Book Two - Chapter Nineteen

There was dark smoke rising from Littlerun as Lusya and Ander neared with Puvica in tow. Not the wispy kind that might drift out of a chimney, not even that from several homes, but a inky, billowing black cloud undulating in the wind. That same wind carried the sounds of screams and the occasional clash of metal on metal, along with the acrid scent of the burning wood.

“What’s happening?” Puvica asked. She half-stood in her seat, eyes wide. The rocking of the carriage threatened to knock her forward, where she would surely be trampled, but she seemed oblivious to that. She did brace an arm on the seat to steady herself, but that seemed more a reflex than an intentional preventive measure. “What’s going on here?”

Ander muttered a curse under his breath, his grip tightening on the reins. “They’re here too. Of all the luck.”

“Considering we now know they have a headquarters in the area, it is not such an improbable coincidence,” Lusya said.

“Who’s here? The bandits?” Puvica exclaimed. “How can you be so calm? Oh, Svet, please be okay.”

“I am impressed that this village seems to be fighting back,” Lusya said. “That seems to be an increasingly common reaction.”

It was also possible Mirewood had been an outlier, and this was the typical response, but she suspected they would have drawn the attention of the kingdom or the Sacred Knights by now in that case.

“There could be a lot of reasons for that,” Ander said. He pulled back on the reigns and eased the carriage to a halt. “In any case, we should get in there.”

She cocked her head, blinking twice. “Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why?’” he asked, stopping midway through grabbing a stake to tie the horses to. “To help them, of course.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Puvica said. “I don’t want you two getting hurt trying to help…”

Ander smiled at her. “We can handle it, don’t worry.”

“I have no interest in this matter,” Lusya said. “It is a pointless diversion from our goal of retrieving Ariya. If you want to keep this woman safe with us, I will not object. Saving this village is excessive and unnecessary.”

Despite her earlier objection, Puvica gasped. “How can you say such a thing?”

“It is the truth,” Lusya replied.

Puvica flinched and turned her attention to the cloud of smoke. However, she made no effort to move toward the village.

This was not the same as before, when their only objective had been to keep moving, and the bandits as a whole had been an external obstacle. Eliminating them had seemed the most efficient option at the time. Now, Lusya’s goal was their headquarters and a confrontation with them. Bogging herself down with pointless fights was wasteful. If Gisala had been there, it would have been a different story, but Lusya could not sense her. If that changed, so too would Lusya’s judgment. She did note that there were no demons, minor-rank or otherwise, present either. Perhaps Gisala was the only one among the bandits who could control them.

Ander scowled and set his jaw. “I’m not just going to leave them when we’re already here.”

“Then this is where we part ways,” Lusya said.

She jumped down from the bench and moved to retrieve her pack. She could move faster than the carriage anyway, over long distances or otherwise. The convenience of the storage and Ander’s supplies, along with the ability to conserve her energy for the proper confrontation, had offset that. It seemed, however, that that time was at an end.

“What are you going to tell Ariya?” Ander asked. He put aside the stake he was holding and walked closer to confront her. “You’re going to have to explain where I went. Can you do that without revealing you did nothing here?”

Lusya blinked. “I will manage.” It was not difficult to omit details, and, while inquisitive, Ariya was not one to dig for additional information when presented with a plausible explanation.

“Does it not bother you at all, knowing how she would react if she knew?” he pressed.

She paused for a moment. “I would not say it does not bother me at all.” There was little chance of Ariya finding out, but the hypothetical situation was an unpleasant one. “But it is tolerable, and she will not know.”

“And what about the enemy’s forces?” he went on. “This is a good chance to learn about them and cut them down. We don’t know that Gisala is the only one that strong. Even if she is, you might be in trouble if there’s hundreds of bandits. There’s probably at least a couple dozen here that we can take out of play.”

“That is a random guess at their numbers,” she said, “and there is no reason to suspect they have additional fighters on her level. There is no guarantee that this will be worth the distraction.”

“There’s no guarantee that it won’t be.”

Ander glared into her eyes for another moment, silent. If he thought she would be cowed by a stern look, he was sorely mistaken. She turned to reach for her pack again, and he sighed.

“I’m going in there no matter what you do,” he said. She had expected as much. She did not know where he was going with this. “I might end up captured. What’s Ariya going to say when I show up there and tell her what happened?”

Lusya stopped and turned her gaze on him once more, cocking her head slightly.

“I might die too,” he continued. He hesitated, looking away for a moment. “Maybe you can live with knowing how Ariya would react to a bunch of strangers dying because of you, but what about me?” He grimaced. “There’s a reason you haven’t told her about her parents, right? I might not be that close to her, but I think she knows me enough to be upset.”

She blinked. “I would not be responsible for their deaths or yours.”

“Wouldn’t you?” he asked. “I know you don’t believe you’re obligated to help people. And maybe you’re right. But you’re strong. It would be easy for you to save them. If you can help someone and choose not to, you’re responsible for what happens next. Your choice decided their fate. That’s basically the definition of responsibility, isn’t it?”

She blinked again. She had never thought of the matter from that perspective before. There was a certain logic to it that she could not deny. Obligation and responsibility were intertwined, but they were not the same. The matter of Ariya didn’t sway her. His previous argument would have been more successful on that front. Lusya could handle thinking about Ariya’s hypothetical feelings, however troublesome they would have been if brought to reality.

Yet the argument as a whole was convincing. She could not explain why it was so. It confused her, even. But she could not deny it.

“You are quite shrewd at times,” Lusya said. His ability to tailor his arguments to his audience while still stating what seemed to be his true opinion was impressive. “It seems rather at odds with your outlook.”

That said, it was obvious it made him uncomfortable, and learning to hide it better would have served his purposes. He could appeal to self-interest when moral pleas failed, but, for whatever reason, it seemed doing so caused him some level of distress.

Ander blushed and scratched his head. “Yeah, well, I am still a nobleman’s son. I might not be the heir, but you pick up a few things here and there…Huh, that rhymes.”

And it was gone. No matter, she did not dislike this side of him either. Although, there were few people she disliked in general. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that this aspect also had its appeals, though she could not quite place what they were.

“Very well,” she said. “I will assist you. We will make this quick, and I will not show or tolerate mercy.”

Ander scowled but nodded. “I won’t say that’s fine, but I can live with it. We don’t need to treat these guys like petty thieves.”

“Are you two really going to fight them?” Puvica asked. She had been silent, watching her home burn, but it seemed she had been listening, and had now turned to face them.

Ander nodded at her with a soft smile. “Yeah. We’ve got this.”

She gaped at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Thank you…”

“There will be no more discussing the matter,” Lusya said. “Secure the horses and we will go.”

“Yes, ma’am!”