The air was heavy with mist as the first crimson rays of dawn graced the heavens. Some thirty exhausted Squries and Aspirants gazed at each other with expressions of relief and odd elation, counterpoint to the horror of bodies strewn about the path and compound, glassy eyes still accusing, silent screams from savage gashes, throats torn out by poleaxe and saber both.

And not a single Velheim soldier had they allowed to live, no matter how they screamed and begged, desperately clawing at the earth, mewling like lost little children.

The memory of it all filled Jess with a bleakness so terrible she wanted to sink to the ground and never move again. It was when those bleak moments hit that Jess put all her focus upon the single righteous act they had embraced, somehow making up for the dark horror they had reveled in, save at the very end.

Behind their warhorses trailed an odd assortment of ponies, mules and the docile mares they had found at the fort, all serving as mounts for some twenty odd girls, gazing at the world through eyes as haunted as any Jess had ever seen, and not a one of them older than Jess was herself.

Though only a few bore the savage scars of rape and abuse, that some did was enough to reignite Jess's fury, burning away the awful ghosts in her mind's eye; father and son pinning her with their desperate gazes as they died by her hands.

Bitter accusations for the sweetness that could have been.

Jess squeezed shut tears that threatened to overwhelm her, doing her best to focus not at all on Malek's gentle pat of her armored shoulder even as he rode beside her, or the way her beloved Twilight butted his cheek against her own, understanding, somehow, that words could do nothing to ease the furious storm of pride, triumph, horror, and regret flooding through her.

Gazing down at dismembered corpses.

Knowing it was her frenzied blows, channeling a wrath so potent it was as if she had been but an extension of the wounded forest all around her, that had laid them low.

Knowing that she was a monster to have butchered so freely, feeling such fierce pride at her friends' quiet smiles, nods of respect, even as they kept their focus only on the path ahead or upon each other, shivering every time they caught sight of their own handiwork.

Jess stopped then and looked back at the massive fortress of ancient hardwood, hearing the odd creak, even now.

A colossal structure that in another time and place might last decades, perhaps even centuries, Jess had no doubt would soon be a massive vine covered mound of wood and mulch, and that fresh shoots chestnut, acorn, and ancient hardwood breeds for which there were no modern names would soon take root and flourish in the rich soil, fed as well by the remains of those who had dared to break ancient covenant, and the forest would be stronger for their blood.

A bleak final smile and Jess turned around, her calm mare responding effortlessly to her touch as she led her band of brothers and sisters free of primeval woodland and a night of savagery that had seemed without end.

The journey back to Highrock was otherwise uneventful, hours of forests, fields, and the occasional town serving to wash away the sharpest edges of desperate battles, such that the night before seemed almost like a dream.

Almost.

For the wide-eyed stares their train gathered from farmers and traders passing by on the road, Jess knew something about them had changed. Not the pleased smiles of freemen happy to see young lords embracing their pleasures, but the gaze of men and women terrified that blooded soldiers were so far gone that perhaps they no longer differentiated between peasant and pillager. Or simply no longer cared.

Jess looked down and grimaced. For all that they had put on fresh white tabards to greet the sun, for all that it pulled the eyes away from their otherwise blackened attire, only a fool would doubt that they had seen hard action, and recently. Jess took a closer look at her friend's grim countenances. For all that Malek, Neal, and Lucas gazed back at her with hard smiles of approval, even Jess could tell something about them had changed. Boys as much as men still, they gazed back at her with the eyes of those who knew what it meant to kill without mercy or quarter.

Jess swallowed, wondering if she looked the same. Wondering what her mother would think, if she realized that far from simple sparring class in between lessons in etiquette, dance, cooking, and household management, her daughter was already the veteran of a blitzkrieg strike, scores of bodies fallen to her blows and the wood she commanded, herself but the willing conduit of an ancient grove that had demanded the steepest of prices for the gravest of sins.

Jess turned to gaze at Eloquin, intently scanning the pile of papers seized from the keep, a discretely tied Cornelius seeming utterly at ease, having the knack of carrying himself like a lord conversing with his captain, and not a bound prisoner at all. His tone was deferential, explaining in hushed tones the relevance of all the correspondence Eloquin scanned at their sedate pace, Neal expertly leading Eloquin's mare, along with his own.

“Eyes ahead, Calenbry,” her mentor admonished, giving no other clue that he sensed her distraction. Jess swallowed and nodded even as she caught Cornelius's wink, and felt a slow flush creeping up her cheeks, doing her very best to put all memories of the man's fierce embrace firmly out of mind.

“Do you know what's going to happen to the girls?” Malek's curious voice asked sometime later.

Jess frowned. “I imagine Eloquin with gather all their stories when there is time. Those who come from loving families will be returned.” Jess swallowed, fighting back a grimace. “But we all know half their families will reject them, blaming them, somehow, with the taint of their own abuse. Never mind that they were the victims, and the slavers dead by our blades.”

“Easy, sister,” Rowan soothed. “Those for whom home is not the safe haven it once was will find a new home here at Highrock. You know how grand a structure it is we live in, and we can always use fresh help in its upkeep and care.”

Jess sighed and nodded, gazing even now at the magnificent structure of the giant central keep, so expertly joined to the very face of the mountain that garnered the school its name that Jess sometimes wondered if ancient peoples or magics had carved the grand structure out of the bedrock itself, for more than a few of the corridors and chambers burrowed into the mountain directly.

Either way, it was a beautiful sight, the fields before their magnificent home alive with the scents of wildflowers in full bloom, a brilliant rainbow of colors dotting the verdant fields before the keep, almost as if spring itself welcomed them home.