"Ridani, may I have a word?"

Ridani turned to look into the face of the pale-eyed woman who'd helped put Salidyn to bed after he'd collapsed in the hallway outside the showers. She nodded.

The woman stepped inside, drawing up a chair beside Ridani's. Together, they looked down at the lump under the covers that was Ridani's brother. She thought this attack seemed worse than some of the others. Maybe living in the little alley had been bad for him. She'd thought the alley was gross, but he never complained, even when it rained all night and neither of them could sleep and everything smelled like garbage.

She looked at the fresh bandages on her arm and the clean tunic that the church had given her a few hours earlier. She didn't feel gross anymore. She thought that even though Salidyn hadn't complained, he'd probably felt gross too, and he was probably also happy to be clean. She was glad the church had given him a bed. He needed lots of sleep so he could get better.

"So." The pale-eyed woman turned to Ridani, clasping her hands in front of her. Ridani liked the woman's hood. She wondered if the church would give her a hood, if she asked nicely. "Ridani. Your brother, Salidyn…he's very ill."

Ridani nodded. "It's his head," she said, confident in her authority. "Sometimes he sees things that he's not supposed to, and it makes his head hurt." She hesitated, then added softly, "and sometimes he can't wake up for a while."

"I see." The woman looked back at the Salidyn-shaped lump. "How long has this been happening?"

Ridani counted carefully on her fingers. "Three years. I know because I wasn't five yet." She paused, then added, "I'm seven now," in case the woman didn't know.

"And they've been getting worse?"

Ridani nodded.

"I see," the woman said again. She pulled a scroll out of the sleeve of her robe. "Well, Ridani. I have a proposal for you."

Ridani looked at the woman's nice hood and her pale, pale eyes. She was pretty, Ridani thought, even if her eyes did make Ridani think of ice. "Maybe… I'll have to think about it." She kicked her feet uncertainly. "Can I have your hood if we're married?"

The woman let out a startled laugh. "No, no. Not that kind of proposal. The kind where I give you this scroll to read, and you tell me if you agree to the terms written inside." She held out the scroll and Ridani took it. "We spoke with your brother earlier about some of the specifics of his condition, and we believe the Church of Kossuth can help."

Ridani tore eagerly at the seal on the scroll as the woman rose from her seat. She'd told Salidyn it was a good idea to come here. All of the other adults had pretended not to see them, but this woman had been different. She'd given them clothes and food and even beds, and there were no monsters lurking in the shadows, none at all, and everything was warm and red and gold, and their parents couldn't hurt them anymore.

"Let me know if these terms work for you," the woman said, pausing by the door. "I'll be in my office. Do you remember where that is?"

"Yes." Ridani unrolled the scroll and started reading as the woman left.

A lot of the words were ones she didn't know. Salidyn would have known them, but he was asleep and didn't wake up even when she said his name. She understood that the church needed money to help him with, and that she would have to pay somehow, but she didn't understand how.

She took the scroll and went to the woman's office. She got a little lost on the way, but the nice lady at the front gave her directions. The door swung open by itself as she got there, and the pale-eyed woman smiled at her from behind a large desk.

"That was fast. Are the terms agreeable to you?"

Ridani entered the room slowly. It felt bigger and scarier without Salidyn at her side. It was still warm though. She twisted the scroll in her hands.

"Yes, but…I don't know how to make money. What if I don't make enough money?"

"Well." The woman rested her chin in her hand and smiled. "That's the nice thing about this contract. You don't have to start paying until you're an adult. You're welcome to start at any point, of course— we can always use help around the church— but you don't have to worry about it until you're all grown up."

"Okay." Ridani looked at the scroll again. "And what is 'room and board'?"

The woman gestured to the room around them. "That refers to you and your brother living here. We will make sure you're clothed and fed, and have a place to sleep; and in return you'll do work for us."

Ridani shifted, still uncertain. "What kind of work?"

"Cleaning, mostly, for now." The woman shrugged. "But when you're older, there will be other things you can help us with."

"Like what?"

The woman smiled. "Don't worry about that yet. It's a long way away."

Ridani stared down at her feet. She was wearing shoes the church had given her. They were very comfortable. She wanted to be comfortable. And, more than that, she wanted Salidyn to have a bed. She didn't think anyone outside would give them a bed, or food, or shoes, or a warm house full of fire.

She nodded. "Okay."

The woman's smile widened. A pen appeared, hovering in the air next to Ridani's hand. "Just sign your name at the bottom— on that dotted line there— and we'll send someone to see to your brother."

Ridani's heart leapt. They were going to fix him right away? She took the pen and placed the scroll on the floor, crouching to sign it in her best handwriting. When she straightened, the scroll and pen vanished, reappearing on the desk.

"Wonderful." The woman stood and came around the desk, bending to shake Ridani's hand. "It will be a pleasure having you and your brother here with us."

Her gaze seemed to drift over Ridani's features, settling on her hair. "You are well-suited to this church. Kossuth will be pleased."

Ridani preened. She liked her hair, and she liked the idea of a god being happy with her, especially a fire god. A god would be able to keep the monsters out. She smiled hopefully up at the woman.

"You'll help Salidyn?"

The woman smiled down at her in return, pale eyes ice-bright. "We will try everything we can."

Ridani followed her out of the office nearly bouncing with excitement as she trailed the woman down the fire-lit halls. Salidyn had been helping her for her whole life. He'd brought her books and toys, and paper to draw on. He'd shown her how to catch the tiny crabs that scuttled around on the beach, and how to do tricks with cards, and slip coins into her pockets so quickly that adults never noticed. Their parents had made him sick. She'd never been able to do anything about it before, but now she'd found people who could.

Finally, it was her turn to help him.