Kathleen sat still within the carriage, her hands on her knees, legs pulled back defensively. Her fingers pinched at her white frilled skirt, her head downcast as she counted the buttons on her maroon shirt. A strand of her long blonde hair had gotten itself stuck on her lips, but she dared not to even blow it away, instead choosing to suck on the yellow.

The bandit sat opposite, eyeing her in all the inappropriate places. Even through the scarf that covered his mouth and with the light from outside blocked by the curtains of the carriage, even when she wasn't looking at him directly, she could tell he was grinning.

“Just sit tight, ma' Lae,” his voice croaked, a frog trapped in his throat. The melanist man reached over and touched her lap. She jumped in her seat, body shivering as she started a silent panic, screaming in her head. “Don't worry though, I can keep you company all day long.”

She wanted to scream. To shout. But her jaws were clenched so tight that she could taste blood. The man had a knife. She had seen knives before, but for some reason, that one looked unusually long and sharp, as if the edge was refined to a point of solitude.

“Don't worry. I'll be gentle.” He moved closer.

A small whimper escaped her. “Help.”

A new voice immediately asked, “Did someone say, 'help'?”

It was the bandit's turn to be shocked. His knife instinctively slashed backwards towards the once empty seat to the right of him but was stopped by the calm and steady hand of the man in the grey coat with a longsword on his back. The man smiled, an action that made the faded scars of his face stretch and disappear. His onyx-brown bed hair were as carefree as his movements. He closed his hand around the fist of the stunned bandit and slowly pushed the weapon back to him.

The new man turned to Kathleen, “Hi! I'm The Watcher. Nice to meet you.” He extended his hand.

Moving without her permission, her body reached out to shake the outstretched hand. She realized she was no longer trembling. “Hi,” she greeted back, all the fear that had taken her the moments before vanished as instantaneously as the man's appearance. The world seemed to have gotten insurmountably safer in the seconds since his arrival. “I'm Kathleen Ambershey.” She did not know why she used her full name when The Watcher only used a title. It just felt appropriate somehow.

“Nice to meet you, Kathleen Ambershey.” He sat back and smiled, and she could not help but smile back. His relaxed and happy personality felt addictive.

The bandit seemingly regained his composure. Sitting straight up, he readied his knife at them. “What? Do ya' two gearheads think tis' some joke?”

The carriage door opened behind him, and he once again swung the knife in reflex. And once again, it was stopped, this time, by a calm wrist, for the hand held a dagger of its own. The dark elf casually disarmed the knife with his free hand and stepped into the carriage.

The bandit's eyes grew wide as he realized who he faced. “The Wanderer!”

“Hi,” Nadier greeted. He looked over to The Watcher, “Your 'no killing' rule is troublesome, to say the least.”

“But you did it?”

“Of course. They are all tied up and ready for the patrol to carry them off.”

“Good. Great. Fantastic! Now...” He put one arm over the shoulders of the now defenceless bandit. “What are we to do with you?”

Nadier sheathed his main-hand dagger, pulled out his off-hand weapon, and ejected the empty vial from the latter. From his belt, he took a new one and loaded it in. “I ran out of anaesthetics. Now, this one is extracted mixture diluted from multiple snake venoms and will paralyse you temporarily. But it will hurt a lot more, so you might want to choose wisely.” He waved his dagger to the bandit.

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The bandit looked to his left at the elf and to the right at The Watcher before finally relenting and raising his arms in surrender. “Ya'll got me.”

The Watcher padded his head. “Good boy.”

It felt as if she had been held hostage in the carriage for weeks. When she stepped out, the light from the noon Twins blinded her and she had to squint to get her bearings. The Watcher stepped out behind her and Nadier exited opposite with his new prisoner in tow.

The Watcher asked his companion, “So, the patrol will come by when?”

“In maybe half an hour,” Nadier replied. She heard the rustling of ropes. “We can just leave them here.”

Then, her vision returned, and she could see all the blood of her guards splattered and spilled across the dirt road. The bodies of her men and driver laid slumped against the carriage or sprawled across the path. Her stomach churned. She gripped it to no avail and she vomited over the ground. Nadier and The Watcher continued their conversation as if nothing happened.

The elf spoke, “This is me. Up north is Everwind. Are you sure you will be able to find Ra'Kalen?”

“Follow the south-east road and it's the first town next to a mountain. I'm crazy, not stupid.”

“You could pass for both.”

The two exchanged a few more pleasantly disguised insults before Nadier bid his goodbyes after making sure The Watcher could handle things.

Her stomach had emptied out and she was now just coughing for air. She felt like retching again, even though there was nothing left. A warm, large hand placed itself on her back and she instantly felt relieved.

“Are you okay?” The Watcher asked.

She breathed in deep and her mind cleared slightly, though her throat continued to burn. But she remembered her position and forced herself to stand up straight and face him. “I'm uh...” she cleared her throat. “I'm Lae Kathleen Ambershey of the House of Amber. I thank you for your assistance.” She gave a small bow. Speaking her title and name had become ritualistic for her and she could feel herself calming down just from it.

“House of Amber...” he looked at her quizzically. “Nice. Sounds nice. Like a fast food joint.” He turned on the spot to survey the scene.

On the opposite side of the road, the bandits of nine were tied up against each other, with only the one from the carriage still awake, though having given up on struggling. To the far north, beyond Nadier's fading back, the city of Everwind glimmered in all its bronze reflection. The Tower of Light stood high, piercing into the heavens, glows bouncing off its copper finish, a beacon shining halfway across the continent. Plains stretched to the east and Valendra's forest peeked out from the west. To the south, the mountain ridge extended to the horizons on both sides.

“Um...” she started unsteadily, looking to the ground, suddenly not daring to meet his gaze. “What do I do now?”

“Well, Nads said the highway patrol passes by here near noon. You could wait around here for them. I'm sure they would be more than happy to take you to wherever you wanted to go.”

That was true. As a Lae of the land, officials of the States were obligated to see to her protection and would likely have taken over for her convoy. However...

The Watcher continued, “Or...” She looked up, hopeful. The Watcher ran through his thoughts. “Where are you headed?”

“Sher–” she stopped herself. Her mind raced fast. “Ra'Kalen. I am headed for Ra'Kalen,” she lied through her teeth.

The man beamed with a smile. “That's where I'm headed for! Would you like to come with me?”

“Yes!” She almost jumped.

She was sure she must be grinning from ear-to-ear but could not care less about her appearance. She wanted to shout, yell, and exclaim freedom to pursue her lifelong dream of travel, away from her family and all the pompous nonsense being there entailed. There was so much to do. She needed to pack a bag. Get a change of clothes. Ready the horses. She turned to the carriage and was again brought back to the present by the sight of the dead, stopping her in her tracks, her happiness washed away like a grain of sand against a rapid.

“I can't...” she was almost whimpering again. She had not known her guards and convoy. Never thought there was need to. They were always just there, and she had always assumed there would have been another day to get to know them. But even then, even for strangers, she could not leave them the way they were.

With a soft voice, The Watcher asked, “What do you want to do?”

“I... I don't know. But I can't... leave them like this. Not for the scavengers or passers-by to ogle and glare.”

The man walked past her and to the body of the nearest guards. With an underarm carry, he pulled the corpse away from the carriage it slouched against and onto an empty part of the road. He did the same thing again for each of the victim, passing each minute with grunts and sweat and a soft smile that never left his face until all the dead were lined side-by-side. Once readied, he closed the eyes of each one that were still opened, and muttered an unheard prayer under his breath. He went back into the carriage, sounds of ripping cloth following after. When he stepped back out, he had the white curtains rolled up in his hand.

He walked up to her and handed her one end of the cloth. “Here.”

She stared sombrely at the cloth. She had never done something like this before. Being sombre. The only funeral she had ever been to involved food and drinks and music and dances. Beautiful dresses and well steamed suits were the norm for her. Bodies were buried with celebration for the deceased, and frivolous gifts were exchanged with impunity for the living. Looking up, she met The Watcher's eyes, and somehow, she found the strength to nod in conviction.

Together, they stretched the makeshift blanket over the row of bodies. The cloth fluttered over and down onto them like waves, settling and taking the form of the bodies below. Whatever blood was left on the surface pooled quickly through the white, grimly outlining each wound. Somehow, she found that sight much harder to look at than the bodies themselves, and turned away, stumbling back to the carriage to lean against.

Footsteps crunched behind her as The Watcher approached. From the horizon, the highway patrol took form. A squad of dozen figures closing in.

“If you want,” The Watcher placed his gentle hand on her shoulder. She turned to him. “We can still go to Ra'Kalen together.” He offered his right hand, palms opened to her.

She looked to it, and with another breath to steady herself, she took it. “Just let me get my things.”