I feel a burning pain, water and air mixed in me as I’m barely aware. All I know is the pain as I push the last bit of water out of me. Realizing I was upside down just as I hear a yell and fall down. Lying on my back as I roll to my side and expel the last of the water, taking deep breaths of air. As I recovered on the ground with the wind whipping about me.

[Gelir] “Why? Why are you helping that thing?! Keeping that monster alive girl, that’s wrong. You’re a traitor of all good people!”

[morgan] “he’s… different, damn heavy too.”

[Gelir] “no that thing’s a monster. I know what their kind do, whatever you think about it is a ruse. Damn thing needs to die and you should’ve let it."

[morgan] “wait, where are you going?"

[Gelir] “to do what you should’ve, people need to know that it’s here!”

I roll over and focus on the man. Power surging into my hand and my shot misses, the man starts running as I fire and hit. Not quite killing him. I fire a third shot and he drops.

“check that he’s dead”

[morgan] “wh- you… why is it you go to killing every time!? What’s wrong with you he helped us get out of the city!”

“for his own benefit, he would’ve told the authorities which would’ve let the manhunter know. I was keeping you safe as much as myself.”

[morgan] “and you had to kill him for that?”

“yes, nothing else is as certain.”

[morgan] “moon, we don’t get second lives. When we die that’s it we’re gone, don’t you get that?”

“I am aware. And it doesn’t change our situation or what was best for us.”

[morgan] “by the gods you’re just as brutal as any other sometimes.”

“I do it out of necessity. Can you say every cruel soft-skin does the same?”

[morgan] “just get up. We need to keep moving.”

About a half hour later we have our things and a bit more from the fisherman's boat forty gold to carry for wherever we go next as we stand near so many trees with dense undergrowth.

“I missed the talk on where the wind was blowing us. Where are we?”

[morgan] “west of the city, this jungle is part of another country. So want to head in find some wood and camp for the night in, Ga-lun-sha?"

“huh, you humans make the oddest names for countries.”

[morgan] “at least they’re pronounceable, come on we’ve little time.”

We head in and gather up what we can before getting our fire going thanks to morgan’s magic. Our cloak and coat keeping us from the worst of the weather as it’s unlikely that we’ll get any sleep. We stay huddled near the fire for the night as we hear sounds of the wildlife, twigs snapping, the rustling of leaves, some bird song and others I didn’t recognize. We wait out the cold morning as the light creeps over the horizon. A gray turning into a dull orange as a black mass drops down before us. A collection of black cloth slick with rainwater. A drop falling from the white painted beak as it rises and its hands go to its helmet. The mask lifts off and I see one of my own! Left jaw missing and the whole left side of his skull deformed, destroyed and broken. His inner mandible easily visible as blade speaks like a vision of undeath.

[Blade} “finally, now you know to stop running from me. We’ll kill this soft-skin and then we can head back home. Do you understand moon?”

“y-you lived?”

[morgan] “what did he say?”

[Blade] “yes, close call but I held on. Now we kill this one and get to go home. You did as you were asked, isn’t your fault the barghest are evil on four legs.”

“wh-why would we kill her? This one helped save my life and has aided me in surviving among the soft-skins.”

[morgan] “what are you guys talking about?”

[Blade] “and she’s a blue mage of their kind, she can’t be allowed to live moonshadow. I know you’ve been on your own but that’s ending, you’ll be able to travel with one of your own and return to your people. We’ll have spent as much time infiltrating soft-skin society as any of the old souls by the time we get back. We’ll be lauded for just surviving this whole fuck-up.”

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“you can’t kill her. I won’t let you do it!”

[morgan] “what are we doing?”

[Blade] “moon, I guarded you… not the other way round. It’s too bad being on your own has made you mad and clouded your mind, if I can I’ll bring you back alive. Otherwise see you in the next life.”

With that he pulls his blades, and I summon the power to my hands to start firing blade. Morgan breaks into a run. Blade rushes past me with both swords out as I start firing, missing him twice as he closes the distance to morgan. His first strike sparks against a magic barrier and slices her side while the second slash of his slides against her arcane protection. I fired a shot and hit Blade's head, cracking the ruined skull more while he was still for a moment. Morgan rushes back for a moment, muttering something before she reaches her hand back towards blade for a moment and I see the blue arcane symbols before two bolts of energy fly out and slam into blade.

[Blade] “agghh! Troublesome soft-skin!”

He strikes out at her landing another hits that slices along her shoulder. She fires another two bolts of arcane energy back as we’re in a running fight. One where my hit doesn’t do any really damage as it impacts against the armor. A third cut slices her legs, blood seeping from her wounds as she runs. He may not be getting single devastating hits but he’s going to take her out one way or another. I fire off, ahead of his movement and I hit his head again.

[Blade] “nghh-DAMN YOUR INSANITY!”

Morgan fires again with a yell and the two magic bolts slam into blade's head, his head bolting back as I hear a snap… almost in slow motion I see his body fall back, slamming into the ground with a finality and metal clink.

[morgan] panting “fuck, that, BUG!”

I move to his body, check that he’s dead.

“in the next life blade”

Then I start going through his belongings, finding twenty gold and a copper in coin. His two blades and on inspection I can see how poorly the armor fit him, it wasn’t made for one of ours and he was lucky to find a creature with a similar digit count as ours. Morgan kicks his head once more.

[morgan] “assassin never! Not killing me bastard!”

“it’s done. Lets gather up his things before we move on.”

[morgan] “armor too?”

“why not? We could use it, if for no other reason than to sell it.”

[morgan] “ok, but would we piss off the actual manhunters?”

“...ok we leave the armor but take the rest.”

With that we soon have him stripped of everything needed, walking away with blades, one each. Over fifty gold in coin and plenty of gear to make camp as needed. The only thing that slowed us down was covering and attending to morgan’s cuts, the thigh slash being notably deep on the outside of her leg. She waved me away from it.

[morgan] “it’s good, stop fussing about it. I’ll live alright moon?”

“fine, still looks bad to me.”

[morgan] “yeah I doubt your kind get cuts all that often.”

“you’re sure you’re ok?”

[morgan] “yeah, humans bleed all the time. So, putting your life on the line to save me?”

“well someone has to, you don’t do what you need to for ensuring your goals.”

[morgan] “yeah and you’re a bit murder happy… at least kill happy, manslaughter? No no that’s for unintentional, though you slaughter men at a whim so it sounds right.”

“not at a whim, I have a reason every time.”

[morgan] “yeah that’s what they all say. So.”

“so…?”

[morgan] “which way now?”

“well we need to keep mov- oohhh. Yeah well, maybe not back to the desert.”

[morgan] “yeah you’re still wanted there.”

“east or southwest I guess.”

[morgan] “what about south on the sea?”

“where the man hunters come from?”

[morgan] “good point. Alright maybe we should sleep on it?”

I nod at that, and soon we have our bit of rest.