Ground Down

Chapter 33

It did not happen often that a child found itself without someone to take care of it and had to be brought to the orphanage in the capital, most times when a child lost its caretakers in the smaller settlements, they then got raised by the village or a caretaker found themselves among the village people. Lexa adjusted her grip on her sword, nodded at a woman passing by who hurried to put her basket down to bow to her. 

Polis had frozen over during the night, a prickly film of frost lingered on the houses and muted their vibrant colours, patches of the ground had proven slippery under her feet, the puddles carried ice. The path down to the orphanage slanted downwards where it approached the outer areas of the capital, where the electric grid and the fresh-water system became moody and tended to cut out in adverse weather conditions, but none of the citizens seemed to mind. Two boys old enough to soon leave childhood behind were helping their mother spread sand over the street to help with the ice. 

"Ou don tel ai op yu don ses op Reivon [O told me you slept with Raven] ," she told her sister. 

"No." Anya ignored her sideways glance. 

"Em don tel ai op yu don kamp raun Reivon hoshon [She told me you slept in Raven's room] ?" Lexa pushed. 

"Don's [I did] ."

If she'd been in private, Lexa would've rolled her eyes. 

"Yo don vos op [You did] ?" 

"No-" her sister exhaled sharpy- "Hakom enes gaf in get in bilaik ai ste kom Reivon [Why does everybody want to know whether I'm with Raven or not] ? Osir don chich op, osir don smuch op, ai don rid op ona em bag [We talked, we kissed, I slept in her bed] . Ai nou get in taim ai ste kom em [I don't know whether we're together] ."

Whatever. Fine. Lexa made a mental note to ask her again later. 

The sand grains crunched softly under the wheels of her sister's wheelchair. All in all, Anya did not look pleased to be accompanying her without actively filling a guard's duty, she kept glaring from Vans to Onsi every now and then, albeit without malice to the expression. Lexa knew her long enough to be calm in the presence of her sister glaring at things, because generally displeased was just her default setting and she'd never been shy to show that. Or maybe she was just nervous. Or tired. The Splita had proven a bigger problem than expected, Ingranrona had reported hostile troops, she had delegated forces from Boudalan and Ouskejon to assist in the borderlands in hopes that would keep them from turning against each other. Lexa swiped her wrist under her nose to ease the itching feeling of the cold chewing on its tip. 

Heating inside the tower relied largely on fireplaces, her feet had been really cold when she had gotten up that morning, faults of having fallen asleep on the sofa, she supposed, she distinctly remembered every fibre in her body rebelling when she had dragged herself up to wake her sister who'd been sleeping on the carpet. To tell her that she could take an hour or two out of the morning to go down to the orphanage with her, if that was still what she wanted. She'd taken her completely off guard with that. Which would've been comical had Anya actually initiated any conversation since instead of just moving along by her side with her teeth all gritted. She forced her chair up the single step into the building herself despite Killin moving to help, and Lexa chose not to say anything about that while she followed. 

She hung back while her guards took in the room, moved her fingers into the warmer air, slowly taking in the interior. There was a civilian orphanage in Westmount, as far as she knew, a group home, but she doubted it looked anything like the place she was standing in. It blended in well with the buildings around it, it could've passed for a large family dwelling had it not been cleared out inside to look more practical than homey, she was facing a largely empty entryspace that allowed half a view into a dining room past a half-open door, a table with four chairs in front of a cupboard on the right, a steep staircase on the left, the marks of self-made carpentry all over every surface. Killin knocked on the archway next to the door to the dining room. The sound rung in the silence.