“Get back!”

The world spun for an instant before Lily hit the snow face first. She rolled and rose as quickly as she could. What lay before her was a bloodbath. Sunica had pushed her out of the way, and already had her knife buried deep in a stranger’s chest, with enough force to lift them off their feet. Lily watched the hunting knife slide back from the strike, wet, red, a slash of color in the snow white world. She almost couldn't understand what she was looking at. Time felt slow as she watched the guy grip at the hole in his chest, gasping. Sunica kicked him down and turned, whirling.

Adelina was already hurling more chunks of ice, and the strangers were scattering. Screaming. Yelling?

“Oh shit! Balaur! Run!”

“She’ll catch us! We have to fight!”

“I told you this was a stupid plan!”

There were seven in total. At least there had been. Two were already down, so that left five. It had taken an instant. One of the strangers finally got his sword drawn and made to slash at Sunica. Adelina’s voice rang out again.

“[Repel]! [Heat Metal]!”

The stranger’s blade bounced off of nothing, and then he yelped in pain and surprise as it turned red hot in his hands. He hissed, cussing a blue streak as he dropped it, his hand smoking in the cold air. The sword landed on the ground and cut through layers of ice and snow like--well, a hot knife through butter. This cooled the metal, but as he tried to pull it back out, he found it lodged in the permafrost.

He was still trying to pull it out of the ground when one of the others--a taller one? They were all kind of short--shoved him out of the way of an oncoming Sunica.

"Idiot! Leave it!"

"But my sw--" He was cut off by a fleck of shard of ice exploding into the snow in front of them. He slid back to avoid it and saw Sunica had closed the distance and had kicked the legs out from beneath him and dug a knife into his shoulder.

"Damn! Damn it! Sikki!" The other stranger was screaming now. No--weeping. There were tears as she scrambled back. "Idiot! Idiot!"

Lily swallowed hard and pushed away her paralysis. She had to do something! But what? She wasn’t a fighter. Besides, this was a one sided battle. Adelina was far more offensively capable than Lily had thought. If she didn’t act soon, all the strangers would be dead.

Was that… bad? They had been willing to attack her. But, they were people, right? They were speaking! They were.. crying. She found her voice.

“Stop fighting! We can talk!”

One of the remaining strangers turned to look at Lily, and she saw the surprise written across his face. Was peace such a strange concept? Adelina responded in a loud voice.

“They’re goblins! Get back, Miss Human! [Ice Lance]!”

Another shard of ice barely missed the goblin that had turned to Lily. He stumbled back away from her and yelled to his friends.

“Don’t listen to the human! She’s distracting–”

Sunica’s knife pierced his chest as she rammed into him bodily, sending both of them crashing into the snow. Another goblin charged at her from behind, trying to get to her before she regained her footing. From the outskirts of the battle, one of the goblins that hadn’t really engaged in the fighting yelled out.

“Shard, no! Run!”

But the goblin didn’t listen, or didn't hear them. It? Shard? approached Sunica from the back, carefully staying in her blindspot--but Adelina had seen. She was already preparing a spell to defend her sister.

“[Frozen Snare]. [Ice Spike]!”

In a flash the goblin’s feet froze solidly to the ground, and a huge spike of ice sprouted from the ground under their feet. They didn’t make it another step. Red blood flowed down the side of the ice creation, and froze before reaching the ground. Lily stifled a scream. Three goblins remained. Two were running. The one who had called out to their friend seemed paralyzed.

Lily had to do something. This was a slaughter! There was blood everywhere. More blood than she had ever seen, actually. Her hands were shaking. The goblins clearly didn’t stand a chance against Sunica and Adelina. Well, especially Adelina. But still!

Lily yelled again.

“Please stop! Adelina, they don’t stand a chance!”

Sunica rounded on Lily as she made it to her feet. Her voice was a low hiss, exasperated.

“They’re goblins Lily! They’re monsters! They’d kill us if we let them!”

Adelina was focused on the ones fleeing. Her eyes were narrow, calculating. She lifted a finger and the air filled with ozone.

“[Lightning Bolt]!”

A bolt of electricity shot from her hands and bounced from one of the ones on the ground to the second farthest one, hitting them in the back of the head with an earsplitting cracking noise. They dropped.

Sunica started towards the remaining goblin who wasn’t running. It didn't take a genius to see where that was going--Lily forced her numb legs to move, running to get ahead of her. At least one--she had to help at least one of them--

Lily stumbled and fell in the snow. She cursed how physically weak she always was and scrambled forward again. But the stumble had cost her precious time. She looked down and saw that she had tripped on bloodslicked ice. She looked up and saw that Sunica was going to get there first. Lily called out, her voice cracking.

“Sunica! Wait! Please! They’re not even fighting!”

The goblin took that moment to turn and try to run. Sunica's tail whipped sharply in frustration and rounded on Lily again.

“We can’t let them go! They're monsters, Lily. They'll kill someone else. Don’t you get it? They’ll just attack–”

“[Ice Spike]!”

The shard of ice caught the running goblin in the ribs, and they dropped. Lily’s heart caught in her throat. She was just about to turn to face Adelina when Sunica put a hand on Lily’s shoulder. Her voice was grim.

“You don’t have to watch. I’m sorry you had to see this, but if they’d run into someone less capable, or even me without Adelina around, they’d have killed them. Understand?”

“I–”

Adelina’s voice rang out from further away.

“Going after the last one!”

Lily heard her footsteps running off after the one that’d run early on.

“Y-you killed them. All of them. We could have talked. We could have–”

“No. There’s no talking to monsters.”

“What do you mean? They were talking. They--they--they were *people*, Sunica.”

Her voice was cracking again.

“What? Lily, they just look like that. They’re just–”

A pained groan caught Lily’s attention, and she pushed past Sunica. The one that’d taken the ice dart to the ribs was stirring! It was alive! Maybe Lily could still help. Save… at least one life? She bit back the part of her that recoiled at thinking of herself as capable of anything. She knew she was trash, but she had to at least do this. She had to at least try.

“Oh, please…!”

“Lily, wait! Don’t get close, it could still be dangerous!”

Sunica followed after Lily with ease, but hesitated at actually grabbing her and physically pulling her back. As Lily reached the downed goblin, she saw a lot of blood. The ice was still piercing the goblin’s skin, but it hadn’t gone as deep as it had originally looked. Had it glanced off a rib?

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please let me help you.”

The goblin didn’t seem like they were really able to parse what she was saying. It's eyes were rolling wildly as she crouched next to it.

How could she help anyways? She was no medic. She knew better than to just grab the chunk of ice and pull it out, but it was going to melt eventually anyways. Pressure? Sure, she could do that, but was it enough? Cauterization? Is that the right thing to do for a wound so close to organs? She swore quietly to herself. She should have paid more attention to getting medical information from the old internet, but she had figured that if she had a wound like this she would have died anyways. If only she knew a healing spell. Wait, did this world have healers?

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She turned to Sunica.

“We need to get them to a [Healer] or something. Is there one in town?”

Sunica just gave Lily a confused look.

“Lily, they won’t treat a goblin.”

“What? Why not? There’s clearly no more threat! This one can barely move, much less hurt anyone!”

Sunica’s expression became one of exasperated pity.

“Lily. They’re monsters. I get that you must have been kind of uh… sheltered from this stuff where you came from. But, even if we got it to a healer, convinced them to treat it, and let it loose in the wild, it’d just be back hunting people out here again.”

“How can you say that?!”

“I’ve lived here all my life. I know what happens. How are you so bothered by this? I thought you’d understand. You never even flinched about monsters when I mentioned them before.”

“But these are people! They’re just different from you. Am I a monster now?”

“What? No! Don’t be ridiculous. We’re talking right now.”

“We could have talked with the goblins!”

“What? No we can’t.”

“What do you mean we can’t!? I heard them! They said words to me." She paused, looking up from applying pressure near the shard. Their skin was so cold. She tried not to think about it. "Er, well, about me anyway. We could have talked this through! You--you just went straight to violence--”

Sunica gasped quietly.

“Lily, are you telling me you could understand them?”

“Of course I could! They were talk…ing…”

Oh. Oh no. Oh no no.

The penny dropped. Lily felt the blood drain out of her face. Her translation spell. It was working on her. She could understand the goblins. The goblins could understand her. She could understand Sunica and Adelina. Sunica and Adelina could understand her.

But they were all speaking different languages. Tears started up in Lily’s eyes. She was such an idiot! Moron! Imbecile! Absolutely no good waste of the flesh she inhabited! If she had just been a little less self absorbed! A little less scared! A little more focused. She could have realized sooner. She might have been able to do something! And now–

A cough cut her self pity party. Lily turned her attention back to the goblin, who was coughing blood.

There was still time to do something right. There was no time for her feelings right now. It took everything she had, but she buried them in her heart. Later. No feeling now. Take it out of the equation. Put it away.

She bent down over the goblin and examined the wound. It tried to push her away, but was hardly strong enough. Lily couldn’t tell if she was looking at a boy or a girl. Either way, young. Couldn’t have been more than a teen, assuming goblins aged even somewhat similarly. Bleeding. Losing warmth. Losing life.

First the warmth. Losing blood in the snow had to be addressed. Lily already had the circle she was looking for. Mana burned its way through the snow in thin lines, creating a circle around the goblin that warmed the temperature considerably. The snow began to melt slowly.

Sunica’s hand gripped Lily’s shoulder from behind.

“What are you doing? Just let it–”

“I’m helping. Don’t touch me.”

The girl recoiled as if Lily had slapped her. Lily would deal with it later. She didn’t want Sunica to hate her. She just couldn’t deal with not– No. She nearly choked, forcing the emotions down again. Lock them away. Not the time. Her feelings didn’t matter right now. This would never have gotten so bad if she was in control from the beginning.

Now, the wound. The ice was going to melt, so there would be nothing holding the wound closed soon anyways. She’d have to replace that. Pressure might allow it to close, but could this goblin afford to lose that much blood? Cauterization would prevent further blood loss if Lily did it right. But it’d potentially cause damage to undamaged areas if she did it wrong, and might send the goblin deep into shock. She didn’t know how to treat that. She didn’t know how to treat any of this!

Decision time. Pressure. Cauterization was too risky. She’d learn more about how it worked later, so she could do it right then. For now, she’d remove the ice and put heavy pressure on the wound. Lily reached for the shard of ice and gripped it. It didn’t pull out quickly and easily. The goblin screamed. Lily almost burst into tears. But no. No emotion. None. Not allowed.

She pulled the chunk of ice free. Fresh blood oozed up from the freshly uncovered wound. She tossed the magical ice aside. Already her hands were coated in the slick tacky blood. It didn’t matter. She would cry later. She needed cloth.

She reached forward and grabbed the leg of the goblin’s trousers. Pants. Clothes. They wore clothes. Lily had never thought about that before. They wore clothes in most media they were depicted in. Rough leather stitching, on tough, scratchy fiber. They made this. If they were people, would they be wearing anything? Why would a mindless murderous beast do that?

She tried to tear the cloth, but she wasn’t strong enough. Fine. Magic. It could solve so many of her problems, why couldn’t she just make this right? She didn’t know a spell that could do that.

A circle formed around the leg of the pants. Two push glyphs, pushing in opposite directions along the straight line. There was a tearing sound as the fabric came apart. It wasn’t clean, but it worked. Speaking of clean, germs. She needed to sterilize this.

She made a smaller circle next to her that gathered water. She watched as snow rolled its way into the circle, looking somewhat like a miniature avalanche. Then she applied the heat glyph, and poured mana in. The water boiled. She dipped her new cloth in, and applied as much force as she could. The water boiled away in seconds, and she pulled the cloth out of the circle as she saw it start to singe around the edges. She let the circle come undone. There was a popping noise as steam exploded forth from her small spell. It singed the skin on her arm a little. Oh well. She’d have time to care for herself later.

For now, she pressed her new cloth bandage onto the wound and created a multi circle spell to hold it on. Six circles around the edges, and one in the center formed a six sided circle of their own around the fabric. Each of the push glyphs applied a good bit of pressure. Lily hoped that would work to stop the bleeding a little. She was about to turn to Sunica to tell her to help carry the goblin back to the house when she realized there was talking. Adelina and Sunica were arguing. She hadn’t been listening.

“Just grab her and move her out of the way. Take her home! I’ll take care of the goblin, and head back to Veni to report the one that got away.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea… Lily’s–”

“I’m what?”

They both turned to look at her. Sunica looked stricken. Adelina just appeared to be angry and frustrated. She stepped forward.

“I need to deal with that goblin.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s my job, Miss Human. I’ve sworn to protect the people of Avezare and the villages surrounding it. I can’t let people get hurt because I didn’t take care of it.”

“No.”

“Yes! Miss Flamewalker, please be reasonable about this. I get that you don’t like violence, but a monster is–”

“They’re not a monster. They’re wearing pants.”

“I– what?”

“Look. I’m going to try to save this goblin. I don’t really care what your reasons are right now. I need to get them back to Sunica’s cabin, so either help me or leave.”

“I can’t let you just take it home.”

Sunica even started to speak up but Lily whirled on her.

“If you don’t want to help, you can leave too. I’ll stay right here if I have to. But I’m doing the best I can. This is my fault. I’m going to try to fix it.”

“How is it your fault?”

“I should have been– I should have…”

Lily felt her emotions roil, and she pushed them down again.

“When you have the power to help, you have the responsibility.”

Adelina butted in again, nearly pushing her sister out of the way.

“Helping is killing that thing before it hurts someone! Just move, and let me–”

Lily stepped more firmly in front of the goblin.

“No. Please. Just, stop.”

“You don’t understand, Miss Human.”

“I understand that I can’t stand here and watch you kill someone in cold blood if I have the power to stop you. They were talking.”

“You could understand?”

Lily nodded. Adelina sighed deeply.

“Look, it’s not like I like killing them. Yes, they have their own language. They uh, wear pants. I get that you think you’re being moral here. But I’ve never met a goblin who wasn’t trying to kill whoever was weak enough for them to get. In wars, the people on the other side talk and wear pants too. It doesn’t mean it feels good to kill them. But sometimes it must be done. Don’t you understand that?”

“In wars, you don’t kill noncombatants. This one didn’t fight.”

“Miss Flamewalker, please.”

“I won’t let you kill them. They’re helpless. I’ll take responsibility.”

“That’s a terrible idea. Please. It’s probably going to die anyway, I don’t want you to get into political trouble for the sake of– It’d stab you in the back the moment it wakes up!”

“I don’t care. I didn’t stop you from killing their friends. I’d deserve the knife in the back if that’s what happens.”

Sunica tried to break into the conversation again.

“Lily, that’s insane! You didn’t do anything wrong. We just acted to protect you, and you didn’t do–”

“Yeah, I didn’t do anything. That’s the problem. Adelina?”

“Don’t do something stupid. Come on. Just head back to Sunica’s place. I’ll take care of it when you’re long gone. Then we can go back to making friends. Please?”

“No. I won’t let you.”

“Stop being stubborn!”

“How about you lead by example?”

“I– Miss… Lily. I can’t just ignore my job. It’s what I do to earn my position. It’s how I help my family. I have to do it. And I promise, as someone who comes from here and has experience, it’s also the right thing to do. So, please? I don’t want to have to do this.”

“Absolutely not.”

Adelina sighed, and her voice grew cold and professional. She reached out a hand and pointed it at the goblin, through Lily.

“In that case, I order you as the daughter of the [Matriarch] of Avezare to step aside, or I will be forced to cast through you.”

Lily spread her arms out.

“As [Lady] Flamewalker, most important person of the land I come from, master of my unique form of magic, I swear that if you harm me or that Goblin I will never share any of my knowledge, power, or value with the Nor family.”

Adelina stopped. For ten long seconds they stared at one another. Then, Adelina turned and walked away. Into the forest, presumably towards Veni.

Lily waited for her to be out of eyesight, then fell to her knees.

“Sunica… Please help me get this goblin home?”

“Lily, I really don’t–”

“Please?”

She looked up at Sunica, and finally felt the dam break, and tears well up in her eyes.