The Man Who Informed Her She Was Worthless
It began with cold. And hunger. Most things did these days. It was hard for them not to when you were a penniless urchin all alone in the world. Especially in the grey city of Vallaki. It was a partially boarded up door, the crack in the wood just large enough for her small form to slip through. There was some light, and a growing warmth as she continued down the uneven stone steps that the door had once opened up onto. She didn't consider who might have started whatever fire was the cause of this flickering light and warmth. She was too cold for that. And when she saw a man sitting casually at a fire made from old rotting boards burning away into ash directly on the floor, she didn't turn and run. She smelled food after all.
The man's clothing was clean and neat, a black suit with silver buttons. He looked like he was dressed for some noble's banquet rather than sitting in the slums, warming his hands over a fire built from trash and refuse. He smiled at her, a charming, genial thing. His eyes.... His eyes.... They were important, she thinks, but that thought fades from her as he tosses a loaf of bread across the fire. It lands in front of her and she stares at it blankly.
"Well? Eat up." His voice is rich and warm, smooth like honey.
"W-who- Who are you?" She asks. Well, she wants to ask. It comes out as muffled mumbling as she practically pounces on the loaf of bread and shoves it into her mouth. She chews, barely. She swallows, barely. The man just keeps smiling. He seems to understand all the same.
"I?" He chuckles. It makes her feel ridiculous, that chuckle. Like a fool for having to ask the question, even though there's no way she could know the answer. "No one at all. Just a man chasing a legend." He leans forward, an almost conspiratorial smile on his face. "I heard a story, you see. It was about something called the wishing stone. A wondrous stone, all orange and firey..." He gives a wistful sigh, and she's listening, despite herself, enraptured by his words even as she mechanically devours the bread. "They say it can do anything. It can raise up the lowliest peasant and make of them a lord." He looks at her and chuckles again, that same condescending noise. "Or turn a starving urchin like yourself into the finest of ladies. My.... Now wouldn't that be quite the sight."
She sits, awkwardly, not sure what her role in all this is, if she can come closer to the fire, or should run with what remained of her bread. He gestures her closer and she comes, hesitant and unsure. She's skittish, afraid of what this man wants from her. But she was cold, and though not quite so hungry right now, she knew what hunger was. She huddles on the opposite side of the fire from him, watching him over top of the flickering flames and burning boards.
"You, my dear girl, are worthless." He says it carelessly, his expression and bearing like he was commenting on the weather. She hunches her shoulders at this, holding tight to her bread. Still, the fire is warm, and she can't find it in herself to run from it just because someone was berating her for being poor and homeless. She got enough of that every day to be used to it. And most of those people didn't give her bread. She would live an easier life if they did.
"You are worthless.... But you need not be." She looks up, eyes a little fearful, unsure where this is going. "I have it on good authority that the wishing stone is just a metaphor, you see. The story is about finding inner strength, or some hogwash like that." His voice is full of mirth as he speaks. "The jewel I seek, that bright stone... It is a choice, not to have it. One we all make every instant. We choose worthlessness, so the story goes. We need only choose otherwise, and all our dreams might yet come true." His gaze is far off now, examining the mold on one of the walls by all appearances.
She is confused. "So... It's not real? The wishing stone?" She ventures, eventually, still watching the man carefully. She pulls back, uncertain when he turns his attention back to her. "I mean- Not, um, a stone. Just... A choice?" The man smiles, and it is a gleaming thing. His teeth are pearly white like none she has ever seen.
"It is very real, dear girl. And one day, I will have it." She doesn't know what to say to that, lapsing into silence. The man seems content with this as well, seeming to dismiss her from his attention. Before she realizes it, the warmth of the fire lulls her to sleep.
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The next morning, she wakes with a warm cloak over her like a blanket, and the embers of the fire in front of her eyes. The man is gone, no trace of him but a few coins carelessly tossed on the ground by her head. A fortune, to her. It is only after her trek up the stairs to the small hole in the boards over the door that she thinks to wonder how the man himself got in and out.
