The traitor El-Kir is a descendant of the wise forbear Rumi Darbinian – truly it is a great embarrassment to his memory. Nonetheless, she is correct about one thing – there is a rot within the Invictan Empire, there has been since the very beginning, more than a decade ago. It is inevitable, in a society such as ours, that there will be problems of loyalty, because loyalty is our greatest resource - and a lack of loyalty is the one thing that can bring us all down. Therefore, it is necessary that the people, and especially those who serve the state, should not only love their gentle Emperor but fear in the shadow of his Majesty.

-Declaration of the High Priest Gaius, 213 YT

Somewhere in the Wanderer’s Vale. 7 days after arrival.

Her compass pointed her unerringly toward the city of Kivv, that distant Valer capital. Even as she walked, if her once-sharp mind was not beginning to fail her, tens of thousands of Abrists were no doubt getting ready to celebrate another of their idiotic declarations. “Laws,” they called them, but what kind of law is phrased like a riddle?

Zoe Bari didn’t know quite why her thoughts kept wandering to such irrelevant matters. It was easier, she supposed, than having to face the fearful realization that Kamila Zelenko was still alive. She imagined her fingers, clad in spiked gauntlets, digging into that one’s throat. In her daydreams, thirst-fueled fantasies, she tore Kamila’s tongue from her mouth and used it as a firestarter. Her boots sank into the soggy earth – she wondered if she’d die here, waterlogged but desperate with thirst. When she became truly delirious, would she drink from the marsh beneath her? Would she get sick from the dirt in that water, and die horribly sick, trying to scream but unable to make a sound?

She’d been walking for almost a day without stopping. Her shoulder was still bleeding and her right arm hung limply at her side. She supposed it would heal – the pain was fading, even though the arm was so difficult to use. Still, she’d suffered so many injuries in the past week alone that she didn’t know anymore how much pain was normal. Perhaps this was simply how she was supposed to feel.

In the distance, there was someone standing almost still. It was clad in Invictan armor. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw set and she felt the pleasant, warm rush of adrenaline in her veins. An ally. She started towards him.

Head bent low against the wind, Zoe made her way toward him until she realized he was also approaching her. She came to a stop before he came close, breathing heavily. So thirsty. Arshay came nearer – the last of the scouts. She couldn’t help smiling slightly as he came near. She wanted to laugh, but her throat was too dry.

“Zoe…” the voice said. It was scratchy, unpracticed, perhaps strained from screaming but… it was Arshay, no doubt. “Everyone else is dead, aren’t they? That makes you the captain.”

And then Zoe did laugh, if only briefly. Her throat hurt so badly she forced herself to stop laughing. But Arshay kept. On. Talking. “I got separated from the others, I don’t know where they are. Maybe they’ll make it to Carakhte. But… I don’t know. You’re the captain now, as far as I’m concerned, Zoe. We need to get somewhere safe. Carakhte, or… somewhere. I don’t know. Do you know which way we’re headed? You’re headed, I mean? I just… we need… we have to get to the nearest safe place, don’t we? Just… someplace safe, someplace… where we’re not going to get killed by Valers or starve to death in the wilderness or –”

Zoe lunged forward and, undoing the clasp at Arshay’s hip, took his canteen. His eyes went wide, but he was too shocked to react. Zoe downed half the canteen in seconds and kept going. Arshay blinked again and again, rapidly, but he didn’t reach out to try to take the canteen back. She continued drinking, careful not to let a single drop of water spill down her chin, staring at Arshay as he continued to talk:

“How did you make it out? I saw what happened after we left. My group… I don't know what happened, we got separated. Well, it doesn't matter. We might be the only survivors, you know. That means we have to…” He looked terrified. He was repeating himself, talking in circles, stammering… God, what a mess. What a pathetic mess. “We have to warn everybody. Warn the others. That the Valers are fighting back stronger now. That we don’t even know everything Mirshal is capable of with their magic. That we're not organized enough, or powerful enough, or…”

Zoe finished with the canteen and lowered it, brushed her lips with her hand, and reached behind her back. Her bad arm hung at her side and she took a step toward Arshay, swaying, nearly falling forward. Arshay reached out a hand to steady Zoe by the shoulder. “Hey, I’ve got you, be careful. You look like you need rest, you could fall over at any –”

Arshay stopped talking when she put her dagger in him. She knew exactly where to slide it, levering it just so to dig into his intestines while ripping through the leather straps that held the lower plate of his armor on. It was so easy when she considered the technique behind it, the exact pressure she needed to apply, the perfect sharpness of her knife… she smiled. It was simple mathematics, wasn’t it?

“Traitor,” she whispered, in what she thought must have been a dispassionate tone. Arshay stumbled, but stood, his hand still hovering near Zoe’s shoulder. She came closer to him, and by mad instinct, he wrapped his arm around her back. She came closer. Her dagger was free.

She plunged the knife. Arshay’s tears were beautiful – the finest painter in the Gaurl Core wouldn’t have been able to make a better portrait. Oh, the achingly picturesque suffering of the young. She plunged the knife. Blood dribbled out of his mouth and off his chin, mixing with the inedible water beneath them both. She plunged the knife. She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife She plunged the knife