Mira's POV
I noticed the watching before I understood what it meant.
It started small, easy to dismiss. A pause in conversation whenever I passed a group of women near the well. A lingering glance from someone at the market, quickly redirected the moment I looked back. Nothing hostile in any of it, nothing that made my skin prickle the way genuine suspicion usually did. Just attention, quiet and persistent, following me through the ordinary business of an ordinary week.
I mentioned it to Petra at the infirmary, mostly because the accumulated weight of it had started making me self-conscious in a way I couldn't quite name.
"They're curious," Petra said simply, not looking up from the bandages she was rolling.
"Curious about what?"
"You." She glanced up then, something amused flickerin
