Savri

Ren’s mother’s house was pretty impressive, looking more like a two-storey plantation house than your usual Ror-Bhyk aesthetic. It was built from polished green bricks, with a temple front supported by seven white-marble columns and a gallery overlooking the courtyard. There were several canvas tents set up in front of the building, and the whole compound was surrounded by a two-metre-tall brick wall.

Is the place under military occupation? Are we too late?

Her questions were answered by a three-man patrol of men dressed in blue brigantines emerging from behind one of the corners of the fence. One of them was carrying a bolt-action rifle while the other two had swords sheathed on their belts.

Them being able to spare even one of these on a patrol is a bad sign.

Bolt-action rifles were really expensive, even in the places where they were produced, as rifled barrels were hard to come by in sufficient amounts.

By reflex, Savri unholstered her gun. She was fairly certain the men couldn't see her from her perch in the tree branches… but you don’t survive in special forces without a healthy dose of paranoia.

Easier to holster the gun than panic draw it during a fight.

They had been waiting for a Lilyth for an hour before Akster asked her to scout out the area. Savri hated sitting around and waiting so she readily accepted the assignment. And truth be told… the former commando was probably the best suited of their little family to do it. Lilyth and Caeileera had all the subtlety of a carrier strike group, Aki was worried sick and had absolutely no experience in scouting missions, and Ren was a level zero pampered gang leader. The girl had potential… but Sav would need to put a lot of work into shaping her into a decent fighter.

Her worries, fortunately, were proven wrong and the men simply passed her by, not even sparing a glance in her direction.

How do you tell a pro from an amateur? Professionals look up.

Deciding she had seen all that she could, Savri waited for the patrol to definitely be out of earshot and started to make her way to the bush thicket the rest of her friends were hidden at, making sure to locate the escape tunnel entrance Ren mentioned. It was pretty well hidden under a large brush so it took her a while to find it. In general, the foliage was fairly sparse in the area surrounding Mer-Cas, so the whole errand took her way over two hours.

‘Lilyth is not back yet?’ Savri asked when she saw that her friends were even more worried now than when she left them.

‘No,’ Akster shook her head, looking close to panicking.

Sav didn’t blame her one bit. By her estimation, it had been at least three-and-a-half hours since the kitsune left on her scouting mission, and a quick check on the interface said that it was closer to four.

‘What could be taking her so long?’

‘Maybe there were… complications,’ Sav said and told them about the camp and the men she had seen.

‘Blue brigantines?’ Caei asked to confirm.

‘Yeees?’ Savri wasn’t sure where the Sanguine was going.

‘Did they wear red masks by chance?’ Aki squeaked.

‘No.’

‘Wait!’ Ren shouted. ‘You’ve met a Red Mask?’

Aki relayed to them the story about the bandits they met in the forest shortly after leaving the Tower of Trials.

Ren got paler with every word.

‘You know them, I gather?’ Caei asked.

‘The Red Masks are a recent player in the game. They appeared down South near the Holy City about two years ago and their influence has been spreading like wildfire. They have upset the power balance in many cities, though best I can tell they never outright took over. The Red Masks just want… influence and people. They haven’t been seen this far north, or so I thought until now. I haven't heard about them moving in force either.’

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‘And now they have taken over this place,’ Caei muttered. ‘Assuming it is them.’

‘It must be,’ Ren grimaced. ‘They all wear blue with… well… red masks.’

‘The assassins also wore blue,’ Sav noted.

‘Fuck,’ Caeileera swore.

‘Ren…’ Aki began with a breaking voice. ‘We need to find Lilyth. I am so sorry, but we cannot… I cannot…’

Ren shook her head.

‘There is nothing to apologise for. Knowing my mom, she would not let me live down abandoning a friend to save her. She would be right too. Lilyth helped save my life and is in danger because of my request too. From a more practical perspective… if the Red Masks are here in force… we need her. They are already occupying our estate, so storming it unprepared won’t help my mom.

Aki nodded, relief clear on her face.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

Aki

We entered the village ready to fight, though all we saw were the locals. One of them, a completely bald elderly man called out to us.

‘Lady Ren! I did not expect to see you too today.’

‘Waljey!’ she replied with a wide smile. ‘It’s been too long. What do you mean by “me too”?’

‘Your lord brother was here today.’

‘Kojiro is here?’ Rennie repeated in a shaky voice.

‘Yes, my lady,’ the old man confirmed. ‘Lord Kojiro and his men arrived this morning and I would assume he is with your lady mother right now.’

‘No…’ Caei whimpered. ‘No…’

A cold pit opened in my stomach. This has gone from bad to worse in an instant.

‘H-have you seen an elf with a blue streak in her hair this morning?’ Ren asked, trying to regain her composure.

‘Yes,’ the man nodded. ‘She said she was looking for supplies and I directed her to Aldvil’s inn. Is she a friend of yours?’

‘Yes. Have you seen her afterwards?’

‘No,’ the old man shook his head.

‘Thank you, Waljey,’ Ren answered and pointed us towards the inn.

The innkeeper had even direr news for us. Apparently, Kojiro’s men took interest in Lilyth, or Sindara as he called her using her cover name, and some guy named Xyrus apparently even tried to drug her. Aldvil let Lilyth leave through the back door and didn’t see her again. This was where the trail ran cold. Based on the timeline we could piece together Kojiro’s men left the village shortly after my wife was last seen again. Which left us with one horrible conclusion.

‘They got her…’ Caei cried.

Sav readied her gun.

‘So let’s make them regret that.’

Lilyth

I don't know how much time it took for the Nightmare to end. First, I was brought before Kojiro who informed me that he initially wanted to kill me, but on second thought decided that I would be joining him as his “attendant”, instead. I responded by spitting in his face, which was… a mistake. He only laughed, said that “sometimes you just had to break them in” and that he “relished the challenge”. After he was done he passed me to his men and assured me this would happen whenever I displeased him in some way.

I don't know how many of them there were. I lost count around twenty as I was fairly certain some of them returned for seconds. More than once. The exact number of people did not matter in the end. They were all fucking dead. They f… messed with the wrong woman. Xyrus made sure I remembered every single one of his five goes. His demise would be especially painful.

When they were finally done I was dropped naked, in absolute agony and covered in… their… juices… into a tent and bound to a stake so I couldn't escape. I have no idea what made them stop as I fully checked out at some point as my reality was just an endless barrage of dicks.

So when my mind finally reconnected to the real world I realised that in my current state, I had two options. One, since the drugs they gave me, and more were force-fed to me during the Nightmare, made me sleepy, very sleepy, I could just try to sleep it off. The other option was to wait. Not for a rescue. I prayed my friends would stay away. It was enough that I had to go through that. If Aki and Caei… were… next… it would kill me. What I was planning was to wait for the drugs to wear off and start making my escape. Yes… I had to resist the drowsiness. If the drugs wore off while I was asleep… if they came back to give me more… No. No. No. I’d rather die than go through that gauntlet again, a thought that made me realise that if Kojiro came for me to service him again… he would get what he wanted out of that event. I would no longer resist. It wasn't worth it. So if I wanted to avoid becoming his personal toy… I had to escape or die trying. I was not planning on letting that bastard put his hands on me again. Nope.

I never felt more alone than when I was waiting. The drugs even stopped the interface from working so I had no sense of time. All the while, I was assaulted by the memories of my clothes getting torn off, their hands on my body… the feeling of them inside me… the taste of… me being sprayed… nonono.

After what seemed like forever the wall inside of my head began to crumble. It took me a moment but eventually, I was able to contract my hands to the point I was able to get out of my bindings. I tried standing up but felt woozy, so I sat back down. After an interminable minute or two more, I was able to, carefully get back on my feet and some time afterwards I tried summoning my knives. This was another mistake though. I felt agony spread through my body and my last thought before I fell unconscious again was:

No. No….