We are Eiar

We are the sands

Ours is the way of the desert!

Our movements are the storm!

Like the dawning sun!

We rise

Claim

And conquer

Every last thing the light touches!

- Common chant in the Three and One Warring Sands of Eiar, used to bolster morale in times of war.

I was getting the feeling that Jevi and I needed to work on our situational awareness. This made the third time we’d been too wrapped up in our conversation to realise someone was approaching, making the number of times we’d been successfully snuck up on three out of three. The first two were forgivable, but this one was just embarrassing.

Then it got worse.

Somehow, fifteen or so men and women popped out from various hiding places to surround us. There were half again that number of dogs at their heels, all of a similar breed to the two I killed, and each of which was letting out a low growl that really should’ve tipped Jevi and I off to the fact that they were there.

Maybe I was being too hard on myself. I had just managed to rant about my circumstances without the Heavens erasing most of it for the first time, so I was a strange mix of relieved, tense, angry, and a whole slurry of other emotions as well. They had been hiding as well, with each of them popping out of various hiding places as soon as the call was sounded. We had entered a forest at some point, meaning such positions were abundant.

Jevi had no excuse for being surprised though. We'd been wrapped up in conversation, yes, but at that point nobody had been saying anything. For about an hour, even.

The one who correctly accused us of highway murder was a mousy thing of a man. He was panting his hands on his knees and trying to recover his breath fifteen paces behind us. Who knew how long he’d been running.

“Us? Murderers?” Jevi questioned, her expression the very picture of innocence. “The two of us have not partaken in such a base act. Surely you’re mistaken.”

“Murderer or not, it doesn’ matter.” The speaker was a tall, large as in muscled, bald woman dressed with more furs than anyone else in the circle, and holding the largest weapon too. A massive axe that no one else could have hoped to wield properly. Her authority was offset by how she was the farthest away from us at the time of speaking, though she was approaching.

“Didn’t your da ever tell you that it’s dangerous to go alone? Though,” She glanced at me as I drew my drow sword, “Two doesn’ really make it much better. This is a robbery! Heh. And then some.” Her teethy grin sickened me.

“No chief Waar!” The mousy guy shouted. “These two killed Troyan and Bethil! I wasn't too kill 'em. Life for life.”

Bethil. So that was his name.

… Why did I think that was important?

‘Chief Waar’ growled. “Shut it Writch! You screwed up the ambush.”

“Again, you must be mistaken.” Jevi insisted, still smiling innocently. “My companion had nothing to do with those murders. Both those men were killed by me and me alone. And those acts were actually just me being aggressively defensive.” She drew a breath and began incanting under her breath, not moving her lips as she did so. I only knew because I was the only one close enough to hear, and her free hand lightly grabbed my wrist, bringing my attention to her.

I got the feeling she was telling me to wait. Meanwhile, I was having something of a crisis.

I was no fool. This encounter would end in bloodshed, and unlike the previous two conflicts we found ourselves in, there were too many of them for me to just leave it to Jevi. She was a spellcaster, meaning her defences were lacking. Alone, she’d be overwhelmed quickly, and then any number of terrible things could happen.

On the other hand, I had a sword. It had been bloodied earlier but that wasn’t human blood, and the magic invested in the blade made it easy to clean. Already some of the bandits had noticed how my sword was clean and undamaged, and were pointing it out to their neighboring companions. In terms of a straight up fight, I had no doubt my skill in Rezan put my ability far enough above any of these people that they would need numbers to overwhelm me, but even then it would be a close thing.

If I killed them as they came.

If I killed.

The thought of doing so was paralyzing. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be able to walk into any fights with my head held high, my eyes sharp, and my sword ready to kill. I’d killed too many rats to count, blinded, then slew dogs, so why?

Why could I not fathom making this next step?

Maybe Jevi’s hand was intended to comfort me. In any case, I missed whatever chief Waar had to say in response to Jevi’s innocent claim to murder. The large woman grinned another unsettling grin, heedless of the deer that had just walked out of the trees she had just been hiding in. It made eye contact with me and looked sad.

I hated it.

I hated it so much.

It looked up to the sky and I understood.

This was to be punishment.

“If you’re so damn noble, tell us what damn house you’re a part of.” Chief Waar wasn’t grinning anymore, while Jevi’s innocent smile remained unbroken.

“I told you, a house in Juvel.” Jevi chided, having finished her incantation. She was holding her magic back, somehow. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck rising because of it. “And I must say thanks for the time you’ve given me.” She released my arm and drew her new sword. Chief Waar would’ve been disappointed if she was expecting an explanation for the non-sequiter, since Jevi unleashed her zinger for the second time that day, sending it in the direction of the bald giant of a woman.

It impacted with a crack of lightning, and bolts of charged magic struck out to the men on either side of her, along with one of the dogs as everything exploded into chaos.

Jevi was quick to follow up on her opening move, quickly incanting her magic missile spell and sending the three bolts of magic into one of the men adjacent to the ones she had already hit. They hit with unerring accuracy, one in each eye and the third in the mouth. Just like that, three of the bandits and a dog were dead, and Jevi was moving her sword to counter an attack from a bandit that had run up to attack.

He wasn’t the only one. The bandits attacked in two waves. The ones that were eager to fight, and had been on edge the entire time Jevi and Waar had been talking, and the other ones that had been taken off guard by the sudden spell.

I, unfortunately, would’ve been part of a third wave had I been on their side. Fortunately, to balance out my unwillingness to kill, I was very willing to continue living. So when the first club came swinging towards my head, my blade was there to meet it, and cut through the piece of wood as if it were paper.

That was the kick I needed to jump into action. I didn’t get another chance to disarm any of them in the way I had the first, being too focused on dodging by slim margins, blocking, and generally not letting them hit me. I was keeping up when there were three of them, but soon there were five and clubs started hitting me in places that, while not disabling, still hurt like a bitch.

I didn’t understand why the didn’t just kill me until I saw their faces. They were laughing at me. Playing. I grit my teeth and let my anger push my sword forward.

This wasn’t sustainable. Jevi was doing better than me. I couldn’t see her in action since the bandits had separated us, but the sound of lightning and screams was unmistakable. She set something of an example that I tried to follow, but every time I went for a killing blow on anything that wasn’t a dog an intense sense of trepidation would divert my blade, or I’d catch another glimpse of that fucking deer.

Why was it even following me? It hadn’t even been distinguishable until I put an arrow in its flank!

But I supposed this was fitting punishment for sending Avien in the wrong direction. All my life events had transpired to keep me the sheltered little girl that never did anything dangerous. Even my meeting with Bubbles on my birthday had saved the fucking deer’s life. Now that I’d put myself into a situation where event’s couldn’t conspire to keep my hands clean, All was instead choosing to blatantly stop me.

My foot landed on the broken piece of club that I cut in my opening move, almost sentencing me to defeat as it rolled and nearly sent me sprawling. Recovering was difficult, and I took a few hits on my legs as a consequence, but it was what I needed to adjust my tactics.

Don’t kill. Disarm and disable.

Slashing one man’s wrist made him drop the weapon he just used to hit my leg, where going for his throat had previously wasted my attack. Sliding my sword sideways across the back of a woman’s knee as she tried to kick me didn’t fill me with trepidation like doing the same across the stomach would. I even let her keep the bottom half of her leg in a flash of wicked mercy.

The man dropped his weapon and retreated while the woman fell to the ground. Three more bandits came to fill their spot. I sent as many weapons flying in the next five seconds.

“Alright, enough!”

The bandits all backed off at the call, though one wasn’t fast enough to save hit foot from one last vicious slash of mine. I was left standing there, panting and in pain, wondering what the hell just happened. Then I looked to where Jevi had been fighting and things started making sense.

The sight made my blood run icy under my skin.

Jevi clearly didn’t have the same divine compunctions against killing that I did, and it showed in the seven corpses the lay strewn about her, along with five of the no longer moving dogs. Jevi had been struck across the head and blood was running down her face from her hairline. She wasn’t moving, instead being propped up by Waar, who was the only one left standing around the black haired caster. The bald woman both looked crispier than I remembered, and had her axe to Jevi’s throat.

After a moment’s consideration, I shifted my ready stance so that my sword was pointed in her direction.

“That’s a good fighting spirit in ya.” Waar offered a compliment in something resembling warrior culture. “Good in this one too. Would be a shame if it got snuffed today.” Nevermind, she was shameless.

She wanted me to surrender. I wanted to throw my sword through her skull.

Unfortunately, that meant killing. Meaning I was immediately overtaken by an urge to throw up.

“Looks like you understand.” Waar mocked. “Let’s have a fair and honourable duel to sort this mess out, eh? You’re real good with that sword of yours.”

I swallowed my revulsion and opened my mouth to tell her to explain that thing I ‘understood’ real nice and slow so I could try thinking up a way out of this mess. That was the point a club hit me over the head and I fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The last thing I saw before my vision faded was Waar laughing. “A good duel!”

My fading thoughts were of ways to make her suffer.

\V/

My return to consciousness was gradual, then sudden. It was the typical routine of wondering just where exactly I’d fallen asleep, followed by a flash of the crisis I experienced, and then finished with an elegant reminder of the fact that my entire body was in pain. It honestly wasn’t that bad compared to resurrection fatigue in most places, but pain was still pain and I groaned in protest.

“Welcome back, fly in amber.”

I squinted to my side, seeing Jevi stripped of her cloak and valuables, but still in at least a modicum of dress. Her face was difficult to make out still, but the signs of discomfort were easy to make out.

“You’re all tied up, Jevi the Jeevi.” My mind wasn’t working properly. It just heard a greeting and tried to respond in kind.

“You what?” Jevi glanced sharply at me. “Actually, I don’t want to know. Why did we lose?”

I grimaced, and put off answering by having a look around.

We were caged, both in individual cages with only enough room for us to sit but not stand, and certainly not move. There were more than two cages as well, though we were in the only occupied ones. Upon a second inspection, that wasn’t entirely true. At the other end of the cages, two were occupied by the last surviving dogs. They’d chained us up in cages for dogs.

I, like Jevi, was clothed but didn’t have any of my valuables, except for the obvious exception. That was great, but my badge of the Vitorian Envoy wasn’t going to get me out of this mess. There were manacles binding my wrists behind me as well. We’d been moved off the road and further into the trees, or that’s what I assumed since I couldn’t make out anything that looked like the road where we’d been ambushed.

A short ways away were twelve men and women who were situated in various groups around a campfire and in between a number of tents. They appeared to be having a good time, with the sound of revelry reaching us easily, but still allowing us to talk without them hearing. It was surprising given that seven of them would’ve just died, another was having trouble moving half his fingers, and one of the women would never walk again.

Unless she got magic healing, but I suspected that wasn’t an option available to them.

But I’d been asked a question and was putting it off.

I let out a long sigh. “That was punishment.”

“Punishment?” Jevi asked, her voice high with disbelief. “That sounds to me like an excuse.”

“It’s what it was.” I said, resigned.

“No, I wasn’t in the best of places to see how you were doing, but you dragged your feet during that fight. With how fast your blade was moving, five of them should’ve been dead on the ground before I properly engaged Waar. Instead, you were being gentle. Sandbagging. Who the fuck sandbags when you’re being attacked by bandits?”

A loud clang from right behind me made me jump. “You weren’t fighting seriously?” Waar’s unmistakable voice grinned. “I can’t tell if that’s adorable or sad.”

I didn’t respond. She was searching for a rise out of me. She was much worse at that art than Mary was.

Jevi had no such compunctions. “I’ll tell you what it isn’t: adorable. This bitch is the most talented swordsman I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen quite the number. But the most deadly thing she’s ever killed is a dog!”

“From…” I trailed off, the sword throw I killed the second dog with replaying in my mind.

Waar slowly walked around the cages. Her head was above the top of the front facing gaps, so I could only make out her body up to her waist. “Now now, most folk from Breach wouldn’t be able to do even that. They are wardogs, bred and trained for killing. Straight out of Silvers Reach. Expensive.” She crouched and let us see her grinning face.

Or a silhouette of it, at least. The fire, and therefore the only source of light, was behind her.

“I’ve decided what I’m going to do with you.” She continued, then looked to Jevi. “You, I’m going to ransom back to whatever noble popped you out. Your attitude devalues you quite the amount, but your talent more than makes up for it.”

“By Kinli do I feel flattered.” Jevi retorted sarcastically.

“You,” Waar turned her head my way, “are a retainer, yes? Probably from some lesser house attached to miss vicious over there, tagging along as a longtime ‘friend’ and student. Lots of training. No experience. Can’t explain your abysmal performance otherwise. You’re going to the Crucible. You'll fight until the dogs you killed have been paid off, maybe a little more, and if you've apologised, I might even let it end there.”

“‘Kay.” I responded. No point giving her material to work with.

Waar’s grin widened, saying ‘I’ll enjoy breaking you’. “So long as you understand. It’s so nice to have prisoners that behave for once.” She made to stand, then stopped. Her movements were obviously intentional. “You won’t misbehave, will you? I do like backtalking, but too much of it…” She licked her lips loudly. “Tongues are a delicacy where I’m from.”

“Yeah, yeah. We get it, you’re giant kin. Fuck off back to the Kreon Mountains.” Jevi told her, unimpressed. “You aren’t taking my tongue or my value becomes nothing.”

“Never said I'd be taking your tongue, daahling. This has been a pleasure.” Waar stood and slammed the tops of our cages. “We’ll be getting to know each other real intimately ‘till any trades happen. Look forward to our discussions. It’s the only smart talk you’ll get ‘round here.”

Jevi waited for Waar to leave earshot before breaking the silence. “We need to do something, fly in amber. I don’t want to go home yet.”

I forced my eyes shut for a few moments to dislodge the ache in my head. “Why are you calling me that?”

“After that abysmal performance, what else could I possibly call you?” Jevi retorted. “You were standing there like a sheep and moving like dragon in slumber. Doesn’t matter what excuse you use.”

I sighed. “Do you remember the business I was telling you about before the ambush?”

“Which part?”

“My part.”

“So all of it.”

“Sure.” I let out another sigh. “I’m going against the will of All. Specifically the will of the Heavens. That means there’s going to be retribution every step of the way. With that in mind, what act did we do right before setting out onto this road?”

Jevi was silent as she thought about the implications. “What, so we sent your not-yet husband away and now you can’t kill?”

“Kill humans.” I corrected dispassionately. “The idea, to me, has about as much importance as killing anything else. Dogs, rats, so on. But the act has a different weight. I can’t do it. So yes.”

“Still sounds like an excuse.” Jevi muttered after a time. She let the silence linger for a time, then broke it with a softer tone. “I can get you out of the Crucible, you know. My family has enough pull for it. Slavery like that isn’t legal either.”

“Don’t bother.” I told her. “Death in a fighting pit is preferable to whatever will happen if Avien finds me. And he will in the time it takes for you to do whatever you’d need to for that. He’d probably have a dream telling him I’m in danger or something.”

Hells, he would probably be dreaming about this encounter tonight. That is, if he wasn’t asleep and dreaming about me already.

Jevi shifted in her cage. “It is sad, you know.”

I sent her a glance with an arched brow, not that she was facing me. The light was dim enough that I couldn’t make out most of her face, which meant I had spent a worryingly long time unconscious. Wrenn had always stressed that without magical healing, some injuries were deceptively debilitating, and the mysterious ‘concussion’ was one of them.

“Explain.” I demanded when she didn’t.

“Your story, I mean. Your whole damn deal.” Jevi glanced my way for a moment. “So much going on and you’re happy for it to end in a pit fighting some monster from halfway across Santoria. Or some guy who got caught picking pockets, or fucking another man’s wife. If it was me in your shoes, I’d be sleeping my way across Kreg’uune.”

I re-arched my eyebrow at that, not entirely familiar with what ‘sleeping across Kreg’uune’ entailed. Best I could guess, it involved some kind of sleepwalking enchantment.

“Well… whatever that means,” I cleared my throat and shifted, not that I could move my hands from behind me. The manacles almost pinching my skin as they caught on the chain looped around a bar of the cage. An idea struck me, and I nearly lowered my voice before remembering that whispers were more often listened to than normal conversation. They carried farther, too.

“It’s not going to come to that.” I realised, speaking at a somewhat reduced volume.

Jevi waited for me to continue, but I didn’t. I was too busy focusing until she broke my concentration. “Why not?”

“Because I just realised something.” It was actually funny, and a grin was sneaking its way unbidden across my face.

“And? Don’t mind me waiting, fly in amber. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

“Does the term ‘rezan’ mean anything to you?” I asked.

Jevi thought for a moment. “Probably means the same as ‘pseudo-transitional barriers’ means to you.” I frowned. I hadn’t realised Jevi had been taught anything about spellcrafting original magics. Normally that was only taught to exceedingly special cases, of which I was one. “Meaning not a damn thing, fly in amber.” Jevi finished.

“Ah.” I let my errant thoughts scatter to the wind. She didn’t know that I likely knew more about her practice than she did. “Then the fact that I’ve been tied up with metal manacles isn’t as funny to you as it is to me.”

Jevi clearly rolled her eyes going by how the silhouette of her head moved. “Wouldn’t you know it? You’re absolutely right.”

“Don’t you worry. This fly in amber is going to save the day. I need to focus for a bit.”

“What for?”

I grinned as I started manipulating my weapon magic. “You’ll see.”

\V/