By getting up early and waiting for her in front of the City Hall, I thought I would surprise the little kitsune, not that she would be the one to startle me. By the time I spotted Ria, myself cleverly hidden - or so I thought at first - behind wooden crates delivered to the entrance of the building, she was already racing towards me.

Much to my dismay, there was no smile on her lips, no happy wag of her tail, no joy in her eyes to see me, only fear. Not a fear of being late for work, nor of me.

It didn’t take a genius to see that something was wrong.

Then I saw him.

Tall, muscular, not stocky, dressed nicely, running a few steps behind her.

My instincts kicked in. The ones buried deep inside me. Motherly ones, I guess, screaming at me to protect the child. Without hesitation, I left my hiding place and reached Ria just as the man caught up with her.

“Get your damn hand off her!”

My growl gave the man pause and Ria a chance to slip out of his grasp. The little kitsune got behind me in no time, Sage’s embrace easing her fears and calming her loudly beating heart while mine stopped in horror. The poison. One breath of it could kill her.

A fear that vanished in an instant, like the poison itself between the hairs of my tail. The work of my inner beasts, my deep buried instincts, thanks to which I no longer needed to pay attention to Sage, but to the man in front of me.

[Peddler: lvl 132]

Not what my instincts told me.

In fact, they were unusually quiet regarding the man. Almost as if blocked or . . . unable to read him - somehow.

“My apologies, lady . . . ” The peddler dipped his head after seemingly catching his breath and clearing his throat, his voice husky, deep, powerful, but strangely pleasing to my ears.

“Grey. And you?”

“Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon, lady Grey.”

Full introduction, huh? Now he made me feel like the bad one.

“It’s Korra’leigh Grey.”

“A lovely name for a lovely lady.”

“If you say so,” strangely enough, my heart skipped a beat at for me seldomly heard flattery. “Well, the lovely part will depend on your reason for chasing this little girl.”

His ember eyes drifted to Ria, now peeking out from behind me. “Not everything is necessarily as it might appear at first glance. A mistake on my part, perhaps, but the young lady didn’t stop at my call. Admirable, fortuitous even.”

“W-what? What did you want with her?”

“Simply to return this,” he said, and a small book appeared in his hand. [Tails Don’t Tell Lies]; obviously a children’s book. “The little lady dropped it and didn’t notice.”

“Ria? Uh . . . is this your book?”

“I . . . ” the little kitsune stammered, hastily opening the satchel slung over her shoulder. Her eyes darted between the book in the man’s hand and the contents she was rummaging through. “ . . . I . . . it was right here . . . ”

I could smell her fear, confusion, and guilt. She had no idea how this could have happened.

“It’s okay, Ria. I lose things all the time.” Like my family, my world, my freedom. “Just the other day I lost my spatial ring with all my stuff in it.”

“But . . . I . . . ” she stuttered, eyes fixed on the book, ears dropped. “I-it’s mine.”

“Here, little lady.”

“Thank you,” Ria whispered as she took the book from the man and pressed it to her chest. It obviously meant a lot to her.

Patting the little kitsune, I gave a slight nod to the man. “You have my thanks as well, although next time, you should consider giving the book to the city guards instead of chasing little kids through the streets.”

He laughed heartily. “Not what I intended when I picked it up.”

Not quite the truth I was willing to believe, yet the easy-going smile on his chiseled face, covered with dark stubble, made me swallow dryly. There was something about him I couldn’t quite put my lips to.

‘Shit! Pull yourself together, Korra!’

To give myself time to steady my heart, I turned to Ria. “Go inside, to Enola, okay? I’ll be there in a minute.”

“B-but . . . ”

“Go,” I said a little too sharply, making the little kitsune jump. “Please, Ria.”

This time, she didn’t protest and dashed off to the relative safety of the City Hall. Only if I could do the same. Instead, I took a breath and squared up to the man, trying to ignore my thoughts of his true nature. “L-look, Mr. Liryadon.”

“If you must, I prefer sir, or feel free to use my full name.”

Okay, full name it was. Courtesy, just in case.

“Look, sir Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon. I-I appreciate you returning Ria’s book. But . . . I’d rather not see you around her again.”

‘Shit! Was it too daring? Too much of a threat?’

But even if so, Esudein said I should stay true to myself. So I stood my ground and almost missed it when a smirk broke out on his face, only to be replaced in a heartbeat by a playful smile that made my heart skip a beat. “I assure you, I have no interest in the young lady, but . . . you, on the other hand . . . ”

“And what . . . what do you mean by that?”

“I think you know.”

Well, he wasn’t entirely wrong. I’d have to be dumb not to get the hint. And to be honest, his interest tickled more than just my pride - it also set off a few alarm bells in my head. Aside from the fact that he might be a dragon, someone’s interest in me hardly ever lay in the way the man made me think. They would rather see me in a cage with a collar around my neck than in their arms in bed.

“You don’t look like any terran I’ve ever seen.”

“I get that a lot. Is this . . . is this how you approach women?”

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“Not at all,” he beamed, his amber eyes shining with so much energy it sent shivers down my spine. “I prefer to be more forthright.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“That’s . . . ” he said, pausing, his attention drawn elsewhere for a moment. “ . . . that’s something you have to find out some other time.”

“What makes you so sure we’ll see each other again?”

“It’s . . . let’s say inevitable. Until then, I bid you farewell, Korra’leigh Grey.”

The way he spelled my full name was so tantalizing, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say almost bordering on the power of names. Yet when I sought to ask him about it, he was nowhere to be found. Not where he stood a second ago, not on the street, nowhere within range of my domain.

Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon had simply vanished.

Nevertheless, my senses tingled.

I was not alone.

“Grey, what happened?” Sah blurted out as soon as he appeared at my side, erecting a silencing barrier at the same time as he pulled me aside behind the wooden crates I had been hiding behind just moments before.

“W-wait. You didn’t see?”

“Saw what?”

“That peddler . . . though I doubt he was one.”

“Fuck! I should have known better . . . ” the agent groaned in frustration.

“Eh, Sah? What’s going on?”

“Basically . . . I was sent to chase my own shadows, a fucking decoy. A clueless guy with a spell attached to him to get my attention. And I fell for it like a bloody idiot.”

“So you’re saying you got played?”

“Indeed, I did. But to what end . . . ?”

“He said it wasn’t his intention . . . at first . . . but maybe so he could meet me alone without an audience?” I thought aloud, the implications chilling my bones.

“The peddler you mentioned?”

“Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon.”

“Him? Are you serious?”

The look, the confusion. “You know the guy?” Was he a peddler, after all?

“Not personally, no. Look, someone’s been sniffing around you, trying to dig up what they can on you, and not very subtly. Just yesterday, someone approached your squadmate, Freyde Welkes.”

“Freyde? Is he . . . ?”

“Don’t worry, he’s fine. Granted, the situation could have been handled better, but Mr. Welkes kept his cool and did the best he could, given his training and skills.”

“Which means what?”

“That I could do some digging on my own and find more.”

“And?”

Sah took a breath and looked around, tense. “The name Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon came up, and not just ones.”

“There are more people connected to him?”

“Indeed.”

“Seriously, what are we gonna do?”

“That . . . ” he gave a weary smile. “ . . . I’m not entirely sure about.”

“You think this Lirydaon could really be . . . ?” I don’t know why I was afraid to say the thought, my own suspicion out loud, as if it would bring down the dragon’s wrath upon me.

“There is that chance, a very high chance, I am afraid. Either that, or he’s a terrible spy.”

“What if he’s someone, I don’t know, controlled by mind mages, or worse, one himself?” Had I just met a mind mage face to face? Or was it really a dragon in human skin? Both possibilities were equally terrifying - especially since whoever the man was, he dragged my friends into my problems.

“An option I considered. Captain Rayden will personally investigate one of the suspects.” Understandable. She had her ways of finding out if the person in question was under the influence of a mage, let alone if they were one.

“Okay, but what if it’s . . . you know who? Like seriously, I thought he wanted to stay under the radar after what Esudein said,” I whispered for no reason.

“Under what? Whatever . . . Rayden knows what she’s getting herself into, I informed her - for which, I might add, she nearly impaled me with her sword for taking my bullshit too far.”

“But she didn’t, did she?” I asked, looking the agent over from head to toe. No blood, let alone sword holes.

“No. She realized it was you we were talking about.” There were times when hearing that would have pissed me off, but now I just sighed in understanding.

“She actually liked the idea of you and Palemoon teaching her men. Anyway, didn’t Esudein say something to the effect that the individual in question would reveal themselves to you when they saw fit?”

“Yeah, I just . . . I wouldn’t have expected it to be the very next morning.”

“Well, we don’t know much . . . ” the agent said, checking if the silencing field was working. “ . . . about him, or the dragons. He could have been in the city for a long time and decided to reveal himself now. After all, he already did by talking to Esudein. Or maybe he’s just impatient . . . Like I said, we don’t know much.”

This was the most frustrating part. “No, we don’t.”

“Thankfully, my support should be arriving tonight. I’ll put those two to work right away. But for now . . . what can you tell me about this Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon?”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much, but I told him what little I got out of the encounter with this . . . man.

***

“Korra!” Ria squealed as soon as she saw me in the main hall and ran from the reception desk to give me a hug.

“Good morning, Ria,” I ruffled her hair, finally saying what I wanted to surprise her with. To my delight, her worry melted away, and she giggled.

“Come on, I need to talk to Enola too.”

The [close] sign on her desk, the receptionist was already frowning at me with a worried expression, waiting for an explanation.

“Hi . . . so what really happened?” Enola asked as soon as Ria and I reached her. “Did someone really chase Ria all over the city?”

Nod. “Apparently she dropped her book, and the man tried to give it back.”

“That’s not what you told me, Ria,” the receptionist scowled at the little kitsune.

“Because I didn’t drop it. I had it in my satchel,” Ria defended herself, showing the canvas satchel slung over her shoulder, now with the book back in it. “I don’t know how . . . but . . . ”

“Ria!”

“It’s okay, Enola!” I interrupted the receptionist. “I believe her.”

“”You do?"" they both wondered.

“Um-hmm, I do. You see . . . ”

Not surprisingly, Enola wasn’t too keen on the watered-down version of the man who stole the book from Ria’s bag to meet me. She understood. After all, her job centered around seekers who were no strangers to unwanted attention. And yet . . .

“I’m pretty torn, you know,” she told me, her eyes darting between me and Ria, who was merrily playing with Sage.

“I . . . I understand.” As heartbreaking as it was, not getting involved with the little kitsune was the safest option right now.

“Good. Then, Ria,” Enola turned her attention to the little kitsune, much to my surprise. “If you want to keep playing with Korra, it’s better if you don’t tell your mother about today.”

The rascal stopped for a moment and then nodded vigorously. “I won’t, I promise.”

“Wait, what? I thought . . . ”

“Look at her. I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time. Besides, there are more people out there who could hurt her than your ‘suitor’. People we don’t know about. So . . . you said the Imperial Agent is involved, right?”

“Yeah, and Rayden . . . ” There was so much I wanted to tell her, but for her sake I found it better not to.

“See. She has a better chance of getting help than any of the kids we send to the city to work.”

That was true in a sense, but . . . at the same time, they had less chance of being kidnapped by a potential dragon or exploited by mind mages. Yet, as unreasonable as I knew it was, I couldn’t help but be glad that she wasn’t denying me access to Ria, my adorable little language teacher I’d grown so fond of.

“Speaking of which,” Enola raised her eyebrows and adopted her business-like tone. “Do you wish to continue your outside ‘lessons’ with Ria?”

As if on cue, a pair of puppy eyes peered out from the hairs of my tail, the plea in them impossible to refuse. Thankfully for both of us, not the intention I came here with. While I could already speak Standard fairly well, I had made no progress in reading and writing since the last time Ria and I sat down on that small rooftop overlooking the city.

“I do. Coins will be a problem though . . . I don’t have any right now.”

“Well . . . ”

“I don’t mind,” Ria cut in before Enola had a chance to say more.

“But . . . ”

“Don’t worry, Enola. I’ll pay up . . . as soon as I can. Just so you know, it looks like I’m gonna have a gig and teach myself. You might want to consider joining in.”

“You what?”

“Me, me. Korra . . . can I come?”

“Well . . . if Rayden allows it, why not . . . ”

The question was whether I could teach Ria anything. After all, she was too young to have access to the system. On the other hand, I learned a great deal in Echo without it bothering me with notifications.