Akheela watches Ara step in front of her with her arms spread to- protect her? She'd hurled a blade into the bushes after an arrow had barely missed her head, and this girl steps in the middle of me and the shooter?

She’s… foolish. Akheela's mind observes, bewildered by Ara’s ignorance.

The atmospheric rustling of leaves and bushes is all that responds to Ara after she'd called out to Nina in an attempt to broker peace. Surely she was reacting to the apparent threat Akheela presented to her friend… Nina?

"She says she's with the insurgents," Ara calls out to the bushes, "Her name's Akheela,"

“A’ra, those aren’t yo-“ A second arrow darts between both Ara and Akheela's heads- from a different direction this time. Prompting them both to flinch and look to the side.

Akheela raises her right hand in a dance-like fashion, waving the motion of her arm upward. The sky blue of her aura lifts a plume of dirt from the ground, seeping through the cloud of dust like mist. She turns in the direction of the most recent arrow, the dust covering her and Ara as she swings her left arm to eject the fourth blade. It wizzes into the bushes with Akheela's aura propelling off of it. Colliding with the shoulder of an assailant as her aura bleeds throughout his body, highlighting his position to her.

"Got you!" She yells out, trying to intimidate any other archers.

Three left. She reminds herself, thinking of her next move- A'ra. Her mind snaps as she whips her body to Ara, grabbing her by the shoulder and pushing her to the ground as an arrow zips through where Ara's head just was. It slips past Akheela's left shoulder, lightly slicing through the fabric of her clothing. She winces in pain as she completes her failed maneuver, dropping to her knee as she sees two soldiers running out of the bush. They're Dantian military.

"Sh'it." She scoffs under her breath. Raising her left arm and ignoring the twinge of pain passing through it.

Two of the three knives launch at the two soldiers, penetrating them both in the center of the forehead as their bodies flip over and crash to the floor- But another two soldiers emerge from the bush.

This is bad. Her mind confirms.

As she raises her arm to launch the blade again, two arrows fly out from behind her, striking both guards on the neck, falling to the floor as they momentarily gasp for air. Akheela glances behind her in a panic to see a woman vaulting out of the bushes with two flintlock pistols in her hand. Her arms and neck are completely covered in symbols of dark ink. She looks familiar- One of A'ra's people?

She suddenly parries to her side, dodging an arrow as she fires four shots into the bushes with another arrow flying over her shoulder to provide her cover. A large puff of smoke erupts all around them, providing much better cover than Akheela's dust did.

"Move!" The tattooed lady orders as she heaves Ara to her feet, grabbing Akheela's fabrics as well. They all dart to the bushes as arrows start building through the smoke. It's all happening so fast- one barely grazes Akheela's foot but she overlooks it and keeps running for her life.

She crashes through a line of bushes, the branch slapping and gnawing at her exposed skin as she stumbles in front of a woman with a mechanical-looking bow who launches an arrow right over Akheela's head.

"Watch it!" Akheela yells as she jolts to her feet to confront the… Pretty? Lady. Akheela stutters when she looks into the cold oceanic eyes of the girl, her dark black hair contrasting her skin like night and day as they drape over the majority of her ears.

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"Val'antis," She murmurs, stumbling about how she should react.

"Keep moving," The tattoed girl orders again. Her voice is so firm.

Emotionless.

It takes Akheela no thought to follow her orders and start moving her legs, trying to keep up with her as Ara runs behind her. She's panicking, but also just doing without much thought. It doesn't take long before they burst through another set of bushes that reveals a smoking campfire, it was just put out. She looks around her to find three others frantically packing their bags.

"The meeting sight is to the North-West," A baldheaded man calls out, a notable scar crosses over his eyebrow and his race is the same as Ara's. His slanted eyes mean he's definitely of Bada descent.

A burly, dark-skinned man with two machine arms rises to his feet. "I clear a path," He announces before charging through the bushes. He's quick for his size and slashes at the shrubbery with a rapid finesse as he sprints.

"I have a feeling they'll follow us," the tattooed girl adds, throwing a bag around her shoulders.

"This is the girl," Ara pipes up as she takes deep, tired breaths. "The one we're supposed to rescue,"

The bald man eyes Akheela, glancing up and down suspiciously, "She doesn't look it," He says, emotionless as well. Akheela realizes now why the lack of expression in their voices has been so noticeable.

She can't see them… Their voices.

"Then you can leave me to get cap'tured and find out when you tell To'lith that you failed,"

The bald man laughs, strapping his bag onto his back.

"You laugh?" She asks, feeling disrespected by his laughter. Her anxiety is still peaking, fight is the only response she has in her.

The Valantian girl comes charging into the camp and walks straight to a backpack laying on the floor. "They're close behind,"

"Then it's time to get moving," Says the bald man, glancing back at Akheela, "They're after you?"

"You're as observant as your sister," Akheela bites, flicking her hand with sass.

"Fair enough," He chuckles again, unbothered by what she has to say before announcing "The rude girl will be joining us."

Akheela opens her mouth, about to return a comment but the man has already turned to run down the newly cleared path. She turns her head to Ara, who is looking at her with disheartened eyes. "You saw everything?"

Before she can respond, Ara is already chasing after Chaung. She wanted to tell her that she didn't… Not everything. She has a sensitivity about her. She felt it in Ara's voice. Like someone who cares for others, even when they shouldn't.

That's why I trusted her. Her mind reminds her.

"I know you're of magic," The Valantian girl with the bow says. The deep blue of the girl's eyes catches her off guard, it now encases her entire eye like a sea marble. Sending a shiver down Akheela's spine as she sees no voice at all. But feels a deep fear swelling within her.

"Don't do anything stupid," The girl scolds, before running to the path.

Akheela figures she should follow and gets moving. She's never seen a Valantian before, only heard of them from other insurgents. Although back then they were slaves or something, today they hold the most power in Luná. They only fight for their cause- Why would one be helping?

Ara doesn't emit the sense of danger that Akheela feels from the others. Being one of Tolith's children, she's lived most of her life in military camps. She knows what assassins are like.

But these ones... They're different.

Worse.

No one's hidden their voice from her before. Now she's met five strangers, four of whom have spoken and didn't reveal anything.

Should I trust them?

"So, what of death? I have seen a world that lies beyond our own." - Unknown