I: Lana

LANA

Just keep running!

Lana hit the ground hard as she leapt from the window. She had about a second to get moving again before her target got to her. She quickly sprinted down the alley, pulling from her head her wig and slipping off the dress she wore.

This was not what she had intended when she went into the room with Barut Mirehook. Running away from him was far from her mind. She had made a stupid mistake and he caught her, knife in hand before she could make the kill.

Lana had been living in Sharn a few months. She belonged to a small town governed by the city. By foot, it was a week’s travel, and when she arrived with her bat in hand and a pack in the other, she hadn’t predicted she would have been taking upon herself an assassination. No. She had been thinking about entertaining in the means of dance, but she allowed herself to meander about, enjoying the sites the city had.

She was staying at the Magic Flute and made it a point to get to know the staff. The stable boy agreed to pay for her room in exchange for romantic favors. The bartender gave free drinks as she sat listening to his past adventures, pretending to be enraptured by his selfless acts. The cook gave her the first bucket of hot water for baths if she helped peel potatoes or shuck corn. And the young maids traded food for Lana’s wild exploits with men. They were already impressed that she was out on her own at sixteen and were astonished that she already knew the arts of being a woman.

Though her stories were lies, Lana wasn’t inexperienced. She had been on the receiving end of her father’s affections for a quarter of her life. Since leaving her home, she had used her body as a means to pay for the necessities. It wasn’t something Lana plans on doing all her life, but as a young woman in which every man stared at her for one thing, she would use her tactics to survive.

Lana had been at the Magic Flute two weeks when a particular man began to crawl under her skin. Barut was always at the Inn at week’s end. He’d harass the maids, making crude gestures and inappropriate remarks. He had tried for Lana a few times, but she made it clear she wasn’t interested.

It was the morning after Barut’s start of the weekend, when Lana found one of the maids not acting right. She was shaking and more clumsy. It made perfect sense why when she ran from the room as Barut entered. A fire in Lana’s stomach ignited and she set her mark upon the vile man.

Though legally an adult, Lana was still too young and brash. Immediately she slipped away to avenge the maid. If only she had stopped to think, perhaps she would have concocted a better plan than luring Barut into his room alone.

Instead, she found herself running.

Please let me make it out of this!

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