"This is the spot where we found Jaeha on the street," Hak said, stabbing the blunt end of his covered glaive into the ground for emphasis.

Ezra shivered in her cloak, feeling oddly bereft without her swords slung across her back. Hak had been allowed to keep his precious glaive, but Yun had insisted that she should leave her obvious weapons behind to avoid suspicion in the Water Tribe. Ezra didn't think it was fair that she had to leave her weapons while Hak could keep his, but then again, life rarely was.

"I don't see any alleys or shady shops within eyesight of this spot," she remarked, drawing her cloak closer to her body. The skies were clearer today, but the lingering chill of the rain resonated in her bones. "He must've moved before collapsing."

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," Hak grumbled.

Suddenly Ezra straightened, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the cold go down her spine. She whipped around to look at the other side of the street, but saw nothing.

"What's wrong, Yona?" Yun asked, not noticing Ezra's movements.

Ezra glanced at Yona to find her friend staring at the exact same spot that Ezra had been looking at. "I feel as if someone is watching us," Yona said quietly. "But it might just be my imagination."

Ezra shook her head. "It wasn't. I felt it, too."

Yona looked at her, eyes wide. "You did?"

Ezra nodded, troubled. "Yes. We need to stay on our guard."

"Miss!" Zeno called suddenly, pointing towards a small, man-made river that wound its way through the port town. "It looks like there's something over there."

Yona and Yun approached the water's edge as Ezra kept staring at the same spot across the street. What was that gaze she had sensed? Who was watching them, and, most importantly, why?

"Oh gods!" Yona's horrified whisper recaptured Ezra's attention.

"What is it?" she asked, walking to stand beside her friends. She followed their gazes into the small river and clenched her jaw. "Ah."

A body was floating in the river, face down.

"What happened to him?" Yona asked.

Two locals approached the river beside them. "He probably lost his footing and slipped because of yesterday's rain," said one of the men, a middle-aged, dark-haired fellow carrying a bag on his back. "Move aside, kids; we need to clean this up."

Ezra put her hand on Yona's shoulder to gently pull her back. The group huddled together quietly as the men fished the body out of the water and lay it on a flat piece of wood.

Yun's eyes narrowed as he analyzed what he could see of the corpse. "That man... his fingernails are jagged and discolored, and his teeth are falling out. Does something like that just happen from drowning?"

Yona stared at the body, her face unreadable.

"The people of this town are strange," Hak said, observing the people around them.

He's right, Ezra thought with a start.

More people were walking around the small town than there had been the day before, likely due to the more favorable weather. However, none of them spared a second glance for the corpse in their midst.

"They don't even seem fazed by the fact that someone is dead," she murmured.

"Let's move on," Yun said quietly. And so they kept walking.

Not even ten minutes later, they heard a wild shriek coming from an alleyway to their right. The group halted and stared at a man who sat huddled in the shadows, screaming his head off.

Yun stepped forward. "What's wrong?" he asked, reaching a hand towards the man.

Ezra didn't think the man would be able to harm him, but she put her hand on Yun's shoulder to hold him back. "Don't go any closer to him," she murmured.

"Ah!" the man yelled, scrambling away from the group. "Stop! Don't come near me!"

Ezra felt Yun's body stiffen in surprise. "Did I scare him?"

The man covered his face with his hands and let loose a blood-curdling shriek. "Don't come near! Go away!" he screamed.

"I don't think that man is sane," Hak said dispassionately.

"He looks the same as Jaeha did last night," Ezra said quietly. She gave Yun's shoulder a gentle tug. "He might be dangerous, Yun. Let's step away."

Yun reluctantly allowed Ezra to lead him back towards the street.

Once back on the main street, Ezra brought her hand to her chin, deep in thought. The man in the alley had been acting the same way as Jaeha had the previous night. Could it be possible that they had taken the same drug?

"You guys..." A sudden voice drew her attention to an older man with tired eyes carrying firewood on his back. He was addressing Yona. "Are you travelers?"

"Yes," Yona answered.

"Then you shouldn't stay here long," the man told them.

"What's happening in this town?" Yona asked.

The man frowned. "You saw that man in the alley, didn't you?"

"Yes..." Yun said, stepping forward. "That man... he's a drug addict, isn't he?"

The local nodded. "It's not uncommon to see people and corpses around here broken by drugs."

Well, that explained the villagers' lack of reaction to the corpse earlier that day.

Yun's eyebrows drew together in worry. "I'd heard that security was bad here, but I didn't think drug addiction was a problem."

The man shook his head. "This place is one of the better ones. There are worse towns in the coastal areas of the Water Tribe."

Ezra's eyes widened. "Worse than here?"

"Why the coastal areas?" asked Yona.

"Because of the ports," the man answered. "The Kai Empire... or rather, the southern Kai merchants have been smuggling a drug called 'nadai' into the coastal Water Tribe towns."

Yun frowned. "I've never heard of a drug called nadai."

The man sighed. "It's not a drug circulating in Kouka. That's why nobody knew of its viciousness at first."

"What are its effects?" Ezra pressed.

"Right after you take it, you feel happy and your pain is dulled... but after a while, the haze gives way to hallucinations, and you feel as if your whole body is breaking apart. Most users go insane."

Ezra's blood ran cold. So that's the drug that Jaeha took.

"Is there an antidote?" Yun asked. "One of our friends got involved with it."

The man shook his head sadly. "The only solution is to make him throw it up quickly or he'll have to go through intense withdrawal symptoms. If a person falls to nadai, even once, they'll go to any lengths to get it again. The southern Kai merchants are using those people as rats to spread the nadai around. Many people in Shisen are already past the point of no return."

"Stop!"

The group whirled to see Jaeha approaching them from behind, Shinah in tow.

"Jaeha!" Yona gasped in surprise.

"Sorry, Yona," Shinah said sheepishly. "I couldn't stop him."

"Jaeha, you shouldn't be moving around," Yun scolded.

Jaeha ignored him. "Stop sticking your nose into this town's business," he ordered, harshly grabbing Yona's arm. "It's too dangerous!"

"I--" Yona started.

"The darkness here is much more dangerous than in Awa. We should leave immediately. If you get involved in this, you could die," Jaeha insisted.

Yona stared at him for a moment. Then, she deliberately shook her head in defiance.

Jaeha's expression darkened. He released her arm to clench his hands into fists. "Listen to me!" he yelled at her, voice tinged with desperation.

Yona held his gaze, refusing to budge. "Even if I avoid the danger now, this will eventually become a threat to the country. It's not only Shisen. All of Kouka's coastal towns, even Awa, where Captain Gigan still is, might face this danger."

Jaeha's face grew pale.

"I can't back down. I am only traveling because I want to fight the people's suffering," Yona insisted. "And besides, I can't forgive nadai, the thing that hurt you."

Jaeha fell silent, staring at her with wide eyes. Finally, he surrendered, closing his eyes in defeat. "That's unfair, putting it that way."

Yona just smiled brightly at him.

"Let's keep moving," Yun said, edging his way into the conversation. "We've made a bit of a scene."

Ezra glanced around them in surprise to find local townspeople staring at them. "Oh, a floating corpse in the river they'll ignore, but they notice this?"

Yona let out an unladylike snort of amusement as she turned to resume walking.

Ezra drifted towards the back of the group to walk alongside Jaeha. The Ryokuryu was staring at the ground, hardly paying attention to his surroundings.

"Chin up, Jaeha," she told him cheerfully. "Maybe one day you'll get a handle on your feelings."

His head snapped up in shock. "You're a cruel woman, Ezra."

Ezra shrugged. "You tried to physically attack me at least fifty times last night. Forgive me if I tease you a bit to relieve my own frustration."

Jaeha let out a sigh. "I'm sorry about that."

Ezra grinned. "I'll forgive you on two conditions. One, you agree never to do that again."

"Of course," he said immediately.

"And two... I get to tease you as often as I want, without retribution, until I feel the debt is paid."

He eyed her warily. "When will that be?"

She gave him a wicked smile. "Impossible to tell. It could be a week, or it could be five years. We'll see how I feel."

Jaeha stared at her for a moment longer before he let out a chuckle. "I agree to your terms, though you drive a hard bargain."

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Jaeha gave her one last smile before he quickened his stride, catching up to Kija. Ezra kept walking slowly, keeping herself at the back of the group. Shinah was walking ahead of her beside Yun, and she stared at his broad back, wondering for the millionth time what was bothering him. Ezra began to quicken her pace, intending to catch up to him and try to coax a conversation out of him, when suddenly her spine straightened with the unmistakable sensation of being watched for the second time that day.

Ezra's head whipped around towards the side of the street just in time to see strands of dark hair disappear down an alleyway. The hair caught the light in such a strange way that it almost appeared to be blue in color.

Yona and I were right; we're being watched.

Ezra caught Yona's gaze and knew that the princess had seen it, too.

Ezra shoved her plight with Shinah to the back of her mind. "I'll be back," she said to Yona, before turning and taking off in the direction of where she'd sensed someone's presence. She sprinted into the alleyway, her eyes darting every which way.

The alley was empty, so she scaled the nearest climbable building and scanned the area from the rooftops. There were too many people walking around the coastal town for Ezra to identify any outliers, and nobody on the streets was acting overly suspicious. Their stalker must have had the sense to blend back in with the crowd before she gained the higher vantage point.

Ezra leaped gracefully off the building with a sigh. She would just have to catch their mysterious stalker another time.