The bones of Nesme began to creep out of the darkness as the sun rose over the horizon, the tips of stone and wood poking up like fingers through black fabric. Remnants of a more peaceful time, Jo couldn’t help but wonder what such a place had been like. Which piles of rubble had been the general stores and smithies, the lifeblood of the working class? Which of the shattered remains held the guard posts and bureaucratic offices, all keeping the city running? Had the top of the hill, before it was laid low, held some kind of keep, for the lord or governor who ruled?

The questions vanished as quick as they came. They’d never be answered after all, and Jo hadn’t the desire to go chasing them down, as she had in her greener days, with all the good that had done her.

With a sigh, she leaned back, the stone sending a chill down her spine, her legs dangling over the edge. She’d found a good place to sit amongst the jagged teeth of the shattered city wall; situated a few feet up, it offered a decent view of the city, obstructed only by the mound in the middle, and an even better view of the forest outside.

Where she pointedly refused to look.

Her eyes closed on their own, and for a moment, as the sun crept up to warm her legs, she almost felt at peace. Of course, the thoughts that she’d so earnestly run from that morning finally caught up, slinking their way to the forefront of her mind.

It felt good to get out of that house though. From the debacle of skinning, curing, and cooking the boar, to the nightmare that had been sleeping arrangements, the place had been anything but welcoming. It hadn’t helped matters that Werond had suddenly decided to sleep apart from Serena, and the fact that Doriyah and Pavel had decided to act like children at their first sleepover. That had been the closest Jo had come to outright murder, and perhaps Cruck’aa had made the right decision in choosing to perch on the roof to sleep…

Irritation flared in her chest, exciting her heart, and forcing her eyes open.

Cruck’aa’s behavior was deteriorating. It’d been obvious, but acknowledging it felt altogether worse. Though they’d learned to put up with him long ago, Doriyah’s arrival had only furthered the issue. But beyond that, the bird hadn’t made any passing references or remarks about Werond, something that worried Jo deeply…

Perhaps not as much, however, as the rift between her and Serena. Yes, they’d gotten better, yes, they’d continued speaking to one another, but distance still remained between the pair. Like a pendulum, their relationship swung between states, never truly slowing back to normal. And last night hadn’t helped matters, even if Werond just wanted a room apart…

Which paled in comparison to the true problem at hand…

Jo let loose a guttural noise and pushed herself off the ledge. Bits of wood crunched underfoot as she landed, a twinge of pain flaring in her knees.

What use was it sitting and worrying? Time continued to march at its inevitable pace, and being knocked out for three months hadn’t changed that. The sooner they got out of Nesme, the closer they’d get to understanding…well, whatever it was that was going on with the giants and, hopefully, with them.

But getting out of the ruined city involved appeasing Pavel’s sense of justice, and if they were to do that, then another discussion with Hugo was needed. She’d barely focused on the threat within the forest when she talked with him yesterday, seeing it unimportant. How quickly that had changed.

Jo sighed, tracing her steps back through the rubble, and away from the gaping hole in the city’s wall.

Hopefully, it’d be a quick discussion.

Cacophony smashed into her like a hammer.

A flurry of voices – squeaky and young – cascaded out the door like water bursting from a dam. Each struggled to be heard over the last, none making any sense, all blurring together into some approximation of Common. The tidal wave of gibberish seemed to be directed at what sounded like one person, whose voice surmounted the storm, sounding with an authority utterly ignored. It took all of Jo’s will to pretend she didn’t hear it as the commotion flowed around Hugo, hunched in the doorway with a haggard look in his eyes, still wearing his tunic from yesterday.

“Uhm, morning ma’am.” He said with a voice that felt more at home with a corpse than a man. “Are y’all uhm…settling in well?”

“Best we can.” Jo said, crossing her arms. “Need to talk with you though, if you have a minute.”

“Oh, uhm, what about? Y’all need uh…supplies?” Hugo asked. “I uh…we uhm, might spare some, but –”

“Fine there,” Jo said. “Need to discuss –”

The cacophony of tiny voices rose, shrill enough that Jo couldn’t help but flinch. Hugo, however, seemed entirely unphased.

“Need to discuss the current situation.” Jo continued.

“Uhm, current situation?” Hugo asked.

“Yes, about –”

A third voice – older than the children but younger than the mother’s – pierced the storm, screaming at the children a whirlwind of curses that could have made Jo’s old commander blush. In response, the children shouted louder, a feat that seemed almost a miracle, as the mother laid into the third voice, ripping it apart.

Hugo squeezed his eyes shut.

“Now uhm, I won’t lie to you ma’am,” His voice rose over the shouting. “y’all’s appearances have uh, gotten all the kids all riled up. Been trying to uh, calm them down all morning. Not working. I uh, don’t think the missus will uhm, be happy to spare me for uh, a uh, bit. Not to mention –”

“Right.” Jo said, matching his voice. “apologizes then. Didn’t mean any of that. But –”

“Oh uh nah, it ain’t your fault ma’am. More those uhm, magic uh, magic words your friend did.”

“The sign language?”

“That uh, what y’all call it?”

“What Serena calls it. What’s the issue with it?”

“Oh uhm, the kids, well, uh, they want to see it again.” Hugo shook his head. “Missus won’t let them, on account of –”

“Won’t let them?” Jo cocked her head.

“She reckons it’s uh, dangerous and all, but uh, more so –”

“Is that it?” Jo straightened up. “Not dangerous at all. Hells, I bet Serena would love to show it off. Would keep them busy for a moment so I could talk to you too. Let me go get her.”

Hugo’s eyes widened.

“Now uh, ma’am,” He stammered. “I uh, don’t uh, think that’s –”

But Jo had already flipped on her heel and jogged away, ignoring Hugo’s voice as it rose to chase after her. Truth be told, even if he’d gotten out the rest of his sentence, Jo would have ignored it anyways.

The distance between the two buildings proved smaller than she remembered, and she was back at their temporary home within a few minutes. Someone had thrown all the windows open, the sounds of another argument pouring from them as she shoved open the door. Doriyah stood in front of Cruck’aa by the table, grinning as the Aarakocra yelled at him about Gods only knew what. Werond was hunched at the counters behind Cruck’aa, washing a few of the dishes they’d found squirreled away in one of the cabinets with the aid of the water bucket Pavel had dragged in earlier.

“– was bad enough,” Cruck’aa spat. “but I refuse to allow you to –”

“So what, we’re going to starve?” Doriyah asked. “A single deer is more important than my stomach?”

“That’s not it!” Cruck’aa threw up his hands. “You both beat that poor animal to death like savages! Cavemen! Do you even realize how much it suffered?!”

“Well, animal on animal violence is nature’s way, so I don’t see the problem.”

Jo rolled her eyes as Cruck’aa took the bait, launching into some tirade about the balance of the forest and killing humanely; she ignored the grin Doriyah shot her way as she walked past, stepping up beside Werond as she finished the last of the plates, moving onto the few utensils they’d found.

“Serena upstairs?” Jo asked.

Werond wiped her forehead and nodded, making a sweeping motion against the counter.

“Cleaning? Dusting?” Jo frowned as Werond nodded. “Place doesn’t need to be perfect, she know that?”

Werond shrugged, cringing as Cruck’aa’s voice got shriller. She dried off her hands against her pants, and pulled over the parchment from across the counter, plucking the charcoal from one of her pockets and scratching out a quick line.

“There was a lot we didn’t do yesterday.” It read. “Think she needs something to do.”

“Suppose so.” Jo shrugged. “Well, up for a distraction?”

Werond cocked an eyebrow, dropping the utensils into the washbasin.

“Need to talk to Hugo, and his wife, I suppose,” Jo said. “but their kids are a handful. Figure I could get Serena to distract them, but I’d feel better if you were there with her. Protection in numbers, you know?”

The eyebrow rose further.

“Would be good for both of you too, after what happened last night.”

Werond cringed, but before Jo could speak further, she’d wiped her hands on her pants one last time, before plucking her parchment from the counter, and moving towards the stairs. She gave no heed to the arguing idiots as she walked by.

Jo leaned against the counter, her gaze lingering on the steps. That’d been far easier than she’d expected. After the fiasco that was last night…well, truth be told, it wasn’t that bad. It took far too long for Serena to come to terms with Werond sleeping separately from her, but altogether –

A shriek pierced the air as Cruck’aa screamed louder, Doriyah’s laugh echoing it; Jo flinched, hands darting to her ears.

“Enough!” She snapped, marching towards the pair and shoving herself between them. “Nine Hells, every fucking day with you two!”

“Can’t help it, pigeons are annoying.” Doriyah said.

“I’m annoying?!” Cruck’aa spat. “You’ve been –”

“Shut up!” Jo yelled, whirling on Cruck’aa. “Gods above, shut up! Can’t you not take the bait for once?!”

“There’s no bait,” Cruck’aa said. “he’s too stupid to bait.”

“I’ll have you know, I’m a master baiter, thank you very much.” Doriyah said.

“Gods…” Jo sighed, turning to the fiery giant, who grinned back at her. “Can’t you just go out and hunt yourself? Bring Pavel and fuck off?”

“Well, he’s out looting,” Doriyah said. “or scavenging, whatever he called it. And I need the bird to lead us. Ain’t good at tracking surprisingly.”

“I will do no such thing.” Cruck’aa spat.

“Said that last time and look what we caught. Enough to feed us for days!”

“Which would have gone to waste had I not shown you how to dry and store it! You’re useless without me!”

“Didn’t need you for those guys in the forest, now did we?”

“Wait,” Jo said, “you ran into the barbarians? How’d you manage to hunt then, what –”

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“Scared them off.” Doriyah said.

“What?”

“Clean your ears. We walked in, started poking around, and when they saw us, they just ran off.” He shrugged. “Guess the sight of a real man was too much for them.”

Jo’s eyes could only roll so far into the back of her head as Cruck’aa let out some noise of disagreement; bootsteps sounded down the stairs before she could speak, Serena stepping into the room with Werond trailing behind her. Her hair, normally in its loose band against her shoulder, was now drawn up in a high-tail on her head, the sleeves of her – somehow still pristine, probably by magic – white tunic rolled up. Had she not known better, Jo would have assumed they’d hired help when she was out.

“Hey,” Jo called, moving away from the new argument already brewing between the pair of idiots. “sorry to cut off your cleaning, need you for something.”

“No, it’s okay,” Serena signed, before snapping the sweat from her brow. “just getting the dust out. Nothing really important.”

“Why do it then?”

“I just…need something to do.” Serena’s gaze slid over Jo’s shoulder. “Either that or…I’m stuck down here.”

“Know the place doesn’t have to be perfect, right?”

“Mom would say otherwise.”

Jo smirked. “Right. Take a break then, need you to be a distraction for a bit.”

“A distraction?”

“Need to talk with Hugo, wife too, about a few things. Too cooped up with their kids though. Want to see you, and I figured –”

“They want to see me?” Serena asked. “Who?”

“The kids. Pretty popular from the sounds of it.”

“Why?!”

Jo shrugged. “Got me. Probably the first new thing that’s come through this place in a while. Who knows how kids think. Go talk with them though, keep them busy for a bit. Shouldn’t take too long. Up for it?”

Serena stared in response, hands held against her chest, eyes flicking about Jo as if looking for something. She stared back, waiting, the sounds of Doriyah’s and Cruck’aa’s argument growing louder by the second.

“If you don’t –” Jo began.

“I do!” Serena exclaimed, ripping her hair out of the high-tail, shaking it out. “I do, I just…I don’t know, come on!”

And she spun on her heel and jogged out the door. Jo glanced at Werond, who didn’t notice, her eyes trailing Serena, the ghost of a smile on her lips. With another roll of her eyes, Jo followed Serena out the door.

Serena had already started ahead, readjusting her hair as she jogged the way to Hugos house. Werond quickly overtook Jo as she moved to keep up, but Jo kept her pace, watching the pair as they fell in together, Serena immediately signing to a still grinning Werond. Not wanting to eavesdrop on a conversation she wasn’t apart of, Jo glanced to the side, her gaze flicking across the ruins, and up the hill where the killing pit lay.

Where was Pavel amongst it all? She’d caught him as he’d slipped out that morning, determined to find something in the rubble, but he hadn’t said much. He could handle himself should the situation arise, but she’d be lying if she didn’t wish she’d followed him, not with his current mindset. Of course, it would have been better if she’d thought to go with him before they’d parted ways…

She sighed, rolling her head. Too many problems.

Hugo was still outside when they approached, joined this time by his wife, locked in a furious yet hushed argument. Towering over Hugo, she struck a fearsome sight in her stained tunic and apron, the greys of her hair standing out amongst the brown, the spitting image of a middle-aged mother. Jo doubted they’d be able to hear them if they weren’t with how much the children inside were still shouting, their voices carrying through the open windows. Their argument, however, ceased as they approached.

Hugo glanced over, then locked eyes with Jo, his own wide with fear; he broke off from his wife and crossed the rest of the distance to her, wringing his hands all the while.

“Uhm, uh, m-ma’am,” He stammered, wife marching after him. “N-now uh, ma’am, I uhm, I d-don’t think –”

He squeaked as his wife pushed him aside, standing before Jo with arms crossed, and a fire in her eyes that could’ve rivaled Serena’s own.

“How dare you.” She spat.

Jo jerked back. “What? What did –”

“Y’all know what you did!” The wife yelled. “Walking in here, trying to force your way into our lives! After the stunt y’all pulled yesterday, and setting up so close to ours, and now y’all offering to disrupt our family further?! The lot of y’all are sick!”

Jo blinked, taken aback.

“Right. Understand the hesitation ma’am,” She said, raising her hands. “but I needed to talk with Hugo, maybe you, and I thought –”

“Talk?!” She yelled. “That’s all y’all did was talk! Talk to my sister, to my husband, to my kids – stay out of our lives! We want nothing to do with y’all!”

“Nura!” Hugo blurted.

“It’s the gods damned truth!”

“N-Nura, you don’t –”

Nura whipped around to Hugo, causing the man bleat and shrink down.

“I do mean it!” She yelled. “Them’s going to bring nothing but trouble! We need to survive Hugo, not put up with, with,” Nura flung a hand at Jo. “with these opportunists!”

Was that how she saw them? It made sense, even if it couldn’t be further from the truth. Nine Hells though, how she wished Pavel could see this outburst, yet even if he did, Jo doubted it’d shake him from his delusions.

“Ma’am, I get it,” Jo said, causing Nura to glare at her. “whether you want to believe me or not, I do. All we want to do is help though, and to do that –”

“Help!?” Nura shrieked. “all y’all done is been a pain in our sides and it’s barely been a day!”

“Now that’s just not –”

“It is! Because of her!” Nura jabbed a finger past Jo. “Her and Ninth Damned magic!”

Jo glanced back, despite knowing who Nura singled out; the excitement had faded from Serena’s eyes, replaced now by an obvious anxiety as she stepped forward, hands raised.

“Nura, right?” Serena signed. “I –”

“No! No!” Nura shirked, backing up with her hands pressed against the sides of her head. “You stay out of my head! You ain’t doing to me what you did to my children, witch!”

“I’m not doing anything bad!” Serena protested. “It’s just how I talk! Honest!”

“Liar! Get out of my head!”

“N-Nura!” Hugo yelled.

Serena’s shoulders slumped, hands now clutched against her chest; Werond stepped over and placed a hand on her back, glaring at Nura, who stared at them with wide, wild eyes.

“Alright!” Jo yelled, chest tight. “Didn’t go how I wanted, we apologize! We’ll leave, I –”

Her words caught in her throat; the hurt that filled Serena’s face had vanished, her eyes now narrowed, her jaw now set.

“Good!” Nura shrieked. “Y’all get out of here and never –”

Serena’s hand shot to the side, fingers curled save for two.

A bead of orange light flashed into existence between those two fingers, the index and pinky; it flared, then rocketed towards a pile of rubble.

Jo yelled.

An eruption of flames tore through the rubble, taller than a house and just as wide; everyone screamed as the noise tore through their ears, as the light blinded them, as the heat washed over them in a wave, forcing most of them back. Bits of flaming wood and melting stone chunks rained around them as the flames died down, the rubble now nothing but a pile of smoking ash.

Jo shot up from her crouch, whirling on Serena, who hadn’t moved, Werond hunched against her, still staring at Nura; the older woman stared back, eyes wide, as her husband lay curled up on the ground, covering his head, letting lose a long string of whimpers.

“What in the Hells was that?!” Jo yelled.

But Serena paid her no heed, instead stepping towards Nura, Werond almost falling over as she let go.

“If I wanted to hurt you or your family,” Serena signed. “I could have done it a long time ago. But I don’t want to. You’re afraid of nothing…all I’m doing is talking to you, nothing more, and all we want to do is help. And we can. Bahamut’s Teeth, I already have, I healed your wounded, didn’t I? Everyone else would have done the same if they could.”

She stepped closer to a frozen Nura. “I understand your hesitation, I do. But trust me when I say that all we want to do is help. Jo means well, I mean well, Pavel means well, I…I don’t know how else to get that across.” Serena glanced at the smoldering ashes. “I really don’t.”

“So you blow up a house?” Nura asked instantly.

Serena shrugged. “It was already destroyed.”

Nura stared at her, long enough for Jo to open her mouth to begin to speak; before she could, however, the older woman shook her head, the edge fading from her eyes as she regarded Serena.

“Gods above, fine.” She said. “Y’all made your point. Suppose I’m forgetting what you’ve done for us anyhow. Baron will go with y’all, so don’t go too far from the house.” She glanced at Hugo. “Go in and tell him what’s going on, else he’ll start attacking.”

Hugo – still cowering on the ground – shot up at once, nodded rapidly.

“Uhm, of course!” He squeaked, before flipping on his heel and running towards the house.

“Thank you.” Serena signed with a smile. Nura waved a hand but didn’t say anything as she and Werond trailed after Hugo, Werond offering Jo a look, returned with a shake of her head.

“Can’t believe I’m allowing this.” Nura muttered as she watched them go.

“Understandable,” Jo said. “tough spot to be in.”

“Right.” Nura turned fully towards her. “Now, got my attention. Make it fast.”

A chorus of shrieks flooded out the open windows, a whirlwind of children excited beyond belief.

“Sure. Can stay here or…” Jo’s words trailed off as Nura shook her head. Without a word, the older woman moved past her and strode towards the hill at the center of town, Jo on her heels.

As they reached the base, Jo began to slow, hoping Nura would stop, only for her to continue up the slope. Jo sighed, but followed her, eventually reaching the top with her a moment later.

Even with the fires having died down, the bottom of the pit was still too much to look at. Hugo must have returned at some point, as most of the bodies had been reduced to unrecognizable heaps of ash and soot. The few that hadn’t looked worse than before. Jo’s stomach twisted at the sight, and she found herself gazing out across the ruined city instead, wondering if she’d see Pavel poking through the ruins. Nura, however, contained not an ounce of hesitation as she stood at the edge and stared down, hands on her hips, shaking her head as though the scene was something she’d seen every day.

“Whole damned place is gone.” Nura said. “Shame really.”

“Don’t mind me saying,” Jo said, stepping back until she couldn’t see the bottom. “but you don’t seem too broken up about it.”

“I’ve done my mourning.” Nura turned around. “I’ll always miss the place but moping about ain’t doing anything for the mouths I have to feed. You said you wanted to help?”

Jo sighed. May as well be honest, after Serena’s display.

“Don’t, actually.” She said. “Got places to be, things to figure out. Friend does though.”

“The girl?” Nura asked, unphased.

“No. Someone else. Bleeding heart, the best way I can describe it.”

“Sounds like an idiot then. Should just leave if y’all don’t want to help.”

“More complicated than that. He’ll refuse to leave until we help, so we might as well make the most of it.” Jo smiled. “Apologize for coming off like an ass, but you seem like the kind of person to understand.”

“I do.” Nura nodded. “Keeping to business. Respect it, even if I want y’all gone. Could tell your friend to fuck off if you need it.”

“Doubt that’ll work.”

“Right.” Nura crossed her arms. “So then…how y’all expect to help us?”

Jo matched her pose, eyes flicking about the older woman…no, she was probably older than her by far. But there seemed to be a wisdom about Nura that aged her far beyond her physical years, one borne of a willingness to do anything to survive. Her expression towards the dead was proof of that enough.

“Well,” Jo began. “you were there when Hugo told me about what happened to this place. Figured he kept some of the details from me, or he just didn’t know. Thought you’d fill me in.”

“Think I know more than him?”

“Course you do. Hugo strikes me as someone too nervous to remember a lot of things. You, however, remind me a lot of my old friends back in my marching days. Call it a hunch.”

“Hmm…” Nura said. “Well, it’s the Uthgardt tribe, Red Tiger or some stupid name. Been a pain in our asses for as long as I can remember. We had patrols from the city going out to keep them in check and keep them away. Made the forest outside somewhat safe, but still needed to be careful if you were going in there. Rumor had it that if they grab you, they’d sacrifice you to some stupid god of theirs, who knows. Thought it was a load of shit until I saw the bodies.”

“They started snatching people?” Jo asked.

“Sure, right after the giants tore the place up.” Nura waved a hand. “You know about that. After it happened though, the barbs came in and started rounding up survivors, taking off into the woods. Some they tore apart in the city though. Seen them myself. Probably a warning. Got to the point where only a few of us were left, but when we started paying them off, it stopped almost entirely.”

“Paying them off?”

“Sure. They’re savage, but they ain’t that stupid. Blood sacrifices are one thing, but if they see a value in something you can give them, they’ll take that. Makes me think the whole thing is made up. But anyways, it started going downhill for them when our numbers became lower, and we started hording supplies. Picked the place clean at that point. They needed supplies too, and someone, wasn’t us, offered them food if they’d fuck off. Worked like a charm, so we all began to pitch in. Food, firewood, water, all that stuff. Course, when people started running out, that’s when the killings picked back up.

“Only one’s left now, I reckon.” Nura said, glancing around.

“Right…” Jo said. “But if they needed supplies, why wouldn’t they just attack you and take everything by force?”

“Oh, they tried,” Nura sighed. “they did. That’s where our wounded came from, trying to fend them off. I managed to get through to them that if they kill us, they ain’t going to find where I’ve stashed all the supplies, because we didn’t stash it at the house for that exact reason. Convinced them to let us live so we could keep handing them stuff. Win-win for everyone. Been about…a few days since then.”

“Talked them down mid fight?” Jo blinked. “How’d you do that?”

“They’re smart enough that it wraps back around to being stupid.” Nura said.

Jo narrowed her eyes but didn’t push the issue. Though she’d dealt with tribes like these before, never had she encountered any that seemed to be able to think for themselves. Most were too stupid for that, but anything was possible the further into the Coast you went.

“Do you actually have those supplies?” Jo asked.

“We do,” Nura said. “as nervous as he is, my husband was the first one out scavenging. Found a lot of stuff, he did. Good for one thing, I suppose. And no, you won’t find them either.”

“Was it enough to help out when the others ran out of supplies?”

“Sure, large enough.”

“But you didn’t help.”

“Yup.”

Nura stared at Jo with eyes that seemed to long for a challenge, and had Jo been a better person, she might have said something. But as she stood there, on the precipice of the mouth of hell, she understood the choice completely.

“Well,” Jo said. “regardless, I’m a stranger here, so I can’t judge. Can’t judge the best way to tackle this problem either. Any ideas on how to get rid of these…barbs?”

“If I knew” Nura said, “they’d be gone already.”

“Sure. Just getting an idea. Course, I have my own thoughts, but I’d imagine someone who’s lived here since the whole thing began has got some ideas in her head.”

“Suppose I do. What’s the catch?”

Jo cocked her head. “Catch?”

“We can’t do shit to them, but from what your friend showed off, y’all could. But that would mean you’d be helping us, and we’d be in your favor. So,” Nura raised a hand. “what’s the catch?”

Jo grinned; truth be told, she’d hoped Nura would miss that detail, but the fact that she’d remembered told Jo everything she needed to know.

“Pile of supplies…split it evenly, and we’ll be on our way once this shit show is over. Need to get to Silverymoon. Been away from things for far too long.”

“Seventy-thirty.” Nura shot back. “We need it more than y’all do.”

“Sixty – forty. Gives us a chance to rest before we scavenge more ourselves.”

“Fine.”

Nura stuck out her hand; Jo shook it once before they both crossed their arms once more.

“Now,” Nura said. “I’ve had a couple of ideas, none I could do. But with you lot here, and as unknown as you are, I figure we can get the jump on them. Wouldn’t see it coming. Honestly, I can’t see any other way of dealing with them. Head on attack wouldn’t work.”

“Too many?” Jo asked.

“Far too many.” Nura replied. “The groups coming in were around seven strong, but we know there’s more of them. They see you, and I’m sure they’d call them in. And any more than that and it’ll be a blood bath. Best to jump them. Kill enough, and it’ll cause enough chaos for y’all to slip through, along with us, though we wouldn’t be going in the same direction.”

“So, kill a patrol coming in, and escape in the confusion.” Jo nodded. “How long would that last?”

“I’d imagine a day, at most. Plenty of time to put distance between us and them.” Nura shrugged. “Soon as they realize they got company, they’ll be too busy sending more into the city. By then, we’ll be long gone.”

“Sure,” Jo said. “I like it. Let’s head back to our place then, I want my friends to –”

Her words died in her throat as the realization hit her like a hammer to the chest.