Her eyes narrowed. "And? You here to arrest me? Collect a bounty? Because I should warn you, I'm not going quietly."
"If I wanted you arrested, I would've just pointed the guards in your direction. But I'm just curious."
I tilted my head slightly.
"That mark on your neck was a... slave brand, right?"
Her eyes widened, and she immediately clutched her cloak tighter around her neck, pulling the fabric up defensively.
"W-What are you talking about? It's nothing like that."
Just as I thought. She's a runaway slave.
I'd read from the books, that mentioned about slave marks. They glowed when a slave was separated beyond a certain distance from their master, a built-in tracking mechanism. The glow alerted the master and made it obvious to anyone nearby that the person was branded property.
Which meant she'd recently escaped. And she was desperate.
"I know exactly what that mark is," I said evenly. "I've seen them before. You can't hide it from me."
