When Sara went back to her room, she looked into the mirror, looking for answers that she knew she wouldn’t find. [Is this worth it?] she silently asked. That question was coming up more and more as of late, and she was questioning just who she had become and who she wanted to be. Not [this]. That was the only answer that she had. Yet she committed to [this], and now, if she didn’t act, it would all be over.

Sara gazed at her flawless skin, free from the scar she earned during her battle with a massive beast on a quest, the same scar that made her feel anxiety that Kyritus wouldn’t marry her—the same scar that she didn’t realize made her feel [human] and like herself until it was suddenly gone. Then she looked down at the desk the mirror was on, feeling like everything had somehow gotten fucked up, and thought about what she knew was true but that she didn’t want to face.

[If you didn’t, more would’ve died,] Sara rationalized, thinking about how she was oppressing the dissidents, pushing them to the breaking point, and putting her preemptive measures into motion. [That’s not tyrannical bullshit, that’s just a fact.]

It [was] a fact. It was indisputable. But that wouldn’t help Sara sleep. It was what it was—and it wasn’t pretty.

2

Matt snuck out of his room, walked down two corridors, and glided into a backroom, where a sycount by the name of Lakow Torna was waiting. He was there every night of the week, and this night hadn’t changed anything.

“Lord Bower?” Lakow said. “This is sudden.”

“It is sudden,” Matt said, looking around. It was really fucking sudden. Impulsive. Reckless. But objectively speaking, he was committing treason against Sara ‘Absolutely Terrifying’ Reece, and it was his only option. “But we have to move.”

“Are the others ready?” Lakow asked.

“They’re as ready as they’ll be,” Matt said. “Either way, we don’t have a choice. Our ‘leader’ has turned out to be a major liability. I’d give her a day or two before she rats us out. So we gotta move. If people want to go, they gotta go tonight. Can you make it happen?”

“Lord Bower. Getting you out of this kingdom isn’t a simple task. It requires—“

“Can you do it? Yes or no. If not, tell us where to go. We’ll meet you there.”

Lakow frowned and pondered the situation. “I can. Get the others. Meet here in two hours.”

Matt’s ribs felt like they shattered from an earthquake, and he was fighting for breaths. [Caught, caught, caught!] That word rattled in his mind like it was a piano key that someone was pressing incessantly. Talking to people got people caught. Collecting people got you caught.

“Relax, Lord Bower,” Lakow said calmly. “You’re friends with them, are you not?”

Matt swallowed and nodded far more times than he needed to. “Yeah.”

“Is there a curfew?”

“No….”

“Then there’s no problem. If you get caught, improvise. Worst case scenario, you’ll be told not to gather after hours.”

Matt’s heart slowed, and he started concocting his strategy.

3

Matt knocked on Riley’s door. No response. He knocked again. Slight shuffling. Three more knocks—

“Go away!” Riley said, grumbling in her sleep.

“It’s Matt. You said we’d study in the dining hall tonight.”

“The fuck I did!”

“Yes,” Matt said, almost growling as he spoke through his teeth, “you [did] say you’d do it, and if you don’t study tonight, we’ll never be able to do it again.”

Between his voice and message of finality, especially the triggering term [won’t be able to do it again], she finally got the hint.

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

“I’ll… get ready. Give me a minute.”

Riley took ten minutes—ten minutes—ten fucking minutes that they could be [caught] during to get ready. Matt wasn’t a person who questioned women’s “getting ready” rituals that much. It felt annoying to him, sure. But (and fuck any male that disagreed because they didn’t want to admit it) he liked having eye candy around him, and eye candy didn’t come by throwing on scrub clothing in five seconds. That said, right then—unsure how long she would take—he felt like…. Matt bit back his emotions and waited until she opened the door as if everything was completely normal.

“What’s up?” Riley said, wearing eyeliner—at night.

Matt took a sharp breath. “We’re leaving.”

Riley froze. “When?”

“Now.”

“Wait—“

“Come or go,” Matt said hotly. “Whatever you do, shut your fucking mouth.”

Riley looked into her room. “But what—“

“You’ll get new… everything… once we get there. Now pretend like we’re studying with friends and if we get stopped, let me do the talking.”

4

Matt stopped by Tim’s room and did the same thing. However, contrary to expectations, Tim just looked at him with anxiety and said, “No.”

Riley stepped in. “Tim, you know that as long as you’re here—“

“No,” Tim said. “Marie and Jacob still have teachers. I’m going to follow their example and—“

“Marie and Jacob didn’t bitch about Sara for two years,” Riley said.

Tim looked at the ground. “Please, Riley…. I won’t tell anyone anything. Just…. Leave me alone.”

“Tim,” she said hotly. “Are you—“

“Don’t.” Matt put his hand in front of her chest. “We don’t have time. If he doesn’t want to go, we just have to leave and pray he doesn’t tell anyone before we’re gone.”

“But if he’s like this….” Riley bit her lip when Tim gripped the door handle, preparing to slam the door.

“You’re right,” Matt said. “That’s why we have to choose carefully. Tara? She’s out of the question.”

Riley froze. “Wait, what?”

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“I talked to her already. She’s not down. Now let’s go.” He turned to Tim. “Go to sleep.”

Tim nodded quickly and closed the door with zeal.

After they left, Matt checked a clock in the hallway. “This is taking way too long.”

“Let’s split up,” Riley said.

“It’s too risky,” Matt said.

“How long do we have?”

Matt clenched his hands. “An hour? I don’t know.”

“Why don’t we just get everyone together and ask them right before we leave?” Riley asked.

Matt considered it for a moment and then nodded it. “Yeah. Just… don’t be an idiot.”

Riley shot him a death glare, but she sighed. “Okay.”

The two split ways, and the moment she was out of sight, he instantly regretted it.

5

Tara awoke to a knock on her door. Learning her lesson from the night before, she didn’t move.

“Tara, it’s me….” Elizabeth, her close friend, said. She was a moderate (like her), but she was as bitter as Matt and the rest. “Can I come in? Please….”

Tara’s heart pounded, and she opened the door hesitantly. “What’s going on?”

“We’re getting together to study,” Elizabeth said, curling her blonde hair nervously. It was once a cute gesture, but now it was just a coping mechanism.

Tara looked out the window toward the moon and then back at her. “Studying?”

Elizabeth swallowed.

“Don’t be an idiot, Elizabeth.”

“Tara. Matt and Riley are leaving. Once they do, we’re all going to get in trouble. Think about it.”

Tara’s heart sank, and tears welled in her tear ducts. It was the same type of tears that she’d get studying for tests, feeling like she could collapse but knowing she had two hours left. That feeling came right before procrastinating and breaking down into tears. “Just… no,” she pleaded.

“Tara… it’s not safe.”

“Sara….” Tara looked away. “Sara’s… she’s not a bad person. I just refuse to believe it.”

“Not a bad person?” Elizabeth leaned over to look Tara in her eyes. “Sara killed Jason. She killed him. She killed Mary. She’s stripping us of our rights.”

“I know that,” Tara said. “I just have this… feeling. Something’s wrong with this situation. Don’t you feel that?”

“So you’re afraid it’s a setup?” Elizabeth asked, gripping her forearms and shivering.

“No. Probably not. Look, it’s just like…. The way she looks at us. She’s so sad. She’s not like King Escar and the way she’s treating the others…. I don’t know. Maybe it is a setup. Like a test of loyalty or something because it just feels… wrong. I don’t like Sara, but this… all of this…. It’s just not her.”

Elizabeth’s lips quivered, and she looked away.

“Don’t leave, Liz.”

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said. “Please…. Please just don’t tell. I’ll… I’ll get in a lot of trouble.”

Tara felt deep pangs of pain welling within her. She wanted to warn everyone, but she knew if she started knocking on doors, she’d be implicated. She suddenly understood why people in bad neighborhoods “didn’t see” murders that happened right in front of their eyes. It was terrible. “Okay….” Tara winced. “Just don’t say you saw me…. Okay? We’re friends. I don’t want to get locked up for… you know. Not ratting. You know?”

Elizabeth’s eyes welled with tears, and she grasped her in an embrace. “I….” Tears streamed from her eyes. “I won’t go either.”

Tara burst into tears. “I’m so glad.”

“Me too.”

6

Helen got a knock on her door.

7

Matt met up with Lakow after he assembled a few more people. They were pressed for time, so he sent Greg and another to get one more person, and to his surprise, eight people showed up. Four of them were women that Riley whipped together. When Riley and the rest were there, he addressed them.

“Look, guys, I know this is sudden, but another kingdom has agreed to take us in.”

The dissidents were stunned.

“We don’t need to fight Sara,” he lied. “We’re just running away. Once we’re far away, we’ll get resources.”

“Wait,” Greg said. “What—“

“There are no [whats],” Matt said sternly. “There’s just a yes or a no. Because people know, and if we don’t leave now, we’re all getting executed.”

“No. Hold up,” Greg said. “If [you] leave, then we’re all getting fucked, anyway.”

“Then come,” Matt said. “This isn’t a discussion. You can come with us to another kingdom that’ll treat us like kings, or you can stay and deal with hell. But look….” He took a deep breath, feeling primal fear, paranoia, and stress driving him to the edge. “Look, guys. You’re….” He turned with wide eyes when he saw a certain brunette enter the room. “Wait. Why the hell are you here?”

Helen looked at him with a fearful gaze, and she gulped.

“Did you invite her?” He asked Riley.

Riley looked at him like a deer in the headlights. Then he looked at the others with a livid expression. “Who. Did. It?”

Helen took a deep breath and took a step back. “Matt. Calm down.”

“Who did you tell?” Matt asked.

Helen took a sharp breath, taking another step back. “No one.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true.”

“Then why are you here?” he asked. “You’re not one of us. You and your hubby are with Sara. Not us.”

“Look, Matt,” Helen said. “Don’t do this.”

“Who in the fuck told her?” Matt turned to everyone else.

The others seized up like fucking idiots, and he couldn’t differentiate the perpetrator’s fear from the natural fear of the others. It was frustrating.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” Matt said, taking a step forward. Helen took a step back. The others watched in horror.

“Matt….”

“Shut up.”

“I’m not here to get you in trouble—“

“Don’t fuck with me. Whether it’s five minutes from now or six hours, you’re going to say what happened here. Then we’re dead. We’re [all] dead. Not in trouble—dead.”

Riley stepped forward. “Matt—“

Matt slapped away her hand. “Do you want to die? We need to deal with this.”

Helen backed away, looking down the hall. She looked cornered. And he didn’t like that. He didn’t like people fearing him. But it was eight people facing execution against one, and he knew what would happen. So he prepared to lunge to silence her with a single attack. And right then, in that primal state of vicious ecstasy—

A blunt object crashed against Helen’s head with a loud crack, sending her to the floor. Matt froze with the others, trying to figure out what had happened. Then, another person stepped into view. She had blonde hair and was wielding a sheathed sword like a baseball bat.

Riley let out a relieved sigh when she realized it was Elizabeth. “Thank God it’s you,” she said, touching her hand to her chest. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

Matt felt a sense of dread when he saw Elizabeth there. She was one of Tara’s friends, and she was borderline moderate. If she hadn’t just bludgeoned Helen violently, he’d probably [deal with her], too. It wasn’t staged. The impact sounded like thunder, and Helen was bleeding out on the floor. At the very least, Elizabeth was implicated. No one could’ve done that shit without getting axed, so he took a deep breath and looked at Lakow. “Let’s go.” He looked at everyone else, who were now accessories in his crimes, and they nodded. Once he got confirmation, he nodded back. “Let’s go,” he said more confidently.

Matt and the others left Helen bleeding out on the floor as they left the castle. Whether by miracle, stupidity, or misfortune, the rendevous with Lakow’s smugglers (who, according to the sycount, were on call since Halter made contact) was smooth, and the trip out of the walls felt effortless. It was easy—too easy. That, more than anything else, left Matt with a lingering feeling of dread.

8

Matt would remember the strange coolness of that night for the rest of his life. The way that the trees rustled when they traveled through them, the way he sweated in his leather armor despite being so cold. He could make out Riley’s freckles, and they looked fascinating and awful and terrifying in the light of the red moon. Beauty and truth, hot and cool, thrill and terror—the contrast was so vivid as they wove through the forests with only Lakow leading the way. We’re the strongest, Matt reminded himself as they walked. If they find us, we’re fucked anyway. That didn’t give him much reprieve. He just kept thinking of Raul on a silver glider. The man was still cool and rational and helpful on the surface, but he had changed. He had become darker. Colder. More like… Sara. Matt could see it in his eyes.

“We’re almost there,” Lakow said.

Matt’s pulse moved in rhythmic channels, giving him even greater clarity and vision. When he saw the two-story building they were meeting at, dimly lit with the warm glow of mana crystals, he could see the crookedness of some of the logs and hear the flapping of the windows in the light breeze. The soldiers’ boots were deafening as they snapped twigs, far louder than they were walking on the path. The wind suddenly felt frigid and cut like razors, and when he looked at the lights, he didn’t think of salvation. Instead, trap, Trap, TRAP! screamed in his mind, making him look around.

Riley looked at him. “You good?”

“I….” Matt had no words.

The others looked at him suspiciously, yet he ignored it. Something felt wrong, and his arms marbled with gooseflesh. He suddenly had a desire to run—run far away from where they were. Run into the forest. Go anywhere—anywhere but that building. But when the soldiers trudged forward, he followed—and time moved on.

2

Contrary to Matt’s expectations, the building looked like an adventurer’s guild from a fantasy novel, with high arches, a receptionist desk, and a massive dining area that could seat 100 but now sat… only a group of hooded figures. It didn’t make sense. This event was on short notice, so they couldn’t have cleared out a location of that size. It felt eerie. That said, Matt didn’t see a town on the way, and while there might’ve been one a mile away, it wouldn’t make sense why it sat so many despite not being in a city. He looked around and found his answer. On the wall, he saw a plaque that read—

Spring Forage

—with information on monster hunting and yearly herb foraging. Since it was fall, it made sense why no one was around.

It must be seasonal, he thought.

The hooded figures came up to them. One revealed his face. He was a good-looking man with a noble appearance, sporting a large smile and long brown hair. No one recognized him, but he was comforting on sight.

“Welcome, Heroes,” Tyran said with a bright smile. “King Lemings is immeasurably pleased that you’ve decided to join us."