Chapter Text
“YOU TOLD KARNE WHAT?”
“Don’t look at me! I just said what I knew!”
Lian sighed. She had managed to obtain some cloth by using Zhin’s dagger to cut off the cleanest strips of the thick canvas curtain over the windows she could find. Zhin was now standing miserably in a corner half-naked and trouser-less with scratchy canvas curtain bits between his legs to soak up the blood. Lian didn’t think her period would come so quickly.
“Oh dear. I think I may have wrongly calculated my period…” She mused, “It was supposed to come next week the last time I checked.”
“Can I sit down?” Zhin said indignantly.
“No. You’re going to bleed everywhere.”
“Gah! Fine!” He shifted to lean against a wall, “When will this stop, Lian?”
Zhin saw himself raise his eyebrows and heard his voice say,
“Oh… well, in about 4 to 5 days.”
“You have to be joking?!” He cried, “How am I supposed to continue acting like you in this state?!”
“Well, I manage just fine most of the time.” Lian said, “Why can’t you?”
Zhin glared at her so fiercely Lian was quite sure that if he contorted her face any further her skin would start falling off. She saw him wince as another jolt of pain flashed through his abdomen.
“Grgh! How do you live with this every month?!”
“I’ve been living with this for 13 years, Zhin. I got used to it. Just like how you are going to!”
Zhin huffed and stayed silent. He edged his way over to her and pulled his dagger from the sheath at her - his - waist.
“Whatever! Let us just wait it out and figure out something to do..."
He went over to the already-ripped curtain and sliced off a few more long strips with his dagger, an idea forming in his foggy mind.
“Dammit, Zhin! This is your brilliant idea?” Lian hissed as she crouched behind a wall, still struggling to work with Zhin’s large frame, “Robbing a shop is the worst idea someone can come up with!”
They were staking out a small store on the street outside the inn — the only shop with its lights still on at this time of night.
“We do not have money, Lian. We spent all the gold in my boot on that blasted inn fee! Working to get some coin would take too much time!” Zhin noted to return to this town to burn down the inn once he got back into his body, “In my own personal experience, stealing what you need is faster.”
He had to admit he felt more agile in Lian’s lighter body. It reminded him of how he was like 10 years ago - being able to perform flips and twirls like an acrobat. He had considered picking up a job as a circus performer in his younger days, but all that was so long ago.
“Zhin, how are we going to do this?” Lian said, and was met with an incredulous look from him. He couldn’t believe she had no idea how stealing worked.
“We sneak in. We take the gold. We leave.” He said, “We fight if we have to since we have our respective weapons.”
“Fine.” Lian rubbed her temples and shut her eyes, “Look, I’m only doing this because there’s no better option.”
“Good enough. Let’s go.”
They snuck in from the back, where the shopkeep, an elven woman, was cleaning up for the night. Immediately, Zhin darted out and drew his sword, sending the shocked, screaming shopkeep onto the floor with a swift kick to the chest. It took a few quick bashes to the head to knock her out. He left her bleeding on the stone floor, turning to search the drawers behind the counter for gold.
Lian took her time to search the store shelves for anything they would need. It was a potion store, quite surprisingly, so there were many things that could help. A few vials of healing potion went into her pocket, just in case.
Zhin had found a pouch of gold and was about to slip it onto his belt when the shouts and footsteps made him freeze and immediately bolt for a hiding place in a nearby storeroom,
“Lian!” He hissed, “Someone is coming! Hide! Now! ”
She only stared at him in confusion as he gestured furiously.
But it was too late. The men and women of the Outer Tribunal, the Realm’s local law enforcement burst in and pulled out their weapons, commanding Lian to freeze. How they got into this town (which was part of his territory, mind you!) without tangling with his assassins was beyond him.
Through a crack in the door, Zhin watched himself get dragged away and slapped a hand across his forehead. Why was this such a terrible day? He’d only been to jail once in his life, and he’d escaped on the same day. Knowing how terrible Lian was at being self-aware , getting her (more like himself) out of this was going to be… painfully difficult.
Once the coast was clear, he crept out of the storeroom and stole an invisibility elixir off a nearby shelf.
He had a feeling he would need it.