There were no such things as homeless shelters or poorhouses anymore— Elijah had eradicated them all. As such, it didn’t take long to find exactly what we were looking for.
Underneath a bridge that went out of the city was a large shanty town, made of construction boxes and broken pieces of wood. Dozens of people were down here, taking shelter against the cold night by barrels that were burning newspapers and trash. They were covered in rags, the few possessions they had scattered amongst sleeping bags and tents that were far too frail against the upcoming Malovian winter.
Eyes flashed against the night as we stepped into the firelight. I heard whispers; “The Phantom, the Phantom.”
We split up two by two, and began distributing coin where we could. Emma dropped a bag of coin at the feet of a sorceress, who was leaning against an alicorn with a hurt leg. She took the money with wonder and whispered thanks while the shifter bowed his head. I handed out a bag to an old man wearing an army uniform, a dragon veteran long forgotten by his Faction.
There were two wolvens by the edge of the bridge— one was in his shifter form, the other in his human form. The man lay underneath the wolven’s wings for shelter, while the wolven shook with cold. Both of them weren’t much older than I. The wolven’s paws looked nearly frostbitten— they wouldn’t survive another night out here, I was sure.
I knelt by the man and gave him a bag of coin. “Here. A hotel for the night, and much more. Get out of this cold.”
“Th-thank you, Phantom.” The man tucked the coin back into his holey coat with blue fingers. “N-no one’s helped us in a long time.”
“Why are you here?” It wasn’t my place to ask, but at the same time, I wanted to know.
“We were kicked out of our home for being together,” the wolven replied. “We are all that each other has left in the world.”
That was pitiful. Some aspects of fae culture I hated, and this was one of them. “You have a little bit more now. Take that money and start over.”
“We will.” The man bowed his head in reverence, and I retreated from them.
The eight of us distributed the coin as evenly as we could, but even with all the coin we had, it wasn’t as much as we wanted to offer. There were just too many poor and desperate people. I felt disheartened as I reached the end of what I carried. This wasn’t enough to save the thousands that were suffering under Eli’s policies. The evidence was right here in front of my face. Eli didn’t care how many he sacrificed, how many suffered, as long as he got his way. In my cousin’s eyes, these people deserved to die.
Emma read my mind. She reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. “At least we helped those we could,” she whispered. “Some of these people would’ve died out here, if we hadn’t come tonight.”
Her words rang true. Though I couldn’t help but think of all those that would perish, because we couldn’t save them all.
I spotted the old woman and little girl that we’d seen earlier in the day. They were shivering against the cold, curled up against a barrel in an attempt to stay warm. I knelt beside them and offered the last of the bags. The old woman looked up, while the little girl shrank closer to her grandmother in fear.
“Take this money. Use it to get out of Malovia,” I told her. “It’ll be safer somewhere else in Europe.”
“We don’t accept charity, sir,” the old woman said, jutting her chin out. Even in poverty, the fae were proud.
“This isn’t charity, it’s a gift,” I said firmly as I pressed it into her hands. “You are an elder of the Arcanea. You have earned this.”
The old woman’s chin quivered. “Gods bless you, Phantom,” the old woman said, laying a hand on my arm. “I only wish we had a king like you.”
I said nothing, only gave a grimace and rose up. As the rest of the homeless left the shanty towns, mostly to get hotel rooms or a warm meal, Emma came by my side.
“We did a good thing today,” she said. “It was worth the risk.”
“I wanted to do some good before I died,” I said. “I hope what I’ve done has made a difference.”