A young man sees her, a young man in ragged clothes, with calloused hands and a face darkened by the sun.
Johan Albetez had been born a poor boy, the son of migrant workers from lands to the south that are full of sun and near the desert. His family settled in the big city a few years back, his parents hoping they can work hard enough for their children to have a better life--that he might have a chance to be apprenticed in a trade.
But he's taken to his own trade at night, wearing a blue mask, when the murderers and cut-throats roam the streets, and made a pretty penny from the rewards of turning some of them in. All of it is saved for his family and for his future. He wants to be a knight, or perhaps one of the city guard. In his wildest dreams, he sometimes imagines what it would be like to go to university, to be learned, and perhaps be a physician. But dreams are dreams, and at best all he can hope for is that his parents are taken care of in old age, that his sister has enough of a dowry to be married into a good family, that he can be apprenticed to a blacksmith or shoemaker so that he can provide for his own family.
At night, though, they call him the Blue Spirit, for how he spirits in from nowhere. They curse that--and his cleverness. He spends far too much time (when he's not working) with the mechanist down the road, and he's learned so much. How to read even! But most of all, how to fight in ways that outwit his marks.
He smiles a little when he sees the oni--and he does see it, for the blue spirit-creature on his shoulder, a little chittering thing that looks almost like a bug, gives him many gifts. A second sight for things unseen by others is one of them.
"Your little friend looks hungry," he comments, kneeling near the little one.
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Johan Albetez had been born a poor boy, the son of migrant workers from lands to the south that are full of sun and near the desert. His family settled in the big city a few years back, his parents hoping they can work hard enough for their children to have a better life--that he might have a chance to be apprenticed in a trade.
But he's taken to his own trade at night, wearing a blue mask, when the murderers and cut-throats roam the streets, and made a pretty penny from the rewards of turning some of them in. All of it is saved for his family and for his future. He wants to be a knight, or perhaps one of the city guard. In his wildest dreams, he sometimes imagines what it would be like to go to university, to be learned, and perhaps be a physician. But dreams are dreams, and at best all he can hope for is that his parents are taken care of in old age, that his sister has enough of a dowry to be married into a good family, that he can be apprenticed to a blacksmith or shoemaker so that he can provide for his own family.
At night, though, they call him the Blue Spirit, for how he spirits in from nowhere. They curse that--and his cleverness. He spends far too much time (when he's not working) with the mechanist down the road, and he's learned so much. How to read even! But most of all, how to fight in ways that outwit his marks.
He smiles a little when he sees the oni--and he does see it, for the blue spirit-creature on his shoulder, a little chittering thing that looks almost like a bug, gives him many gifts. A second sight for things unseen by others is one of them.
"Your little friend looks hungry," he comments, kneeling near the little one.