"The world ought to balance. It ought to, and it never did."

Having absolutely loved The Water Outlaws, I bought this novelette as soon as I saw it; it did not disappoint. This is a dark story of a young woman who realizes her father's "business" is more than hospitality when she finds a body in the storage room of their riverside inn; like the novel does, this story addresses themes of gender & gender roles, power, and familial responsibility.

You do not need to have read The Water Outlaws to read this story at all - it's clearly the same universe, but it doesn't presume any background knowledge of the world-building.

Content warnings: violence, murder, death, blood, sexism, misogyny, classism, and one I'm putting behind spoiler tags:

cannibalism