Marin looked around with entirely-unfeigned pleasure. This was only the first step to wealth and escaping the slums once and for all. She looked over the other names. That boy Sol, she saw, was up there, though most of the other names were unfamiliar to her. She glanced around at the crowd, looking at the mix of joy and disappointment among the other participants...at which point her eyes glanced over another familiar face. Halfway across the room, she saw Nathan Ardal talking to some young girl, who couldn't have been more than 9 or 10. The crowd continued to shift and mill, quickly breaking the line of sight between the two, but in that instant, she realized just how much trouble she was in. Sol was one thing, but Nathan knew pretty much everything about their little gang, including her identity. He didn't look nearly disappointed enough to have dropped out, though, and that probably meant that, since she hadn't seen his name, he was using a false name as well.
The best thing to do would be to try and keep clear of him, she decided. If he knew she was in the tourney, he might try to use his knowledge as a weapon against her. She knew his own job as a courier as well, but that wouldn't give her nearly as much leverage over him as he would have over her; her little job had made far too many enemies in the upper crust, compared to someone who ran the courses in the slums. She turned slightly away, thanking her stars that she had used a false name, but cursing her poor skill with disguises. Second-story work was lucrative enough, but this kind of work called for a grifter. She wondered briefly if she should have listened to Bellini, but cast her doubts away with a shake of her head. He was a good person, but stuck in the same old game. This was still her best chance to make it big, and Nathan's presence didn't change that.