They looked up at me in unison, the same exact impatient look on their faces. Shayat sighed. “Fuck the line. The caravan is doing well. Too well. I keep making this much and the mercantile office will renegotiate my license and take half my profits. It’s good for both of us if you let me slip you my surplus.”

“What? No.”

“Yes,” Sorcha said. “We say yes. Ariah, sit down.”

“No! You can’t just come in here, bribe him with herb and me with money. No, you said this was a mistake.”

“Well, I reconsidered,” Shayat said.

“I have a life, Shayat! You can’t just play with it like this.”

Sorcha leaned forward. “We have a life with no chairs. Sit down. Smoke the woman’s herb. She wants to negotiate? Let’s negotiate.”

I stared at him. “Sorcha, I would like to speak with you. Alone.”

“What? Why?”

“Please.”

He frowned. He set down the herb like it physically pained him to do it. He slunk across the floor and glared at me when I grabbed his arm and thrust him through the door. “This is a bad idea,” I said.

“Why?”

“It just is.”

He reached out to touch me, but I backed away for fear the landlady would wander by and glance up the stairs. He dropped his hand and rolled his eyes. “Ariah, for fuck’s sake, she…”

“She has plausible deniability, and that’s the only thing keeping a roof over our heads,” I whispered. I had come to understand in those days after I crossed the line why Dirva had turned to Nisa instead of Liro. The work it took to stay in the borough living like I did was a constant grind, and it took a toll. “She came here with…with that, she came here with promises of money. We have nothing to negotiate with, Sorcha. As soon as you hold that pipe you’ll agree to anything. The second she said she’d get me off the line I wanted to marry her, right there. She can make us dance like we’re puppets.”

“Ariah, she wants you. You’ve got you to negotiate with.”

“No, I don’t! I’m a…Sorcha, I will get lost. I forget who I am. I give myself away to anyone who looks at me.” Sorcha frowned. I dropped my face into my hands. “No. That’s not what happened with you. I swear that’s not what happened.”

“Guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”

“You know that’s not what I meant! Why would I hesitate with her if it wasn’t real with you? You and me, it’s both of us.”