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Ronin reaches the desert oasis as the bard’s final note fades beneath swaying palms. Bright tents ring the spring, and the gathered crowd turns, searching every unfamiliar face.

The bard, a lean adult man with sun-browned skin, shoulder-length brown hair, and a faded teal vest over loose cream clothes lowers his lute. Near a shaded well, a disguised noble, an adult woman with dark braided hair and a sand-colored veil, watches the crowd with rigid care.

Her gaze catches Ronin’s. She lifts one ringed hand and points across the shifting bodies toward a sealed water jar being passed from palm to palm.

At the crowd’s edge, one watcher breaks away. A hood hides the face as the figure starts toward the palms, while the jar continues its quiet journey.

Ronin begins circling the oasis, keeping the veiled noblewoman in sight while scanning the tents, well, and narrow lanes between them. The crowd closes around his path.

The hooded watcher slips behind a spice stall. Ronin tracks the movement, but the sealed jar changes hands twice among brightly robed merchants before vanishing beneath a striped awning.

The noblewoman lowers her pointing hand and turns toward the well, abandoning her earlier vantage. Her ring catches the sun once, then disappears beneath her sleeve.

Ronin reaches the spice stall, but its rear curtain stirs in the hot breeze. Beyond it, three alleys open toward the town, all crowded with departing festival-goers.

The hooded figure is gone, and the jar’s trail is broken. The noblewoman now stands beside the well, watching Ronin openly instead of indicating the spy.

Ronin leaves the well without answering, taking the outer lane around the tents. He follows the jar’s last passage by watching hands, shadows, and startled glances.

Behind the striped awning, he finds the hooded watcher crouched beside stacked water jars. The figure is an adult woman with dark skin, a narrow scar through one eyebrow, and a rust-red cloak.

The sealed jar rests in her grasp. Ronin takes it before she can retreat, but a spice merchant sees the exchange and shouts for the guards.

Ronin has the message. The one watcher vanishes into the crowd, while alarm spreads between the tents and several faces turn sharply toward him.

Ronin drives the sealed jar against the packed earth. Clay bursts beneath his strength, and a narrow oilskin packet tumbles from the broken core into his hand.

The packet is dry and unmarked, its cord still tight. Around him, the crowd recoils as guards push through the tents, bronze badges flashing beneath their dust-stained cloaks.

The veiled noblewoman steps away from the well and places herself between Ronin and the nearest guards. Her ringed hand rises, signaling them to halt.

The guards hesitate, caught between her authority and the merchant’s shouting. Beyond them, the eastern lane opens toward the town, while the oilskin packet rests intact in Ronin’s grip.

Ronin cuts the cord and unfolds the oilskin packet before the halted guards, raising the message where the oasis crowd can see its cramped black script.

His voice carries across the tents. The words expose the noblewoman's danger and the eastern lane's purpose, while the guards listen in stunned silence.

A sharp gust tears the lower edge of the oilskin from Ronin's grip. He catches the packet, but the loose scrap skitters beneath the guards' boots.

The nearest guard steps into the eastern lane, blocking its mouth, while another bends to retrieve the torn scrap. The noblewoman's composure hardens behind her veil.

Ronin springs onto the low tile roof of the spice stall, clearing the awning and landing above the eastern lane. Several tiles crack beneath his feet, bruising his heel.

His greeting rolls across the oasis. Faces tilt upward, and the nearest guards turn from the noblewoman toward the roof, their formation breaking around the lane.

The noblewoman uses the distraction at once, stepping sideways behind a line of laden camels. Her sand-colored veil disappears among shifting robes and bright packs.

Ronin tears the oilskin message into strips, scattering black-scripted fragments across the tiles. Before the guards can close around him, he races toward the eastern gate.

He vaults from the spice stall to a tent roof, then catches the gatehouse ladder and climbs above the lane as shouts surge below.

At the gatehouse crown, a bronze-badged guard lies against the battlement while a broad-shouldered cloaked figure drives him back with a cudgel. Dust veils their faces.

The cloaked assailant glances toward Ronin, then wrenches the guard's spear free and flings it down into the courtyard. The battered guard gasps for breath.

Ronin extends his hand across the battlement. The battered guard grips it, and Ronin hauls him upright despite the man’s shaking knees.

The cloaked assailant shifts toward the winch, cudgel raised, while Halvek steadies himself against the stone. Below, guards crowd the ladder’s base.

Veyr turns from the winch, cudgel lowering. Ronin steps between the hired blade and the mechanism as guards below shout up the battlement.

The duel flashes across the stone crown. Ronin’s blade slips past the cudgel and forces Veyr to one knee, but the cudgel clips Ronin’s ribs before it falls.

Veyr removes his hood and lowers his face covering, revealing a weathered adult man with close-cropped black hair, a broken nose, and a pale scar along his jaw. He drops to both knees.

Ronin extends his hand toward Veyr across the sun-warmed stone, offering neither chain nor weapon. Below, the guards fall briefly silent.

Veyr studies Ronin’s face, then looks toward Lady Seressa’s hidden route and the guards massed below. At last, he takes Ronin’s hand.

Ronin springs to the neighboring roof, landing among sun-baked tiles as Orlan’s order erupts below. He crosses the rooftops toward the town’s abandoned tannery quarter.

Beyond the tannery walls, Ronin finds a collapsed courtyard occupied by outcasts: a one-eyed elderly elf woman in patched violet robes, a scarred young adult man with ash-gray skin, and a gaunt masked figure.

Learn why the watch refuses the outcasts