OLIVIA

As Olivia watched the tall, hooded woman in Redbow armor confidently stride toward toward the small camp of bandits, she wondered if she and Emily had made a horrible mistake. Even if she summoned chainfire now and launched it at the woman, her feathersteel armor and the silverweave beneath it could blunt the strike long enough for her to strike back.

Under normal circumstances that would not have been a problem... Olivia knew her silverweave maid outfit would blunt the worse of whatever this woman could dish out until her flames finished the job... but since she wasn’t wearing silverweave today (another fact she was on the verge of blaming Emily for) she would need to be far more cautious.

The trees out here weren’t silverwood. They were just normal trees. If Olivia wasn’t careful with her flames or they swept out of control, she could easily start a massive forest fire that would burn them all to cinders and might even, if the wind was right, sweep down into Shadowfort and all the homes there. The weather had been awful dry recently.

“What are you just all standing around for?” the muscular woman asked irritably as she approached the camp. “Why don’t you have that loot loaded into crates and ready to move?”

The other bandits all looked uncertainly at each other as Emily stepped aside to allow the woman to reach the camp and also, stealthily, moved in on her left. Since the woman was wearing silverweave, Olivia knew she would need to get close to use Chopper. A swing at the head might put the woman down, but she’d have to be almost on top of her to do that.

Unfortunately, Emily’s movements alerted the woman that something was amiss. She paused before entering the camp and spun to face Emily.

“Who are you? I don’t recognize you.” She raised one outstretched hand.

Olivia now had no doubt what would happen. Emily would try to fool this woman about who she was, fail miserably, and get hurt by the woman’s unknown rarity while swinging Chopper. Olivia could not allow that to happen, so she did the only thing she could think of. She called a rope of chainfire and whipped it at the Redbow woman’s head.

To her credit, the woman reacted remarkably fast. She dived low and just under the rope of fire whipping past her head, but in doing so, she also lost her focus on Emily. Emily charged forward with a howl. She brought Chopper glistening into being, then swung.

Somehow the Redbow woman rolled aside at the last moment as Chopper whisked by. Visibly unphased by the unexpected attack, the woman then leapt to her feet and extended one hand palm first. As Emily cried out in pain, Olivia whipped her chain of fire back around.

This time, she caught the Redbow woman in the back. Her hood and armor caught fire. The other woman shrieked in pain, but then Olivia had to extinguish her fire to avoid hitting Emily. She was still too dehydrated for fine control, and there were too many flammable trees.

Emily stumbled toward the Redbow woman, flailing angrily as the woman patted desperately at her burning hair and clothes. Yet as Emily stumbled forward, Olivia saw no sign of Chopper. Instead Emily slammed into the Redbow woman like a charging bear.

They both went down in a tangle of flailing limbs, making it impossible for Olivia to help even if she could pull out another rope of chainfire. Still, she had to do something! She couldn’t let Emily die the day before Lord Gloomwood’s wedding!

As Olivia charged for the two flailing, wrestling women, she didn’t fail to notice as the bandits all scattered into the woods. With everyone who could kill them distracted, they were turning tail. Olivia couldn’t worry about the bandits now, and after talking with and learning their names, she didn’t have the heart to burn them even if she had the mental focus. Instead, she grabbed the first weapon within reach—the glistening green cat statue—and rushed over to where Emily and the Redbow woman continued to roll about and try to punch each other.

The moment she got her opening, Olivia brought the emerald cat statuette down on the Redbow woman’s unprotected head. The woman saw it coming and tried to block or twist away, but Emily pinned her with an angry howl. The statuette landed with a gross-sounding crunch, and then the Redbow woman went limp at last.

Olivia fell back, gasping for breath, and belatedly glanced at Emily’s prospective wedding present. Other than the new smear of fresh blood along its base, it seemed undamaged by the melee. Then, as Olivia looked again at the unmoving Redbow woman, a bit of vomit popped up in the back of her throat. There was a huge, bloody divot in the woman’s forehead.

She was dead. She was definitely dead. Olivia held back the urge to vomit as best she could and took deep breaths. She had just... but she’d had no choice!

Emily rolled off the Redbow woman and stumbled to her feet. She shook her right hand several times before Chopper finally manifested again, then looked at Olivia with a mad smile on her face. “Great job, Oli!”

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

Olivia swallowed. “I just wanted to stop her from hurting you again.”

“You did!”

“Are you... are you hurt?”

“My arm feels like it got burned a little, but I’m sure we can heal that with gloves.”

Olivia took one deep, shuddering breath. “Well... good.”

She had killed before. She would kill again. Still, sending waves of chainfire at invading kromians she couldn’t see was different than the up close and personal task of bringing what was essentially a giant rock down on someone’s head. This killing had felt... personal.

Emily touched Olivia’s shoulder with her non-singed hand and squeezed. “You did great, Oli. Just so you know, I’m very proud of you.”

Olivia wished she could feel just a bit better about that.

“Now, we should probably get the body back to Shadowfort.”

“The body?” Olivia all but squeaked. “Why do we need her body?”

“So we can identify her! From the way she’s dressed, it’s possible she’s part of Redbow Manor, or was. We also need to get the Hawk Merchant to identify her as the robber, and assure the people of Shadowfort the bandit who menaced them is dead.” Emily sighed. “I am annoyed all those other bandits got away.”

“Well... perhaps you’ll get to chop them later?” Olivia suggested half-heartedly.

Emily’s wide grin returned. “You know what? I bet I will! Thanks, Oli!”

“But if they all leave, we don’t have to kill them. Right?”

Emily shrugged. “So long as they’re not robbing people here, it’s not our problem.”

Olivia glanced at the pile of loot in the now empty clearing to take her mind off the woman she’d just killed. “So what about all the stuff they stole? We can’t carry all that back.”

“We’ll have some people from Shadowfort come out here to get it.” Emily pointed at the glistening emerald cat statuette. “But I need you to carry my statue.”

“Why do I have to carry your wedding present?”

“Because I’m carrying the body!”

“Oh,” Olivia said. “Right.”

Nodding with satisfaction, Emily picked up a woman and tossed the woman over her shoulder as if she weighed nothing at all. Olivia was jealous of how strong Emily was sometimes. Still, in this instance, she was glad she didn’t have to carry a dead body.

She picked up the emerald cat statuette again, all too conscious of the fact that it was heavier than it looked, then glanced back one last time at the pile of stolen loot piled in the small clearing in the forest. There was no one left to guard it. Would that be a problem?

It was possible the bandits would come back to try to steal a few small belongings for their trouble, but she doubted it. If they were lucky, and if the bandits were smart, they would never see any of those people in Lord Gloomwood’s territory again. Olivia hoped not.

Other than the single murder which Olivia had committed, which she still wasn’t sure she was going to be okay with, their mission today actually hadn’t gone half bad! They’d recovered the loot and stopped further attacks. Even so, Olivia couldn’t help but worry Lydia was going to be cross with them for doing all this without orders.

By the time they returned to Shadowfort both gates were closed, but the constables on duty quickly opened the gates when they recognized Emily. Also, as the gates opened, Olivia froze at the same time Emily did... because they were no longer alone. As she stared guiltily from behind Emily, a tall, dark-haired woman in full battle maid attire strode out to greet them.

Valentia’s ice-blue eyes swept over Emily and then to Olivia, and Olivia couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of disapproval. Valentia would only be all the way out in here in Shadowfort if she’d come looking for them both, which meant they were likely going to both be in a great deal of trouble. Emily, it seemed, didn’t feel the same way.

“Hey, Val!” Emily sounded absolutely thrilled to see Gloomwood Manor’s eldest battle maid. “Guess what we found?” She thumped the back of the dead woman slung over her shoulder. “We found a bad woman from Redbow Manor! She was leading bandits attacking our merchants!”

Valentia’s eyes narrowed. “And you killed her?”

“Oli did. I’m really proud of her.”

As Valentia’s cool gaze flicked to Olivia, Olivia couldn’t help but wince. Valentia looked back to Emily soon after. “How do you know she was attacking our merchants?”

“The Hawk Merchant said so! Also, the bandits said so!”

“And where are these bandits now?”

“Well... they all ran away.” Emily’s brief crisis of confidence faded quickly. “But we recovered all the loot they stole and killed their leader, who I think might be a thrall who ran away from Lord Redbow’s manor, and better yet, we got Lydia and Lord Gloomwood the perfect wedding present!” She glanced at Olivia. “Oli! Show her my present!”

Hesitantly, Olivia raised the emerald cat statue.

Valentia’s eyes swept across the statue once more and then back to Emily. “This is less than ideal. If thralls from Lord Redbow’s disbanded manor have now begun striking out on their own, we should spread word across our lands for people to take appropriate precautions. I do not believe a new Lord Redbow has been announced.”

“So we did good, right?” Emily asked hopefully. “You’re here because of the courier the Hawk Merchant sent to the manor, aren’t you? Well, now you don’t have to do anything, because we already scattered the bandits who attacked her and found all her missing goods!”

“If the bandits you let free have not returned to loot them by now,” Valentia said.

Emily marched forward. “Pft, they won’t do that. We can hire some locals to collect it after we eat. Now, let’s get a meal. I’m hungry enough I feel like I could eat a whole pig!”

Valentia eyed Emily as she walked past with the dead Redbow woman bouncing on her shoulder. “You should put the body down first.

“Sure!” Emily looked around. “But... where, exactly?”

Valentia sighed heavily. “Follow me.” Gloomwood Manor’s senior battle maid turned about with grace Olivia couldn’t help but envy and marched off with Emily beside her.

After one last look back at the darkened road, Olivia hurried after them. As she considered everything that had happened today and how close Emily had possibly come to dying, as well as how much she cared about Emily (bullying and all) she decided she was going to be all right. She wasn’t happy she’d had to kill someone... but wasn’t going to suffer for it.

Her manor lord was safe, her fellow battle maids was safe, the people they protected were now less likely to be robbed, and a nice merchant wouldn’t go bankrupt after they retrieved her missing inventory. Today had, murder aside, been a good day.

And it had been good to get out of the manor for a little bit.

THE END