Her siren is drawing them nearer, and Quynh slips over the various pipes and metal this world is now filled with, ducking underneath a larger one and crouching so she's hidden behind its girth. They are armed but so is she, and while she doubts their capacity to harm her, the half millennia has eroded her trust in everything.

She still feels like she's in the water when she dreams, occasionally when she's in the middle of the street as well. Muscle memory, too used to pressure, and the oppressive current that sometimes dipped that far down into the ocean.

Quynh cocks the gun ( this one was easy to learn to use, her precision with the bow meeting with speed of which she's never seen; it took a while to knock the rust off, but she keeps it near to her. better her than the man she'd taken it from, who had been terrorizing a group of young ladies and subsequently found himself lying in the dirt, bleeding out from a severed femoral artery. the world has been cruel to her and she, in turn, has been quick to be cruel to those who are unkind in this world. ).

There is an exit, a few meters away, but the closer Yusuf and Nico come, the less likely her escape will be noticed.

And yet something compels her to stay.