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The little girl sat, like she always did, propped in the corner where the mud and grass wall of her family's hut met the mud and grass plane of the ground. She liked that spot in particular because it had a clear view of the road winding further inland from the cluster of temples and stone houses of T'Ho. Every merchant, soldier, or noble family traveling between the settlements of the Yucatán, passed by, and invariably, if they were paying attention, they would see her there, leaning on the wall of the hut, staring fixedly at the road, eyes wide but distant. Around her family's complex of huts, they called her "Box" because her skin was so dark. It wouldn't have been so supernatural, had they known who her parents were, but she'd just shown up one day, fro...

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