“What are you doing here?”

  Julia jumped in her seat as the woman suddenly sat down across from her, asking the question before she’d even settled into place.

  “Uh… I, um… I’m just having a drink,” Julia tried to explain meekly, holding out her glass.

  “No, you’re not,” the woman pointed out. “In fact, you’ve barely touched your drink.”

  Julia blushed a little, lowering her still full glass to the table, and looked at the woman more closely.

  She was dark, dusky in a way that Julia hadn’t seen before. Her skin was dark enough to imply some Westerlen ancestry somewhere in her family tree, but blood and inclination left her with more of a rich tan than anything else. She was a few inches shorter than Julia, and despite her loose-fitting, dark green clothes, Julia could see just how lean her body was, with only the hint of curves showing through. Her face wasn’t precisely beautiful, but it was distinctive, with surprisingly full lips between her blunt chin and her crooked nose; all framed by her short-cut brown hair, kept closer to her head than Julia had ever seen a woman wear. Her eyes were the color of the bay at midnight, and they watched Julia with obvious interest.

  “I… I’m new to town,” Julia explained, her carefully considered cover story seeming transparent and fragile and she spoke it aloud. “I just got hired as a servant up the hi-”

  #

  “No, you aren’t, and no, you didn’t,” Lain interrupted the girl calmly.

  Whoever she was, she didn’t fit the mold for Lowrun. She was gorgeous, for one thing, her long limbs and lush curves obvious even behind the attempted cover of her lumpish gown. She had the fine features of a noble, sharp enough to look refined yet soft enough to look cute and compelling. Though she had her hair bound back and tucked under her cloak, Lain could see how thick and glossy her bright red curls were.

  She was, quite simply, a one of a kind beauty, one that made even Lain’s reluctant pulse start to beat a little faster. But her mannerisms were all wrong–she didn’t carry herself with the flaunting arrogance of a doxy or courtesan with a body like that, nor even the more subtle confidence of someone even aware of just how she looked.

  “You’re no rogue,” Lain said, after a moment’s consideration. “You’re too meek, too awkward. Your cloak is too fresh to have been worn on the road, not washed out or battered. And if you were a simple serving-maid, you wouldn’t be in a district like this. The only girls as pretty as you in a neighborhood like this, so late at night, are here to make a few extra scepters–and that doesn’t really fit you either.”

  The girl swallowed and her eyes widened. Rogue’s shadow, even her eyes were beautiful, shining orbs of amber that seemed to capture and reflect the flickering lantern light of the Claw.

  Lain blew out a breath, and tried to make her voice as gentle as possible, speaking with the same tone she’d use on a skittish cat, as she asked, “Let’s try this again. Why are you here?” After a moment, she added, “The truth, please.”

  The girl flushed even darker, her eyes dropping down to her glass of still cider, its own amber hue made pale in comparison to those eyes. “I ran away from home,” she finally said, her voice little more than a whisper. “I needed to get away, so I packed a bag and snuck out.”

  “And you came downhill,” Lain mused. For a moment, she remembered the struggling girl clambering awkwardly down the ivy outside a mansion in Highwalk.

  So. The Rogue had put this girl in Lain’s path, even then.

  “Fair enough,” Lain said with a small nod. “I’m Lain.”

  The girl swallowed, and replied with a pseudonym that rang so false that Lain couldn’t help a little chuckle.

  “J-Jewel. You can call me Jewel.”

  #

  Why did she say that? That was so stupid, Primal’s name, she must’ve sounded like such a crossing child…

  But Lain, after a small snort, just nodded. “Sure. Jewel it is.”

  Julia’s face must’ve looked appropriately stunned, because the woman just winked. “Everyone down here uses a false name, don’t worry.” With that, Lain abruptly stood up. “Good luck with it then, Jewel. Maybe play it a little smarter before you try lying to any other thieves.”

  With that, she turned away, and a sickening jolt of panic shot through Julia’s guts. Without thinking about it, Julia found herself half standing, reaching a futile hand in the departing thief’s direction.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Wait!” she cried, not realizing until a moment later just how loud she had spoken.

  #

  Lain did pause, turning towards her with an arched brow, but so did half the room. The card players placed their hands down, trading smirks. Two-Fingers, now sitting by themself, looked between the two women with a shrewd, calculating air. A couple of the more drunk revelers openly guffawed, and Cait tilted her head in Lain’s direction with obvious curiosity, the man whose lap she was sitting in soundly ignored.

  Julia paused, her cheeks heating to such an incandescent red that she looked likely to start a fire, and she sank back down into her seat, promptly burying her face in her hands.

  After a too-long moment, the normal clamor of the bar resumed, and with a curious grin, Lain sat back down.

  “Well?” the thief asked. “”Did you ask me to wait just so I could watch you melt into a puddle?”

  #

  Julia squirmed in her seat, abruptly feeling as hot as if she had run a marathon, and wished she could do exactly as Lain had proposed. Then she could at least drip between the floor boards.

  When her body failed to liquify, however, she finally managed to tear her face away from her hands.

  Lain was more perched in her chair than anything else, one booted leg propped up, her foot resting on the base of her chair, her arms wrapped around her leg while her head rested easily on her knee. The pose showed off a level of lithe flexibility, and it pulled Lain’s breeches taut against her skin, showing off thighs as firm as they were softly rounded. Her head was canted at an angle, those night-sky eyes studying Julia with a cocktail of curiosity and interest, spiked by more than a little pity.

  Julia swallowed, finding her mouth unaccountably dry and her throat inexplicably tight, before she was able to speak. “It’s just… I need help.”

  “No shit.”

  A weird, embarrassed noise slid out of Julia’s mouth, surprising even her.

  Lain simply arched an eyebrow.

  “You… You’re from Lowrun, right?”

  “Yep.”

  She really wasn’t willing to give Julia anything, was she?

  “Then… Can you help me? Be my… uhm… Lowrun consultant?”

  #

  Lain held her place, considering the girl’s question.

  It was a stupid one, of course, but that was of little surprise. This Jewel, whoever she was, had to have led a life more sheltered than Lain could possibly imagine. To even ask a thing… It would be all too simple for Lain to simply lead her down an alley, knife her, and sink her body in the harbor.

  Of course, she had no intention of doing that–but paranoia was a way of life in Lowrun, and Lain couldn’t begin to understand the naivety required to ask a woman Julia had just met to help her start her new life.

  The girl fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable under Lain’s long stare. “I… I can pay!”

  Lain rolled her eyes, and finally lowered her leg. She leaned forward a little in her seat, trying to convey her seriousness as she met Jewel’s bright amber eyes. “You want my help, here it is, at no charge: Leave.”

  “What?”

  “Go back home. Tonight, now. Go back to your comfortable bed and your easy little life and put this runaway bullshit behind you. That’s my advice.”

  Jewel shook a little in place, a leaf in the wind, and Lain got ready to stand up, expecting that her point was made. Then…

  “No.”

  Lain froze, snorted a small breath. “No?” she asked, not turning around. “Just like that?”

  “I… I can’t go back,” the girl said. “That life, that house… I can’t be there anymore. I can’t give up my life, my self, everything that makes me me, and if I try to stay at my old home, that’s exactly what would happen.”

  Lain pursed her lips and finally turned to study the girl. She was still meek, still trembling a little. Tears had gathered in her eyes, their amber hue catching the flickering lantern light of the bar. But for all of that… there was iron and fire in her words. A stubborn solidity, a hard heat more befitting a Lowrun rogue than a Highwalk heiress.

  “You understand,” Lain said, “that if you stay here, you’re putting your actual life at risk, right? That’s not a pretty metaphor–you wouldn’t be the first heiress to get herself killed in a Lowrun alley.”

  Jewel swallowed–but she nodded. “I know,” she said. “But… I’d rather live an actual life, one with risks, than spend the rest of my life as a jewel locked up safe in a vault.”

  Well. That explained the name, Lain supposed.

  Lain tilted her head. The words were foolish, stupid. Everything in Lain told her to leave the foolish young woman to whatever fate awaited someone like her in a place like Lowrun.

  But then… She had been looking for something worth occupying her time, hadn’t she? Some meaning worth having?

  If nothing else, she got the feeling that trying to help Jewel would certainly be interesting, even if it wasn’t the smartest move.

  And besides…

  Her eyes caught Jewel’s shining amber orbs again, and Lain felt some silly, irresponsible piece of herself tighten up.

  “Okay,” Lain finally said, shifting back down into her seat across from Jewel. “If that’s how you want it… I’ll do what I can to help.”