Elide put a hand on the woman’s elbow again. “Where can I take you that is safe?” Nowhere—there was nowhere here that was safe. But slowly, as if it took her a lifetime to remember how to do it, the lady slid her eyes to Elide. Darkness and death and black flame; despair and rage and emptiness. And yet—a kernel of understanding. Kaltain merely walked away, that dress hissing on the stones. There were bruises that looked like fingerprints around her other arm. As if someone had gripped her too hard. This place. These people— Elide fought her nausea, watching until the woman vanished around a
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