Dahgfort’s nights stole warmth from all unfortunate enough to be caught out in the streets with it. Ethi was one of those poor sods. She huddled close to a fire for warmth as the orange glow ate the wood within it greedily, crackling like the sound of jaws splitting bone.

Ethi’s eyes fell inexorably to the folder in her palm. The blood had dried into the material now, blended into the green to become a permanent fixture of its appearance. It was only fitting that one be reminded of the lives it cost.

She could try and bring the noble responsible for such carnage to justice. Seris had said it was evidence against the Lady Yemisi, but risking any sort of move against a Have noble while avoiding the same fate he had was a lot to ask.Burning it would be safer, plunging it into the flames before her would keep everyone safe, ensure that nobody else was hurt, even if it meant the cunt never got what was coming to her. People rarely ever did.

Cut had suggested the latter, ever the pragmatic one, and Ethi… well she didn’t know which to pick.

Put it in her coat or bury it in the flames.

She thought long and hard but had made her decision by the time Cut returned.

It was one that left her uncertain but confident.

The woman had gone off to see if some of Siobhan’s items could be sold for a fair price, and she had taken Isla’s pendant too. The silver in it was likely worth something.

Ethi winced at the sight of her limping and walked over to shorten the distance between them. Cut eagerly rested her weight on Ethi and it was quite a weight. “Fuck… you’re heavy.”

“Shush-” Cut chuckled. She reached into her pocket and brought from it a heavy pouch of coins. Ethi could see the volume in how its form pressed against the outline and hear it in the rough heavy jingling of coin brushing up against coin. “Ten stars.”

“Fuck…” Ethi’s eyes were wide. “For a small piece of silver?”For ten stars, they could have paid for shelter and food lasting… A year? More, if they weren’t picky about what they got.

“Nah, this is just the axe, turns out it was made from some special material.” Cut said with a grin.

“And the pendant?” Ethi asked.

“Well, that’s a surprise.” She grinned wider. “Let's go to the bank.”

Ethi’s confusion didn’t seem to daunt Cut and soon they were walking through the streets of Dahgfort ten stars richer.

When Ethi had told Cut about what happened with Isla there had been no judgement in the woman’s eyes, Ethi had silently thanked her for it. There had also been no praise either, and that Ethi appreciated too. She did not want to be praised for killing a person.Cut had only given Ethi a silent understanding and then quickly moved onto the next matter. They needed money so they had to sell everything they could, Ethi had been the one to sell the guns, most of Lachlans didn’t work and she had been honest about that so they were only worth the parts they were scrapped of.

The blunderbuss raked in four stars and fifty moons, a hefty price for an excellent gun, while the knives and leathers barely added up past a single star.

They had a humble amount to their name upon leaving, which was far more than they came there with.

“We’re here,” Cut said and Ethi looked up to confirm it. The bank was a well polished thing, so bright in its whiteness that it seemed to be competing with the moon to light up the streets. She resisted the urge to curl her lip. Unixians and their palettes, it always looked so…Destitute. Could they not afford more colours?

They stepped in to see a scene of yelling and swearing. Workers shuffled frantically from one side of the room to another, hurriedly packing up chairs while others swept the floors

To the edge of the room sat a neatly dressed woman who ordered them to do exactly what they were doing, but somehow faster.

“I’d like to speak to the manager.” Cut announced.

The woman stopped yelling and directed all that rage into a glare aimed directly at them. She looked at them as if Cut and her were stains on her immaculate dress, and perhaps any other day Ethi might have flinched under such an imperious eye, but today had brought with it enough to have her meet it unmoved.“What do you wan-” She began then caught herself as if realising she had unwittingly participated in a game she wanted no part in. “It doesn’t matter, we’re closed.”

Cut stepped through the edge in her cadence with ease. “You’d want to see this, I promise.” She reached into her pocket and tossed the bear head to the woman.

The banker did not feign an attempt to catch it, instead, she let it fall to the floor and ordered an employee to bring it to her. When she did inspect it, it was with gloves and a loupe. There was a silence to her work, something flashed along her features and then she looked disinterested. “Genuine silver, I’ll pay you in its weight but you better have the conversion fee, boy.”

There was a difference to the way she carried herself now. She was still eager to get this interaction over with but before it was disgust and frustration that drove her. Now something all together different fuelled her behaviour.

At her command a worker returned the piece to Cut.

Cut chuckled, then laughed harder than perhaps Ethi had ever seen the woman do.

“Is there something funny?” The banker asked feigning fury where worry threatened to cloud her features.

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Cut was still between chuckles when she spoke. “You absolute snake. I know what that is.”

The woman was soon red with fury. “How dare you, how d-”

“Gorbachev.” Cut said and the banker looked as if she had had cold water splashed on her.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” She asked, feigning composure but Ethi could see the veneer was slipping.From the look on her face, so did Cut. “Fine then, guess I’ll find someone it does,” Cut had barely moved to turn when the sputtered out a response.

“The disgraced family of northern Unix.” She spat. Cut looked at her expectantly, eyes urging her to carry on and the banker practically winced as she did. “The Unixian Alliance had been thorough in their efforts to wipe their legacy from the continent. They sold their property, burned their banners and melted their heirlooms.”

“Keep going,” Cut pressed, confidently.

She met Cut with a glare but nodded. “This… bear,” She said, shaking the thing between her finger and thumb. “Is one of the few remaining heirlooms, but you knew that already, so enough games.”

“How much are you willing to give us for it?” Cut asked.

“Seventy stars.” The woman growled, voice strict as an instructor’s cane. Ethi’s heart leapt, that was enough to keep them comfortable for years. It was worth a hundred Kanan fifths.

But still Cut scoffed. “I thought you said no games, lady.” She turned and Ethi almost hesitated before doing the same, this she could understand, this she could follow.

Each step towards the exit had the woman calling out a new price.

“Ninety!”

“One fifty!”

“Three hundred, and that’s as far as I’m willing to go you riff-raff!”

They took one more step and Ethi wondered if the woman’s next scream might break her throat.

It nearly did.

“Fuck, five hundred, I’ll give you five hundred for the thing just fucking stop for the Goddess’s sake!”

They did, and Cut grinned as she turned around. “You should get to opening an account for us to store it in then.”

The woman looked moments away from passing out, face flushed, hair undone and veins pressing against the surface of her skin. She stormed away to do just that.

Ethi turned to Cut. “How did you know how much it was worth?”

She leaned down with a proudness to her face. “I didn’t.” Cut whispered.Ethi’s eyes were wide. “But how-”

“Figured Isla’s last words meant something, asked around, turned out they did.” Cut laughed. “Only knew they were a bunch of posh types though, she’s the one that told me exactly how much I could squeeze for that bear.”

Ethi couldn’t help but grin, they had a small fortune, Isla had a small fortune, she realised. There was no way the woman simply had not known its worth. It had meant something to her, and she’d have rather killed people than sell it.

No item was worth that much, and she wouldn’t be making the same mistake Isla did. Ethi handed the heirloom over and the documentation process began.

It was a quick thing, the banker was clearly eager to get her commission for grabbing such a find and opening so large of an account. The account itself was a joint one, shared between her and Cut, if they spent it well- Eclipse, even if they spent it only slightly excessively- they wouldn’t need to work a day in their lives.

Night had fully settled into the sky when they left, yet Cut’s smile banished the darkness from the streets. “A hot meal that I didn’t get my head kicked in for sounds nice.”Ethi laughed. “Does sound good.”

Ethi didn’t know Cut could hug people, she’d assumed the woman would have melted if she tried, but as the fighter wrapped her arms around her, Ethi did the same. She broke it with the awkward grace Ethi had come to expect from whenever she showed raw emotion.

“Thank you.” She said. “You didn’t have to share the account with me, but you did.”

Ethi shook her head. “No, you deserve-”

“A simple seventy percent cut would have done the trick.” She said.

Ethi huffed. “Seventy percent?”

Cut rolled her eyes as if she were being impossibly childish. “I mean, I did the research on the thing so-” her words fell off into laughter and Ethi found herself joining the woman.

A silence sunk in after, heavy and long.

“So, this is goodbye then?” Cut asked.

“Do you want it to be?” Ethi asked back, meeting her eyes. “Doesn’t have to be.”“Well, if you’re going to beg then saying no would just make me look like an asshole.” Cut grinned.

“Fuck off,” Ethi chuckled, tried and failed to hide the joy she found in her answer.

“So, you have far more travel experience than I do,” Cut began. “Where to next?”

Ethi paused, considered, then answered.