Aysen and Temel’s house turned out to be an unexpectedly nice cottage in the more well-to-do—for a random mid-sized Gustilian town, anyway—side of Kagos. At least four rooms, sturdy wooden walls, what appeared to be some sort of clay tile roofing, and even a nice stone walkway leading to the front door. As she approached, Gabby could see smoke billowing out of a chimney on the right side, and she caught the sight through a nearby window of a shadow flitting about inside.
“You came!” Aysen greeted her with a gigantic smile and ushered her into the home. “Please, sit. I’m almost done.”
The inside was just as nice as the outside. She sat down on a strong, well-crafted wooden chair placed beside a thick and sturdy table. This seemed to be a combination kitchen, dining room, and living room. Solid stone tile covered the floor from wall to wall, a vast improvement over the dirt and straw most commoner houses seemed to have. Several large candles added light to the room, their light illuminating the many carved ornaments that hung from the walls. Somebody was—or had been—a very accomplished whittler, it seemed.
The wooden ornaments hung on every wall except near the stone hearth in the kitchen where a healthy fire crackled under a sizzling... something roasting on a spit. Some kind of large, skinned lizard? Whatever it was, it smelled rather good, almost like roasted chicken.
There was more to the meal than just that. What went for a Scyrian salad sat in a large wooden bowl in the center of the table, its leaves a kaleidoscope of color. To its side sat a large loaf of bread and some butter, and even what looked like a small jar of jam. For the circumstances, it seemed like quite a lavish meal.
Gabriela immediately became guilt-ridden at the sight, and that guilt only intensified as she watched Aysen climb up a stool to get high enough to turn the spit. Though supposedly nearly an adult, her body was still that of a prepubescent girl who, in Gabby’s judgment at least, was far too small to be taking care of herself and her even smaller brother all on her own.
“Let me help you with that,” she said, getting out of her seat.
“No, no, it’s alright!” the elf vehemently insisted. “It’s done, anyway.” She paused for a moment of consideration, looking at the tall spit and the just-as-tall table, which went up to her eyes. “I guess you can help me get it off.”
Gabby did just that, picking up the spit, bringing it over to a large cutting board on the kitchen counter, and smoothly sliding the lizard off the rod. She turned to look for a knife, but Aysen shooed her away.
“I don’t need your help with this. I can do it myself,” she said, dragging the stool over. “I cook a lot now that—now that it’s just the two of us.”
Gabby noticed the way her voice hitched when the topic of her parents came up, and it took everything Gabby had to not wrap the child in her arms, but she didn’t. She didn’t feel like Aysen wanted that right now, and also, the girl was holding a rather large knife and Gabby didn’t want her to cut herself. So, instead, she stepped back and made small talk while the child deftly cut into the meat.
“So, is it just you and Temel here? The town is alright with that?”
“Mostly. Some of the neighbors help us with washing the clothes and they give us food a lot, which is nice.”
“They wanted to make us live with another family, but sister refused.”
Gabby jumped so high that she nearly hit her head on the ceiling. She looked across the room to where the voice had come from and found Temel hidden in the gloom of the far corner, his small form curled up on a heap of clothes as he worked on sewing something that she couldn’t quite make out in the dim light.
“She told them that if they made us leave our home, she’d crumble the wall and nobody would ever be able to fix it,” he continued, not once looking up from his work. “So, we didn’t move.”
“Mom and Dad were really proud of this place,” Aysen added as a leg fell to the cutting board and was placed on a nearby platter. “I don’t want to lose it. It’s important.”
“You’re right, it is important,” Gabby agreed. “Are you in need of money?”
“No, the town pays me a lot because I’m the only one who can keep the walls repaired,” the elven girl bragged. “I’m really important.”
Gabby couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, that’s good.”
Aysen hopped down from her stool, the now-full platter in her hands. “Alright! Time to eat!”
The three of them settled around the table. Gabby expected them to tuck in immediately, but instead, they both put their hands over their hearts, tilted their heads back to look at the ceiling, and closed their eyes.
“Ancestors, thank you for passing down the gift of life and stuff so that we can all eat this delicious food together,” Temel said to the air. “And, thank you for guiding Gabby to rescue me so I don’t have to be dirty and listen to Dost complain all the time. Okay, let’s eat.”
What sort of prayer was that? Gabby didn’t know much about Nocend traditions, other than their reverence for the spirits of those that came before them, but she still doubted such worship would have flown anywhere but at this table.
Now, the two of them started to eat. Aysen piled an assortment of dishes onto her plate, while Temel took some of the bread and started to make a sandwich of sorts with it, using some meat, a bit of the salad, and some jam. Gabby, for her part, decided to start with some vegetables first.
“How can I be like you, Gabby?”
The question blindsided Gabby so heavily that she almost dropped her plate. She gave Aysen a dismayed look. “You don’t want to be like me. It’s not nice or fun.”
“But you’re all mighty and cool!” Aysen objected. “I’d rather be like you than a stupid stone Observer.”
“Stone Observers are respected and appreciated,” Gabby argued. “You just bragged about how much they pay you.”
“Yeah, but they’re not strong and powerful. Respect didn’t get me anywhere when Temel was kidnapped. I couldn’t do anything. If I was like Dad, I would have been able to save Temel on my own!”
“You would have died.”
“Then I would have died with honor! Mom and Dad used to say that if you died with honor, then you could always hold your head high among the other spirits.”
Gabby decided to try a different tack.
“Stone Observers can be strong and powerful just as much as anybody else. I heard of a stone Observer so strong that the rock flowed like a river,” she told them, recalling an old conversation she’d had with Blake in the Flying Toaster as they’d flown north towards the dragon’s lair. “One of the most powerful people in the world fought him, and that person told me that the only reason he beat the stone Observer was that the Observer got overconfident. He said the man was terrifying.”
“Really?!” The child’s eyes sparkled in the light of the fire.
“Yep. So, don’t give up on the good thing you have going. Get better at controlling the stone and who knows what you might be able to do someday?”
Anything to keep her from trying to become a fighter. It was better if she stayed safe and got rich than ran off to some battlefield on some misguided quest for honor or excitement or whatever.
“So, you know super-powerful people? What are they like? Are they stronger than you? What’s it like fighting them? Did you fight against the Ubrans? They were strong, right?”
Gabby reeled from the deluge of questions spewing from the hyperactive child’s mouth.
“There are a lot of strong people,” Gabby hedged.
“Like what?! Tell me! Who’s the strongest!?”
Gabby let out a long breath. “Well, there’s no one answer to that. You can’t boil it down to a single number where one person’s is higher than the other’s. It’s complicated and lots of different things—”
“Laaaammmmeeee! You’re just trying to avoid answering the question.”
“It’s a bad question. Strength doesn’t work that way. Look at what happened with you today. I’m stronger than Chitra in all the ways that people normally think about this sort of thing, but I couldn’t save you from that bandit while she did. How much I can lift or how hard I can hit didn’t matter. What mattered was her ability to sneak up behind him without anybody knowing.”
“I guess you’re right,” Aysen begrudgingly admitted. “Then, who would it scare you the most to fight?”
“Gosh... there’s a couple, I guess, both kind of the same. I’ve never met the person, but supposedly the Drayhadans have this person who traps you in a dream.”
“Wooaaaahhh! That’s awesome!”
What was with this kid? Gustil didn’t have comic books, right?
“What about the other one?”
“The other one is a woman who can kill you with words. If you are close enough to hear her, you are only alive because she hasn’t decided to kill you yet. Or, she doesn’t need to kill you. She could make it so you can only speak in rhyme, or turn you blind, or make you think things you wouldn’t otherwise think, or all sorts of other weird things—and you can’t disobey, or you get hurt.”
“Wooooowwwww! That’s really neat!”
“It’s not neat, it’s scary. Fortunately, she’s actually very nice and doesn’t like hurting people, but if I had to fight either of them, I don’t think I’d be able to make it close enough before they got me.”
“Yeah, that does sound super scary,” Aysen said, though the way her eyes glittered with awe suggested that she was feeling something very different.
“There are a lot of strong people in the world. There’s a man in Otharia who can build an army out of metal. There’s a man in Stragma who can bring back the dead. There’s a little girl like you can blow up this whole town with a bomb. There are beasts so large and strong that they could destroy all of Lita in minutes, and they can even fly. Who knows what else might be out there?”
“What about the Crimson Reaper?” Temel inquired.
Aysen’s mood immediately soured.
“Who?” Gabby asked.
“That’s what our uncle who lives in Chanomere calls her. She fought for the Ubrans, and they say she would be killed a hundred times every battle but would never die. Nobody could stop her,” the boy clarified.
Gabby’s blood went as cold as a deep winter’s night. He knew.
“Every swing of her giant sword would fell a hundred people, and crimson smoke flowed around her like it was alive,” he continued. “Then, she disappeared, and nobody knows where she went. Some people say she finally died for real; others say she went back to Ubrus. Either way, everybody is afraid she’ll come back.”
Gabby could see it in Temel’s eyes. He knew. He’d seen her die. He’d seen the smoke. He was young, but even a child could put something that obvious together.
“Other people call her the Monster,” Aysen spat, like the words tasted bitter in her mouth. “She killed Dad—Uncle saw it happen.”
Gabriela swallowed, her throat feeling like it was going to close in on itself. This all just kept getting worse and worse with every sentence. What did Temel want? Why was he saying this? Why did it seem like he hadn’t told his sister? And... how was she supposed to reply?
“The Monster is the worst,” she finally managed to say. “All she ever did was ruin people’s lives.”
“Yeah,” Aysen agreed. “I hope she rots.”
“This is really good red lambak, sis,” Temel said, grabbing another chunk of lizard meat and changing the subject with the subtlety of a rampaging garoph. “It’s better than you normally make it.”
The jarring topic switch didn’t seem to bother his sister one bit. She smiled brightly, breaking out of her funk like it had never been there. “Thanks! I tried really hard because Gabby was coming.”
“You did a very good job,” Gabby agreed, though she could hear the hollowness in her words.
What in the world was she doing here, Gabriela asked herself. For what purpose had she come to this place? At first, she’d found herself unable to crush the hope in Aysen’s eyes when the child invited her over, or at least, that’s what she’d told herself at the time. Later, she’d told herself that she was coming to check in on them and make sure they were doing alright on their own. Now, though, those justifications rang hollow. So, what, then, was her purpose here? Was this a part of her quest to reckon with the consequences of her actions? To right her wrongs somehow? Because she knew, for all the talk of strength, she lacked the strength to admit her true nature to this energetic, impulsive girl who idolized her. Aysen deserved to know, but no words would come out.
Or, was she just utilizing these kids as temporary surrogates for the family she’d left behind? Were they just one-time plugs for a hole that could never truly be filled, to be used and discarded? Was that all this was?
The longer she thought about it, the worse she felt. She shouldn’t be in this house. She didn’t deserve to be here, in the home of people who’d died by her hand, chatting with the children who had to live with the consequences of her actions. She was trespassing on forbidden ground.
She took a bite of the juicy, savory meat. It tasted like ashes.
The rest of the dinner passed with more small talk. Gabby kept a smile on her face for Aysen’s benefit, but with every passing minute, she died inside a little more. Meanwhile, Temel didn’t say another word the entire time, strangely content to let his sister prattle on in ignorance.
The Gabby that left the house that night was a dispirited shell of the woman who’d stepped inside. She wandered the streets of Kagos for a little while, half-cognizant of where she was going, until finally heading to the town’s single inn.
As she stepped inside, she suddenly recalled what more she needed to do tonight and felt the little strength that remained leave her. After speaking with the innkeeper—who was exhaustively effusive in thanking her—and getting the key to her room, she headed upstairs. Praying that Chitra had gone to sleep, she fumbled with getting the key into the lock.
The door next to hers opened.
“Have a good—” Chitra’s words screeched to a halt, her eyes going wide at Gabby’s appearance. She rushed forward, placing a hand on Gabby’s cheek. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Gabby squirmed away. “I’m fine. Leave me alone.”
“You are clearly not fine.”
Gabby sighed. “Just give me my things. Let’s get this over with.”
Chitra stepped aside and Gabby entered the Ubran’s room. There, in the far corner, sat Gabby’s pack and the Sword of Eternity, neatly covered in burlap to help obscure its nature. Gabby wondered how Chitra managed to get it past the guards, but she already knew the answer.
“Well?” Chitra asked as Gabby gathered her belongings. “I believe you said you had words for me.”
“I...”
The anger from before, then overflowing, was now conspicuously absent, replaced by guilt, weariness, and exhaustion.
“I’m just... I’m glad you saved Aysen. Thank you for that. But at the same time, I never wanted to see you again. And I still kind of don’t. You were my friend—my best friend. But now that’s gone, and I don’t know how it could ever come back. You shouldn’t have followed me.”
“I don’t see why I should just give up after a single refusal,” Chitra rebutted. “A hunter doesn’t give up the hunt if their prey escapes the first ambush. Persistence is the key to everything.”
“That’s called stalking, Chitra.”
“Of course. A hunter stalks their prey.”
“No! That’s not what love is! You’re so smart about everything else, why don’t you get this?!”
“I don’t understand what it is that you think I don’t get. I understand this perfectly well.”
“No, you—” Gabby exhaled and rubbed her face, her vigor flagging with dismay. She picked up her things and started for the door. “It’s late. I don’t have the energy for this right now.”
Chitra stepped in front of her, blocking her passage.
“Hold on, what about the original goal of this journey? Have you given up on that?” she inquired.
Gabby paused for a moment and found she didn’t have a concrete answer. “...I don’t even know now. You made it all too complicated. But either way, it’s not your business anymore.”
“Wait!” Chitra’s arm shot out and grabbed Gabby’s arm as she passed, and initially, the only reason Gabby didn’t slap her into next week was that Gabby’s hands were full of her supplies. However, that urge faded quickly when she noticed how the Ubran wasn’t even looking her way. Her body tense, Chitra stared out towards the windows across the room. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” Gabby asked tiredly. “I don’t hear—”
Gabby’s annoyed pronouncement was cut short as she picked up something just on the edge of her hearing. “Was that a scream?”
The answer came in the form of an alarm bell ringing somewhere outside, off in the distance.
Chitra grabbed her two trademark long daggers and strode out the door. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Gabby asked. Dropping her pack onto the floor and strapping the Sword of Eternity to her back, she chased after the Batranala.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that Kagos is under attack now, all of a sudden? After you wiped out the local bandits?” Chitra wondered as they exited the inn onto the dark street dimly lit by moonslight obscured by cloud cover. “This can’t be a coincidence.”
“Then what’s going on?”
“The noble boy. They’re trying to take him.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“There’s no time. If we delay too long, all your work today will be destroyed. Do you want that?”
“No!”
“Then, what’s the most luxurious home in Kagos?”
“Uhhhh...” Gabby considered the question for a quick second. “The Mayor’s home, probably. It looked the nicest of all the homes I saw.”
“Perfect. That would be where Dost is. Pick me up.” Chitra wrapped her arms around Gabby’s neck and leaned against her.
“Wha-wha-wha—” Gabby stammered, backpedaling from the sudden intimacy, but Chitra held on.
“It’s faster than us both running, and you know it! Now stop wasting time and let’s move!”
Gabby decided to humor Chitra just this once—only because of extenuating circumstances, of course. Lifting the Ubran into the princess carry that they’d used before, she shot off like a rocket towards the Mayor’s residence. Gabby knew the way, as she’d passed by their destination on her way to Aysen’s home, which was coincidentally down the same street. It said a lot about how well Aysen’s family had been faring for them to be in the same small neighborhood, now that she thought about it more.
The Mayor’s estate, like most of the richer houses in Scyria, was fenced off by a stone wall, this one about four meters high. Many Feelers would be able to leap or climb over such a piddly impediment with little trouble, of course, but Observers would have more trouble. Unless attackers wanted to split up, they’d have to get through the front gate. When Gabby and Chitra first spotted the villa off in the distance, they spotted several people surmounting the wall around the entrance gate as others battled outside it.
The area outside the estate was largely clear, with a dirt street that was nevertheless smooth and well-maintained running through the large space between residences. Large trees were placed at set intervals lining the street, each of them large—for Earth standards, anyway—with trunks about a meter thick.
The estate itself, like most Gustilian architecture, reminded Gabby of Roman architecture, with its seeming obsession with stone columns, statues, and the like. Most eye-catching, however, was the statue of a man holding an axe and riding a very regal-looking vekkel—some war hero of the past, or perhaps, a testament to the mayor’s ego. Behind the base of that statue crouched a terrified guard, quaking in her boots as fireballs and the like flew by, her hands clutching a large bow so hard that Gabby was surprised it hadn’t snapped.
From this distance at least, Gabby couldn’t spot a single other guard still alive. Between some of the attackers getting behind the guards and into the estate and the others keeping up the pressure from the outside, the situation looked dire for the town’s defenders.
“Throw me over the wall,” Chitra yelled over the wind.
“What? But—” Gabby hesitated; they were still more than two hundred meters away.
“I’ll be fine! I’ll stop those that got in before they can open the gate from the inside, you take care of the rest! Throw!”
Now perhaps fifty meters out, Gabby did as instructed and hurled the woman through the air. Chitra spun, twisting about like a high diver as she arced over the wall and disappeared from view.
Gabriela refocused on the scene in front of her. Unfortunately, getting a closer look had only driven home just how dire the situation here seemed. The single woman behind the statue looked to be the only one still alive, or at least conscious. Gabby spotted two other bodies lying on the ground, one with a broken skull, the other still smoking, his clothes and flesh charred terribly. If there were other guards, she couldn’t spot them.
What she could spot, however, were the marauders attacking the place. From what she could see, they appeared to be bandits judging by the roughness of their garb, though she didn’t get a good look at any of them. She spotted four total people, each of them crouched behind various bits of cover provided by the city street, be it inside an open doorway or behind a tree. It reminded her of the way urban warfare was depicted in modern media back on earth, with everybody hiding for most of the time and then popping out for a moment before going back behind cover, except instead of guns, everybody had bows, or fireballs, or shards of ice.
As she approached, two of the invaders ran from a tree on the opposite side of the street to another closer to the estate. As the guard peeked out to maybe take a shot while they were out in the open, another attacker launched a fireball her way, forcing her back behind the stone. They were surrounding her, using their superior numbers to tighten the noose.
Not if Gabby had anything to say about it. The two attackers stopped behind the tree and turned Gabby’s way just in time to see the face of their executioner. The Sword of Eternity sang as it sliced effortlessly through both them and the tree behind them. The tree toppled towards the middle of the street, but Gabby ignored it. It posed no danger to her—if anything it would be a useful distraction.
Quickly, she rocketed across the street towards the location of the fire Observer, who foolishly tried to put their tree between them and her. One swing later, they learned that it made no difference.
She spotted the fourth attacker closer to the wall. The man panicked at the sight of her and ran for the estate entrance, perhaps hoping to group up with his cohorts inside. Gabby didn’t give him the chance. Zipping forward, she swung her blade upward vertically, almost like a golf swing, splitting the man apart lengthwise.
Easy. So trivially easy.
Gabby surveyed the area, making sure that she hadn’t missed anybody, but if there were any more enemies, they were well hidden and not showing themselves any time soon. At least, there were no enemies outside the estate. Gabby trotted over towards the gate to see how Chitra was faring inside. It turned out that she didn’t even need to open it up; made out of a series of vertical bronze poles, the gate let her gaze right through the large gaps and see everything.
What she saw took her breath away.
Gabriela had never seen Chitra Batranala fight. Sure, she’d experienced the woman’s grace up close during all manner of activities, but this was something else. This was on a level Gabby had never imagined.
Chitra stood just steps away from the other side of the gate, surrounded by five of the enemy. Every one of the bandits was injured, with bloody gashes all across their bodies. Another half dozen bodies littered the ground around her, covering the dirt with pooling blood. And yet, despite the carnage all around, she stood in the center of it all totally pristine, the only blood near her dripping from her blades.
The Ubran swayed and spun to a beat that only she could hear, dodging her opponents’ furious and desperate strikes by the slimmest of margins. Moving with fluidity and poise unlike anything Gabby had ever seen, she effortlessly drew the others into a deadly dance, one where only she knew the steps. Even surrounded and outnumbered, she was in complete control.
Gabby watched, completely mesmerized, as Chitra toyed with her prey, utterly humiliating and humbling them. They were powerless to touch her, absolutely impotent, and she seemed intent on driving that home. As performances went, Gabby found it enthralling, the sight sending a thrill running through her.
After what felt like an hour to Gabby but could only have been a few seconds, Chitra decided to stop toying with her adversaries. Flowing like water, she stepped forwards, bending her legs while simultaneously arching backwards so far that her head was level with her knees. With that one single lithe movement, she avoided both an axe sweeping towards where her knees had been and a mace swinging for her head, and as the weapons each whooshed through nothing but air, she almost casually reached up and plunged both of her oversized knives into the axe wielder’s chest.
The bandit staggered from the deadly blow, clutching their chest and staring at the deadly wound with shock, but Chitra did not release her hold on the handles. Instead, using them momentarily for balance and leverage, she swept one foot upward to crack into the mace wielder’s chin, sending them to the dirt. The second foot followed as Chitra launched her off-balanced body into a backflip with strength that only a Feeler could possess. Soaring upside-down over the stabbed bandit, her hands still clutching the blades embedded within their chest, she ripped the weapons violently from her victim’s torso, sending a spray of blood spurting forth away from her. A knee to the back upon landing sent them to the ground, and they did not get back up.
The Batranala was on the move the moment she landed, swerving around her third victim’s guard like a serpent and piercing their skull with a knife through the ear faster than one could blink. Desperate, the two remaining bandits both attacked, trying to get her while her one blade was still stuck in the third bandit’s ear. Chitra pirouetted to the side, deftly parrying one blow while avoiding the other. As she did, she made eye contact with Gabby for the first time and winked playfully at her before taking her fourth life with a stab to the back of the bandit’s neck.
She could have taken them all out before Gabby had come to look, Gabby realized. Instead, she’d waited until Gabby was there to watch her finish her meal. Chitra wanted Gabby to see this, to watch her turn the act of bestowing death into an exquisitely graceful and elegant art form.
It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful thing Gabriela had ever witnessed, an unspoken audition, invitation, and promise all rolled into one. In any circumstance, it would have been spellbinding, but right now, to Gabby, it was so much more. This performance was meant for her and her alone, and that made all the difference in the world.
The final fighter turned and ran—a wiser move than fighting, but still a futile one. Without even turning to look, the Ubran whipped her arm towards the retreating bandit. The blade in her hand blurred towards the fleeing man and pierced straight into the middle of his back. He tumbled to the ground, unmoving.
Gabby found herself flushed at the sight of her companion standing unmarred in the center of a yard full of bloody corpses. Her whole body felt heated, her heart raced, and her breath was shallow. She wanted to rip the gate between them off its hinges so that nothing separated the two of them. She wanted to—
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
She gulped, blinking and shaking her head as the magic of the moment began to fade. Her mind spun and her emotions roiled as she tried to reckon with all that she had just experienced. Where had that yearning come from? And that entrancement? Were her deep-seated fears coming true? Did she... desire Chitra?
Sure, Gabby had always known how physically attractive the Ubran was, but she’d always done her best to appreciate it platonically. Chitra was captivating in a way that transcended normal boundaries, to the point that most anybody would feel a pull, and any hint of desire Gabby may or may not have felt over their long friendship could be attributed to the natural human yearning to be close to beauty. Or at least, that was what she’s always told herself, for no other explanation could be allowed.
Only now, after Chitra’s confession had dredged the concept of romance from the swamp of the forbidden, was Gabriela able to wonder just how truly platonic the feelings thrumming inside her were. It felt different than the needs that had blossomed within her during those passionate nights with Juan years ago, but, as much as it pained her to admit it, not anywhere near as different as she would have liked.
Was this attraction? Or was there something deeper happening? Was her soul responding to the desire infused in Chitra’s performance, her yearning to be wanted harmonizing with Chitra’s powerfully-expressed want? Or, was she just a prisoner of the moment, and all of this would fade into nothingness if she just took a few deep breaths and centered herself? Was—
Bound by her chaotic, rampaging thoughts and feelings, Gabriela didn’t notice the arrow headed for the side of her head until it hit her. She staggered, her awareness cutting out to the sounds of metal slicing through skin, shattering bone, and a high-pitched shriek off in the distance. For a moment, she found herself completely disoriented as her perception of existence warped as it always did when the soul and mind were no longer in sync. Oddly enough, she found it worse to deal with when her brain was merely damaged, rather than completely destroyed like all the times she’d fought Blake’s robots. When it was just her soul, things were simpler and she could “think” more clearly, letting her flex her powers fairly easily. With a brain damaged like it was now, there was still enough signal coming from it to confuse her thoughts. It was like trying to concentrate with a broken speaker; it was a lot easier when it was so broken it couldn’t make a sound than when it could still warble loud, ear-splitting noise.
Existing consciously only as a soul was always a weird experience, no matter how many times she’d been in this situation. While it provided proof of existence beyond the corporeal, buttressing her faith, everything felt off in a way that unnerved her. Other than her one extended stay in this state, she generally tried to return to normal as quickly as she could.
After a moment, Gabby managed to filter out the errant signal and focus on her self. She channeled her powers, summoning the crimson smoke to eat away the arrow and rebuild her head like she always did, only this time, there came a new sensation along for the ride. It was like heat, but not; burning... but different in a way that she couldn’t quite find the word for. Perhaps the closest thing she could liken it to was like a very mild case of heartburn... except for the soul? Whatever it was, it was definitely not pleasant. Then, after only a moment, it vanished, as if it had never existed in the first place.
Whole once more, Gabby opened her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. In the short span that she’d been down—it was hard to tell the flow of time when only a soul, but it couldn’t have been more than a handful of seconds—very little had changed. The only notable difference was that Chitra was now outside the estate, holding a very shaken guard up against the nearby wall while ranting at her. That must have been where the arrow came from, she realized. The guard, still in a panic, had seen her standing there, bloody and holding a huge, menacing sword, and shot her in the head with her bow.
Still, that didn’t explain the high-pitched shriek Gabby had heard just before conscious thought had ceased. The sound worried her, as it had sounded to her mother-trained ears like a child in distress somewhere not too far away. Scanning the area, she spotted a figure in the distance, and her blood ran cold.
Down the street, close to her home, stood Aysen. The girl stood aghast, her eyes wide, her jaw clenched, her face pale. It was like she’d seen a ghost, except Gabriela knew that, no, she’d seen something far worse. She’d seen a Monster.
She had witnessed the death, the smoke, the revival—all of it— and now... Aysen knew.
Making eye contact seemed to break the child from her paralyzing dismay. She turned and ran back towards her home as fast as she could.
“No... nononononono!”
All other things flew out the window as Gabby saw her turn into the walkway to her house, tears streaming down her cheeks. Gabby sprinted after the girl, her heart now pounding in her chest in a very different way than moments before. The front door hung open and she entered, following the sounds of a broken heart to another room—her and Temel’s bedroom, judging by the twin beds. She found Aysen curled up in a ball on the bed furthest in, weeping openly and loudly.
Stepping into the doorway, Gabby opened her mouth and... and what? What was she even doing here? She’d followed Aysen almost without thinking out of some sort of desperate, misguided instinct, but... now what? Nobody wanted her here. What could she say? What words could possibly make everything alright? The words Gabriela needed did not exist. All she found herself able to say were two words.
“I’m sorry.”
Aysen jumped at the sound and scrambled off the bed, putting it between them. She glared at Gabby, shouting, “Go away, you villain! You fiend! You... you liar!”
As much as Gabriela didn’t want to, as much as she knew it would hurt to her core, she forced herself to meet Aysen’s hollow, frightful gaze. She still wasn’t ready for what she found. In those eyes, Gabriela saw something worse than the anger, sadness, and fear she’d found in Eterium—though those were both present in abundance as well. She saw betrayal. She saw the shattered hopes of a little girl who’d just found out that her newfound idol was the same person who’d taken her family and robbed her of a normal, happy life with the people she loved. She saw a single, haunting question: “Why?”
“I didn’t want any of this to happen,” she softly said, as if it made a single bit of difference. “I just... wanted my children back.”
“Was it fun, pretending to be my friend?! Did you have a good laugh?” Aysen spat between sobs.
“I... it wasn’t like that,” she lamely replied.
The elf’s head sank down to the bed in front of her as she continued to bawl. “I’m so stupid,” Gabby heard her mutter under her breath.
Part of her wanted to just give the child a knife and let her just go to town—let her stab and slice and slay the Monster over and over until she was sated. But she couldn’t do it; she couldn’t take a single step forward. An invisible barrier blocked her, one that no amount of physical ability could ever overcome. So, she just stood there, blood splattered across her body, massive crystal sword still in her hand, and powerlessly watched the elven girl cry.
Soon, quicker than Gabby had expected, Aysen’s tears slowed. She pushed herself back to sit against the wall with her face between her knees and she sank into a sullen silence. Still, Gabby did not, could not move. Finally, after an interminable pause, the child spoke again, this time her voice quiet and drained.
“Did he die honorably, at least?”
Gabriela wanted to answer ‘yes’ more than anything, but looking at Aysen’s vacant expression, she couldn’t do it. Even though it was what the girl wanted to hear, she couldn’t bring herself to lie.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ve killed so many people that I can’t remember them individually anymore. It’s all just a terrible blend of nightmares and blood now.”
“Good!” Aysen snarled, blazing hatred resurfacing. “I hope it eats away at you until there’s nothing left and you fall into the ocean and a leviathan eats you and you’re stuck there until the end of time!”
“I’m sorry,” Gabriela dully repeated.
“I don’t care,” came the gutting response. “Just go far, far away, and leave me alone forever.”
And so, that was what she did.
----------------------------------------
The bark was rough against her back, the gnarled knots scraping away her skin. Gabby didn’t mind; it was better this way. It was what she deserved. Her only complaint would have been that it didn’t hurt enough, but that was more of a problem on her end than anywhere else. She barely felt anything anymore, her mind, body, and spirit a void of numbness.
Leaving Aysen’s home, she’d done what she always did, be it physically or metaphorically: run away. She’d streaked past Chitra, leapt over the wall, and just run and run and run and run away from everything as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn’t know where she was, nor what she was going to do from now on, but those were concerns for another time, a time that felt an eternity away.
For how long had she been sitting here, devoid of sensation? For how long had she fled once more from the endless parade of blunders, poor decisions, and downright sins that was her life? She couldn’t say. The moons remained covered by a blanket of clouds, and time seemed to hold no meaning for her in this state. The answer to the question wouldn’t have changed anything, anyway. She would have just sat there, empty, regardless.
The soft rustle of leaves caught her barely existent attention and she turned her head towards the noise just in time to watch Chitra Batranala somehow emerge from the gloom. Gabby blinked, sure that this was some sort of trick of the mind, when Chitra let out a breath of relief.
“There you are.”
A modicum of energy returned to her, enough for her to gape in utter confusion. “H-how did you get here?”
Chitra returned her confused gaze with one of equal confusion. “What are you talking about? We’re maybe a quarter-hour walk away from the bandit camp at most.”
“B-but, that can’t be!” Gabby declared, nervous energy flowing into the void. “I ran so far and fast! I ran through the forest, over a lake, through some fields, across a river, through more fields, across another lake, and—”
Chitra pinched her nose and sighed. “Gabby, you ran in a circle again.”
“...Oh.”
Chitra stepped closer, but then stopped just shy of Gabby and hesitated. “May I?”
Gabby didn’t feel like answering, and Chitra took her silence as assent. She daintily lowered herself to the ground beside Gabby and leaned back to look at the cloudy sky through the canopy.
“I...” the Ubran began after a little while, only to fade away without saying more.
“You...” she started to say a little bit later, only to give up again.
For maybe the first time that Gabby could remember, Chitra Batranala seemed completely unsure of herself.
“These feelings will fade,” she finally said. “I know it feels like the end of the world, but it’s important that you give yourself time to get some perspective.”
“Perspective on what, how many more people’s lives I’ve ruined? All the children I’ve orphaned? Her life is ruined, Chitra! All of it, destroyed because of me!”
“You always focus on that, but what about the other side of it all?”
“Like what?”
“Like Temel, and Dost, and the other children. Or everything you did for Pari.”
“Those are just drops in a bathtub.”
“Even a tidal wave is just made of many drops put together. They matter just as much as anything else. They matter to the children.”
Gabby shot Chitra a scornful look. “And you would know?”
“Don’t take my word for it if you don’t want to. Just ask him yourself.”
“I’m not going back there.”
“You don’t have to.” She turned to face the woods. “Temel, enough is enough! Come out!”
There came a soft, momentary rustle to their left, then nothing.
“Temel, don’t think I didn’t notice you following me! Come out! You trailed me for a reason, right?”
More rustling, after which a tiny figure entered view. It was, indeed, Temel, dressed in what counted for Gustilian pajamas, which were now covered in bits of leaves, sticks, and dirt.
“Temel, what are you doing here?!” Gabby gasped with alarm. “You shouldn’t be out here—it’s dangerous! Aysen’s—”
“I wanted to see you again before you left, but you ran away too fast,” the young child cut in. “I need to give you something.”
“Temel... I...” Gabby swallowed, her throat feeling dryer than the Deadlands. “Why didn’t you tell her?” she croaked.
“Because she was happy when you were here—the happiest since Mom died. And, because I don’t think you’re a monster, even if you did kill Dad.”
“But I am! After all that I’ve done, what else could I be?”
Temel shrugged. “You’re a nice lady, and you saved me. So, I made this for you. Thanks for saving me and for being nice to Aysen even when she’s angry.”
With a wide smile, he reached out and put something in her trembling hands.
“I should go back now before Aysen gets too upset. Goodbye.”
And with that, the child turned and quickly walked back into the brush and disappeared.
Gabriela felt like she was barely holding on. After all the anger and hate she’d not only experienced but come to expect, Temel’s simple words of gratitude and happiness were almost too much to bear, an emotional whiplash that threatened to tear her in two.
Finally, after a couple of deep breaths to collect herself, Gabby brought her hands up to see what the young boy’s gift was.
In her hands were a pair of dolls—dolls of her and Chitra. Sewn together from straw and bits of cloth, the crude simulacra still somehow captured their essence perfectly.
The Chitra doll wore the near-scandalous Chinese-style dress she wore today—a soft blue one this time—and the straw even nearly matched the color of the real Chitra’s amber hair. Her eyes had an almost predatory slant to them that Gabby couldn’t help but find familiar, and a wry smile sewn with red thread.
The Gabby doll was shorter, with her usual black hair and little scraps of actual leather for the leather armor she wore. Like the Chitra doll, the Gabby doll was smiling, but Gabby couldn’t help but think that it was a sad smile.
She tried to hand Chitra her doll, only to find that she couldn’t separate them. The two dolls were holding hands, and Temel had sewn the hands together.
The boy must have worked non-stop all day since his rescue to make these, she realized. The amount of care he’d put into them, the warmth and joy... it went beyond words.
She couldn’t handle it. She just couldn’t. The dolls were the final straw that broke her, except that straw was more like a sledgehammer driven straight into her soul, sundering it with a single earthshaking blow.
Gabriela cried like she had not cried since her first days on Scyria, her body shuddering with tempestuous emotion. She didn’t know how to feel anymore, so she simply felt everything together, all in one overwhelming, unstoppable, seemingly endless eruption.
She felt the guilt of her crimes, the loss of her family, the loneliness of solitude, the fury of the people of Krinallen, the hatred of Aysen, the gratefulness of Temel, the joy of the villagers of Hankala, the fellowship of her friends back in Otharia, the affection of Chitra, and so much more, all at once. It was enough to crush most anybody, and she was no exception. She clung desperately to Chitra as it all washed over her, again and again, shaking and trembling in the woman’s arms, her cries so anguished that they had turned into little more than dry, raspy wheezes into her companion’s welcoming shoulder.
Eventually, as all things do, the waves receded, and Gabriela found herself utterly spent. She let her upper body limply flop to the ground like a dead fish and looked up at the blood-orange leaves of the tree above her, her mind still reeling.
“Feel better?” Chitra asked.
“Yes. No. I don’t know.”
The two drifted back into silence for a while, until finally, Chitra spoke again.
“I’m sorry.”
Gabby blinked. That was not a phrase she had ever expected to hear from those lips.
“You know how I am. You know how hard I train to master every facet of my life—how much practice goes into everything I do.”
Gabby did know. She’d witnessed, even before the invasion, just how hard the Ubran pushed herself in training when she wasn’t busy helping Gabby with her mess of a life. She honestly found it hard to believe that Chitra ever slept, given how few hours were in every day.
“I thought that love was no different. All I had to do was practice until I mastered it, I told myself. Looking back now, it’s easy to see just how blind I was. The people I used for practice, my ‘training dummies’, in a sense, barely ever put up a fight. Most fell for me after a single smile. It was just... too easy. Those people weren’t special, not like you. They didn’t stand a chance against my charms.”
Special? Gabby wasn’t special—not in the way Chitra meant, at least.
“But no matter what I did, nothing ever worked with you. It was like trying to climb an endless mountain; no matter how much progress I thought I might be making, the peak was always so far away that I could never see it. And it made me... frustrated. Angry. Bitter. For the first time in what felt like centuries, I finally had something I wanted just for me, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it.
“That all just built and built inside me until... I snapped. I snapped and I said things that I had no right to say. I ruined our friendship because I was only thinking about myself, and I’ve only made it worse since by doubling down and refusing to listen. I’m sorry. I hope that, perhaps one day, you will be able to forgive me.”
“Please, don’t apologize,” Gabby told her. “It’s not your fault for having feelings. It’s mine for blinding myself to them, and selfishly using you for everything while never bothering to think about what I was asking of you.”
“Gabby—”
“I mean, look at me!” Gabriela continued, plowing through Chitra’s objection before it could even begin. “Who am I kidding? I’m a mess! Heavens above, I can’t even run in a straight line without help!”
She chuckled ruefully before continuing. “I need you, Chitra. I’m lost on my own. Just look at this whole journey. I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea of what to do if you hadn’t come along and helped me through everything. And this whole time, I’ve just taken you for granted and didn’t consider even the possibility that you might have feelings and motivations that I was constantly trampling over.”
“That doesn’t make me innocent.”
“But—!”
“How about we trade, then, your apology for mine?”
“...I guess.”
The apologies and arguments faded as they both sank into their heads. Gabby found herself wrestling with her thoughts, facing an uncertain future with nothing to work with but conflicting desires and needs.
“What do you want to do now?” Chitra eventually inquired. “Go back to Otharia?”
“All of this has been an absolute mess,” Gabby stated. “Perhaps it was all a fool’s errand after all.”
Chitra hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t know. It seems to me like you ended up doing more good than bad, wouldn’t you say? Saved a village, rescued some children... none of that would have happened if you’d stayed in Wroetin.”
“I don’t know, I guess,” Gabby allowed. “It still just... I don’t know. I guess, after seeing first-hand all the consequences of my choices, saving a person or two doesn’t feel like it makes much of a difference. What’s one person when whole towns are being killed off by bandits because there’s no Gustil to protect them anymore?”
“Then, let’s just stop thinking so small. There is a simple way to make a bigger difference.”
“How? All I’m good at is killing people!”
“Once again, not true, but now is not the time to have that argument for the tenth time. If that is you want to believe, then we just need to kill the right people—the people who need to die.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the petty nobles currently running roughshod over the people here, Gabby—the nobles who care only about power and are willing to do anything, no matter how terrible, to get more of it. For example, the Baroness.”
“What about her?”
“I’m convinced now that the Barbed Blades were actually under the Baroness’ employ.”
“What?!” Gabby sat up in shock.
“All the signs point in that direction. As you noted, their encampment was far too nice for a bandit camp. No bandits that I have ever heard of would be able to care for a vekkel without outside support.”
“I thought that maybe they just got lucky in a raid or something.”
“A possibility on its own, perhaps, but not after what happened later. The people who attacked Kagos were dressed like bandits, but bandits they were not. They were too clean, too well-kept, too coordinated. Those were soldiers—or mercenaries at the least—who were trying to appear to be bandits and had too little time to manage it. Think about everything. That was no simple bandit raid. They were going for the Mayor’s estate for a reason.”
“They wanted Dost.”
“Exactly. That raises a multitude of questions, none of them good for the Baroness. First, with the local bandits wiped out by your hand, how did these faux-bandits arrive so soon? Word of the Barbed Blades’ demise would not spread through normal channels so quickly, not in only half a day. The only explanation is that whoever was employing them had a way to communicate directly, perhaps by bird—they’re fast and work well for clandestine messages. They found out what happened and had no choice but to act before their plans fell apart.
“Second, how did they know where to go? If these were just random bandits from somewhere, they wouldn’t know where to find Dost, because they wouldn’t have any connections within Kagos. They wouldn’t even know Dost was there at all. But no, those soldiers—because that’s what they were, I believe; survivors of the Ubran war—they had a very specific goal, and the way they acted says that they wanted to get in, grab Dost, and get out before anybody could stop them.
“Third, and perhaps most damning, who benefited most from Dost and the other children being held hostage? The Baroness. Dost’s father is her primary rival for power in the local area. With his son in her possession, she would have a great amount of leverage over him. What’s more, I spoke to the other children. Do you know what they all have in common?”
“What?” Gabby could feel anger inside her heating up and getting closer and closer to boiling.
“They all were children of important people in the still-independent towns down here, the places on the edge of her domain that she wants more control over. It all fits. She pays the bandits to work for her. They harass the towns, making the townsfolk afraid for their lives, then she comes in offering protection against her own minions. For the towns where that isn’t enough, she has them kidnap the children to apply more pressure. Take Temel for example. What would have happened if they’d told Aysen to collapse the wall or they would kill her only remaining family? All of this benefits Baroness Coban more than anybody else. And, do you know what makes a great place to hide a high-value hostage like Dost from the eyes of his father’s spies? A hidden camp on the opposite side of her lands, so far from both hers and Viscount Simsek’s territory that it technically isn’t even in the Baroness’s domain!”
“That... bitch!”
A loud snap from nearby made Gabby jump, only for her to realize it was her own doing. She’d had her hand around one of the tree’s large roots and had inadvertently squeezed it so hard that she’d broken it in two. The sudden violence served as a reminder of her past actions and pulled her back, offering her some vital perspective.
“Wait, no,” she said, shaking her head. “I caused all of this by killing people based on lies. I need more than a big hunch from you, even if it is pretty convincing.”
“Of course! You’re right. That’s why we need to go and find out for ourselves, right? The city she rules isn’t too far away, not with your speed. We can take our time and research until we are sure we’re right. Then, when you’re satisfied, you can do what you feel is right.”
“Alright, that would work. But... is killing more going to solve the problem or just make it all worse again somehow? I came here to try to atone for my sins, but I feel like I'm just making more sins.”
“These people are kidnapping children, extorting villages, and sending people to die for petty power grabs. Whatever repercussions we might cause would be far less harmful than the current reality. Wouldn’t it be more sinful to know what they are doing and simply stand back and allow them to keep doing it? To let them expand their power and hurt more and more?”
“Yeah... you’re probably right. But... just this once, okay? Just the bad ones. Anything more, and I might as well just rule Gustil myself.”
“Well...” Chitra said with a wry smirk.
“No. Just no.”
The Batranala laughed.
For a third time, their conversation faltered, and they each retreated into their thoughts. Gabby was tired—exhausted, even. Every last cell in her body felt spent, and they had it good compared to her less corporeal side. She wanted to sleep, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Not while the most important question still hung over them, unspoken but not unasked. It was a question that she knew she needed to answer, one way or the other. If she didn’t, then, despite all that had been said, the two of them would never be able to move forward.
Gabriela was afraid.
She couldn’t deny anymore that she felt something for her beautiful, reliable, knowledgeable, wonderful companion. But still, to even acknowledge these feelings felt like knowingly parachuting into a minefield. Once she crossed the line, there would be no going back. If she were to recognize these feelings, she would not be acknowledging a newborn yearning but rather something ancient—something birthed upon their first meeting, stuffed into a pandora’s box and buried deep, deep down where it could never, ever tempt her. So much of her faith told her that to open that box would be wrong. Sin was sin, and she could not plead ignorance.
But... she didn’t want to be alone anymore. She just wanted to be happy. She looked at the dolls again, as a memory bubbled to the surface. As a certain elven boy had so blithely put it, why would it be wrong to be happy?
She didn’t know. Her mind felt far too muddled, her beliefs, desires, and impulses all pulling in different directions so hard that she felt like she was going to rip apart inside. There was just too much for her to work out. As much as she wished for one, no concrete decision would be coming today.
“I... I can’t give you an answer right now. I need time to think about you... and me, and... everything,” she finally said, haltingly and unsure. Giving a non-answer felt like a cop-out, a way of avoiding the issue even longer.
“Very well. If that is what you need, then I will oblige,” Chitra replied without a hint of anger than Gabby had expected.
“You’re really alright with it?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? There’s no rush. I have all the time in the world,” Chitra assured her. “Besides, compared to your original reaction, even this noncommittal response counts as a massive improvement for my chances, is that not so? Take your time and tell me when you know.”
She gently placed a hand on Gabriela’s and gave it a light, encouraging squeeze. Her skin felt warm and smooth. Though she did not squeeze back, Gabby decided to let it be.
Gabriela looked down at the pair of dolls in her hand once more, stroking the Gabby doll’s black strips of hair with affection as she leaned her head back and rested it against the gnarled trunk. Finally closing her eyes, it only took a moment for her to fall into a deep and quiet sleep.
----------------------------------------
Gabriela Carreno backhanded the soldier across the jaw, shattering it with a single blow and sending him sprawling. The man’s saber fell to the floor with a muffled clang, the thick carpet covering most of the hallway absorbing much of the impact. The man himself was not so lucky, as only the hard stone floor was there to greet him where the wall met the foundation. Still, Gabby was not concerned. He would live and his jaw would heal with time.
Onward she strode, following the baying of her prey as they fled through the manor. The sound of hysterically shouted orders drew her to a stairwell that led to the fourth and final floor. They had nowhere left to run.
Her present for the Baroness squirmed as it thumped heavily against every step, its bound legs kicking ineffectually as she dragged it along behind her. Though her struggling cargo was quite heavy, she did not worry that the rope she held would snap under the strain. They’d made sure to use thick, strong cords for this and all the other ropes that would come into play soon. Nothing short of a Feeling-boosted strike would be enough to break it.
Surmounting the stairs, Gabby heard a sound to her left and spun to face it, only to find no opponent waiting for her. A twitch of movement alerted her to a servant cowering behind an ornamental suit of armor, the hyperventilating boy’s trembling body and wide eyes broadcasting clearly just what he feared would happen to him now. Gabby turned away, content to ignore him. Though the boy did not know it yet, she had yet to kill a single person in the Coban estate. That would be changing shortly.
“Kill her!” the Baroness shrieked from down at the far end of the hall. The pudgy woman, over sixty years old according to her and Chitra’s research, pointed Gabby’s way with a hand covered in glittering rings. The gemstones laid within them sparkled in the late-afternoon sun that shined in through the windows set in the door behind them. “Kill her!”
The smattering of men and women around her—one of her two boorish sons and the few guards who had yet to flee from Gabby’s slow but unstoppable journey through the three lower floors—all shifted with fear and uncertainty.
“A year’s wages to whoever kills her!” her son beside her hollered when none of them moved. Younger, with a large gut, flabby arms, and a double chin, the man had clearly not suffered from the food shortages that had afflicted so many of his countrymen. “Two! Two years’ wages!”
The promise of that much money was enough to get several of the remaining guards to momentarily overcome their fear. They both rushed forward, shouting more to themselves for courage than at her.
With the calm confidence and certainty that had infused her since she’d first set foot in this place, she continued forward, her one hand still grasping the rope as she dragged her package across the carpet. She brought up her free hand and smacked aside the left guard’s axe, then swung it to the right and blocked a spear thrust with her palm, arm straight out. The spearhead pierced straight through her hand and slid deep into her forearm, slicing through cartilage and bone.
Gabby called upon the crimson mist, and it answered her call this time without the odd, burning sensation from before. The spearhead and the top of the shaft evaporated into nothingness, and she grasped the end of the remaining shaft with her now-whole hand. Wrenching it from the right guard’s grasp, she drove it into the side of the left guard’s helmet, sending them to the ground. A swift follow-up kick to the right guard’s side sent her crashing through a nearby door.
Stepping past the foolish guards’ bodies, Gabby met the eyes of the others and tossed the improvised club aside. “Walk away now and leave them, and I will spare you,” she promised them.
The remaining guards finally came to their senses and bolted for the closest doorways they could find—except the very closest doorway, which was right behind them. There was a simple reason for that, one that became clear as the Baroness, screeching something about “disloyal trash”, turned the handle and opened the double doors. On the other side was a dead end in the form of a balcony overlooking the town. There was no way to escape in that direction.
That simple fact did not stop the Baroness and her son from rushing through the doorway anyway. She didn’t blame them; nobody would be thinking straight after being herded through their own house to the top floor by a seemingly invincible invader. Still, it only took one look at the fall just one hip-high railing and four stories away—and the large crowd of curious onlookers gathered below, gathered by Gabby’s very attention-grabbing associate—for them to realize their mistake.
“Who hired you?” the noblewoman desperately squawked, turning back toward Gabby with her back against the stone railing. “Tozlu? Simsek? Ozdemir? I’ll triple whatever they offered!”
“No amount of money can save you, Baroness Esen Coban,” Gabby told her plainly. “I am here to put an end to this—but first, I brought you a gift!”
With a satisfied smile, she pulled on the rope, hauling the struggling form more or less upright so the pair could get a better look.
The Baroness gasped as horror and recognition played across her visage. “Bugra!”
The youngest of the family, Bugra was known throughout the area as a spoiled, arrogant lush who regularly used his power and position to force himself on any woman that caught his eye. Somehow, being a serial rapist who had his bodyguards—perhaps more accurately, his goons—“disappear” any man who tried to stop him from claiming their partners still made him the least evil of the three.
Nabbing him had been child’s play. All they had needed to do was make Chitra’s presence in the town known and he’d brought himself to their metaphorical doorstep, demands on his lips and alcohol on his breath. His goons were still tied up back in the shack where the pair had dumped them. Gabby would probably let the townsfolk decide their fate.
The chaos that his disappearance caused within the town had only helped Gabby and Chitra further their plans, leading up to this point. Gabby had been able to practically walk right into the estate with almost nobody bothering her until she made it to the front door.
“When I was split from my family, it tore me to pieces,” she explained. “The uncertainty of it all, not knowing the fate of the people I loved—not even knowing if they were still alive—was more than I could bear. It ate away at me, it hollowed me out from the inside until I started to lose myself. I began making... terrible choices—choices that I knew deep down were wrong even at the time—just to feel some hope that I would ever feel whole again. I wouldn’t want to inflict that on anybody, not even somebody as wicked as you lot.”
Gabriela tossed the writhing Bugra forward so that he bounced and rolled to a stop at the Baroness’ feet.
“Your line ends here, together. That way, you will die knowing the fate of all you care for. It is the one mercy I will grant you, after all that you have done.”
“Don’t think you’ll get away with attacking a noble, you dirty whore!” the other son snarled. “The others will hunt you down for this, mark my words!”
Gabby snorted. “I watched the King of Gustil’s life slip away at the other end of my blade. Do you think I’m scared of some small fry like you?”
The baroness gasped, her terror multiplying. “Impossible! They said you were dead!” she cried out.
“Besides,” Gabby continued, ignoring the woman’s outburst, “who said I would be the one killing you?”
Had the two nobles been of sound mind and unpressured, there was a good chance they would have noticed the three ropes tied around the bases of three central railing posts behind them. Still, even if they had, they would have never understood in time what it meant for them. Even now, as Chitra swung up behind them, alighting atop the railing as lightly as a bird to the sounds of gasps from the crowd below, they had no idea. It wasn’t until she slid the nooses over their heads that they even realized she was there, and by then, it was far too late.
Gracefully diving off the side to the cries of the townspeople, a rope in each hand, Chitra sent the Baroness and her elder son tumbling over the rail. Screaming like banshees, they plummeted through the air until, very suddenly, they didn’t. The ropes creaked as they went taught, but they and the knots held.
The townspeople were in a frenzy as Chitra used her grip on the ropes to redirect her momentum like an Olympic gymnast doing a rings routine and flung herself most of the way back up. Catching the balcony floor with one hand and effortlessly flipping up and over the railing, she flashed Gabby a vicious smile that made her want to melt into a puddle.
There was just something different about Chitra when she was like this that made Gabby tingle—a dangerous, predatory aura that only emerged when she fought and killed, one that transformed her already stunningly graceful and elegant movements into something that sent Gabby’s heart beating faster than a hummingbird’s. Maybe it was the fact that she’d never gotten a chance to see this side of Chitra before; though all Batranalas received ample combat training, they never needed to use it—that was what guards and soldiers were for. Or, perhaps more likely, Gabby postulated, there was just something messed up with her mind. Why else would these displays of power and skill get her so bothered?
“That was easy,” Chitra commented.
“Y-yeah,” Gabby managed to get out.
The Ubran looked back over her shoulder and chuckled over the roar of the people. “Look how happy the people are. They’re even throwing rocks at the bastards.”
Gabby took a peek and found that the crowd had become a roiling mob, finally taking their chance to vent years of accumulated rage upon their hanging oppressors. More than just rocks flew now; the people hurled anything they could get their hands on.
Chitra bent over and picked up the struggling third Coban. “I think it’s time we gave them all their targets, don’t you think?”
----------------------------------------
Not long after, Gabriela looked back at the raucous town in the distance with a bit of a frown. On the one hand, there was the satisfaction of a job well done. She had no doubt now that the Baroness deserved what happened to her. Some of the things they’d uncovered were so heinous that she had trouble finding words to describe her disgust, and to make it worse, they seemed to make little effort to hide it. It was like they relished flaunting the impunity their power gave them.
Still... Gabby found herself feeling conflicted... about a lot of things.
Chitra noticed her frown and poked her in the side. “You just succeeded in your goal and you’re already starting to mope.”
“Sorry, I was just... thinking about who I am as a person.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “All my life I was raised with my faith and the values that hold it together. But, every time I have to choose between those values and something I want, I choose what I want. That’s probably how it will go the next time too, and the time after that. I guess the values I thought I believed in my whole life don’t actually mean much to me after all—even the clearest, most basic things like ‘do not kill’. I am a hypocrite and a horrible Catholic, and maybe it’s time I finally accepted that fact instead of running from it.”
Chitra clicked her tongue.
“Is that all? To be a hypocrite is to live. That’s just how it is; reality isn’t a fan of simple, clean, and easy choices. If that is all it takes to sin, then every one of us is guilty beyond measure.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to say.”
“Well, then speak clearly.”
“What I’m trying to say is...” She hesitated, finding the words hard to say even after all they’d been through together. “I don’t know how much I can love you, but I can try.”
Her statement caught the Batranala off guard, a rarity in the time they’d spent together. A moment later, a wide smile bloomed on Chitra’s face. It was bright, joyous, relieved, and the first true, genuine, pretense-less grin Gabriela had ever seen her make. For a fleeting moment, that smile became Gabby’s entire world. Then, it vanished, turning back into Chitra’s normal, standard beautiful bewitching grin as the magic faded.
“That’s... I’m glad,” the Ubran finally said. Chitra reached out and grabbed Gabby’s hand, intertwining their fingers and giving it a gentle squeeze. Gabby squeezed back.
A moment of silence passed, a moment of happiness where Gabby allowed herself to feel just a little bit better about herself and the life she now led. Maybe, just maybe, she could still salvage something from the train wreck that was her decision-making track record.
“Shall we go?” Chitra eventually asked. “There are still many more nobles to look into.”
“Yes, let’s—”
BZZZZZZT! BZZZZZZT! BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!
Gabby nearly jumped out of her boots as the world’s most excited bee began buzzing away against her torso. Digging into her outfit, she fished around and eventually withdrew a small disk with a smaller crystal in the center. The chip vibrated with the frenzied energy of a man who'd just downed twenty cups of espresso as if to better drive home the dire significance of its message. Cold dread filled her as she remembered what Blake had told her about the disc and the very specific reason it would be used.
“What in Nartrill’s name is that?” Chitra wondered, flabbergasted.
“We have to go back to Otharia. Something terrible has happened.”