Twilight Beacon Rewrites

Prelude

Rewrite in Progress

Twilight Beacon: Passages
Prelude

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4/21/6
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Her troubled mind could not be appeased. She stumbled along the wet cobblestone as the night's cold drizzle chilled the last strand of confidence to which she so desperately clung.

She was dead. If the Gods were merciful, her murder would be sudden and quick.

What had Breagin said? Eral Timmins was the one who choreographed her Da's recent walk to Ulek's cave. It was his doin' that got Gazsi pinched for a crime he'd never stoop to. Then in his infinite wisdom, Breagin advised her to shadow her own skin. He'd said, Eral won't stop until he has Gaszi's business and she the worst for it. But how was she going to hide from someone who had eyes everywhere?

After that said he silenced up. What more could be spoken? Cassini remembered how her own gut clench cold as the full import of her situation seeped into her knowing. She'd lost her Da's hard earned sweat. His only legacy. Upright Eral owned the markers who would have helped her save it. The silence in the alcove suffocated her. Even Breagin was backing away from her. There was nothing left to do but pay him for his parcel. The faint chink of coin in the purse she'd handed him resounded through the silence like a beak's gavel after pronouncing her death sentence. Breagin took the purse without any further word. When he opened the door, he hesitated. She imagined he struggled with himself to try and say a comforting farewell, but in the end Breagin only nodded with his eyes down cast and slipped out of the windowless alcove.

She stood alone in the blackness and tried to fathom how her life had come to this path. It was simple, really. she had under-estimated Eral's hold over the guild and over-estimated her own position within that same hierarchy. Yet, there was something more at play here than one man's insatiable greed. She'd lived on the fringe of the law all her life and she had never heard tell nor experienced anything this complete. The spiral of the last two years took everyone in the under-city by surprise. Even the guild bosses were backtracking from Eral Timmins. He'd be running the city before this wave was through, and she would be one of the bodies washed to sea after all was said and done.

She stood alone in the black for a long time. She didn't vent her fears nor make a sound more than the passing in and out of her breath. She didn't move her feet to exit the small enclosure until her stomach and throat had relaxed. She must find an escape. There had to be a way to save herself. There was always a way. Isn't that what her Da had always taught her?

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4/21/6 chopped from 1447 words to 467 words
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Take care and may your road lead to only good places.

Deb