"Hurry up, all of you!" Allie shouted. "We need to get moving! Don't take anything that will slow you down! Essentials only!"

  Pale, for her part, couldn't help but frown as she listened to Allie shout at the other soldiers, all of whom were rapidly sprinting around camp, trying to gather their belongings and anything else that had been deemed too important to leave behind.

  She had to give credit where credit was due – at least Allie and the other Mage Knights had the foresight to realize that some things in camp were both too valuable to leave behind, but also not light enough to be carried along with them. To that end, they'd put forward the suggestion of razing their own camp upon their retreat by themselves, without Pale needing to even suggest it.

  Sjel may have been several millenia behind what she was used to seeing in warfare, and that was being very generous to them, but at least some truths remained universal, it seemed.

  Pale's friends were clustered around her, all of them carrying their meager possessions with them already. Pale and Kayla were loaded down the most, with their respective packs still heavy with Pale's spare ammunition. She'd burned through quite a bit of it already, of course, but not nearly enough that her and Kayla wouldn't feel the weight of it when they actually started walking. Still, she wasn't going to leave any of it behind at this point, not when they risked the Assassins catching up to them.

  "I don't get it," Cal said aloud.

  "What is it?" Victoria asked.

  "It's just… I swear, I'm not seeing nearly as many soldiers as I feel like we should be seeing. I mean, I've only counted around fifty different people so far. Now, I'm willing to admit that maybe I'm miscounting in some way, and that there are likely some people I haven't accounted for yet, but that number still seems pretty low."

  "It's probably more accurate than you might think," Pale said without looking over towards him. "It's likely the Assassins took a few of us as prisoners and we simply didn't see it happen. But more than that, I'd be surprised if a large portion of our forces didn't desert after the attack."

  Kayla gave her a surprised look. "You're sure?"

  "Positive. I didn't see it happen – I was too busy fighting, after all – but put yourself in their shoes. Many of them looked like they were barely hanging on after our encounter with the goblins. I would be more surprised than not to hear that nobody had fled in the midst of the attack itself, to say nothing of its aftermath."

  Kayla frowned, her ears drooping. "I hope they're all okay…"

  Pale had to hold herself back from commenting that any deserter who wasn't already dead from the Assassins hunting them down was likely to be executed if their status as a deserter was ever discovered. Instead, she turned her attention back towards looking around camp. Currently, her and all her friends were waiting by the back, where the camp connected to the dirt road; at some point during the attack the night before, the Assassins had butchered the few horses they'd had, meaning that all of them were going to have to walk to the capital. Allie hadn't told her how long that particular journey was going to be, but Pale suspected it would take at least a few days, if not more.

  "Hey," she said, getting the attention of all her friends. "It probably goes without saying at this point, but we all need to be careful. That means no going off on your own or otherwise separating yourself from the group, as well as keeping an eye out for anything that seems even the slightest bit out of the ordinary. If you think something weird might be happening, let me know."

  Victoria blinked in surprise. "Not that that isn't good advice, Pale, but what brought this on so suddenly?"

  "I don't know if you've all noticed, but we're going to be stuck walking for this entire trip, most likely," Pale pointed out. "But I would bet that the Assassins won't be. If they come after us, it'll almost certainly be on horseback."

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  Victoria's eyes widened. "Shit… I didn't even think of that."

  "Why?" Cal questioned. "What does that mean, exactly?"

  "It means that they'll likely catch up to us if they're set on not letting us get away," Pale pointed out. "Even if we get a few hours head start, if they're on horseback, they'll close that particular gap easily enough – the Capital is at least a few days away on-foot, that's more than enough time for them to find us again, especially if we're following the road. They'll know exactly where to look for us."

  A worried look crossed Cal's face. Cynthia, meanwhile, put a hand on his shoulder, then turned towards Pale.

  "What do you suggest?" she asked.

  "Exactly what I just said," Pale emphasized. "Don't stray from the group. Definitely don't go off on your own, for any reason. And if you notice something, let me and the Mage Knights know."

  Kayla tilted her head. "Them too? I thought you hated the Mage Knights…"

  "Believe me, I trust them about as far as I can throw them all," Pale insisted. "But this isn't the time to hold onto hatreds such as that, not with the situation as dire as it is, and especially given how things somehow seem to be getting worse as time goes on. Plus, I saved Allie's life during the attack last night – she owes me for that, big-time, and despite her faults, she seems intent on paying that particular debt back in full."

  "What…?" Cal couldn't help but question. "Why would you save her life? I mean, don't get me wrong, much as I hate to admit it, it's probably a good thing, given that we currently need all the help we can get. It's just… well, going out of your way to save someone like her is so unlike you."

  "Trust me, I'm already aware of that," Pale told him. "I acted on instinct more than anything – there was no real rationality involved in that decision. If I had been thinking rationally, she probably wouldn't have survived the night."

  Without waiting for a response, she looked around once more. "Where is Nasir? Has anyone seen him since he came back to camp?"

  "I think I saw him wandering around earlier, helping some of the others gather their belongings," Cynthia reported. "Why do you ask? Worried about him?"

  Pale shrugged. "He's useful to have around. I want to make sure he's doing okay in case we need him."

  Cynthia stared at her for a few seconds before blinking, then shaking her head. "You can just admit when you're worried about someone, Pale," she urged. "You don't have to hide your concern for anyone. Especially given that you just brought him back from the brink."

  Pale simply shook her head. "There will be time to be sentimental about it later. For now, we need to be as pragmatic as possible if we're going to make it through this." She cast a glance up at the sky, frowning as she did so. It had been two hours since the Assassins had attacked, and they still hadn't started moving.

  "We're losing time…" she muttered. With a shake of her head, she stood up. "I'm going to go find Allie. We need to get moving, right away."

  Her friends gave her a nod, and after a moment to adjust her rifle, Pale began to march through the camp, searching for Allie and the other Mage Knights. It didn't take long to find them; they were clustered together towards the front of the camp, hunched over a table, poring over a map.

  "Allie," Pale said as she approached, getting her commanding officer's attention. Allie looked up from the table and turned towards her.

  "Pale," Allie said. "Do you have everything you'll need?"

  "Yes, I do. But we need to get on the road, now."

  "You don't have to tell me twice," Allie grunted. She motioned to the map in front of her. "Look over this for a moment, would you?"

  Pale blinked, but did as she was told, approaching the table and looking over the map. It was crudely-made, as expected, and yellow and faded with age, but there was just enough detail that she could still make out the key points on it.

  "We're here," Allie said, gesturing to a spot towards the edge of the map. "Right between our territory and the Otrudians." She then motioned to the left side of the map. "That's where we need to go, ideally."

  Pale looked up at her in surprise. "That far?"

  Allie nodded. "Yeah. Of course, we'll hopefully be able to shake any pursuers off long before we get there, but-"

  "Hang on, wait," Pale said, stopping her before she could finish her sentence. "Why are we going that far in the first place? Are you telling me we can't expect any reinforcements between here and the Capital?"

  Allie shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm saying. The truth is… we're going to have to go before the king and his court after what happened here. He's going to want to hear from as many people who were involved as possible. And yes, that does include you, by the way – he's going to expect you to speak to him about what happened here, same as the rest of us."

  Pale stared at her. "And you're just telling me this now?"

  Allie shrugged. "It won't be that bad. Besides, at this point, going before the king is the least of our worries at the moment."

  Pale pursed her lips, but didn't say anything, instead turning her attention back to the map. "Going off of the approximate measurements and distance markers I see here, it really is going to take us at least a few days to get there. You realize that if the Assassin have horses-"

  "Yes, I'm aware," Allie replied. "But there's nothing we can do about that. Nobody is coming to save us at the moment; we're on our own. But here's the thing…" She motioned to a spot on the map, a short ways away from where they currently were. "That spot is about two days away on-foot. I know for a fact there's a contingent of troops being kept there. It isn't much, don't get me wrong – maybe around a hundred or so, serving as a rear guard for anyone who would be retreating or as advance scouts in case the Otrudians ever pushed too far into our border. Now, I don't know what kind of numbers they'd be pursuing us with, but I doubt it's close to the hundred-or-so troops stationed there. If we can make it there in one piece, they should be able to protect us. But that's going to rely on us being on our own for two days."

  Pale didn't say anything. Truthfully, two days was probably a tall order for most of the people left in their group, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice in the matter. She turned towards Allie, then gave her a nod.

  "Sounds like a plan," she said.

  Allie let out a small exhale. "Good…" She reached for the map, then folded it up and placed it in her pocket. Once that was done, she gave Pale a nod.

  "Get your friends ready," she said. "It's time to go."