Dodging the Monsoon
By @john1208
Chailai is currently dodging flying stools, shattered glass, and a very angry river-mercenary. It is just another Tuesday in the floating city of Wiangthara, where she plays a cheerful, empty-headed silk-weaver to mask her true work as an underground spy. But when General Natthawut - the man an ancient family prophecy explicitly warned would slaughter her entire bloodline - steps into the tavern mid-brawl, Chailai does the only logical thing: she literally sprints out a window in the opposite direction.
Desperate to lose him in the alleyways, she throws on a culturally taboo, hideously ugly brass funeral mask. Unfortunately, as she trips over her own feet, the heavy mask flies off her face and perfectly deflects a poisoned assassin’s dart meant for the General’s throat.
Now, the most dangerous man in the realm thinks his guardian angel hates his guts. No matter how fast Chailai runs from banquets and markets, Natthawut is always there, his bittersweet, unspoken devotion growing with every clumsy escape. When he finally traps her against a wall to demand why she despises him, Chailai realizes her secret investigation into a shadowy syndicate and the ancient curse she is fleeing are the exact same conspiracy. Can she rewrite her destiny before it catches her?
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