cashing in my bad luck

Than what? Hattori pursed his lips slightly, was he just talking about Ashen here? Or did he mean Iga, a mere shadow of the greatness it was capable of reaching. He supposed he had gotten tired of dancing to the beat of someone else's drum,  it had been enough for quite some time but it couldn't last forever. They'd both been overly eager to look away, to think the faults in their relationship were actually blessings in disguise. Perhaps he was being cruel, but to sugar coat his feelings were something he'd never been capable of. Some things just needed to be said, others not so much.

"A cause, legacy. The wolves here do not live as we are meant to. I intend to rectify that." And that was as deep as he intended to take it, a brief flutter of the curtain which granted her the slightest of views. "And what stories have you heard of Hattori Hanzō?"

Perhaps a little arrogantly he couldn't help but wonder how far word had travelled, if at all. If she was a story keeper as she claimed to be, then surely she was the person to ask. The sort whose ears always tipped towards the wind, listening and knowing things many simply could not out of an act of willful ignorance.