Rana trekked through a trail of dead bodies, a path filled with pungent sweetness and of life being wasted. They were all slaughtered without mercy, each blade struck without a second thought. The raiders were strewn across and under the captives whom they fought, and neither of their wounds were clean. It was a brutal struggle, one full of vengeance, one fought for survival, and one that left no one standing.

Like always, it were the weak and innocent that paid the greatest price. They were the children that could not protect themselves, and their mothers who failed to do so. It was the reality of her mission and the reason she had to complete it. She could not let their sacrifices be in vain or allow even more innocent to suffer. If she failed, then what was the point? If she failed, then everything beforehand would be worthless. That was something she would not allow.

She continued forward until she smelled it. It was faint but there was a survivor. It was a familiar scent of youth bathed in regret and sadness. It did not take long before she heard the faint sobs of someone who lost everything.

Jessica knelt on the ground beside a dead marked one, no doubt their identity was that of the raider captain’s marked one advisor. It was a brutal battle and it was a hard-fought victory. The ground was singed with mana and soaked in blood. The rags on her body were darkened by the dirt and the blood of her and her enemy. She held onto her dagger, the blade was chipped and the tip edged into her fallen foe’s heart.

Rana approached the girl and sat by her side in silence. She was not expected to survive, but against all odds, she made it out of the ordeal alive. However, how much of the person known as Jessica survived and not irreversibly change by the events of this night has yet to be seen.

“I failed,” Jessica eventually said. It was a whimper of self-condemnation. There was no anger nor was there sadness. There was only regret and despair. It was an admission of her own weakness. “Did you know this was going to happen, that I would fail to protect them and let them all die? Tell me that you used me for your own goals.”

“It was the more likely outcome,” Rana said after a moment of silence. There was no condemnation in what Jessica said. The girl simply wanted an excuse for the reality before her. She wanted to believe that the deaths of those she swore to protect were the outcome of some sinister scheme and not her own weakness. “The moment you decided to save everyone was the moment you doomed the rescue to failure. It was an option that was not available to us with the strength we possessed. It was an outcome that required everything to be right and nothing to go wrong while having the opposite to happen for our foes. That could only happen if the divine intervened. Unfortunately, the truth is that it will not happen, and it is nothing but the lies of dreamers.”

“Is it wrong to be weak? Is it wrong to want to save others? I did not accept the mark because I want an easy life. I accepted it because I wanted to do good, to protected those that needed it,” Jessica said. Her voice increased with each sentence, and she eventually yelled out her frustration. It was not directed at anyone. She just wanted to scream at the night. “Are you saying I shouldn’t have done what I did? I should’ve just left them to die just because I couldn’t do it. Should I not even try? We were so close! We could’ve made it out! If only you were here!”

“It is not a sin to be weak,” Rana said after she allowed Jessica to vent all of her frustration. “Humans are weak creatures, and through a miracle, we gained the power of a mark. There is nothing wrong with wanting to protect the innocent. It is our duty. It is, however, a sin to now know of our own weakness, to think we can reach the stars. We cannot. Humans are weak. If we reach for heights beyond our limits, we fall. If you have decided to sacrifice some of the captives, are only looked to save some of them, we might have succeeded. However, you decided to save everyone. To save everyone we had to fight, and if we fought, then the weak would not survive.”

“So it was my fault then. I should’ve just died with the rest of them.”

“No. There is no answer found in death. What mattered is you survived and they didn’t, that is all there is to it.”

“Then what would you have me do?” Jessica asked. Her eyes were watery and desperate. She was truly lost and didn’t know what to do. In a sense, it was a blessing in disguise. She did not know where to go, but she was not pushed into the abyss. The girl could still rise again.

“Do not let their sacrifices be in vain,” Rana said. She wondered who the statement was for, but she did not want to know the answer. “The lives lost today is the reality we must face. The past could not be returned to and their lives are not something we could get back. The only thing we can do is move forward, to ensure that the tragedy tonight will not happen, that their lives were not lost without meaning.”

“Is that your excuse for allowing atrocities to happen? Would it make you sleep better if you lie to yourself that it was inevitable, that their lives are lost for the greater good?”

“I wish I could sleep,” Rana said after a small chuckle. “That is my answer to those questions. I move forward and ensure their deaths are not in vain. That is all.”

“I don’t see it, but it is all I have,” Jessica said after a long moment of silence. The girl stood up and clutched her dagger, to feel the dried blood on the rough handle, and chucked it away. “The raider captain is named Keith and his guard is Vela. They managed to catch up with us while we were escaping. I stood my ground but I was unable to stop their advance. Vela was too strong. She easily overpowered me and left me to die to one of the other marked ones. I was left alone at the mercy of that marked one while she and her captain hunted down the rest. The light you started distracted the enemy when he was about to finish me off. I managed to kill him.”

Rana did not respond. She knew what Jessica wanted to do and she was glad when the girl turned away from her. She did not want to see the change that happened to those clear eyes.

“I don’t know if there are any survivors,” Jessica said. She clutched her waist with an arm and winced at the pain before continuing. “I will save them if there are. If not. I will hunt Keith and Vela down.”

“Here,” Rana said. Jessica turned around and Rana threw her a pouch. The girl was startled and whatever darkness in her eyes was quickly replaced with a returning brightness. Rana then stood up and motioned her to follow. “If that is what you want to do, allow me to offer some parting gift. It is the least I can do.”

“Thank you,” Jessica said. Rana wondered why the gratefulness of the girl never sounded forced. It were always genuine, and that was why it stung even more to hear it. “Sorry for yelling at you. I know you were the one who saved my life.”

Rana simply nodded and turned around and began to walk towards the lifeless chapel. There was only one thing she needed from it, and if she could aid Jessica in delivering judgment to those responsible for the slaughter, she would do so.

However, the girl was on her own afterwards. Rana had her own mission.

If those cowering in the darkness refused to move, this would make them expose themselves. This night was a deceleration, a signal that would light the fire that told those slinking in the darkness that she was coming. Whatever move they made, whatever schemes they had planned, she would find and crush them all.