The best thing for her to do would be to avoid any situation where she would need to find out if she could rely on those abilities one way or another. Of course she knew she might be forced to rely on her abilities anyway, but she was going to attempt to use stealth and cleverness first.

When she got to the city proper, she was relieved to find not many people about. Of those that were, most were not men in their prime. Most of those, apparently, had gone to work at the mines. Still, she was very careful to avoid being seen. She used her ability as she had at the starving family’s home in the foothills to check homes to find if they were inhabited or if those that lived in them were away.

After two failed tries though, a problem that she should have considered soon became apparent – the houses that were vacant were also locked. Growing more desperate with each passing minute, she determined that the only way she could accomplish what she’d set out to in time would be to target a house that was occupied and unlocked. She soon found a house that had two floors and an unlocked back door, and, when she sensed inside, she found just one inhabitant, a woman, who was on the second floor. She checked around the house cautiously and and didn’t sense anyone else nearby, so, knowing she wasn’t likely to find a better option in time, she knew she had to take her chance.

Cautiously, making sure to stay quiet so the woman upstairs would not hear, Kes crept inside and looked around for food or water. She found it in the kitchen right away. Hard biscuits and a kind of dried fruit that she didn’t know what to make of but that smelled appetizing anyway. The water, she found, was kept in a locked room, as it had been in her abductor’s home. She managed to find two smaller containers of it though. One a canteen and one a sealed tubular container, about 50cm tall. That was just as well, it would be all she could safely carry anyway. More and it would weigh her down and make her too slow. She took the food and water, and a second knife from the kitchen which she hid in her boot, and made to leave.