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She walked down the street anyways, curious to know more about this place she was stuck in.
Elizabeth had said not to worry and thatshewould find a way to get in contact with Nova. So in the meantime, Nova had nothing to do but explore and pretend to look at this place from the eyes of someone who’d truly been kidnapped. She found it was harder to do than she’d thought. Sure she could easily be pissed off about the situation these women were in, but in the back of her mind she knew that she could leave, and she had a job to do, a goal to focus on. To be here without knowing what the next minute would be like or if you would ever see your home again must be truly terrifying.
Truthfully, Nova would never seeherhome again either. Not that she’d had a home to lose, she’d spent the last ten years constantly moving around, going wherever the next exciting job took her. But she would at least leave this place and get back to civilization, and with a brand new identity so she could finally stop hiding. It’d been three long years since she’d stolen from the wrong person, and he wasn’t letting it go. Worse, he had the money to make her life extremely difficult. Though if she were honest, it wasn’t the theft itself that had turned Connor into an obsessive stalker that wanted her head served on a platter, it was the deceit and humiliation. He’d never been a good guy to start with but her stunt had definitely helped to push him over the edge.
After that, she’d stopped taking jobs. She’d stolen only for survival because she couldn’t find arealjob when she was constantly on the run.
Then she’d met Elizabeth. Or rather, Elizabeth had found her. She’d offered Nova a new identity in exchange for one last job, though this time she had to be a spy instead of a thief.
She hadn’t wanted to take the job. She’d sworn to herself that she was done lying to people. But as long as she was on the run, she couldn’t lead a normal life. Only a completely fresh start could get her out of this pattern of stealing and running, never settling down long enough to belong anywhere or to meet anyone.
Nova arrived at a large town square that looked familiar. It was the place where she and the other women had been kept in cages when they’d first arrived on the planet. Here they’d waited for their “husbands” to pick them up.
The place looked very different now. It’d been turned into a marketplace with different colored stalls all around. She had a hard time seeing the stage where they’d been held.
Altair had come for her personally. He’d made some rude comment about her finally being home, then had been characteristically quiet on the walk to the building where the ceremony had taken place.
Nova walked around the market, openly staring at the strangeness of it all. She found a stall that sold simple cotton dresses similar to the ones most women wore. She wanted one so she would fit in a little better. But she had no idea what passed for money in this place.
She approached the woman behind the counter, who was folding a dress and placing it on the table with other fabrics.
“Hello,” she said, unsure how people greeted each other on Mudden. “I’m new here. I arrived yesterday.” She pointed at the stage only a few feet away. “How can I buy a dress from you? Do you use money or trade?”
The woman looked her up and down, paying particular attention to the embroidery on Nova’s dress.
“The Baedden people do use a local currency amongst themselves, but trading is also acceptable.”
Altair hadn’t given her any money, nor had she found any snooping around the house.
“Would you trade me one of your dresses for this one?” She pointed at the burden she was wearing.
The woman narrowed her eyes at her.
“That wouldn’t be a fair trade,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be accused of taking advantage of you and thrown in jail.”
“It wouldn’t be taking advantage sinceImade the offer.”
“I doubt that’s how your husband would see it,” she said.
Had she recognized her or was she just guessing?
“What if you made it a fair trade?” Nova said. “I will exchange my dress for one of your dresses and a small amount of money. I don’t know the value of your currency, so whatever amount you tell me is fair, I will believe.”
She seemed to be thinking about it for a moment. “Fine. But let me throw in some free advice, from someone who’s been here thirty years. The sooner you accept your new life, the sooner you can make a new life for yourself. A fancy dress might feel strange for an orphan fresh off the street, but it’s your life now, there’s no point in playing dress-up.”
“Thanks,” Nova said. “I’ll think about it.”
The woman rolled her eyes like she didn’t believe her placations, but she grabbed the dress she’d just folded from the table.
“Here you go,” she said, passing the dress to Nova. “You can change behind this curtain.”
Nova stepped around the table to get behind the hanging sheet of fabric, took off her fancy dress, and put on the new one.
She gave her old dress to the woman, who reached in the pocket of her apron for some circular pieces of metal with small holes in the middle.
“Here,” she said. “That’s three coins. It’s a very fair price.”
She said the last part with a sarcastic smile, but Nova took the money gratefully. It was more than she’d had before. She left the stall in a hurry to get away before the woman could give her any more of her advice.
