I stop. We're close enough that stopping feels like its own kind of statement.
"The last time you walked in here at this hour," I say, "things got complicated."
"They were already complicated."
"More complicated, then."
His eyes study me without looking away, without speaking, and I look back, and neither of us pretends the distance between us is as large as it should be.
12
NYRIUS
She's walking toward me when I notice the table.
Blades wrapped in cloth, stacked with deliberate care. Four more in various stages on the anvil. I know the order size Cyran flagged from the transit points — this matches it exactly.
I put my hands on my hips.
Edria stops two feet away and reads my face. Her chin lifts.
"Don't," she says.
"You're filling the order."
"I'm working."
"Edria." I nod toward the table. "That's not horseshoes."
She turns back to the anvil and picks up her tongs like the conversation is already over. "You've been gone a week. You don't get to walk in and start issuing opinions."
"I'm not issuing opinions. I'm telling you the patrols in this are have doubled. I personally increased them." I step further into the forge. "You know what they're looking for."
"I know how to move through those woods without being seen."
"Once. Twice. Eventually the odds stop working in your favor."
She slams the tongs hard against the anvil. "What would you have me do instead?"
"Stop."
"And then what?" She turns to face me, hands on her hips. "Stop, and watch Finn go without medicine? Stop, and tell Papa we're cutting meals again? You don't get to tell me how to keep my family alive."
"I'm not telling you how to live." My voice rises slightly. "I'm telling you this particular route is compromised. The buyers are being tracked. If a patrol catches you in transit?—"
"Then I'll deal with it."
"How?" I take another step toward her. "What exactly is your plan when two armed dark elf soldiers stop you on a forest path with a bundle of illegal blades?"
She stares at me. "I've handled worse."
"You haven't." I shake my head. "You've been lucky. There's a difference."
Her eyes sharpen. "You have no idea what I've handled."
"I know what happens to humans caught supplying rebel factions." I don't soften it, because softening it would be a lie. "It's not a fine and a warning, Edria."
"I know what it is." Her voice drops. "I've always known what it is. I do it anyway because the alternative is watching my family fall apart piece by piece and doing nothing." She takes a step toward me. "Must be simple, from where you stand. Just stop. Just don't. As if stopping costs me nothing."
