1. Neco

I stepped over the growing puddle of blood. Slitting throats was intimate, but very messy. They could match my boot print if I tracked blood. I didn't need it on me because I wasn't even supposed to be in the Trulos District. This was the merchants' district, and they didn't take too kindly to Guttertown trash here.

I didn't take kindly to rich merchants coming to a Guttertown brothel and beating the shit out of one of the girls, hence why I broke into his house and slit his throat.

Nestran law didn't care about men who hurt women and children. They cared less if those women and children lived in Guttertown. That kind of behavior couldn't be corrected. They wouldn't get it if I also beat the shit out of them. They'd get all whiney about it and have me thrown in the cells.

But slitting their throats? I was doing everyone a favor, and I was so good at it, they never laid eyes on me. I wasn't a stupid vigilante serial killer. I didn't sit them down and explain to them why I was killing them. Fuck that.

It wasn't that I was worried about bonding with them or letting them go. I hated everyone except my momma and little sister. People were awful and all eventually let you down. I just didn't care to explain. No one told a roach why they were stepping on it. The people I killed were all roaches.

I looked through his things. I wasn't going to steal anything that could be traced back to me, but his type always had a bag of coins hidden somewhere. It wouldn't be super obvious if I took it and once I burned the bag it was in, it wouldn't trace me back to the crime scene.

The money would find its way to the person they hurt. If there was more than one bag, and there usually was, then my momma and sister got new dresses and we ate well for a little while.

In the richer parts of Nestran, you could go to the market and buy the best cuts of meat if you had enough coin. Guttertown was dirt poor and our market was less extensive.

Our hunting grounds were also limited. We weren't supposed to hunt outside the borders of Guttertown and the shifters had villages around here we couldn't go near because of the war. They'd kill us on sight. They probably should. We did terrible shit to their kind.

Yes! This idiot had three bags of gold and silver stashed in a book he'd hollowed out. I needed to get out of here before his wife woke up. I'd divide it into two bags. My family and the woman he hurt would do pretty well with this for months.

My momma was getting a cough. I could buy medicine. Hopefully, I could get it better before I had to contact my father. All the Argent kids in Guttertown were bastards. We couldn't take our mother's family name for stupid-ass reasons and our fathers would have to give us theirs. We all had different fathers, but we all had the last name Argent.

If you didn't know who your daddy was, it was one of the Barons, the rich fucks running things. Guttertown men always claimed their sons, even if they were had out of wedlock. The Barons only did if they could profit off of them.

I knew the fuck-bag who sired me because he came back ten years later and forced Momma to be his mistress again. Guttertown women didn't have a choice when a Baron set his eyes on her. He ruined her life even worse the second time he came around.

If I could kill him, I would, but he was too high profile.

For now, I needed to sneak through the Trulos District and through the areas of Nestran that Guttertown wasn't allowed, to get home. Which I did quite easily.

We lived in a brothel because my momma worked there. Pretty much all of us Argent kids lived at one because our mommas needed to feed us and this was the only way. I didn't have a problem with sex work, but I wanted my momma to be able to retire and just eat cake.

She was coming out of the bathroom when I got home.

"Neco? You know I hate it when you're out late."

Yeah, she did. It would break her heart if she knew I was slitting throats, too, but someone needed to protect these women and kids in a way that it never traced back to Guttertown.

Don't ask me where I got my size. My momma was barely five feet tall and after I hit my growth spurt, I shot up six inches taller than my sperm donor and filled out. I had to lean down to kiss her on the head. My sister was going to be small like my mom. Thankfully, we both looked like our mother. I had a long scar on over the eye I was missing, but even with the scar and eye patch, it would probably make me even more homicidal to see that dick's face in the mirror every time I shaved.

"I was taking care of a job. I'm going to go hunting in the morning. Use this to get new dresses and give Rowena a proper name day. Maybe show her how to alter dresses and cook again so I can figure out where to get her an apprenticeship."

Most people apprenticed with their family, but some people didn't have enough kids and would take people on to employ. I wanted Rowena to have a choice.

Some women worked at the brothel because life shat on them and they didn't have any other options. Some were enterprising women who decided if men were willing to pay for it, they were happy to take their coins. My momma had been shat on because of my sperm donor, but I'd be damned if Rowena was forced into anything she didn't want.

I taught her to beat up all the boys by the time she was five. I couldn't always watch her and I didn't hurt kids. Best teach her to fight her own battles. I wanted the best for my baby sister and since our father hadn't exactly stepped up and left us in a shitty situation, it was up to me to provide.

"She's still going through her phase where she only wants to be a soldier. She beat the shit out of Seff again."

Which wasn't how any of that worked. The Barons waited until their kids were desperate and came to them for help. I was a big guy, so he'd want me for his army. It was different for the girls and I was never letting things get to that point.

I grunted.

"If Seff hadn't started shit the first time, she wouldn't have fought back. He keeps going after her to save face that a tiny ten-year-old girl whooped his arse, and she keeps doing it again. Twelve-year-old boys are stupid as fuck. One day, she'll pop him in the face hard enough that it sinks in."

Momma sighed.

"You shouldn't encourage her to settle everything with her fists. In two years, she's going to finish school and have to pick a trade. She'll have to learn to play nice if she wants to keep it."

I just grunted. Guttertown schools weren't fancy, like the rest of Nestran. We didn't have fancy tutors or university. We went long enough to learn to read and write so we could sign our names to contracts and read it well enough that we didn't get fucked over.

We learned math enough to count money and run a business. The only history we got was a basic overview of the war when humans first came to Nestran and fought the shifters. I might have only gotten a basic education, but something told me there was a lot more to that story and the tribes of shifters had a totally different version of that war.

"Rowena will find her way. Get some sleep. I'll be gone when you both wake up. I'm going to get a wild boar for Rowena's name day. I'm feeling lucky."

"Get some rest, too. I worry about you sometimes, Neco."

My momma walked away coughing. She'd developed this cough over the past few days. It could just be minor or it could be something that needed a healer. I hoped it wasn't something that needed a better healer than Guttertown had or I'd have to contact my father. He'd use me and I'd have to manage to do that without him using Rowena, too.

I'd pick some Elderberries while I was hunting. That should help Momma if this was minor. Because I definitely never wanted to lay eyes on my father again.