Hei runs out of lunch money after purchasing food and medicine for the man.

There’s always the option of going back to the inn to retrieve a couple more coins, but the thought of crashing into Byun Baekhyun drives her far, far away. The loaf of bread she’d eaten for breakfast had been good, but not nearly filling enough, and Hei is beginning to regret bringing so little money. 

The thief is quiet after Hei makes the purchases. In the bag lies a medicine for fever, a sack of rice, meat and fruit. It’s not much—enough to last a couple of days (a week, if lucky). They move through alleys until they approach the poorer parts of Castra once more.

“Miss,” the man finally says. “Thank you for this. I… I truly am in your debt.”

Hei adjusts her bag, disgruntled. She isn’t accustomed to this sort of thing. “It’s nothing,” she mumbles.

To her horror, he continues to talk. “I’m sorry I stole your bag,” the man babbles on. “You said you weren’t from Castra, right? I didn’t mean to leave you with a bad impression of the city. But if you’re from the wealthy district, you barely witness half of what truly goes on here in the slums. Still, I hope—”

“How did you know I’m not from Castra?” Hei interrupts.

“Your accent, miss. You also told the other woman when she asked.”

… oh. Feeling a little foolish, Hei hurries her steps. “How much longer until we make it?”

“Not long.”

The words this better not be a trick rise to , but she pushes them down. Given his earnestness and how willing he’d been to show her had felt too genuine to be faked.

Maybe she is a fool, like the girl on the rooftops had said, and this man is scamming her. Maybe she is being led right into a trap. Hei reassures herself that even if it is some sort of trap, she’s more than capable of fighting people off. Even without her powers, she can put up a formidable fight with the blades—with her powers, commoners have no chance. At least it’s what she tells herself, even though there’s a whisper in the back of her mind that knows better.

But that can be a worry for later. For now, Hei forces herself to keep up with the man’s steps. She will give him the benefit of doubt for now; the consequences can come later if he doesn’t keep his word.

Not long after, they turn into a small building. The walls are crumbling and broken, patched messily with broken boards. A door hung from its hinges.

The man’s steps quicken as he scrambles inside.

Hei soon discovers that indeed, he hadn’t been lying. In the corner of the room lies a bundle of blankets, where a small head peeks out from the midst of it. The man rushes over to him, dropping to his knees as Hei follows inside, inspecting her surroundings. Despite everything, she wrinkles her nose. These–the slums of Castra—are the exact areas the families like to pretend do not exist underneath their govern.

The floorboards creak beneath her feet as she makes her way across the room. The man is slowly lifting his son’s head so the boy sits up, and he lets out a weak moan, chapped lips open slightly.

Hei sets her bag down. He looks no more than six or seven—grimy, exhausted, painfully thin. Her heart stutters slightly. “I brought you food,” she tells the child. “And medicine, which you should take first.”

She unpacks the contents from her bag, handing the medicine to the man first. He unwraps it without a second moment of hesitation, a small cup of water next to him that he uses to carefully feed his son.

Hei finishes unpacking everything. Then, taking one last look of her surroundings—the run down building, the broken pieces of floor and the young child curled up in the corner of the room—she swallows the storm of worry brewing in her stomach and slips outside. 

***

Hei is barely three steps away from the door when she slams into somebody.

She’s on her guard immediately, but the person remains casually confident, leaning on the wall. Hei looks up to see the face of the girl who’d stopped the thief.

Now that they are closer, she can see her features slightly better. The girl is taller than her, slim and elegant, although her clothing is baggy and ill-fitted. She tilts her head when Hei meets her eyes.

Hei finds her voice five seconds too late. “He wasn’t lying,” she points out.

“I discovered,” comes the dry reply.

“Are you… following me?” 

“I followed the man, but you were with him as well, so I suppose I was.” 

Hei scrutinizes her. She still has her mission to attend to. “You don’t need anything from him anymore, do you?”

The girl gives a little shrug. “Perhaps I simply want to remain in this area,” she replies nonchalantly. “Go on. I’m not stopping you.”

Hei gives her a look, her spine tingling. Something feels off, but there’s nothing she can argue with—especially if she wants to avoid an argument or a fight. Her gut tells her that it’s pointless and stupid to pick a fight with her, even if her words can’t be taken at face value.

“What’s your name?” she finally settles with asking.

Her eyes flicker over Hei in a calculating sort of manner. “Jin,” she finally says. “But I can assure you, you’ll find at least a couple hundred more in Castra. It’s quite a common name.”

She’s right—the inn owner was also called Jin, Hei remembers. She opens to speak—but before she can, she receives a small wave. “I’ll see you around,” she calls over her shoulder, “Song Hei.”

Hei wastes a precious half second in complete shock. When she finally runs around the corner that Jin had slipped behind to follow the girl, she’s nowhere to be seen. 

***

Hei arrives at the bar—the supposed entrance to the biggest illegal market in Castra—at noon. Her stomach growls, but she’s fresh out of money. The only thing distracting her from the hunger is the fact that the girl—Jin—had known who she was, and that in itself is not good news.

It gets worse.

The tavern is open as a restaurant in the daytime, and when she wanders inside, intent on getting information from the owner, when someone sitting in one of the seats waves at her.

For a moment, Hei wonders if it’s Jin again, but then she catches his eye and realizes that it’s much worse. Byun Baekhyun, sitting with an arm splayed casually against the back of the chair, smirks at her. 

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