“Just… something I need to check.”
Her eyes narrow slightly, suspicion flickering there, but she doesn’t press. “Don’t take too long.”
“I won’t.”
I watch her go until she disappears into the crowd, then turn back toward the market, my jaw tightening as I push through the throng of bodies moving between the stalls.
The place is as alive as it ever gets—if this can even be called living. Warriors drift from one vendor to the next with that same restless edge, bartering tokens for food, weapons, scraps of armor. The air hums with tension, thick and restless as everyone waits for their next battle.
I may not know anyone around, but it’s not hard to get some people talking once I start asking questions about a certain suspicious female.
“Lis,” I say to a man leaning against a stall, his arm wrapped in bloodstained bandages. “You know her?”
His eyes widen, then he releases a sharp, annoyed laugh.
“You mean the ghost?” he says.
My brows knit together. “What?”
“She shows up when she feels like it. Disappears the same way.” He eyes me up and down. “Why?”
“Just asking.” I shrug.
“Don’t,” he says flatly. “That’s my advice.”
“Is she that infamous?”
His gaze intensifies. “It might get you killed.”
That’s one way of saying she’s dangerous—thank you for confirming!
I move on, hoping to get more details.
The next group doesn’t hesitate to talk.
“Oh, Lis?” one of them says, smirking. “Hard to miss her.”
Another snorts. “Yeah. First thing you notice is that face.”
“Face?” a third cuts in. “Please. It’s the rest of her I noticed.”
They laugh at their own ribald jokes.
I may not like the female but I also don’t particularly appreciate this crude way of talking about her.
“She walks in and suddenly every idiot forgets where they are,” the first one continues. “Seen men lose fights because they couldn’t stop staring at her.”
“Seen worse,” another adds with a grin. “One guy thought he had a chance. Tried to get close. Thought maybe she’d be… receptive to his advances.”
“And?” I ask, unable to mask my curiosity.
“He’s alive,” the man says. Then pauses. “Well, technically.”
They burst into laughter again. My jaw clenches.
“What happened?”
“He didn’t even get a full sentence out,” the third says, mimicking a slicing motion across his throat. “She shut him up real quick.”
