It was early morning, the brothel was closed.
Jorius was still a boy, he wasn't allowed to roam around the place during the opening hours.
Even still he knew perfectly what that place was meant for.
He walked into one of the halls and grabbed an apple from a table.
Kiron, the present bouncer of the brothel, a middle aged man former soldier of the Amnian army, walked the corridor.
"Go see your mother, she is down in the cellar." He said, while walking toward the entrance, probably to go back home at the end of his shift.
Jorius was confused, he wasn't allowed to walk into the cellar, he never knew the reason.
The door to the stairs was closed but not locked, he slowly opened it, a screeching noise.
"Come dear!" Isfaen's voice could be easily heard from down the stairs, but there was something else, lower.
Somebody was whimpering?
He walked down the stairs, Isfaen's gown was covered in blood, a man was tied against the wall, blood dripping from his fingers.
Cuts and scars all over his body, fear was growing into the young boy and he tried to look away, intruments of torture on the walls.
Isfaen grabbed Jorius' head, directing his eyes toward the tortured man.
"Don't look away. This is your day, my child." she smiled, sliding a sharp dagger on the boy's hand.
Jorius was confused, he grabbed the dagger with all his strenght and looked at his mother.
She frowned with in an inquisitive expression.
"Don't look away." She said again.
Isfaen walked next to the whimpering man, almost caressing his face, but cutting his skin with her nails.
"This is my son... kill him and you are free to go." The man opened his eyes and looked Isfaen in the eyes, confused.
Fear was taking control of the boy, he was visibly trembling, for a moment he looked toward the stairs.
"Try to tu run, and I will kill you myself." Isfaen said to her own son.
"He is just a boy..." The man said, hardly able to talk.
Isfaen freed him, the man could hardly stand on his feet.
"What are you waiting for?" She said to the man.
"I am sorry..." he said, with tears on his eyes, looking at the boy.
He grabbed a bottle of wine and broke it, hitting a stool.
Isfaen smiled, that wicked smile Jorius knew.
Jorius was petrified, tears started to drip from his face.
The man ran against him.
The boy already started his training two years before, he could dodge a blow from a man in that condition.
Fear was the worst enemy in that situation, slowing his thoughts and reactions.
He did it, stepped to the side, but it wasn't enough.
The man managed to cut his face.
"Now!" Isfaen said.
That voice was like thunder in Jorius' head.
He screamed and stroke, the dagger thrusting deep into the man's chest.
Helpless, he started coughing blood out of his mouth, Isfaen walked next to her son and kneeled, grabbing Jorius' hands and dagger.
"This first time we will kill together." She said, and without notice moved Jorius' hands, stabbing the man on the right temple.
The man was dead, Jorius was trembling, but something changed... he felt something else.
"Do you feel it...? Growing inside you... your first kill... that feeling of accomplishment... euphoria... that's what we feel when we walk on a thin rope... and we make it accross. This is the first time you ever felt alive my son... and I gave this to you." She smiled at him, with genuine motherly affection.
Jorius slowly calmed down, he was feeling it, he put his life on the line and he made it.
He felt the fire inside, and smiled.
"Thank you, Mother..."