Grenade in hand, she thrust her left arm upward to the sky, a vindictive smile as three spear-bearing Erlings jabbed their spears into her. A final explosion and a brief searing pain passing from hand to body to head was the st thing she remembered.

  Until she snorted a nose-full of water.

  2. Vil Guha - ??, Year 216

  The sharp pain woke Sally up faster than the ice-cold temperature of the water itself did. She tried pushing herself up to hands and knees in order to cate air, but barely got an inch before losing her band falling on her left side. Instead, she tur into a clumsy roll and situated herself on her back. Thankfully, the water was shallow enough that this was enough for her head to be above the water.

  After taking some greedy gulps of air, coughing all the while, she opened her eyes and immediately regretted it. The overly bright sun seared straight through her eyes and into her head, activating the pounding headache that had been lurking unnoticed.

  Her whole body was both ag like a torn muscle and pletely numb, her lungs were burning like she’d inhaled smoke and her head was throbbing like it was ready to leak out of her ears. She felt like she was dying, which she might well be, and her body began to quickly give way to a deep lethargy. Uo hold them open, she closed her eyes and instead focused on not falling asleep.

  For a couple of seds – or minutes, or hours even for all she cared – Sally remained on her back, her breathing calming and deepening with each breath. Death seemed not yet ready to cim her, and the lure of the deep sleep lessened by every moment that passed. Both the ache and numbness subsided and she felt the cold water glide past her body, hearing it flow by her ear.

  With her focus returning, she attempted to figure out what was going on.

  Repying the memory of their doomed hunt didn’t help. The st thing she remembered – the grenade – should’ve killed her one way or another, either through sheer force or by shrapnel. Even if that hadn’t done her in, she bcked out after being stabbed any number of times by the Erlings. She should have bled out before even the idea of rescue could have materialized, let alone arrived.

  And she clearly hadn’t been rescued, or she wouldn’t be lying in a river – which made even less sense. How would she end up in a river? The arroyo had been dry and the closest ever-flowing river was at least two miles away. Furthermore, these were poisonous and who would bother dragging a still-living body that far just in order to get rid of them?

  Every thought brought only more questions and no answers.

  So, better stop thinking and start pnning. The Guha Vil was , roughly seven miles from the gully – if that was indeed where she was. If any of the others survived that was where they would go, and at the very least she should inform the Vil about what happened while trying to figure things out.

  Pn now set, she should really try a out of the river. Despite the water’s cold temperature, she felt rather fortable, but she shouldn’t trust her bht now. Her headache was all but gone, her breathing was steadier and the lethargy was repced with energy, but her memory said this should not be. So, better to get out while she still could.

  She sat up, experienced a brief bout of vertigo before wiping the water from her face with her left-

  She didn’t have a left arm.

  Sally stilled in fusion before turning to look at her left shoulder. There was nothing there, not even a maump as there should’ve been after having a grenade explode in her hand. It was as if someone had ly detached the arm from its socket, shoulder bde and colr bone unharmed.

  Well, at least it is healed, somehow, she thought.

  For a moment, she thought about what it meant to lose her left arm. Rapid fire images shot through her mind about things she couldn’t do anymore, things that would be substantially more difficult, before deg to ignore all of it. She didn’t have time for this. She’d see things as they e.

  Sally wiped the water off of her face with her right arm and stood up. A quick check revealed that her clothes were in tatters. Her jacket ractically gos remains barely ging tht shoulder aending over only half her ribs, leaving her arms bare. Her shirt was better, c her whole body and right arm, though it was riddled with holes fr spears and grenade shrapnel. Her belt was still attached, thankfully, and though her gun holster was regrettably empty, her knife was still there. Her pants and shoes were best off of the bunch, presumably because the body of the skinner-wolf protected it.

  Ahing that was curiously missing: the bodies. She did a quick look around and found that, indeed, she was still in the same ravine as yesterday – favorite rod all – but no sign of the battle remained. No bodies, no pits from the grenades or red patches of blood. Nothing remained, as if washed away with the arrival of the miracle water.

  Her unease kept growing.

  Thankfully, aside from the arm, the rest of her body looked a fihere were no wounds, nor cuts, and not even blood stained her anymore. She felt remarkably good all things sidered.

  “Miracle water indeed,” her voice sounded hoarse and was barely above a whisper. Then why couldn’t it heal her arm? She ighe bitter thought. Gift horses and all that.

  She bent and spooned some water into her mouth. It was fresh and cold, rejuvenating to her parched throat. Tastes like spring, she thought, not liking the implication. She kept drinking.

  Before long, she was sated and looked southward.

  Seven miles, she thought, three hive or take. She looked toward the sun, high in the sky though not directly above. Should arrive before dusk.

  Without any baggage to worry about, she set off.

  In three hours, she would know more.

  X

  Sally crested another hill, one of dozens along the way, though this one would be the st for now. The sun hung lower than it had before, though higher than she expected. The e glow and long shadows of a setting sun were yet to e. Despite the rough terrain, her pace had apparently bee despite her dark mood.

  During the journey, questions had kept pguing her, and while she remained firm in her refusal to let them e her, it had certainly worn her down. She felt like she walked ohi of ropes, held together by only a few threads that were rapidly fraying. If the questio haunting her, she’d colpse sooner rather than ter.

  Though the answers might be worse, she thought.

  But the answers would e, and soon at that.

  In front of her, within shooting distance was the Vil Guha. Its cube-like grey storucture should be a sight for sore eyes to all living in the Vils, and its tower jutting from the top a weling bea. It, along with the extensive works underground, had housed the Guha family feions, ever sihe Days of the Long Sun. All thirteen Vils had this same structure, the same yout, making it easy for everyoo feel at home even in whilst a guest with different families.

  No such feeling came to Sally, unfortunately. Because – of course – something was wrong.

  The tower was more of a nub and she could see a quarter of the structure had pletely colpsed in on itself.

  Furthermore, surrounding the Vil itself were a rge number of tents which, in turn, were further surrounded by barbed wire feng. Two more small wooden towers served as arao the newly structed base.

  Within its fines were men in dressed in appropriately brown-colored army fatigues. They were marg, training, maintaining arms and armor, ing or shoveling dirt, or watg others perform these things. It was a bustle of activity normally unseen outside the Vil itself.

  Further out from the base, farmers in clothing very different from the usual Vilyet wear were tending fields that weren’t theirs, herding sheep and goats that might be theirs and driving cattle that were definitively theirs, though equally unwele.

  These were Grandies, people from the Graral Union, the rge state west of the Circuits.

  Retions with them were usually good, at least retive to other unities outside the Circuits. Their caravaering from Gadeon and travelling the Gold Circuit before reag the Vils, brought them mueeded supplies ier abundahaeer cities around Lake Prior to the south a. And usually at a lower cost, too, for the western Vils at least.

  But retions were certainly not good enough for an army to host itself in front of a Vil, let alone allow them to use precious farm- and grazend so freely. That the Vil was ruined implied the worst.

  She felt anger, sadness and fusion at the sight. She’d been here retly, it couldn’t have ged this quickly.

  Another yer of dread was added to the pile, her tightrope a degree narrower.

  Sally marched up toward the entrahe guards at the entrand up the towers spotted her with ease, but made no moves yet. They beore wary as she approached, perhaps suspicious because of her shabby outfit, and one of the ones up iower drew a bead on her with his modern-looking automatic rifle.

  “Halt,” one of the two guards, a woman, at the entrananded Sally. The other flicked the safety off of his rifle, though did not raise it. “This is military property. State your name and purpose for visiting.”

  “And who are you to ask that?” she replied, unwilling to keep the indignation out of her voice. “Where are the Guhas?”

  The two guards shared a brief look, the man raising an eyebrow.

  “Once again, state your name and reason for visiting Station Guha.” The woman said, a bit harsher though also somewhat fused, putting an emphasis on the final two words. The guard in the sed tower also began aiming at her.

  Sally doubted the name Guha would remain if they had quered the Vil. They would probably Fort Victory, or something, she thought, though the humor fell ft even to her. Still, she decided to remain diplomatic.

  “Sarah Olivia Palters, junior Warden of the Vil Palter,” she stated.

  “Me, my mentor Niall, and Tarak and Marcel Guha – you know, this Vil’s Wardens” she couldn’t help but add acidly “were perf an iigation into a missing Guha farmer. Now, shit’s goo shit and I would like to at least inform their family of their loss.”

  Anger was getting the best of her. So much for diplomacy, she thought. I should be better than this. But her trol was shot.

  “Now, what is your reason for barring my entry?!” She all but spat at them.

  There was a long moment of sileneither side really knowing how to tinue.

  Meanwhile, they’d begun attrag attention. Men and women had left their duties and were watg her from behind the barbwire fence, murmuring and pointing at her.

  She felt herself begin to shake and flush red from the ahe ay, the shame at the loss of trol, the weight of the stares and the ever-mounting feeling of terror. Thankfully, before she could either curl into a ball in yelling again, a voice came from the back.

  “Now, what is going on over here,” a man, small in stature but apparently rge in rank, said as he moved through the crowd. His voice was smooth and calm, but authoritative all the same. Sophisticated, maybe. It was at least very uhe regur tones of Circuit dwellers.

  He looked at the crowd, before fog briefly fog on Sally, then shifting to the gate guard. “And who is she?”

  “A ‘Sarah Olivia Palters’, sir. Supposedly the junior Warden of Vil Palters,” the female guard replied, skepticism clear in her voice.

  Sally scoffed in indignation, ready to tear into them again.

  “Hmm,” the officer scratched his , “badge number?”

  The ent caught Sally off-guard. Ironically, the nour snapped her out of her spiraling, and calmed down. Still fused, but calm

  “What?” She replied.

  “Your badge number, your identification as a Warden,” the man answered.

  “We don’t have those. We are known to the unity,” she stated in a somewhat bewildered tone. She had no idea where he was going with this.

  The man gave her a nod and turned back to the female guard.

  “Grab Ensign Zjevik-Ong, would you.” The woman gave him a salute, before marg off.

  Sally bli the name.

  The Zjevik-Ohe third family occupying the western part of Vil territory. It was ly rare for a member of the Vils to leave and do their own thing – she sidered doing much the same when she was younger – and not strange for some to end up joining the army of the Grandies.

  She doubted that even after they left, a member of the Vils would join in warring against their former unity, nor be stationed in their ruins there after a hostile takeover.

  They waited in silenot exactly te her engaging to talk, before the female guard returned with a man in tow.

  “Yes, Major?” The man said with a salute.

  “Ensign, do yhis woman? Or the name Sarah Palters?”

  Sally doubted he would. While the man wasn’t old, he wasn’t youher, early thirties she guessed despite his someretty-boy look. She’s only been a junior Warden for five years and doubted he had been with there when she was announced, let aloer during the times when she visited their Vil in the course of her duties.

  Thus, it came a surprise that the man did, in fact, reize her. By least.

  “Yessir, I’ve heard the name. Came up during the defense in talks with the other Wardens. She and the uha and Palters Wardens had supposedly disappeared sometime before the Erlings desded. To iigate disappearance of a farmer and some herd.”

  Disappeared sometime before, she noted. She swallowed the lump f ihroat.

  “That’s sistent with what she told me, sir”, the female guard jumped in. The guard’s gaze then shifted to Sally, a look of pity in her eyes. “More or less,” she finished quietly.

  Sally liked that even less.

  “Very well. Warden Palters, if you’d please follow me to the a. Ensign, tag along.” He turo face the crowd. “The rest of you, return to your duties,” he anded with a raised voice before walking away. The crowd plied with a mumbled chorus of yessirs.

  Sally began to follow, the ensign walking beside her.

  “It’s good to hear someone survived, you know?” The man began with a smile. “We feared that-”

  “Wait until we’re ient, Makis,” the major interrupted.

  The ensign looked oddly sheepish, tugging at his curly hair befiving her an apologetic look.

  The signs were painting a very bad picture indeed.

  It wasn’t long before they arrived at the ter of the camp, an unlit firepit surrounded by seveents, three to either side and one in front of them. The aer, no doubt.

  They ehe one in the ter, the ensign holding the entrance fp open for her. Inside was a small offiplete with chair and desk front aer, with a number of racks with shelves occupied by miseous equipment to her left and a duo filing ets tht.

  “Please, have a seat,” the major said, gesturing toward the chair in front of the desk while he went to the filing ets. The ensigo stand in front of the equipment racks instead of seating himself beside her.

  Sally didn’t budge.

  “Why all this… secrecy?” She asked, frustrated and suspicious.

  “Not secrecy, Sarah,” the ensign replied, “Empathy.”

  She looked at them and was, agai with a pitying gaze. It seems everyone knows but me, the bitter thought rang.

  “Indeed, Warden, the privacy is not for us.” The major finished fishing in the ets and pulled out a file from the bottom drawer before moving toward the chair behind the desk. They were apparently well-anized.

  She hesitated for moment before moving the chair in front of her.

  “It’s Sally, by the way,” she said. “Not Sarah.” She received a nod from both men as she sat down on the chair.

  “You may refer to me as Charles, and that is Makis, as you probably heard earlier. Or Major Frelik and Ensign Zjevik-Ong, if you prefer the formalities.” She wasn’t in the mood for anything.

  The major opehe file and asked: “It states here that you and yroup went on an expedition, starting on January six and were st seen on the ninth, correct?” She hough found the word ‘expedition’ a bit too grand. “And is that Friday the st day you remembered?” She nodded again, brag for the news.

  “Today is July seventeen.”

  July sevehe word echoed in her mind.

  She’d been gone for over six months.

  Her first instinct was to deny it. She knew by now that she’d been gone for lohan a day, but six months? That was beyond i was simply impossible. If it were true, she would have been beyond deader than dead. Even her bones would have beeen by some beast and that beast would have likely beeen in turn by that time. She wouldn’t be here, couldn’t be here if six months had passed.

  But even it was just a day, let alone a whole week – the maximum she could imagine being realistic – she should not be alive, and the loimeli her other observatioer. The warmth, the spring– or rather, summer meltwater in the arroyo, the brightness of the sun, its positioive to the time of day. The fact that the Grandies had finished setting up shop in the Guha’s home and had filled up at least one whole filing et already…

  Her vision began to darken at the edges and she felt a mug being pushed into her hand. She took a sip of the water. It steadied her somewhat.

  “Sally,” Charles said. She didn’t look up at him. “ you tell me what happened?”

  Thankful for the distra, she began telling them of their days searg, their pns for baiting their prey and the discovery of the skinner-wolves. She expihe revised pn and how their ambush, in turn, ter-ambushed by the Erlings. She told them of her final act – the one she’d presumably lost an arm for – and her bg out before waking up, apparently, six months ter.

  They’d remained quiet as she told her story, the water aelling helping her e over the shock.

  “The mysteries of the new world are boundless and uable,” the major mumbled once she finished. It sounded almious the way he said it, but when she looked up he looked at her only with passion.

  Before a dark look took over his features.

  “Unfortunately, your enter was not the result of circumstance. Somehow, the Erlings, led by some form of shaman-figure, had mao either tame or create packs of skinner-wolves. A couple weeks after your enter, they went down the mountains not to raid, but to migrate.”

  Photographs, the first time she’d seen such things, were picked from the file and shoved toward her side of the table. They depicted familiar bodies of skinner-wolves and Erlings side by side.

  “They struck hard and fast, and with the element of surprise at their side. The Wardens had only just begun to set up defenses, but were not prepared for the scale of the incursion. By the time they figured out what was going on, the Erlings had already peed deep, deep toward the south, up to and including parts of the Gold and Red Circuits.”

  More pictures, this time of dead horses and people along with wrecked carts. Trading caravans, most likely.

  “It eventually took the bined forces of the Wardens, the city of Gadeon, a number of the Anteer cities and a detat of our own Frontiersmen to halt their advahankfully, after the Wardens mao track down and kill their shaman, they splintered and we mao drive them bapletely. But not immediately, and not without cost.”

  New photographs, depig familiar buildings in familiar pces.

  “Now, being the most northwestern Vil and the first to be struck, Vil Guha was quickly overwhelmed. The Wardens attempted to halt the tide at the Vil Palters, but as they were the o be struck they did not yet know the full scope of the problem.”

  Her home, in ruins. Destroyed by a threat she’d been iigating. A threat she’d faced on the field, hoped to face, even, these Erlings. She had teased her mentor with it, spooked Tarak with it, and she had gotten her wish.

  They should’ve listeo Niall wheold them to retreat, to create a better pn, to ask for reinforts from the Zjevik-Ong Wardens, to create a fallba. But they hadn’t, because she spooked Tarak inting his homemade explosives, which vinced Marcy to go ahead. They were just skinner-wolves after all, right? A rare and dangerous threat, but manageable.

  They’d lost not only the battle – something to be expected sidering what she now knew – but had failed to survive, failed to deliver a warning. When she had gaihe inkling she might be the st alive, instead her hardest to run away, she’d doubled down in pride and lust for battle and revenge.

  But the major wasn’t do.

  “Now, we’ve searched both Vils, every er, every closet, behind every door and under every bed from tower to basement,” Charles said. Sally raised her head and looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Sally. We’ve found no survivors.”

  She’d failed her unity, her parents, her siblings, all those baring the name Palters and beyond. And now they’re all dead.

  That was the final straw.

  X

  “What’ll you do now?” Makis asked. “Return to your Vil?”

  It had been a few days since Sally broke down into an embarrassing blubbery, teary mess. The now-dubbed Station Guha had been a kind host, more than kind. Beyond food, water and shelter, they’d given her clothes – the legacy of the Guha, she wi the unfair thought. There would be more to their legacy than the clothes on her back.

  They’d even gone ahead and given her a pistol simir to her previous one, a Guardsman .45, along with a good amount of spare ammo. Apparently, it was not standard for most of their firearms and was instead used for visiting Wardens needing resupply. Which was what they saw her as, she supposed, although in her heart couldn’t agree.

  “No,” she replied, a bit tersely. He didn’t deserve it, he’d been nothing but kind, but he kept trying to vince her to return to that ruin. To mourn et some sort of closure, he’d said. But she won’t, she couldn’t ha. Not yet.

  “Will you return to the Wardens? I could probably guide you to the Zjevik-Ong at least. Maybe even further if I vince Charles, make it sound like some kinda retionship-building thing with the Vils and Wardens.” He offered.

  It was kind of him. It was clear he was worried to let her go alone, but that was exactly what she wished to be.

  “I have a brother in the Arist guild in one of the Anteer cities,” she said, though she couldn’t recall which. She finished pag her stuff and slung the bag across from left hip tht shoulder. “I’ll try to find him, I suppose. Let him know that there is another Palters.”

  She walked out the front gate, the same guards that greeted her three days priiving her a solemn nod.

  “Do e baetime, alright? I’ve yet to show you all the things we’ve done around here. The defenses we built, the pns we made for the region.”

  Sally turned bae final time. Makis was looking at her with .

  She deliberated for a sed, looking skyward and scratg her throat.

  “Maybe,” she replied, unsure of anything right now. The past days had been tough, ae the kindness she was shown, this pce would likely turn into a bad memory before long.

  She could only hope it wouldn’t remain that way.