Shaking her head, she left him to risk his own life how he pleased. Plenty of Inosen had escaped detection during and after the war, though it was still a fraction of how many had lived before. But something thousands of years old didn’t die out simply because the steam engine had shown its pretty face. While the rich could afford steam and steel, bright lights and indoor plumbing, the poor couldn’t. For many, magic was their best choice. They would pray to the Mothers and practice magic to their last breaths, and she’d never deny them that bit of freedom. But she still wished, for their sake, that they would be more discreet.

If her parents had been more discreet, maybe they wouldn’t have been shot when she was eight. Maybe she wouldn’t have grown up homeless and been turned into a professional killer. But she was proud of her few successes now, even if her parents would hate what she’d become.

They’d always believed life was precious, a gift from the Mothers. She couldn’t help but imagine they’d be disappointed if they knew what she was. She wanted to shout: You died and left me to this city; what did you expect?

As she approached the Center of the city, a train whistle broke the morning air, and smoke puffed above the station to stain the sky gray. The streets turned from dirt to concrete, and more people crowded around her in the early rush to work.

Her mind worked through the details of what she knew about the mansions on Amethyst Hill, the privately hired guards who worked there, and how exactly she might get Kouta Hirai alone. But before she did any of that, she had to ask the only person she really trusted to partner with her and put his own life on the line for this job.

Turning up a side street that wound between apartment buildings, budget inns, and low-end shops, Aina approached a bar with a sign declaring it The Tipsy Fish. Right outside of it was a notice board with news from this morning, the letters freshly inked by the printing press.

A GEM FIT FOR A PRINCESS

The Royal Princess of Linash, Saïna Goleph, is due to arrive in Kosín in a fortnight to celebrate a new, stronger alliance between our nations.

The princess will be gifted with a five-carat black diamond jewel, as a token of our new alliance, at a reception ball to be hosted at the Tower of Steel.

Aina nearly snorted with laughter as she scanned the rest of the article, which went on about how both their countries were moving into the international sphere and wanting to make more alliances and trade agreements. The jeweler had only offered to pay her five thousand kors for a similar gem, but if it was valuable enough to give to this princess, then it must be worth much more. If she ever got her hands on one, she’d use a knife at his throat to make him pay double the market price.