What have I done?

Mirai looked back even as he ran forward, tripping over discarded weapons and armor, over the already dead and the dying, always looking back, fearing the crashing wave of men that tried to roll over them. The Chainkeepers had been held back by Senn long enough to give the rest of the Lord's Army a head start, but it wasn't nearly enough to let them escape the onslaught. The Chainkeepers were spurring their Leashed ahead, and the terrified men struck down the stragglers or just trampled them. Mirai was in the middle of the main body of the army, which had coalesced again after the initial disarray. A small group had fled earlier, taking the officers' mounts and the ones from the carts, leaving their supplies behind. Cowards, he thought, but cursed himself at the same time. I'm just as big a coward. I left him to die. The small matter of his betrayal of Senn had nothing to do with it. I should have stayed and helped him. That realization hurt him more than the defeat and the dashing of his hopes to take Senn's place. It had been a fool's plot from the start. The Sparked's ambition had been used against Senn, and no one was sure who had been spurring it. It seemed like they all had the same idea, and by the time it was too late to turn back, they had all been thinking they'd use the opportunity of having Senn out of the game to gain the upper hand on the rest of them. No one was sure who had started it, so no one was to blame now except their foolish ambition. I was right to do it. If I hadn't, I would have been left behind. They would have betrayed him anyway. He taught me to be like that. Like him.

Stop it, he thought. You need to get the army back under your control. The rest of the Sparked were gone, or if someone else was alive, he couldn't feel their presence. No one was using the hunger. So it was up to him. His men were falling behind, losing strength, but the Chainkeepers kept running after them. He had to give them fire in their hearts to go with the fire in their feet. Come on, do it. Don't be a coward. They'll follow you if you prove strong. That's all there is to it. The words echoed in his head, but even if it was his own voice, they were Senn's words. He found the furnace inside him and blew onto it without missing a step. He pushed that hunger outside, to embrace all the men he could, and into that mist he put only one word.

RUN.

The remains of the army pulled closer and started to run without stumbling, thinking not of the enemy behind but of the home ahead. Their enemies might be stronger, but they would tire. Mirai's men would run until their knees turned to dust if he willed them to and they found it within themselves to follow. The day turned into night, and still they ran, even when they couldn't see ahead. The plains would not impede them, and they kept going. Their enemies lit no torches, so Mirai couldn't tell how far away they were. So he didn't dare stop. They ran well into the noon of the next day, and only then, glancing back to help a boy who had tripped with one of the blood roots, did he stop. There was nothing to be seen except the endless plains. No enemies behind them for as far as he could see. He extinguished his hunger, and he felt his stomach sink like it had been hit with a sack full of grain. His muscles shook without control, and so did those of the men around him. They looked pale and glistened with caked sweat and dust.

You ran, said the voice that used Senn's words, but you didn't run away. He realized he hadn't even thought of using his speed all along. He could have been halfway back to Lordstown already if he had run in spurts. But he would have arrived alone and defeated, and what good would that have done him? Leaving as a conqueror and a conspirator and returning whipped and broken, without even half an army? Even if there were no more Sparked left, the town would eat him up. Or his God would.

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He shuddered when he thought of the All-Eater learning of their defeat and the loss of his Herald. Even if he knew or found out about the Sparked's betrayal of Senn, he would have seen it as a good thing. What could be better than his men fighting amongst themselves for supremacy? But even as he thought of it, he started doubting his logic. The Lord of Greed spurred competition and lived off the hunger for power. But would he take that over the loss of half the army, the army he had raised with much care and invested so much time to use as a tool of his own greed, to use them against the Forever King? Ideals would bow to reality, and the All-Eater would have Mirai's head as an appetizer if and when he found out about it. He could only hope some other Sparked fool got to Lordstown before he did and could bear the brunt of the punishment, leaving to Mirai the sweet gratitude of the God for saving what was left of his army. That was the plan forming in his mind and being turned into words to please the God's ears.

He instructed the men to keep walking, and some did, but most fell to their knees or on their backs. If they slept now, they would never run again, even if the Chainkeepers weren't still in pursuit. Their muscles would tighten and tear. He had to keep them moving.

"Come on, you losers! Barely unleashed scum! Are you Husks, or men? You can wait for death in Lordstown if you want to, for your God will pursue anyone that fails to get back. He'll come for you in the desert and eat you bone by bone. You're not your own to let die. You're his property, you may be free men because of him, but you're his in the end. Get up!"

Some of the men refused to get up, or couldn't. But most of them got up, surprising even Mirai. There were a few from his squad, and they reacted first to his tirade, and once a few men rose, it was hard for men used to following orders since their first memories to resist. He got them going, kicking a few in the back to help them get rolling, and lifted a man by his outstretched arm.

"I can't," said the man, a little older than Senn, a thin man with thinning hair. "I can't walk even if the God comes for me," he said, choking on spit. He looked to the side, away from the Sun and Mirai's even hotter gaze. "Maybe he'll carry me."

"He won't carry anyone. He'll curse you for your weakness. Who carried you out of the Hub? You did. Who made you a man? You did. They just set you free. You owe th..." He stopped. He was talking of Senn in the same way as of the Lord of Greed. "You owe Him a lot. You owe him your life, and you're giving it back to him now."

"You can't make me. What are you going to do? Kill me? Do it, please. I'd rather have that than walk another step."

"What's your name?"

"Why do you care?" asked the man, looking at Mirai out of the corner of his eye.

"So I can curse you from here to Lordstown for holding me back," said Mirai as he lifted the man and put one of his arms under his. He rose unsteadily and took a few steps, kicking the other man's feet to make him move.

"Stop it," said the man.

"What's your name?"

"..."

"What's your name?"

"They call me Root."

"How creative of them, whomever they are. Now, Root, try to move faster than your namesake, or I'll start running the other way and give you to the Chainkeepers."

Root's feet started to move on their own. But what surprised Mirai was that a few of his men, just a handful, did as he had done and pulled one of the fallen men upright. The ones who didn't looked at him askance, as if they were the God himself, judging him for letting the weak thrive. Let him judge us when we give him his men back. This is not weakness. This is salvage.