Ashe pushed through the crowd keeping her eyes fixed on the white hair moving somewhere ahead of her. The crowd was indifferent to her pace and the boy seemed to use that intentionally, slipping through gaps that quickly closed behind him.
For a while she could still track him by the color of his hair, which stood out the same way hers probably did, pale enough to catch light from almost any angle. She used it as a fixed point, adjusting her direction each time the crowd moved and obscured him. Eventually though, the white hair simply disappeared among the multitude. She turned slightly, checking her peripheral range, wondering if he had changed direction while she was avoiding an obstacle, but no, she just couldn't see him anywhere anymore.
She slowed, scanning the space ahead of her. It was a new place, different from the market she had found herself in earlier. Here, everything seemed rawer. There was a lot of shouting in response to something Ashe couldn't put together initially, while the density of people had increased around her even more, clustering in groups that reacted to any given noise. Eventually she figured out that she had followed the boy into a fighting arena.
The exterior ring was formed of people standing and watching, pressed close together. Beyond them, a rough barrier constructed from salvaged fencing and rope marked the boundary of the fighting area itself. Inside it, two people were engaged in a match that had most likely been going on for quite some time, judging by how strongly the crowd had already taken sides. Along the far wall, a bar occupied a long table, with several people behind it moving quickly and several more people in front of it doing the same.
Ashe tried to see past the crowd, searching for the boy. She could have sworn he had come this way, but with each passing second, her certainty began to fade.
She was trying to find a vantage point from which she could survey the full space better when a drunk man to her left lost his balance without warning and lurched into her. The impact knocked her off course entirely. She stumbled, caught herself on the person in front of her, who moved aside instinctively, and suddenly she was at the fence. She gripped it to steady herself and looked up.
Two fighters occupied the ring in front of her.
The first was broad across the shoulders with one of his arms being mechanical from below his elbow, which is why he used it with surprising agility. The second fighter, on the other hand, was taller and leaner, with dark hair and a mask of layered cloth covering the lower half of his face. Above the mask, his eyes were a very particular shade of green, bright enough to stand out even in that light.
Ashe watched the fighters for a moment, then looked away, scanning the crowd for the boy. She was beginning to accept that she had lost him when a collective sound rose around her. She turned instinctively, just in time to see the masked fighter slammed against the fence on the far side of the ring. His opponent had driven him back at high speed, making the entire structure shudder.
In that moment she had a clear line of sight and recognized him right away. He was the same masked man she had encountered back at the facility, the one who had given her the vial. She couldn't see his face below the eyes, but there was something in the line of his shoulders and in the way he held himself that brought her back to that moment immediately.
She moved closer to the fence and that's when he was able to see her as well. When his gaze crossed hers, his expression suddenly changed and he stopped trying to work his way out of that disadvantageous position. For a fraction of a second he lost focus of the fight entirely. His opponent though, didn't waste the opportunity.
The punch was clean and delivered with such force that it sent the green-eyed man across the ring entirely. His body hit the ground on the opposite side, raising unanimous sounds from the crowd. The mask came free as he landed and slid a short distance across the ground.
Ashe reached the near side of the ring and pressed her hands against the fence, looking at the man on the ground as he was pushing himself up slowly. Eventually she was able to see his face clearly for the first time.
"It's you," she said.
He looked at her for a few moments, as if second-guessing himself. Then he raised one hand toward the gathered crowd which caused the shouting around her to change again. In the language they understood, the gesture seemed to mark the end of the match altogether. Disappointment and celebration immediately collided, mixing into an avalanche of emotion everywhere.
The green-eyed man got to his feet and retrieved his mask from where it had landed, but didn't put it back on. Instead, he moved toward the fence exit without looking at the people pressing in around him, several of whom had complaints about money and bets that had been placed on his winning tonight. He passed them with complete indifference. One of them even shouted his name: Connor.
He pushed through the gate and came toward her directly.
"What are you doing here?"
"You were there," Ashe said. "Back at that place. You were with them."
"Keep your voice down," Connor said, glancing to either side of the area. "And I didn't do anything."
"But your friends did."
"I said keep your voice down."
He took her by the hand and guided her away from the ring toward a section where the noise was lower and the light was dimmer. When they reached it he let go and turned to face her, looking at her the same way she remembered from before, as if reading more than just the surface of what was in front of him.
"I'm glad you made it though," he said finally.
He reached for her hands and turned them over, studying them carefully, then checked her arms above the wrist where the blackening had once spread. That's when she understood. He knew what that thing was, and he understood its implications far better than she did.
He released her hands and looked at her directly.
"This place isn't safe for you," he said, glancing toward the crowd behind them, then back. "Come. Stay close."