City of Fire and Ink

An incompetant murderer, an old lady, and a lingerie designer walk into a bar

"Excuse me?" Yennefer reached for her back pocket and just to spare my traumatized brain any more knives, I blurted out 

"The Lourdes want me to kill you. Long story short, I pissed them off and now if I don't kill you, they're going to kill my entire family." I managed to keep my voice low enough so I didn't draw attention to us.

"Why do they want me dead?" Yennefer didn't even looked frightened. Was I the only person new to this?

"They didn't say. Just that i had to figure out where the ochre tanzanite was sourced and then I had to kill you."

I was wrong. Yennefer was scared, she just had a good poker face. She was forcing herself to wear the outfit of bravado and if I hadn't been paying attention I wouldn't have noticed. Shoulders back, gaze steely, unflappable voice.

"¿Por qué me dices esto?"

"Because clearly I can't charm you into getting information and I didn't want to kill you."

"You've killed before haven't you?" Chiara's accusation was obvious and bitter. I avoided her gaze.

"Yeah. One time."

"But not again?" Yennefer's voice had softened.

"It's exactly something I look forward too. You haven't done anything to me and it's not self defense, so no, I don't feel right killing you, especially when I don't even know why I'm killing you."

Yennefer looked over at Chiara, who was looking at me with more than a little fear in her eyes. "Now we're both in danger. You need to leave the party immediately."

"I'm already in danger." Chiara glanced at me. "I danced with Seojun tonight." Shockingly, there was no disgust in her voice, no regret, only a dreading understanding.

"You can't run." I told Yennefer. "Not from the Lourdes. They found me at my best friend's house. If you're here tonight then they'll find you."

"They don't need to find me. They'll be too busy assuming I'm dead." Her tone was resolute.

"You want me to help you fake your death?"

"Well I'm not going to roll over and let you kill me. You've endangered me, whether on purpose or not and now you owe me." At Chiara's shocked expression, she added. "You too. Consider it a favor and you might as well help since we're all stuck in this mess together thanks to this one." 

She frowned disapprovingly at me. I wanted to shrink back. Some murderer I made. I was getting intimidated by the person I was supposed to kill. Pathetic.

"But what about Marid?" Chiara asked. "You're the CEO of one of the biggest jewellery companies in Pardahna, who's gonna to take it over?"

"Ixtara is old enough. I've been training her for years. She's ready."

"How do you expect to pull this off?" Chiara angrily gestured at the three of us. "We have one incompetent murderer, one fifty year old lady and a lingerie designer and you expect us to fake your death?"

They made a good point. I really didn't know what I was doing.

"Why did I leave makeup for this?" Yennefer bemoaned. "Everywhere I go in jewels, there's skeletons behind me, skeletons in front of me." She tssked. "I'm going to pay for it in my next life. I'll probably come back reincarnated as a beaver." She shuddered.

Soil and Sky, that was such a mood. Not the part about the beaver. I felt like I was constantly leaving a trail of blood around me. But something Yennefer said gnawed at me and I refrained from laughing at my own horrible pun, in respect for the sticky situation we were stuck in.