Chapter 1
Yrene watches the strange, hooded girl seated at a back table in the White Pig Inn. She wonders why the girl is alone, let alone staying at the inn disgusting, run down inn. While thinking of the mysterious girl, she is impressed over her high tolerance to alcohol, as she has drank many cups of ale, and didn't seem drunk in the least. She also takes note that the girl was smart enough to not eat the stew, which is usually made with whatever critter Nolan, the owner, finds in the alley. Thinking of the amount of ale she has had with no sustenance, Yrene brings the girl some bread and water. When she reaches the girl, she continues to wonder who she is, and why would a young woman have as many weapons as she had on her person.
*****
Celaena is sitting at the back of the disgusting pub, in the tiny, horrible town of Innish, and wondered how her life went to crap so quickly. She was travelling to the Red Desert to train with the Mute Master of the Silent Assassins, as punishment for what she did in Skull's Bay.
*****
Celaena tries not to touch her still bruised face from the beating Arobynn gave her. Thinking of Arobynn, she knows that she has ruined her relationship with him, but thinking of the people she saved from slavery, she doesn't care, because she is right. This doesn't change the fact that she was angry. She had already been in three barfights in the two weeks she had been travelling.
She made no secret that she had money and wore a ruby brooch - a gift from Arobynn for her sixteenth birthday - which attracted thieves she could fight. In the morning she was sailing for the Red Desert, to continue her punishment and train with the Mute Master for a month. She thought about running away, but she knew Arobynn would hunt her down until she was found, and she didn't know Sam's fate after Skull's Bay.
Celaena continued to stew in her anger, hoping for a fight.
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Chapter 2
Yrene notices a "violent shift in the air." She wants to leave, but Nolan is gone and Jessa was still flirting with the sailor. Yrene thinks about warning the hooded mystery girl, but she knows Nolan would fire her for doing so, since he gets a cut from the mercenaries thieving. This gets her thinking to how much she has adapted to the horrible ways of those at the inn in the last year, and that her mother would never have let that stop her from warning the girl. As she thinks of her mother, it brings back memories of how her mother had died, and how that event led to Yrene working at White Pig Inn.
Lost in her thoughts of her mother, she doesn't notice the group of men she is serving until one of them wraps an arm around her waist. They all make sexual innuendos while Yrene backs away and tells them she needs to get back to work. When asked what she was doing after closing time, she tells them she is heading home to her husband. The men look at the ring she is wearing, which is actually a ring that was passed down from mother to daughter in her family for generations.
*****
Celaena is sitting at the table in the inn, and is slightly insulted that no has tried to make a grab for her, or steal from her. It was last call, and she was craving a fight.
As she continues to survey the people in the inn, she considers running away. She could start her own assassin's guild, and than send for Sam to join her.
She heads upstairs to her room to sleep, but after 15 minutes, she leaves to roam Innish, looking for a fight or rush of adrenaline.
*****
Yrene is in the alley dumping garbage, thankful there was no fight in the inn. As she is dumping the garbage, the mercenaries that were making sexual comments to her earlier surround her, one of them blocking the door back into the inn. Another grabs her from behind. As they ask where her tips are, one of the mercenaries is pulled into the mist and shadows.
A figure comes out of the shadows and grabs another man, dragging him back into the darkness. The man holding Yrene throws her to the ground, and pulls out a blade. He yells for the attacker to come out and face him like a man. Yrene hears a soft, lower laugh, and knows that the attacker is not a man, but the mystery woman.
Celaena comes out of the mist with blades dripping in blood.
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Chapter 3
The man asks Celaena if she has killed his men. She tells him that they got what was coming for them. He lunges at her, and she brings him down quickly, following him as he falls into the shadowy mist to finish him off. Yrene watches the remaining man who was guarding the door run off. Celaena emerges from the mist once again, her blades now clean from blood. Yrene asks Celaena to not kill her. Celaena asks her what the point of saving her would be if she killed her.
*****
Celaena is annoyed that the fight was so quick, while Yrene binds a would on her arm. When Celaena had turned away to go hunt down another, more satisfying fight, Yrene offered to clean and bind the cut for her. Yrene tells Celaena how she knows so much about healing from her mother. Celaena is now annoyed because Yrene obviously has no common sense, if she was alone in an alley in the middle of the night.
Yrene is upset over Celaena saying she lacked common sense, takes a few deep breaths, and tells Celaena she needs to clean the wound or she might lose her arm. The strength in Yrene's voice intrigues Celaena enough for her to go into the inn with her and let her bandage her up.
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Chapter 4
Yrene sits Celaena up in her "room" under the closet. When she gets back from getting supplies, Celaena has taken her cloak off. Yrene is shocked by how young the girl is, yet feels older. She notes that Celaena is slender, but packed with muscle, and wears her scars like those who wear fine jewelry.
Yrene asks her what her name is, and Celaena says it doesn't matter, and is not her concern. Yrene tells her her own name. Celaena asks Yrene how the daughter of a healer ended up in this piece of shit town, and Yrene tells her of her mother, and how after living a lie for years at her cousin's home, she started out her travels to Antica, and attend the Torre Cesme. She made it as far as Innish, where she heard she could catch a ship to Antica, before running out of money. Celaena suggests she just steal the coin she needs, by Yrene refuses.
Celaena asks Yrene when she lost her mother, and Yrene tells her it was 8 years ago. Yrene see's the burning rage in Celaena's eyes when she brings up Adarlan hunting and killing healers. Celaena asks Yrene what she would like to do after finishing her training at the Torres Cesme, and Yrene tells her that she would travel back to Erilea and settle down in Fenharrow, because the people there need a good healer. Celaena is surprised that Yrene would return to Erilea.
Yrene finishes up Celaena's arm, and says she has something for her face. Celaena refuses, saying her bruises are meant to be a reminder. She then tells Yrene that if she plans on returning to Erilea after becoming a healer, she should learn how to defend herself.
*****
Celaena brings Yrene back to the alley, while asking herself why she was taking the time to teach Yrene self-defense. She decides it's because Yrene seems genuine in wanting to help people. She explains to Yrene that attackers will not go after people that look like they will put up a fight, and that if she is approached, to never let the attacker(s) bring her to another location. She tells Yrene to fight back enough to make her not worth the trouble, and to scream as much as possible, but to yell fire, as people are more likely to run and help for a fire than a robbery. Celaena than teaches Yrene the eye gouge, ear clap, pinching the attacker on the inner thigh, stomping on the delicate part of a foot, best spots to hit with an elbow, and go for the groin. She says if the attacker wants money, throw it as far away from yourself as possible and run. The most important thing is running away when you can.
Yrene says that she should teach Jessa all this, and Celaena tells her to teach it to any woman who will take the time to listen.
After the training, Celaena makes her final decision, and decides to not run away from her punishment, and continue on to the Red Desert.
Yrene asks her how she learned all this, Celaena tells her without giving details that she is usually the hunter, and Yrene just nods. Just as Yrene is about to ask Celaena how she can repay her, Celaena hears a noise and motions for her to quiet. She nods to Yrene to go back inside. Five men enter the alley, two on each side of the alley, and one standing guard on the busier end of the street. Yrene makes it inside the inn.
Chapter 5
Yrene doesn't feel right leaving Celaena behind. She opens the door up and peeks out to see how she is faring. Celaena has already taken down two of the men.
A man Yrene was not aware of sneaks up behind her and covers her mouth, while also bringing a knife to her throat. He brings Yrene out into the alley and orders Celaena to put down her weapons or he will kill Yrene. Celaena finishes off the third man and tells the one holding Yrene to come and get them. Yrene is upset thinking that Celaena doesn't care if she dies.
He makes a small cut on Yrene's throat, and she feels blood dripping. She looks at Celaena, who is looking at her, saying with her eyes fight for your miserable life.
The man once again orders Celaena to drop her weapons. She doesn't. Yrene refuses to die like this. She stomps on the man's foot as hard as she can, brings up her arms to shove the dagger from her throat, then drives her elbow into his gut. As he bends down, she elbows him in the temple.
Yrene goes to run when she notices Celaena standing in front of her, smiling. The two remaining men were on the ground, dead. Celaena drags the man Yrene brought down into the shadows and kills him.
Yrene vomits, and Celaena asks her if she is sure she wants to be a healer. Yrene yells at Celaena, because she realizes now that Celaena could have taken those men out on her own. Celaena explains that she wanted Yrene to get experience, but in a controlled envirorment. Now Yrene knows she can defend herself. Yrene is still angry, and tells Celaena that she is going to bed. Celaena collects all the men's coin purses and leaves. Yrene is so angry she doesn't say goodbye.
Chapter 6
Yrene changes out of her bloody dress, and washes it in the kitchen sink. She wants to go to bed, but realizes that she already needs to be awake for her next shift. She brings her dress to her room to hang it to dry, when she see's a note and a leather coin purse on her bed.
The letter says "For wherever you need to go - and then some. The world needs more healers." The leather pouch has a pile of gold coins and Celaena's ruby brooch.
An hour later Yrene walks out of White Pig Inn and never looks back.
*****
Celaena board the ship that will take her across the Gulf of Oro to the Red Desert. She thinks of what she just did. She was planning on leaving some money for Yrene, but when she listened to Yrene wash her dress in the inn sink, she thought of all everything that the children of war had lost. If they survived, they became assassins and barmaids with no home left to go to. She thought of the gods were were now either dead or abandoned them. She feels a tug on a strand of invisible web, and she decides to tug back, just to see how far and wide the reverberations went. She left the letter and money and hoped Yrene got a fortune for the brooch, and hoped it would pay for a healers education. Hoped she would return to heal their broken world a bit.
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