Etoile sobbed until she was dry while Rusk leaned over himself and Felix hobbled nearer to Loretta, who still had Mayor Rose squished into the stonework under her knee.

Rusk couldn’t bring himself to say he was sorry because he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. Emotions aside, his back felt like fire. Constant burning that threatened to make him vomit all over again. Lucky there was nothing more to exude from his stomach. Plus he didn’t know if he had the energy to heave.

“We have to get out of here,” said Felix.

“What do we do with my father?”

“Leave him to rot,” said Rusk.

Etoile stared down at her mother blankly. No saving a corpse. She knew it. Rusk saw the exact moment she knew it and it broke his heart.

“We should go,” said Rusk, and his voice came out far smaller than he intended. “None of us can stay here now.”

“And whose fault is that?” said Etoile. She sounded empty, numb.

“All of ours, but mostly mine. Look.” Rusk pulled himself together because no one else was making any efforts to move forward. “This is a shit situation and I’m sorry, but It’ll be even shittier for all of us if we’re discovered. We gotta go. We gotta. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He thought he might puke again but swallowed the bile.

“He’s right,” said Loretta. “And I’ve decided what to do with my father. We chain him up. In his favorite spot. Either he’ll bleed out or someone will find him and take mercy, but after all he’s put Felix through I’m fresh out.”

Mayor Rose groaned. It sounded pained on multiple levels. Rusk didn’t care. He couldn’t, and there were no obligations to anymore.

So as a collective effort they lugged Mayor Rose’s fat ass to the place Rusk found Felix, and did a fine job of tightening the restraints. Mayor Rose begged and begged, and eventually Etoile spit in his face. She watched the blood from where the Elva Arrow had hit his gut flow for a time, and then shuffled back to her mother’s body.

“I thought monsters disappeared into smoke once they were vanquished,” said Etoile.

“I’ve never heard that.” Rusk cautiously approached and knelt by her side. He knew better than to offer physical comfort. “But the way the Elva works I can certainly try.”

“Try what?” There was an unprecedented guardedness in Felix’s tone.

Instead of explaining, Rusk took a deep breath and willed the Elva to hear him. Willed it to listen, grant his request. He told it in the language of nature he was offering this felled monster for consumption. He told it to swallow Etoile’s mother into shadow.

And at his will it did.

“Like Greil,” said Loretta.

“I don’t know,” said Rusk truthfully. “First time. But we gotta go. We all gotta go.”

They leaned on each other and exited up the stonework stairwell, leaving the moaning Mayor Rose strung up. Not one single servant stopped their ascent, nor did anyone make a fuss as they treated their wounds in Mayor Rose’s personal bath, and afterwards when Rusk took one final snoop of the manor, no one complained when he blatantly stole some supplies and an extra map for the road. Guards and servants alike made their rounds and all turned a willful blind eye. For this they were all thankful, but none so much as Loretta.

It seemed her father’s employees had always been on her side the entire time. She wished she’d known that sooner. But maybe they were falling in line because with him gone she was the rightful successor.

“I’m headed toward Sanctuary,” said Rusk. “As in the island with the Heroes. Who’s joining?”

“I’ll go as far as Porttegat,” said Felix. Porttegat was the best launching point to cross the water for Sanctuary, according to the map Rusk had stolen from Mayor Rose while he was snooping around. “But I’ll defect from there. I’d be terrible out on the water.”

“I’m sticking with Felix,” said Loretta, and not surprisingly, at least as far as Rusk was concerned.

Rusk nodded.

All eyes turned to Etoile.

She shrugged.

“You’re welcome for as long as you like,” offered Rusk gently. Under any other circumstance he might’ve lectured about heroic dangers and advocated she not come, but with things as they were that point was profoundly moot. Besides, he wouldn’t feel right giving her the brush off after all that had happened. Whatever she chose, it would have to be her decision and her decision alone. “Or you’re also welcome to clobber me. Either way.”

Etoile gave a tiny, tiny, tiny half of a smile. It was very forced but it was nonetheless there.

“All right.” Rusk rolled up the map and did a final inventory of all the supplies he’d gathered from Mayor Rose’s manor. The stolen stuff was nicer than he was used to, barring anything Mandy had made for him over the years. That stuff lasted forever. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Much like Mayor Rose’s manor, the rest of town ignored them as they left. Rusk and his little party passed through the town square all ragged and grim, and in the blaring midafternoon sun all the denizens of the town scurried out of their path. It was a polite parting, if tinged by fear.