Most of the people here ignored her. Not that she minded. But there was a clear reason why. Her stained tunic and old trousers displayed the fact that Salene was not among the wealthy. In fact the ten year old had used an invisibility spell to slip past the guards to get here in the first place. Black tangled up hair that went past her shoulders, a gray backpack filled to the brim with supplies, brown boots with holes, and a white cat that followed her wherever she went. She stuck out like a sore thumb. The only thing that kept her from being thrown out was the silver ring on her hand with three blue gems. People would assume she was a bastard and ignore her. But she could see their discomfort in their eyes as she passed.
After all, she was a reminder of one of the things they had tried to come here to escape. The others. Shadows of society that are pushed into the corners of cities. Orphans, immigrants, homeless, beggars, and anybody deemed unworthy. She was considered one of them. Nobody wanted a reminder of something that they didn’t want to know about. Or at least that’s what her theory was. Salene had already packed up as much food as her bag could hold. Maybe if she found a place to hide she could sleep here for a while. Perhaps she could get a couple of nights out of this place before heading back out into the cold snow. Her eyes glanced to the dances. Gems glistened from their outfit and jewelry.
“Come on Sibling.” She said to the cat.
The cat didn’t say anything in response but stayed by her side. Both of them stayed around the edges of the room. An idea popped into her mind. The banquet had long tablecloths that went to the floor. She began to walk back towards the banquet. A drunk man bumped into her.
“Watch where you are going, bastard.” He said, “Why are you even here?”
Turning around, the ten year old girl looked at him in the eyes.
“Cause I want to be, dumbass.” She said, “Oh! Sorry. When people ask me stupid questions, it's my legal obligation to give a sarcastic response.”
He did not like that. Quickly, she picked up her white cat and ran off into the dancing crowd before the man could grab at her. She stepped on a few people’s feet and ducked under arms but was able to get out to the other side. Salene made it to the banquet area without being noticed too much. Putting her cat down, she lifted the tablecloth and crawled underneath the table. Her white cat followed after her. The cat sat down and looked at her with its deep green eyes.
“Assholes.” She muttered underneath her breath, “But nevermind them.”
Her hand reached into her backpack and brought out a fluffy blanket. It was newly stolen from a rich couple’s home. The texture was fluffy and it was relatively large. Spreading it along the hard ground, she used it as a carpet. If she had another one then she would have wrapped it around her cat. But they could work with what they were given. The hall was relatively warm so they didn’t have to worry about the temperature.
“Here’s our plan.” She whispered to the cat, “We have enough silver to get a room at an inn. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem but with the celestial ball, inn prices have risen. If we can’t get a room then we will have to go around and see who is willing to let us stay in exchange for silver. At least one warm home will let us in.”
The cat stared at her blankly. Then it went over to her lap to curl up in it.
“You bring up a fair point.” She whispered despite the cat not saying anything at all, “The food won’t be easily kept. Especially fancy prepared food like this. It’ll rot within two days if we aren’t careful. So, my plan is to give whatever we can't dry or preserve to homes that seem like they might need it. Better to give it to those who need it than to leave it to waste.”
The cat just slept in response. Her hand reached down to pet the white kitty. Although she’d never admit it, she had become attached to her stalker cat. Salene, trying to move as little as possible to not disturb the cat, reached over to the tablecloth and pulled it up. She peaked into the ballroom and saw a family greeting their father. Her eyes lingered on the brother and sister’s attitude towards each other. Jealousy lit up in the girl’s eyes.
Salene dropped the tablecloth and swung off her backpack. Placing it next to her, the child reached in and brought out a book. Books were incredibly expensive. Which was why she was only able to read books from the library. A smile crept on her lips. If it wasn’t for Chiang’s spell, she would have never been able to read. The thought crossed her mind. She placed down the book. Clasping her hands together, she began to speak in a hushed voice.
“Chiang, if you can hear me, I hope that you’ve had a nice holiday. Tell the rest of the ship crew I said hi. If you see the merchants, tell them to go fuck themselves with a spiked club. Happy holidays.”
Hopefully the message would get to wherever people go when they died. Salene didn’t know if that was possible but it didn’t hurt to try. And nobody was looking. Returning to her book, she sniffed the old pages. Books smelled great. They had that warm books smell that only old libraries had. Finally, the child began to read the pages. It was a math book. She reached into her bag to get a parchment paper and quill.
Realizing she couldn’t really do this with a cat on her lap, she gently moved it. The cat looked annoyed but begrudgingly accepted his fate of sleeping on the blanket. After searching through the book, she found a certain chapter that interested her. It went over angles and logarithms. Salene read through the book and did a few examples. The book showed how to do the examples. It then gave her a problem to test to see if she had learned anything.
“A challenge?!” She whispered to herself, “I accept. Prepare to be defeated, book.”
Salene was acting a little bit silly. But she was alone. Underneath the table hiding away from the rest of the people in the ballroom. If they came over, then she would shut up. So far nobody was coming to the table. Probably because they were already filled up. Pushing these thoughts aside, Salene went back to the book. She measured every angle and calculated their value. It was a long process but doing it all on the parchment made it easier. Her cursive was small and neat to save room.
“Substitute the x with this and y with this.” The child muttered, “But that means I can’t use y for any negative number. So x equals the degree of the first angle and y is at least twice the value of x. The total would be 176,67 and z is unknown.”
Sometimes speaking it out loud made the math easier. She decided to use a specific logatherim shown in the book. After some attempts, she realized that the logarithm didn’t work. But now she knew that z equaled x-17+y squared.
“This corner is not a part of the equation.” She stated in a quiet voice, “26 is the lowest value but it’s too high for x.” Confusion crossed her face as she tried to figure out what else there was.
“Wait, that means x is half the sum of the value of both corners. Y can’t be negative so it has to be above 0. 26 is too high for x but…”
Writing fast, she managed to get the answer she was looking for. Fifteen. Salene checked the back of the book to see if she was correct. Sixteen was the answer. The child looked back at her work to see what went wrong. After a few agonizing moments of searching, she managed to find what she had done wrong. Her parchment paper was filled to the brim with words and calculations. Corrections were difficult. There was barely any room for it.
So she just scratched out some stuff and did her best with the space she had. It was somewhat readable. Putting down the quill, she realized that she had plenty of time. Plenty of time to do what she wanted. With the food above her and in her bag, she didn’t need to go hunting or monster hunting today. Salene wondered if she should practice magic or practice translating languages.
