Three men gathered around Cassie’s table. The one in the front had a thick beard that split open as he sneered, “Apprentice of Air, huh? Ha! Where’s your tits?”

The speaker brayed drunken laughter and his two friends chuckled behind him.

Cassie glanced at the white snowflake that decorated the thick band of cloth around her upper arm in confusion as color bloomed in her cheeks. Oh. They thought she was a boy. Well this wasn’t the first time that had happened.

She grabbed the man by his beard, forcing his head down to the table as she drew her long knife with her free hand. She raised it high to the gasps of onlookers and then stabbed the blade into the thick mess of wiry hair. “Be more careful who you attempt to bully- some snakes are harmless, some are biters and some are very, very, poisonous. Know what I mean?”

The skinnier of the two friends spoke up. “He didn’t mean nothing.”

“Is there a problem here?” The newest speaker pushed his way up, wearing the red and white banded stripes of the Astors.