Dancer's Lament/Chapter 1

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==Trunk Road==
===Dorin Rav===
Traveling along the Trunk Road towards Li Heng, Dorin Rav reflects on why he is on the plains. He had taken a job as a caravan guard, but when Seti raiders had not been spotted for the first week of the journey, the caravan's leader terminated the guards' contracts. While the rest of the guards had grouped together, Dorin had gone off ahead on his own and had easily outrun the caravan. 
During the second day of his journey to Li Heng, Dorin spots smoke to the north and heads off the road to investigate. He finds a wrecked caravan, all those accompanying it presumably dead. After observing the scene, he concludes that the attack was the work of Ryllandaras. Walking around the wreckage, Dorin is startled when a guard he had assumed dead gets up. Dorin asks if the man saw anyone pass by and the man says he heard a man pass by whistling but did not see him. Before Dorin can leave, the man confronts him, asking him to help see to the dead. Dorin declines and the man draws his sword, but his injuries cause him to double over in pain, unable to fight. He claims to have fought Ryllandaras through the night, but Dorin does not believe him and tells him to tell a more plausible lie. Departing, Dorin realizes that his quest for revenge against Wu stems from the same root as the guard's attempted assault on him, a perceived insult.
==Li Heng==
===Dorin Rav===
Dorin recalls having grown up in Tali, and how the city had been larger than Li Heng but very disorganised and with distant sections. As Dorin travels the last day in his journey towards Li Heng, the city's walls occupy the horizon. Farms and fields fill the area to the sides of the road. Stopping a girl carrying baskets of manure, he asks what the strange stone piles in the fields are. She fearfully tells him they are for hiding in if Ryllandaras comes, and when Dorin asks what the manure she carries is for she tells him it is for burning as fuel. After thanking her and departing, Dorin continues onward until he is within sight of the city walls, where he walks along with a merchant cart until he enters the city. He pretends to have no idea where to go until a man approaches him and offers to take him to get a drink. The man leads him through a maze of alleyways until stopping him in a small dead-end alley, and a group of four thugs armed with sticks come forth. They demand Dorin give up his weapons, but he instead manages to take their apparent leader hostage, demanding information about the black market and the city's assassins. He is informed that the city's ruler, the Protectress, does not allow assassinations to occur. Dorin is then knocked unconscious by a projectile from a slinger on the roofs, barely registering what had happened before blacking out.
He awakens later on a second-floor balcony, cockroaches feeding off the fresh blood on his face. He vomits, then vaguely remembers retaining consciousness, shaking off his captors, and taking shelter on this balcony of what appeared to be a barn. Dorian fights his weariness but sleep takes him again.
He is woken by a young girl, who notes Dorin is badly wounded and would appear to be a thief if not for his poor state. Dorian denies being a thief, but accepts the girl's invitation inside before it grows light enough for the guards on the city wall to notice him. He is led to the building's attic, which is full of birds. The girl, Ullara, states she will return with food, and admits she has a penchant for taking in those in need. As she leaves Dancer realises all the birds in the room are birds of prey, and is amused at the thought of being Ullara's newest patient.
Ullara returns with food and offers the room, which is the gables above her father's stables, for Dorin to stay and recover in. She reassures Dorin he will not be found, only she and her birds come here. Dorin accepts and reluctantly thanks her, then agrees to her suggestion to get some sleep. Ullara returns in the evening with more food, and Dorin thanks her again before leaving.
===Ullara===
Ullara watches Dorin leave, then calls a massive horned owl down from the darkness of the rafters. She whispers in the owl's ear and it takes off into the night. Ullara sits down and daydreams about Dorin and the thrill of having saved another wounded predator.
===Rafall===
Rafalljara Undath'al Brunn (Rafall) sits in his office overlooking the cloth market of the Inner Round, idly playing with one of the fine knives he had stolen from the stranger in the alley. Rafall is concerned that he may have robbed an assassin and left him alive, based on the fine gear and the man's questions. Rafall always avoids taking a life when he can, and he believes the Twins - gods of chance - may be playing one last cruel trick on him. 
A message arrives for him, brought by a streetsweeping urchin. It contains the single word "Tonight" along with a crude drawing of a dagger. This seems to confirm Rafall's suspicions. Rafall orders his gang to be out in force tonight - all the thugs robbing drunks, and all the prostitutes pulling in customers. His man acquiesces, despite noting that the Festival of Burn still hasn't arrived.
While awaiting the stranger's arrival, Rafall works in his accounts. His front, an "import" business, is losing huge amounts, and his criminal efforts are barely keeping him in business. He blames Seti raids, the man-beast Ryllandaras, and increased banditry for the lack of overland commerce, and the outrageous port fees of Cawn. 
Rafall is surprised when the stranger appears silently in his office. After ascertaining the lack of guards, Dorin repeats his earlier question about the criminal elements in Li Heng. Rafall admits that while there are no organized assassins in the city by command of the Protectress, plenty of killings still occur and he would put the word out. Dorian agrees to this, takes a room at the Riverside Inn nearby. Rafall privately notes that particular innkeeper owes him a large debt. Dorin then brings up his stolen possessions.
===Silk===
The Favathalven family has petitioned the Protectress to investigate the death of their matron, who had been a madam and important moneychanger. Help arrives in the form of a beautiful blonde man dressed all in fine silks, who is admitted to the brothel and introduced to Mistress Tapal. After a brief examination of the matron's former office, the man declares that the woman would have lived had she set a fire in her hearth, implying the murderer entered through the narrow chimney. Tapal disbelieves, then notices a black smear of soot on the carpet. After the man's departure a serving girl, Spivy, asks who the man was, and Tapal states he is Silk, a city mage and rumoured lover of the Protectress.
Silk walks the streets as he thinks about making his report to his master, the sorceress Shalmanat the Protectress. Followed by much drama due to his good looks, of which he is mostly oblivious, Silk walks to the palace at the city centre unchallenged. He is directed to the palace gardens, where the Protectress is hearing petitioners, at the moment Lakke Sumarkethol, High Priest of Burn, the official goddess of Li Heng. The High Priest wishes something done regarding Shalmanat's own laws prohibiting worship of Hood, the God of Death; he becomes flustered, however, at the appearance of Silk and more so by the gentle chiding of the Protectress, who nonetheless agrees to look into the issue. She then beckons Silk and another of her mages, Mister Ho, to walk with her.
Shalmanat reveals that King Chulalorn the Third of Kan is marching on Li Heng, and Ho comments they will arrive in about a week and there is much preparation to be done. Ho reports that Pung the child-stealer, the city's foremost black market and prostitution guru, has hired a foreign magic-user. The Protectress decrees that all magic-users are to declare themselves upon entering the city, and for Ho to keep an eye on this stranger. Silk reports on a possible assassin in the city, to which Shalmanat reiterates the illegality of assassinations and asks Silk to persuade this new menace to leave the city.
As the audience comes to an end, Silk muses on the mysterious Ho, who spends much of his time in the catacombs beneath the city doing some kind of magical research. Silk also views a powerful aura emanating from Shalmanat, and muses on how many in the city worshipped her as a true goddess. Realizing that no command had been given in regards to worship of Hood in the city, Ho instructs Silk to give the perpetrator a first warning. Ho seems indifferent to Silk's curiosity of why Hood is the only outlawed deity in the city, and suggests he take Smokey and Koroll with him for emphasis. These two mages, plus a sorceress named Mara, are the remaining three of Shalmanat’s five sworn magic-users. Silk relies on them for intimidation as his own beatific appearance is not particularly threatening.
===Dorin Rav===
Dorin eventually returns to Ullara's loft to repay her. He debates leaving the bag of coins but decides to stay and thank her in person. Dorin practices with his knives and rope while he waits, and is surprised when Ullara enters without him hearing. She seems surprised Dorin returned, and says she watched him practice so gracefully, "like a dancer". Ullara is very offended when Dorin gives her the money, but warns him as he leaves to beware the rooftops, as the Nightblades of Kan have arrived in Li Heng. He laughs at this, stating the legendary Nightblades of Itko Kan, the king's personal assassins who could be stopped by no barrier, are a myth. Ullara insists it is true, and implies she has seen the Nightblades before reneging and claiming it was a market rumour. Dorin, who pays little attention to gossip, thanks her and departs.
===Ullara===
When Dorin is out of earshot Ullara whispers goodbye to "her dancer". She then lets out a scream which causes every raptor in the loft to fly into the night. She cries alone on the floor, curled up and breathless. 
===Dorin Rav===
Dorin makes his way across the rooftops, particularly easy in Li Heng due to the close proximity of buildings. He hears a raptor call in the night, odd as they are usually silent hunters. His destination is a warehouse and yard which is a front for Pung's child slave trafficking business. Dorin has been staking out the place, looking for an entry as he had been spotted his three previous attempts. Even reclusive Dorin has heard the rumours of the strange new mage hired by Pung, and although the stories vary they all agree the mage is from Dal Hon. Dorin is certain it is the young mage who made a fool of him on the Plains and is intent on revenge. 
A large shape startles Dorin, who prepares his knives, but it turns out to be a massive bird of prey which flies away. He decides to ask Ullara about it before being distracted by the sound of a walking cane. He catches a glimpse of a shadowy figure and follows it into the marketplace, thankful for his nondescript clothing. Dorin ignores the bustling crowds and one prostitutes advances. Reaching an area with no cover he maintains the shuffling gait of an intoxicated person. He catches up to find Wu inspecting items at a stall. Upon Dorin's inquiry the stall owner reveals he is selling amulets to protect against Ryllandaras, and thinks Dorin is a fool for not buying one with the rumours of a coming war.
Dorin almost runs into the mage in the next alley, who seems to think Dorin is a common thief. The man is disguised as an old man with masterful illusion magic. Dorin is insulted that the man doesn't remember him and casually throws a knife into the mage’s chest. The mage apparently dies. Dorin reaches to rob the man but the winged monkey from the cave on the Plains appears and bites his hand. An angry and bleeding Dorin leaves the alley, but when he looks back the body is gone.
It is implied that Dorin rages at this like a madman, breaking everything he could reach, but was gone before the City Watch arrived, who demanded a bribe from the locals if they wanted the Guard to arrive earlier next time.
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