The woman's eyes widened and her face became red. She scratched his chest with her long nails painted bck but they failed to pierce his flesh.

  el csped his fingers behind her ned squeezed harder. His ch was so tight that the veins popped on his pale hairless arms.

  His men remaiill and unmoving like marked stones. None of them blinked a her suffering. But a slight drop in their shoulders revealed more than the dead gaze in their eyes.

  I'm not good at guessing ages, but most were at least ihirties. They were all well dressed by Vagren standards, but that's not saying much.

  Their armor resembled that of the guards in the upper districts but looked faded and worn out.

  Still, leather armor hardly cover everything. And it was from what was bare did I uand their horror.

  One had a hollowed-out ear, and the other had a poked-out eye, with the scar still visible despite the long patch. The third had half his nose removed with only one nostril left.

  Besides their missing fingers and mutited arms, they were as mean and hardy as any. The other three were out of my sight as they stayed to the left of the willer, but I had no doubt it was the same for them.

  That's why I didn't bme their relief but shared their feeling.It never bothered me to admit that I felt scared, because fear has always made seo me.

  Looking away and carrying on with your life was on sense in Vagren.

  "Stop that! What does she have to do with this?"

  The young willer ched her fist and stomped her bck buckled shoes on the blood-soaked dirt.

  Looking away is on sense...

  I couldn't prehend her as, the rage and urgency I felt in her voice. It was the same feeling I had when my life was uhreat, but she was expressing it for the sake of a total stranger.

  Where did she go? The girl that struggled to get the words out a few moments ago. Her voiow rose in protest, full of anger and grit.

  She picked the wrong time to turn vocal.

  "She has everything to do with this, or have you fotten what you asked?"

  "My question? Is that why you're tormenting her?"

  "I only want to show you the ao your question."

  "I don't want to know anymore. Let her go or else!"

  el looked bemused at her threats and replied with a slight grin.

  "Or else?"

  He took a few moments to look at the state of her. Her crossed hands, her tight shoulders, aitled head that she held up high. He narrowed his eyes at her attitude and said in a low cold voice.

  "Careful now, little runt. Don't make me waste all the effort I went through to save you."

  "Save me, you? How do you figure that?"

  "Says the girl in her purple robe that was this close to being a pieeat for their pleasure."

  "That—I take care of myself."

  "Of course you . That would have been such a sight."

  "Is bloodletting the only thing you care about?"

  "Me? Never! Why, were you going to kill them for just talking to you?"

  "That's not what I meant"'

  "Of course not. You were going to keep telling them to stop as you are doing now."

  "And they weren't holding a versation. You said their iions yourself"

  "Well, sorry to burst your bubble little dy. But you're in Vagren, most wouldn't bother talking to you first. "

  el let out a hollow ugh and ented.

  "Don't make that face. It's in our nature to desire women. That and most of our wome much to desire, look at this one for example."

  He said as he pulled the womaween them and slid one hand down and grabbed a fist full of her plump breast. The breast seeped through the space between his fingers and all but swallowed his hand.

  "Few are as lucky as I am"

  "If she's that important to you, why are you doing this to her?"

  "You asked why it's rude to interrupt, let me ask you this: Did they teach ower is?"

  "What?"

  "Why do I even bother asking? Of course, they did, those of the quill are so fussy about the meaning of things."

  "Power?" The young willer said as she g the six men that surrounded her from all sides.

  "Is this what you think power is? To gang up on someone."

  "It es in many forms. Even a little boy blog an ant's path is a form of power."

  The willer tried to retort, but el screamed at her

  "Be quiet and listen!"

  His voice ged from giggly and childish to hard and anding

  "Even if it es in many forms, there is still one high above the rest. Power through words alone, a privilege of the few over the many. That's why your interruptions and demands make me wonder. Do you really think you're capable of enf your will over me?"

  el caught himself as the seething anger became clear in his void returo his old tune.

  "But again, I may be wrong. Perhaps that's how little you care for her life."

  "That's not—"

  "Look at all the loss of life that happened because a clueless brat like you wao go sightseeing. And you 't even bother to try and rescue one of them."

  "You're the one—"

  "That killed them? Yes, It was me. But they say that the will of the stro persists right? Then show it to me! Show me the will that persists over my own! Force me to loosen my ch!"

  "You brute!"

  "You do it, 't you? If you cim to be the world's calling? The chosen of the gods, some even say their kin."

  "You're well-read for a backwater thug"

  el slid a hand across the deep ge that spanned over half his face. It started from the middle of the left ear a over the lips to the right side of his mouth.

  "Eh, I've never been much for books."

  "Fine! If you won't stop of your volition, then I will make you"

  The willer started to rummage through a brown knapsack she had on her hip. As she did that, one of el's men rushed forward to snatch it away from her. She saw him, but instead to get out of the way, a slight grin appeared on her face.

  "Don't touch her!"

  el's shout caused the man to stop dead in his tracks.

  "Get away from her, nobody touch her!"

  "What is it? Scared of a little girl?"

  "Southern ti fabric. Even if they 't see it, I ."

  The willer clicked her tongue and pulled out a yellowish paper folded in three.

  On it were dozens of iwined shapes and odd letters I had never seen before. But for some reason, all I could think of as I stared at them was rain and clouds.

  el made his daggers appear out of thin air once again, two of them this time. Both now hovered in the air around him with their sharp points directed at her.

  The willer whispered a few words, bit her tongue, and licked the red seal of the part. The paper unfurled and a dim yellow light soon engulfed the entire scroll.

  She let go of it, but it didn't fall to the ground rather it started floating in the air.

  I couldn't take my eyes off the scroll, and the longer I stared the more it sucked me in.

  The vision of the storm became tangible and the downprew heavier.

  I felt the rain as it rose upwards from my ankles until it covered me whole. The surface always seemed distant no matter how hard I fpped my tired arms.

  I tried to scream, I opened my mouth and shouted with all my might, but no sound came out. Even if it did, no help would e, So why bother?

  The falling stopped, and I felt my head rest on a soft and warm floor. This, this is not so bad...

  [***!]

  [**p!]

  [***ke up!]

  My body jolted awake and I found myself half a head outside the er of the alley.

  I quickly pulled myself bad shook my head to get rid of the dizziness. What the hell was that? The days I spent at the bottom, the long drift down? Was it all nothing but an illusion pyed on my mind?

  Damn it, now I incurred a debt from the st person I want to owe anything.

  Drip, drip.

  I looked down to see what fell on my p, but all I saw through my dizzy eyes were small reddish drops.

  It has to be my always bleeds when I stay awake for too long. I lifted my arm up to wipe it but I could feel nothing but dry skin.

  What else could cause it? Is this that weird paper's doing? I've heard willers were freaks of nature but to to make blood fall from the sky?

  I looked up, half expeg it to be so, but the sky was clear and the sun at its zenith.

  Then another drop hit, I wiped my face with my arm again, and this time I found where it came from.

  It was my lower lip, it had cracked open and oozing blood.

  It's not surprising after days of thirst. Last night was a big mistake. I o get out of here and find something to sustain myself.

  I smell something burning, the st is so dry, suffog, and close.

  It didn't take long for me to find the source of the smell. It was my own hair, the ends of which had been burnt to a crisp.

  It had grown a lot tely and now reaches below my waist.

  I always kept it tucked behind my ears, I didn't eve slip out. I don't want to trim it, I use it often to cushion my head when I sleep on the hard ground.

  I started patting it down with the bay hand. My hands seemed so slow as they moved up and down on each strand. My neck wobbled up and down and my eyelids grew heavy.

  How long is this going to st? I wish they'd hurry a over with.

  A low whistling noise kept getting higher and more muffled inside my head. It was all I could hear as the world went quiet all of a sudden.

  I tried to lift an arm up to my ear out but it dropped limp halfway through.

  I thought the rainy season was near, has it always been this hot?

  Ugh, I 't do this, I 't keep them open anymore.

  I know It's dangerous, but no one knows that I'm here. It'll only be for a few moments, I just o rest my eyes.

  Just a few moments...

  My body keeled over like a fallen tree. It took my st drop of effort to make sure I didn't fall to my left side and spill out of the alley.

  But as soon as I leaned back I felt a stinging pain that shocked me back awake and caused me to jump up on my feet.

  I banced myself on the opposite wall and tried to hold back the scream that was daring to leap out of my throat.

  But the wall I touched felt like pieces of der and I pulled my arms away and blew at them to try and cool them down. I saw a drop of my blood touch the wall and it evaporated almost immediately.

  This is not normal, which means only ohing.

  I peeked out of the er to see what was happening. I was careful to baween staying hidden and not toug the scorg wall.

  I saw the floating scroll disiing from the top down, and from it formed a thin line of fmes. It crumbled on itself and formed the shape of a woven ball. At first, the threads were little and there was much space between them. But the gaps started being filled as more and more threads of fme appeared and interced the rest.

  With all the gaps filled, the ball noeared solid, and the scroll was by now pletely burnt. Only that remained was a thin thread of fme that she ed around her four fingers barring the thumb.

  "All that was for one fireball?"

  "it almost sounds like you're disappointed"

  "I expected more. Pilrs of fme, bolts of thunder falling from the sky. Not something that would go for a few hundred regni."

  "Your approval is the least of my s. Now for the st time, let her go!"

  el raised a brow at her remark.

  "What if I say no? What would you do then, burh of us to a crisp?"

  "Even If you cower behind her, your men will pay the price for your cowardice!"

  "Now that's a solid pn."

  "Then—"

  "But what if I told you that they were mere sves I am f to serve me? That they haven't itted any wrongdoing. Would you still be capable of murdering them in cold blood?"

  The willer paused for a few moments and g their cut limbs and disfigured bodies. Her arms started to throb as she struggled to keep the thread tight.