Nature was Ethi’s cage. The trees were its bars, and the canopy its twisted, wire-meshed fence.

Ethi was trapped within its grip and it taunted her. Each shadow wore Siobhan’s visage, each snapping twig seemed to carry her gait.

She clutched the folder against her chest. It had held her salvation, but today it was her affliction, a poison in her blood clotting it all to ruin.

Death came with a glint, just barely visible in the evening’s light the knife swam through the air like a shark hunting for prey.

Ethi saw it, dragged herself from its course too late. It bit into her savagely, finding a place left of her bellybutton to sink into.

Ethi braced for panic but only felt pain, she had long since run out of the former. The weapon was a tiny thing, meant for wounding rather than killing, and yet each breath now sank a serrated jolt of agony into her senses.

Footsteps told of Siobhan’s approach, she emerged, charging at Ethi from one of the many shadows that held her silhouette. The woman had expected panic to bring her the opportunity to grab a much faster opponent, and would have killed her in an instant if it had. She would be disappointed.

Ethi turned, ran and screamed. The pain was immense, each step jostled the blade in her gut and her body raged in protest of her treatment of it. Her bod didn’t care that she was chased by something worse than pain, didn’t care that every step took her farther from it, every shout drew her allies closer to aiding, it only wanted the fire at her belly to die.

She didn’t stop, she couldn't, but a compromise had to be made. Ethi adjusted her footing, changed her balance and finally slowed her pace to appease the agony and while it did just fade barely into the back of her mind, the sounds of Siobhan’s footsteps took its place in its front.Ethi forced herself to think even as her mind became a thing of purified animal madness. She dared to look behind her, just a glimpse. She saw Siobhan, charging straight through vines, branches and leaves where Ethi had ducked and jumped.

The woman ran with a limp, clutching her side which coloured red. It was where she had been shot. It seemed neither of them were in the best condition. Another glance told Ethi that she was faring worse. Siobhan was closing the distance, slowly but surely and any attempt to lengthen it had Ethi blinded with pain.

She could make it to the hill before the woman was upon her, Ethi told herself, because it was a mere quarter minute away now and the alternative was oblivion.

Ethi ranShe dashed through the foliage even as the woods snagged and clawed at her from every angle. Every stumble, every brush brought her dangerously close to Siobhan.The woman wouldn’t stop until she was dead, she would follow her to the edge of every continent if need be. It was chilling to know and yet it reinforced her confidence in Isla’s plan.

Fingers brushed against the back of her neck and Ethi’s terror grew. She tried to lengthen the distance but this time not only did her gut protest but her lungs burned and her legs ached.

She was almost there, she could see the hill, the shrubs that Isla and Seris were hiding behind. Just a few more seconds and- Siobhan grabbed her shoulder, Ethi twisted out of it before her grip could settle. The motion caused her to stumble and then powerful legs kicked her own out from underneath.The world tumbled with Ethi, up became down, down became up and then her body slammed into earth. For a moment she saw only blinding white, the image of Siobhan walking towards her came next.

Her body was a library of pain, and each point of torment told a story of how she had landed wrongly. She could not stand in time and Siobhan had eyes devoid of mercy.

I don’t want to die like this.

Ethi quested for calm. Where fear was an ally before, now it was only an obstacle. She chose rage instead. Anger was easy to find, she had a lot to fan the flames of her fury. She was just a girl, cast into a world of gunpowder and blades by the very people that were supposed to love and protect her.

I won’t die like this.Ethi’s body burned crimson and she felt like she was seeing through a river of blood. She couldn’t stop Siobhan from slamming the boot into her face, the world was far too fast for her now. The strength she traded her speed for made the blow only rock her where it might have split her head open before, but Siobhan was kneeling above Ethi now.

Legs on either side of her and hands wrapped around her throat. She squeezed and Ethi coughed. Every attempt to pry the woman’s fingers off of her proved fruitless. She was weaker, and her enemy wasn’t down a limb in this contest.

Her head throbbed, her vision fuzzed, she was already out of breath when this began. She wouldn’t last long, denied any more.

Her hand slipped from Siobhan’s wrist and moved to her own stomach. She wrapped her fingers around the blade’s handle. A throwing knife wasn’t made to kill but a well placed one could do the job.

Don’t pull out anything that gets stuck in you unless you want to bleed to death.

The old lessons seemed distant, now, and Ethi could hardly imagine she’d exsanguinate faster than Siobhan’s grip was killing her already.Ethi braced herself, groaned as she dragged the blade from her gut and Slammed it at Siobhan’s neck. It found flesh and buried itself deep into it.

Siobhan cursed, glared at the blade meant for her neck and Ethi stared in horror at finding it through the north woman's arm instead. She had blocked.

Death had won.

It did not mean she would stop fighting, she would die kicking and screaming, but each effort she made from now on, she knew would be in vain.

Siobhan must have been certain of this too, for as Ethi met her eyes she found the silent knowing only shared between murderer and victim, that theirs would be the most important face the other person saw.Siobhan’s neck erupted in blood and the woman lurched off of her, clutched the patch of flesh where her ichor came from even as it continued to fountain. Ethi had hunted enough animals to know a torn artery when she saw one, and the pints of blood racing from her would have told an amateur her fate. The woman had no chance.Ethi hungrily gasped for air, coughing and spluttering on the ground. When she looked back at the woman, Siobhan was dead, back against a tree and eyes staring blankly at nothing. Seen more clearly, Ethi could make out the numerous cuts and dents in her shoulder and head- as if she’d been killed by a volley. Flesh pulped and crimson like strawberry jam.

She let go of her magic.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Are you okay?” Ethi turned to see Seris posing the question. His blunderbuss in hand, spitting smoke from the barrel that brought the pale woman death. He looked tired, like he carried the world’s sorrows in his eyes.

“Yes,” Ethi gasped, voice hoarse. It hurt to speak, hurt to do anything really. “Thank you,” She added.“Then I’m sorry.” She hadn’t seen the axe in his hand, Siobhan’s axe, the one she had bathed in Lachlan’s blood before dropping. He hefted it, hesitated and swung down at Ethi.

“No-” She screamed, calling on her magic but it was a distant thing now. “Wait!” The axe ignored her cries and Ethi’s body ignored her pleas for it to move out of the way.

There was an explosion and Seris froze in place. The axe fell from limp fingers and Seris fell to his knees. He clutched his chest and looked at Ethi with sorrowful eyes, words scrambled to leave his lips but they only came out as wheezes. Seris’s chest met the floor with a soft thud.

Isla was panting behind him, eyes alight with fury. “Say hello to Lach for me,” Her eyes met Ethi and that rage seemed to bleed away entirely to relief. “You’re not dead… good.”

Ethi blinked. So much had happened, and she had been given so little time to make sense of it. She was alive. That was what truly mattered.

She got to her feet, felt her body ache and scream at every other motion and knew a world of agony awaited her in the coming days. Her hand was kept tight against the wound in her belly, stemming the blood even as Ethi marvelled at how little came.

A shallow wound, she supposed.The folder lay on the ground, blood stained but other than that, unharmed by the events of today. Ethi picked it up and it somehow felt like less in her grasp. She tried to see salvation but only found the key to bloodshed in its pages.

“The folder,” Ethi heard Isla say. They met eyes, and Isla looked at her as if she knew the exact thoughts running through her mind. Ethi knew it was because those very same things had ran through hers.All she had to do was hand it to her, and it would be over and done with. The folder was light, it couldn’t be that many people who were in danger, it couldn’t be enough for her to sacrifice her life for. She wouldn’t need to look inside, she wouldn’t need to know. She just had to give it to Isla and the rest would sort itself out.

“No.”

Isla looked more prepared for Ethi’s answer than Ethi herself, and still the woman winced as if she’d been kissed by forge-hot steel. “Ethi-”“Are you going to kill me?” She asked, grabbing the axe next to Seris’ corpse. Her stomach burned with pain.

Isla’s features darkened, then shame overcame them.

“No.” She breathed. “No… I’m not going to kill you.” Ethi could tell she was being honest. Isla tossed her pistol to the side. “I’m not going to do anything to you.”“You’re just going to kill other people then.” Ethi muttered.“I don’t have a choice!” Isla protested. She shook her head. “I never had a choice Ethi, it was always me or the world, always me or them, it’s all I know, it’s all I’ve ever fucking known... This is my only chance to take control in a world that spits and shits on me every chance it gets.”

“They don’t deserve this!” Ethi roared.

“I don’t either!” Isla screamed, her voice shattered under the strain of her emotions and tears wetted her cheeks. “You think I want to do this? You think I want a life built on corpses? No, but I guarantee you, I guarantee you if it were anyone else in my position they wouldn’t even hesitate to do this.”

It didn’t have to be like this, why did it have to be like this? Ethi felt a warmth flow against her cheeks, she was crying, she realised, swimming in a sea of anguish.

“Please.” Isla begged. “I just don’t want to feel weak anymore.”

“I’m sorry.” Ethi whispered. “I won’t let you kill innocent people.”

Isla shook her head and there was resolve in her eyes. “You can and you will… I’m going to walk towards you slowly and take the folder.”

“No-”

“One.” Isla took a step towards Ethi. “Two.” She took another.

“Stop!”

“Three.”

“Please.”

“Four.”

Isla was within arm’s reach of her now, close enough to lunge suddenly, close enough to seize the folder and run away with it.And Ethi was in no condition to chase her down. Even if she was, it would only force a fight she couldn’t win in her condition. “Fiv-” The words ceased in her throat. Ethi’s eyes were fixed on the woman’s side where the axe’s blade had sunk in. She’d closed her eyes, swung and hoped it didn’t land. It had, and Isla looked as shocked as she felt. “Well…” The woman coughed. “Fuck.”Ethi stared wordlessly as Isla stumbled away from her. The woman landed in a sitting position, hand wrapped around the axe to keep it in place. Blood drowned the planted steel as it leaked from her wound.

“I’ll go get help-”

“No.” Isla said with a strength she had not known the woman still had in her. She met Ethi’s gaze with a resolution in hers. “I’m bleeding too much, I’ll be dead before you even get to them.”

“Don’t say that!”

“It’s the truth!” Isla growled then her face twisted into a painting of agony. She groaned like a dying animal.

Like a dying person.

“I’m sorry,” Ethi squeezed out pathetically.

She had expected Isla to do many things, smile was not one of them. “Don’t be….” She wheezed. “Don’t ever be sorry for doing the right thing… It’s how people like me are made.”Isla found a tree to rest her back against. She reached into her shirt and pulled out a pendant, It was the head of a bear, molded from silver.

Isla’s every motion was a laboured one now, so Ethi knew it meant something when she placed the pendant in her palm. Isla’s lips moved but no sounds bled from them, she looked at Ethi as if she were something far, far, away.

“I… I don’t understand.”Isla’s eyes were bright again, with that certainty she always seemed to carry, that the winds themselves were hers to will and it was the world’s fault that it simply hadn’t recognised it. “Gorbachev.”

The word meant nothing to Ethi but she knew it meant more than everything to Isla, so she held it in her mind as Isla and her shared one last look, the silent knowing only shared between murderer and victim, that theirs would be the most important face the other person saw.