The forests of Dahgfort were a canopy of dull greens. In Arcane, nature had a personality, and that personality was technicolored. There was a wildness, a chaotic visage to the woods of Ethi’s land while Unix’s held a painful homogeny.
Planted within it were Cut, Isla, Lachlan, Siobhan and the lumberjack. They hid in the shrubs with eyes forwards, for just a gaze away now stood the cabin. It was a brown thing, clearly hewn from the wood growing around it, and surrounded with a small fence.In the silence, it was the owner of the structure who spoke first. “There, I got you to it. Can I please leave now?” He asked, voice low, muted. Ethi couldn’t help but feel bad for him. In the way she’d felt bad for the Sieve contestants left to rip their guts open with food at her suggestion. In the way she’d felt bad for Crow a moment before her spear found his spine.
Fuck.
“Get back to town-” Isla began, bringing a relieving distraction, “And don’t tell a lick of this to anyone.”
The man nodded fervently and began on his way. He’d relinquished his Axe; however, Cut had requested it of him, and promised to leave it in the cabin once they were done with their business.
The attack plan had been decided a long time ago, they didn’t know what this man was capable of and if they were unlucky he was also a mystic.
They would have to approach without magic just in case he had the power to sense it, the last thing they wanted was the target fleeing before a confrontation, or getting time to draw on his own powers and face them.
The trek up the hill was a silent one. Ethi’s heart pounded in her chest, as if trying to free itself from the prison that was her rib cage. She didn’t know who or what she was going to face off against in there, none of them did, and yet they carried on, each it seemed for their own unique reasons.Cut was just as silent with eyes ahead. Ethi wondered if the woman had started her week with even the inkling of an idea that she’d end up where she was today.
It was a stupid question, of course she hadn’t, and by the faces worn by her other allies, no one else did.
Once at the top, they all got into position, ducking down and surrounding the small building. Ethi pressed herself against the moss covered wood. No sound emanated from the cabin, and she couldn’t tell if that was a bad or good thing.
She watched Isla step through the front door, pistol in hand, and braced herself.
They’d been ordered to jump in and help at the slightest sign of a struggle. Ethi heard Isla’s feet press against the wooden floor, she had to plant her ear against the wood and strain her senses to hear it, but the sound reached her all the same.
With each step it grew more distant, and the space between them felt like an eternity. There was another, heavier, with less grace and more weight. Closer to Ethi than Isla’s, and heading in the woman’s direction. A man.
Shit.
She wanted to signal Isla but there was no way to do so without also alerting the target. All she could do was wait as the steps grew closer and closer to one another while eternities passed her by. They stopped. Then came the silence, like dead water.It broke with the splash of gunfire. Ethi was moving in, jumping in through the window. In the back of her thoughts she could hear the footsteps of her allies. She found herself in a bedroom of sorts and with magic-born speed sprinted out of it. It was no feat to feel fear for Isla, her death would leave a terrible fate for Ethi. The fear became anger, the anger slowed her as it turned magic into crimson, bone-crushing strength.
She found her on the floor, face down and groaning. A figure loomed over her, bald, crooked-nosed, thin lips and a mole underneath his left eye.
That was their target. He held a gun larger than any Ethi had ever seen against the woman, its barrel thick and broad, its head opening up to a bell-shape. A blunderbuss.
Something like that would smaller shot, smaller even than pistol rounds. But it would fling a lot at once. One blast would be enough to leave little left of Isla, and Ethi didn’t like her odds either. If it hit her at close range, if it was loaded with iron instead of lead, then she was staring down her own death.
If.
She had to make a choice, had to risk either herself or Isla. And only one of them was on their feet.
“Hey!” Ethi yelled.
The man started turning as Ethi began covering the distance between them. She trapped a chair in her grip and right as his eyes came to settle on her, slammed it across his face.
He reeled back, eyes wide in a daze. The front door burst open behind him. Lachlan emerged, musket in hand. The butt of it met the back of the man’s skull, that sent him to the floor with a loud thud.
He laid there, unmoving save from the subtle shifts of groaning and stirring.
Cut and Siobhan were next to her now, likely having emerged from different windows. Lachlan knelt down beside Isla, turning the woman over.
“Shit, can you hear me Isla?”
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She blinked bleary eyes open, and with a laboured effort gave him a nod. Ethi found her own relief at the gesture then all eyes fell on the target.
Sluggishly and clumsily he tried to get on his feet, Cut halted him with a knee to his back. She rested her weight atop him and put his arms in a lock Ethi didn’t recognise. She could see enough to know he wouldn’t be getting out of it any time soon however.
“Where are the files?” Siobhan growled.
The man’s lips were tight, eyes defiant. They would have to break the information out of him, and that was assuming they could get it at all.
“Shit,” Isla cursed, got to her feet and began searching, lifting furniture, turning over tables.
The man’s eyes didn’t follow her, instead they glared at Siobhan and for the briefest of moments flickered to the ceiling behind her.
“There.” Ethi whispered, and only realised she’d spoken out loud when the room’s eyes fell on her.
“What?” Isla asked.
“Up there,” She insisted, looking at the man again and seeing the panic in his eyes. With her suspicion turned into certainty she placed a chair beneath her and stepped on top of it.
Ethi felt around until her palm met a ceiling board that lifted at the slightest push. She reached into it, felt dust and then something more solid- paper. Ethi pulled it out.
The folder was the colour of the ocean, its surface marked with the wrinkles and cuts of age. To think something so fragile was the key to her redemption.
“Smart girl,” Isla praised.“I try,” Ethi grinned, getting to the floor. She turned at the sound of a struggle, saw Cut glare at the man wriggling beneath her.
“Stop that.” The woman growled.
The man’s eyes fell on Siobhan like red hot daggers. “Northwoman, you’re the Noble’s guard dog aren’t you? How do you plan on disposing of them once this is all over with? With that axe, or are you just going to use your jaws like a fucking savage?”
Ethi saw Cut frown, felt herself do the same. The man’s words floated in her mind, not truly sinking in. Ethi was suddenly aware of just how cold she felt.
“What is he talking about?” Isla asked, voice surprisingly calm.Siobhan snorted. “Nonsense, the bluffs of a desperate man.” The woman’s words were soft, reassuring. Siobhan never sounded like that. Ethi began reaching for her magic again.
The man laughed bitterly. “Hear that? She’s going to kill you, going to kill you all!”
“Siobhan,” Isla asked, eyes hard. “Are you about to fuck us?”
The large woman turned to Ethi and she suddenly felt like an obstacle of twigs in the way of a boulder. “Give me the folder.”“Alright, enough talking.” Lachlan growled, Ethi saw him raise his musket. He fired, missed. Siobhan’s magic pressed against Ethi’s senses just as Ethi’s fell into her own grasp.
The world slowed enough to let her see the woman’s axe cleave through Lachlan’s neck like paper.
His head met the floor, fall turning to a roll, and his neck erupted in a fountain of red that flowed far, far too slowly for the force with which a dying heart spasmed to pump it. Distantly in her ears, she heard Isla scream, Ethi had more pressing concerns at the moment, Siobhan was swinging the blood coated edge for her now.
Ethi ducked and the axe ate the wall above her in an explosion of splinters. I’m faster than her, Ethi thought. The wave of relief that flooded her died at the realisation of just how little that meant when she couldn't hurt her opponent. Siobhan’s Axe chased Ethi, eager to add her blood to Lachlan’s mix, and each time she danced out of the way. Something changed, Siobhan was throwing the weapon now, Ethi knew there was no ducking from this distance, she tried anyway.
An explosion and blood erupted from Siobhan’s arm. The axe went wide. She saw Isla holding the pistol responsible. Cut’s scream bled through the air, Ethi turned to see the woman laying on the floor, axe in her leg.
The man was in a crouched position now, that massive musket in his grasp and pointed straight towards Ethi. She slammed her body against the floor just a moment before he fired.
Siobhan’s cry told her who the shot's true target was. Ethi turned. The woman’s right side was bathed in red and blanketed in tightened fingers. Iron shot, then. Ethi was soon let looking at Siobhan’s back as she raced for the nearest window. She leapt through it with a groan and disappeared into the greens of the woods.
She’s gone. And Ethi was safe. For now.
The man leaned against a wall, wide eyes meeting Ethi’s with the gaze of a person who knew perfectly well that they’d just narrowly avoided death.
Behind her Cut stared with a mix of horror and agony at the blade that ate deep into her thigh.
To her right, Isla knelt wordlessly in a pool of Lachlan’s blood. She clutched his headless body, muttering soundless somethings as tears wetted her cheeks.
Ethi wondered, for the briefest moment, whether the woman’s misery was merely another mask.
Then she wondered what mask she’d donned herself.