← Chapter 12: Morning Wisdom | 📖 Series Index | Chapter 14: Fury Unleashed →
Four days have passed since we finished clearing the bandit warren, and the gold from our successful contract feels reassuring in the leather pouch at my waist. The Crossroads Inn buzzes with its usual activity—merchants discussing trade routes, adventurers comparing scars, and the ever-present background hum of Berta’s establishment serving as neutral ground for all manner of travelers.
“Go see Ruleg about better protection,” Garrett had instructed me this morning, his gray eyes serious as they studied the faint scar on my shoulder through the tear in my dress where the crossbow bolt had found its mark. “That bolt nearly took your arm off. Next time you might not be so lucky.”
The memory of the poisoned steel punching through muscle and sinew makes me unconsciously roll my shoulder, feeling the phantom ache that would probably never fully fade. He’s right—I’d been fortunate that Thessarian’s field medicine and Lysander’s healing magic had been enough to close the wound properly. More than that, after fighting through the bandit warren in nothing but my mended blue dress, I finally have the contract coin in my purse to pay Ruleg for the custom-fitted harness and shoulder protection he measured me for before the proving—gear built from the ground up to support my chest and counterbalance my frame while leaving my hips and thighs free to anchor my stance.
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