“Are you all right?” he asked her.

“Oh,” she said, pausing her practice. She stood awkwardly, all her weight on her right leg instead of her prosthetic. “Are you stopping already?” When she leaned to the other side, she winced again.

“Is your leg bothering you?”

She grimaced. “I’m fine.”

“But it looks like… It’s okay if you want to stop.” He stuffed the bottle cap in his pocket. “I want to stop too. Come on, let’s go back to the Guild House.”

At this, Shazi sheathed her sword, looking relieved. But when she moved to take a step, she stumbled and fell onto the sand.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Barclay asked hurriedly. Root padded to Shazi’s side with concern.

“I said I’m fine,” she snapped, sounding as prickly as Tadg. Her expression softened as Root rested his head on her lap, and she scratched him behind the ear. “Let’s just take a break. I’m going to sit for a moment.”

Barclay nodded and sat beside her. He watched as Shazi traced her finger over the edge of her prosthetic as she had done only minutes before, making the metal bend and unclasp from her thigh. Barclay tried not to stare—he didn’t want to be rude—but this close, he could see a sliver of an old scar along her skin. He guessed that Shazi must’ve lost her lower leg at some point, rather than been born without it.

Catching him looking, Shazi said, “It was bitten off by a Werelion.”

“Really?” Barclay asked, aghast. He didn’t know what a Werelion was, but that sounded awful.

She chuckled. “No. It was an accident when I was seven. There was a sandstorm, and a Karkadann got spooked—they’re like angry unicorns. There’s lots of them in the Desert. Anyway, it landed on my leg, and my calf and knee had to go.”

“I’m sorry,” Barclay told her.

“It’s fine. But it hurts every day—not because it’s still healing or anything, but because my brain sometimes thinks my foot is still there. Even if I can control my prosthetic with Lore, the sand… it’s so uneven. It makes it harder to focus on the million things I need to focus on, like keeping my balance or bending the metal like regular joints. Especially when I’m having one of my bad days.” She shifted her position to stretch better, making Root whine. She grinned and returned to petting him. “I’m really lucky that I can still walk with my Lore, even if it took years of training to learn how. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. I feel like I have to work twice as hard as everyone else just doing normal things, which means I’m always twice as tired.”