Soul of the Fire

"Fitch! I'll not have your filthy Haken hands on me!"

He turned to her as he let go of her wrist. Immediately, her other arm came around to strike him. He'd been expecting it and caught her wrist. She slapped him hard with her other hand.

He slapped her right back. He hadn't hit her very hard at all, but the shock of it stunned her. A Haken man striking anyone was a crime. But he hadn't hit her hard at all. It wasn't his intent to hurt her, only to surprise her and make her pay attention.

"You have to listen to me," he growled. "You're in trouble."

In the moonlight he could clearly see her glower. "You're the one in trouble. I'm going to tell Inger you dragged me in the bushes, struck me, and then-"

"You've already told Inger enough!"

She was silent a moment. "I don't know what are you talking about. I'm leaving. I'll not stand here and have you strike me again, now that you've proven your hateful Haken ways with women."

"You're going to listen to me if I have to throw you on the ground and sit on you."

"You just try it, you skinny little eel."

Fitch pressed his lips tight as he tried to ignore the sting of the insult.

"Beata, please? Please just listen to me? I have important things I need to tell you."

"Important? Important to you, maybe, but not important to me! I don't want to hear anything you have to say. I know what you're like. I know how you enjoy-"

"Do you want to see the people working for Inger get hurt? Do you want Inger to get hurt? This has got nothing to do with me. I don't know why you think so low of me, but I'll not try to talk you out of it. This is only about you."

Beata folded her arms with a huff. She considered for a moment. He glanced to the side and checked through a gap in the brush to make sure no one on the street was watching. Beata smoothed her hair back above an ear.

"As long as you don't try to tell me what a fine young man you are in your fancy uniform, like those overlord beasts, then talk. But be quick about it. Inger has work for me."

Fitch wet his lips. "Inger went to the estate with the load today. He went because you refused to deliver to the estate anymore-"

"How do you know that?"

"I hear things."

"And how did-"

"You going to listen? You're in a lot of trouble and a lot of danger."

She put her fists on her hips but remained silent, so he went on. "Inger figures you got taken advantage of at the estate. He came and demanded something be done. He's demanding the name of the ones responsible for hurting you."

She appraised him in the moonlight.

"How do you know this?"

"I told you, I hear things."

"I didn't tell Inger any of that."

"Don't matter. He figured it out on his own or something-I don't know-but the important thing is he cares about you and he's hot for something to be done. He's got this idea in his heat! that he wants justice done. He's not going to let it go. He's set on causing trouble over it."

She sighed irritably. "I should never have refused to go. I should just have done it-no matter what might have happened again to me."

"I don't blame you, Beata. If I was you, I might've of done the same."

She eyed him suspiciously. "I want to know who told you all this."

"I'm a messenger, now, and I'm around important people. Important people talk about what's going on around the estate. I hear what they say, that's all, and I heard about this. The thing is, if you were to say what happened, people would see it as you were trying to hurt the Minister."

"Oh, come on, Fitch, I'm just a Haken girl. How could I hurt the Minister?"

"You told me yourself that people are saying he'll be the Sovereign. Have you ever heard anyone say anything against the Sovereign? Well, the Minister is almost to be named Sovereign.

"How do you think people will take it if you had your say about what happened? Do you think they'd believe you're a good girl telling the truth and the Minister was lying if he denies it? Anders don't lie, that's what we're taught. If you say anything against the Minister, you'll be the one marked a liar. Worse, a liar trying to do harm to the Minister of Culture."

She seemed to consider what he said as if it were an unsolvable riddle.

"Well… I'm not going to, but if I did say anything, the Minister would admit what I said was the truth-because it would be. Anders don't lie. Only Hakens are corrupt of nature. If he said anything about it, he would admit the truth."

Fitch sighed in frustration. He knew Anders were better than them, and that Hakens had the taint of an evil nature, but he was beginning to believe the Anders weren't all pure and perfect.

"Look, Beata, I know what we've learned, but it isn't always exactly true. Some of the things they teach don't make sense. It isn't all true."

"It's all true," she said flatly.

"You may think so, but it isn't."