Better The Devil You Know (Zoya Nazyalensky)

Three

Ileska Vieder hated sleep, always had done. Detested it as much as she craved it; her own personal drug with countless symptoms. Nightmares that appeared with amorphous figures, blank faces, and twig-like grasping fingers. Spectres that paralysed her into piercing banshee screams that vibrated the whole room. Worst of all was the void. Timeless mist that hung her in suspension; seconds becoming days and hours becoming weeks. She woke up worse than before. So, it wasn't uncommon to see the sixteen year old watching the stars on any random rooftop of her choosing. The girl who had lost everything (including herself), choosing to survey Ketterdam as though it was a miniature world, a dollhouse with her the puppet master. The vistas, grimy as they could be, reminded her that she was free. Yes, it was a bittersweet freedom and not one of mentality. But, to feel the air, smell salt-swathed water and taste the chimney smog was a reminder she no longer existed in a cell or under the floor.

Ileska Vieder was a notorious shadow, a legend who somehow remained invisible despite her mythological status. Speculation of the 'feline' as she was nicknamed included that she was a shapeshifter, the devil in beguiling form as to test your faith to the gods, that she was a fallen Saint. Those were only the more polite rumours. And she loved it. The more names she was given, the safer she felt. They were pulled over her layer by layer in a thick, impenetrable shell. Truly, if you cut her in half, she would spill secrets revealed in layers of smoke and misdirection. But, it came at a cost. For how was Ileska supposed to know who she was? Especially when her own lies were embroidered in a slashing stitchwork with each gossip who took her sins and pain and transformed them into entertainment. As though her fears and burdens were little more than a feather in the wind for people to pluck out at will.

In truth, all rumours have some truth to them for what is truth if not subjective to your own belief systems? A rumour can be entirely false but still fuelled by the truth of hatred or fear. It hurt her head how intangible the world felt at times, as though she were a mere ghoul existing in the corporeal world but never living.

We could go on for a millenia, dissecting the attributes and motivations of Ileska Vieder. But, it would be pointless. She is everything and nothing, burning and freezing in turn to the barest of optional change. She, like any child, was once good, not that the world exists in a dichotomy of villain and saviour. Now, she preferred to weigh her decisions by survival: money, safety, and any pleasure she could wring out of the dismal platitude that was her brain. Anything on top of that was not impossible, but too much energy than the Grisha had to spare. Kindness is a luxury; the privileged don't care for it but can afford it while the unfortunate crave it but fail to pay its bill.

No. The only thing to know about Ileska Vieder was to never underestimate her. To do so was to greet the reaper. She had nothing to lose and a gaping appetite to carve from the world the recompense she so greatly deserved. The world could be saved or destroyed by her - depending on how she was treated . It was unfortunate then that humanity was its own worst enemy with a currency in suffering.

Three years ago:

Ketterdam was awash with the scandalous reveal of a high-ranking emissary from the Fjerdan consul being murdered right within his Geldrenner hotel room at the heart of the city. Moreover, a room guarded by four Druskelle, yet neither hide nor hair, could be found of a suspect. Only a precisely placed metal claw tied to a black feather with satin ribbon; a calling card. It bore no hallmark of any known assailants, nor was it clear for whom the hit had been conducted for. Politically, his death was not hugely significant on a national level. Admittedly, it was embarrassing for Kerch (it suggested they had little to no grip over their population and couldn't protect foreign dignitaries), and a nuisance for Fjerda and the reputation of its Grisha hunters. Tensions would raise for a few months until the next debacle, but it did little to benefit any one of the resident gangs. That was because it wasn't a contract hit. It was an advertisement.