For a long time I only stared, uncomprehending, at that spot where Naomi’s things had been, but weren’t. My mind spun in errant circles as possible explanations entered and exited my imagination. But more than that, ramifications. A friend lost. A path forward, erased. The next step towards freedom, blotted out.

“Are we chasing after her, then?” Cadoc asked. His nose was turned up, eyes scanning the gaps in the trees like he had picked up a scent. “She cannot have gone far. Our battle did not last so long.”

“What?” I said dumbly. “Why?”

“Why what, Miles? Chase after her? She has left us.”

I blinked at the statement like it was a bright light in my eyes. “Wh-what if she was kidnapped again?” I asked.

Amaia rose up from where she had been squatting beside the missing pack. “Why would a Kalamuzi take only one pack?”

I turned to her, but found myself unable to look at her eyes. Instead my vision caught on that old scar which ran across one side of her forehead. Whatever I had been about to say, it stuck in my throat.

“Did she divulge any part of her plans to you?” Cadoc asked Amaia. Amaia shook her head.

“Why would she leave?” I finally choked out.

Cadoc chuckled. “I imagine she didn’t wish to pay the reward, friend.”

It is an amazing thing how quickly confusion can erupt into anger. Perhaps confusion makes good kindling.

“That bitch,” I said, the word dripping with spite, with righteous anger. I felt almost immediately that the word was too harsh, but that concern was quickly offered up to my internal fire, and as it burned the word seemed within moments too simple. “Liar,” I added. “Traitor.”

“Coward,” Cadoc said. “I thought perhaps our collective companionship had convinced her to leave such things behind. Truly I was mistaken. The coward’s heart remains still in her breast.”

My voice rose into a yell. “Skip out on me, will you?!” I cried into the darkening woods, turning away from Cadoc and Amaia. “You think I’m just going to take that? Do you think I’m just going to accept it, let you leave without paying for what I did for you? Have you met me? Just who, exactly, do you think I am?”

The woods said nothing back, nor did I hear any indication of a fleeing woman in the distance. Silence. The sun was setting, the sky approaching twilight, to be followed quickly by that deep and wild darkness.

Past injustices raced to my mind. They had been held at bay for a time, the glow of victory like a floodgate made of light, but that light had shattered. The schools. Ryan. Isabel. Dimen-X. Tom.

Tom.

Tom didn’t believe in revenge, so I had tried to bury my anger. But it had never truly died, only smoldered in the recesses of my cooling heart. In that new dimension my anger had returned - the influence of Tom growing weaker every day. Eventually it became like a caged animal, let loose at times and breaking loose at others.

It was because of Tom that I’d never taken revenge. Never gotten back at Ryan, at those teachers, even at Tom himself.

“I’m not Tom,” I whispered to myself. I had crossed some sort of line. Probably it had happened when Nolan had died. When I had killed him. Self-defense or no, that fight was so anathema to Tom’s character that it marked for me a point of no return. The road that lay beyond that action led away from Tom with every step.

“I’m not Tom,” I repeated, louder. It was hard to see in the fading light, but I was certain Cadoc and Amaia were staring at me. Let them, I thought. They’ve seen enough already. Either they were my companions by now, for better or worse - or they weren’t, and then they ought to know how I would react to betrayal.

“You are special,” I said to Naomi - and I half expected she could hear, wherever she was hiding. “Tom is special. But I am anger. I am hatred.

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“I am the fire which destroys, but does not comfort. I am the flame which consumes, but does not cook. I am the blaze which warps, but does not temper.

“I destroy. I consume. I warp.

“I am the hunger without a stomach. I am the war without a cause.

“I am the fire without a spark. And I am vengeance.”

The blood was boiling in my veins, and my mana seemed warmer beneath my skin, like the whole pool of it sat expectantly like lighter fluid, and if I only flexed one invisible muscle my entire body would erupt into the greatest fireball that world had ever seen.

I turned back to my companions - if companions they were. They had been more tested than Naomi, but they would have to be tested further. Cadoc had turned on me, before, or at least threatened to. Amaia had rebuked me only recently.

I missed Lot already. But I remembered even with him the tension. How we had almost broken into violence in his hole, arguing over action and inaction.

“I need money to live,” I said to the two standing there. “And therefore by leaving and denying me my rightful reward Naomi has put my life at risk. She has betrayed our party. We have to catch her, and we will, and then we will drag her to her family’s home if we have to bind her hands and feet and carry her like we’re a Kalamuzi raiding party. And her family will pay us, whether it is a reward, or a ransom. Are we all on the same page?”

“Of course, friend,” Cadoc said, and despite the aura of spite I must have been exuding he stood there with a genuine grin plastered across his face. “Truly I have always known her to be a coward.” His smile faltered for a moment. “I am disheartened, I will admit, sorrowful that she chose to act thus… but I am pledged in friendship to you, not her. We have been through much, Miles, and this we will get through as well.”

He offered his hand in a sign of friendship, and I took it, clasping our hands together. It helped. But I saw Amaia, to our side, wavering. I let go of Cadoc’s hand.

“You are hesitating,” I said to Amaia. I put my hands on her shoulders - she started at this slightly, but did not back away. “I understand. You are thinking, ‘why not let her go?’ and ‘isn’t she our friend?’ But she has done this to us, Amaia. You hesitate because you are friends with her, because you cared about her - and I don’t hesitate because I cared about her even more. The greater the friendship, the worse the harm.

“We owe her nothing, Amaia,” I said. “She owes us.”

These last words seemed to have been wisely chosen. I could see my speech had not been convincing Amaia until the end. But when I said to her that ‘we owe her nothing,” her expression hardened, and she nodded. “You’re right,” she said simply.

“OK,” I said, letting go of her shoulders. “Then we need to get going. Pack up quickly.”

“Now?” Amaia asked. “It will be dark soon.”

“And so Naomi will not be moving,” I said. “Maybe she’s even dumb enough to start a fire, and we will see her from a distance.”

“Do you know which way she went?” Amaia asked.

Before the question had the chance to dampen my spirits - as I would be forced to feebly admit that I didn’t - Cadoc answered instead. “This way,” he said, pointing up-river, to the south - the opposite of the way we had been going all day.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“She did not bother to cover her tracks,” Cadoc said, and pointed a little off to where one small bootprint was imprinted into a bit of mud.

“Why wouldn’t she be heading home?” I asked. I had been about to suggest we continue north.

“She is,” Amaia suggested. “She lied.”

As soon as she said it, I knew it must be true. Naomi must have assumed we’d immediately go north, thinking she must have fled that way. And I very nearly had done exactly that. Another flare of anger rocketed up from my bowels, and for a moment I could only stand there seething at the deception.

“South, then,” I said, when the feeling had somewhat passed. “We are even better off, in that case. She won’t be expecting us.”

“Still,” Amaia said, and I marveled at how much she was talking. Naomi leaving must have stirred her up - or, rather, it was as I had suspected before, that Amaia’s small bouts of conversation were seasonal, and we were approaching a flowering spring. “Ought we to leave so late? We will surprise her. She will be moving slowly, maybe. Night will be dangerous out here.”

“Alas, we have seen nothing but Kalamuzi,” Cadoc said. “If we can expect other combatants under starlight, then I only encourage more strongly that we leave at once.”

Amaia was being particularly insistent, and of course that raised my suspicion. Even as talkative as she was being, she hadn’t mentioned something - big surprise there.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

She shifted uncomfortably, and I wondered if talking so much made her uncomfortable. “Naomi told me about this area. She said it was extremely dangerous at night, that people who travel this way only travel by boat, the river the only safety. Said that we would need to sleep without a fire, and keep as silent as possible, or else be attacked and killed.”

“By what?” I asked.

Naomi shook her head. “She wasn’t specific.”

I laughed, and it felt good to laugh. It relieved a little pressure - but luckily not too much, as I need the pressure in order to keep myself going. Amaia scrunched up her face and frowned slightly, perhaps thinking I was laughing at her.

“She lied,” I said. “Isn’t that what you said a second ago? She told us that her home was north of here, down the river, and then we find her tracks fleeing upriver instead. Why would she tell the truth about the monsters? She sounded as surprised to see Kalamuzi here as anyone.”

“The Kalamuzi would not be native, friend,” Cadoc interjected. “They fled the dungeon, I am sure.”

I waved that away. “Doesn’t matter. Think about it. If it was really so dangerous out here, would she have left on her own like that, just before dark? No. Of course not. Cadoc, you called her a coward. Do cowards put themselves into dangerous situations?”

“I’ve never known one to,” Cadoc said.

“Exactly.” I laughed again. “I bet these woods along the river are safer than Eraztun itself.” I looked Amaia in the eyes, and that gray-blue color stared back at me. “Any other concerns?” I asked.

“What if she really doesn’t light a fire,” she said. “Because the nights are not so cold, and so we pass right by her in the dark.”

I shrugged. “If we do, we do. Coernet is on the banks of Zinthur’s Blood. She lied about which direction, but we can’t miss the town. If we get there first, so what?” I narrowed my eyebrows as a thought came to me. “Unless she lied about that as well, and she’s going to cross the river, or turn to the west later, or something.”

“She did not lie on the front,” Cadoc said. “I have heard of Coernet before, and while I have not been there, it is truly said that it lies beside Zinthur’s Blood. If that is indeed her home, then we will find it.”

“Perfect,” I said. “Then we have nothing to fear.” I turned to Amaia again. “Any other concerns? Because we really should get moving.”

She shook her head.

“Good,” I said. “But I appreciate the caution, Amaia. If you have anything else you think of, we’ll walk and talk. Now let’s pack up camp. I just realized that our little traitor probably stole some food, too. Let’s get a quick inventory of what we’ve still got, and then get going. We’ll add anything we’ve lost to her bill.

“We’ll have to sleep at some point,” I said. “But we can gain a few hours on her first, at least. If we’re lucky, we’ll even catch her tonight.”