We got back to the road and headed with the wagon back into the town while I did my best to ignore the vile odor of death. Instead I busied my mind with a search for clues - after all, there's no way the six we defeated were the entire raid. The dead guards on the thoroughfare alone outnumbered them.

Eventually the scent became unbearable and put on the same mask from yesterday. It was scented, smelling of wild flowers and grass. Definitely much more pleasant sensation than the fetid vapor of the corpses. "Where do you think the rest is?" I asked him while looking around - noting the lack of armed bodies that did not bear the guard's insignia on their armor.

"Dunno, don't care." He shrugged as he urged the horse onward.

"What? Why?" His answer baffled me - it was almost as if he didn't care about what happened here.

"Don't see a point in staying here even a minute longer. Just pass on through, we'll report what happened here and turn in the Veda."

He really didn't care. On one hand, I understood his reasoning - what's done is done, and ultimately this wasn't our problem. However, I wanted to make this our problem. I wanted to know where the monsters who did this were hiding, how many of them there were, and make sure this couldn't happen again.

I've ran away from righting a wrong before - in Larton. I told myself I was too weak... But in reality I didn't even try to fix it. If I was to be the light in the darkness as the visitor seemingly wanted - as my own emotions wanted - I couldn't run away anymore.

"No Rybrus, we're not just passing through." I felt my voice quiver as I chose to stood up for what I believed was right. I was frankly terrified as he could just abandon me here, or even knock me unconscious and drag me with him - after all our spars proved he was stronger than I was. "We're gonna investigate where the attack came from, and make sure it can't happen again." My voice felt more confident as I spoke.

His eyes were focused on me, narrow and judgmental, even after I finished speaking. The look alone was enough to make me hesitate once more. Did I forget something obvious? "Guards won't move in to fix this, and mercs will take a while to be briefed and hired to come here. By the time someone might respond to this, the bandits will be as much as whisper on the wind. We're the only ones who realistically can do anything before this will repeat someplace else!" The need to prove myself, to show that I'm able to live up to my standard rose up in me as I spoke and even snuck into my speech as a sub tone of urgency.

I saw his face slip into an image of frustration and even anger, before being replaced by that distant professional neutral mask he wore when he first met me. "Malin-" He blinked as he started speaking, then shook his head. "-Malinka, whoever they were they massacred an entire town. We're two people. I don't think we stand a chance against whoever is responsible."

"We HAVE to try." I urged him, as he completely lost interest in staring at the road and was now scrutinizing every detail on my face.

"We don't have to do shit. We have a high priority cargo - an ACTUAL Veda, not just one of the entry books. And you have to get to the Lodge as soon as possible otherwise you and I will both get in trouble." Despite the neutral expression he wore, I could still hear his annoyance filter into his voice.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Is that all you care about? Your mission?" I asked, airing my own frustration with his approach.

His answer was short and to the point, as if I was the blind fool in this conversation. "Yes." It felt like no matter what I said he wouldn't budge, the single word carried with it a finality that I truly did not expect.

"Well.." I started, trying to find something that would convince him to help me with what was obviously the morally correct choice. My mind came up blank, I had nothing. No clue how to convince him. In a cold, rational universe, he was probably right. But the world never was cold or purely rational, it was ruled by feelings of the people living in it.

Feelings huh.

I swiftly snatched one of the daggers at my hip and put it to my own throat. "Then you'll fail one of your missions if you don't help me do the right thing." If there's one thing I don't want it's more regret. I've let many people down, I don't want to add to that pile anymore.

His expression of neutrality shattered at my action - the sheer outrage at being defied - I couldn't even recognize him. "YOU WOULDN'T-" He interrupted his own words as I noticed his fists closing, before with obvious conscious effort he relaxed them once again. He took a moment to breathe in a rhythm I recognized, clearly counting for a few seconds between each breath.

"Fine. If that's what it takes to keep you happy." He wasn't even trying to hide his anger and displeasure - and frankly it was making me feel quite guilty. However, I knew I would hate myself more if I didn't stand my ground and do what I knew was right.

"We need to know where they came from - the rain last night probably masked the tracks of their approach, but if it was a large enough group to take down a settlement like this, there's no way it was enough." He started thinking out loud, then paused with a frown. "That is if we want to come to them. There's always the option that they'll come to us if we wait here - after all their comrades who were supposed to bring them their prize are missing."

"If we're sufficiently sneaky, both options will allow us to fight on our terms, but only one gives us advantage of fighting on our own territory. As such, we should prepare an ambush inside the town, likely in the fort itself. Prepare a strategy that maximizes the advantage of two people versus however many we will have to deal with." I was stunned at how quickly he pivoted towards my side - and how efficient his mind was at creating a plan to handle the situation.

"We have no idea how many attackers we are dealing with, so having options to fall back and pick them apart as they march through the town would be best. If we put all of our efforts into a single location we will likely be defeated by a superior amount of foes." I saw him point towards the still closed gate ahead of us. "They clearly didn't come from that direction. Our first ambush should be the other gate itself. After all, first course of action is to make sure they can't escape and come back with even more."

I blinked as he started making plans for how to win whatever battle he was scheming. I expected to fight a lot harder for his support. He spoke of setting up those flaming cocktails around the town and throwing them as our foes passed but never engaging directly. Plans of how to get the gate to close behind whatever force might come and how to make sure they can't open it right away - ironically by setting it on fire and thus ensuring it's destruction and oh so much more.

I couldn't help but grin, knowing the kind of hell he is capable of thinking up and will bring down upon the people responsible for all of the death around us. It took him good fifteen minutes to finish ranting about all the possible traps and ideas before he turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "Anything to add?" His mood seems to have gotten significantly more neutral ever since he accepted that we're doing this.

I briefly turned my attention inwards and noticed the familiar sensation of being observed by mom's statue inside that room somewhere in my soul. "Yeah. I figured out how my power works, and should be able to call on the dark when it happens."

He blinked in surprise and then mirrored my own grin. "Oh Malinka, you've just made this situation much more interesting."

If I wasn't sure that he was on board before, he definitely was now.