned to leave the place, this particular bully had been after her since she arrived to join his gang of followers and Penelope knew she couldn't keep anybody close, no when they were the ones who was going to sell her out if she slipped up and mistakenly let them see that she is a girl.
"General Cain is amazing, he will be the best prime minister to go down in history." Penelope stops as she heard those words from two middle class girls who were gushing and gossiping, she was just like them. full of hopes and dreams, had opinions which didn't matter but could air then, a best friend who was thick just like her and then one unwanted attention and everything went down the drain.
"What are you staring it?" One of them noticed Penelope lost in thoughts looking at their direction.
Her words jolted Penelope back into herself. "Nothing Milady, please spare a coin for a hungry fellow." Penelope bowed her head and used a pitiful tone to say her words.
"Go… we don't have coins for the likes of you…" one of them started in a brag filled tone.
"Wait, he is hungry, sure we can spare something." The other said with some sympathy and reached into her bag to give Penelope, leftover sandwich.
It was more food than Penelope had eaten in two days. "Thank you." she whispered with tears in her eyes as she snatched it out of the girl hand and hurried away from the fringes of the crowd to the empty stalls where she sat down and continued to eat the meal she had already started to eat on her way there. Her cheeks were growing wetter as she ate in a hurry but she didn't care.
"Poor boy." She heard one of the girls whispered.
"I am sure that all he ever did wrong was to be an orphan. Come, the emperor is giving a speech." The other tutted as they moved on.
Penelope chewed slowly down casted by their words. My parents are very much alive, all I ever did wrong was to kill a man.
She continued with her food as she watched the crowd hurrying forward to hear the Emperor words even though it wasn't possible for them to, they were too far away but whatever the emperor said will be passed mouth to mouth and it would get to her ears soon enough. As she watched the crowd move around her, that was how she saw the symbol from her father amour, when he still had one. The golden raven. It was on the cane of an old man who was slowly walking the opposite direction with some men walking behind him, listening to every word he was saying.
As they passed her she got the tail end of their discussion. "…the emperor is making a mistake, he shouldn't have just done what he did, there is no need for us to listen to more. The new Prime minister is out to get us…"
"The golden raven." She whispered as her mind took her back to when she was little.
"Papa. What is that?" a younger version of herself asked the man who had always and will always have her back.
"That, my dear little one is the symbol of brave men who upholds justice at any course, they are the real hero. The ones who suffer behind the scenes." Her father replied with a limp as he sat down besides her, he couldn't keep standing for much longer then, not unless he wanted to destroy his leg completely.
"Like you papa." Penelope peers at her father who nodded his reply with a smile playing on his lips.
"Boy, I asked you a question, do you know the symbol?" The man stopped and asked her as Penelope cheeks turned red.
"No Sire, what does a lowly nobody like me know of a symbol like that?" Penelope bowed her head, holding her breathe and hoping that the man would leave, she shouldn't draw attention to herself in any way.
"Your status doesn't stop your knowledge. And how will I know what you know if you don't tell me boy." The man replied.
"The golden Raven was the symbol of men who upholds justice no matter the temptation not to, the ones who are the real hero." Penelope mentions as the man snorted.
"You have the seasoned truth, the one which is easier to swallow. Let me keep you with your rose colored view on the world."
"My views on the world is not rose colored, I have gone through so many things which you cannot say you have gone through." Penelope flared up.
"This brat… how dare you?" One of the men following the man started forward like he would like to thrash Penelope who shrank back from him.
"Leave him alone, he is right after all. What is your name boy?" the man asked.
"Penn." Penelope replied.
"That is a very unusual name Penn." The man said as Penelope just nodded but didn't say anything again. "What are the things you have gone through that you think I didn't?" The man asked with a patronizing tone which made Penelope temper to flare up again.
"I live on the streets for something which I had no control over, I experience hunger and it is a feeling that I am always with, I battle every day for my life and in the end of it all, I am not welcomed home as a hero or given the right to have a golden raven as a show of status because the battles I fight everyday has become my own twisted version of home through no choice of mine." Penelope finished ranting only to shrink back away from the man apologizing.
"I am sorry sire, please let me go, I will never appear in front of you again.""You are right. I like your spirit Boy, I think you will do better in a good environment." The man offers but she shifted back, bumping into the walls, she couldn't accept it, not when it meant that her secret will have a bigger chance of being exposed and then she will die in the way she often had nightmares about. No! The streets were a necessary danger. The offer sounded like a liberation… it would have been one if she was a guy but no, she is a girl. It is not salvation for her but doom.
Penelope shook her head. "No sire, I won't. I am where I can be." With those words she lowered her head in a bow to the man as she darted to the side, she needed to take a bath, remind herself that she is a woman and that she had no place in that offer.
The man liked her spirit because she was a boy, the only thing liked about women is their bodies. And it is taken by force when the woman has no man to fight or defend her honor. She felt the man watching her, she just hoped that he didn't feel affronted by her refusal, she knew that it was far from the last time she would see that man in her life.
After bathing and turning a little cleaner, Penelope wandered close to the crowd, wondering why people was there until she started to hear the new prime minister, General Cain booming voice."These children will no longer be on the street. I will create a safe place where they will be given work and earn their way to food and shelter to stay." The man continues as people cheered but Penelope shook her head. Hope, that was what this man is selling, nothing else, it would be a miracle if he does deliver on his promises but maybe she was just the one who was being unnecessarily bitter. She had lost hope a while ago and she doesn't plan on getting it back anytime soon, not when it means that she would open herself to be hurt by others."For the plans to be in motion, it will take some time but know this, I will do everything in my capability to make that time and its effects short for you lot. No more going to bed hungry." The man boomed as the cr
"Sire, we shouldn't be this close to the palace this night, we should have left a while ago. Nobody should link you to what is going on in the palace." One of the men following Lord Vallas said but he just shook his head."And nobody knows that I am here by this time." The man leaned on his cane, his fingers brushing the design, the golden Raven. His mind flashed back to the street boy of earlier, the boy was right and at the same time he was wrong. The people who wore the golden Raven on anything other than their amour are the real heroes, the ones who would do anything to protect the Empire even from the emperor. And they certainly don't follow the path of justice, not when Justice is now blinded and led by the partial, not when justice is on the side of those who want the down fall of the empire."But sire…" The guard who voiced his complains earlier started again but Lord Vallas replied, his tone razor sharp with his will."You can leave
Penelope stared at the man in silence while the man stared back at her. She licked her lips nervously as she lets out. "When did you know?""When I grabbed your wrist." The man replied. "What on earth would possess a lady to go through such an unscrupulous scheme? What will your parents say? They must be sick with worry and even if you are an orphan, what will your relatives think? Females are not meant to roam and sleep in streets, they are always taken care of…" Vallas rants filling the room with his anger, maybe one of the reasons why this hits too close to his feelings was because the girl he was supposed to get married to do something of this sort in a bid to escape getting married to a warrior. She was found out as a girl while escaping and was killed in the worse nightmare available to a lady. And it is like this Girl in front of him wanted to follow in Riya footsteps."By being married without their opinion. I don't want to get
And the next morning, they were off. Beating the early crowd which always occupied the cobbled streets and merchants who arrive early to sell their wares to the travelers for an exorbitant fee. The capital was a big place but what made it bigger were the other villages that was set up around the capital, there by adding to the capital might and forming a hub of business activities which interlinked one part to the other. Most people often made the mistake of referring to it all as the capital but it wasn't, each of these villages were under districts which was under a noble and then the king. The reason why Vallas was running away from the capital was because the capital itself is a district and under the control of the Prime Minister unless the Emperor interferes and that was something which the man rarely did. He needed to leave the clutches of the man who had something out for him."Nervous." Vallas asked Penelope from beside her, he had been watching her just as
The next morning, Penn was awake, dressed and ready to take on the world when her door opened with a bang."Good, you are awake." A taller buffer boy strode into the room without knocking. "My name is Stanley and I am going to show you around today."Without acknowledging the presence in the room, Penn continued with putting her new shoes on. She would need to see Vallas later so they can make plans about how they would go about achieving her mission."Hey." The tone of the boy, Stanley turns sharp. "You have no right to ignore me.""Get Out." Penn said instead."Excuse me?" the boy questioned."Go out. Close my door, knock, wait for an invitation then come in." Penn said as Stanley stared at him. "Do you want to keep gaping at me or do you want to get this ridiculous chore over with so we can go about our lives and not see each other again."Stanley snapped his jaw closed so hard that she could
"And here is the meeting room, it has been empty for a while but I don't suppose it would be empty for much longer since Master will send missives to tell his friends he now has an heir and visitors will start visiting, most of them will be entertained here." Agnes explained but Penn thoughts wasn't in the explanation. It was on the words Leda used in ushering him away from the kitchen, Stanley was her son? And Penn had just used her large mouth to bad talk the second most powerful person in the compound son and probably the most deadly."Sir… Our tour is over." Agnes said softly laying a hand on Penn chest and batting her eyes at her but Penn ignored the gesture. He had bigger things to think about than trying to decipher the meaning behind the rapid eye blinking the girl was doing that was making her look weird. Penn jerked at the contact, she didn't like to be touched by those she didn't know but still she smiled. "Of course.
Penn opened the door to the meal hall which suddenly went quiet as she entered but the silence didn't unfazed her, instead she took wide strides to the man table where she sat down besides Vallas and opened the dishes before her. Vallas continued his conversation with his trainers while Penn listened with half attention. It was a while after that before conversations resumes it flow in the room.Penn started to pay attention when she heard her name from Vallas in passing words. "…will need Weapons training and a training in subterfuge and in Lessons on behavior."At the last words, Penn snorted and when Vallas looked at her, she asked. "What am I? a girl? Why do I need lessons as if I am going to be wooing suitors?"Vallas removed his eyes from Penn own because he knew the exact questions Penn was asking. "That attitude of yours is one of the reasons why you need those lessons.""No." Penn
"Young master, you cannot run away from your lessons." Rima says searching for Penn who was on a low branch of the tree closed to her quarters, eating an apple and watching her behavior teacher face slowly getting red with anger. There were few things which Penn got to like about her new life and one of them was getting on Rima neck and watching her lose her cool. The girl was too composed and straight laced for someone who was young. Even Master Vallas was more carefree than her. Penn paused that thought. Master was on a class all on his own. He was even more carefree than Penn herself."Penn, this is not funny." Rima stomps her foot on the ground. "I can't keep losing you, what will do you think that your father will do if I tell him that you keep escaping from your lectures? I will be sent away and that will bring discredit to my father since he was the one who actually suggested that I should be your teacher." Her eyes filled with t