Chapter 334 - Following the Missing Threads

Rhea slipped into the narrow alleyway first, a half-smile dancing on her lips as she navigated between rows of ramshackle stalls and piles of old crates. The merchant quarter, even under the weight of Luthadel's creeping mist, still throbbed with a subdued kind of life. Dim lanterns swung from overhead lines, casting pools of flickering orange light upon cobblestones that looked slick and shiny, as if someone had spilled lamp oil hours ago. Voices drifted in and out of hearing—sharp bargaining, hushed dealings, hurried footsteps.