Chapter 213 — What Mira Sees
Chapter 213 — What Mira Sees
The cord was too short by the width of Nia's hand.
She pulled it once anyway.
The line between the two drying posts tightened, lifted, and stopped well before the notch cut into the second post.
Ayari laughed from behind her.
“I told you.”
“You said it looked short.”
“It did.”
“That isn't the same as knowing.”
Nia released the cord and let it sag.
Her curls had been tied back before she left home, but the warm afternoon had already loosened several around her face. She pushed one away with the back of her wrist rather than touch it with fingers still dusty from the drying frames.
Ayari sat on a folded mat beneath the edge of the shelter. A shallow basket rested between her knees, half filled with the small spring leaves she had been stripping from their stems.
Ayari watched her reach for the longer cord. “You could admit I was right.”
Nia threaded it through the first notch. “You said it looked short. You didn't measure it.”
“It was still short.”
Nia carried the cord across the open strip of ground without giving her the satisfaction of an answer.
The drying area had become busier since the morning. Two men were replacing a warped frame near the far wall. Mari had already come through once, rejected three trays because the weave had loosened, and left with one of the basket makers following her.
A woman Nia knew only slightly was spreading cut roots across a raised tray while one of her husbands held the far side steady.
Near the outer path, Sera was arguing with a man about whether a cover had been folded wet.
The man insisted it had not.
Sera held up a damp corner.
Nia smiled to herself and tied the second end of the cord.
This time it reached.
A shadow crossed the packed ground near her feet.
She looked up.
Ren was coming along the path from the lower market.
He had changed the way his hair was tied since the morning. Most of the dark-red length was secured more firmly at the back of his neck now, though a few shorter strands still framed his face. Dust had finally found the boots he had protected earlier.
Nia noticed that first.
Then she noticed the narrow wrapped packet in his hand.
Ren saw her looking at his boots.
His smirk deepened.
Nia smiled.
Ayari made a quiet sound behind her.
Nia did not turn around.
Ren stopped outside the working space and looked down at his dust-marked boots. “Your territory won.”
“I told you there would be dirt.”
“You were unfortunately accurate.”
Nia looked at the packet in his hand. “What did you bring back?”
From across the work area, Sera recognized the wrapping.
“That's mine.”
Ren changed direction without argument and waited until she came close enough to take it.
“The seller at the lower row had the binding strip you asked about,” he said. “He cut a sample. No charge.”
Sera opened one end of the wrapping and rubbed the strip between her fingers.
“Too stiff.”
“I told him you might say that.”
“Did he listen?”
“No.”
“That sounds like his problem.”
She folded the wrapping closed.
“Leave it with me. I'll test it wet before I decide.”
Ren nodded.
Sera carried it back toward the shelter.
Nia reached for the next length of cord.
Ren stayed where he was.
She looked at him.
“Was that all?”
“I am deciding whether I should leave before you find more work for me.”
Nia looked toward the warped drying frame.
One of the men working on it had just removed the old crosspiece.
“There is plenty.”
Ren followed her gaze and laughed.
Nia held out the coil of cord.
He looked at it, then at her.
She extended her arm farther.
Ren took the coil.
Ayari had become suspiciously quiet.
Nia finally looked toward her.
Ayari lowered her eyes to the leaves, though the smile remained on her face.
Nia shook her head and went back to the drying line.
Ren carried the cord to the frame workers.
One of the men pointed him toward the replacement post. Ren crouched beside it without complaint, his red tail settling across the packed ground behind him while he held the cord against the wood for the man measuring the new crosspiece.
Nia had just finished tightening the next line when Mira entered the drying area.
She recognized her immediately.
They had not spoken much since the gathering after the spring market. Mira remained someone Nia saw rather than someone she sought out: at shared work spaces, along market paths, occasionally near other women when several households had reason to use the same area.
Today she carried a shallow tray against one hip.
Her gaze moved first to Ayari.
Then to Nia.
Then past Nia.
Ren was still beside the damaged frame.
Mira's attention stayed there a little longer.
Nia noticed.
Mira crossed to an open section beneath the shelter and set down her tray.
“What happened to that frame?”
“The lower crosspiece warped,” Ayari said. “They're replacing it.”
Mira looked at the old piece lying on the ground.
“Again?”
“Different frame.”
“Good.”
She began arranging what looked like thin bark strips across her tray.
For several minutes, nothing else happened.
Nia preferred that.
She finished the line she was tying, checked the distance between it and the one beside it, then moved one knot lower when she realized the two would sag into each other under weight.
Ayari continued stripping leaves.
Mira worked with her bark.
Ren finished helping the men measure the replacement crosspiece and returned the unused cord to Nia.
“You gave me too much.”
“I didn't know how much they'd need.”
Ren handed the coil toward her. “They didn't need this much.”
Nia took it. “Then I'll use the rest.”
His fingers remained around the cord for a moment after Nia took hold of it, long enough for her to notice before he released it.
Nia turned toward the drying line.
From beneath the shelter, a bark strip snapped.
The sound was small.
Nia looked over.
Mira was staring down at the broken piece in her hands.
She set it aside.
Ren glanced toward the shelter too, but one of the frame workers called his name before he could do more than look.
The man had recognized him from the lower market and wanted to know whether a seller still had narrow binding cord available.
Ren answered him.
Nia returned to her knot.
Mira said, “He comes here often now.”
Nia knew who she meant.
She tightened the cord before answering.
“More often than he used to.”
Ayari's hands slowed over the leaves.
Mira laid another bark strip flat.
“He seems to find reasons.”
There was nothing openly rude in the words.
Nia stood and brushed dust from the front of her skirt.
“He's a merchant. Finding reasons to go places is probably part of the job.”
Ayari coughed into her hand.
Nia looked at her.
Ayari's expression was innocent.
Mira did not smile.
“He wasn't asking about trade when he gave you that cord.”
Nia glanced toward Ren.
He was several body lengths away now, explaining the difference between two kinds of binding to the frame worker. His ears were angled toward the man speaking to him.
“He was giving it back.”
“He held it for a while.”
Nia looked at Mira again.
So she had noticed that too.
Nia picked up the next drying line.
“I know.”
Mira's fingers stopped on the bark.
That answer seemed to take something away from whatever she had intended to say next.
Ayari lowered her head over her basket.
Nia threaded the cord through the post.
Mira resumed arranging the strips.
When she spoke again, her voice was even.
“You already have Kael and Shen.”
Nia's hand stopped.
The drying area continued around them.
Wood knocked against stone at the damaged frame. Sera had apparently won the argument about the wet cover, because the man who had denied it was now spreading the cloth over a line by himself.
Ayari set one stripped stem aside.
Mira continued before either of them interrupted.
“They are both Level Nine. Kael is chief. Shen is known far outside Hearthfang for medicine work. Now a red-fox merchant keeps finding reasons to stand near you.”
Nia let go of the cord.
Mira looked at her directly.
“There are females here who would be fortunate to have one male with that kind of standing.”
Mira had kept her voice even. She had not accused Nia of taking anything, but the accusation sat close enough beneath the words.
Nia leaned one hip against the drying post.
“Are you asking me something?”
Mira's jaw tightened slightly.
“I am saying people notice.”
“People always notice.”
“That doesn't mean what they notice is meaningless.”
“No.”
Nia waited.
Mira seemed to expect more.
When Nia did not provide it, she said, “You came here without knowing our customs. Hearthfang changed around you quickly. Kael bonded you. Shen bonded you. People listen when you talk about food because they know whose household you belong to. Now Ren comes here and looks at you as if the rest of us aren't difficult to see.”
Ayari's ears had gone still.
Nia could feel Ren somewhere behind her without turning around.
She did not know whether he had heard the beginning.
She suspected he could hear this part.
Mira looked toward him once, then back to Nia.
“Do you ever wonder how that looks?”
Nia considered the question.
“Yes.”
Mira blinked.
Nia picked up the cord again, though she did not resume tying it.
“I noticed when people started hearing my preferences as instructions. I don't like it. If someone agrees with me because they're afraid of Kael, I want to know. If they think they can't tell me I'm wrong because Shen is my husband, I want to know that too.”
Mira's expression changed slightly.
Mira said, “And Ren?”
Nia looked toward him then.
He had finished answering the worker.
He was watching them.
His usual smirk was still there, but smaller now. His tail had gone still behind one leg.
He did not come closer.
Nia turned back to Mira.
“Ren isn't my husband.”
“Not yet.”
Ayari inhaled.
Nia raised a hand before she could intervene.
Mira's chin lifted.
Nia looked at her for a long moment.
Then she said, “If I ever decide I want another husband, that decision will be mine.”
Mira's mouth tightened.
“I didn't say it wouldn't be.”
“Good.”
Nia let the word settle before continuing.
“But another woman wanting the same man won't make him hers either. Kael wasn't promised to anyone when he chose me. Shen wasn't promised to anyone when he chose me. Whatever people expected before I came here wasn't an agreement I broke.”
Mira's fingers curled around the edge of her tray.
Ayari did not move.
Nia's voice remained calm.
“And Ren hasn't offered me anything that requires an answer.”
Across the work area, Ren's fox ears shifted.
Nia noticed the movement. Mira's gaze shifted toward his ears.
For the first time, a trace of color rose along the upper part of Mira's cheeks.
“You know what he's doing.”
“I know he's interested.”
Ayari's eyes widened.
Nia ignored her.
Mira's gaze sharpened.
“And you allow it.”
Nia frowned.
“I talk to him.”
“You let him come here.”
“He comes for trade, and sometimes he stays near me. If you're asking whether I should send him away because someone else might want him, no.”
The words came out firmer than the ones before them.
Mira's shoulders tightened.
Nia went on.
“I don't own Ren. Neither do you. He hasn't asked me for anything, and I haven't promised him anything. What he chooses before that is his business.”
Ren's smirk changed.
Nia saw it from the corner of her eye.
She refused to look directly at him.
Mira said, “That's easy to say when he's looking at you.”
Nia accepted the point.
“Yes.”
Mira seemed startled again.
Nia rested both hands on the cord.
“I know I'm fortunate.”
She had Kael and Shen, a home she had never expected to find in this world, and two husbands who loved her without making that love feel like a debt.
“I can be fortunate without choosing my household based on who has less than I do.”
Mira looked away first.
For several breaths, the only conversation came from the frame workers.
One of them told Ren the new crosspiece sat crooked.
Ren told him it was the post.
The man disagreed.
Ren crouched to check.
Nia almost smiled.
Mira gathered two of her bark strips and aligned their ends.
“My family thought Kael might eventually look at me.”
The words were quieter than anything she had said before.
Ayari looked at Mira sharply.
Nia already knew some version of that history.
Mira continued working as she spoke.
“He was polite to my mother. He spoke to my brothers. He knew our household. No one promised anything.”
There was bitterness in the last sentence, but not toward Nia alone.
Nia remembered Ayari explaining how families could turn politeness into expectation until expectation began feeling like something taken away.
“I know,” Nia said.
Mira's eyes lifted.
“Ayari told you.”
“After the last time we spoke.”
Mira's mouth flattened.
Ayari looked suddenly interested in the bottom of her basket.
Nia did not apologize for knowing.
Mira placed another strip on the tray.
“Then you know why some people look at this differently than you do.”
“I know why you do.”
Mira's hand paused.
Nia did not add anything else. She had no interest in humiliating her.
Ren rose from beside the frame.
The worker pushed the post.
It shifted.
Ren looked at him.
The man muttered something Nia could not hear.
Ren's smirk returned.
Mira saw that too.
Her attention lingered on him, then returned to Nia.
“Does he know you're talking about him?”
Nia looked over.
Ren immediately turned his attention to the crosspiece with such exaggerated concentration that she nearly laughed.
“He does now.”
Ayari made a choking sound.
Mira stared at Ren.
His tail flicked once.
He still did not approach.
Something in Mira's expression changed without becoming friendly or erasing the resentment already between them.
Mira stacked the last bark strip.
“I need these near the warmer wall.”
Ayari shifted her basket out of the way.
Mira lifted the tray.
Before she left, she looked at Nia once more.
“I still think Hearthfang gives you more room than it would give most people.”
Nia considered that.
“Maybe.”
Mira's brows rose slightly.
Nia continued before she could mistake the answer.
“But if you see me using Kael or Shen to make people obey me, say that. If you see me taking supplies because I'm chief's wife, say that too. If you're angry because a man you wanted wants me instead, that's different.”
Ayari's head snapped up.
Mira went very still.
Nia held her gaze.
After a moment, Mira gave one short nod.
“That is different.”
It was not an apology.
Nia had not expected one.
Mira carried her tray toward the warmer wall.
Ayari waited until she was well beyond easy conversation distance.
Then she turned slowly toward Nia.
Nia pointed at her.
“Don't.”
Ayari pressed her lips together.
Her shoulders started shaking.
Nia narrowed her eyes.
Ayari bent over her basket, but the laugh escaped anyway.
“You are a terrible friend.”
Ayari wiped at one eye. “I was trying.”
“You weren't trying very hard.”
That only made her laugh again.
Across the work area, Ren handed the frame worker the cord and finally walked toward them.
Nia's stomach tightened, though fear had nothing to do with it.
She was suddenly very aware that he had heard enough.
Ren stopped on the other side of the drying line.
Dust marked one knee of his trousers now. A loose strand of dark-red hair had fallen near one eye, and his fox tail moved slowly behind him.
His smirk was almost back in its usual place.
Ayari picked up her basket.
“I need to take these to Bram.”
Nia looked at her. “You were going to sit there until I finished.”
Ayari lifted the basket higher. “I have changed my mind.”
Nia gave her a look as she passed.
Ayari patted Ren's arm once.
“Merchant.”
“Ayari.”
She left without another word.
Nia watched her go.
Ren waited.
Nia returned to the drying line.
The knot still needed finishing.
She looped the cord around the post.
Ren stepped closer, but not close enough to interfere with her hands.
“You know I'm interested.”
Nia pulled the cord tight.
“Yes.”
“I had wondered.”
She looked at him.
Ren's amber-brown eyes warmed.
“No,” he said. “I hadn't.”
Nia looked back at the knot before the warmth in her face became any more obvious.
Ren did not press.
She finished the knot and tested it.
The cord held.
Ren reached for the remaining coil only after she held it toward him.
He carried it to the next empty line while Nia followed.
Behind them, work continued across the drying area. Sera was checking the once-wet cover again. The frame workers had finally straightened the post. Mira had reached the warmer wall and was arranging her bark strips beneath the shelter.
At the next post, Ren held out the cord.
Nia took it.
This time, he let go immediately.