They paused to collect Nelly at the edge of the alley. The horse’s eyes were wide, its tail was pressed down. Nelly shied away from them as they approached. However, the moment Nelly saw Kat, the horse let out a soft neigh and fell in line behind her like a very large dog.

If Elijah was unsure before, now he was confident. That sort of animal was not cheap. Kat was either incredibly wealthy herself or worked with some influential people.

“Your horse is well trained,” Elijah observed. “I’m surprised she waited around for you. She looked very scared.”

“Thank you,” Kat said, rubbing the side of the horse’s neck. “My master trained her. She was a gift to me.”

“Your master?” Avery asked casually as they started towards the inn. “Are you a student?”

“I am,” Kat said, giving her a small nod. “I’ve been training in Volville with my master. He sent me up here to prove that I could travel on my own safely before he gave me my first real quest.” Her face fell. “You can see how well that went.”

They reached the inn. Elijah opened the door and the three of them walked in. They guided Kat to a table and sat down beside the girl, who’d practically attached herself to Elijah. The assassin gently pried his arm out of her grasp as they sat down in their chairs.

“You might be wise to remain here until morning,” Elijah told her. “Your master will surely prefer that you arrive safely tomorrow rather than traveling through the night.”

“I won’t. I wasn’t planning on it anyways. I just didn’t think I had to be worried about thugs inside a small town like this one. Especially not ones that…” she trailed off and shuddered, wrapping her cloak around herself. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to get back to Volville with a bandit gang roaming the area, though.”

Her eyes suddenly lit up. “Are the two of you planning on staying here much longer? If you’re headed to the city, Volville is the closest one and it’s one of the largest cities aside from the Capitol.”

Now that she was no longer in shock from the attempt on her life, Elijah realized just how fast this girl talked. Elijah and Avery exchanged a glance. After a moment, Avery gave him a small nod.

“We were thinking about it,” Elijah said. “We didn’t really have much of a plan, actually.”

“I could pay you,” Kat said, excitedly grabbing a bag from her side and putting it on the table. Elijah’s eyes widened as he heard the coins rattle inside it and he pushed it back towards her.

“Don’t be so overt with your coin,” he said, lowering his voice but keeping it above a whisper to avoid suspicion.

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“Oh. Sorry,” Kat whispered, yanking the coins back with another loud jingle. Several people glanced in their direction. She lowered her voice to a low whisper and leaned towards them. “So… can you travel with me? I’ll pay for your efforts.”

“I suppose we could,” Elijah said. “Just put the coins away, please.”

Kat tied the bag back to her waist. She blinked, then let out a long yawn.

“You might want to get some rest,” Avery said. “You’ve had a long day. Near death experiences aren’t good for your sleep cycle. Make sure to suitibably barricade your door and windows so no further bandits cause you trouble tonight.”

Kat’s eyes widened. “You think more people will attack me again? In the inn?”

“Ignore Avery,” Elijah said, glaring at his companion. “She’s paranoid. I promise you won’t have any more trouble tonight. No bandit is going to come after you in the middle of the inn. It would be stupid and illogical. If they wanted to kill someone, they’d wait until they were alone.”

Kat didn’t look particularly reassured by that, but she gave them a small nod. “Okay... If you’re sure. What time should we leave tomorrow?”

“Meet us in the common room at sunrise,” Elijah said, giving her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry.”

Kat sent a final glance at them and gave Elijah a weak smile before heading towards the stairs to return to her room.

“At least we’ve got something to do now,” Avery said.

“Maybe we could start a bodyguard business. Looks like it might be profitable,” Elijah said, smirking.

“Do you really want to be forced to ferry around people that can’t fight for the rest of our new lives?”

“Now that you mention it - no. Not at all,” Elijah said, his smile fading. “That does beg the question of what we actually want to do, though.”

“No working for anyone else,” Avery said quickly. “I’ve had my fill of that. My blade works only for myself from here on out.”

“Agreed,” Elijah said. “But a negative doesn’t exactly provide a solution. You just said what you didn’t want to do, not what—”

“I get the idea. You’ve talked enough for one lifetime,” Avery groaned. “We don’t have enough information to decide what our future goals are yet. For now, we just need to focus on getting strong enough to survive.”

“Look who’s talking, Ms. ‘bandits in the tavern’. Were you trying to give the poor girl a heart attack?” Elijah asked, making air quotes. “If there’s only one bed, I call dibs.”

“What happened to chivalry?”

“That’s for women, not wrinkled up old bats that smell like laxatives. Your new body isn’t fooling me, grandma,” Elijah said. “I’m going to go get our room. You coming?”

“Not yet. I’ll find the room with Witch’s Eye. I need to explore the town to get a better understanding of its layout and who we need to be concerned about. There’s a good chance that there are more bandits in the area, and we don’t want to fight them on unknown ground.”

“Suit yourself,” Elijah said, rising to his feet and striding over to Maura. Before he could even say anything, she flicked a key towards him. Elijah grabbed it out of the air.

“You’re in Room Four,” Maura said. “I heard about what you did tonight. Breakfast is on me tomorrow.”

“It’s what anyone would have done, but I won’t turn down free food,” Elijah replied with a wink. Maura turned to finish serving the table she was with and Elijah headed up the stairs.