Nene awoke from a nightmare. She was drenched in sweat, hardly breathing and her throat was parched. Her head was aching, she felt sticky all over her body and had lost track of time. She had no idea how long it had been since the wagon had left Dena, she didn't even know which way they were going. If by some miracle she had survived all of that, there was no way she could guide other Inquisitors or Knights to Adanara. All she knew was that at one point they had stopped. She had heard some talking, and then they moved again. She had also seen the sunlight outside the wagon, so they had been on the road for at least a few hours. After that, however, Nila never returned.

Nene rolled on her side with extreme effort. She felt tremendously weak, her body heavy. She tried to speak but no sound came out. She was completely dehydrated, so she kicked around. Her legs were bound, but she managed to hit something metallic. The noise echoed in her head and attracted the attention of her captors.

«What are you doing back there?!», Adanara shouted.

Someone entered the wagon. They pulled the hood off her and stared at her in dismay.

«Oh no…», Nila exclaimed.

«Water…», she pleaded.

The herbalist disappeared out front for a moment and returned with a canteen. She lifted her head and helped her drink. She choked on the first sip and began to cough lightly.

«Not good, not good», Nila stammered. «Ada! Ada, s-stop!»

The wagon stopped. The witch slipped into the back, stamping her feet, visibly angry.

«What's going on?»

«Nene is sick»

Adanara stopped suddenly and stared at her sister.

«So what?»

«W-w-what do you mean? She has a fever and… she had to…»

Only then did Nene realise that the sticky feeling wasn't just from sweat, but from her own urine. She was surprised at how indifferent that news left her. In the state she was in, nothing could make her feel more humiliated and helpless.

«All right», the witch said. «Enough is enough, no reason to let her suffer ever further»

«No! Stop!», Nila shouted.

She grabbed her sister’s arms, who stood still, shocked. Nene noticed that Adanara was holding a knife. She had finally found the resolve to kill her, despite her promise to Cosco.

«Nila, look at her! She's dying, what's the point of all of this?»

«I can help her! You promised! We p-promised not to hurt her!»

«I never meant to keep my word in the first place! If she lives, we're screwed!»

«I won't let you kill her!»

«You think I'm enjoying it? I'm no murderer!»

The screams of the two sisters dazed Nene to the point that she shivered. The wagon ceiling began to sway, the sounds became muffled, as if distant, and she no longer felt her feet or hands.

Then, something suddenly bumped into her. It was Nila, kneeling over her. She was shielding her.

«We are supposed to save people, not k-kill them!»

«Please… Nila, don't be…»

Adanara sighed. A clang rumbled through the wagon as the knife hit the floor.

«Happy?»

Her voice was full of frustration. Nila got up and ran to hug her.

«B-better now?»

«Yes», the witch admitted. «You're the wise one»

«C-come on, what are you talking about?»

Nene's coughing interrupted their little reunion. They both bent over her and watched her suffer.

«Nila… We'll regret it. If she recovers, she’ll hunt us down»

«We'll t-think about it later. Now I need some tools»

«We left everything back at home, there’s only food and blankets in here»

«D-don't you… have any s-secret trick?»

«Who do you think I am, a wizard?»

«S-sorry…»

«Let me think… A few minutes ago we passed a farmhouse. Perhaps they can tell us where the nearest settlement is»

«This is a g-great idea! Let's hurry up»

«I'll take care of it. I'll take the horse, so I’ll be quicker. You stay and watch over her»

Adanara got to her feet, but Nila held her back, grabbing her arm.

«Ada… D-don't you think… they'll be afraid of your clothes?»

«What's wrong with them? Look, we've already talked about it: it was cold in the woods, and I couldn't light the fireplace too often, or people would have noticed»

«Maybe I should go»

«Maybe you're right…»

Nila moved out of Nene's field of vision, but after a few steps, she stopped.

«Ada?»

«Yes?»

«When I get back, s-she’d better be still alive»

«I promise I won't do anything. Still, what if she dies from the fever?»

«I won't allow it. And by the way, I know how to tell a death from natural causes from a stab wound. Got it?»

«Gotcha», the witch muttered

Nene heard noises outside: Nila was untying the horse from the wagon. Shortly thereafter, the sound of the trotting animal informed them that she was gone. Adanara picked up the knife and approached Nene.

«My sister is far too nice, you know that?»

She bared her teeth. She didn't want to give her the satisfaction of looking frightened. The witch backed away, perhaps mindful of the bite she had received back in her hut.

«You got lucky. I don't give a damn about the promise I made to Cosco, but… I don't want to disappoint my sis»

Nene almost laughed at her stupid statement, which caused her even more of a headache.

«”Lucky”?», she said with a hoarse voice.

«Oh, you ain’t that sick, after all»

«After what you did to me?»

«Okay, you want to play this game? Let's talk about responsibility. I'll start: I kidnapped you and involved you in an experiment against your will. Now it's your turn»

«What are you talking about?»

«Nothing comes to mind? I’ll help you. How many?»

«How many?»

«How many have you killed, you assassin from the Church? How many damned you have… what’s the word you use? “Saved”? No, “purged”»

«It's not murder, it's mercy. And we make amends after every purge»

«How many?»

«Just one»

«Oh, that's not it, your bosses will be disappointed. Also, I bet that the poor fellow feels a lot better since you made amends after killing them»

Nene coughed. That hag was capable of infuriating her even in her pathetic state. She wanted to get up, snitch her knife and stab her, over and over.

«The righteous know what the wisest choice is. That man thanked me. As well as his whole village»

«How moronic can you be? You don't see it? Don't you notice that everyone kisses your ass because they're scared of you? That the damned surrender themselves because, if they didn't, you would kill not only them but their families and neighbours too? Do you really think they are happy to see you come?»

«It's not a happy matter... but the salvation of the soul is more important than anything»

«Ostiir dared to challenge you. There are just a few like him. Trust me, I will spend my whole life perfecting my cure, and then people will stop submitting. Everyone will see you for the filthy murderers and tyrants that you are!»

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

«That thing you did… Is heresy…»

«So what?»

«Who's the moron now? How do you think to do that? You can only transfer damnation from one person to another. Your father had to sacrifice himself for you»

Adanara snapped to an inch from her nose, furious. It wasn't wise to provoke her, but Nene was resigned to her fate. She was dying, and if Adanara hadn't killed her, the fever would have. Sooner or later even Nila would have understood that they couldn’t have run forever, unless they had killed her.

« I will surpass my father. I'll find a way that doesn't require a sacrifice»

«The Evil One is powerful, you should know that»

«Worst case, I'll use you. I’ll bottle all the damned that I meet inside your body. How do you like that?»

All that talking had given her a headache. Nene closed her eyes and hot tears fell. Adanara, however, kept pressing on.

«You will become a mass of damned souls. I will keep you locked in the cellar, like the monster you are. And the Archangel, will He come to save you?»

«Leave me alone…»

«He ordered you to kill for generations and you just obeyed like idiots. Do you have any idea what it feels like? Have you ever lost someone you cared about? How would you feel if someone told you that "it was the right thing"?»

Memories of Elora flooded her mind. She had abandoned her, she had done the right thing, she had obeyed… Yet she had felt so guilty… The truth was that she understood perfectly what the witch was saying. Deep down she had dreamed of breaking into the monastery dungeon, freeing Elora, and escaping with her many times. Yet that was their task in life, to resist the temptations of the Evil One, to save their soul. Thus taught the Archangel.

«I owe you no explanation», she whimpered.

«Stupid nun, when are you going to start thinking on your own?»

Nene kept her eyes shut. She didn't want to argue with that awful woman anymore. All she wanted was to have her life and soul saved. Or at least the second.

Adanara seemed pleased with their exchange, as she stopped pestering her. However, she stayed to keep an eye on her, sitting in a corner of the wagon, as if absorbed in a meditation. Nene's discomfort warned her that she was doing something sacrilegious, yet nothing out of the ordinary happened, except for the sudden warm wind that began to blow. After a few minutes, Nila returned. She stormed in from behind the wagon, her face red and sweaty.

«Ada, t-there is a village nearby!»

«Great. You were fast. Everything’s okay?»

«T-there was an old man who was happy to help… H-he says that not far away there is a bridge, then a road that goes up the hill to the l-left, and there the village of Kumhar is, and…»

«And?»

«I-I don't know whether to believe it or not, b-but he told me that a doctor lives there. He said: "A wizard who heals the sick"»

«A wizard? Do they even exist?»

«I have n-no idea! But we have to try… Please»

«We should have stopped somewhere anyway, sooner or later. We don't have much food»

The sisters argued for a few more moments. Adanara seemed worried about approaching a town. Nene didn't understand why. They were beyond the borders of the Principality, the Church had no agents around there. They would have been well received by their fellow evil worshippers, in that village. Finally, the witch tied the horse back to the cart and they set off again. Nila stayed next to her, wetting her face with a damp cloth.

«I-I have to change your clothes, or you'll catch a cold»

The cool autumn air made Nene shiver, covered in sweat and else as she was. She almost missed that anomalous warm breeze that had appeared shortly before and disappeared immediately after.

«Yes, please», Adanara shouted from the front. «I can't stand her stench anymore»

«D-don't listen to her…»

Nila leaned beside her but hesitated. Had she realised that, to undress her, she would have to undo the ropes? Not that she could have done anything, in her state, but she would have tried anyway.

«Nene?»

«What?»

«I-I'll untie you, now. I don't want to hurt you, ok?»

She looked ahead. It was clear that of the two sisters, Adanara was the more drastic. She thought about how to act. In theory that would have been her best chance to escape, but she was having a hard time breathing, she certainly wouldn't be able to run, much less to fight. Should she be content with letting Nila take off her dirty clothes and nothing more?

«Let me go», she pleaded. «I won't tell anyone»

«I'm sorry. I w-wish I could believe you…»

Nila walked away. Nene regretted not playing along.

A few minutes passed. Her senses were less and less receptive. Nila came back and resumed spongeing her, for what seemed like hours, as they drove on unfamiliar roads. She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again upon hearing Adanara's voice.

«That sucks», the witch complained.

«Thank you, Ada», Nila said. «I know you can be nice»

Adanara gave her an obscene gesture and went back to the front. The wagon started moving again. Nene looked around very slowly. As she gradually recovered from her torpor, she realised that she was no longer soaked and sticky. She tried to move: she was still tied up, but only her wrists and ankles. The ropes were looser. Her aching limbs felt some relief. Besides, she was no longer wearing her clothes, but a clean, fresh tunic that was too big for her.

«Better now?», the herbalist asked her.

«Yes», she replied.

Instinctively, she had almost said "thank you", as if it weren't all their fault that she was in that state to begin with.

«We will soon arrive at a village. I-I hope they can help us there»

«Why are you doing all this?»

Nila looked down. She looked like the same person she had known in Dena. She certainly wasn't naive enough not to figure out what a horrible crime they were committing, and Nene still had a hard time accepting that she was a heretic.

«B-because… Because people are dying from damnation. Master Ezio has some old Church books. I've read that in some years more than a thousand purges were carried out»

Nene sighed. By then she was tired of insisting on the importance of soul salvation, she was just curious to understand why she was suffering so much.

«Yes, the cases are on the rise», she admitted.

«T-that's right. And we can solve them. It would be like… c-cure the sick, you know?»

«And the… “sacrifice,” as you call it?»

«Well… about that…»

Nila fiddled with her hair as if caught out. It was such an obvious flaw in their plan. To save Gil's life, they were about to sacrifice Ostiir’s. To save Adanara's, their father had resigned his.

«My s-sister and I don’t want to sacrifice anybody. We wanted to c-continue our studies to understand how to… avoid it. Gil was an e-emergency»

«Where are the two of them?»

She hadn't seen the carpenter and his son since they had left. Ostiir was motivated by love for little Gil, and had repeated several times how, to him, his son's life was the most precious thing. How he planned to provide him with a decent one in that wild land populated by the damned?

«We s-split up. It's for the best»

«So you believe to be saviours?»

Nila gave her a rare expression of anger. Contrary to her usual attitude, she seemed genuinely mad with her.

«We try our best! I-if the Church didn't hunt us down… It would be easier. Instead, Ada and I have to hide. S-such a waste of time»

Her emotional state made her stutter more than usual. Nene felt intimidated, as when the Prioress had scolded her in the past.

«M-many people don't like the Church. And t-there are many scholars who work in secret, so as not to be c-condemned as heretics. Science c-can do wonders. Dad proved it to us»

Eidelhan’s ingenuity and inventions were remarkable. Still, Nene was certain that no human science could ever stand against the Evil One. Had it existed, the Archangel would certainly have known about it, and would have made those scholars His allies. Nila was carrying the knife with which Adanara wanted to kill her a little earlier. The sisters had loosened her ropes, so they were keeping an eye on her. Nene began to make a plan.

«Nila… am I dying?», she asked.

«No! No, I won't leave you… W-we're going to a village so I can heal you»

«Those people at the farm told you, right? That they can help me»

«Yes, you’ll see. Everything is g-going to be fine. Don't be afraid»

«How are people out here?»

She hoped to appeal to the curious nature of her captor. What she needed was to find out how strong the Evil One's power was. Even a single person who was still sane would have been enough for her. Perhaps she could hope for someone to help her. If it were a novel, their wagon would have been attacked by marauders, thus giving her the opportunity to escape, but in reality, she had to think of something else.

«W-what do you mean?»

«The Church… they taught me that people out there are all servants of the Evil One»

She chose her words carefully, trying not to sound hostile. Nila frowned, but unlike earlier, didn't seem to be angry with her on a personal level.

«They taught everyone that. I-I don't know anything about the world outside the Principality, but my parents always said t-that the Church exaggerates. That farmer looked like… well, a normal farmer»

She struggled to believe her, but if that were the case, maybe she had a chance. Had she managed to flee once at the village, she might have looked for the old man at the farm. She had heard that they were following a road that went up the hills, so she just needed to go downhill and follow the route. Normally it would have been easy, but in her physical condition, she could barely stand. The thought of collapsing after a few metres and dying on the side of a road made her wonder if maybe she was better off relying on Nila.

«I see a house!», Adanara announced.

«Finally!», Nila rejoiced.

The witch spurred the horse. They covered the last stretch that separated them from Kumhar at full speed. The contents of the wagon began to slide on the floor, bags and sacks of various types swayed in sync with the vehicle. Nila held Nene by the arms, or she would have rolled around like a lifeless object. Then, suddenly, Adanara halted and darted to the rear.

«Some guys are coming. What do we do with her? If they see her tied up, what will they think?»

«E-even if we untie her, she'll scream for help!»

“You can bet I will”, Nene thought. However, there were no allies of hers out there. In truth, the two sisters were worrying about nothing. Their fellow heretics would have rejoiced to see her in that state, they would have welcomed them as heroines.

«Okay... I’ll go towards them and come up with something»

Before Adanara could move, the sound of many running footsteps surrounded the chariot. It didn't seem like a friendly mob. Then, a voice thundered.

«Come out, you witch!»

The voice was commanding and firm and made Nene shiver. Adanara, on the other hand, was terrified of it. It was Nila who answered.

«W-we're no threat», she said. «We need help, there’s a sick girl in here»

The mob began chitchatting, then more footsteps followed. Their assailants were about to break in, but Nene didn't warn the sisters. Let them die!

The wagon was shaken by the weight of some men who entered suddenly. Nila screamed as they jumped on her and pinned her down. She didn't even try to use the knife to defend herself. Adanara froze for a second but finally attempted to flee from the front. More strangers pounced on her. She punched and screamed. Their assailants didn’t try to kill them, at least not on the spot. They were merely subduing them.

«What about this one?», a man asked.

Nene stood down, resigned. Her only consolation was that if that was the end of her, perhaps it would be the end of the witch and her accomplice as well.

«Look! She's tied up. And she was beaten badly»

While the raiders were unsure of what to do, Nene had a terrible premonition: she perceived Ormel's bone, or rather, that visceral annoyance she had always felt in the mere presence of Adanara. A warm breeze blew through the wagon. She looked at the witch, who had been yelling and kicking a moment before, and was now motionless. She was ignoring the assailants who held her by her arms and staring into nothingness, as if watching something invisible.

«Ada, no!», Nila shouted.

A gust of wind, an extremely powerful one, swept over the wagon, tearing the curtains that separated the rear from the front. A couple of men tumbled to the ground, carrying Adanara with them, who continued to stare into space as she performed God knows what sorcery. For the first time since she had mistaken her for a creature part animal, Nene was genuinely afraid of her, even more than usual. The gusts of wind kept going. The assailants were confused, but they didn't give up. Any sane person, in the Principality, would have fled from the witch, in the face of that manifestation of evil power. They, on the other hand, behaved as if the witch was simply resisting.

«How do we stop her?», one screamed.

«I don't know, hit her on the head or something!»

From outside the wagon, however, came a chorus of terrified voices. What could be out there scarier than a witch manipulating the winds?

«Wait, there’s no need!»

Adanara came to her senses and stared in terror at the source of those voices. Nene cowered.

A loud roar almost deafened her. She heard the wood of the wagon creak and snap. The entire vehicle was lifted off the ground and overturned, among the shouts of all the people inside. She hit her head against something, more than once, and everything went dark.