She twirled a coin between her first two fingers. Once every four seconds, the known time courtesy of the raven watching, who was getting a tad annoyed with it. Merla kept telling Belyana to spend her earned money, which was why she was in the pub anyway. While she spent a fair amount of time in Bilgewater--it was a great place to buy outlawed books--she still hadn’t tried drinking there. Maybe it was fear of the other drunkards. 

That particular night, Belyana’s dark eyes were trained on a tired-looking woman with the most peculiar hair. More accurately, looking at the men who were watching her. Bel had been watching for some time now, busying her hands with the coin. ‘That’s it,’ the blonde concluded to herself, approaching the stranger with a small clearing of her throat.

It wasn’t easy, playing the game of stowaway. It had taken almost three days to figure out when she could have gotten on a ship on its way to Ionia--even harder was hiding from the crew. The trip itself wasn’t too terribly long, and it was easy to get off the ship, off the docks and into the town of Zhyunia. It was a perfect place for Belyana to start looking for new books and scrolls: trades seemed to be ongoing all around her. 

Even better was the scenery. When she sat down by the forest, a sense of peace filled her from head to toe. Even Merla seemed to be calmer, resting atop Bel’s shoulder and leaning into the cropped blonde. When the time came to start looking around once more, the girl in red made her way into what seemed like the main market center, different accents filling her ears. Merla would croon at a conversation without telling Bel what was said, other parts of conversations ready to be picked apart by the mage.