The trip through the Fog had been everything but pleasant. The monsters, wretches and shadows that inhabited the mists had demonstrated an uncanny ability to chase them, and as they didn’t need to rest in the slightest, Gabrielle and Lucrece had to adapt and move constantly, stopping only when their bodies simply could not move anymore. The guards became a tense experience, as creatures of many shapes and sizes would appear at the slightest moment of hesitation in any of them, even in their dreams.

  The Witch explained that this was to be expected: the Compass spell was extremely powerful, and as such it attracted beasts of darkness like moths to a flame.

  Their one real consolation was that certain, specific pursuers, the Burnt Saint and that monstrous Barbarian, did not seem to appear beyond a few visions in the distance, reminders that even if they had been ‘safe’ from them so far, they could appear once again at any moment they wished so. Both women had become keenly aware of the figure that chased the other, but as per their accord, they would not speak or ask about it.

  They simply chose to ignore those foreboding signs and continued marching on.

  Until one afternoon, when after what felt like ages marching and surviving, the rays of the Sun seemed to finally break through the clouds and fall on the two vagrants.

  “Saints above…” Whispered Gabrielle, eyes opening wide.

  “Lounge les étoiles!” Lucrece celebrated, the light returning to her eye.

  Without hesitation, both women ran like crazy, panting and feeling the rush of adrenaline push away the exhaustion for a precious moment. As they finally exited the Fog, one could see their sorry state: torn, bloodstained clothes, ichor-stained bandages, they were a pair of muddy and smelly women right then.

  They practically clawed their way as they jumped out of the fog clouds and on the muddy floor, panting and gasping for more air. With a grin, the travellers looked at each other, then back at the foggy forest they had just abandoned… and broke down into sobbing, ugly laughter. The Sun! It felt so good on their skins! They didn’t even care where they were right then, they just hugged each other tightly and cried in absolute relief.

  The forest ended right there, at the top of a small, grassy hill overseeing a beautiful portuary city and the farms around it. As the women slowly got back on their feet and cleaned their faces from tears and snot, they looked down… and immediately noticed something was amiss.

  The grass, it was way too tall; the buildings laid in ruins, overtaken by moss and verdure; and the silence was absolute, beyond the bleats of a few sheep idly prancing around the clearly abandoned farms. All the hope the two had felt before crumbled down in an instant, as they decided to quietly walk the distance over to the City Gates, closed tightly for what it looked like ages. The sign beside it read, in faded lettering: ‘Puerto de Palos’.

  Lucrece gulped, taking a deep breath and knocking loudly on the doors.

  “Oi! Let us in, let us in right now! Is there anyone in there!?”

  Her gloved fist broke through the mossy, old wood. They looked at each other again, before pushing the doors together until the rusty hinges broke, and the massive wooden slab fell on the ground. The town on the other side, as one could assume, was a ruin of the past: grass and moss everywhere, even trees had grown in the middle of the road! Not to mention sheep, who without predators or shepherds had proliferated to the point that they took over the entire place, each huge and fluffy due to the lack of shears around.

  Gabrielle and Lucrece walked slowly, looking around in silence as the situation was finally being processed in their brains. Desolation reigned, there weren’t even corpses here to indicate fighting, or any hints that could help understanding what exactly had happened here. From what they could guess, The Rapture had happened or something like that.

  When they reached what had once been the town square, before nature had aggressively retaken it all, the two just sat down on the edge of a dried up fountain, and sighed.

  They weren’t in the Fog anymore, so they allowed themselves to feel the full hit of this despair.

  “What happened…?” Lucrece could still not believe it. “We were not out for so long now, were we?”

  “We were out for two weeks.” Gabrielle pointed out.

  “I know that time passes differently inside of the Fog but, it must have been a month or so, maybe a few months! Putain…” The Lancer rubbed her face slowly. “Worst part is, all the stuff around here is probably useless by now. Too old, rusty and ruinous… not to even mention the food!”

  “You won’t be able to sell the stuff you looted.” The Witch shook her head softly.

  “I know! Urgh! How am I supposed to buy land like this!?” Without easy answers for her many, many questions, Lucrece laid back and sighed, looking up to the skies. “All this work for nothing…”

  “We have to find my Instructor, she’ll know what to do.” Gabi offered.

  “She probably died or disappeared like everyone else…”

  Both women sighed, deeply. Soon after, their stomachs rumbled loudly and demanded their attention. Having survived on dried meat and old bread for so long had been rough, and by now they expected to have an actual meal for a change. They had even run out of wine! Once again they looked at each other, then turning to stare intently at a particularly chubby sheep who just happened to be grazing nearby.

  They exchanged yet another look.

  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Night time arrived soon enough over the port, and the stars brightly covered most of the dark skies. A new pyre burned at the beach, fish was roasting on the open fire, and both women simply stared at it while a rather chubby sheep yawned lazily, laying beside Gabrielle.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Are you mad?” Asked the Witch, leaning on her newfound friend.

  “No.” Answered the Lancer, pouting very heavily.

  “You are mad.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not mad! I like fish better anyways!” The blonde crossed her arms and huffed. She did not like fish better. She liked mutton quite a lot, actually.

  “I couldn’t let Mrs Dali die for our survival.” Gabi patted the sheep. “It simply wouldn’t be fair.”

  “You named the thing!?”

  “See? You’re mad.”

  “Look! Just… urgh… in the time we took fishing, we could have quickly gotten ‘Dali’ to be our lunch, dinner and several other meals!” Lucrece growled. “Not to mention the wool!”

  “We can take the wool without killing Mrs Dali.”

  “Ta gueule!”

  With a big frown, the taller woman snatched one of the fish-on-a-stick and bit down, grumbling as she had to be careful about the sharp spine. Gabrielle watched her eat, sighing and leaning on her friend some more, patting the sheep on the head a few times before grabbing a piece of fish for herself. They ate in silence, at least for a moment, until the Witch spoke up once more.

  “...Can I ask about your eye now?”

  The taller woman looked down at her with incredulity. She was baffled by the redhead’s audacity, really. She almost wanted to laugh at her! But, she bit down on the fish and sighed softly.

  “Didn’t I say no questions that are off-limits?” She said.

  “We are not in the Fog anymore, and you promised.” Gabi insisted.

  “I said maybe.” Lucrece pulled some more fish with a gnawing bite. “But I’ll cut you a deal. Tell me what in the Hells you were doing in the Fog, and maybe I’ll consider it.”

  “Maybe you’ll consider it?” Gabrielle wouldn’t be fooled again. “I need more guarantees.”

  “Fine. I promise I’ll tell you, if you tell me first.” Lucrece couldn’t help but smile a bit. The girl was learning.

  “Well… what do you know of me?” The fact that this woman had some prior knowledge about things did not escape the WItch.

  “Your name is Gabrielle, you are part of Saint Esperanza de Aragón’s company, ‘The Golden Wings’, and you have–” Lucrece cut herself for a second. After taking a breath, she decided to speak again. “Killed quite a lot of people.”

  The shorter one looked down at the fire again. She was told that those deaths were necessary, for the greater good in Jericho. Why did it still sound so terrible when people said it like that?

  “...Yes.” There was no point in denying it.

  The Lancer frowned. A part of her wanted to comfort this girl, but on the other part… she was a murderer. She couldn’t just enable that now, could she?

  “I ain’t innocent either… but we can talk about that later.” The blonde admitted. “Continue.”

  “It was an operation in Toulouse. A heretical priest had been conducting terrible experiments on his flock.” Saying it outloud really made things hit much closer to the Witch. “Esperanza, I-I mean, The Captain, she had learned of the situation… and we raided the place during the midnight service…”

  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  I still remember it, there were as many stars as there are tonight. Toulouse is a huge city, with lots of beautiful houses and colourful ceilings.

  “Roofs.” Corrected Lucrece. “You mean Roofs.”

  Those.

  We had sent word to the authorities of what happened, but the populace in general had no idea of what we were going to do. Esperanza said that if we told them, we risked the operation by letting Father Mario’s friends and spies learn about it. So in the height of night, our whole company surrounded the biggest cathedral in the city…

  He was expecting us.

  When Esperanza and I entered the church, he played innocent. He raised his hands and, in a deep voice, he said:

  “I am but a humble man of faith! Whatever could the Saint of Aragón want with me?”

  Esperanza spoke up too:

  “Your crimes are unforgivable, Mario Dupont! You have strayed from the Light of the Creator and the path of the Saints! So I sentence you, here and now, to return to the Hells you crawled out from!”

  Mario didn’t drop the pretenses until he was cornered by my sword and Esperanza’s lance… and then, he smiled. I hated that smile the moment I saw it, toothy and shameless. He raised his hands, and there were Runes engraved on his palms. When he clapped, wind blasted! There was light! And noise! I flew a full five or six meters away and rolled on the ground, Esperanza flew even further away.

  People screamed, it was chaos everywhere! They rushed for the door. But I didn’t care, my eyes were locked on Mario, who was still laughing and turning around, ready to run.

  Without time to chase, Esperanza gave the order.

  “Make him repent!”

  There was no time to hesitate… so I casted.

  “You casted.” Lucrece interrupted again. “As in, lightning. Inside the church.”

  It was the order, so I tried.

  In hindsight… I should have stopped myself. I shouldn’t have listened. But when Esperanza gives the order, I act. That is just how things are.

  The thing is, he turned around and used his own magic. He did it before I could finish casting. I remember blinding light again, heat pushing back at me… when I woke up, the Church was in flames, falling to pieces. I was laying outside…

  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Gabrielle stopped her narration there, breathing slowly, heavily. Her hands reached for her own shoulders and squeezed tightly, as her eyes glared into the pyre they had started. In the flames she saw the scene all over again, the people screaming and begging for help, her own hesitation at returning to that Hell… and then, the image of Esperanza, burnt and trapped under a fallen pillar.

  “I couldn’t save them…” She mumbled. “In fact, I only made things worse. Esperanza… no, not only her… everyone in that church, they burned because of me.”

  Lucrece watched as the redheaded girl broke into tears. Her own fists were balling in indignation.

  “She… the way she was looking at me when they took her to the healer… her eyes, they had no lids anymore… a-and she just kept staring… and…!”

  “Gabi.”

  “And! I couldn’t take it anymore! I couldn’t take the wait to see if she was okay! I couldn’t take those eyes on me! I couldn’t take the whispers of everyone around! They knew it was my fault! Everyone did!”

  “Gabi!”

  The Witch looked up at Lucrece, tears running down her cheeks. Her hands clung to the sheep’s wool very tightly.

  “I ruin everything I do, Lucrece! I ruin things and then I run! It happened to her! It happened to Baraqiel! It will happen with you too, if you stay!” She was hyperventilating at this point, sobbing so loudly that the sheep stood and pranced away. “I probably ruined this too! That’s why there’s no one here!”

  Lucrece walked slowly to the crying woman, kneeling in front of her. She had a lot of things in her own mind! But first and foremost, she needed to help Gabrielle. So… she opened her arms. She didn’t try to hug her first, she just offered.

  The Witch, desperate and sobbing, didn’t want to at first. She was so afraid of the idea of hurting this kindly person, like she had hurt every other person in her life! But something deep within, a need, pushed her to eventually close the distance and cling to the taller lady, crying on her shoulder as the Lancer held her softly.

  “Gabi…” She talked softly. “You have not ruined anything during this whole time…”

  “B-But what about the sheep—”

  “Forget about the sheep.” Right now, Lucrece did not care about the taste of fish in her mouth. “If it weren’t for you, we would have never escaped the Fog, you know?”

  Gabrielle fell silent, sniffling a bit.

  “You don’t ruin everything. You have made mistakes. But everyone makes them.” The blonde sighed softly.

  The smaller girl was not really convinced but, hearing those words really brought some comfort to her heart. She breathed slowly, more steadily, while Lulu kept holding her.

  “I guess I have to tell you the tale too, right…? Would that make you feel better?” The taller woman looked down on Gabi, who nodded a little. “Fine… brace yourself, for this is a little long a tale. But… let’s see…”