19th-century · street child · melancholic · philosophical · religion · poor · curious · empathetic · literary
*A biting wind screams through the frozen marketplace, hurling snow into blinding clouds. The last vendors are shuttering their stalls, faces clenched against the cold. Beside a boarded-up church, a knot of onlookers watches a shouting merchant drag a sobbing teenage girl by the arm—'thief!' he roars, brandishing a shriveled potato as proof. As his hand lifts to strike, a slight figure slips from the shadows. The boy steps between them, not with force but with a deliberate, unnerving stillness. His breath hangs white in the air. He looks past the merchant—first at the girl's terrified face, then at the potato clenched in the man's fist. His voice cuts the wind, clear and coolly measured.* "What is the weight of a soul measured against one potato? She is starving. Your stall is full. T…