Mortance: A Miscarriage of Hope

Lily Ⅵ

"There's a village ahead," Beacon said as she landed on the hill we'd camped on and shifted from a hawk. Her hair had grown nearly to her eyes by now.

"So? We'll follow the vir around it," I replied.

"She's gone into it," Beacon told me as she pulled on her furs. It was getting warmer, but not warm enough to wear anything cooler for nearly another fortnight. "It's bigger than all the others so far."

"We can't risk being seen," Elyssa said.

"We've already been seen," Winter pointed out. "Remember?"

"Right," the witch nodded. I remembered too. It was a small village, and they left us alone, but we were still seen. A larger village might have had contact with a lord or something, but nobody cares who passes through a village that small, I thought. That sounded right, but really I knew next to nothing about the politics and culture of Sacreon. Will this larger village have a lord? I wondered. None among us could really know that. Only one way to find out.

"How far ahead is this village?" Albert asked.

"Not far," Beacon answered. "We'll be there before midday if we leave now."

"Then leave now we shall," Winter decided. "Twenty minutes to break camp, I think."

"It'll be less," I smiled almost hungrily. It is in the village, I knew. Rose will have justice, finally. I will put an arrow through her killer's neck, just like it did to her. I will kill it. The notion excited me. Rose deserved justice for what was done to her, and now I would finally deliver it. Finally...

Still, something felt off. This is not justice, the spider's voice declared in my head. This is not vengeance either. It is simply wrong. But she was the one who was wrong. I would shoot an arrow through the murderous monstrous vir's neck and end its life the same way it ended Rose's. No imaginary arachnid could change that. Shut up, bug.

I can show you, the voice continued. I can show you the truth of all this.

I said shut up, I commanded.

Sora is innocent, the spider insisted. If you would just-

"Shut up," I said aloud.

"Lily?" Winter asked from behind me. "Who are you talking to?"

"No one. Don't worry about it," I said quickly as I finished packing and stood. "Let's go."

Winter nodded like she believed me, but her watchful eye the whole way to the village didn't go unnoticed. Does she think I'm going mad? I wondered. Then again, an imaginary spider was haunting my dreams and acting very real. I'll ask Ugen or someone about that when this is done. We're so close now.

The village looked old and worn. It was built on a river, amidst ruins of some ancient witch city. There were flimsy looking walls around it, and it seemed the only way in was across a sandbar. There seemed to be a small bridge on the other side, but that was all. "This is it?" I asked.

"This is it," Beacon confirmed. "I'm going to fly over and watch so that the vir doesn't escape over the bridge to the other shore. The rest of you... try to look as human as possible."

"Right." I pulled a hood over my head to cover my ears. Winter did the same next to me. Harmony and Torrent reluctantly followed our lead. "How do I look?"

Winter squinted at me. "As long as nobody looks too close, we'll be fine."

"We'd be better than fine if I had illusion magic instead of whatever this is," Elyssa said as she ran a hand through her light hair.