Wandering around the inside of the estate, I felt the restlessness tingle through my entire body. It felt wrong to stay still with what was going on, but I couldn’t argue against Astrid’s point. The three of them would be enough to sneak in and bring the Warks out safely. They had me stay behind to make sure that everyone here was safe while they were gone.

Having the security of food, a roof over their heads and a plan, the people we’d been escorting through the city had calmed. They stayed out of sight, exploring the manor at their own leisure.

Turning, I saw a couple try one of the doors and frowned. The two were older and bigger than me, but it didn’t matter.

“Step away from the door.” I ordered in a low voice.

The two immediately froze, raising their hands up and stepping back.

“We just wanted to see what was in this room.” One complained.

“This room is off-limits. Did you not hear me earlier?” I asked.

“We were just curious.”

“I don’t care.” I threatened. “This is your only warning.”

The two scurried away almost immediately.

Sighing, I walked over to the door and paused, staring at the door handle. I eventually grasped the handle and turned it, pushing the door forward just enough to see inside.

The room was dark, thick curtains blocking the early evening sun. Lying on the bed at the end of the room, Charlotte was still. After a short time, she went to her room, saying that she was tired.

“Hamil? Is that you?” I heard her voice as she sat up. “You can come in.”

Worried that I’d woken her, I slipped into the room and closed the door behind me.

“Did I wake you?” I asked.

“No, I never slept.” She dropped her hands into her lap. “I just can’t get rid of this guilty feeling.”

Walking over to the bed, I sat at its foot, noting that all of the sheets had been stolen.

“Why do you feel guilty?” I asked, watching her face.

“I keep getting the feeling like I should have died with them. That I deserved to.” She hung her head. “I was just like them when I was younger. You know that.”

“But you’ve changed.” I argued. “You are not your parents.”

“I… I get that.” She paused. “But mom… she was pregnant.” A tremor ran through her body as she drew in an unsteady breath. “She was days away from giving birth. If I’d been there, maybe I could have saved it. Maybe I could have kept mom safe until the baby was born.”

“But what about after?” I asked. “Would you have been able to take care of both your mother and a newborn as a fugitive?”

“At least it would be alive.” She sobbed.

“I’m sure you’ll get another chance, someday.” I said, tipping my head to look at her face. Seeing the look on her face, I clarified what I meant. “To save someone, I mean. To prevent someone from suffering a terrible death.”

Laying back against the bed, she wiped her eyes with the dirtied sleeve of her tattered dress.

“Is this what you’ve felt like?” She asked.

“Like what?”

“My dad is a criminal who’s done so many terrible things.” She stated. “And now I have to pay for them.”

“You don’t have to pay for anything.” I laid down next to her. “They’ve already paid for their crimes. What have you done?”

After a long pause, she sat up straight. “I need to see it.”

“See what?”

“What my father’s done.” She explained. “I need to see everything.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “You really don’t need to.”

“Yes, I do.” She affirmed. “I need to know everything that he’s done. I will not carry the sins of my family, but I will carry their memory. I will never allow it to happen again.”

Seeing her resolve, I smiled and rolled off of the bed. “Then I’ll show you.”

I guided Charlotte to her father’s study, feeling her presence barely a step behind me the entire way. A few people had gathered in the study, playing some kind of card game on the floor.

“I need all of you out of here.” I ordered, looking down at them all.

Without a word, they gathered up their game and left through the open doorway.

The wall fixtures had been ripped off of every surface, including the secret lever to Lord Renae’s dungeon. Because of this, the hidden door was wide open, leaving the pathway open to the air. Standing at the top of the spiral stairs, I stopped.

I’d wanted to keep Charlotte away from this kind of thing, but that wish meant little now. This was her choice, and I would be here to support her every step of the way.

The dungeon was exactly the way I had left it. The light crystals were somehow fused to the stone around us, with clear signs of people trying to steal them. Turning to the door that had caught my attention the last time I was here, I drew in a slow breath, feeling the familiar stench of blood sting my nostrils.

Cautiously opening the door, I peeked my head inside and breathed a sigh of relief. The room was empty. At least of the living.

“If you want to turn back, now is the time.” I said, looking back at Charlotte.

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“No. I can’t turn back.” She said, steeling herself.

“Then… just… lean on me if you need to.” I said, opening the door for her to step through.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. Each of them wet as her shoes slapped against the slurry that pooled on the stone floor. I could hear her breath growing erratic, so I grabbed onto her hand and squeezed it tight.

The room was well lit, but that made things worse, not better. It was enormous. Large enough to store hundreds of people, which it did. Many of them were still here. Skeletons, half-decayed corpses and people that could have died yesterday. They were all held in chains on multiple levels that rose up to the ceiling, standing over giant rooms barred off with iron.

Charlotte’s grip tightened as she swallowed hard.

“Why… why do you think he did all of this?” She asked, her voice shaky.

“I don’t know.” I said. “I never thought that it would be something like this.”

Slowly, we walked toward the center of the room where a large metal grate sat, blood slowly trickling down into the hole.

Looking around the room, I spotted one spot on the wall that was different from the others. An oddly square section of stone, barely smaller than my hand, jutted out of the wall.

“Over here.” I said, leading Charlotte over to the wall.

Pressing hard against the stone, I watched it sink into the wall as another secret door opened right beside it. Instead of a long hallway, a short set of stairs waited beyond this door, leading upwards.

This floor was some kind of study, several books stacked atop a wooden desk and a series of odd machines and tools waiting on a table beside it.

Away from the scene of her father’s sins, Charlotte sat down in the chair and tried to calm her breathing. While she did this, I skimmed through the books on the table. The titles were what caught my eye the most.

The Magic of the Arkan.

Curses and the Spirit of Spite.

Arkan Biology.

Effects of Human Illnesses on the Arkan.

Effects of Arkan Illnesses on the Human.

Mixing of Human and Arkan Blood.

The Creation of the Kantr.

This last one drew my attention the most. Every one of these books was penned by Lord Renae, himself, but this one seemed to be a sort of journal.

After reading the first few passages, I wanted to tear the book in half. The things that this man had done were beyond what I could have ever imagined.

Seeing my emotional state, Charlotte asked. “What is it? What are those books?”

Holding a hand out, I took a moment to gather my words. “I know you said that you needed to witness everything that your father had done, but you don’t need to see this.”

Charlotte held my gaze for a moment before nodding her head. “I trust you.”

Looking down at the book, I felt my stomach churn. It needed to be destroyed. Just then, Charlotte held out her hand as a little, yellow flame ignited in the center of her palm. Looking up at her, I immediately set the book in her hand and watched as it was devoured in seconds.

“What about the rest of them?” She asked.

“I’m not sure. They’re research notes, but the things he wrote inside are gibberish.”

“It can wait, then.” She said. “We’ll burn this house to the ground once we leave.”

Leaning against the desk, something on the far wall caught my attention.

╚╩╩╩╝ Ayun Austen ╚╩╩╩╝

It took some time to find disguises that would work for the other two, but we eventually found some. It was a challenge to make the disguise work with Damian’s missing arm, but some cloth stuffed in the sleeve and putting it in a sling did the charm.

Whoever was leading this battalion made a lot of poor choices with who they were hiring. I’d yet to run into someone even slightly competent. Though, I guess that’s something to be grateful for.

We strolled through the city like it was any other afternoon. The helmets were a little more important for Astrid and me. Unfortunately, I’d learned that the soldiers paid extra special attention to me with my helmet off. Damian, though, could keep his helmet off. It would make us less conspicuous.

Mixing with the ever growing crowd around the Wark’s estate, I scanned the faces of everyone I could see. I was looking for anyone who was acting as a leader, but nobody seemed to have taken up the role. It was utter chaos.

People were taking turns throwing whatever they have at the titanic walls that kept them out, but nothing they did worked. They’d been at it for hours and hadn’t gotten tired of the futility.

Rounding the perimeter a few times, we couldn’t find any opening. The plan was to try and climb up and hope that we wouldn’t get thrown off like everyone else, but . Without a way to get through unnoticed, we would be in trouble, especially with Damian’s missing arm.

Drawing away from the wall, we went over our plan.

“There’s easily two hundred soldiers here.” I started. “Even if we managed to get through them, there’s even more on the way.”

“If we managed to get through the wall, then we’d be bringing them all with us. We need a way to distract them.” Astrid suggested.

“A large enough fire would gather some attention. If we’d brought that girl with us, we could have set one not far from here.” I considered.

“I don’t think I could start one big enough.” Astrid explained.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Damian asked, looking around.

“Hear what?” I asked.

After a moment, the ground started shaking violently. A commotion rose over the crowd as people stumbled over each other and fell. The dirt and soil in front of us exploded as thick tree roots shot out of the ground.

Rushing over to where the roots were, Damian shouted. “Hurry!” Then he dropped down into a hole in the ground.

Turning around, I could see an alarming number of people looking in our direction. Looking back, I saw Astrid’s head disappear and quickly rushed in after her.

The tunnel writhed around us as the ground shook and nearly all light disappeared. The only amount of light that remained came from the opposite end of the tunnel. Damian was already nearing the end.

The inside of the estate didn’t look much better than the outside. Trenches and holes covered every inch of the ground. Bloodied bodies littered the ground. Each one was full of holes, large and small, some caused by the hundreds of arrows that were sticking out of nearly every spot on the ground.

A hulking shape stepped through the front doors. It was astounding. A giant beast made of thick, thorny vines. What surprised me even more was, once it had fully stepped into the light, I could see a young girl riding on its back. I was initially worried, but it looked like the beast had grown a bed of flowers for her to sit on.

The moment that she saw us, the girl leapt off of the beast’s back and ran over to Damian and Astrid. The two crouched down and pulled her into a hug. As they were hugging, a woman stepped out and held her hands up to her face, weeping.

I stayed back to let them have their moment in relative privacy.

It was hard to watch, but there was a sweetness to it. The woman, who I assumed to be Licilia Wark, nearly collapsed when they told her of her husband’s fate, but they were there to catch her. The girl, Veria Wark, was unsurprised, though. In fact, she seemed rather at peace.

“We can’t stay here for much longer.” Damian said firmly. “We’re ready to escape as soon as we can.”

“Please,” Licilia said, tears still flowing down her face, “let me gather some things first.”

“We would never refuse.” Astrid answered softly.

Licilia rushed back into her wrecked home and returned just a few minutes later with a sack slung over her shoulder.

Turning to the beast, Damian said. “Do you know where the Renae estate is?” He then paused for a moment before nodding. “Everyone else is there.”

“You can hear him, too?” Veria asked, looking up at the man.

“I can, yes.”

The ground shook as the soil opened up, tree roots digging through the earth. After about a minute, the shaking stopped and the ground settled.

After it had finished, the beast’s form stilled as the vines rotted and died until all that remained was a little dog. I recognized the dog as the one that I had seen with Hamil before. Only, it now had eyes that shone with intelligence.

“He says that we need to hurry, since the walls won’t stay up for much longer.” Veria announced.

The tunnel was far longer this time, with small holes in the roof to let light and air in. I could hear the sounds of frantic shouting as footsteps shook the passage.

The path broke out of the earth right in front of the Renae’s manor where a crowd of refugees had gathered to see what was happening.

Hamil broke through the crowd to see us, Charlotte standing right beside him.

I had expected to see a heartfelt reunion between the boy and his adoptive mother, but he kept his attention on me instead.

“You’ll never guess what we found.” He asked.

“What?”

“Money.” Charlotte said. “Gold, silver and copper chips. A ton of them hidden in the dungeons. Father must have been collecting them to pay people.”