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It’s a blazing afternoon in Al’Nujum, and Riyya untucks her headscarf from around her neck as she makes her way down the last of the Spiral Steps. Her coin purse dangles limply from her belt, and the way it bounces with every third step is starting to irritate her. Fifteen minutes ago she had more than double the coin, and now Imni the tax collector has it instead. Somehow her freedom doesn’t taste as good when she has to buy it herself, especially not when she could hear Imni muttering to his apprentice about that black-haired dwarfskin behind her back. Still, for the first time in six months she has space to breathe. It’s been a tight living since her father and Samad’s disappearance. Her mother always counted on the extra spices and silks to get them through the lean months, and without them they’ve been scrambling to afford the water taxes.
Riyya never let her mother know about this secret stash of gold, even though it could have helped them sooner. It wasn’t greed that held her back; she always planned to put it toward her mother and grandmother's welfare. She simply wanted to wait until the right moment to use it. All her life she's felt the tremendous pressure of the Excess taxes, but her mother would never let her or Samad spend a single copper toward relieving the burden. "You're my children," she'd say, and that was that. Now that she has a chance to pay back some small fraction of her debt, Riyya knows she's doing the right thing. In another month when the taqra traders arrive, her mother and grandmother will be back to enjoying their small indulgences, and they'll forget all about being furious with her. All that’s left for her to do now is secure passage to Yedesh for the morning. She turns up towards the reservoir and the crush of caravanner’s tents, scattering a pair of protoceratops in her wake.
Riyya never let her mother know about this secret stash of gold, even though it could have helped them sooner. It wasn’t greed that held her back; she always planned to put it toward her mother and grandmother's welfare. She simply wanted to wait until the right moment to use it. All her life she's felt the tremendous pressure of the Excess taxes, but her mother would never let her or Samad spend a single copper toward relieving the burden. "You're my children," she'd say, and that was that. Now that she has a chance to pay back some small fraction of her debt, Riyya knows she's doing the right thing. In another month when the taqra traders arrive, her mother and grandmother will be back to enjoying their small indulgences, and they'll forget all about being furious with her. All that’s left for her to do now is secure passage to Yedesh for the morning. She turns up towards the reservoir and the crush of caravanner’s tents, scattering a pair of protoceratops in her wake.
Last edited by unicornbutts on Wed May 18, 2016 4:41 am; edited 1 time in total
