Nidra took a few minutes to organize her squads before she started asking questions. She asked about those who had knowledge of Denstad - the capital of Hari - and who had been privy to Rumi’s plans of attack after her departure but before Hirrus’s arrival. She pulled that group aside, presumably to help refine her own plan.

The rest of the group began chatting amongst themselves. Many of them knew each other already, and so they spoke excitedly about Nidra’s promises, and what they meant for their lives.

Hirrus just kept watching the fire. They had gathered so much together that parts of the pile were still just catching.

“Merciless,” someone said from near at hand, before he could get lost in the dancing flames.

Hirrus looked up, expecting to see someone about to make the mistake of picking a fight. Instead, he found three of the Awakened approaching him. Despite what they called him, they didn’t appear hostile.

“Call me Hirrus,” Hirrus said.

“Sorry. Hirrus,” the first man said. It was the lanky fellow who had first questioned Nidra’s intent before they began their work. “We were hoping for a moment to speak with you.”

“Say your piece,” Hirrus said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I wanted to thank you,” the lanky man said quickly. “Obviously, we’re sorry that we fought you at first, but you showed us what was wrong with our thinking.” He gestured at the area that was still littered with bodies. “Very aggressively.”

Hirrus nodded with a wan smile.

“Thank you as well for sparing us,” one of the others cut in. She was a squat woman with close-cropped hair. “You had no reason to, after what we did. But you proved yourself to be a better man.”

“I just want to know why,” Hirrus said, unable to hold it behind his lips any longer. “Why would you follow someone who had just finished torturing you?”

“It’s… complicated.” The lanky man couldn’t look Hirrus in the eye. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“He gave us freedom,” the woman said. “For some of us, that was enough to forgive how he gave it to us.”

“That’s not it,” the third person said. He was a shorter man with his chest armor intentionally poorly-fastened to hang with much of his chest exposed. “Not for all of us. For some, it’s just… our nature.”

Hirrus looked over the three of them. None of them could meet his eyes. They were ashamed of how easily Rumi had been able to control them. But Hirrus was starting to understand. They’d lived their lives literally bound by an internal system that gave them orders. Some of them might have been grateful enough to be free to allow themselves to be used for further atrocities. But the others? When the system that controlled their lives was removed, those who lacked purpose had been hungry to be controlled by a new system.

“Ask him,” the man with the exposed chest said. “Get it over with.”

“You ask him,” the lanky man snapped back, in sotto voice, as if he could hide the exchange from Hirrus right in front of him. “I got us this far. You finish the job.”

“We don’t have to say anything,” the woman said.

“You do now,” Hirrus said with a sigh. “What’s going on here?”

“We…” the lanky man began. He grimaced, and despite his height, he seemed to physically shrink with anticipatory fear. “We just want to go home.”

“This isn’t our fight,” the bare-chested man added. “It isn’t even a fight all of us want to happen. Nidra wants to kick all the adventurers out of the country. Some of us make our living off of them.”

“And…” the woman said, hesitating before she finished with a grimace: “and she scares us.”

Hirrus wondered why they were afraid to tell him this. Obviously, admitting it to Nidra would have been frightening to anyone she could kill with a flick of her wrist, but he hadn’t considered what it had looked like from the outside. To these people, he was her attack dog. Admitting this to him might have been just as dangerous as admitting it to her wide-bladed dagger.

“She doesn’t want to kick the adventurers out of the country,” Hirrus said, though the words sounded like a poor excuse even as he formed them. This wasn’t their point. “She only wants them to stop controlling the king. She doesn’t even want to replace them, and control him in their place.”

“That doesn’t make it any more our fight,” the woman said. All three of them seemed emboldened by their continued survival. “We don’t want to be a part of this. We don’t want…”

“We don’t want to be used anymore,” the bare-chested man said quietly, in a pained tone that contrasted with his bold appearance.

“We’re not even useful to you,” the lanky man added. “We aren’t fighters. We’re just normal folk.” He put a hand to his own chest before gesturing to his companions one at a time. “Farmers. Merchants. Tavern Keepers. We don’t even know any useful information,” he said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing across the clearing to where Nidra was talking with the group she’d decided had valuable contributions to her plan. “We’re just extra hands at best. Cannon fodder at worst.”

Hirrus took a deep breath. Hearing them put voice to his own concerns stabbed at his chest in a way he couldn’t ignore.

He suspected he could get them to fall in line with well-placed encouragement. Or with an open threat.

But did he want to? Were they wrong?

“With me,” Hirrus said to them, shifting his weight before stepping around the trio. “And keep your mouths shut.”

They trailed behind him as he crossed the space. Even as he strode purposefully and confidently towards Nidra, the three of them seemed to shrink in on themselves, drawing closer together. Did they fear Nidra that much? Or did they fear he was going to turn them in for insubordination and have them punished publicly to keep the others in line?

“Nidra,” Hirrus said, interrupting her meeting. “A moment.”

She held up a hand to stop the discussion before turning to him. Wordlessly, she arched an eyebrow, her eyes flicking briefly to his terrified retinue.

“These three had an idea I think is worth your time,” Hirrus said, gesturing at them. “They fear that the fire won’t be enough. Rumi’s remaining supporters might still regroup once we leave, especially with the remaining forces that hid out in Shemil’s citadel.”

Nidra’s eyebrows shot up at that and she nodded for him to continue.

“We should leave a small force behind,” he said. “Just a few. They don’t need to be able to put up a fight, just to slow them down.”

“Something to harry and distract them,” Nidra agreed, “keep them from nipping at our tail when we move out.”

“Precisely,” Hirrus said.

Nidra’s brow furrowed for a moment as she considered the suggestion. At length she nodded.

“Set it up,” she said to Hirrus. “I’ll reorganize the squads once its done. No more than five, though. We can’t afford to weaken our forces more than that.”

Hirrus nodded and turned away, leading the trio back towards the fire.

“That’s not what we wanted,” the lanky man hissed at Hirrus as soon as they were out of earshot. “We don’t want to sit here on a suicide mission!”

Both of his companions elbowed him from either side, simultaneously admonishing him to shut up.

“Then don’t,” Hirrus whispered, electing to explain anyway. “Just stand here until we’re gone, and then do whatever you like.” He shrugged. “If you have two more friends who doubt the cause, tell them as well. No more than that.”

“Why, though?” the bare-chested man asked. “Why lie to her to help us?”

“I saw what Rumi did to you all,” Hirrus said, remembering the monster of a man tormenting his prisoners for no other reason than the joy of their screams. “If you don’t want to be here, it would be nearly as monstrous as he was to force you. You all have suffered enough. If I can offer you comfort in these last few days of freedom, why wouldn’t I?”

The woman opened her mouth to answer, but the bare-chested man reached across and put a firm grip on her shoulder.

“No reason at all,” he said. “Right?”

“Right, right,” the woman said. “Just what I was about to say.”

Hirrus wasn’t sure if he found their antics amusing or not. They were an odd group. As they broke away from him to return to the remaining group, he found himself worried about them.

The lanky man had said he wanted to go home. Considering what Hirrus had seen of Rumi’s operation, it was likely his home was a smoldering ruin. But he wouldn’t know that, would he? At the last town Hirrus had come upon, the townsfolk were being rounded up before the buildings had been burned down. He had also not been very quick on the uptake. It was possible he hadn’t realized what had happened.

Despite all that, he felt he had done the right thing. These people had been used enough. Even if Nidra was using them for a good cause, they deserved to have a choice. Those who wished to choose their own path should have the opportunity.

He was starting to consider if he should be one of them.