* * *
'Alessio, that guy… how is he not tired at all?'
I dragged myself into my room, every step heavier than the last.
After a whole day of walking around the market, getting caught up in trouble, and returning to the inn only to dive straight back into that intense conversation with Alessio, I was completely spent.
I slumped face-first onto the bed, limbs sprawled like I'd been struck down by exhaustion itself.
I turned my head to the side, and in my palm sat a round, red pendant no bigger than a coin.
'A communication artifact, huh.'
After we parted ways with Khan earlier, I'd followed Alessio back to his room.
We picked up our conversation from the afternoon. But then, out of nowhere, the pendant around Alessio's neck began to glow.
Clara's voice came through it—shaky, tearful, clearly worried.
It completely caught me off guard. I hadn't even known something like that existed here.
'A pendant that lets you talk over distance... isn't this basically a phone?'
