“Well, how long will it take from here to Vanoge?” The hooded man has a troubled voice.

“Jiv, I told you, calm down. They will arrive by evening. We have prepared an easy-easy route.”

“Yes, okay, but I don't trust it. What if she shoots us with that thing? I heard that ancient weapons...”

“Jiv, stop it!” The interlocutor raises a fist and Jiv raises his hands in fear. “The plan is perfect. Endya was right to spill the beans, you'll see that Vanoge will finally become grateful. Almost twenty years as adventurers and no recognition.”

“Okay okay. But that weapon...”

“Oh! How should I tell you? She has no shots, she can't shoot us! The other night, think about the other night.”

“Yes-yes, but Endya says she has a bullet.” Jiv simulates the gun sign with his hand, indicating where the drum should be.

“You can be worse than Folfo if you want! One bullet doesn't kill two people!”

“But if Endya had lied, yes, well…”

⁂

Is Endya involved?

What does it mean?

Sely follows the discussion carefully. She keeps one hand on the butt of the gun, but she doesn't want to intervene.

He's right, I only have one shot…

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“Sely,” Filo's low voice distracts the girl. He has just returned from a check-up.

“What's up?”

“I checked. The clearing is upfront, it looks fine. However…” he nods towards the assassins.

“Yes, they would find us. What do we do? I would like to make them pay and...”

Filo shakes his head. “Listen, Sely. I know another way. Trust me, I understand that you want revenge now but, honestly, it's too soon.”

Perplexity.

A slight discomfort in her belly.

“Why would it be too soon?”

“Because we are running away from our duties. In the village they are looking for us and, if they searched for us they found two corpses, those two corpses, well... it's obvious, right?”

“No, it is not.”

“They would execute us. We would be considered guilty. From their point of view, right now, they are two simple explorers who have prepared the path for us. Understand this, please.”

Right, I didn't think about it. In theory, we are doing this nonsense for the city, circumventing the rules of the city itself.

How frustrating!

“So we're going to trick them?”

“Follow me.”

Sely follows Filo into the bush. Meanwhile, she continues to listen to increasingly distant voices.

“What if she really was an ambassador? I mean she came from the plateau.”

“Jiv, no. Endya told us everything, we just have to do our thing while waiting for him to come back.”

“What if the spider king eats it? Who hears the old lady?”

“Well, you mean that we have done ours. We'll say we don't know anything, we escaped while we were escorting the insect and...”

“Yes, something…”

Now too distant and they become a background murmur.

Filo continues to sneak and Sely follows him.

It's like hunting, we don't have to make noise or run into obstacles.

“Filo” even though they are far enough away, Sely keeps her voice low.

“Tell me.”

“Did you hear them?”

“Yes, but I didn't understand much. They're the killers, okay? But they don't seem to be aware of the city's arrival.”

Sely scratches her head. “They talked about Endya, he didn't know.”

“So they killed your father for other reasons?”

“I don't know, but do you think that Endya… I mean, I saved his life.”

Filo stops. “This doesn't mean anything, Sely. You are naive to believe this nonsense." He starts again.

Sely stands still.

She is dumbfounded.

Humans are sad.