A New Travel Companion

**Shaira's POV**

"What the hell was all that?" Assu asked as he struggled to stand, the alcohol taking its toll on his body.

"Angro, please, don't leave," I said when I saw that my savior was about to leave the house after stopping at my call. "It's not worth it to follow him. At dawn, I'll be leaving for Sagoria anyway."

It was the first time I had spoken to Angro since we met and I told him my name. He approached after cursing at the night sky.

"To Sagoria?" he asked, his words heavy with emotion. "What are you talking about? You've been absolved by Chief Owan, you're free now, you can stay with us in Zuwua. The people here like you and already accept you as an opranchi."

My eyes turned to Assu, and Angro also looked at him.

"Chief Owan released her because Shaira is my wife," Assu said, feeling the need to explain.

"What!" Angro exclaimed, almost ready to pounce on Assu. I noticed that his fists had tensed, and he was restraining himself. "Are you this man's wife?" Angro asked as if his life depended on my answer.

I bit my lips.

As I understood from Assu, yes, I was. As a single woman who had claimed a single man as her husband without him denying it, we were husband and wife.

"I am, yes, but..." I responded before seeing Angro's face contort with pure pain.

Was he that attracted to me?

But why, if we were just strangers?

Though I admit that knowing he had a fiancée, and that she was none other than Chief Owan's daughter, also broke my heart.

"Then I'm leaving," Angro said, not allowing me to finish what I was about to say. "Have a good trip to Sagoria."

"Angro, wait," I said as he turned to leave.

Angro turned around, but not because I had called him.

"Next time," he said, pointing a finger at Assu, "make sure you're not drunk when your wife is about to be assaulted."

Assu didn't understand what Angro was referring to. He still didn't know anything about Omawit's attack and looked at him in confusion. I took advantage of Angro's warning to get his attention again.

"I'm going to annul my marriage," I exclaimed, catching Angro's attention, which seemed to restore some color to his face.

"You're going to what?" he asked as his eyes moved between Assu and me. "What are you talking about?"

I sighed and asked Angro to sit down for a moment. He agreed, and I explained what had happened.

"So that's why," Angro said when I finished telling him about the agreement I had reached with Assu. "When I came to the Tahuri, I did so to prepare a story, but I got distracted and didn't arrive before Chief Owan did."

Angro then explained what had happened and the detail in the story he had prepared with Zanie that could have condemned me.

"I overheard them," Assu said, sitting at the table with us and somewhat recovered from the effects of the alcohol. "I knew the story would condemn you, and the only thing I could think of was to convince you to say you were my wife because I'm a merchant and I know about the prohibition."

"And what do you trade in? Alcohol?" Angro asked with evident sarcasm in his tone.

I didn't understand why Angro was behaving this way with the man to whom I owed my life and freedom; even Angro owed him, because if it hadn't been for Assu's timely intervention, the story would be very different, and at that moment, I would be warming Omawit's bed with no one able to stop it.

Assu hardened his gaze but didn't let Angro's provocation affect him.

"Alcohol, among other things, but due to the prohibition, everything that comes from the eteri is now considered contraband."

"But you still trade it," Angro said.

Assu didn't respond, and I decided it was time to change the subject.

"We will travel with the first light of dawn," I said. "We will annul the marriage, and then I will truly be free."

I noticed that my words, though intended to calm Angro's mood, went almost unnoticed by the two men beside me. Their attention was focused on something else, something I couldn't quite figure out.

"Will you keep your word and annul the marriage with Shaira?" Angro asked with evident rudeness in his tone, so much so that the question sounded more like a warning than a doubt.

"I'm a man of honor, I'll keep my word," Assu responded with the same harshness in his voice. "But we have to make that trip because the marriage can only be annulled where we said it was celebrated. We have to be faithful to the story we told the chief."

Angro's muscles remained tense, and his gaze no less so. He stayed silent for a few seconds, his eyes fixed on Assu, as if considering whether to believe him or not.

"Then I'll travel with you," Angro finally said. "The road to Sagoria can be dangerous, and Shaira will need someone to accompany her back to Zuwua."

Assu twisted his lips. I noticed he pretended not to feel uncomfortable with Angro's decision.

"Very well, I see no problem with you wanting to accompany us, though if it's about who can accompany this young woman back, I tell you that I also plan to do so. I'm an itinerant merchant."

"I don't care what you are, I'm still going, and the return journey will be just Shaira and me," Angro added in a tone that left no room for discussion.

"Then you should go prepare for the journey," I said to Angro. "I don't know how long the trip will take, but I would like to leave as soon as possible."

"If we leave early, we'll arrive before nightfall," Assu said. "And it's better that way because camping near Sagoria is no longer safe."

"What do you mean?" I asked with genuine curiosity.

Angro looked at Assu as if he already knew the answer to that question and had also considered that danger for our journey.

"The eteri fortress is very close to Sagoria, and it's never good to encounter the armed patrols they send out to explore," Assu replied.

When I heard the words "fortress" and "armed patrols" in the same sentence, something stirred in my head. It was a fleeting vision of people dressed in military uniforms, similar to the one I was wearing before it was shattered. It was just that, a sudden flash in my memory, but enough to make me want to investigate what had led me to have it.

Could it be a part of my past?

"Very well, I'm leaving," Angro said at that moment. "We'll meet at the northwest exit at the first light of dawn."

Assu nodded, and I watched Angro leave the custody house.

I only hoped that by that night, or at the latest the next day, I would once again be a young, free, and single woman.