“They had us in a caravan of sorts. The windows were bared, the doors locked, and soldiers stood at every corner. It didn’t matter which way I looked at it, there wasn’t any possible route to escape. I remember peeking out the window as we traveled, using the scenery to distract myself. We had been traveling for weeks at this point, and yet, we were still keeping our southward heading. I was confused at the time, my whole life I’d been told there was nothing in the south, that it was just an empty wasteland, but I was wrong. There were dozens of different tribes lining all around the Thalian, some even dwelling in the rocky area south of the Branch of Fire. Of course, I didn’t know this at the time, but it helps contextualize what happened that day. We were passing in between two large cliffs, a narrow pass cutting through otherwise untraversable terrain. All of a sudden, atop each cliff, a different group stood, their men wearing their tribes sigil. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I later learned that the tribe on the left was one bent on absolute destruction, likely planning to kill us. Meanwhile, the one on the right was another group of slavers. No matter how you looked at it, the situation was dire. After this point, I don’t remember much. The whole fight was a blur. What I do remember was the sudden lurch as the caravan tilted over and splintered, the rush of energy as I grabbed a young girl and what I later found out to be her little brother, the panic as I saw a fiery eyed mage pressing his glowing palm against my forehead, the feeling of his bones cracking as I slammed my cuffed hands into his already caved skull, the pounding of feet as we squeezed into a tiny crevice in the wall, the horror on the girls face as she watched her brother get grabbed, the final push to freedom on the other side, the girl crying that night, alone and scared, the way I tried to comfort her, never before having seen such emotion, and the feeling of loss myself. I remember all of that pretty well. It’s kind of hard to forget.”

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-an excerpt from Ren Incantum