The blade cut through the collar, and Irina was freed.

As it fell from her neck her own thoughts flooded back into place, completely unfiltered and directionless. The sudden transition was shockingly jarring, and for a few moments the result was utter confusion.

“Irina?”

Where was the guidance? Where was that other presence that made everything so clear?

“Did it work?”

“It should have.”

She was in the forest. A single stark light disrupted the night blackness. And it dawned on her that two people were pressing her down into the grass.

“Irina? Are you back?”

She concentrated on the voice. The words were confusing, but at least it was something to focus on.

The two men who’d tackled her from behind stood up and moved a few steps away. There was a skittishness to their body language, as if they were afraid of her.

Irina turned over on her side to take them better in. One had a modest brown beard, long limbs, and was a stranger to her. The stockier one was clean-shaven, with darker hair, wore a sword at his hip, and held in his hand the knife that had severed the collar.

“Back?” she repeated.

A hand instinctively went to her throat. The bare skin felt wrong, as if a part of her had just been removed.

“You were captured by the Bright Lords,” the stocky man told her, enunciating carefully. “They enslaved you with one of those magic collars. Remember?”

“Of course I remember, Jon,” Irina said. “I snuck into the palace, and...”

“It really is you!” a female voice said happily.

Irina looked the other way, and found the source of the light. The tan, black-haired woman was levitating a bolt of pure light above her palm.

“H-hello, Elseth,” Irina said. “What is going on?”

“We saw you in the village, before you saw us,” Jon said. “We kept to the shadows, and then you went off into the forest by yourself. We followed. Kent here did the tracking for us.”

Jon indicated the bearded stranger.

“Elseth used her magic,” Jon went on. “Created a false noise. Then we tackled you.”

“I’m very glad that knife actually worked,” Kent said to the warrior.

“It did work, right?” Jon asked her. Her confused state seemed to be causing him concern. “They’ve lost their hold on you?”

“I...”

Irina sat up, then looked at the severed collar. She hadn’t even known they could be destroyed. The knife in Jon’s hand was an odd green shade, and upon noticing her attention turning to it he finally slid it into a sheath.

She picked up the wide, crimson band. It had made her forget all about the chaos of everyday thought and will. Memories, emotions and conflicting ideas were suddenly swirling around and she was completely out of practice in managing it all.

Her body also felt weak, though it dawned on her that her body in fact felt normal.

“Yes,” she said in reply to Jon’s question. “Her... her strength is gone from me.”

“Her?” Elseth asked.

“My mistress. Lady Lumiara. Her power flowed through the bond, along with her will. It’s all gone from me.”

“Is that why their slaves are so strong?” Kent said to the other two. “People say it’s the collars themselves. Some... magic in them.”

“Look, we can discuss all that later,” Jon said and walked back up to Irina. “It’s been three years. Do you remember?”

“Why wouldn’t I remember?” Irina replied. “The Bright Lords don’t take memories. They just... they don’t... seem important.”

She put a hand on her forehead, feeling confused still, and oddly frightened. How was she to explain how her mind worked just a few moments ago?

She clenched her other hand around the collar.

“Well, come on,” Jon said, and held his hand out. “Stand up. We should make some distance before daybreak.”

“But I had a mission,” she protested. “Mistress Lumiara, she gave me an order. I have to...”

“You’re free, Irina,” Elseth said emphatically and put a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to obey. Forget about orders. Just come with us!”

Choice. The thing Lady Lumiara’s will had made a moot point for three years. Now it was hers again. It was her business to decide between possibilities.

Panic threatened to rise and she felt tempted to just sit where she was and wait for whatever came next to happen on its own. But Jon and Elseth... they were her friends. Companions. They’d protected one another. That, if nothing else, caused her hands to rise and clasp the two offered to her.

They pulled her to her feet and Elseth immediately wrapped her in a hug. Irina hugged back, and the woman let out that weird laugh of hers that she normally felt self-conscious about. Jon settled for putting a hand on her shoulder and smiling.

“You should probably lose the tunic,” Kent said as Elseth released her. “Everyone knows what they mean, these days.”

Irina looked down. The bright red tunic with the blue lining was quite distinctive, it was true. And there probably was no one left in Mid-Melgen who didn’t know what it meant. And a slave without a collar would be noticed. But that was the least of it.

She held up the collar in her hand.

“My mistress will know about this.”

“Well, let’s just be at the border when she does,” Elseth said with a grin.

“No. I mean, she knows right now.”

“What?” Kent said, looking somewhat alarmed.

“She is no longer in my mind,” Irina explained. “She knows the bond has been broken. They know about everything they put some of their power into. She will send my companions directly here.”

“Wait, do you mean those other two slaves we saw you with?” Elseth asked.

“Yes. Ana and Bors. We split up to cover more ground.”

“Well, then let’s go!” Jon said. “Kent, lead the way!”

Irina didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know what was right. But some instinct made her open her hand and let the collar drop back into the grass.

“What about your weapons?” Kent asked her, hesitating after a few steps. “Don’t they contain power too?”

Irina drew her kayros from the leather ring on her belt. She ran her fingers along the polished, lacquered length of hardwood, feeling the indentations of the runes. It too felt like a part of her. But yes, it too was linked to Lady Lumiara.

“Irina, hurry!” Elseth insisted, and waved the light in her hand around for emphasis.

She let the kayros drop next to the collar. It felt like a betrayal. Then she touched the ilthin attached to the other side of the belt. Without her own connection to Lady Lumiara it really was just a blue rope. She unfastened it with a quick, trained motion and let it fall onto the ground.

And that was it. She’d cut herself off.

With halting steps she followed the other three a short distance, until they stopped by a bush. Semi-hidden beneath it but visible in Elseth’s light were travelling packs and each of the three slung one onto their back. Kent also picked up a hunting spear.

“We have enough provisions to make it north to the border without needing to make any more contact,” Jon explained. “Elseth, enough with the light. It’ll give us away.”

The woman looked at Kent, who nodded firmly.

“Don’t need it,” he said. “I can manage just fine.”

Elseth let the minor spell die out and Irina found herself in the company of vague silhouettes.

Kent stayed in the lead, heading north-west along the backwoods dirt road they’d ambushed her on. Then he suddenly cut to the right and Irina found herself walking along a path, narrow and so hidden by foliage that surely only familiarity had let him find it. Now that she thought about it the man did have the local accent, or at least some variation of it.

“This area is crisscrossed by little trails,” Kent said over the sound of branches and leaves yielding to their passage. “We just need to switch between them a few times and only blind luck will let anyone find us.”

Irina held her hand out, stroking invisible leaves in passing. The questions she wanted to ask were stacking up, fighting for space, form and priority in the chaos of her thoughts. But they had to wait at the moment, maddening though the silence was.

They cut left and she believed they’d come to a different path. She tried to distract from her overactive mind by putting her own foresting skills to the test. She did her best to maintain her sense of direction and to move as quietly as possible, while keeping track of surrounding sounds.

This all felt equal parts familiar and bizarre. She’d certainly ventured into the forests over the last three years, but her whole being had felt so different. And then there was the company. Jon and Elseth? Were they really here? This all felt like an odd dream. Except she’d never dreamt of freedom. The concept had been filtered out in sleep every bit as much as when awake.

It was some time after they’d switched paths again that she felt it safe to speak up.

“Excuse me.”

The others stopped and turned her way.

“Where... where are we going?”

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Kent’s silhouette moved over to her.

“We’re near a river,” he said. “I know of a rope ferry, north of here. We’ll use it to cross, and then we’ll really be out of sight. The population is thinner.”

“I see,” Irina said. “Good. I-”

Her voice came to a stop as honed senses flashed a warning. She took a deep breath through the nose.

“I smell blood,” she said.

Kent did a sniff of his own.

“So do I.”

“Are there bears in this area?” Jon asked, and Irina heard him draw his sword.

“Small ones.”

“Still... Elseth, maybe just a little bit of light?”

The amateur mage brought another ball of light into existence. A moment of concentration sized it down and Elseth started carefully waving it about.

A wet dripping sound turned their attention a few steps along the path. Elseth illuminated a puddle of blood.

Another drop fell down into it.

Elseth held her hand high and the light fell onto the carcass of a goat. It had been impaled sideways onto a broken branch, more than a man-height above the ground.

“What?” Kent whispered.

Another drop fell.

“An ogre, maybe?” Jon suggested, with doubt in his voice. “Could have... wandered down from the north.”

“No,” Irina said as an awful realisation hit her. “No-one set foot in that blood. Be careful not to get any on you. It’s a trap.”

“A trap?” Elseth replied.

“Ana, Bors, and I... Mistress Lumiara had us investigate rumors of a demon in the area.”

“A demon!?” Kent hissed.

“We didn’t put much stock in it,” Irina went on. “And it was supposed to be a lesser one, in any case. That’s why we dared split up. With our mistress’s power a single one of us could most likely have killed it, or at the very least kept it busy until the other two arrived.”

She pointed at the puddle.

“Some of them do this. They leave blood where people will step in it. They can track the scent like a hunting dog. Do any of you have open cuts? Elseth, are you having your bleeding?”

“I-I’m not,” the woman said.

“We go to that ferry,” Jon said. “Now!”

“Yes,” Kent said, looking wide-eyed and stricken in the cold light. “Yes! This way!”

Kent led them around the blood puddle and onwards, much faster than before. Poor man. If he really was local he would have experienced the Demon War for himself.

Irina’s hand kept going for the kayros at her hip, not having gotten the message that she’d left it behind. Had it ever been out of her reach these last three years?

A different sort of fear began ravaging her, though like other kinds it was one she wasn’t accustomed to anymore. She was accustomed to power. Not her own, but power nonetheless. She was used to hunting, not being hunted herself.

“Elseth, end the light!” Jon demanded.

“No,” Irina said. “Light or dark makes no difference to a demon. We might as well enjoy the benefits.”

“That is good to know,” Elseth said, sounding high-strung as she increased the light.

Irina hated this. Her body was already tired. Her limbs felt frail and weak and she had naught but her hands to defend herself with. A memory surfaced, of the ragged stumps of a man who’d been in that very situation. She’d just about managed to suppress it when she heard the sound.

Something moved within the forest. Something large.

They all turned to the south. Jon readied his sword, Kent his spear. Elseth let the ball of light float in the air by itself as she took out her sling and hurriedly put a clay bullet in it. Irina just stood there and felt vulnerable.

There was more movement, and it defied Elseth’s light by continuing to be invisible. The unseen thing moved slowly to the east. Branches and bushes snapped as it passed and underneath it one could make out a different sort of noise; sharp things running along tree bark.

“To the ferry,” Kent whispered and took the first step onwards, keeping his eyes on the foliage and his spear at the ready.

The rest of them started moving as well. But the thing in the forest continued moving as well. It maintained the same distance but travelled in an arc, snapping and scratching as it went. It intercepted them. Then it fell silent.

“Fear,” Irina whispered. “The scent of fear.”

Kent took a step back.

There was the sound of a heavy step ahead on the path.

Kent took two more steps.

There were two more sounds.

“To the north,” Kent whispered. Then he broke into a run and the situation exploded.

The thing hurried down the path. Elseth sent a bullet flying down it then ran after their guide. Irina followed on her heels and Jon brought up the rear.

Behind them the demon roared. It was a hideous sound with no place in this world; it hurt, grated and chilled. Irina had never heard it without Lady Lumiara’s presence in her spirit. Rather than give fear-induced strength it seemed to weaken her.

“It’s gaining!” Jon shouted.

Irina looked over her shoulder and the light that still followed Elseth caught on a hideously elongated figure, half again a person’s height and with long, sharp fingers that were out of even its strange proportions.

Her shoulder smashed into a tree and she focused her attention forward.

The roar was replaced by a harsh rattling sound that was too steady to be breathing. Something about it made clear thought even harder. Her boots splashed into water. They’d reached a wetland of some sort and the ground began fighting their progress.

The thrashing limbs behind them got ever closer.

“Here, this way!” Kent shouted.

A bush blocked her view of what the man meant. She cut a right turn around it, an instant before realising that Elseth was going the left way. She didn’t dare waste time on backtracking and just kept going, only to come upon a moss-covered boulder that reached up to her shoulders.

Her leap was pure instinct, expecting to clear it with Lady Lumiara’s strength. Instead she smacked into it and hurt her knee. She gripped the top and with a groan of effort she managed to roll herself over it.

Jon had followed on her heels and what he made up for in strength he lacked in nimbleness. The light that shone through the trees showed the demon to be nearly on him. Jon gripped the top of the boulder with his free hand and did his best to scramble over the rather flat side. Irina reached over and pulled on him, adding what strength she could.

The man came tumbling over the boulder just as the demon swiped. Its fingers slashed against the stone with a metallic sound. It then reached over it. Jon swung his sword as he got up, striking at the hideous hand. The blow did little more than knock the limb aside but it was enough for them to break into a run again.

“Here! Here!” Kent shouted and the two of them ran towards the light.

A big tree had fallen over ages ago and was slumped up against a living one. Other smaller trees and a whole lot of dead branches had then fallen up against it in turn, forming almost a crude hut.

Kent vanished beneath it as he saw them come and Elseth followed on his heels.

“Go on ahead!” Jon insisted and since she had nothing to fight the demon with she wasn’t about to argue.

She ducked her head and dove inside. Jon was a few steps behind and she saw him look back just in time to duck beneath a swipe. He then shot in after her. The demon stuck one spindly arm in after him, and Jon let the hand impale itself on his sword. He then twisted his weapon in the wound and for a moment he actually managed to hold it in place.

Irina snatched that odd knife of his out of its sheath and drove it into the rough-textured arm. A hissing sound came from the wound and now the demon actually showed pain.

It pulled its hand off the sword with a rough yank and Irina dared hope it would leave. Instead it stepped up onto the main tree that formed this natural hut. Then it hopped in place.

It hopped again and again, making that awful rattling sound as their shelter shook a little more each time.

After a few moments of fighting against the cramped quarters Kent found a spot where he could move his spear around and raised it up vertically. He then stabbed upwards between two dead trees. Judging by the jarring of his arms he did hit, and on his second thrust the roof stopped pressing down towards them.

There was the impact of the demon leaping down to the ground. Along with everyone else, Irina looked this way and that to try to spot it through the dead plant matter.

Elseth visibly focused and her light hovered around the fallen trees. It had nearly completed a circle when Irina saw it catch on the mass of black teeth that seemed to make up most of the demon’s head.

It reacted to being spotted with another blood-chilling roar and plunged its arm through an opening.

Those sharp fingers grazed the side of Irina’s face. She fell up against a rotten stump, Elseth yelped and Kent thrust at it with his spear. He hit and the demon angrily tried swatting at him, resulting in another spear-hit.

Irina got up and swung the knife at the oversized limb. The warped, rough-textured “flesh” gave way with another sharp hissing sound and the arm was withdrawn. That rattling sound accompanied snapping foliage away into the forest.

Kent guarded one entry into their hut and Jon guarded the other. For a few moments no one did anything other than stand perfectly still and listen.

The forest was silent.

Irina touched her face and in Elseth’s light she saw a modest amount of blood on her fingers.

“We won’t lose it now,” she said. “It has my scent. We... we have to make it to that river.”

“You don’t... you don’t think it might be gone?” Kent asked, quite audibly rattled.

“It’s angry now,” she told them. “It will either attack again or just lie in wait. We have to run, while it still at least pretends to be gone.”

“How far is it to that ferry, Kent?” Jon asked.

“If we sprint for dear life, if Elseth provides good light, and if we’re lucky, we might make it,” the man replied.

“Well, then let’s do it,” Jon said.

Kent ducked his head and exited on his side of the mess of trees. Irina followed him and again Jon was the last. They’d taken a few steps when the demon’s roar almost froze her muscles in place.

When was I ever a quitter?! she asked herself, seeking to summon fierceness to counter the demon’s influence. She sprinted as hard as she could, trusting in luck to steer her feet past roots and rocks. If she ran any slower she would die anyway.

Elseth did provide a strong light, almost bringing daytime to a small circle about them, and so Irina saw the trail a few breaths before Kent leapt down onto it. Over her own strained heart and lungs and the demon’s next roar she also heard the din of a river.

She looked back, saw the demon’s head snap a thick branch that was in its way, and leapt down onto the trail.

“Almost there!” Kent shouted desperately.

Her body was all pain, protesting this abuse and demanding she stop. But it would be too cruel to die so close to an escape. She wouldn’t accept it.

A bend in the trail brought the river into view. And there was the ferry, attached to a rope fastened on either side.

Kent leapt out onto it, almost falling over due to his abrupt stop, and brought the spear tip down on the loop anchoring the ferry to a post. It was cut apart and only his hand around the crossing rope prevented the ferry from floating away from the shore.

Elseth ran onto the ferry and half-collapsed against a handrail. Irina was right after her and did collapse. She looked back at Jon. He’d fallen behind a bit. And the demon would reach him in a few steps.

Jon stopped and turned. The demon lunged at him with unnatural speed, strength and reach. But Jon had a warrior’s training and sidestepped the swipe with quick footwork. He then slashed at the monster’s leg in passing. The powerful blow would have severed a human limb. Instead it merely tripped the demon over and sent it into the bushes lining the trail. It sprang up again, but Jon had bought the moments he needed.

Kent began pulling on the crossing rope with all his strength and Jon leapt out onto the ferry. Irina and Elseth joined Kent in managing the rope and the moment Jon regained his balance he added his own considerable strength to the task.

The ferry moved along and sped up as they arrived at a coordinated pace of pulling. But it wasn’t enough. The demon waded in after them and the river seemed to be neither deep nor powerful enough to sweep it away. It would catch them and the fang-filled horror it had for a head opened in a triumphant roar.

Irina picked up the knife where she’d dropped it on the ferry floor and put the blade against the rope. She began a frantic sawing motion. The spot she was cutting at was of course moving away, but the knife made the task blisteringly fast.

“What are you-” began Elseth.

The rope snapped. The current took hold of the ferry as each half of the rope was snatched away from its mooring and they were carried away from the demon.

It tried to follow but it seemed to finally reach a depth it could not readily handle. It hesitated and that was all the lead the loosened ferry needed. They drifted out into the centre of the river and a sudden downward shift in the landscape brought them into a harsher current.

The four of them were shaken about. Irina drove the knife into a floorboard; Jon presumably wanted to keep such a special tool. Then she simply held on for dear life as they passed through this rough chapter.

Water splashed onto them, and Irina realised that Elseth had let her spell go out.

“Elseth!” she shouted. “Light! We might hit a rock!”

The woman steadied herself against the handrail with some help from Kent, then summoned another little ball, keeping it ahead of them. It came just in time to give Irina a mild shock as they passed right by a rock.

There was of course no rudder and no oars; all they could possibly do was lie down and paddle with their bare hands. So they did just that.

Irina liked to think it made a difference, gradually moving them to the bank and into calmer waters. It seemed they even managed to shift direction swiftly enough to take only a glancing hit from another rock. It did suffice to spin the ferry around and give them all a good rattle.

But after that the river went into a turn and the water on its inside was calm enough for them to push to shore. The ferry came to a mild stop in the sand and for a few moments everyone simply savoured being alive.

The quiet was broken by Elseth’s somewhat hysterical laughter.

“Adventure!” she shouted, holding her arms up from a lying position. Then she laughed some more. It was her usual reaction to getting close to death; half celebration, half coping mechanism.

Jon pulled his green knife out of the ferry’s floor and sheathed it.

“I think... it should be safe for us to rest here.”

“Yes,” Irina agreed. “We should probably talk.”