If you want a secure, high paying job and you are of able body, consider applying to serve as an escort for the convoys passing through the Wall of Winter into Maris. Two of every ten freeze on the way, but if you’re good enough to survive the first time, you’ll never want for coin again.

But you will want for a warm fire most nights.

- Unknown

“Weldon,” I all but hissed, “what the fuck are you doing here?”

“What was that?” Jevi asked, looking back to me.

“I said that sounds like a spectacular distraction. Let’s go with your plan. Only thing that’s changed is we know where they’re going to be looking now.”

Jevi looked out the tent to see the bandits starting to converge around the fire, their attention focused in the direction the yell had come from. “Follow me then.” She darted out with her staff and sword in her hands. I caught the tent flap, waited a split second, then followed so as to not land my feet on her heels.

“I SEE YOU!” Weldon’s magically loud voice rang out. “TOO FEW ARE YOUR NUMBER! SO YOU PRESUME TO AMBUSH ME!? IT SHALL NOT WORK!”

Fortunately, going by where the voice was coming from- the other side of the camp with multiple tents and bodies in the way- he couldn’t see us. Then again, he was talking to the bandits. It just took me a moment to recognise that he talked to people that weren’t me or his sword. We only had limited interactions in the short time we knew each other, so I’d come to assume he was talking to me whenever I heard his voice.

“Alright, who’s the peppy teen that got lost?” Waar shouted as she emerged from a tent halfway across the camp. I made eye contact with Jevi to make sure she had seen, and shared a nod when she had. We started sneaking around to our target.

“I AM WELDON PINE! I AM TO BE CHOSEN OF THE HEAVENS! YOU BANDITS AND FIENDS ARE GUILTY OF BANDITRY AND SLAVERY! YOUR RECKONING COMES THIS DAY!”

“It’s night.”

“SHUT UP! YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!”

“Alright ladies, same deal as this morning. Surround the fucker and attack as one. He even brought along a lantern sword that’ll go for a few hundred coin if we sell it right.”

“HOW DARE YOU! ARCUS IS WORTH MORE THAN A FEW PALTRY HUNDRED COINS!”

“Is that so?” Waar’s patronising voice sounded genuinely interested. “Well? Start surrounding him. Writch! Where did you leave my bow and arrow! I see no reason to risk any more men today.”

By then, Jevi and I had reached Waar’s tent. My mysterious companion used one of Weldon’s overly loud shouts to drown out the noise as she cut herself an entrance while I looked out for anyone noticing us. No one did, but I did notice Writch walking towards the tent Jevi and I had ransacked.

I brushed the back of my hand against Jevi. “I’m gonna buy that unfortunate kid some more time.”

“Kid?” Jevi asked. I gestured to where I could see radiant light hitting the ground. Weldon’s sword would be the source of it. I’d seen a similar effect on Brynn’s sword the night I ran away. “Sure, whatever. Soon as I find my wand these bandits are getting struck from this plane anyway, and I’m lucky enough to have found this,” she tapped Ratmaker’s staff, “so it’ll only take a minute.”

I nodded, not too sure why she was saying all that.

“Go!” She whispered. “Time’s wasting.”

I nodded, much more sure this time, and stole my way back to where Writch had disappeared into the tent. The possibility did strike me that he would notice how Jevi and I threw everything around, or how Jevi threw everything around since I at least was clean and orderly, but it was something I needn’t have worried about. The man was muttering complaints about people I didn’t know being messy and losing things when I sidled up against the flap and waited for him to come out.

“There it is. Fuckin’ finally.”

I tensed. A few moments later Writch walked out and I let out a witchy cackle. I wanted him to know who was knocking him out after all, and Weldon was making enough noise that any sound I made wouldn’t be heard by anyone not close to me. Writch froze, and I whacked him over the head with the intent to knock him out, trusting my magic manacles to do the rest for me.

He fell to the ground much like I imagined I did earlier today. The chain with the ruined manacle on the end even swung around and hit him on the shoulder, likely fracturing it, if not breaking it. I heard the crunch.

It was satisfying. No fucking deer either.

Writch had been carrying an oversized bow coupled with a quiver that held appropriate arrows. Right now those were strewn about around the guy that had threatened to cut out my tongue. I glanced the way of Waar and Weldon. His sword was indeed illuminated like a sun in the night, and so far none had made the first attack.

I looked back to Writch. The problem with doing anything more to help Weldon was that I wasn’t physically strong enough to do anything worthwhile. Pulling the body into the tent was pointless, since it’d take too long and wasn’t obvious under the night sky anyway. The bow was tempting, but I had no illusions about my inability to draw the string. There was no way I was going to be able to use this against its owner.

But I could deprive her of all her ammunition. I picked up the quiver and slung it around my back before making my way back to Jevi. I left it in the shadow of a random tent halfway there since all it was doing for me was slowing me down. The bandits would have to organise a search for that bow to be useful.

I paused for a moment to listen to the banter still going on between Waar and Weldon.

“TRESPASSING IS NOT EVEN THE LEAST OF YOUR FIENDISH DEEDS, BANDITS!”

“And how were we supposed to know? That farmer didn’t even have any fences set up!”

“BECAUSE YOU ARE ALSO GUILTY OF VANDALISING PRIVATE PROPERTY!”

They’d gotten very far off track. I warded out the sound and ducked inside Waar’s tent to find Jevi once again peeking through a tent flap. She glanced back as I entered and gestured for me to come over.

It seemed she had been successful in her search for her wand at the very least, as it was now gripped in her right hand and the contents of Waar’s tent were strewn about everywhere. The decorations were spartan, but the level of wealth invested in them was a cut above everything else we’d seen in the group of bandits so far. Said decorations and furniture had been disrupted in what I could only assume was the quietest way possible. There was a small open chest buried in the ground with another, larger chest that once rested on top open and pushed to the side. I could see the track marks.

“I have to say this is incredibly entertaining.” Jevi whispered to me once I was in a position to survey the scene before us. “That boy has read up on just about every crime these guys have done. Wonder what he’s getting out of it.”

I made a noncommittal sound. “Justice, probably.”

Jevi giggled quietly as we watched on. From that I gathered the band hadn’t been in the tent.

Fourteen men and women had Weldon surrounded, and Waar was casually striding around, forcing Weldon to turn to continue shouting at the perpetrator of so many crimes. He was still going. I wasn’t sure if I should be more impressed with Weldon’s memory, or Waar’s capacity for unlawfulness.

The bandit chief sighed exasperatedly as Weldon launched into describing the allegations of public disorder against her. She looked around as he shouted about every time she bowled over an elderly lady while walking through Breach. That must’ve been before she became properly infamous. Jevi was right. He’d really done his research.

“Where the fuck is Writch?” Waar shouted.

I brushed Jevi’s shoulder with the back of my hand. “Now. Time’s out.” Then I drew my dagger somewhat awkwardly with my right hand. My left being preoccupied with the magic manacle.

Jevi didn’t respond to me directly. She started muttering and gesturing with her wand, and I felt the magics associated with her zinger start to jolt around in the air. The magic assassin to be stepped out of Waar’s tent and shouted, “I’d like to add two accounts of kidnapping and slavery to those charges. I declare Waar and all associated parties guilty! Their punishment: execution!”

I only had a moment to register how she said those final words before lightning arced out into the night and slammed into the closest part of the bandit circle surrounding Weldon. While I had started getting used to that spell and had learned to shield my eyes, pretty much everyone else hadn’t, and by the time they had blinked out the image burned into the backs of their eyes Jevi had already moved to cut down the next nearest bandit.

Jevi glanced back at me meaningfully, and I hastened to follow, wary of how close that put me to her ball of lightning. It wasn’t small. The thing was as large as my waist. The rest of the bandits were disorganised but quickly fixing that, which wasn’t good for us. Waar on the other hand was snarling, and the big axe she pulled from her belt looked about right for her size.

Meaning it was fucking huge. It was comparable to Weldon’s greatsword, that’s how large it was.

As for Weldon, he looked positively elated. “The sentence will be carried out! FOR JUSTICE!” He bellowed into the night sky, causing something radiant to flash down from the heavens and hit his raised sword, making it glow more than it was already. Thunder also boomed dramatically. The effect was offset by how two bandits immediately tackled him. One took him to the ground while the other started wresting the sword away from him.

Jevi and I started working together, insofar as Jevi yelling at me to ‘Get in front!’ was us working together. I got in front, and the moment I was there I was faced with two bandits bearing down on me, their non-lethal clubs exchanged for deadly swords. If Brynn hadn’t trained me with his mithril sword and made me familiar with its bite, I suspect this would’ve made me freeze.

But he had, and I wanted to repay these people for all they had done for me. I dodged one while parrying the other using the dagger in my right hand, nearly fumbling when I was forced to drop it from the weight behind the strike. In the opening that followed I delivered a knockout blow to the one I parried with my manacle, before turning to find Jevi’s sword already deep in the other one’s stomach.

I didn’t have any time to feel queasy. Another bandit charged me and this time all I had was my magic manacle. Fifteen seconds later the bandit had been disarmed by me wrapping the chain of my manacle around her weapon and pulling, then knocked out when a missed left hook turned into something of a surprise attack.

There was a moment where I looked around for incoming bandits. Upon finding none, I glanced down to search for my dagger.

“Amber!” Jevi shouted.

I looked her way. Jevi was trying to come my way, but was waylaid by a bandit that made it around her floating orb of lightning. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end suddenly and I dodged without looking at what was behind me, almost in time to avoid the blade of Waar’s axe. The damage wasn’t much, it only hit my right arm. But the blow did unbalance me, sending me stumbling.

Something warm started running down my fingers.

“Now how did you get out?” Waar snarled before I could really figure out what was happening.

“Magic.” I reflexively told her, then my eyes widened at the follow up attack she’d started without waiting for my response. This one I dodged about as well as the first, taking a wound to the same arm, only further down. It didn’t unbalance me so much now that I knew it was coming.

“We’ve already made coin from you!” Waar bellowed, pressing her assault. “Now there’s no reason to keep you around! You should’ve just waited! Now your end comes tonight!”

Her attacks were coming hard and fast, and just now were starting to match the intensity that Brynn exerted during our more intense practice duels. In those I managed to survive for three to four minutes when I focused only on dodging and deflecting. There was an argument to be made about how that was a valid tactic, seeing as Waar was clearly the biggest and most deadly opponent we were facing, and tiring her out meant one of my allies could kill her with a sneak attack.

There were just two problems with that. First, Waar wasn’t honourable, and neither were her bandits. It would be naive to assume they wouldn’t use the exact same tactic on me. Secondly, both my allies were preoccupied, and couldn’t help me put Waar down if they wanted to.

And Weldon wouldn’t want to. Justice, or something along those lines.

Also, I wanted to pay back this bitch for trying to sell me into slavery. That wasn’t really a problem. Just a deep desire of mine.

“No.” I murmured beneath my strained breath when I saw Waar prepare for a horizontal swing, as if she was going to behead me where I stood. In all honesty she probably could, but I had no intention of letting her. She swung. I ducked and lunged between her legs, confident the magic in my manacle would know what I wanted from this maneuver.

I scrambled to my feet and turned to face my opponent, then smirked when I saw Waar on one knee. The chain on my manacle had impacted Waar’s shin as I passed, likely putting as much force behind the blow as Waar was putting into each of her swings, wrapped around the leg, and pulled it with me. Cautious to remain outside where she could swing her axe, I approached and prepared for a final blow.

The words, “This is the night your end comes,” spilled from my mouth because I couldn’t help myself. Then I chopped my left hand over her head, overextending so that my magic manacle was able to make contact with Waar’s bald skull. Like it did with Writch, the broken manacle on the end of the chain swung around and crunched against her clavicle.

Waar didn’t move for a few moments. Then she fell to the side, unconscious.

I was left to stand there looking down over the body. This was the first fight I had won, wasn’t it? All on my own. It was. How was I supposed to be feeling right now?

“Amber!”

I looked up to see a bandit rushing at me. Since I was still feeling the rush of dodging Waar’s attacks, this one’s sword swing seemed especially slow. I was also feeling powerful. Instead of evading, I punched where the sword was about to be, then pulled when it got wrapped in the chain. The next moment the bandit was unarmed, wore an expression of terror, and then wore no expression at all when I gave him the same knockout treatment as his boss.

The last remaining bandit was put down by Weldon, who had triumphed over his first attackers at some point. He roared justice to the night sky and started talking to his blade while Jevi rushed over to me.

“Good fighting!” She grinned, a toothy smile on her face. Her blade found Waar’s heart, almost as an afterthought, and stayed there. Jevi’s smile faded into something overly serious soon after when she finally looked at me and saw my state. “Amber. Amber look at me.” She gripped my left shoulder and snapped her fingers in front of my face even though I was already looking at her. “We won. You did good. You’re also bleeding.”

I looked down at my arm that had taken two deep cuts from Waar’s axe. I could see white in one of the wounds, past the blood.

“That’s… that’s real deep.” Jevi frowned and looked around. “Come on, we need to get that cleaned and bandaged, then see a cleric. Otherwise that arm is lost.”

“Good thing he’s here.” I responded as Jevi started pushing me somewhere. I wasn’t really in a state of mind to figure where until she sat me down by the bandit’s fire.

Jevi frowned again and glanced over to Weldon in time to see his hands glow as he pressed his wounds back to health. “I don’t know. Can we trust him? He literally showed up out of nowhere and ruined our plan. You wouldn’t be wounded if he hadn’t shown up.”

“That’s right!” I laughed. Then I kept laughing. Then I groaned as the veil that had stopped me from feeling pain lifted, then hissed at the pain that groaning brought me. Then I started groaning more carefully.

“Ah, shit. She’s delirious.” Jevi muttered, looking around. “Stay here. I’ll find some water and bandages.” She was stopped when I grabbed her wrist, hissing at the exertion that caused me. “Amber, this needs to happen quickly, or the arm is lost.”

She was making sense, but I didn’t want to listen. Was this shock again? At least I was still breathing this time.

“Stay.” I commanded as best I could. It probably came out as a pitiful beg. Then I turned my eyes to Weldon, who had finally finished whatever ritual he was doing to approach me. I saw the recognition in his eyes and the genuine joy that sprung forth. “You.” I said, shifting my arm so the wounds were facing him. “Heal me.”

“Of course!” He said brightly, and all but skipped closer. Jevi watched with intensity as he inspected my wound, then stuck a glowing finger inside. I hissed once more at both the pain that caused, as well as the uncomfortable sensation of being healed. Weldon’s finger traced the inside of the wound, then he pinched it closed before moving on to the other one. This time the light in his finger sputtered out before he could get around to pinching it.

“Curses! My vast healing power was insufficient.” Weldon looked at me with sincerity. “You have my apologies. After all you’ve done for me, this is all I can do to repay you.”

I felt Jevi take note of that as I sorted through the things I wanted to say and in what order. Hitting Weldon was pretty close to the top, so I started there. I couldn’t use my right hand, and I didn’t want to break his skull, so I had to carefully slap Weldon using my left hand while restraining the magic in my manacle. The chain ended up wrapping around his neck. I saw him actively stop his shoulders from hunching.

“Weldon.” I said, my sweet tone of voice making his back reflexively straighten. “You researched these bandits, is that correct?”

He nodded quickly. “Ye-”

“And you knew their numbers, as well as a thorough account of their crimes.”

He nodded again, less certainly this time. “I di-”

“So why didn’t you scout their campsite first? Or bring allies to a fight in which you were clearly outnumbered?” I demanded.

He glanced away. “Well… I was in a rush.”

“A rush?” My eyebrows went up and Weldon wilted a little. “Is that also why you attacked in the middle of the night?”

Weldon fidgeted. “I wanted them to all be in one place.”

“Is that so?”

Weldon was silent and didn’t dare to answer.

“Well, in that case, I must forgive you. And offer thanks for the healing job that you will finish tomorrow.” Weldon chanced a glance at me, only tentatively believing my honesty, and with good reason. I wasn’t done yet. “As for the rest of it, I have nothing to say to you. But know that had you not attacked in the moment that you did, I would not be wounded.

“Had you not alerted the bandits, Jevi and I would’ve been able to sneak from tent to tent, eliminating all of these bandits and, should a fight have broken out, been faced with far less trying odds. We would’ve found what was ours that had been stolen, and been on our way with our vengeance paid. But we didn’t. Instead, we’re sitting here now, and I’m still bleeding.”

Weldon flinched. “Y-you have my sincerest apologies, ma’am.”

I sighed. “No need. You didn’t know.” I just enjoyed making him sweat, was all. “You fought well. I didn’t see any bleeding wounds on you when the fight was done.”

Weldon swallowed, his eyes flicking to Jevi, who wore an absurdly calculating expression, then back to me. He appeared to be reasonably contrite, considering I’d just insinuated he could’ve healed me completely had he not first healed himself.

“If you’re done cowing our aspiring saviour,” Jevi said, “We have bandits to loot and bodies to burn. I don’t know what the time is in relation to midnight, but we shouldn’t sleep until these corpses have at least been salted.”

Weldon was on his feet in a flash. “Worry not, fair and deadly maiden. For I, Weldon Pine, to be Chosen of the Heavens, am exceedingly deadly when faced with undead!”

“Then I’ll leave corpse duty to you?” Jevi asked sweetly.

“Uh…” Weldon frowned. “Sure.”

“Great!” Jevi clapped her hands, then picked up a dropped sword. “Now, there are a few still alive, but not for long. I’ll loot the bodies, then you can do whatever it is your order does with them.” She turned to go before turning back around and leaning close to me.

“Can you dress that yourself?” She quietly asked.

“Yeah.” I had strips of cloth for just such a purpose in abundance stored in my bag. Hopefully nothing had been spilled on them.

Jevi clapped her hands again. “Let’s get looting!” She then proceeded to do exactly that. Weldon followed shortly behind. I noticed they stayed close until I was finished cleaning and bandaging what was left of my wounds. The moment I was done, the two of them all but vanished to the edges of the firelight.

As for me, I trudged into Waar’s empty tent and fell into the dead chief’s bedroll. I may have spent most of the day unconscious, but by the Ninth Hell I was tired.

\V/