It errupted from the ground in a storm of churned earth, rotten leaves, and flailing limbs. Quistis was slow to react and got tackled to the ground by Mertle as something lighting-fast crashed above their heads. Mertle rolled off her, knife in hand, already tracking something Quistis couldn't see.

She rose in time to catch glimpse of a naked man barrelling into Barlo, fist pumping. Bone snapped, the crack-crack-crack sound following each blow the creature landed against the Barlo's chest. The vanadal was knocked back into one of the trees, the force of impact shaking loose leaves down on them. Then the creature spun away as Falor swung his hammer at it, a blur among the dense foliage, leaping at Vial with the deadly intent of a predator.

The soldier caught the blow on his shoulder and was sent into Barlo, both of them sprawling in a tangle of limbs.

Their attacker was frightfully strong, lightning-fast, and never stopped moving.

Quistis brought up a barrier just as a fist the size of her head blasted through a fern, aimed straight at her face. She ducked and the barrier shattered, sending a blast wave of force to shake the trees. A kick caught her in the midriff, knocking all air and sense out of her as she went tumbling. Her back cracked against a tree.

The world went dark to the sound of Falor roaring.

Feeling returned with a sharp, throbbing pain in her side. She gasped for air that wouldn't come. Mertle's face swam into view. The elendine had dragged her into a sitting position against a tree. Dark eyes stared in worry at Quistis's face.

No air would come. Her chest refused to obey.

Behind the elendine, chaos reigned, a tangle of writhing bodies and greenery. The noise was unbearable, the ringing loud enough to blanket all other senses.

Her awareness swam. Darkness retook her. Then light blinded her. Mertle's palm tapped her cheek, rough enough to bring her focus back on the elendine. Mertle was speaking, but the words came to Quistis garbled, the ringing in her ears too loud to allow for anything else.

Her sight wrenched upward with a sudden jerk, pain flaring as something grabbed rough hold of her hair. A cold kiss pressed against her half-open lips, then fire poured into her mouth. She would've sputtered if she had any air to do it with. Instead, she forced herself to swallow.

The flames tasted of citron.

Life lit up in her veins as her mind sharpened back to unwanted, painful sensation. Something tender in her chest swelled up, popped back into place, knit together. Her spine felt as if it were trying to crawl out of her.

And she gasped in a lungful of air, as if coming up from dark water after nearly drowning. The accelerant did its work with dizzying efficiency.

"Are you alright?" Mertle's voice asked as her fingers released Quistis's hair.

Before Quistis could answer, something large crashed by her side, knocking over saplings, sending mud flying. Barlo rolled aside and launched himself back up with a snarl of anger. His face was a mushed mess, half of it caved in by some titanic blow.

The rest were fighting the creature, all of them hampered by the narrow space the forest allowed. Falor couldn't swing his hammer and he couldn't blast the thing away, left only to try and lay hands on it directly. Tummy kept it a bay, blocking its blows, but was beaten back just as the others, no match for its speed and ferocity.

It was everywhere at once, always moving, slipping away, coming back from odd angles, grinding them down. It wouldn't easily take down Barlo or Falor, but the noise would likely bring others. The monster only had to stall for time.

"I'm fine," Quistis said as Mertle dragged her up. "I need to contain that thing."

"Say when," Mertle said. "We need to handle it quick."

Mertle was tracking the thing, Quistis realised. The elendine's eyes roamed the trees, too intent to be random, always watching when the creature blasted out of the green for another strike. A black knife slid into Mertle's hand, the edge a near crimson line in the low light.

The naked creature—a large-set man built like a stone wall, with wild dark hair—toyed with the warriors, its attacks wildly unpredictable. Falor was wreathed in lightning but every time he cast a bolt, all he got was singed vegetation. He held back his power, the frustration clear as day on his face.

Barlo swung his great mace in a tight arc and Quistis heard rather than saw the impact, like a club hitting a sack of oats. The monster grunted and disappeared into the foliage, leaving skin and muscle on the mace's spiked head. She shuddered in revulsion, remembering what the thing could turn into if damaged enough.

Barlo, Tummy and Falor moved to stand back to back, their heavy weapons raised. Vial had moved closer to Quistis and Mertle, his sword held up as he covered their flank.

"I can kill it," Mertle said with sobering confidence. "I need it to stop moving."

Vial cried out behind them with the ringing sound of metal meeting something hard and equally sharp. Quistis and Mertle spun just in time to see a long, snake-like appendage slither back into the thick forest, a white blade glistened wetly on its end. Vial brought his sword up and parried another strike, this one headed for Quistis herself, his sword ringing with the impact.

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"Stay back," Quistis called to the other three as they moved to their aid. "Don't crowd us. Vial, restrict it."

The soldier parried another strike aimed for his head, and, quick as a mongoose avoiding a snake's lunge, he reached out with his free hand and grabbed the fleshy arm. He yanked hard on it. The creature exploded from the bushes, leaping with its other arm outstretched, claws diving for Vial.

It smashed face first into Quistis's invisible barrier, claws closing against empty air. It looked nightmarish now, the structure of it turned into some feral mockery of the human form. Muscles flowed liquid across it, and its head was a distended, feral thing, the mouth gaping open to reveal shattered teeth.

Quistis wove quickly, ignoring her still aching innards and the dread in her throat. Two walls on each side of the monster, one at its back. Reinforced. Tightened. She held her staff out and forced herself to stare at her quarry.

The monster hissed as it thrashed the limb Vial was holding, the only part of it outside Quistis's grasp. Vial held on for dear life, wrestling on the floor as if with a terrible snake, the blade whipping this way and that. Spikes of bone errupted though the glistening flesh, trying to impale him. They scrapped against his armour, caught in his sleeves, and scratched at his face.

Already the monster was slithering out through the gap Quistis had left it, its malignant shape changing fluidly to fit the escape. Bones snapped inside it with sickening crunches.

Mertle rocked on the balls of her feet at Quistis's side, watching with keen, black eyes as Vial struggled to hold his grip. Before Quistis could say something, the elendine burst forward, knife held out in a reverse grip.

"No!" Quistis screamed as Mertle crossed the short distance to the monster in a heartbeat.

Quistis didn't have time to drop her weave or say where the wall actually was. Mertle was going to smash her head against it.

Then the black knife came up into a quick slash and Quistis felt like she'd been kicked in the chest all over again. Her weave shattered as Mertle passed straight through the barrier. The second slash of the knife cut the monster's throat in a clean arc. Before blood sprayed, the elendine was against the creature, knife plunging in quick jabs into its elongated head.

A crunch as the blade went into an eye socket. Mertle twisted. The creature staggered, let out a low chitter, then clattered to the ground in a boneless pile. A burst of power sent them all reeling back, the leaves and the trees shaking with the force, as the creature died in uncoordinated spasms.

Mertle breathed hard, standing above the twitching corpse, knife still held at the ready.

Once the twitching stopped and the thing gave a last sputtering exhalation, Mertle cleaned the foul blood on the inner sleeve of her shirt, nose crinkling at the stench of it.

Quistis fought to clear her head of the sudden shock from Mertle earlier attack. Her mind reeled, addled by the impact of her weave being dispelled like that. She'd had barriers shatter before. It was an unpleasant kickback, but nothing she couldn't handle.

This had been downright painful, almost malicious in the way it had sent the power back to her. She looked with weary eyes as Mertle sheathed her black knife, the runes on its blade still shining crimson.

Falor and Barlo approached, both of them cautiously scanning the trees for more monsters. None leapt on the attack. Thunder roared nearby, as if another battle was being waged atop the walls.

"This is a terrible moment for this," Falor said as he approached and laid his hand around Quistis's middle, propping her up. "And I realise these are not perfect circumstances for this discussion." He pinned his black gaze on Mertle, who stared back at him as grim-faced as Quistis had ever seen the elendine. "But I suggest a trade of honesty."

Tummy moved to stand by Mertle, his presence as solid as a rock. A black bruise was growing on his cheek.

Falor drew in a deep breath. His entire body was coiled like a spring ready to snap, muscles hard against Quistis's shivering form. "I know what the two of you are," he said, measuring each word. "Let's not waste time, now that we've both shown our hands. Are you here to assassinate me? If yes, on whose order? And can it wait until we're done with the task at hand?"

Quistis felt her stomach drop. Falor couldn't have been more wrong! This was a terrible moment for whatever he assumed was going on, and she couldn't have him suspicious of Mertle and Tummy of all people, not of wanting to assassinate him.

"Falor—" she began.

Mertle cut her off. "We're not here on orders. On anyone's. Quite the opposite, actually."

"Who's your master?" Falor went on, his grip on Quistis's side relaxing.

"None," Tummy rumbled. "No more masters. No more yoke."

"Who was your master?" Falor amended, still not taking his eyes off Mertle.

This time the elendine hesitated. She looked over her shoulder to Tummy and got back a slight nod in response. "Aelir'matar Sarrinare," she said, spitting the words out as if they were bile. "May long she burn upon her eventual pyre."

Barlo let out a low chuckle that Quistis recognized as him relaxing after a fight. "Runaway thralls. Did I tell ye?" He tapped a meaty palm on her shoulder. "Ye owe me five crown golds, Captain. Me nose's never—"

Falor raise a fist and silenced the warrior. He and Mertle weren't done talking.

"What do you offer in return?" Mertle asked, voice cold and unyielding. "I gave you a truth. What is it you offer me in return?"

Falor pointed with his hammer towards the prison. "There's an aelir fighting in there, and she's a cruel, evil bitch. Aunt Yriea is not someone you want to trifle with. If we meet her, do not even look on her or she'll know what I've guessed… and she will kill you for it."

Mertle narrowed her eyes and Quistis shuddered at the sight. There was nothing of the bubbly leather worker she'd met in Valen. She's seen that expression on Mertle before, for a split moment, back at the Sisters when they'd cornered her for the meeting. Now she witnessed that glare once more, the calculating gaze that seemed to take in their number, strength, and chances of killing them all.

Did Dreea know? Could she know what her lover really was?

Did Cinder know?

Mertle spoke up before Quistis could spin herself out of her mind with questions. "I thank you for your warning. Do we proceed?"

Falor inclined his head and gave Quistis's side a soft squeeze. He'd felt her confusion probably. "We do."

"Do we have trust?" Mertle asked.

"Finally, we do, yes."

As everyone relaxed and before she could tend to their wounds, Falor leaned into Quistis and whispered for her ears only, "On Nen, deserting servants are flayed slowly over seasons. It is a matter of honour for any aelir to administer punishment to all runaways they encounter."

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