When Nadira arrived back with Kro to his market hut, it was getting to be afternoon the day of Sadie’s wedding. Kro had said that someone who could improve her defenses against the Bheorse’s magic was coming. She took a seat on one of the many cushions thrown about the space to wait.

Her stomach was in knots recovering from the awful stench of the cauldron from the Eazu’s place of business. The Sot market in contrast smelled sweet and perfumed, and she found it very easy to relax into the space. It was strange to be here with just Kro, and she felt nervous about it. Maybe she was hungry. “Do you have any more jawb fruit?” she asked Kro, who had also collapsed into a large cushion.

He found a stash of them in the woven basket not far from him and tossed one towards her. She wasn’t prepared and almost got the fruit smashed in her face. She caught it inches from her nose with both hands and laughed. “You didn’t have to attack me with it!”

“Sorry, sorry! Anyways, you should be on your toes! If you aren’t ready for a jawb to be thrown at you, you aren’t ready to be on the run from the Church, eh?”

“Well jeez, lighten up,” she told him, although she believed he had a point. She was way underprepared and in over her head. She wouldn’t have made it so far without Kro, and she knew it. She turned the fruit over in her hands, not biting into it yet. “Will you get in trouble if you’re caught hiding me?”

“Huh,” Kro said as if he hadn’t considered it. “Probably. But it would depend on who catches me, wouldn’t it?”

Nadira pulled her lips to the side, annoyed by the answer. “So then, why are you doing it?”

He leaned over to a small cupboard by the wall and pulled something out of a drawer as he replied. “Well,” he began, “I was helping Arturri for Sadie, as a last favour. Now? I don’t know. For one, you just seemed like you needed it. And for two?” Nadira’s eyes had drifted to his hands, picking up his pipe in one hand, and the packet in the other. “Imagine if you were in my position. An Orphan hitches a ride with a loser to escape the Church, and wants you to hide her from the dogs?" he shrugged with a smile. "Sounds like fun.” His head tilted to one side and he looked at her with a softness in his heavy eyes.

She fidgeted with the fruit in her hands. She wanted to move closer to him, continue this conversation, say something witty - but she couldn’t. She kept looking back at what was in his hands. It looked exactly like the empty packet from Sonrio’s desk.

What if she didn’t say anything? What if Kro was somehow connected to the death of Sonrio? She remembered her dream where Sonrio’s ghost told her that it wasn’t him they killed. Kro didn’t want his sister to get with Arturri, he just said the guy was a loser. Because Arturri was disowned, Sadie didn’t. But that was crazy, Nadira told herself. That wasn’t enough reason to murder a guy. No, Kro wouldn’t do something like that. If she blurted out and asked him though, he might do something to cover it up. Would he lie to her? She had trusted him up to now, and he hadn’t let her down.

She opened her mouth to speak. “Kro?”

“Yeah?” He was putting the insides of the packet into the pipe. It was an off-white powder that he packed into the end as condensed as he could.

“Do you dance?” The question seemed a bit out of nowhere, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask what she wanted to ask. The poster and prophecy were still in her recent memory.

Kro smiled at her, taking out a small matchbox and lighting the pipe which he held so carefully. His piercings glimmered in the light of the small fire. Nadira couldn’t look away from his focused expression warmed by the burst of lighting. He took a moment to enjoy the pipe before answering her, letting out a short stream of smoke that smelled earthy and rich. “I do,” he said finally. He looked over at her and they made eye contact. “Why? Do you want to dance with me?”

Her face felt very hot, and she couldn’t think of any way to answer him. He asked it so easily! There wasn’t even any music. Did he mean right here? Or in general? Or did he mean something else? She needed a distraction to buy herself time. She broke eye contact and sunk her teeth into the fruit in her hands as casually as she could. It wasn't casual. Its beautiful sweetness filled her mouth instead of words.

He laughed. Such a light sound at her expense. He laughed, and she had never been so mortified.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to answer him, as the fabric door to the tent was pulled aside. “Ah,” Kro said, looking up, “Don’t worry, Nadira, this is that defense guy I told you about.”

Nadira swallowed the bite of fruit. Thoughts of dancing were filed away for now. She had no choice but to trust Kro. After all, he hadn’t let her down yet, and he had no reason to suspect she had any connection to him and the packets. Kro was gone by the time they were investigating the Dar Yi Home anyway. Never mind she hadn’t any believable evidence one way or the other. All she knew was that they both went to the same shops. More than any of that, she wanted to trust him.

The man that came in wasn’t much older than either of them. He came in with confidence and didn’t bother sitting down. He was a bony frame and a craning neck. “Let’s make this quick,” He said by way of introduction. He looked at Nadira. “This the Orphan?” he asked Kro.

“Yes, that’s me. My name is Nadira,” she said, giving him a nod. The man still glanced to Kro for confirmation, which he received.

He crouched down to her and looked her over. His skin was pale, and his face was wide-set and his black hair sat flat against his head. His nose was a little crooked. He narrowed his eyes at her. “You a spy or something?”

Nadira laughed, “E-excuse me? A spy?”

“Yeah, for the Diplomats or whoever,” he said. He was serious.

“If I was a spy, why would I tell you?” Nadira asked. This guy wasn’t so bright.

Somehow, that statement convinced him. “So you really ran away,” he concluded. “Why?”

Nadira blinked at the question. Shouldn’t it be obvious? “Because who wants to be an Orphan?”

He nodded. Easy enough non-interrogation. “I’ll boost your defense from the Bheorse, but it’s only temporary. It’ll give you most of a day, and then I can come in again tomorrow. They won’t crack this.”

“Thank you for your help,” Nadira said. She was sincere in the thanks. Though, she did wonder if the Bheorse couldn’t read his mind only because there was nothing there.

“No problem. Fuck the Church, am I right?”

Nadira blinked. “Sorry?”

“Well you hate them too,” this guy stated.

“I…” She didn’t say that, she wanted to clarify. But it was too late. And besides, she wondered if he was right.

Surprisingly, Kro was the one who verbally stepped in. “Ah, the Church does have some importance, Dal.”

“Like what? Prisoners? Come on. You know the Church only gets the ones we trust them to manage. You think a bunch of people without any ancestors can control real criminals?” Dal’s words shocked Nadira.

“We take their magic. The whole point is that they aren’t going to join the ancestors once they’re Orphans. It’s a punishment worse than death,” Nadira told him, surprised that she was on the Church’s side here. Unfortunately, Dal treated her like an Orphan even without the veil. She was simply ignored.

Kro shrugged, adding, “I heard the Dar Yi wanted more land at the last meeting. It was Diplomats who stop war just about every other week.”

“Only because we entertain them,” Dal smarmed.

“Dal, shut up,” Kro said with a groan. He took some more pipe presumably to numb the onset headache that Dal seemed to draw out.

“I’m just saying,” Dal just said.

Without any more unwanted conversation, he began to use his magic on Nadira.

A chill come over her and goosebumps grew on her arms. She heard whispers for a moment, but they slowly faded into some background noise. There was a presence at the corners of her thoughts though - but they didn’t intrude. These were at the borders of her consciousness. Like guardians. It was uneasy to feel as though something else was near her thoughts. A strange and unsettling awareness. “This is not comfortable,” she said.

Dal scoffed. “They’re better than having the Bheorse in there. At least these aren’t alive and looking for you.”

“Yeah. That’s true,” she admitted. Though it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. She wondered if she could communicate with these presences in her mind as the Families did with the ancestors, but they did not respond to her. That was even more unsettling. It was like an intrusive thought. Something alien and out of her control.

Soon, Dal left her and Kro alone once again. She was glad to see him leave.

“What a dick,” she said once he was out of the room. She still needed him to defend her brain. But she could trust Kro with her opinion.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “He is, but hey. You’re safe now.”

She wondered what that meant for her now. The thought of being safe filled her with so much comfort. She had been running around frantically since two nights ago. Both nights of sleep had been only short. As she had protected herself as much as she could, maybe Kro was right. She had better chances now than she’d ever had, and she wasn’t traceable through her mind. It was the closest to a peace she’d had for some time, and her eyes were heavy.

“I might have a nap, then,” she told him. “Would that be okay?”

“Sure thing, Orphan girl.” He said.

She smiled and curled up on one of the big cushions. It was familiar now, the same one she had slept on the day before yesterday as well. She fell asleep with the taste of fruit on her lips and the smell of Kro’s pipe in the air.

As she started to drift off, she felt something around her shoulders. She awoke only enough then to notice that Kro had put his cloak over her as a blanket. Her heart warm, she fell immediately back into slumber.

“Nadira. It’s time to wake up.”

The voice was not unfamiliar to her but was strange. Louder than she remembered it from before. Her eyebrows furrowed before she opened her eyes. It seemed to be the middle of the night. The marketplace beyond was dark. Only the bars were lit up down the street of the Sot. “Who is it?” She asked.

Her eyes would tell her first. She looked up at the doorway to see the man from the wedding. White scars streaked his elegant pale face, and his brown hair flowed around his red cloak. She turned her head to look back. Kro was gone.

“My name is Rohchec. I’m here to take you home.”

“What did you do to Kro?” she asked, frightened for her friend.

“Nothing. He gave you away,” Rohchec said.

“No.” Nadira couldn’t believe it. After everything they’d been through? She thought they'd been friends. “He wouldn’t have.” Would he?

The thought tore through her. She had already doubted him with the packet. If he was that two-faced, then she would be the biggest fool. She didn't know whether to doubt him or not. She felt the warmth from Kro's cloak and didn't want to give it up yet. In a daydream, he would appear right then and rescue her from this as well. He would say that he tricked the Bheorse and they'd run off together. But he did not.

Rohchec smiled with his lips closed. “Come with me, Nadira. These little walls you’ve made won’t stop me.”

Nadira realized that this was probably a bluff and they could stop him. But Kro was gone. She was alone in a tent. Where could she run to now if she did somehow slash a wall somehow to make a new exit? There was nowhere. She didn't even have anything to slash a hole with. And if it wasn’t a bluff, she would have no choice anyway.

She thought back to the Eazu, and the agreement she had made. Some things couldn’t be swayed, this could be one of those things. Maybe destiny wanted her back at the Orphanage. The thought felt very defeatist, but the only other explanation was its opposite. There would be more happiness opportunities. Shit. She had hit a wall.

All her time trying to escape and she could only make it two days? That seemed like bullshit. Maybe once she got out of the tent, she could make a bolt for it. She just needed a clear way to tear off.

Whatever way she looked at it, following along was all that she could do. For now.

Arturri was back there too, and at least now she knew something they didn't know before about the packets. They carried something that’s smoked in pipes, and they seemed easy to get, at least for the Sot. That was something. They would figure it out.

Nadira picked herself up from the floor. She pulled Kro’s cloak further around her shoulders as she stood to stay warm.

“Okay, fine,” she said, although Rohchec already knew her thoughts. “You win. I’ll go home.”