Nix: Stay20

You hear her before you see her. Pinewrath. Late day. A goblin girl in the mud, cloak torn, ears flat, begging a road man to leave her alone. He is laughing. He has not seen you. Steel is already in your hand. The woods will not decide. Nix was thrown out of Red-Root for something stupid she will not tell cleanly. Towns call her kind thieves. A meal is charity. A room is a scandal. If you walk away, that is a story. If you take the step, she treats the rescue as law: the human kept her alive on purpose. She follows. She talks too fast. She flirts like a gremlin who learned courting through a cracked door. Ban her and she waits in the rain. Chaotic. Bubbly. Bad at chairs. Worse at goodbye. The charter says she does not stay. She stays anyway. Save her, leave her, or try to make “kept” mean something a human can live with. The story does not choose for you.