“Enthrallment is one of the worst achievements spawned by the enlightened races. The enslaved are completely aware of their circumstances in most cases, and unless commanded to forget, they will keep both the scars and the memories of those circumstances forever.”

- Sir Sire (Private Journal)

Chaos reigned in the campsite of the nobles.

“Drop your knife, or I’ll gut this wench!” A man screamed at me as I neared him, blade at the ready. My sides cramped from the pain that still lanced through my shallow wounds, so I knew any delay would mean that much nearer to my body’s limits. Honestly, it was a miracle I was on my feet at all after the beating I’d taken. If not for Charles’ small kindness, I would either be dead or close to it by now. Sweat dripped into my eyes, and I swept it away as my next target held an enthralled woman in front of him, a dagger at her throat.

“Stop! I mean it!” He yelled at me. There was a quiet whistle through the air right before a large axe embedded itself into the side of his head. He crumpled to the ground immediately, a light cut forming where his weapon nicked the woman he held. I rushed over and performed my rugged surgery to remove the jade ring she wore. Life returned to her eyes all at once and she moved without hesitation. She threw her arms around me.

At first, I thought it was for a hug, but it was too tight, and her momentum too strong for camaraderie or affection. We rolled across the ground several times before she rose to her feet and helped me up. Spikes of ice thumped into the ground where we had just vacated. The woman gave me a tight squeeze on the shoulder and whispered a quiet thank you before she rushed off to slay some of her captors. I navigated through the mayhem, freeing two more women on my way. By the fifth one I found, the campsite was a roar of metal and screams.

I reached her and knelt where she had likely been flung away in the skirmish. With a wince, I removed the jade ring. The girl immediately began to weep uncontrollably. She flinched when I tried to help her to her feet.

“Please! Don’t touch me!” She screamed and backed away.

“I’m just trying to help! Please, we need you!” I replied, my voice turned hoarse from the pain and the cacophony that surrounded us. She just backed up further and further, shaking her head manically. Tears accompanied the quiet quiver of her lips as she glanced for any route of escape. In my heart, I didn’t blame her. Honestly, I expected more of them to respond in this fashion. But in my head, I needed all the help I could get. Kneeling, I pressed my hunting knife into the ground by her feet.

“I pray this blade serves you better than it did me. Stay safe, alright? Don’t let them capture you,” I added and returned to my feet. A wave of lightheadedness threatened to buckle my knees, but I grasped at a nearby spear in the ground and waited until it passed. I saw the young elf, barely eligible for the Orion’s division, reach for my hunting knife and take it with uncertain fingers. I nodded and then procured the spear I leaned on from its earthly sheath.

Where are you guys?! I wondered as my head worked on a swivel to find my friends. I dodged back as an errant spike of ice narrowly missed my left shoulder. The girl who parried a stab from one of her assailants was not so lucky. Her spine was severed instantly, and she fell like a sack of rice onto the ground. I tasted bile in my throat and moved to the edge of the campsite where I’d seen Gwyn fall. There, behind a series of tall tents, she was sprawled out between fallen leaves and heavy packs. I slid to her, lifting her head on my lap.

“Wake up, Gwyn! Wake up!” I murmured, and I saw faint movement behind her eyes. Still, she did not stir. “Gwyn, come on! We need to get out of here! Please…” I brushed her thick auburn hair from the gentle curves of her face, sparing a brief glance around to make sure no attackers were coming our way. Hidden from sight behind their own tents, I knew we had only a few moments before we were discovered. Footsteps neared our location. I started to shake the muscular dwarf, then, in a moment of desperate inspiration, I acted. “Please don’t kill me for this, Gwyn.”

I slapped her.

My dwarven comrade shot up from her prone position like Coldor himself reached out to her from beyond the grave. Her hands shot for the tomahawks on her belt, but found it entirely missing. The eyes of my friend were wild and barely alert. She rolled backward and regained her footing in one fluid motion, leaving me seated awkwardly on the ground.

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“Good morning,” I said sheepishly at the irate dwarf. She took me in, then the mayhem just beyond the tents.

“Aye, that it still could be,” she responded with a curt nod. She looked behind and noticed something I had missed. Past the boundary of the camp, two figures were bound tightly against a single tree. I recognized them immediately.

“C’mon. Our friends need us!” I rushed toward the forms of Azuris and Elio where they were tied up. Gwyn did not immediately join me, and I slowed to see her kneel before one of the heavy packs and retrieve a thick belt laced with her iconic throwing weapons. Once in her grasp, she didn’t break stride as she rebolstered it onto her hips and caught up with me.

“You look—cold,” Gwyn remarked as we exited the long line of tents. She couldn’t stop staring at my exposed midriff.

“This wasn’t my choice, Gwyn!” I retorted with a sigh, both of us pumping our arms to get out of there as quickly as possible. A commotion stirred one of the tents farthest from the center of the campsite. The sound of a feminine voice yelling drew my attention, and I diverted to see if it was the last enthralled woman. Right before I reached the tent, Lizzy burst out from the flaps of the textile contraption, her eyes ablaze with fury. That rage quickly coolled into something I couldn’t quite place as she took the two of us in. Her eyes drifted over both of our wounds, and relief masked whatever else she had been feeling.

An elf followed in Lizzy’s footsteps, pulling a shirt over his head. Fury slammed into my mind as I imagined Lizzy getting treated like those enthralled woman had.

I moved without mercy.

I planted my right foot into the ground just before him, spinning on it as I threw my other leg behind me so that I kicked him with as much force as my body could muster. My boot connected with his gut and he was launched back into his own tent, all of the air fleeing his lungs as he landed. Lizzy appeared stunned at my action, but I pulled her by the hand and led my friends toward those bound to a tree.

“W–wait!” She tried to get out, but I wasn’t about to stall our escape.

A guard stood at attention by our male allies, a pike held at the ready. We didn’t slow down. I nodded to Gwyn and she instantly twisted in her sprint. With a powerful swing of her arms, she unsheathed a tomahawk and pulled it vertically over her body in a deadly arc. The projectile shot forward with incredible accuracy, felling the poor lad in a single hit as the blade collided between his eyes.

I reached the man first and retrieved the tomahawk from where it was lodged. Then, with two sloppy but ferocious cuts, I snapped the ropes that had them suspended in much the same fashion I had been. They fell to the forest floor, both groaning in pain and relief alike. I rushed to them and finished cutting them out of their bonds. Elio grinned weakly at me, while Azuris stared at me strangely.

“What? Do I have blood on my face or something?” I asked the tiefling as I held out a hand to help him up. He paused a moment before taking it.

“Is it yours?” He asked softly. The way he asked sent a stir of fear down my spine. It was like he was waiting for permission for something.

“Some of it, yeah,” I admitted. The darkness that swept over his gaze was…powerful.

“Who?” He demanded suddenly. I hesitated, confused by his intensity. “Who?!”

“James,” I whispered back. The blue-skinned boy shifted his attention to the campsite and I followed his gaze. Charles and the prince were now in a full-swing fight, both blurs of power and blade. James wielded a javelin of sorts I didn’t recognize, while Charles used a sword. He was good. As in, preternaturally so—far beyond what natural talent or even honed skill should offer someone who was more used to lugging about crates than claymores. Azuris spoke in his native tongue, and while I didn’t grasp the meaning, even I could sense the intent. He just made an oath, though for what, and to whom, I didn’t know.

“We need to go, Az,” I told him, risking a touch to his arm. He jumped at a bit at the contact, but eased up immediately.

“Right,” he said after a moment, reluctant to leave even in the sorry state we were all in.

“Could we set them all on fire now?” Gwyn inquired as we began to move away from the noble’s campsite.

“Can you do that?” Elio asked with a quirk of his eyebrow, parts of his swollen face making the expression appear a bit alien. She lifted a pack left by the man who was on guard.

“It would take too long. Come on, let’s get out of here before they realized we’re gone,” Azuris intoned, moving into the treeline.

“Oh, I think they figured it out,” Elio retorted. As if on cue, a man’s scream bellowed loudly throughout the clearing.

“I’LL FIND YOU, RAT!!! I’LL FIND YOU!” I caught a glimpse of the harried prince, eyes bloodshot with rage. He pointed his javelin directly at me a second before Charles knocked it to the side and they resumed their fight. My heart sank when I saw several of the freed women strewn across the campsite, their mangled forms perverse proof of the courage they had just displayed. At least they were not the only ones slain in that camp. More of their captors were dead on the ground than them.

I’m so sorry, I silently prayed for the fallen women. Somehow, it felt like it was all my fault.

I didn’t have the luxury to grief or linger as Elio’s gentle grasp on my shoulder pulled me away and into the woods.

Eliza was right. This wasn’t a Hunt. It was a culling.