Book Teaser:
And gone, he thought, the figure obscured by the lack of lights in alleyways. He had pick-pocketed another person. It’s not all that hard to do, but it’s pretty hard to deal with the fact that the money he takes could be all that the person has. It probably isn’t, he consoles himself, why would they carry all their money on them? Doesn’t make sense. But it did. Where he was in The Haze was the slums, and the slums of The Haze are probably one of the more dangerous, non-radiated, free-of-sorrosa, areas you could be.
The figure realized he’d been spacing out again, and that the person he’d stolen from might have realized by now, so he started walking down the alley. Left, right, don’t make a loop, watch for Toby, keep straight, head up, stay low. He could walk back to his home using the alleyways on auto-pilot now.
Wait - this was new. He stopped at a booth, purple sheets hung over a simple tent. There was no point in it being here, in the middle of an alley. Not much foot traffic.
“You can come in!” He hears an older feminine voice from inside the tent yell out to him. He hesitated. “Oh come now, I don’t bite.”
He opens a flap of the tent and sees a woman, white hair long, skin sagging. Cards were displayed on the table. Heart of Chains, Love of Two, and Emperor of None. Somebody wasn’t in for a fun life.
“I apologize, I was going through some of my cards and these three came out…” Her voice falls off, “Do you suppose these cards are yours?”
“No,” He tries, but he finds his mouth full of something drying his tongue, “Hmn!”
“Oh don’t speak with your mouth full,” Chides the elder, “You’ll see me soon, I promise.”
He feels something lightly tap his face, and then a moment after that he feels something slap his face. His eyes open. His face hurts.
“Come on Thero!” A headache has taken root in his head. Not that uncommon when talking to Lau, but still annoying, “Thero! They’re almost here!”