[color=fdc68a][h3]Franca Mintz[/h3][/color]

The smell of saltwater and gutted fish filled the air in this cramped alley, only some ways from the fishing docks, and stuffed itself up Franca's nose. It was nostalgic. Franca walked down to the end of the alley and to the rickety wooden door there, just shadowed by the light of a sun that was yet to rise. She softly knocked on the door thrice. No answer. She thought for a moment, then knocked again. 

[color=fff79a]“It’s me,”[/color] Franca called out this time.

A moment passed. Now, though, the door cracked open and a dirty face peered out. Then the door opened more fully to reveal a boy, younger than Franca by some years, with a cautious expression on his face, though it brightened up when he saw she was alone. 

"Franca,” the boy began, surprised. But then he put on a sour look. “You haven't come to see us for some time. Her ladyship the Powder Mage doesn't have time for her once boon companions?"

[color=fff79a]“Good to see you too, Peter.”[/color] Franca laughed a little while rubbing the back of her head. Her ladyship the Powder Mage. She somewhat liked that sound of that. [color=fff79a]"They keep me busy at the guild, you know. This Alexandreus fellow especially, that one's a real taskmaster."[/color]

Peter snorted, now grinning. "To be sure, if you actually are one of those mages now. It's just as like that you've become someone's woman."

[color=fff79a]"Oh?"[/color] Franca smiled menacingly, then clapped the boy's face in between her palms, just enough to sting. [color=fff79a]"What cheek. You've gotten a fouler mouth since last we met. You sturdy beggar, I ought to report you to the authorities. Have you sent to a workhouse."[/color]

"Don't even say that. That'd be a cruel jape," the boy said, brushing away Franca's hands. "Well, are you coming in?"

Franca looked over Peter's shoulder, where two girls even younger than the boy before her were huddled asleep together on the floor under a thin, roughspun blanket. Franca smiled, but shook her head.

[color=fff79a]"That's alright. I wouldn't want to wake them."[/color]

"Elisa and Anna? They'll be sad to know they were asleep when you came by."

[color=fff79a]"All the same, I have to get going."[/color] Of course, Franca would have liked to have seen them too. But today the guild was going to assign her to a team to accept jobs and she didn't want to be late. Still, there was something she wanted to resolve here before she left. [color=fff79a]"More importantly,"[/color] Franca began again, tapping on the open door with her knuckles, [color=fff79a]"is the lessor giving you trouble?"[/color]

The boy frowned immediately. He opened his mouth as if to speak, hesitated, opened and closed it again. "No," he said finally, unconvincingly, looking down at the ground.

Franca looked at the boy for a moment, then sighed. She opened a clasp on a pouch at her belt, drew the drawstring on a bag in there, and counted out some coins in her hand. She took the boy's hand and forced the coins into his palm, though she wondered if she wouldn’t be doing exactly what he was doing now if their positions were switched. Then she counted out a few more coins and forced those in there too. 

[color=fff79a]"That's for the lessor. It's enough to keep him away for a while. And that's for you to share with the other kids.”[/color] Franca noticed Peter’s hesitation. [color=fff79a]“The guild gave me an advance on my wages,"[/color] she said in explanation, speaking without pause for the boy to respond. [color=fff79a]"They're going to let me do jobs now."[/color]

The boy stood agape and Franca wondered if he was perhaps caught between rejecting the money or asking for more. But, finally, the boy closed his hand around the coins. Then he looked up to Franca in the eye. "The guild—you've used the Adamant there, haven't you? Would you let me try? To see if I have the flare?"

[color=fff79a]"Absolutely not,”[/color] Franca replied immediately, a hint of anger in her voice. [color=fff79a]“What rubbish. You should know that Adamant can turn your insides to fire."[/color]

"But you did it, Franca. Now you’re a mage."

[color=fff79a]"That's because I'm made of sterner stuff, you daft boy."[/color] Franca thought back to that time she first took the powder, about how she was certain then that in her feeble shape even the diluted stuff would be the end of her and took it anyway. [color=fff79a]"And I was out of options then."[/color]

"Well, I’m out of options now," the boy spat. 

[color=fff79a]"You're not,"[/color] Franca spat back, unrelenting. [color=fff79a]"Not yet. But if something went wrong, if you became ill, if you couldn’t work, then you would be. Who would take care of you then? Who would take care of your sisters?"[/color] As the words came out of her mouth, she wondered who it was she was really scolding. Then she noticed the boy’s hand clenched around the coins turn white. Smiling a bit ruefully, she started again, kinder this time. [color=fff79a]“Save a little bit of money, so you won’t have to worry when the time comes. Then the next time there’s a muster, I’ll come get you.”[/color]

Peter looked as if he was about to argue, but then quietly assented. “Okay.”

[color=fff79a]“And once you’ve done that, you can pay your debts to me.”[/color]

“I—you—”  The boy looked taken aback. 

[color=fff79a]“That wasn’t a gift, you know. I’m fully planning on collecting.”[/color] Franca chuckled. [color=fff79a]“So you can accept that money now without a problem.”[/color] Franca saw that he couldn’t think of what to say, so he simply nodded. [color=fff79a]“Don’t let anything happen to your sisters,”[/color] she continued. The boy nodded again. Franca smirked and ruffled his hair. [color=fff79a]“That’s a good lad. Now go back to sleep. It’s too damn early for kids like you to be up.”[/color]

Peter stepped back to close the door, but then paused for a moment. “Thank you, Franca,” he managed to say in the end.

Franca nodded back. [color=fff79a]“Sure. Tell Elisa and Anna I said hello.”[/color]

When the door closed before her, Franca took one last whiff of the salt and rot, then made her way back through the streets of Dilei, following the shore. By now the town was waking up and already throwing themselves into opening markets and making sales. The fishing docks soon gave way to the commercial center, the shipping docks, and instead of the smell what you noticed now was the din of stevedores hauling loads and merchants negotiating dockside deals. Then there were the bluffs that stood above it all, along with the Vale Craft Guild that was carved into the rock there. 

In truth, Franca was in awe of the scale, and luxury, of it all, especially as the sun rose behind her and illuminated the grand entrance. She remembered the hovel she had visited earlier and felt something bitter come up the back of her throat, but she swallowed that. Still, she thought as she pushed one of the smaller doors to actually enter the guild, she could not disagree with the incredible sense of making the feasting hall the first room one entered. And it was there that Franca saw a woman in white alongside another that gave a dark impression, both bathed in the light of sunrise streaming through the windows. 

[color=fff79a]“Hey there, you two,”[/color] Franca called brashly, waving in greeting. [color=fff79a]“Here for breakfast are you? I can already smell it.”[/color]

[sub][@OppositionJ][@Jinxer][/sub]