The city bustled and swirled, as usual, like a tide ebbing and flowing around buildings and market stalls. A rumble of voices in a hundred languages rose and fell with the waves. Somewhere on the docks, a group of voices rose in a sea chanty, with more volume and enthusiasm than melody.
In the marketplace, Tena half-danced down the street, her skirt swishing around her ankles. It was new and she knew her friends would be jealous, even if it wasn't as fine as the ones merchant's daughters wore.
Humming happily Tena arrived at her stall and spread out her wares. It had been a good harvest today.
"Aya aya, Tena, did you bring your junk again?" the stallkeeper next to her mumbled with a shake of his head. He sold mats.
"Oh, hush, old man. You like me better than the fishmonger who was here before."
"Aya, not much to like about that one. But your stall brings strange people around."
Tena shrugged, pretending blissful ignorance. "I just pick up odds and ends. It's not up to me which people want to buy them."
"Trash digger."
"Reed fingers," she retorted, tossing her head. He snorted, but not unkindly.
Hours later, Tena looked up from a quiet reverie to see someone standing in front of her stall. "Can I help you?" she asked, not concerned by the cloak covering most of the person's face. Even though it was meant to hide her customer, the cloak was made of nice material and well cut. Tena had a keen eye for hidden money.
"Yes." It was a woman's voice, with a slight accent. Tena raised her eyebrows but said nothing. "The little medallion behind you."
"This one?" Tena picked up a small, bright medallion with a tree etched into its surface, growing from a river. Hints of a green-gray tarnish lurked on the edges of the design, in spite of all her efforts to clean it. It looked like silver, but the tarnish was wrong.
"Yes. How much is it?"
"This one? About... thirty copper."
The cloaked visitor took a sudden breath, and Tena prepared to haggle.
"Really? Thirty copper?"
"Is there a problem with the price?"
"Not at all." The visitor handed Tena thirty copper coins and held out a slim hand for the medallion, but Tena stared at the hand for a moment. It was so incredibly pale.
"You're a northerner." Was it her imagination, or had the hand flickered for an instant? Tena glanced up and saw eyes beneath the cloak, hard and cold as a steel edge in an unmoving face, and she quickly looked away. Hastily, Tena finished the transaction and handed the medallion over. Her guest examined it for a moment and nodded in satisfaction, then handed Tena a silver coin.
"It feels wrong not to pay a proper price for white steel."
Tena stared into the crowd for some time after her customer had vanished into it. She'd had some odd customers, certainly, but this was by far one of the strangest. Quietly, she stored the memory of this encounter away; it might prove useful.
A few people stopped by Tena's stall throughout the day, but none of them seemed to be interested enough to make a purchase. Tena found her mind wandering back to the medallion she'd sold earlier. Was it really white steel? That was from the north, if she wasn't mistaken. Of course it would be a northerner who recognized it.
Isn't white steel a dwarven alloy made for fusing with other things? If that was the case, why make a medallion out of nothing but white steel? If the medallion had been fused, there should have been magic in it, and Tena would have known to sell it for much, much more. An unfused white steel medallion... was it incomplete? But what completes white steel if it's not already worked into the metal? After puzzling for what felt like an eternity, Tena gave up. She didn't know nearly enough about smithing to answer the question. Questions were useless things, anyway, meant for people who didn't have a living to earn.
"Aya, ragamuffin, are you going to pack up or are you going to wait for the watch to do it for you?" Startled, Tena jumped and looked around to see that the sun was setting and the market was slowly emptying. Beside her, the mat seller shook his graying head. "Hope you've got food at home, guttersnipe, because the food stalls shut down half an hour ago."
Tena sighed and nodded; she'd hoped to buy a skewer of grilled meat on her way home, but that would have to wait for tomorrow. Plain bread and vegetables would do for tonight, and she had those already.
"Thanks, birdsnest man."
"Aya...." He sighed and shook his head but lingered after his mats were packed up to make sure Tena packed her things safely. "Do you need someone to walk you home?"
After a moment, Tena shook her head. "It's still light enough out. I should be fine. Thank you though."
"I'll bother you again tomorrow, then." The mat seller set off down his usual route, and Tena slipped like a shadow through the streets toward her home.
Abruptly, she stopped, her woven shoes noiseless on the road. In an alleyway ahead were several figures. A few of them she recognized as members of Evak who frequented this road; this was not a fight she could win.
Tena was already planning a different route to reach her home when she recognized the other figure. Is that... the northwoman? The woman's voice sounded soft in comparison to the others, but she seemed to be disagreeing with them. Oh, poor lady. She seems fresh off the boat, and the first thing she runs into is Evak? Even so, there was no point in getting involved. Tena knew her presence wouldn't help the northwoman anyway.
A soft scraping noise sounded, followed by the whistle of blade in air. That whistle sounded four times; Tena closed her eyes and turned her head away. Four times? They didn't need to stab her four times! Once was enough! Against her will she found her eyes opening to look.
There was only one figure in the alley now, wrapped in a cloak. A glimmering flash of gold winked in her hand; Tena felt a chill down her spine.
"M-miss?"
The hooded figure turned, seeming unhurried. "Yes?"
"Did... did you kill them?"
"Not yet."
The calm and factual nature of the northwoman's statement felt like a slap. Tena felt her hand glide over her mouth. "You can't!"
"Why not?" The woman looked over Tena carefully, as if noting where she could have hidden a knife. "Are they friends of yours?"
"No, they're just... they're part of Evak. If you kill them... Evak won't let you go."
"What's Evak?"
"An organization... they have a lot of power and they have ties to the–" Tena shook her head. "Never mind. Just don't do it. I have to go before they realize I was involved."
"Hm." The northwoman paused for a moment, observing the lumps lying in the alley, and Tena hurried down the street.
It wasn't long before Tena realized the northwoman was following her. She quickened her pace and dodged through the maze of streets but couldn't seem to get rid of the hooded figure. Why did I ever get involved? She'd just been trying to spare the northwoman some trouble; look where that was getting her.
With a gasp Tena stopped short; the hooded figure was now in front of her. How did she... wait. No, the northwoman was behind her still, and she had also stopped. This was someone else.
"Aya, sir, please let me past; I need to go home before it gets dark." Tena begged, her whole face turning sweet and concerned. Please, please, just mess with the northwoman and let me go home.
"Now that's funny." Tena's heart sank at the stranger's amused voice. "You both have traces, and you want me to ignore you? What, did you overcharge her for it?"
"For what?"
"Oh really? Do you pick so many pockets you don't remember which things you've pawned off?"
Tena began to step backward, hoping to at least buy herself time. She wanted to glance at the northwoman, but it seemed unwise to take her eyes off the hooded man in front of her. After what felt like forever, she had worked her way behind the northwoman and away from the hooded man in front of them. Both of them seemed locked in a motionless duel fought purely by a grim stare.
The blue tropical twilight shattered into a thousand shards, pierced by a flash of yellow-white light. Tena's unprepared eyes wavered as blobs floated in front of them, and she heard the northwoman grunt in surprise or pain. She expected the northwoman to fall or walk away, but instead she simply kept her stare on the hooded man and shuffled to the left, scraping her feet on the ground.
"You..." The low voice of the hooded man shook with suppressed anger. "This isn't over." Tena blinked and he was gone, or perhaps he had vanished into the dancing blobs in her vision. The northwoman sighed and held a hand to her head.
"What... did you do? Was he drunk? What happened?"
The northwoman shook her head. "Never mind. Where would I find a good inn?"
Tena's heart sank. "There... aren't any good ones around here. They're all down by the docks. Are you leaving?"
"Why? Does it matter where I go?"
Tena lowered her head, feeling her face grow warm. "I... don't get a say, but we lost a lot of time to that, and... Aya, it's getting dark. Namah isn't very safe at night."
"You want me to take you home, then?" The northwoman's cold voice sounded faintly amused, but Tena nodded.
"Could you?"
"If you can put me up for the night."
"I only have bread and vegetables."
The northwoman shrugged. "That's no problem."
Tena nodded hesitantly. "Between the person who paid me fairly and walking home in the dark... I'll do it."
The northwoman nodded and held out a hand. "Breathe. Don't fold up, and don't let yourself shake."
Tena nodded and clasped the northwoman's hand, a northern custom. "I should say my name now, I think?"
"That's how it's usually done."
"Then I am Tena."
"Peregrine."
Tena led the way to her home, wondering how she had ended up in such a strange situation. She slept very little that night.