Corruption of Champions Fan Fiction (wip)

Chapter One - Part One

In which our hero is cautiously introduced

and certain of her details are revealed

Just after sunset everything seemed to calm down. The world moved slowly, like there was more time. The shops were closed, their windows shuttered, awnings furled, and keepers retired to warm suppers, and wives and children. A lamplighter perched atop his ladder tipped his cap as I walked by, careful to go around and not under. I saw nobody else, but soon enough they would crawl from their hidey-holes. The sex mongers, pimps and whores, and worse. A drug for every addiction, despite all claims to the contrary; a price for every purse. Everything was negotiable once the sun went down and the good people of Tel'Adre were safely tucked into their beds.

My footsteps echoed across the cobblestones. This was a part of the city most people never saw. Visitors only rarely made it past the Quarry Gate, which opened into Merchant Square, and never without an escort. But I'd been this way before and if I wasn't a true resident of the city, neither was I a stranger to its life and customs. A constable crossed the street ahead of me, dressed in black and silver, his sword clattering in its too large scabbard. I knew some of the city guard, mostly by sight, but not this one and he offered me little more than a glance before disappearing down a side street.

"Alright, you can come out now," I muttered, turning to look over my shoulder.

I'd stopped walking, feeling almost glad for an excuse to dawdle, but annoyed as well. Half a minute passed in silence.

"I know you're there," I said, louder. "Stop pretending."

"Awww..." A girl, or young woman, really, stepped out of a darkened doorway. "How did you know I was there?"

"Stop following me," I said, ignoring her question. She didn't look much older than me, but appearances are usually deceiving.

"I wasn't following you," she protested. "I just happened to be going this way."

"I'm not going to let you in," I told her, for about the hundredth time.

She fell into step beside me as I started walking again. In the gloom she looked pale, her skin and even her usually brown hair, reckless around her face like a dirty gold mop. She had white lips, but the girl's eyes were dark and I didn't like looking into them for very long. As we approached a lamp-post, she slowed down and slipped into my shadow. It wasn't that she was afraid of the light, she just didn't like it very much.

"Where else am I gonna go?" she wondered, returning to an argument that never seemed to end.

"Go back to those ruins or whatever," I suggested. "It's a ghost town anyway."

"Oh! Ha-ha!" she retorted. "Look, if you don't want to let me in, that's fine, but I promised your mother..."

"Here we go," I sighed.

"...that I'd look after you," she continued, "and you know I always keep..."

"Your promises," I finished for her. "Like she would ever trust you with anything?"

"Hey!" She was walking in front of me now that we'd passed the lamp. "Your mom trusted me with her life."

"Yeah!" I snorted. "And

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