Queen Zezanna

Queen Zezanna - Chapter 18

The area surrounding the city is dangerous. Almost everyone in the city does some kind of illegal business, with half of them working with Glory. As such, you've gotta be careful of people that want to kill you for a variety of reasons, though mostly just to steal your stuff.

"Mercy and a few of her allies have agreed to meet up with us in a nearby house. We may be allies, but neither of us were trusting enough to reveal the location of our hideouts. In this line of work, it isn't really surprising." She tells me.

"And how can you be sure that this isn't a trap?" I ask.

"Quite frankly, I can't know. I do understand that these kids are about to do something risky and heroic, though, so I don't think they plan to betray us yet... Or ever, hopefully."

Anomalia tells us that we're coming up on a place where highwaymen often lay in wait. It's right on the main road, leading to the castle and the capital, so they often get some good stuff out of waiting here for traders to cross their paths.

Ysana offers to make us invisible, and Anomalia takes her up on the offer. As we make our way across the road, I notice a few highwaymen hiding nearby. One runs up to tell them about a carriage that's going to be passing through, so they start to get into position.

As they do, we've got to be extra careful not to bump into anyone as they run around. Thankfully, we make it past them with no issues, and are soon far away from them.

"You can breathe easy now." Anomalia tells us.

"I feel bad that they're gonna ambush that carriage, and we're not doing anything." I tell her.

"I know. We're outnumbered, though, and even if we did defeat them, a new group would take their place within a week."

"I understand." I sigh.

Ysana drops her invisibility spell, and we continue on.

"The times are tough for us." Anomalia explains as we take a short break to catch our breath. "Almost everyone I know has lost someone to this war against Tahili. Many have lost their homes and businesses to arson, thanks to some Tahili soldiers that have snuck over to cause chaos. That is why so many have turned to banditry."

"I feel sorry for them, but surely there must be another option." I mutter.

"You gotta do what you gotta do." She shrugs. "Anyhow, that's enough of a break. Mercy's safehouse isn't too far, now, so let's get moving."

We follow her until we hear some type of screaming up ahead. It also sounds like something is being hit.

"We may have some type of issue up ahead. This is pretty much where the safehouse is, so Mercy might have run into some kind of problem. Be prepared to fight." She tells us.

We take out our weapons, place our packages down, and sprint towards where we hear the screaming. When we get there, I see a teenage girl with short hair and lots of tattoos punching a tree, eventually knocking it down, and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"M-Mercy?" Anomalia asks, carefully walking towards her.

The girl who we assume is Mercy spins around, and faces us. Her eyes are blood red, and her teeth seem to be sharp like a wolf's.

"This must be the demon inside of her that you warned us about." Ysana notes.

"I hoped that we wouldn't meet it. I was figuring it only happened when she was mad." Anomalia says. I can hear the fear in her voice.

"What do we do?" Heroth asks.

"Run. We can't defeat her."

She doesn't need to tell me twice. I run full speed away from the young girl, with the others right behind me. Anomalia is probably the fastest of us all, but seems to lag behind us.