Cassian's POV
"They're gaining on us!"
I stumbled over roots I couldn't see in the darkness, my lungs burning. Behind us, torches bobbed through the trees like angry fireflies. Hunting us. Always hunting us.
"This way!" Thalric hissed, pulling me left toward a rocky slope. "There's a river at the bottom. We can lose them in the water!"
Eryndra brought up the rear, her axe ready. "How many?"
"Too many," Thalric grunted. "Twenty, maybe more. Move faster!"
We'd been running for three days straight. Three days of hiding, sleeping in mud, eating whatever we could find. My shoulder wound had gone from painful to agonizing—the bandage was soaked with yellow pus that smelled like death.
Infection. I knew enough to recognize that. And infections killed just as surely as swords.
"There!" A soldier's shout. "I see them!"
Arrows whistled past my head.
"RUN!" Eryndra shoved me forward.
We crashed down the slope, sliding on loose rocks. I hit the river hard, the cold water shocking my system. Thalric grabbed my arm and pulled me downstream, using the current to move faster.
The soldiers reached the riverbank, but Eryndra had already put an arrow through the first one's shoulder. The others scattered for cover.
"Keep moving!" she called, splashing in beside us.
We let the river carry us for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. Finally, Thalric pulled us onto a muddy bank miles downstream.
I collapsed, shivering and coughing up river water.
"Can't... keep doing this," I gasped.
"Ye don't have a choice," Thalric said grimly. "Rest here. Ten minutes. Then we move again."
"I need more than ten minutes—"
"Then ye'll die tired instead of rested. Yer pick." He wasn't being cruel, just honest.
Eryndra knelt beside me, checking my shoulder. Her face darkened when she saw it. "This is bad. Very bad. The infection's spreading."
"I'm fine."
"You're dying." She looked at Thalric. "He needs medicine. Real medicine, not river water and hope."
"Nearest town is Crossridge, two days east. But it's crawling with soldiers." Thalric stroked his beard. "We'd never make it."
"Then I'll find herbs," Eryndra said. "There are plants that fight infection. I'll hunt food while I'm at it. You two rest."
"Alone?" I struggled to sit up. "That's too dangerous—"
"More dangerous than you dying?" She stood. "I'll be back before dark. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." She looked at Thalric. "Keep him alive."
"Aye. Though the stubborn fool seems determined to make that difficult."
Eryndra vanished into the forest, silent as a shadow.
I lay back down, my whole body aching. "Does she always take charge like that?"
"She's a warrior. Warriors don't ask permission." Thalric pulled out a small knife and started carving something from a stick. "Ye should sleep. Ye look like death warmed over."
"I feel worse than I look."
He chuckled. "That's saying something, lad."
I closed my eyes. Just for a moment. Just to rest...
I woke to the smell of cooking meat.
Evening had fallen. A small fire crackled nearby—hidden in a depression so the light wouldn't show. Eryndra was back, roasting something on a stick. Thalric snored nearby, his hammer across his lap.
"You're awake." Eryndra didn't look up from the fire. "Good. You need to eat."
She handed me the cooked meat. Rabbit, maybe. I didn't care. I tore into it like a starving animal, which I basically was.
"Slow down," she said. "You'll make yourself sick."
I forced myself to chew properly. The food was heaven. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet." She pulled out a handful of crushed leaves. "This is going to hurt."
Before I could ask what she meant, she pressed the herbs into my infected wound.
I screamed.
White-hot pain exploded through my shoulder. It felt like she'd poured fire into the cut. I thrashed, but she held me down with one hand—impossibly strong.
"Breathe through it," she commanded. "The medicine is working."
"WORKING?" I gasped. "It's KILLING me!"
"If it was killing you, you'd already be dead. Now hold still."
The burning slowly faded to a deep ache. When I could think again, I realized the wound did feel... different. Cleaner, somehow. Less like rotting meat.
"Better?" Eryndra asked.
"Define better."
She almost smiled. "You're not dead. That's better."
I managed a weak laugh. "Your bedside manner needs work."
"I'm a warrior, not a healer." She sat back, wiping her hands on grass. "But I've patched up enough wounds to know what works."
We sat in silence for a while, just listening to the fire crackle and Thalric's snores. It was the first peaceful moment we'd had in days.
"Can I ask you something?" I said quietly.
"Depends on the question."
"Why did you save me? That first time, in Millbrook. You could've killed me. Should've killed me. I was your enemy."
Eryndra stared into the fire, her amber eyes distant. "You know what I saw when I looked at you?"
"A weak human?"
"My brother." Her voice cracked. "Same scared eyes. Same desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, the world wasn't as terrible as it seemed." She looked at me. "Kael believed people were good. That humans and orcs could be friends. I thought he was naive."
"What changed?"
"You." She poked the fire with a stick. "You could've run back to your army. Reported everything. Gotten rewards for exposing the 'orc spy.' But you didn't. You chose truth over safety. That's rare. In any species."
"I'm not that brave. I'm just... I'm tired of lies."
"Bravery isn't not being scared. It's being terrified and doing the right thing anyway." She handed me more cooked meat. "Eat. You need strength."
I ate, and she told me about orc culture. How they weren't savage killers but had families, traditions, art. How young orcs learned poetry alongside fighting. How they honored their dead with songs that lasted for days.
"We're not so different, your people and mine," she said. "We love. We mourn. We hope. The only difference is that your leaders decided we were inconvenient."
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "For what they did. For your brother. For everything."
"You didn't do it."
"But my people did. That makes me responsible too."
"No." Her voice was firm. "You're only responsible for what you choose to do now. And right now, you're choosing to fight for truth. That's enough."
She started humming something—a low, haunting melody that made my chest ache.
"What's that?" I asked.
"An orc lullaby. I used to sing it to Kael when he had nightmares." She sang softly:
"Sleep now, small warrior, sleep,The stars watch over you.In dreams, no shadows creep,Only skies of endless blue.Tomorrow brings another fight,But tonight, you rest in light."
Tears ran down her face. She didn't wipe them away.
I wanted to say something comforting, but words felt wrong. So I just sat with her in the grief.
"He would've liked you," she said finally. "Kael. He would've asked you a million questions about human life. Driven you crazy with his curiosity."
"I would've answered every one."
She looked at me—really looked at me—and for the first time, she smiled. Not a smirk or a battle grin. A real, genuine smile.
I smiled back.
For just a moment, we weren't human and orc. Enemies. Fugitives. We were just two people who'd survived hell together.
Then arrows exploded through the campfire, scattering embers everywhere.
"AMBUSH!" Thalric roared, already on his feet.
Soldiers poured out of the trees—both human and orc. A joint hunting party. They'd put aside their war to hunt us together.
"Traitors die together!" a human officer shouted.
"Shame to your clans!" an orc warrior roared at Eryndra.
We were surrounded. At least thirty fighters. No escape route. No chance.
Eryndra and I stood back-to-back, weapons ready. Thalric beside us, hammer raised.
"Any brilliant ideas?" I asked.
"Die fighting," Eryndra said calmly. "Die on our feet."
"I hate that plan."
"You have a better one?"
I looked at my hands. Purple embers still flickered on my fingertips—the Voidflame I couldn't control. Power that could save us or kill us all.
"Maybe," I whispered.
"Maybe isn't good enough!" Thalric growled. "They're attacking!"
The soldiers charged as one, a wave of steel and hate.
I closed my eyes and reached for the fire inside me.
Please, I thought. Please let me control it this time.
Purple flames erupted from my hands—
And something impossible happened.
The fire didn't explode wildly like before. It moved with purpose. With direction. Like it was listening to me.
I thrust my hands forward, and a wall of Voidflame erupted between us and the soldiers. They stumbled back, screaming.
"RUN!" I shouted.
We ran.
The fire wall held for precious seconds, giving us a head start. But I could feel it slipping. My control was fragile. The power wanted to break free, to consume everything.
"This way!" Thalric pointed to a narrow canyon. "We can lose them in the rocks!"
We dove into the canyon just as my fire wall collapsed. The soldiers recovered and gave chase, their war cries echoing off stone walls.
The canyon twisted like a maze. We ran blind, taking turns at random. Left, right, left—
We hit a dead end.
Solid rock wall. No way forward. No way up.
Behind us, torches appeared. Dozens of them. Blocking our only escape.
"Well," Thalric said grimly. "This is unfortunate."
The soldiers formed a semicircle, trapping us. Their leader stepped forward—a scarred human captain with cold eyes.
"End of the line, traitors. Surrender and we'll make it quick. Fight and we'll make you suffer."
Eryndra raised her axe. "Then we fight."
I summoned my Voidflame again, but my hands shook. I was exhausted. The power was slipping.
This was it. We were going to die.
Then a voice echoed from the canyon walls—female, powerful, and terrifyingly familiar:
"How disappointing. I was hoping for more of a challenge."
Everyone froze.
Commander Seraphine stepped into the torchlight, her white armor gleaming. Behind her, fifty more soldiers appeared from hidden positions.
We'd been herded. This wasn't a random ambush. It was a trap.
And we'd walked right into it.
Seraphine smiled at me—beautiful and deadly.
"Hello again, Cassian. Did you really think you could run from me forever?"