Ratface had to remove herself from her two hangers on before going to Abigail. Halmir and Kryssa apparently deciding that she got exactly one night to herself. At least they were both big fans of sleeping. It wasn’t the first time Ratface had slipped out to pace. She always had a certain level of restlessness at night. It made helping the goblin glamour easy at least. Not an upside she was stoked about.

  She slipped out of her room and into the hallway only to find Abigail waiting for her. She didn’t have her armour on for once and was sat in her chair. A small reminder that under all that armour, she was still human. She gestured for Ratface to follow.

  Looked like it was shaping up to be another long night.

  Abigail took her out of the inn and into the town itself. She didn’t say anything, it was clear she was looking for something. Ratface followed in silence. A part of her wanted the answer now but a part of her shied away from the knowledge. This had been the deed that labelled Abigail a traitor to an entire country.

  Ratface could only think of so many things that fit the punishment.

  They finally stopped at a graveyard. It was well kept but it was a literal field of gravestones. In the middle was a monument with yet more names. The thing was covered with them.

  “It’s a lot of names,” Ratface said, “too many to count.”

  “The number stops mattering after a certain point,” said Abigail. She brushed her hands against the stone. “Doesn’t mean you stop trying.”

  “So, what am I looking at?”

  “Among the humans and elves, this war was the single most devastating draw. Even our bloodiest defeats didn’t stand up to it.”

  Ratface looked for something to lean on but there wasn’t anything, so she sat down in front of Abigail. The older woman snorted and came and joined her on the ground.

  “You remember I told you how the elves pray?”

  “To keep their god asleep right?”

  Abigail nodded and looked up at the sky.

  “They have a few priests though, who don’t pray to keep her asleep. They tell her about the world. Well once there was a priest who went to war. He dedicated every kill, every name to his Goddess.”

  “Did he have a name?” asked Ratface. Despite living with the elves she didn’t really know what they were like. How the world saw them. Abigail shook her head.

  “His was the first he gave away.” She let her hands trail through the ground, like she was trying to pull it back.

  “He was dominating the field, and it was clear that if he didn’t die, the war was lost. I challenged him to single combat. A last attack to snatch victory from defeat. It would’ve been better if I’d let us lose.”

  “You won then?” Ratface asked. Abigail gave her the kind of derisive look only the old could pull off.

  “I beat him of course, took a risk that my armour would hold him off long enough for me to land a killing blow. I was right, though it cost me.” She rubbed at her back at the old injury, as if just talking about it made it flare.

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  “With his last words he spited me, and his Goddess listened.”

  Ratface shivered. She’d already seen what happened when an elf called to their Goddess. She could only imagine what a priest would be like. Abigail nodded.

  “You’re right to fear it. In that moment all the names he took were freed. They fell upon both armies, turning them into angry wraiths trapped in people. All of whom hated me. His own name he placed on my wound, that it would never heal.”

  Ratface hissed. She knew how that battle went. It could only be the fields the goddess had seen herself.

  “Two armies struck at me. I would have been overwhelmed immediately if it wasn’t for the fact they lashed at each other when they got too close. Even that wouldn’t have been enough it wasn’t for one other force. One the elves had brought with them.”

  Abigial gave her a knowing look and Ratface thought back to how the goddess hadn’t been able to touch her.

  “Goblins,” she said.

  “They made up two thirds of the elves’ army. The goddess’ curse wouldn’t touch them. Sometimes I wonder if that was why so many of them had been fielded with the priest.”

  She’d managed to pull up the dirt around her and was determinedly making a small trench. It was forming into a small hill and with a trace of magic some faint illusions appeared on it. It wasn’t nearly as good as something Isabelle would have made, but it was enough to give Ratface an idea. They’d clamoured together on a hill to fend them all of.

  “We managed to hold them there, though it was costly. The wraiths seemed to hate the goblins as much as they hated me, and nothing protected them from the bodies. The elves were particularly terrifying, every time they smash into us, we thought we might be overrun. It was only because they kept being pulled off by the other mad that we held at all. Remember Ratface, an elven army is usually much smaller than any they encounter, but they will still be the more dangerous force.”

  Ratface took the lesson as she watched the small illusion, the wave of darkness clashing against the hill.

  She could hear the screams, the terror. She could only imagine what the goblins had gone through, forced to fight against elves while the world tore apart around them. Two elves had nearly brought Claudette’s town to its knees. How terrifying would an army of them be? Even fifty sounded terrifying.

  “In the end we held them off. Between our own defence and the wraith’s rage, they all died eventually. Lily found me with reinforcements surrounded by our dead comrades.” Abigail let out a morbid chuckle.

  “She tried to blame it all on the goblins at first. It was only when I stood next to them that the truth came out, and I was labelled a traitor.”

  It was a bleak story the knight told, though Ratface couldn’t truly blame the knight. A country had managed to blame her though. What did she say to that?

  Abigail chucked, a real chuckle this time.

  “You’re trying to fix my problem. I’m not like Suncat, Ratface. The sacrifice I made to live doesn’t eat away at me.” She shrugged. “I regret it of course. I wished that I had found another way, chosen a different direction at so many points that ended in two dead armies and me without a home.” She leaned a little bit further back. “Yet, standing with those goblins? The thing that got me labelled a traitor? I don’t regret that at least.”

  It would have been easy for her not to. Goblins were the monster at the end of the story. The knight could have kept her entire life if she’d just lied.

  Ratface pulled the knight into an awkward side hug. A part of her thanked those goblins that had helped her. Without them, Abigail wouldn’t have been there to save her from the golem.

  “I think the humans are stupid to blame you,” said Ratface. The knight returned Ratface’s hug and pat her head.

  “What happened was a tragedy, yet at the end of the day I was the commander on the field. It is not a lie to say I got my people killed.” She paused, even her hand stopped moving as she was deep in though. “If I could have that moment back, I would do better. I don’t believe my men begrudge me my life.”

  She let Ratface go and pulled herself back into her chair.

  “I partly told you this to make Lily’s reaction make more sense. More importantly, it’s because I see a leader in you. So, I will warn you now.” She held Ratface’s eyes. It wasn’t Abigail that looked at Ratface but the Rune Knight.

  “One day, you will make the wrong decision, and people will bleed for it. Remember that if you don’t learn from that, then you’ve failed them twice.”

  Ratface immediately thought of the goblin glamour that she’d helped. A sick feeling in her gut.

  Working with him was her first failure. If Abigail knew she’d warn her off him.

  Yet he also knew where her goblin was, and that held her back. She felt like the younger Abigail, her priest being helping the glamour.

  Only time would tell if it would end up as her sin.