Horatio sprinted over to the collapsed man in the darkness.

The man lay face-down on the grass. Horatio kicked him over onto his front, not really caring if he hurt the man any more, though he was aware of Ceres’s presence behind him, who would not want him to cause any unnecessary pain.

The man moaned feebly; a thin, defeated sound. The grey cloak that covered the lower part of his face had become wet and slick with blotches of blood.

‘Let me ask you again,’ growled Horatio, leaning in close to the man’s face, anger at the unprovoked attack surging through his veins. ‘Who. The Hell. Are. You?’

He could just about make out the man’s pupils lift to look at him from underneath his tangled mess of fringe in the moonlight. They focused on Horatio for a moment.

The man managed to reach up with one hand and pull the hem of the cloak down from covering his mouth, then spat in Horatio’s face.

‘I’ll never tell you!’ he said through broken teeth.

Horatio wiped the spit and blood from his eyes, his lip pulling up into a snarl.

‘WHO ARE YOU?’ he shouted at the man, shaking with anger.

‘He’s an assassin from the Cult of Brax!’ someone blurted.

Horatio looked up.

A short girl with hair tied with a ribbon into two long pigtails had spoken.

Oh yes, there was someone else who had just suddenly turned up out of nowhere here as well.

Primus said, ‘And who, in turn, the Hell are you, young lady? How do you know this?!’

The others stood a little way away in the clearing, still wobbly from the battle with the man, or assassin, or whoever he was.

‘I…,’ said the girl. She had a short sword and a dagger strapped to her hips. ‘I was out walking in the woods when I came across this strange man…’

‘A likely story!’ scoffed Primus. He held up his staff, speaking an invocation, and a ball of fire hovered in the air in front of him, giving bright orange light to the glade.

‘No!’ cried Ceres at once. ‘Don’t hurt her, Primus!’

‘Professor!’ said Horatio, and not even because of Ceres. ‘Put that light out–you’ll attract more monsters!’

‘Hush!’ the scholar chided them both irritably, glare fixed on the girl.

The girl’s eyes had gone wide with fear–or was it wonder? Horatio could see now that she was wearing a faded once-red dress–but it was tatty, hanging off her in rags.

She held her hands up in surrender. ‘Okay, okay! Don’t hurt me! You’re right, that’s not what happened! The truth is, I don’t have much money of my own, so I get by with…treasure-hunting. I came across your party camped in the woods and I was sneaking up on you to…relieve you of some of your valuables… But then I noticed this guy sneaking up on you as well.’ She glanced down at the felled assassin, who gurgled quietly. ‘He had two swords drawn, so I figured he was looking to do more than just rob you. So I called out to warn you before he attacked. That’s Qind’s honest truth, I swear it!’

Egea said, ‘But why not just let him kill us and take our valuables when he had done the dirty work, then rob him too?’

The girl actually pouted in the fireball-light. ‘Hey, I said I was a treasure-hunter, not a murderer! I do have some standards! I wasn’t about to let a group of innocent chumps like you get slaughtered for no apparent reason!’

‘She’s telling the truth,’ Primus said. He lowered his staff and the fireball disappeared, bringing back the darkness. Horatio blinked as his eyes readjusted, remembering that, as well as offensive spells, among the Sage’s magical arsenal he also had skills of discernment.

‘What about this guy, then?’ said Horatio, nodding down at the assassin who still lay below him.

‘Alas,’ said Primus, ‘I discerned that he too was telling the truth when he said that he won’t tell us who is…’

‘Young lady,’ said Ceres all of a sudden to the new girl, ‘how do you know that this man is with the Cult of Brax?’

The “treasure-hunter” girl shrugged. ‘It’s kinda obvious, ain’t it? Black cloak, covered face, shifty eyes. Plus there’s the whole murdering thing. And not only that, but he was able to talk to some monsters and control them. There were some nearby, making their way towards you, but when he came to them he told them to stop and stay still because the “prey” belonged to him–I guess he meant you guys. He’s got to be Braxian.’

‘Monsters?’ said Horatio, eyes flicking left and right, alarm bells ringing in his head.

‘Everyone,’ said Wyvera, ‘we appear to have some company.’

And there were the monsters, moving through the trees towards them.

Battle1

Background: Forest 5.