Displaced

Chapter 118

Gabriela Carreno had never really been toGustil. Sure, she'd been within its borders before, and had even stepped inside many of its most prominent cities, but she'd never really experienced the place. Instead, she'd spent her time residing in a bubble, only leaving it momentarily to go topple a city or rout an army. The Ubrans had preferred it that way, and if she had to be honest, she'd preferred it that way as well. It had made it easier to wall off those thoughts so she wouldn't start questioning herself as she performed atrocity after atrocity.

Still, after wandering aimlessly through the land for several days, even she could tell just how fractured and chaotic the place had become. From what she'd seen, it was a stretch to even call Gustil a single country anymore.

Many of the larger towns she'd come across had largely barricaded themselves in with wood, stone, or whatever they could find to protect themselves—and had plenty of reason to do so. Marauding bandit gangs roamed the trade routes, attacking merchants and plundering any town or village without the means to effectively defend itself—which was a lot of them. That alone would be enough cause for Gustilians to fear, but sadly, it seemed that bandits were the least of their problems.

The Ubrans' retreat had created a nationwide power vacuum, and vacuums existed to be filled. If the Gustilian royal family had still been around, they might have been able to use their cultural authority to regain control of the nation, but they weren't—Gabby had ensured that herself. The same could be said for the governors of the largest Gustilian cities and the military commanders—to her knowledge, none had escaped her blade. The rest of the Gustilian army hadn't fared well, either.

The end result was that the remaining lower nobles and the like had gone on to carve up Gustil's carcass into tiny city-states and small fiefdoms. With nobody above to keep them in line, they were each using their relatively paltry power to grasp at greater influence, strength, and riches. Skirmishes, raids, and outright war blazed across the land as the various petty lords fought over borders and control. Already, Gabby had witnessed two minor clashes during her travels, though she'd kept her distance.

In a way, Gustil was lucky that their neighbors were Stragma and Eterium. Eterium was so busy trying to hold itself together that it didn't have the means to capitalize on Gustil's anarchy, while Stragma continued their jungle-bound way of life. Still, just because things could have been worse didn't mean that they weren't bad enough as it was. Everybody's lives in Gustil were a mess.

Gabriela would fit right in.

Her stomach rumbled as she approached another town. She hadn't eaten in over a day and hadn't changed her clothes since she'd left Chitra at Hankala five days ago—the best she'd managed was to wash them once in a stream. This was because of one simple mistake: she'd been so angry and distressed that night in the village that she'd forgotten to take her pack and sword with her when she'd fled. All she had was what she'd had on her at the time, which was nothing but the clothes on her back. Unfortunately, this slip-up meant that she had little choice but to rely on the kindness of strangers when it came to food and shelter, and such kindness was at an all-time low.

She could always have gone back and grabbed her stuff, but Gabby had no intention of ever doing such a thing. Firstly, she wasn't sure she'd be able to find the place now; she'd needed Chitra to guide her there through the nondescript, barren plains the first time. But more importantly, Chitra would probably still be there. Gabby had no desire to see the Ubran woman again, not for... she didn't know how long, actually. Maybe forever.

It was a weird feeling, being angry about being loved. It left her feeling frazzled and frayed, and a little betrayed. She and Chitra had had a wonderful friendship, but now Chitra had ruined it. No matter how much Gabby might want it, their relationship could never return to the friendship it had once been. That undercurrent of knowledge would always be there, lurking in the dark recesses of her mind, reminding her that her former friend wanted something more from her than she could allow herself to give... and if Gabby weren't careful, Chitra might get what she wanted and bring even more sin upon them both.