May the light shine upon my crooked soul.
May the light shine a way for me.
A way to leave my broken promise.
A way to leave my rotten past.
A path to redemption lies before me.
A path pathed with pain and anguish.
One laid before me by the goddess.
Her kindness guides my soul.
Through the path of sorrow I walk.
Leaving behind the withered fields.
For those who believe, a second chance awaits.
Prayer to the goddess Persa
It was the middle of the night when we finally arrived at the bandit camp. It all started with us spotting an orange glimmer in the distance. Instinctively we stayed low to the ground, to avoid being seen. The glimmer became brighter and brighter until we were able to make out silhouettes in its vicinity. We had to be very careful, as the white sky disk gave off just enough light, for people to see us in the darkness. From what Pecta had told me about bandits, that would be bad.
We stopped on a small hill and observed the camp. It looked very similar to the caravan camp but much larger. It had the constructions humans used to sleep in but they had been built at seemingly random places, with one larger one sticking out of the middle of the camp. A large array of humans doing menial work could be seen in the light of the various fires. Pecta’s caravan had used a blessed artifact for lighting but the bandits didn’t have that luxury. A couple of them were stationed around the camp and kept watch. Most of these guards looked like they were about to fall over from boredom, and who could blame them? There was nothing out here that could cause problems. Most monsters kept to their territory and those that didn’t wouldn’t attack such a large gathering of humans. The chances of trouble were very low. A smile spread across my face. They won’t be thinking that for long. A quick scan of the surrounding showed that the lamecs, previously known as six-legs, were held at the edge of the camp, with a couple of bandits stationed there. I was able to count 12 lamecs, but it was dark, so that number probably wasn't very accurate.
I almost jumped when Pecta suddenly touched my shoulder. He made a motion, indicating that we had seen enough, and turned around. We crawled to a spot where it was safe to whisper and exchanged plans.
“Our main priority should be food and water. Maybe even a lamec if we have time. One of them would greatly increase our chances of getting away.” I nodded in agreement, surprised at how calm Pecta was about this. The bandits had killed his companions and I had expected him to want revenge. That he prioritised living over revenge made me very glad. His next words didn’t. “The bandits that protect the lamecs will be a problem. If they alert the others, we're screwed. We need to kill or subdue them.” I stared at him before hissing, “Kill!? Are you serious? We can’t just go around and kill other sentient beings!” Pecta looked at me seriously before pointing to the bandit camp. “These ‘sentient beings’ have slaughtered countless innocent people and will continue to do so. If we even kill one of them, we’d be doing the world a favour. But if you can’t do it, then I will.” With this, he turned around and quietly moved back to the camp. I reluctantly followed. Ending someone’s life, no manner how bad of a person they were, sickened me. They deserve it. But I could understand where Pecta was coming from. Was it really that bad to rid the world of someone who only caused harm? My immediate answer was yes, but I tried to suppress it. I would need all my nerves for what was about to happen.
During our time away, the camp had gotten louder, with voices filling the air. A quick look showed that one bandit had taken out an item that produced sounds whenever his fingers touched it. To me it sounded like the user was producing random noises, but the other bandits seemed to like it and started loudly shouting something in unison. It felt weird hearing all that laughter coming from people who had probably murdered countless times.
We stopped in front of the "lamec zone", as we had nicknamed it. The area was illuminated by several wooden sticks placed in the sand, with their black tops engulfed by fire. Three humans were sitting in the sand around a box and playing some kind of card game. Their weapons, three short swords, lay next to them. That was bad. If we rushed them they would have enough time to call for help and there was no way we were ready to fight the entire camp. I was debating what to do when suddenly one of the bandits got up. "Gotta take a quick leak. Make sure that Cai doesn't look at my cards." The mentioned Cai started to protest but the human ignored him and walked in our direction. We both quickly got out of the way, as he moved out of the light zone and behind a dune. His lack of caution truly showed how irresponsible they were, as he hadn’t even taken his weapon with him. Still, I didn't know what to do. Should I attack him? Follow him? Pecta decided for me and started approaching him. I could make out the bandit standing with his back turned to us and with his pants down. The criminal was humming quietly, so he didn't hear how Pecta sneaked up behind him and started to raise his dagger. Since when did Pecta have a dagger? I didn't dare take a breath as Pecta jumped forward, placed one hand over the bandit’s mouth, and sliced his throat. The muffled cry was drowned out by the singing from the camp.
With one last twitch, the body stopped moving and Pecta slowly placed it on the ground. TWO LEFT. He turned to me and slowly walked past, the bloody blade still in hand. He was shaking, revealing that it hadn’t been as easy as he had claimed. With one last look at the body, I followed him back to the camp. There we waited. Finally, another bandit stood up and looked toward where their companion had disappeared to. "What the hell is taking him so long?" The third bandit looked up from his cards. “Probably a big shit.” When that didn’t calm his friend he rolled his eyes. “Relax, it hasn’t been that long since Ocin went to piss. Why are you so nervous anyway? Don’t tell me you're still scared of the dark.” The second bandit stopped walking and glared at his partner. “Shut up. This area of the Scorching Barrens just gives me the creeps. Strange shit happens here. I’m talking about caravans disappearing without a trace, and weird, otherworldly monsters showing up. And honestly, our new boss is just as creepy. Mages are usually weird but I'm telling you, there's something especially wrong with this guy." Pecta tensed up next to me. I wanted to ask him what a mage was but knew that now wasn’t the time.
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"You know what? I'm going to look for Ocin. He has been away for too long." The sitting bandit just shrugged and returned to staring at his cards. “I don’t care what you two are doing, just keep it private and make sure that the boss doesn’t find you slacking.” The worried bandit gave his partner a rude hand gesture before picking up his sword and making his way into the darkness. The muscles in the back of my neck started to tense up when I realised that this was going to be harder. This one was armed and wary of his surroundings. I was about to try and sneak up behind him when Pecta stood up from his crouched position and calmly walked towards the bandit. The bandit noticed him and brought his sword into a ready position. I was about to do something drastic when the bandit lowered it again. "Hey Ocin, had a good piss? Cai was being a scaredy-cat and I just couldn't take it anymore. He told me how worried he was about you and that he hoped nothing had happened to you.” The darkness, coupled with the fact that Pecta and the missing Ocin shared a body type, made for the perfect ruse. A ruse that wouldn’t hold long. I quickly circled the bandit to get around him and help my companion. Apparently, I wasn't the quietest, because he spun around, sword in hand, and attempted to swing at me. Pecta launched himself towards him as the sword swished a hair’s breadth past my throat, sparing me from a painful decapitation. With reflexes kicking in a bit too late, I tumbled backward and landed on my ass with a thud. While I did that Pecta had grabbed the bandit’s head and was holding him at knifepoint.
I was ready for the blood to start flowing, but it didn't come. Instead, Pecta talked. "If you make a noise I will kill you, understood?" The bandit made a whimpering noise but slowly nodded his head. “Why are you working for a heretic?” Pecta slowly released the man’s mouth. When the bandit tried to deny the accusation, the dagger started to draw blood. “Don’t lie to me. Who is this mage you are working for?” This was all it took for the bandit to spill his secrets. ”I don't know, ok? He hired me and the others to patrol the Scorching Barrens and raid any caravans we find. There was money involved and I didn’t ask questions. I truly don't know who he is, but please don't kill me." The bandit started talking faster. "I don't know what you want, but I'll give you anything! Gold? Jewels? Money? I can get it for you. Just please don't kill me! I have done nothing-“ “How many people have you killed?” The bandit looked confused. “What? I mean, I haven’t killed anybody! I swear it on all the gods, I haven’t done anything bad. I-“ His words were cut off as Pecta’s blade sliced through his neck. A wet gurgling sound emerged before his body went limp. Even I had heard the lie out of his words. ONE LEFT. "You don't deserve to live,” Pecta whispered under his breath. It looked like he was barely controlling the urge to stab the body a couple of extra times.
"What the hell is going on there?" A voice called out from the bandit camp. For the second time, we returned to our position near the camp and saw the last bandit standing next to the box, sword in hand, and looking intently into the darkness. It seemed that the last kill hadn't been as quiet as we had hoped.
“Where are you?” The bandit called out. When nobody answered he silently started to curse. “Is this some kind of joke? Because I am not laughing. Now come out!” Silence. The already brittle smile disappeared from his face. The bandit muttered something under his breath as he slowly started moving backward and away from us. This was turning into a disaster and I didn’t know what to do. Suddenly Pecta grabbed my shoulder. I turned towards him, only to be met with a fist to the stomach. I let out a groan, more from surprise than pain. The bandit turned in my direction and called out, “Ocin, is that you?" Pecta crouched down next to me and whispered, "Act as if you were that guy and needed help.” Did he have to hit me for that? Although, that wasn’t a bad idea. I started loudly groaning, and voiced my plea for help “Stop shouting and come here! I need your help.” My bandit impression wasn't the best, but the pain distorted my voice, which made it passable. At least good enough to fool his comrade, as the final bandit started carefully advancing. "What happened Ocin?" I slowly rose to my feet, wary to not reveal myself. "I... fell and hurt my foot... Now come and help me!" The bandit grinned and lowered his sword. "How the hell can you be so clumsy!? It's literally sand and you hurt your foot... By the Creator, wait I'm coming." He started moving towards me in a completely relaxed fashion. Come on, just a bit further! He stopped a couple of steps before the darkness. His eyes squinted, trying to pierce it. "Wait a minute, I'll just get a torch so I don't have to waste time searching for you."
He turned his back to me and walked towards one of the wooden poles that illuminated the area. My body tensed up and I prepared myself to sprint across the clearing. This was it. If he brought back a torch he would realise that I wasn’t who I claimed to be. I took a final deep breath and started running. The bandit turned around and saw a snake-eyed monster with a sharp claw and a dagger barrelling toward him. His breathing almost stopped as he stumbled backward and raised his hand to protect himself. A tearing sound could be heard as the dagger sliced through the flesh, leaving a large gash in his hand. At the same time, the crystals embedded into the dagger started glowing in a faint light. The bandit's mouth was opened in a scream of pure terror, but no sound escaped. The only sound that could be heard was the air parting for Pecta’s blade and the bandit's head as it fell into the sand. The rest of the body took one last step backward, not realising that its soul had disappeared, and then collapsed. I only stared at the headless corpse. My face felt warm and when I went to check, my hand returned bloody. Not my blood but the blood of another I had spilled. I leaned over and heaved, expelling everything in my stomach. It felt disgusting but when I looked into the glassy eyes of the bandit I had to vomit again. Pecta meanwhile removed the blood from the blade in one clean motion and sheathed it. His look of sympathy in my direction didn’t go unnoticed, but his face quickly change to reflect the direness of our situation. “Quickly, let us look for supplies and get the hell out of here before the rest notice their missing comrades. Let's-“ “How can you be so calm?!” My shout was luckily drowned out by the music but Pecta still made sure that no one heard before turning to me. “Not so loud!” He hissed. “Do you want to doom us?”
“No, I want to survive this like you!” I hissed back. “But how can you have such a disregard for life?! Doesn’t life mean anything to you?” Despite the darkness, I could see him roll his eyes. “Of course life means something. Now help me collect supplies.” He quickly searched the corpses while I stared at him in disbelief. “This conversation isn’t over! You-“ “Be quiet!” Pecta interrupted me. “I would be glad to have this conversation with you but not now. Now we have to focus on surviving.” I silently seethed but had to admit that he had a point. We had to focus on surviving so I started to help him search. Still, that didn’t mean that this conversation was finished.
“What is a mage?” I asked to distract myself. Pecta didn’t look up but answered. “A mage is someone who twists the essence of the world to their whim. A heretic who spits on the god’s work. Most of them live in the Empire so I have no idea how one got here. But if it truly is a mage then our situation has gotten worse. From what I heard, they are very dangerous.” I hummed in interest. Someone who twisted the world to their liking. Sounded interesting.
Pecta finished his looting and turned towards the lamecs, that had been calmly watching us with their big black eyes. "Three water bottles, a couple of coins, and one sack of meat. That won't be enough." His already tense body language became even tenser. “We need to look for more. In a bandit camp with a mage. Fuck.” I slowly nodded, very much understanding his displeasure. "How much do we need?"
"I'm really bad at math" he started. “But I would assume around six more for this to work.”
"That's a lot of water."
"We are in the middle of the hottest desert in the kingdom, of course, we'll need a lot of water."
I nodded in understanding. ”Don't worry, we'll get that water. Even if we have to fight for it, we'll get it.”I wasn’t very happy with him right now but I wouldn’t let him die.
Pecta chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder. “That's the spirit!” He turned towards the rest of the camp. “Now, let's do some stealing!”