It didn't take much to scuff her pathetic fire out; the rain had half done the job for her, even in the relatively sheltered cave she'd spent a miserable night in. She shook out her manto [straw cloak], wrinkling her nose as she caught the smell of mold coming up from it. She supposed even the southeastern answers to torrential rain couldn't stave off rot indefinitely... her eastern clothing certainly hadn't fared as well as the silk she'd purchased in Cho-Holuth, but even that was starting to reek of the mold that came as a natural side effect of the unceasing damp.

At least she'd managed (somehow) to avoid the predators, both human and animal, that prowled this area. She made a face. Maybe they were just too smart to be out in the damn rain. She pulled her straw hat low over her head, sighed in relief when the water was dribbling off the wide brim and not her nose. At least the hat was still intact; the weather would have been unbearable without it.

She'd made the decision to travel to Chiaroscuro for a variety of reasons. There was work to be had there, both as a Tameshigiri and a warrior, for any mortal with the skill. That was a huge plus, in her mind; too many places only wanted exalts, halfbreeds, or anyone else with the skill or luck to be able to go mano-y-mano with most of the nasty crap that seemed to be swarming creation lately. She wiped at her damp face with equally damp hands and hoped, idly, that there would be some kind of inn along the road here.

She hadn't expected the road south to head through the jungle, though she supposed she should have expected it. She also hadn't expected the swarms of bandits, though she should have expected that too; about the only things that traveled this road were poor trade-wagons and people hoping to evade the law in Chaya. Corazon happened to be the latter.

She sighed. She hadn't known that the bastard threatening the woman at swordpoint had been the local tax collector. She also hadn't known that he was the nephew of Cho-Holuth's ruler, though she found that out easily enough when two of the more burly bystanders had turned out to be bodyguards--bodyguards who were quite aware of the fact that touching the toady was an offense punishable by death. So she'd left not one, but three counts of treason behind her, in the form of a pair of very dead bodyguards.

She hoped she wouldn't need to visit Cho-Holuth again any time soon.