Anna was awakened by the gentle red light peeking through the curtains... and the landlord's shouting. She was sitting and rubbing her sleepy eyes when Allae, the landlord of the tenement, whom the company paid to accommodate the workers, entered the apartment. She was crying about the broken furniture and the shame of having police in her building.
"That's why I want you both out before the 4th hour of dawn," - the fuming woman yelled, "both you lil girl and that hag Caron. I don't want to see you EVER again"
That's how Anna lost her only dwelling. She wasn't too worried; the company would allocate her to another flat, but her future flatmate could turn out less agreeable than old Caron. Although the old woman had her quirks and liked to banter, she was rather reliable.
The only option was to register at the Camavelli Co. office and apply for a new flat. The problem was that the worker's special steam-tram pass was not valid on the day of Eshar. That meant a 13km walk to the closest office. There wasn't much to do; she packed up all her belongings into the big leather backpack, the same one she was given on her departure from home half a year ago, hid all her savings in a hidden, self-made pocket inside her felt beret and left.
The weather was nice, at least for a city which has no true sky. Sunrays going through the fleshy canopy were stealing a bit of red from it, bathing the city in a delicate crimson. The air was quite dry, and what was quite rare, a delicate wind could be sensed.
Each time Anna walked through Rimbranch, she was reminded of the beautiful yet alien nature of the city. The trees growing there were mostly red or purple. One of the managers told her once that the plants here learned how to live with less sun and live on blood instead of water. It always gave Anna a weird sense of peace, knowledge that not only humans used the blood found in this place, but the whole ecosystem was dependent on it, although, admittedly, only humans used such rough methods to extract the liquid.
While walking through Midbranch, she stopped by the Aorta News Kiosk. Behind the counter stood a tall, muscular man with a smile like no other. He was one of the few friends she was able to find in Koun.
"Welcome, welcome, what do you need, dear customer?" The muscular man smiled and got closer to the counter, "Well, if it isn't our diligent company employee, Anna. Any progress in your investigation?"
"Hello Girji!" Anna exclaimed, "Time flies, and I nearly forgot today is a day off for us, but... when it comes to investigation," she made a dramatic pause, "there indeed was a breakthrough. Once again, thank you for your help with my little plot."
"No need to thank me, you paid for this, it was my obligation to complete my part of the deal. So, what did you learn?"
"So, like we planned, the police raided the flat and guess what? Blood powder? They didn't even pretend to care, but the notebook? Oh, that interested them," Anna leaned on a counter. "Some suspicious guy, in a weird dark cloak and unnatural eyes, came to interrogate me. You should see the look in his eyes when he pushed a silver knife against my cheek, and I didn't start to melt. And after the interrogation? The second policeman came up to me and recommended finding a different fascination, talking something about how his daughter had grown out of it."
"Holly... Glad you are alright," Girji raised his eyebrows "We enterin secret police territory here. Glad they didn't just put a hole in your head without asking questions, my friend." He stroked his moustache and continued, "The second policeman, one with the daughter, remember his surname?"
"Ehh? Yakov? I think" she recalled "introduced himself being a sergeant."
She, this daughter I mean, might be worth checking out. From my experience, people barely ever 'grow out' of such fascinations." Girji seemed to be lost in thought, but after a few seconds, he smiled and turned toward Anna. "We'll return to our conspiracies later. I have some news for you." His grin widened "I asked around about your, well, condition, or rather about people who are knowledgeable about such topics and, listen to that, I've learned that there is a group of students from Holy Academy in the city, hematologists. Doin some research about whether industrial excavation is reducing the purity of potions. I've managed to convince one of them to talk to you. I even set up the meeting for you, he'll be waiting for you around the 5th hour of gold. The bad news is, he is a typical Holly City boy; he refused to meet you in Rimbranch or Midbranch, he wants to meet ya in the roots, which, I know, may be challenging for ya."
"It is definitely neither convenient nor comfortable, but it's a rare opportunity, so I won't waste it", Anna replied "Thank you very much"
"No need, just remember to stop by from time to time and share your findings"
The closer she got to her destination, the more anxious she grew. The events of the previous day made her believe that her investigation was slowly leading her into dangerous territory. So on her way to the Roots, she stopped by a blacksmith. She looked for something made of silver, like a dagger or at least a knife. Prices of silver, however, turned out to be tremendously high. All she could afford was a single long nail made of silcer. Definitely not the easiest to use as a weapon, but better than nothing. She didn't know that nails like that were even produced, but she learned from a blacksmith that the Company used nails like that for reinforcing the mine shafts, for whatever reason.
And finally, she entered The Roots. She had been here only once before and deeply disliked this place. The Roots was a district of banks, companies and generally bourgeois. It smelled of perfume and money, and from the streets, you could see The Deep Roots. A hill sprinkled with fancy mansions belonging to company directors and nobles. And even higher above them, at the very top of the hill, made of dark grey stone bricks, stood the duke's palace.
She felt uncomfortable; she hated the fact that just because of her clothes, the children pointed to her, and most of the people on the street pretended not to see her. It was her work in a factory that made most of their pockets full, and they still saw her as inferior; she despised them for that.
Finally, she found the cafe. Girji told her about. Novu Mare. It looked disgustingly fancy. Wanting to avoid the shame of going through security and waiting in line with all the rich folks, she went into the alley next to the cafe and managed to slip inside through staff entry, stating she was a delivery person. She stayed inside, pretending to need a moment of rest after running with the delivery (which was a package to the owner prepared by Girji). Then, while nobody was looking, she entered the guest area.
It wasn't too bad. Anna understood why Girji and the student agreed on this place. Although pretending to be high-end end it was actually somewhat of a cheaper place. Gold decorations were mostly fake, and prices, although high, weren't too outrageous.
She was looking for anyone with some kind of symbol of the holy academy on their clothes, and after some time of skimming through the guests, she found the person she was looking for. In a corner of a big, dark room on the second floor, a young man with longer red hair. He was wearing a white, long coat given by the holy academy to researchers leaving the capital. Although lacking any special enchantments, this robe-like, elegant attire was definite proof of his affiliation. He looked weirdly nervous, constantly looking towards the exit door.
"Hello, and may she give you her radiance", the greeting of the servants of the Radiant One was something he clearly did not expect to hear from a random worker.
"Same to you", he replied, "although I am impressed by the lengths to which you went to create such a believable cover, I have to criticise your choice of attire, you stand out too much.
"Ah, it is quite the opposite", Anna forced herself to smile, "Most people here, after the first glance, avoid looking at me. Like you would avert your gaze from a pile of shit you nearly stepped into."
He looked at her with a bit of disgust.
"Quite vulgar analogy, but I do get your point."
Once again, he looked towards the exit door.
"You seem anxious." She noticed, "Worried about someth...?"
"No, nothing important." He interrupted, "I was paid to consult you on a matter of blood. Rather uncommon request." he looked at her with suspicion, "In a city of blood, someone seeks the expertise of the outsider."
"My problem is of a rather uncommon type. I already talked to some people, but no one was able to help me"
"So what is the problem?" the student asked.
"Okay, so. I think I may be some mutation of a vampire."
"Wha..."
"Don't interrupt me", she continued, "I seem to be extremely vulnerable to the sunlight; my skin literally starts burning when exposed to it directly. However, this is the only symptom of vampirism I possess. Silver does not cause me pain, my reflection is normal, and I do not require to feed on blood for sustenance." She sighed and looked the student in the eye, "Have you ever heard about something like this? It is not a special allergy nor some kind of curse, I have checked both of those possibilities long ago."
He slowly nodded his head and seemed lost in thought for a moment.
"Well, I have never heard of a case in which someone would inherit only some traits of a blood while avoiding the others. I doubt you are even related to vampires, maybe you just have a lot of undergrounder's blood in your veins?"
"Do I look like an undergrounder to you?"
"What about transfusion? Maybe someone accidentally or on purpose injected you with a whiteblood?"
"No, it is impossible," she sighed and looked at her interlocutor with resignation "I have suffered from this sensitivity to the sun since I was very little. If I were injected so many years ago, traits of undergrounders would have started manifesting long ago. Like you said, it is impossible to gain only selected traits of blood. If I had whiteblood in my system, I would already have greyish skin and my hair would lose most of its colour."
"That is true...", he admitted. He was definitely more invested in her problem than before. She could swear there was a delicate tint of excitement in his eyes. "Still, it is possible that blood within you originates from some completely unknown race. You seem rather pale; maybe the alien blood in your system belongs to some kind of missing link between a human and the undergrounder? Or some kind of frost elemental that hasn't been discovered yet? Or..."
He continued explaining his thesis about the possible causes of the phenomenon, but Anna noticed that someone was approaching them. The person seemed to go slowly on purpose, as if not to alert them. They also stayed clear of the vision range of the talking student, coming from behind him.
Although she was glad it wasn't she who seemed to be a target of this paper chase, it would be unfortunate if something happened to the young scholar who seemed to possess a lot of knowledge useful to her. She delicately kicked him and discreetly pointed at him what she noticed.
The student looked behind him and instantly curled up in his chair. There was, however, no point in hiding; she had already spotted two suspicious men standing near the entrance to the room. Big, muscular, menacing, probably some goons. The windows were small and high up, placed directly under the ceiling. They were trapped.
While she was busy inspecting the room, the guy sneaking up on them picked up the tempo. There was no point in running now, so Anna straightened her back and closed her eyes. As the mother-huntress always said, when danger is near, try to look as thorny as possible. She put her right hand in a pocket as if to imply she hid some kind of weapon there and then turned in the direction of the man approaching them.
"Oho? Jacob, my friend. Seems like your grunt friend has more balls than you do. At least behave with the dignity of your social class."
The approaching person was an older man in an old-fashioned, unbuttoned brown suit. He had a brown beret and a long, dark grey moustache. He wouldn't seem threatening if not for a big shiny knife he played with.
"Like I have said, I'll pay in time, I promised."
What Anna was worried about turned out to be true. It was a money-related problem.
"You can say that, young man. But the Boss have learned you are a student from the holy city. We did a little digging about why you are here and... it seems your little entourage has enough money to avoid paying in instalments."
"I can't use the money given to us by the academy," the scholar, apparently named Jacob, muttered
"Are you sure about that?" - the old man made another step towards them and exposed the edge of his knife.
"You wouldn't dare to hurt a pupil of the holy academy!" - Jacob started panicking
"Of course, but you also would not like it if everyone discovered why you owe us so much money. It could be quite embarrassing, I believe. You would probably lose your student status. Your whole team would be ordered to return to the capital... Everyone's dream would be crushed by your selfishness, and... that would certainly stain your brother's reputation."
Jacob clenched his teeth.
"Wait, what would be so embarrassing for him that the academy would revoke his student status? You may not be really aware of how the academy works" Anna's words clearly surprised the old man. "The Academy does not care about things like that as much as you think they do. Drugs? Hazard? Shady dealings? Some academic malpractices? They could not care less. Do you know, however, what they would take offence at? If someone were to interrupt their precious research. I think you risk much more than Jacob here."
Both men seemed shocked by her words. They looked at her in silence, so she took the opportunity to continue.
"You really should rethink your strategy. It seems you already had a deal with Mister Jacob, why risk your neck for quicker gains? She stood up and positioned himself between the student and knife knife-wielding man.
"A-as she said!" Jacob added
The old man clenched his teeth and rubbed his eyes. He looked like he could lose his composure any second.
"Ur right," he said angrily, "But I CAN do other things"
She tried to take a step back, but it was too late. She felt immense pain radiating from her side. Fucker stabbed her! The sudden shock made her stumble and fall on the floor.
"Holly Mother, what did you do?" Jacob screamed.
He tried to get closer to Ann, but he was pushed back to his seat.
"I don't fucking play around, Jacob. You may be under the protection of the academy, and I may not be able to take care of you myself, but worry not. I'll have some desperate beggar put a blade in your abdomen!"
Although they seemed to be shouting, their voices were getting quieter and quieter. She tried to get up but she was able to move her hand only few centimiters. The blood was definitely leaving her body. Suddenly, through half-closed eyes, she saw a Jakob kneeling above her, looking panicked.
"We need to go NOW", his voice echoed in her head.
Someone said something she was not able to understand.
"You do not understand, LOOK!" Jacob's voice seemed to be more and more panicked
"HER BLOOD! SHE HAS A PINK BLOOD!"
She lost consciousness.