Fern knew where the third bandit was, but she couldn't see them; they weren't moving. So she focused on what she could see, instead: the remaining two, steadily closing the distah light steps and drawn bdes. Both swords were the same type from what she could tell, short and broad and narrowing suddenly to a vicious little point oip. They looked equally capable of cutting both through foliage and flesh, and she certainly didn't want to put them to the test.

  She wasn't going to risk taking on both bandits at the same time if she didn't have to. Moving sideways, doing her best to keep all of them in her field of vision - or where the third one was supposed to be, at least - she crouched a little and took a few moments to mark their separate paths.

  Whatever Ravenna to, she didn't have much time before the bandits reached the tent. Fern hadn't seen - or felt - her leave, so she had to assume her partner was still inside. She had to intercept them before they made it there, even if it was going to hurt.

  It wouldn't be the first time, after all.

  "Sapphire - I ask you something?"

  The maid turned smoothly, the small stack of books in her arms proving no impediment to her fwless grabsp; "Certainly, Miss Skysh. What would you like to know?"

  Ferated, but only for a moment. "Would you be willing to teach me something? Crimson's my primary instructht now, but - well, I guess it feels like I'm only getting half the picture."

  Sapphire's face remained calm, but there was something in it that the fallen hero wao pry at, somehow. "Hmm. Have you spoken of this to her?"

  She shook her head. "It didn't seem polite to mention it, somehow."

  The maid simply hough that enigmatiething remained behind her serene expression. "Uood, Miss Skysh. Then I shall teach you ohing - for now. How you choose to employ it is up to you; but sidering your progress of te, I suspect it will be of use to you."

  There was no time to waste. Fern exhaled out as quietly as she could, ahe movement slip down and behihe darkness beginning to circute in a coil that wound tighter and tighter, like a spring under pressure. And just like a spring, it was meant to release.

  Briefly, she wished she'd taken a few more attempts to refihe teique Sapphire had outlined for her, or at least find some better way to cushion herself on the nding; but spinning up the aether to accelerate herself from a cold start was enough of a strain already. It was all she could do to make sure it would send her in the right dire, and eve was only mostly accurate for now.

  But 'mostly' would have to do. She was out of time, and the bandit had just stepped perfectly into the gap betweerees, giving her a clear shot. Fern envisioned a restraining bar slipping loose, and he aether into shape with a thought - and then she was hurtling through the air with nothing but the barest whisper of rustling leaves and grass.

  The bandits started to turn at the sound, but it was far too te. She mao lead with the sheath, held before her in both hands, and it made a distinctly meaty thwack against the first one's forehead as she bounced off him and upwards, losing a good bit of her momentum in the impabsp; By the time she reoriented in midair, he was already falling like a sack of vegetables, pletely untrolled. Unscious - or worse.

  She nded harder than she would've liked, but softer than she expected, an almost reflexively gathered cushion of darkness breaking her fall aing her roll out of it with no more than a few scrapes and probably some additional bruising. Her left hand was almost numb from abs the worst of that first impact, and she gritted her teeth as she rose to her feet, drawing the duelist's sword with nary a whisper - not that it mattered all that muow, but the small weave still being intact was a good sign. As she'd learhe hard way, sometimes it was difficult to keep track of your reserves in battle.

  The other bandit seemed a bit hesitant. She took advantage of it to briefly expand her senses once more, just for the barest of moments; that third... person... hadn't moved from their spot. What were they up to?

  A shift in the glint of metal was all the warning she got, and her own bde whipped across just in time to meet her oppo's with a dull g. The training took over; no matter how tired she was, no matter what sort of injuries she might have just incurred on the way in, there was battle at hand. Rest could e after it was over; Crimson had taken pains to teach her that much.

  It hurt, though. Fern could feel the pain radiating through her hand and all the her arm with every strike she blocked, with every swing of her own she aimed that was deflected. The bandit had no iion of bag dowher, and she couldn't tell whose stamina would give out first.

  Dimly, she khat Ravenna would do somethiually, and that there was also the other bandit - presumed bandit, anyway - to deal with. But for the moment, all she could manage was to keep on trading blows.

  Fate, it seemed, had other pns.

  The bandit reached back with his free hand and grabbed something from his belt. There was a quiet snap, and then a soft blue-white glow issued from the little tube he was holding. He lifted it up to get a better look at her face, revealing his own in the process: a rough, though irely unattractive man with a short beard, eyepatch - smart, she thought with a little squint, especially whes that light away - and a long scar down one cheek.

  "Hey - you Fern?" he half-whispered. "Fern, uh... Skysh?"

  For a long and tense moment she said nothing, just gripping the hilt of her sword tightly, breathing shallowly in and out, looking away from the light; keeping track of his swordtip as it wavered ever so slightly, waiting for the first sign of movement.

  "Why?" she finally respoersely.

  The bandit didn't budge. "I'm not supposed to be fightin' ye, if ye are."

  "Well, I'd say it's a bit te for that," she hissed.

  He blinked, and took half a step back, his bde lifting a bit. "Oh? You really are Fern, then?"

  Briefly she debated the merits of a response, and nodded, eyes narrowed. "I am."

  The bandit sighed, and raised his sword slowly, without making any sudden moves, and reversed it to slip it into a carrier on his babsp; "Not how I expected the night to turn out. All I say is, uh, sorry about all this." He gestured with his free hand at the ground behind her. "Poor d never knew what hit him."

  Fern was tired - just a little too tired, too drained from the use of aether, from the pain, from the stress of fag down another person for the first time. And so she made an unforced error.

  She turo look, to see what had bee of the bandit whose head she'd given a nasty crabsp; "I'm sorr-"

  And then she felt the bright, hot pain of metal slidiween her ribs.

  "Me too, ss," she heard him murmur, the grass g softly beh his boots as he walked away.

  Fern tried to move, but her body wasn't w. The world was tilting sideways. Had she fallen? She couldn't feel anything. Everything was getting blurry, and darker, and-

  Where was Ravenna? Where was her partner?

  None of this made sense. fused, her eyes closed on their own. Maybe a little nap would... sort things out...

  The bandit made it all of three steps before a hand closed around his throat - ed in soft fabric, but terrifyingly cold, the sort of chill that sapped his strength just from the briefest tabsp; And this was her brief nentle in the slightest.

  "I look away for five seds," a dark growl sounded from in front of him, from the deep, shifting shadows that hadn't been there a moment before, "and you have sealed your own miserable fate. What foul mixture did you y upon that dagger?"

  He wheezed softly, trying to form the words. The grip rexed just slightly, but his hands - his arms refused to respond. He was too cold. So, so very cold... "It- it doesn't matter," he rasped. "Ev- even if I told you... sh-sh-she won't st... the n-night..."

  "One more ce, before I tear it from your mind myself," the darkness snarled.

  He hadn't expected to die for this job, but at least it was done. "Ah... whatever," he sighed. "The guild would kill me anyway if I told you."

  Two emerald eyes fred within the darkness, suddenly, and the chill in his body deepened even further - or perhaps it was simply pure terror at work. "The guild would have shown you more mercy than I ever will."

  The darkness began to melt away, the cold too; even the world around him, and the sensation of that hand around his throat. He couldn't feel anything - not even his own body. He couldn't see anything, except for that pair of glowing green eyes, growing rger, rger... or was he shrinking, instead?

  Panic gripped him, aried to scream; but he made no sound. There was nothi of him that could scream.

  There was nothing at all; only those eyes.

  It was the first Bloodservant she'd made in... well, a very long while. Certainly the first on this side of the mountains. But Ravenna didn't even feel bad as she loosened her grip on the bandit's ned let him stand on his own, once she saw the emerald spark in the back of his eyes. She owned him now.

  An i solution, to be sure; Fern would undoubtedly have disapproved of the choice, and she had her own misgivings about the whole thing. But time was already not on her side, and if she had to use the less civilized tools ioolkit to fix the situation, then she would just be uncivilized.

  "Tell me about the antidote," she anded her new servant, kneeling dowo Fern.

  "The poison es from the western ti," he intoned dully, all the emotion utterly absent from his voibsp; "The antidote be prepared using local ingredients, but by the time it is made, Fern will already be dead, as the guild intended."

  Ravenna actually shuddered a little. The western ti was a horrible pce that spawned horrible things; if the guild - which guild? she thought, briefly - was reag into that particur cesspool, she might have to rethink how she was training her partner. Tonight had been a call, if nothing else.

  She grasped the dagger - not with her own hand, but with one posed of darkness - and pulled it out. Fern's wound wasn't deep, but the skin around it had already started to discolor - red, purple, bbsp; She gritted her teeth at the look of it. Healing had never been her specialty, and she had never regretted that deficy more than now. "What are our options?"

  "The antidote may be for sale from a mert in the port. If not, you would need someoh experien treating plex poisons and internal an damage." He tio stare off into the darkness. "Unlikely, but not impossible."

  "Fine." Ravenna gathered the aether - so much easier at nighttime, she'd missed this; if only it had e at a time when she could indulge in it without . She lifted Fern in her arms and stood, the cushion of darkness giving her as easy and smooth a journey as possible. "Gather up the tent and bring both packs. If anyone asks, I hired you for a job and you're not to speak of it, no matter how close they are. Or were. Once you arrive - e find me. You'll know where I am."

  She didn't bother to wait for the unnecessary firmation, and just skipped through the trees and bato the road with wings of darkness speeding her way; like an arrow in flight, carrying her partoward the sparkling lights of the port. She would make it. She had to.

  It couldn't just... end like this.

  leftoverfelix