The Thief and the Blind.

The words barely have time to settle between them in the mist before the second stranger takes off. “You didn’t answer me!” Anger bubbles under the surface, a rare occurrence. Adelita instead throws her hands up slightly in frustration, fingers curling around the bones once more before she exhales a breath, calming her nerves that are so jittery. 

Another moment, and she stares where both strangers had disappeared, lips curling into another frown before she just shakes it off with a small shake of her head. From the looks of it, one was desperately chasing the other, and she had no intention of chasing them in some hellish game. Let them chase one another in this plane of existence, because she’s beginning to feel a trickle of superstition that maybe they weren’t living, or dead. If they were, their sick little game of blessings and curses was something she didn’t intend to meddle in any more.

The sensation from the bones suddenly grows sharp, something far from her own magic. It races up her arm, to the side of her neck, like fire running up her nerves, and her hand opens, bones dropping to the ground. She may not have feeling from the elbow down, but she sure as hell had sensations from her upper limb to her neck, and her jaw tenses as she turns her head a little to the side, attempting to relieve the pain with a sharp exhale that breaks into a near wheezing sound of pain. 

She watches with a horrified expression as the skin that’s visible on her arm begins to wither and rot, falling away piece by piece before stopping at her shoulder. Nothing but bone lies exposed, and the pain fades, leaving her to pant from exertion as if she had used her magic for far too long. Some Blessing. The thoughts run through her mind, and she quickly grasps on what the second stranger had said. Temporary. It doesn’t feel all that true, but she can’t panic about this.

With a small flex, her arm moves. No pain, and it’s still working. That’s good, right?

The growl seeps between her lips and she steps onto the bones with a gilded foot, as if trying to shatter them. They don’t give, but she doesn’t care enough to try multiple times, instead grabbing her small cart and beginning to pull once more. Maybe she can find herself back at the main trade route and get home before someone else tries to stop and give her something. The thought alone gives a slight chill down her spine and an annoyance in her gut that she can’t shake.

No matter. She’ll just head back home with her haul. Adelita shakes off the spook of the night, gritting her teeth and tightening her jaw before walking once more, heading in a direction she’s certain will lead her back to where she needs to be.

Maybe later, or tomorrow, she’ll come out and block off this particular route. After all, strangers like that would certainly mess up the trade route if they went about spreading their items. She nods to herself at the idea, and leaves the bones behind on the ground, hopefully to be buried and never come across them again.