Without breaking their gaze, he reached into his black silk pouch. When he unfurled his palm, she almost stopped breathing. He held a tassel strung with black and red beads, at the end of which rested a silver amulet carved with black flames. A red cord extended from it, meant to be tied into a necklace. “This is one of the few relics I have left of my homeland,” Zen said, “along with Nightfire and That Which Cuts Stars. It was meant to be a set of earrings, but the other was lost—so I fashioned a necklace out of it. In my clan, it is tradition for us to receive one set of silver earrings at
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