Harrick saw the glow coming up from his stomach where Micah was touching. The world slowed to a crawl as he brought the knife in to slit Micah’s throat. As the knife bit into the flesh at Micah’s throat, a resounding thunderclap echoed from the gap between Harrick and Micah. The glow intensified until it was blinding. Harrick had a few brief moments of intense agony as lightning raced up and down his body. By the time the reflex to scream was registering, Harrick was dead.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tyrin stumbled backward, clutching his ringing ears. He opened his eyes, seeing the gruesome wounds on Harrick’s body as he slumped to the ground dead. Tyrin grabbed a dagger and went to lunge at Micah. As he stepped forward, a crossbow bolt took him in the back of the knee. Tyrin fell face-first into the dirt, screaming in rage and pain. “Fuck all of you!” Tyrin tried to stand again. As he got onto his hands and knees, he felt something cold and sharp touch the back of his neck.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” Tyrin turned his head slowly and saw that red-blooded bitch standing next to him. Her sword was poised to end him right then and there. “We have some questions that you should be able to answer,” She said again, smirking. “Almios, Garza, go grab that mage in the woods too,” The bitch added a second later. “Hello, Mr. Tyrin, I am Mera, and this is my sister Mela. If you want to keep that leg of yours for a bit longer, I suggest you hold still.”

It took a moment for Tyrin to process exactly who had spoken to him. Once he realized it was the two halflings, he froze. Tyrin felt someone grab the bolt from his knee, “You may feel a pinch.” One of them said before forcefully yanking out the bolt. Tyrin screamed and collapsed into the dirt. The pain grew to a white-hot intensity as he felt the wounded flesh heal.“Oh, suck it up, you baby, we do this all the time to everyone here, and they don’t complain,” One of the girls said again.

Tyrin only responded by grabbing the grass around him. “Can’t forget your weapons!” He then felt very dangerous hands feel him quickly removing the various knives, daggers, and cudgel from his person. “All done,” was all Tyrin heard before being bodily flipped over. The blooded woman was still standing over him. Her sword sheathed, though. Her broken arm was outstretched, and one of the halflings was looking it over.

She looked pointedly at Micah, “We can talk after we question him. Just get the horses.” Tyrin smirked, “Oh, how sweet a lover’s quarrel,” The blooded woman reacted exactly as he hoped. She raised her boot, ready to end him there. “Lis, you can’t do that just yet,” the halfling closest to him said. “Yeah, you better listen to them. Wouldn’t want your prisoner dying early now, would we?” As Tyrin replied, the halfling girl closest to him took out her Focus and touched it to his leg.

Agony shot through his body while the girl stared at him. Tyrin thrashed and screamed in pain. “Did you know that all you really need to do is overstimulate the nerves to cause pain? It doesn’t even leave a mark if you know what you are doing, and I just so happen to know exactly what I am doing.” The girl said while withdrawing her Focus.

“Now, Tyrin, answer our questions, and you may get the chance to live,” Lis said through gritted teeth. Tyrin could see the bones being reset in her arm as the other halfling girl worked. “You are just gonna kill me even if I do answer your questions, so do it already!” Tyrin said, sitting up staring at Lis. “I can let Mera and Mela ask the questions you know. They aren’t half as nice as I am when they get going,” Tyrin could see the girl next to him reach forward with her Focus.

Tyrin looked into her eyes. There was no pity or even hesitation. Just before it touched him again, he broke, “Fine! What do you want to know?” Lis smiled, “Thank you, Mera,” she nodded to the girl next to him. “We want to know who sent you, why you were sent, and how you knew who and where we were,” Lis replied, stating each question clearly.

Tyrin chuckled, “I can only answer one of the questions. We had a contract on Mr. Micah’s head. Three thousand gold for him to die and to rough all of you up.” A pop sounded from Lis’s arm as the bone finally settled. Tyrin expected her to flinch or wince when it happened, but all he saw on her face was a stony expression. “That’s it? Really?” She started laughing, “You……You expect us to believe that?” Tyrin smiled, “Yep, otherwise you are gonna have to ask Roger there.” He pointed to Roger’s corpse, “Oh yeah, you killed him, so good luck getting shit from a dead man!”

Tyrin wholeheartedly laughed but stopped as something cold touched his neck. “Well, then it goes to show we wasted our time on you,” A different but cold voice said from slightly above and behind Tyrin. “Saida, we can still question him or at least corroborate his story with the Mage,” Lis retorted, stepping towards Tyrin. “I don’t think that is a possibility, Lissa,” she stuck her arm in front of Tyrin, pointing at Almios and Garza returning empty-handed.

“Where is the mage?” Lissa asked, incredulous. “Dead, someone slit her throat,” Almios replied a moment later. “Gods damn it!” Tyrin smiled, watching Lissa get angry, clenching and unclenching her fists rapidly. “Looks like you are stuck with me unless you want to go over Rog’s dead body for the contract.” He put his finger up as if he suddenly remembered something. “Wait, you wouldn’t find it. It would have burned up the moment I was the last one left. It looks like you all are…” Tyrin never finished his sentence.

He felt the cold metal of the blade leave his neck in a rush. Then overwhelming, intense agony blossomed from the spot before he lost feeling in his body. He felt the world tumble round and round before he hit the dirt. Tyrin saw a fountain of blood spring from the stump that was once his neck. He wanted to speak, wanted to yell curses at all of them gathered around his body. Oblivion took him before he realized that without lungs or vocal cords, he couldn’t do that. Soon enough, Tyrin realized that what killed him was much more pleasant than the afterlife.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“What the fuck Saida!” Lissa screamed, taking a step back from the arterial spray coming from Tyrin’s neck. Saida kicked his body forward, and it fell in a heap, blood pooling in front of it. “He was useless. Even if Mera and Mela toyed with him, I doubt we would have gotten anything out of him about why they were here.” Lissa palmed her face, groaning in anger and frustration, “He still could have told us where they came from. Where they got the contract from, and if there were any other surprises ahead of us!”

Lissa pointed at Saida, “You could have at least waited until we asked him a few more questions!” Saida shrugged while kneeling to wipe her blade off in Tyrin’s clothes, “What’s done is done. It’s not like we could bring him back anyways.” Lissa wanted nothing more than to punch Saida at that moment. “You are missing the point. You can’t just kill a prisoner who may still have vital information,” Lissa pointed at Saida to forestall any response.

“Even if he only knew one thing we couldn’t find out just by looking over the bodies here, it would have made it worth it!” Lissa was starting to feel her anger boil over. Before she did something she would regret, she walked into the woods and decided to take her frustration out on a tree. Lissa drew her sword and started hacking into the tree, screaming while doing so.

Soon enough, Lissa was out of breath, the tree in front of her in tatters. Large chunks of wood and bark lay scattered around her. Smaller pieces clung to her face and exposed arm. Taking a calming but deep breath, she put away her sword and turned to walk back to everyone else. “....from the storm, the rings took some of the energy and….” Micah cut his explanation to everyone short as he spotted Lissa. “Do you want to hear it from the beginning?” He asked her. Lissa nodded and joined the semi-circle around Micah.

Micah pointed to the palm of his hand. It held one of the rings that he had on his fingers before. “Alright, these rings were given to me to ‘test’ out in the field with you all before I was dispatched. From the notes, I was given and my own observations, they take and store some ambient Aether and build up a charge.” Lissa looked at him, her eyebrow raised. She opened her mouth to ask him a question, but he cut her off with a quick slice of his free hand.

“Questions at the end, please,” Lissa nodded and closed her mouth. “This charge can be used either to impart a large amount of force to an object you are touching. Or it also seems to impart a large blast of lightning.” Micah put up his free hand, “Now, I will admit I didn’t know the second one until I did it to Harrick. The notes never mentioned anything like that, and my limited testing didn’t either. I believe this change occurred during the storm we passed through.”

Micah gestured around in the air, “I believe that some Aether was mixed in the storm itself, and the rings changed some property because of the Aether they received from the storm.” Micah looked down sheepishly now.

“I wasn’t supposed to let any of you know about these as, well, you can see they still need some more thorough examination and testing.” Lissa looked at Mera and Mela, gawking at the rings. “Hey, at least they came in handy,” Garza said, lightly slapping Micah on the back. Garza winced at the effort, “Now if you wouldn’t mind, I will have to excuse myself. Mera, Mela, can you help me.”

Garza walked over to Mera and Mela and had to tear their gaze away from the rings, “You can go back to gawking when I get this arrow out of my side.” They both rolled their eyes and walked with him. “Big baby, you have had worse injuries and didn’t complain,” Mela said while slapping near the wound, making Lissa wince in sympathy. Lissa was startled a moment as Micah’s hand touched her shoulder.

“I am really sorry for not telling you earlier,” Lissa looked into Micah’s eye and saw her frustration and worry reflected in them. She embraced him quickly and forcefully, driving the air from his lungs. “You idiot, you could have gotten hurt or killed if that had messed up. I don’t know how I would have told Aunty if something had happened to you,” Lissa squeezed tighter to reinforce her worry and to drive her point home. “Lis….Squeezing….Too….Tight,” Micah squeaked out with what breath remained in his compressing lungs.

Lissa let him go, and he gulped down air to catch his breath. She smiled and hit him lightly on the shoulder. “If you are going to do something stupid, at least try to include us, okay?” Micah raised his eyebrow, “Wait, you aren’t mad at me?” Lissa flashed him a cold smile, “I’m furious with you right now, but the fact you aren’t hurt makes up for it.” Lissa whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, once we aren’t bleeding, we are going to dig a mass grave. As much as I hate bandits, I hate having other people clean up our messes.”

Lissa pointed to Darvick, who was taking stock of everything on the horses, “How many shovels did we bring?” Darvick put his hand on his chin for a moment, “Four shovels we can dig in shifts. The ones not digging can set up camp. This is as good a time as any. I am not going any further today.” Lissa sighed. She had wanted to get farther up the road today, but Darvick made a good point. “Alright, we will do that. Better safe than sorry.”

Lissa looked around. Mera and Mela were tending to Garza. Almios was policing the bodies. Darvick had two shovels in his hand and was handing one to Micah. Lissa couldn’t see Saida anywhere. “Where is Saida?” She asked loud enough so everyone could hear—hopefully, including Saida. Almios looked at her, “She said she was going to do a quick sweep. To make sure no one was going to surprise us while we were here.” Lissa couldn’t fault the logic, “Alright then, Darvick, Micah, and I will take the first shift digging.” Lissa then grabbed a shovel.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Saida walked into the woods, eyes, and ears focused on her surroundings. She found nothing, no sounds, or sights that told her someone was nearby. Pausing, she looked into the canopy above her. The branches waving in the sunlight. The small beams of light dancing on the underbrush. A warm breeze caressed her cheek, and she closed her eyes.

It reminded her of home, of her mother and father. Saida reached out. She could almost feel, “No!” She said aloud to herself, grabbing the pommel of the sword. “I am past that now. I can’t look behind me, to them. I know better.” Saida felt the wind blow cold suddenly. He had come.

“Did that woman really need to die?” She asked Faceless, his red eyes in front of her a few meters. They had changed since the storm. A mask appeared with them now. It looked almost porcelain, though it changed with the mood of Faceless. Right now, it had a self-satisfied smirk. “Yes, she did. I know how you felt when you saw her attack and hurt Callista. You were enraged. If you could, you would have done the deed in front of her.”

Saida’s eye twitched, “That does justify you doing what you did to me.” Faceless looked shocked, the mouth agape, “What did I ever do to you, Saida? Think. Did I act through you at all while that occurred?” Saida was silent and fumed internally, she knew the answer, and she still didn’t like it, “No, you didn’t, but you didn’t have to encourage me to do it! They could have given us answers! It could have allowed us to see that contract! Something helpful!”

Saida slammed her heel into the ground and pointed at Faceless again. The mask now glared at her. “I just pointed out the obvious—the possibilities of what could happen. You were the one to act upon what we both saw. She was going to attack Callista again, stab her in the back after she was shown mercy!”

Faceless advanced towards Saida, getting into her face. The mask was pure rage now. “Had I not informed you of what that woman was about to do, you would be grieving over a dead woman now!” Saida wanted to counter, wanted to point out some flaw in the logic. She couldn’t. Having seen the mage raise her hand towards Lissa as she sprinted to the others. Seen her face contort in concentration, which only broke as Saida closed in for the kill.

“You know I am right. I am not the one who won’t accept the truth,” Faceless said again, advancing. Saida looked into their eyes and saw only sadness and pity for her. “I am only here to help you, Saida. Guide you onto a path, a path that will possibly allow you to see them again.” Rage bubbled through Saida, and she went to hit Faceless. “Don’t you dare bring them into this! They are off-limits!” She roared as her hand passed through the mask.

Saida stumbled forward, caught herself, and turned towards Faceless. The expression was pitiful, “I. I apologize. I know it is a sore subject.” They advanced slowly and deliberately, “Just know that I only want what is best for you.” Saida breathed deeply, calming herself, “Then don’t bring them up again unless I ask, understood?” Faceless didn’t seem fazed by the venom in her words. “I understand. Now go back. If anyone else were out here, they are long gone now.” Saida stormed through Faceless and headed back to the others.