Cefgras greeted her again, wide streets flanked by low, wide buildings. The dry air hung still as Ferene started walking away from the building Linara had shown her to. Being away from the other woman gave her some time to think more clearly. There was a curiosity inside her, trying to push outward. She wanted to know more about Linara, where she came from. Ferene was not human, and never properly fit in with humans, but she didn't know why. She didn't know what about her was different, aside from some small details. Linara could tell her, she just had to ask first.

Ferene hated asking.

Cutting through streets, constantly turning away from anything overly extravagant, Ferene slowly wandered the city. Her old life never consisted of asking. If she could prove herself worthy, she'd be allowed to have things. If she did not, she would have nothing. Asking only showed weakness. People saw your strength and gave you what you wanted, or you demonstrated your strength by taking what you wanted. Linara didn't respond to her demands earlier – but Linara was stronger than she was, so there was no reason to.

Curiosity wasn't something she could afford.

Ferene knew all she needed to know about herself. She knew how fight and how to kill. She knew how long she could run for, how long she could go without eating. She didn't need to know what was different about her compared to the humans around her. It didn't matter. At the end of the day, she'd be alive or she'd be dead. There was nothing about herself Linara could tell her that would change that.

It was that simple.

Slowly, the city changed as she walked, lost in thought. Now, the streets had narrowed, the buildings didn't stretch upwards with multiple stories, but they loomed closer to her, crowding her in. While it made her uneasy it also felt proper. This was how a city should be. The walls and doors to either side looked more worn, more dirty. Ferene walked faster. The people she passed stepped around her. She didn't bother trying to talk to any of them – they didn't want to talk to her, just as she didn't want to talk to anyone else. That was fine.

Down the street, she found an alley. Someone sat at the mouth, crouching down, hands held over a small fire. Ferene approached, looking down at the figure. The person looked up at her, pulling their tattered cloak tight around their shoulders. “You want something?” The voice was barely over a whisper.

Distrust. Fear. This person was cold and hungry, and presented with someone, armed, towering over them, face obscured. Ferene crouched down next to them, not looking at the person directly. “I'm not from here.”

“Can tell that. You hiding something?”

“My father messed up my face,” She said.

The person was silent for a long time, squeezing their hands together. Eventually, he spoke. “We give our children things. Everything they have. Sometimes we give them things we don't mean to.”

Ferene shifted, sitting down, as the person continued. “My son, he had...things. That he shouldn't. Were they from me or from his mother? I don't know. I tried to do what was right. You believe me, don't you? I tried to do what was right. I wanted to help him. I wanted to be a good father.”

“You wanted to help.” She repeated, her hand moving to the hilt of her short sword. “Tell me what happened.” The pain in the man's voice pulled at her, but a lot of people regretted their actions after the fact, and those regrets often faded with time and lead them down the same path again and again. Possibilities constructed themselves in her mind. Had he harmed the child on purpose, or was it an accident? Was there a child at all? The man rambled, sobbing.

“My son, he struggles to breathe. He'll start coughing and coughing. I didn't know what to do. Can't afford a doctor. I did what I could. I asked, I begged, and then someone came to help us. He said he could cure my son. So I let them take him, and they never came back. He never came back to me. I just wanted to help him, but he never came back.”

Letting go of her sword, Ferene stood up. The man looked up at her, then back down. “Where did they take your son?” She asked.

“I...I don't know. I didn't follow them. It's all my fault.”

“Did anyone else see them take your son?”

“Ask the people around here. They all know. We all know we can't do anything. You can't do anything either.”

Not giving him a response, she turned and started walking down the street again. Still, the people avoided her. She was an outsider. One broken man talking to her when nobody else would listen to him didn't change that. She had a question now, and she needed answers, and so the wish to be left alone, to avoid the outsider, no longer mattered.

New experiences came every day. New experiences came rarely. Every time she killed someone, it was different, yet every time, it was the same. Every hunt was different, and every hunt was the same. Here, the chase didn't exist, she didn't run, she didn't exert herself physically. She walked through the streets, asking questions. The man's son wasn't the first to be taken. The location of her target wasn't shown to her on a map she couldn't read, but given to her with a set of directions of which way to turn at what street corner. The path didn't take her across the countryside, but instead out of the slums and into a different part of the city. At the end of it she found herself standing outside a fence, looking through the bars at yet another wide, single story building, not too different from the one she had left earlier.

Was this it? She stepped back, looking at the fence from a distance. That stood out – the other buildings didn't have fences. Following it around the perimeter, watching from a distance, she found the front gate, with a small hut on the inside, where a single guard stood, shaded, watching. No intimidation, nothing to warn people to stay away, just a silent, out of the way watcher. Was this it? Ferene turned and walked away, back towards Linara's rooms.

Ignoring her feelings that she was doing something wrong, Ferene walked through the building to Linara's set of rooms, but she wasn't there. So Ferene waited, sitting in an overstuffed chair, trying not to lean against the too-soft back or arms. The awkwardness of it got worse over time as she waited. It wasn't that Ferene had ever been bad at waiting, it just didn't feel right to sit in the chair. She ended up sitting on the floor instead, her back against the wall. Both were hard, supportive, they felt better.

It didn't take long for Linara to return. Giving Ferene an odd glance, she dropped a set of manacles down in front of her. “I've come up with a plan.” She announced. Ferene looked at the manacles, then up at Linara, and frowned.

“Don't look at me like that, it was your idea. Or it started from your idea. You said I could be a soldier, just like the ones we killed. The ones that were originally going to bring you here. What if I killed them and took you, their captive? And now I'm here trying to get in on whatever deal they had. You're my prisoner and I'm trying to turn you in.”

“You want me to put those on?”

“I had a blacksmith make some modifications. You can trigger the lock yourself and take one off, but anyone yanking on them won't be able to tell. I figure the two of us, with the advantage of surprise, are more than enough for any common guards.”

It was in her words. The two of us. Linara was talking about them fighting together, side by side, even though she was by far the better fighter. Ferene nodded.

“Did you find out where we are going?”

Ferene nodded again.

“Perfect. Now, let's go over the plan.”

Night changed Cefgras. The wide streets and low buildings offered an unobstructed view of the night's sky, making it feel even more open than it had during the day. Even as they walked through the denser parts, the city felt less confining. Ferene knew that she needed only a short jump upwards to have an entirely open horizon.

Except, she couldn't jump right now. Linara walked behind her, pushing her forward with one hand while she held the rope connected to her manacles in the other. Even after practicing the trick to popping them open for a good half hour, Ferene still felt uncomfortable to be bound yet again, made worse by the fact that she couldn't see Linara, just occasionally feel a push on one shoulder or the other.

As the two of them walked through the city, Ferene felt eyes on them, heads turning to watch as they passed. Unlike earlier, her head was fully exposed, and the two of them together drew attention in the denser part of the city.

The guard standing outside the gate looked towards them as they approached, shifting his stance and putting a hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist. Ferene glared at him. Linara told her to just be angry at everyone around her. Not a hard thing to do.

“Stop there. What's this about?” He stepped forward, looking past Ferene at Linara behind her. She felt a hand grab her shoulder and push downward. She tried to shrug it off, but Linara kicked her in the back of her knee, so Ferene knelt on one leg, glaring up at the guard.

“I met some old comrades on the road, they told me they were taking this one to sell to an interested party. I figured that whatever money they were getting for her would be better if it was all for me, instead of split between the six of them.” Ferene could hear Linara's easy smile as she spoke. The guard looked down at Ferene, only for a moment. The guard on the other side of the gate stepped out of his shaded hut and jogged towards the main building.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“So you came here?”

“Didn't get all the details from them, had to piece together the rest of it. Did I get it right?”

He pushed the gate open just enough for a person to fit through. “Get inside and stay put.”

Linara yanked on the rope, pulling Ferene upwards and pushing her forward. She made sure to glare at the guard again as she walked past him. He didn't meet her eyes, and she heard the gate close behind them.

Five guards came out to meet them, one of them wearing a black cape. He frowned as he approached, looking first at Ferene, who glared at him, and then at Linara behind her. “Well, look at this. You here to turn over one of your own kind?”

“I'm here to get paid, just like everyone else. You get humans from humans, what's so different here?”

The man let out a booming laugh, stepping forward to grab Ferene's chin, tilting her head this way and that. She tried to bite his fingers, but he kept his grip tight on her jaw. “She's a wild one, isn't she?” She growled at him as he yanked roughly on her ear. “Why don't you two come inside, and you can discuss payment with the man himself.”

The other guards stepped aside, and he lead the way up the path towards the door of the building. Linara pushed Ferene ahead of her, staying silent. Ferene felt more embarrassment now than her entire time held captive. None of them had treated her like that. Her face burned where his fingers had touched her skin. The plan was simple, she either acted when Linara told her to, or if they were separated, whenever she got a chance at getting a weapon. Remembering that kept her from popping her shackles open and attacking the man from behind. Linara's grip on her shoulder tightened, but the other woman remained silent.

She was led and pushed past an entry hall and into a second, larger room, where two more guards stood at the walls, not quite entirely statue-like. An awkward, halfhearted attempt at looking stoic and silent that let the general relaxed confidence of common thugs show through the gaps. Ferene's eyes darted between the group against the walls and the group that led them inside, missing the short, well-dressed man until he stepped forward.

“Look at this! Two of them! Already this is quite a find, you can see that they think just like us, turning on each other when it suits them. I will have to write this down. Now, tell me, what brings you here? Do you really think that I will pay you for returning property you stole from me?” The man talked quickly, excitement in his voice and his eyes as he stared up at Ferene, walking around her.

“My understanding is that she hadn't yet been sold to you, and thus isn't your property. I'm willing to carry out the deal you had with her previous captors.”

The man came back into Ferene's field of vision as he finished walking around her. He wore a loose-fitting black shirt, shiny silver buttons glittering on the front. She glared at him and he smiled back at her. “That is entirely true, of course. I could pay you the fee I had agreed upon with...what was his name again? I have so many people working for me, I'm not sure which one it was.”

“Niffrem, and I doubt you had expected him to bring back something like this. I doubt that finding and capturing a Hatharen had an agreed-upon reward, and you would simply pay him for anything interesting. This is probably the most interesting thing you'll get to see in your life. So, shall we negotiate?”

The man frowned as Linara talked, then smiled, stepping back and rubbing his hands together. “She is smart! So smart! Rathlin, pay attention to how she has this all thought through. You could learn from her.”

“Of course, sir.” The man in the cape said.

“Now, dear girl, please, tell me what you think a reasonable price is for a specimen such as this.”

“Fifty Squares.”

Ferene managed to not drop her glare in surprise. Fifty Squares was more money than she had ever seen. It was enough to buy her a completely new set of armor, custom fit to her, and still have enough left over to house and feed herself for the next six seasons.

“A rather high price, to start with, but I appreciate your boldness. I'll give you thirty.”

Linara stayed silent for a moment, and Ferene watched the man in the fancy shirt as he watched her. “For thirty Squares you can learn how I was able to kill six Olentor soldiers by myself. I said fifty and I mean fifty.”

The guards in the room shifted, even the ones at the walls, standing more at attention, no longer pretending to ignore the conversation. The one with the cape let his hand fall to the hilt of his sword. Fancy-shirt just laughed, waving his hand. “Ah, she has threats, even here, outnumbered and surrounded. But she speaks the truth, she did kill a number of other people already in my employ, proving herself better than them. An odd way to start a business relationship, but once again, boldness! Boldness to spare! Would you settle for forty Squares?”

“Forty five. Give me another low offer and I'll kill you where you stand, before any of your guards can react.”

“More threats! But...a rather reasonable number, perhaps. However, I see a problem with your final offer. You see, I could pay you the high sum of forty five Squares for a single Hatharen, or I could pay you nothing, and end up with two. G-AH” His words turned into a high pitched scream as Linara's long knife appeared in his stomach.

The men around him took a moment to stare, before reaching for their swords. The room exploded into noise and shouting. Linara pushed Ferene forward, and she ran with the momentum twisting her hands to pop the manacles off at the same time she rammed her shoulder into the neck of the man in the cape, knocking him over. She reached out and pulled his sword free of its sheath as he fell, turning to block a swing of the guard to his side. She ignored the sounds behind her and she grabbed the man's hand. He wasn't used to fighting in close quarters against people who could fight back. It was different than the soldiers, even different than the bandits and thieves on the roads. These men didn't even fight the occasional hired escort, they just beat intimidated unarmed civilians.

The guard screamed as she snapped his wrist and pulled his sword out of his limp fingers. She pushed him to the side as she turned on the next one, one of the two that had been at the walls. Ferene parried his attack and rammed her sword into his chest. Rather than pulling it out, she switched the second guard's sword to her main hand and turned around.

Linara stood complete still, legs spread, spear held horizontal with both hands. Four guards lay on the ground around her, and one more stood out of her range, holding his sword. He looked at her, then at Ferene, then threw down his sword, holding his hands over his head. Ferene walked over and stabbed him through the throat.

“Was that really needed?” Linara asked.

“Yes.” Ferene replied, turning to look over the people on the ground. The man with the broken hand was struggling to stand up, so she stabbed him, too. Linara walked over and put her foot down on the caped guard's chest, preventing him from standing up. The man in the fancy shirt was moaning on the ground, pushing himself away from them as the wet stain on his shirt grew larger. He stared up at Linara, struggling to talk.

“You're dead. No amount of money will prevent that kind of wound from killing you.” She pointed her spear at him. “I don't appreciate your boldness. Trying to scam me, even after I warned you what would happen? Not a smart move. Then again, if you were actually smart, you would have taken my weapons before letting me see you. That eager to meet a Hatharen? Hate to disappoint, but we're both half-human.”

He tried to open his mouth again, only succeeded in letting out a pained sound. Ferene walked over to him and yanked Linara's knife free, glaring at him one last time. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”

“Probably because you would have started from the outside and had to hunt him down, instead of making him walk up to you.” Linara kicked the caped man in the side. “You there, time to tell us where the rest of the people your old boss captured are.”

The man didn't resist. He led them through the house, the occasional servant seeing them and scampering away. It bothered Ferene. The whole thing was so different. They didn't fight, they didn't struggle, they just ran. There must have been more guards, like the two at the gate, but they didn't meet any. Were they all just going to run away? Bandits didn't abandon a hideout without stripping it first, but the house was filled with paintings, gold wall lamps, fancy rugs, tables, and chairs. Surely there was money to be had here.

The caped man led them down a staircase, into the basement. It wasn't a cave, but it was close. Or it seemed that way until the three of them arrived at the cages.

These weren't prison cells. Small cages, not even enough for the occupants to stand up in, were scattered around the room. In the center was a wooden table with chains attached to it. The surface was covered in dried blood. The whole room stank of dried blood and human waste.

“What was he doing here?” Linara asked after a moment of silence.

“He wanted to know how they worked inside. So he cut them open to find out.”

“You worked for him?”

“They're just homeless children. Would have died on the streets. Doesn't matter either way.”

“Can I kill him now, Linara?”

He lunged at her. Ferene stepped back and to the side, out of his reach, and he stumbled forward, his desperate move carrying too much momentum. She grabbed his cape as he moved past her, and yanked him back towards her, wrapping it around his neck. “There's only two kinds of people in this world. There's the people that take advantage of others, and there's the victims that get taken advantage of. You are part of the group that deserves to die.”

She held him against her, tightening the cloth around his neck as he struggled, kicking, flailing his arms. Linara stared at her, and Ferene stared back, daring her to say or do anything to stop her, but Linara just stood still, her smile nowhere to be seen, as the man eventually stopped kicking. Ferene let the body fall to the floor.

“We need to get any of them that are still alive out of here.”

Ferene nodded, and they got to work.

She didn't count the number of cages in the room, but it was probably more than thirty. Less than half of them were occupied, and in the end they found sixteen living children, only seven of which could walk. Starving, beaten, some of them bleeding, all of them naked. Linara went back upstairs and came down later with an armload of shirts. She handed them out, too big for the children but functional. It took another trip to get them all clothed. She went upstairs a third time, and didn't immediately come back down. Ferene stood in the center of the room, some of the children staring up at her, others refusing to look. A lot of the worse off ones were still in their cages, refusing to leave. She picked the whole cages up and moved them closer to the door, away from the other cages. Eyes followed her as she worked, but none of them spoke. That was the more disturbing part of it, more than the situation they were in, but the silence.

Was that how she was? Glaring silently all the time?

No. She wasn't a victim. She was a killer. Some day, someone would kill her. Maybe it would be Linara.

Linara came back, voices following her. Eyes turned towards the stairwell, still silent. She walked down, six people following her. They wore some sort of uniform, all identical dark brown vests over white undershirts.

The city watch, or so Ferene gathered. The eight of them managed to get the children out of their cages and upstairs, out of the dungeon. The ones that were in the worst condition were rushed out, while the others were left under watch in one of the many rooms of the mansion. Eventually Ferene and Linara were sent away. Ferene was glad to go. The two of them walked back to their own rooms where she fell asleep on the floor again.

“I still won't train you.”

Ferene remained silent. She hadn't asked, or even looked at Linara, the woman just said that when she finished getting dressed the next morning.

“I think we need to go our separate ways from here, in fact.”

There were things Ferene wanted to say, but she didn't. She sat silently, her mouth closed. Linara had information, she had lived a life that Ferene knew nothing about, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. They were different.

There was a sigh from the other side of the room. “Don't sulk like that. I'll answer one question. Only one, though.”

Ferene turned, looking at her. “Where...Where are our people?”

For a moment, Linara just frowned. She hadn't been expecting that question, it seemed. “From here, you would want to go north. All the way north, until you reach the mountains. There's a good chance that they will kill you.”

For some reason, Ferene wasn't surprised to hear that. She nodded, stood up, grabbed her sword, and left. Despite moving constantly, for years, Ferene never felt sad to leave a place behind before. But that room, with Linara, tugged at her. She wanted to turn around and go back, claim she was staying, but she didn't. She couldn't. Linara wasn't like her, just as Tullund wasn't like her.