She sees the light ahead of them before any of her crew, a gathering near the ceiling of the Neath and then an arc downwards into the black waters of the zee. She throws her arm before her eyes, and is still left blinking spots out of her gaze.
"What was that?" a crewmember calls out in alarm.
"I don't know," she replies, "but we're checking it out."
There's murmurs, but her crew do as commanded.
Well. They're not wrong about that.
"Very weird," she agrees. "We'll be out of your hair before long, so no need to worry if it's catching."
Kim agrees with that!
"I'll help with clearing the table, and then some directions would be welcome. We'll need to keep moving."
"We think so too." She's very confident speaking for Lillian on this.
But for now, she helps clear away the table.
Once they're done:
"There's some holes near the docks, places the gangs don't go too much. Or Senna might know somewhere...?"
"Mrow," the cat agrees, stretching. "There's Starveling's new human, if you want people. Or the marshes to the south, if you want no one at all. Or the docks, like Sophie here said. I've heard that ship's captain you came in with has place she vanishes to, also; no one's said quite where."
"...I kind of fell on her, and she was the one who pulled me out of the zee. I wasn't all that good at hiding, yet, but I never said anything, and I don't know what she guessed."
Not trusting people who're nice to her honestly hadn't occurred to Lillian.
"She's nice. To me and her crew."
"And the information the Protectorate got didn't come from her or her crew, as far as I can tell."
Kim taps a finger against the table, thinking. "I would rather involve as few people as possible, at least until the Protectorate loses the scent. Would you like us to try and get a message to the captain? Let her know you're saf- alive?"
"I know someone who's da was a zailor. He might be able to run your message. Prolly for a fee."
Kim digs into her shoulder bag, coming up with a handful of pennies and rostygold. "Here. And take some for yourself too."
"Oh, this should be plenty, thanks! What's the message gonna be? Maybe something in code so the Protectorate won't find it!"
"You got any ideas for that? Only codes I know are Protectorate ones," she asks Sophie, but looks up at Lillian to include her too.
"...I gotta book of codes. From some spy who wasn't watchin' her pockets too close. But the target's gotta know the code too. Maybe just don't be obvious, like a letter from a friend sayin' you're fine, and you're settling in, have found somewhere to stay. She can't know that many new people."
"Smart, hanging onto that." Kim's voice is approving. "I'll grab some paper and a pen, please?"
She writes a simple message, signing it from Lillian. The Protectorate had no name for the fallen judgement, so she doesn't fear putting that down.
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