KAT ON THE STREETkintire wrote:After the appropriate efforts to lower the price, she buys the dagger with a wince. Poverty beckons, but the situation is serious.
For reasons completely unconnected with her ability to afford the dagger she does not want to meet the guard Captain, but will wander near the Lorelei in case she is needed... keeping an eye out for people following her, especially redheads...
Her efforts to haggle proved ineffective.
After she paid up, the smith shared some free and unsolicited advice:
''If you are thinking this blade will be proof against the changing kind, it will. But not against all of them. Some have different weaknesses. Good luck.''
...
Later, on the afternoon streets around the Lorelei, she watches the thin crowd of pedestrians, a handful of riders, the odd passing wagon.
No ash falls from above here, but traces of black soot mark the walls and roofs of buildings.
As minutes pass, the traffic dies out, leaving the streets eerily empty for so early in the afternoon.
The hazy late summer skies darken.
Fat rain drops descend, a little shower at first, then a downpour.
Water pools in a pothole in front of Kat.
Black water.
Only one stranger remains in Kat's sight, a ragged old man standing in the mouth of a covered alley across the street.
The old man beckons to her.