Reader Response 5: The Way of Shadows

          I have recently begun reading a so far wonderful story called The Way of Shadows. It takes place in an imaginary country called Cenaria. Cenaria is the sort of place that has mass poverty, a broke and corrupted government, and hugely massive crime rates.
         

          So far the story is following Azoth, a young ten year-old boy who lives in the poor slums of the capitol called The Warrens. This is the area in which prostitution, theft, and muggings occur almost on a minutely basis. Among the slums are a plethora of orphan children who have to live in groups together, called Guilds. Azoth is a member of Black Dragon.

         

          In order to support the guild and be allowed to live with them everyone in the guild has to pay four coppers once per week after they turn eight. If you are unable to pay you are savagely beaten by the guild "hand", an older child in charge of keeping order. The hand for Black Dragon is a sixteen year-old named Rat. He is unfair to everyone and tells Azoth that he must pay 8 coppers to pay for Doll-Girl, whom everyone knows is not yet eight but is mute, so she can't say otherwise. Since Azoth can't pay, he gets beaten by Rat. His friend, Jarl, who never pays dues, is beaten as well. Azoth is then told in private that Rat plans to make him a hero, make him respected and looked up to, and then crush him so no one will ever disrespect Rat ever again. After this Azoth meets up with Jarl and Jarl shows him that he's been saving up money for four years, which is why he's never payed dues, and gives the money to Azoth so he can go apprentice with Durzo Blint, the best wetboy(which is like a more advanced assassin) in the country.

          I've fallen in love with this story up to now and the plot is an entertaining one. Azoth has begun the road toward killing Rat in order to take up an apprenticeship with Durzo, and I am anxious to read where this story will go. The characters are increadibly relatable and the story is overall fairly realistic.

“I’ll spend my life training just for the moment I have my chance at you. I’ll wait until you think I’ve forgotten today. I’ll wait until you think it was just a dumb guild rat’s threat. After I’m a master, you’ll jump at shadows for a while. But after you jump a dozen times and I’m not there, you won’t jump just once, and that’s when I’ll be there. I don’t care if you kill me at the same time. I’ll trade my life for yours.” - Azoth

This is what Azoth said to make Durzo consider letting him apprentice him.