Her fist smacked into her target, a swift succession of strikes knocking them backwards into a wall and opening them up to a finishing strike, her elbow smashing against their head, knocking them out. They slumped downwards, eyes glazed. Around her were the sounds of street violence, shouts of anger and hate, wet sounds of impact on meat. Something brushed her shoulder and she whirled, ready to fight again, feeling a weapon in her hand.

Neitha flinched away, hands raised to shield herself. Semari looked around, to see the aftermath of her rage. Her memories were a crimson blur of violence and destruction. Right now, it looked as though they were in a shop. Well, the remnants of a shop, with bales of cloth being looted by opportunistic scavengers. Semari wiped her forehead, grimy with sweat and blood. Although she didn’t feel particularly injured, so it was probably someone else’s, which was good. The weapon flopped in her hands, as Neitha looked at her in disgust. It was a wooden arm, soggy at the shoulder, although whether she’d torn it off someone or just found it somewhere she couldn’t remember.

‘Ewww. Um, what the hell happened?’ Around them, the sounds of violence continued, the place getting ripped to pieces.

‘I may have misjudged the dosage. Or you’re hiding a lot of anger.’ Neitha ducked as something flew over them and smashed against the wall, shattering into pieces. ‘I didn’t think it would get this bad!’

Semari shook her head, trying to shake herself out of the remnants of rage. To judge by the bruises and scrapes on her arms, she’d been fighting pretty hard. ‘Hey, mission accomplished, right? Uh, where the hell are we though? This shop looks fancy. Well, looks like it used to be fancy. Hey, there’s some nice silk there, want to grab it?’ Semari shoved away a rioter and picked up a folded square of the material, thrusting it into Neitha’s hands. ‘Be something fancy for you, make a dress or something.’

Neitha flinched again as something was smashed and shattered, out of sight. ‘Look, we need to get out of here! We’ve done what we needed to, now let’s go.’

‘Sure, but where are we? Somewhere in the nice bit of the city I guess? What about the guard?’ Semari flapped the severed arm around, scaring off another scavenger.

‘The bells have been ringing for a while, I’m pretty sure they’re calling out the militia! And do you have to keep waving that thing around?’ With her spare hand, Neitha gestured at the arm.

Semari gave it a practice swing. ‘Hey, it’s got pretty good balance. And there’s good work on the decorations, these flowers look like they took a lot of time to do. Lots of nice detailing.’

‘Yeah, but you ripped it off someone before screaming “stop hitting yourself” and hitting them with it until they fell over. He was trying to kill you, but are you sure you’re not a berserker or possessed or something?’

Semari jabbed the arm ah Neitha, enjoying making her flinch and shudder. ‘Hey, you’re the one handing out scary-ass demon-herbs.’

‘You grabbed it off me and ate it neat! I’m surprised you’re still alive, I’ve heard it can make your heart explode. Although then you chugged several healing potions. I’ve not got any left, by the way. Anyway, can we please get out of here, now?’

Semari shrugged. ‘Hey, nothing’s stopping you leaving.’

‘There’s a damned riot going on, and I’m not going through that on my own!’

‘Coward. Fine. I’m pretty knackered, to be honest. So, uh, how many people are dosed up on your creepy-ass devil-weed?’

‘Maybe a few hundred? We knocked over a tavern and I dosed up the barrels. I would have gotten more, if you hadn’t grabbed the rest yourself. That’s when everything started getting crazy!’

Now the drug was wearing off, Semari was becoming more aware of her surroundings – there was a lot more screaming than normal, and the nearby hissing crack of fire, with the mad clanging of bells beneath it all. She slung the wooden arm over a shoulder, keeping one hand on the wrist. It had a decent length and heft to it, for an improvised weapon, and the decoration was nice, like a tattoo, but more detailed, and with more colours. ‘So, I guess I’m in charge?’

‘It’s a riot, no-one’s in charge. Although you have been attacking anyone that gets too close.’

Semari glared at a rioter and raised the arm, and they obediently backed away. Neitha was being a wuss, but she always was a bit crap when it came to actual fighting, rather than plotting and poisoning. That wrathweed stuff was a helluva trip; her clothing was soaked and slicked with sweat, muscles aching and sore, her mind numb and tired. Didn’t look like they’d be any chance to rest for a while though.

She went outside, Neitha sticking closely behind, still clutching the silk. Stuff had definitely cascaded, and now there was a full-on riot! And stuff was on fire, because it wouldn’t be a proper riot otherwise. Bells and cries rang through the air, along with the sounds of violence. It was pretty much impossible to tell who was a rioter and who was protecting their own stuff, and who was just taking the chance for a bit of violence and looting. Semari looked around, trying to work out where they were – she could see the castle ahead of them, so they were definitely in the posh bit, but short of climbing over the edge, she had no idea how to get back out and into the rougher part of the city.

Somewhere nearby, the sounds of fighting changed, from the meaty thuds of impromptu weapons and general thuggery, to the sharp cries of mortal pain and then ring and clang of metal. Through the smoke, Semari saw the shine of steel, as a group of soldiers ran into sight. These weren’t just some guards hired by the fancy, these were actual soldiers, fighting with training and purpose, easily cutting through the mob. And not being any too gentle about it either, blades in hand, bodies left in their wake.

With the place in chaos, there wasn’t really anywhere to quickly hide, without ducking back into the building and getting stuck in there. Time to try and look inconspicuous, at least as much as possible when wearing blood-splattered clothing in the middle of riot.

One of the soldiers, probably a captain or something, if the fancy plume in his hat was any sign, pointed at them, and not in a friendly way. ‘Shit. Neitha, time to run!’ She grabbed Neitha’s hand (far too smooth, showing she wasn’t doing any real work) and yanked her. ‘I’m not carrying you, come on!’

They started to run, shouts coming from behind them as they moved. The other rioters were slow to move, making it far too hard to get any speed up, especially with Neitha slowing her down.

They’d barely gotten any distance down the street when another group of soldiers bundled around the corners, weapons at the ready. A shout came from behind Semari, ‘Stop her!’

A guard charged at Semari, sword swinging at her in a killing blow. She easily dodged, and countered, but the shield got in the way, the wooden hand bouncing off. And he was wearing armour! That was just cheating, how the hell could she deal with that? This one was annoyingly cautious, protecting himself with the shield, launching careful pokes and strikes without exposing himself. Neitha was as useless as always, obviously torn between staying close to Semari, and fleeing.

The soldier stabbed in too hard, and Semari bought the arm down, cracking him across the back of the (luckily unarmoured) hand, making him drop his weapon. She kicked it aside, out of reach. That made him less of a threat, but then his allies made it to him, a line of shields blocking her view. Several strikes of the arm did nothing, the wood bouncing off the shields.

She withdraw, swishing her weapon to try and ward them back. ‘You got any potions or anything? Like, something that might go “kaboom”? Or at least a damn weapon other than that pissy little dagger? Or, like, flirt at them or something?’

Neitha looked at her, like she was seriously considering handing Semari over. ‘No! Just deal with them!’

One let their shield drop, and Semari smacked them on the head, which was unfortunately beneath a helmet. ‘They’ve got armour and stuff, that’s, like, my weakness! Can you do something useful for once?’

Neitha reached into a pocket and pulled out a balled-up wad of something green. Semari snatched it and ate it, ignoring the pain as heat exploded in her mouth, fire burning down her throat. ‘Gods, what the hell is that?’ Whatever it was, it made her feel strong and powerful, as she stepped forward, pulling a shield out of the way and smashing a guard in the face, feeling a satisfying sensation as she broke his face. Although that goddam armour made them hard to hurt, a punch doing nothing more than making the chain clink and hurting her fist.

Then something struck her from behind, smashing her off balance. She managed to spin and keep her balance, as the captain and his goons caught up. Semari attacked, managing to drive everyone back for a moment, feeling her heart race. As long as she could get past their damn shields, then she might be able to do something, but with this many people, it wasn’t a good fight. Another based at her with a shield, the impact hard to properly block.

‘Come on, fight fair!’ That only earnt her another shield-bash, the space around her shrinking as they closed in.

‘Captain, this matches the descriptions we’ve heard.’

Plume nodded. ‘Take her alive. There’s need for people like her.’

Neitha didn’t even bother with a token attempt at fighting, holding her hands in the air and pre-emptively surrendering. ‘Help, she dragged me out here! I don’t even know her!’

Her protests of innocence were ignored, one of the soldiers swatting at her, although he used the flat of his sword, clearly going easy on the pretty one. Totally unfair, although it did give Semari the chance to leap aside and smack him in the chest. Didn’t do much, but if they were going to try and stab her, they should try and stab Neitha as well!

Against their numbers, and their bastard shields, it was hard for Semari to get any strikes in, and Neitha was no damn help, although was better at dodging than expected. Even with the drug raging through her, she couldn’t break through their defences, getting bashed and smacked every time she tried. Something smashed into the back of her head, although there was a satisfyingly solid sensation when she kicked back behind herself. Neitha looked to be too busy surrendering to help, looking as non-aggressive as possible, even dropping her knife. Semari was grabbed from behind, arms around her waist, pinning her own arms in place.

She swore and wriggled around as much as she could, legs kicking, unable to do much against that bastard armour. The world suddenly went dark as a sack was throw over her, dark and bad smelling. Before she could get it off, rope wrapped around her and the sack was lifted, yanking her off the ground. As much as she twisted, all she managed was to get herself more trapped, hauled off the ground, the material absorbing what few strikes she could make. She yelled cursewords, trying to break free as more rope was wound about her, until she could barely breath, never mind move.