Fan stepped forward, moving into the field of bodies before either the stunned, or the willing, among the soldiers could react, and turned, facing the crowd, focused on their leader. "No, Sevareh. I must protest - these are children. These are our children. We cannot put them to the spear, however cleanly." The young djinn stood, voice calm and clear, eyes fixed on the wrinkled face of Sevareh, unflinching.

Setareh studied Fan. "We cannot know what geis compels them, nor can we remove the geis. Those who had the power to do so now lay dead, and I would not have trusted them to do so in any case. Step aside, soldier."

Fan's head shook, looking around at the other soldiers, never looking to the building behind, from which small red djinni faces peered out at the fragment of the army that had come to avenge them. "I cannot, Setareh. My duty compels me to protect."

Soha took a moment to process that, and almost stepped forward, when Setareh responded. "That is well and good, soldier. We are all here to protect our fellow djinn. However, what are we protecting them from? These are no longer our children, they have been enslaved and warped by the peri. They are now a part of the threat we must protect our fellows from. It is every djinn's duty to die fighting before being captured by the peri, as every prisoner they take becomes a soldier arrayed against us."

"Even children?" Fan's arm moved backwards to gesture at the building with the spear, gaze never leaving Setareh's face. "You expect children to die in battle?"

"Yes, I do." Setareh was unmoved. "But ... perhaps if you should volunteer to guard them their entire lives? How many would join you in that endeavor, soldier?" Setareh's head turned, sweeping the crowd of armed djinn. "Step forward if you would volunteer, if you think this djinn is correct, and that we should preserve those who have been turned against us."

Sidou shifted at Soha's side, but didn't move - four djinn did step forward, moving to stand next to Fan. After a moment, three more joined. Fan's eyes finally broke from Setareh, to look over the seven who had joined, and the building behind them.

Setareh looked over the eight, and turned to the loop-bound from Central. "Eight. Not quite enough. Erzeman, if you would." The tall djinn in white nodded, and Soha had taken a step without realizing it, when the loop-bound's spear swept through the air - and twenty paces away, eight heads fell from shoulders.

Voices raised behind Soha, strangled cries, Sidou's among them - Soha just ... stood there, staring at Fan's head, as eight bodies slumped slowly to the ground. Fan's expression remained defiant, even in death.

"Anyone else object?" There was a pause. "Very w-" Setareh's voice cut off as three more djinn walked to stand where the bodies lay. Sidou was one of them, glaring at Setareh. It was another of the djinn who spoke, however, a tall djinn in green and yellow, with two gracefully curled horns.

"That was inexcusable, Setareh." The djinn's voice rose. "Join us. This one is undeserving of the name." Another djinn immediately joined the three. Soha was only vaguely aware of the small group that grew, eyes moving from Fan's unmoving face and body, to Sidou, who wore an expression of rage and disbelief.

"Still not enough. Erzeman." Soha's attention focused on Sidou, now, then to Erzeman; Soha wound up to run at the djinn, to disrupt the attack, when hands closed on both shoulders; Soha's feet nearly went out backwards. Erzeman moved. More djinn fell.

It repeated again, only two djinn moving forward this time. And then Setareh spoke for a few minutes, and a group of djinn moved towards the house, spears in hand. Soha's attention didn't move from the bodies of Sidou and Fan, but the voice from behind, one of those who had held Soha back from rushing Erzeman, rang out, recognizable.

"They died pursuing their duties." Harabi's voice, stiff. "Let none speak of this event otherwise. They died doing what they believed duty demanded, that is all." The silence then slowly broke into murmurs, the hands releasing Soha, who, unsupported now, fell to both knees. Cries and shouts, cut short, came from the building housing the children. Djinn came out, dragging red bodies with them.

Soha's mind reeled, trying to understand the - that had happened so quickly. What ... Fan was right. But ... Setareh was right. Why had Sidou ... what? They were ... but they ... Soha's thoughts were fragmented, shattered, a disintegrated mess of shards that didn't connect clearly to anything. What had just happened?

The bodies - all the bodies - were placed into one of the buildings, which was set alight. Soldiers gathered to observe the pyre. Soha watched, mind feeling ... empty, like all the fragments of thought, rather than coming back together, had just evaporated into nothing.

The other buildings were torched, and the army moved on to the next peri outpost - village - in their meandering path along the border. Soha didn't pay attention to the instructions, just walked along with Harabi and Hvare. Nights were spent standing, staring up at the sky.

Trying to make sense of Fan and Sidou's deaths. More soldiers had died protesting the killing of the djinn children than had died in the fighting. Nobody protested at the next village, nor the next. As Harabi had said, as they prepared for the battle for the first village, there were no prisoners taken. Nor were any rescued. This wasn't a rescue operation.

Soha understood Fan's reasoning, understood the duty Fan felt compelled to fulfill and defend. Fan hadn't wanted the war, unlike Sidou; their roles had reversed when it had come, Sidou becoming talkative, and Fan withdrawn - perhaps Fan knew what would happen when the first village was taken, perhaps not.

Soha also understood Setareh's reasoning. Harabi had warned the loop-bound; had the soldiers not been warned, as well? But Soha didn't understand why Setareh had ordered the djinn who had protested killed. What duty did that fulfill? What was the purpose in their deaths?

Why had Soha's companions died? Soha killed peri. Killed djinn prisoners. Not with the spear, not with the fire - Soha just found their minds and stilled them, the suddenly empty bodies just falling over, not bothering to take anything. Hvare uttered a curse the first few times Soha performed the simple feat. The other loop-bound started avoiding walking near Soha.

Soha practiced killing in this simple and bloodless manner, mind empty. Ten was easy. Twenty took some effort, at first. Then forty, which took concentration; it wasn't a challenge, exactly, it just wasn't easy to do.

The loop-bound started sending Soha in to kill the children they found, both peri and djinn; Harabi said something about the death being clean and painless, a mercy. Soha didn't say anything, but suspected that the others just hated the chore. Soha didn't; felt nothing, instead, just thinking of Fan standing to protect those that Soha now put to rest. The task was easier if Soha didn't bring weapons; the children weren't frightened, that way, and would come up to Soha, begging food and water. They died like Fan, not seeing their deaths coming.

Soha did find a spark of anger with Sidou, who stepped to the bodies knowing what would happen. Sidou had abandoned Soha to this war. But it was a muted anger, water brought not even to a boil; there just wasn't enough in Soha to care.

Soha couldn't count anymore, except with the neat rows and columns of the soldiers; the math there was simple. Sixty. Eighty. Soha now walked in front of even the loop-bound when armed peri met them, large groups collapsing before they even knew the battle had started. A hundred. On their eleventh village, the entire armed group died with a single concerted effort. None of the djinn would approach Soha now, loop-bound or not. There were whispers - Soha didn't listen to them.

The other djinn did most of the killing, even so. Only with the ranks of soldiers, and the prisoners, were there enough bodies for Soha to practice. Otherwise Soha just watched as the soldiers and loop-bound moved through the villages, killing the scattered and scattering peri villagers, raiding their supplies to feed their punitive expedition.

By the fifteenth village, they were deep enough in peri territory that they stopped finding the fragments of Southreach. There were still prisoners, but they were older. Soha saw a div for the first time in the eighteenth village; they weren't horned, as the legends saw. Tall and thin - all the prisoners were thin, but this one seemed thin by nature - with pale skin somewhere between pink and white, and pointed ears. A black substance flowing from the scalp - hair - long and tangled. The div said nothing, watching quietly, and dying like the others.

Was Soha more? Was this what it was to be more? It didn't feel like much of anything. The absence of the two companions felt like being less. The talent that had birthed Soha's awakening into true awareness felt like nothing at all. Soha had stopped counting.

"They won't attack until they have superior numbers, and are assured of their victory. We can get Chefeld now, before their army can assemble and meet us." Setareh was standing over a map, laid out on a field table. Soha stood in the back of the assembly, staying close to Harabi, and otherwise uninterested.

"That's exactly where I'd be positioning troops, surrounding the area, to attack as we move toward the gates." Harabi stood across from Setareh, gesturing with one hand at the map between them. "We'll be walking into an attack from all sides."

"Yes, which is why that's exactly where they won't be." Setareh was frustrated, the usual near-shout that the elderly djinn spoke at tinged with tones that were nearly a growl. "Expect them to understand enough strategy to prepare for what we are going to do, rather than what the obvious thing to do would be. We do the obvious thing precisely because it is obvious, because that is what they won't be expecting."

"It's what you've done in the last two expeditions, and they were prepared for you the last time. You're lucky Arhaes had prepared the retreat before you went in." Harabi's expression and tone were neutral and polite, but firm. "We continue raiding villages, two or three more at most, and then we go home. We've gotten vengeance, it is foolhardy to continue here."

"We have the supplies. And that I got trounced the last time is exactly what I am depending upon to make them think I won't try it again. I'm no fool, Harabi. This is the plan. Prepare for it."

Soha followed Harabi as the loop-bound left the table, expression still, but mind exploding with vibrations. Soha just observed them - Soha had spent a lot of time observing minds, lately, as it was necessary for stilling them, and had gotten pretty good at it. Harabi was displeased; were it anyone else, the djinn would be jumping down and screaming. Maybe stabbing whoever was nearby. Harabi, however, just walked calmly and elegantly, expression pensive.

At length, when only Hvare and Soha were in listening distance, Harabi spoke. "We're walking into an ambush. This is what got Arhaes - my teacher - killed. This will get a lot of us killed. Prepare as well as you can to get out of the mess. Soha, I'm positioning you in the front. All the other loop-bound are going to be guarding our flanks. Retreat if the fighting gets close, they'll have loop-bound here, and we don't know how well your ... talent works on them."

Soha didn't respond. Apparently taking that as assent, Harabi looked to Hvare. "I'm putting you in charge of getting as many of the regulars out as possible. Mehr is at your disposal. I'll prepare to have the loop-bound carve and hold a path to get out, and guard the retreat. We travel light when we retreat - and this is to be a retreat, not a rout."

"Yes, Harabi." Hvare's voice was subdued. They both knew what was coming. Soha suspected Harabi was right. It didn't matter much.