“What’s wrong?” Nythir asked as they walked, noticing how Essie’s spark had dimmed. Her steps were slower.
“Nothing.”
“You look glum,” Vorrik said.
“Leave her alone,” Lyssara snapped. She looped an arm through Essie’s and pulled her close. “Girl talk. Come along. The men can go… do men things.”
Somehow, this resulted in Essie disappearing upstairs with Lyssara, leaving Nythir and Vorrik standing in the hall like abandoned puppies.
“How did I get booted from my room?” Vorrik muttered, tossing his bag into a corner.
“The same way I got stuck with a smelly orc in mine.”
“I do not smell,” Vorrik snapped. Then sniffed his armpit and grimaced. “That’s not me. That’s the forest.”
Nythir sat heavily on the nearest bed.
“What even is girl talk?”
“Probably things we’re not supposed to hear.”
Vorrik frowned deeply. “Do you think if I wore a dress—”
“No.”
“We’ll see them at dinner,” Nythir said, rubbing his temples.
“For now… apparently we do… 'men stuff.'”
“What is ‘men stuff?’”
Nythir sighed. “Moping until our women come for us.”
10
Esther
How to unwind: try relaxing while your brain does the opposite.
The bathhouse’s steam and lavender soap still clung to Esther’s skin as she and Lyssara stepped back into the small inn room. Through the open window drifted the echo of vendors shouting prices, carried on river wind and tangled with themouthwatering scent of roasted nuts and fresh pastries from the town square below.
Her sense of freedom and rigid etiquette training immediately went to war over the temptation to lean out the window and buy everything in sight.
Nythir and Vorrik had been sent away under strict orders—no loitering, no hovering, no arguing—and Esther’s hair was still damp, curling in short, messy waves around her face. No pins. No stiff braids. No maid tugging at loose strands and tutting in disapproval.
She felt uncomfortable. Unstructured.
And yet, oddly lighter for it.
She couldn’t stop smiling.
Her first communal bath.
Her first morning in a town.
Her first sweet potato was eaten while walking.
Everything felt strange and new. She was having fun for the first time in over a decade. This was nothing like reading about freedom in a book—and the realization stung. She regretted not reaching for it sooner.
