She looked at the older woman. Up close, the resemblance to Ren was obvious, though her face was lined with years of hard labor and stress. This was a commoner woman who had likely spent her entire life fighting tooth and nail to protect her son in a world that viewed him as either a fragile liability or a piece of meat.
Heena actually respected that. It was a stark contrast to the matriarch of the Lu family, who had thrown her own flesh and blood to the wolves for the sake of political convenience.
"I apologize for the intrusion," Heena said, her voice a ragged, breathless rasp. She calmly brushed a clump of damp earth from her shoulder, attempting to salvage whatever shred of dignity she had left. "The alleyways are remarkably poorly lit. I encountered a patrol of thugs and took the nearest vertical exit."
