"As a matter of fact, my job is more important than having a few beers with you," Zahi answered coolly. And it was true.
Zahi wasn't a cut-throat any more. She had real work to do, for the real Greater Good. It was a role that, though she might not easily admit it, suited her. She'd never been particularly inclined towards criminality; it had just been the world she'd found herself brought up in. In fact, she'd excelled as a Blood Wolf because she was more inclined towards keeping the Wolves safe and in order than she was to fleecing, thieving, and smuggling.
Plus this job struck a personal chord with the former Soot Wolf. Kidnappers, traffickers, abductors of girls... It was, after all, the same fate that had torn her mother from her jungle home to a rundown brothel in Zantaric. She wasn't going to let Quinlan distract her from it.
But.
Zahi regarded Quinlan for a long moment, arms crossed across her chest now, her expression hard and inscrutable. Because there was something about Quinlan's almost awkward mannerisms just now. The memory of their time together in Adela, that seemed like a lifetime ago. It was a different lifetime. And while the new work suited her... She'd never admit it, even to herself, but Zahi - accustomed to the constant presence of people since she was a child, of being part of some organization - was lonely in her new life. Even if she didn't particularly like people. She was used to being part of something. Now, or at least for now, she only had a loose affiliation of guards and inspectors who didn't trust her much further than they could throw her.
Zahi let out a long exhale through her nose, knowing she was bound to regret what she was about to say. "Fine," she capitulated, sounding altogether unhappy about it and unable to refrain from rolling her eyes as she said so. "Shove off for now. Go to the Green Lantern," a dingy, rundown, all-around sad excuse of an Inn; exactly Zahi's sort of place. "I'll meet you there when I'm done."