That meant she was going to have to get what she needed to get from the city itself. And she couldn’t ask for it, she’d have to steal it. She had surprisingly little problem with the idea of that in this case. The woman and her children needed it, and the people in this place obviously wouldn’t do the sensible and moral thing and simply give this family what they needed, otherwise the mother would have asked for the food and water and been supplied it like anyone with even the smallest amount of kindness would do. If these people were so cruel as to deny food and water to dying children, then they deserved to have it stolen from them – they deserved a lot worse probably, but that wasn’t really something Kes could or would really want to do anything about. She would have been very happy never to have had to set foot in this horrible place ever again, but there obviously wasn’t another choice she could make now, so it’s what she had to do…

As she snuck down into the city, she found herself thinking of how she could be an effective thief. Because, if she failed, chances were she wouldn’t get a second chance and might well be captured as she had before. She shivered a little in revulsion thinking of what had happened to her and what almost had. It wasn’t lost on her what she was risking of course, but she felt she couldn’t do otherwise.

She wasn’t faster on her feet or nearly as strong as the people here. All she had for assets were stealth, whatever cleverness she might possess, and her mental abilities (which were all but untested for anything like her current endeavor). If she could use her abilities to do what she had to the man who had attempted to rape her to others whenever she wished, or even something less severe like causing confusion or putting someone to sleep, then she would have a good advantage. The trouble was, when she’d done what she’d done, she’d been in a state of primal panic. She wasn’t at all sure how she’d done what she had, or if she could do it again if she needed to and wasn’t in a situation that would cause her to panic like she had before.