She hadn't mentioned the other reason. The darker current running beneath her carefully chosen words. Vengeance had teeth, and she'd tasted blood on her tongue, metaphorically speaking, since understanding what had been done. To Shuyin. To herself.
Her reflection stared back, unblinking. Somewhere in the depths of those borrowed eyes, something ancient stirred. Something that remembered the weight of scales and the freedom of endless ocean, something that had been torn from its proper place and thrust into flesh and bone and the suffocating limitations of human form.
One month to settle affairs.
One month to honor the dead.
One month to make certain people pay for what they'd done.
Shuyin stood there for a moment but she heard footsteps echoing, insinuating that a person was coming.
By the time the door opened, she was simply washing her hands, just another office worker taking a brief break.
The coworker offered a polite nod before heading to one of the stalls.
