Nadira took the small vial Kro offered her, curious as to why he would stop when the Bheorse were after them. "Bottoms up, you two. You'll need it," Kro told them, gesturing for them all to keep moving. He had said this would 'muddle' them, whatever that meant.

Sadie wasn't offered a bottle, and didn't seem to mind, linking arms with Arturri. He was looking at the bottle suspiciously.

She felt like the Bheorse who followed them would be catching up. If it was Leliana’s doing, she wouldn’t want to cause a scene. And she didn’t know how many of them were around, how many were organized. For all she knew it could be every red cloak she saw.

She didn’t know what the vial would do to help or hinder her, but she trusted Kro this far. Inside the glass the liquid was as clear as water. She peeled back its small glass stopper by its tin hook and threw it back.

It was warm and smooth. It tasted like honey. Honey and jam, but she couldn’t identify the fruit. So much good food today, she thought to herself. She started to giggle. It was so much fun to be at the market, with all the bustling all around her. So many colours. She took a moment to look around. Everything seemed to glow.

Ahead of them were the Eazu stalls. They wore such a beautiful shade of blue. A true aquamarine, with little touches of white in them. Although many people over in their stalls were old or unwell, the people had ways of smiling around them. She noticed one of the Eazu nurses helping an old man onto a chair to have a look at his ears with their equipment. They did have such graceful ways of moving. Not all elbows, they kept those close to them, but their wrists were like water.

Kro waved at her face to get her attention, saying, “We’re going to a wedding! Isn’t that exciting?”

The words shifted her mood, and she frowned. “I hate weddings,” she whined. He started moving forward, and they was talking now so she followed beside him like a puppy.

“Aw, why is that?” Kro asked her, glancing about him. Sadie ahead of him was always chatting with Arturri, but Nadira didn’t pay them any attention.

She felt cold, she wrapped her arms around her elbows. She tried to think of why she didn’t like weddings. “I don’t know. I’m just bitter, I guess.”

“Bitter, huh? I like that. Some sugar and you’ll be delicious sweetheart. Weddings are beautiful, lots of flowers,” he said as if he was talking to a toddler, “Now let’s keep moving, we don’t want to be late,” he smiled. She couldn’t help smiling back, even though she wasn’t sure what he meant by the sugar comment. Was it a compliment? She decided it was a compliment.

She gazed ahead a bit, seeing Sadie taking Arturri by the arm. He didn’t seem like he could walk all that well. They were going to a wedding too. What was wrong with him, she wondered? He seemed sleepy. She was kind of sleepy too, but couldn’t place why. What did ‘why’ matter anyways?

“Sadie’s getting married?” She asked Kro, who carefully ensured she didn’t walk into other people as they moved through the crowds. The information on Sadie was very muggy, she couldn’t quite place how long she’d known her. It only felt as though they had been great friends. Maybe even best friends. She felt eyes on her back and wanted to look behind her for a second to see who it was. She thought Kro was doing that sometimes, so there must be something interesting back there.

“Yes she is! It’ll be beautiful,” Kro told her happily, his voice snapping her attention back forward.

Her gaze couldn’t focus on the path ahead of her, instead look around at more of the market they were passing through. They were entering in the Dar Yi area now. So much hung in the air as if suspended by threads. She reached out to a levitating chair and it was pulled away from her by a wise salesperson.

“Who is the lucky guy?” Nadira asked with a grin.

“Some Griggor or Riggin or something with a G. He doesn’t matter.”

Out amidst the silver capes were some splashes of red. A couple of Bheorse were clustered a little ways away. They started to talk to each other, but only sometimes, with long gaps between. They watched the crowd carefully.

“I wonder what it must be like to think at each other?” She wondered aloud.

“We already think at each other, that’s what talking is,” Kro said dismissively, but he laughed. She laughed too. Kro was so funny. That’s what talking is. How true! She felt tears in her eyes. A sudden sensation stopped her laughter.

Something warm was on her arm. She looked down and saw that it was a hand. The hand was attached to an arm. They wore red. Just as she was starting to put two and two together, they pulled her. She almost fell down from the force of it. She wasn’t scared so much as she was deeply confused, not really sure what was happening or why they pulled her. She tried to catch herself and pull back. Distantly, fear started to creep through the potion and into her mind once again.

In a moment of dread she glanced back to Kro for help, but didn’t have words. She didn’t need them. Kro had noticed the Bheorse come from between two Dar Yi stalls and try to take her. Kro took her other arm firmly, and she worried there’d be a tug-of-war over her. She clenched her muscles, trying to wrench her arm free of the Bheorse. Although either arm was occupied, she still had her feet. She had to think quick.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She stepped towards the Bheorse and put her foot behind his. Her going with the movement didn’t surprise him though. He was clearly thinking her thoughts with her. But all the same there wasn’t much he could do when she twisted sideways and pulled the leg from under him.

Kro muttered something as the Bheorse toppled backwards, and the Bheorse pulling his hand from her instinctively to catch his fall.

Still holding Kro’s arm, Nadira pulled at him and they ran after Arturri and Sadie in the crowd ahead. Thankfully they hadn’t been caught yet either.

“You alright?” Sadie asked Nadira.

“She tripped and I jinxed,” Kro told her. So that’s what he was muttering about when they were in the struggle. Could be why even though the Bheorse knew it was coming they weren’t able to avoid it.

“Should we run?” Arturri asked, he too coming back to reality.

“Too suspicious. They won’t try to draw attention. Leliana wouldn’t want a public scene,” Nadira said. She surprised herself with the rationale, but knew that she was right.

Other Bheorse would have seen that and be moving in. She hazarded a glance behind to see the Bheorse who had grabbed her arm slipping back down in the mud below him, cursing. Jinxed huh? She walked a little faster, clinging close to Kro.

The potion had certainly worn off. She was thinking straight now, and those thoughts had all the hints of where she came from and who she was, and why she was here, all the things that the potion had her forget. She wouldn’t be so invisible now.

“It worked for a little while,” she said to Kro.

"You did great," he said warmly to her.

She realized most red cloaks in the crowd actually weren’t looking at her. There must just be one of their packs assigned to the job. From what she remembered from studying the Families, they would usually come in groups of four or five.

They would be hunting them now. Thats what the Bheorse did. They didn’t have to take them out in the market, they could wait until they were somewhere private and then capture them. They would take her back to the Orphanage.

She looked over to Arturri, and saw how grave his face was as he walked. Even his transfigured features were pale with nerves and he was clearly struggling with what was happening. It wasn’t as simple as going back to the Orphanage for him. It was losing all hope of getting his life back. She sympathized with him. She wouldn’t want to be an Orphan either.

It felt like they were only walking towards failure.

As they approached the cave tunnels leading to the Dar Yi Home at the end of their market, there were a few guards who saw their colours and stopped them.

Kro stepped forward. Nadira stepped closer to Sadie and took her arm in hers, not wanting to be left alone now.

Kro pulled out a fancy card, neatly decorated with a purple and silver ribbon sewn in to the thick paper. The guard nodded at the party and they were let through.

“Their tunnels aren’t as winding as ours,” Kro said, looking around casually, like it was lesser for it. How could he take what was happening in his stride like that? Nadira had barely even registered the cave tunnels, her thoughts were too distacted. The tunnels wound through the thick walls around the marketplace, leading to the Family Homes, as well as any other Family property and towers of housing. The tunnels had many paths and stairs coming off of them leading up to destinations only the inhabitants understood. There were almost no signs, but they simply followed the widest path, certain it would lead them to the Home.

Nadira found her fears of being trapped coming alive in the tunnels. Some people said that the tunnels in the underground moved, and sometimes you would end up somewhere you didn’t want to be. It would take you in circles, toy with you, make the road go on forever. Some said they were really a large monster, and if you went alone down a tunnel, it could take you away, the walls would close, and you’d be crushed. Eaten by the tunnels. That was just horror stories though, to scare children. She had never heard of anyone actually disappearing like that.

Besides, people took these paths every day. They were just roads. The walls of the caves were lined with small glowing blue orbs and lanterns amid many small glowing green mushrooms and mosses.

“How will we stop them from finding us?” She asked Kro.

He looked down at her, “I don’t know. But you must be brave. Especially if you’re to pretend to be a Sot. Frank and Courageous. The Sot way has never let me down. I wish you luck.”

His words didn’t really bolster her confidence that much, which he noticed. He twisted one of his ear-rings and thought for a moment.

“I tell you what. You know I only got you and Arturri the potion but Sadie and I didn’t get one? That’s because we have a charm to protect the mind from that kind of thing. It’s not the most powerful, but it will be some resistance at least. I can make another one myself later. Fuck it. You need the help.” He twisted out the strange bat charm from his hair, letting a braid come loose, stopped her, and braided it into hers.

She found herself blushing as he carefully arranged her hair. The charm itself was icy cold to her skin once it fell against her neck.

“Now, that gives you a little more of a fighting chance.” He started walking again.

“Thank you, Kro,” Nadira said, barely above a whisper. She was moved by the gesture. He clearly wanted her to be safe.

He gave her a grin, “No bother,” he said. He started moving again. Nadira smiled to herself, happy to take a memory of the time they had spent with her.

The caves soon opened out onto a bridge, arching over a chasm beneath. The sides of the bridge were decorated with gliding and swooping dragons. She glanced down below and saw stairs down with landings filled with farms. Some smaller bridges below led to levitating masses of rock with elegant homes on them.

They moved across the broad silver bridge.

Her eyes were drawn up to the massive castle built in the middle, coming from roof of the cave and dripping down over the dark. There were many downward spires, beautifully crafted, and balconies with distant figures in white and silver lounging and chatting, walking in pairs and looking down unto their farms below.

Arturri turned to them, “It’s almost time. Nadira, are you ready? You remember the plan.”

She nodded, starting to feel stage fright as he reminded her. She had never had to play a part before. She would be a Sot servant, attending to Sadie as she prepared for the big day. They would sneak out once she was set up. All they had to do for now is be as servants.

Kro left her side and chat with Sadie. Arturri and Nadira in their huddle took on the role and followed the Nobles as she had seen servants do thousands of times going to weddings.

It was about to begin. It would be Nadira’s first time in a Family Home, and she had never really been a servant before, let alone one who was living a lie. There were still the Bheorse on their tail, she was sure of it. She didn’t know how much time Arturri would have to find the proof he was looking for before they caught them. She didn’t know what the consequences would be if they did.

So then, she said to herself, just don’t get caught.