Sara was carrying the fighter woman up the steps to Lady Vesta's estate when the door suddenly flung open, the head of the servants looking down at the sight before him with unvarnished concern. He was still in his nightclothes, probably having been hastily roused after whoever watched the streets at night had seen Sara's approach.

  "Need I call a healer, Lady Sara?" He asked politely, unfppable as always.

  "No. Please go wake up Garen, tell him that I'm calling in the favor he owes me."

  "I will do so immediately, My Lady, but I warn you, Master Garen is a difficult man to rouse. A mage has many ways of ensuring his sleep is undisturbed."

  Evie, still holding the woman's legs as they hauled her across the threshold, addressed the butler with acerbic cynicism.

  "I'm sure Garen is quite accomplished, but you, Mister Toman, are the titleless servant that was so skilled at their tasks that you've been promoted to the third most powerful person in the Vesta estate, second only to the Lord and Lady themselves. You manage near everything about their home, and don't pretend I haven't seen you signing official business documents in their name. So frighteningly broad is your authority that it would likely be found illegal for a commoner to wield it should word reach the greater world." Evie fixed him with a piercing gre. "I will crify my Master's far-too-polite inquiry: You have a manner of waking Garen, and you will do so immediately."

  Toman blinked, wringing his hands as he nodded apprehensively. "I have some... measures prepared, but they were contingencies in the event of an assault upon the manor or something simir. He will not be pleased, I must warn you."

  "Tell him to get pissed at me, not you, then get his ass down here," Sara snapped. Wincing, she reigned in her irritation. "Sorry. Just... it's been a long night, and I know for a fact that I won't be sleeping until I get this shit sorted."

  "Then I shall return with Master Garen post-haste, My Lady. Oddry, if you would take care of our esteemed guests more pressing concerns in the meanwhile?"

  As soon as Toman said the name, a shutter clicked to Sara's right. A door split open seamlessly from wood paneling, revealing a servant woman with a maid's dress stepping out. Unlike most of the staff, her dress had subtle filigrees to its edges, and it seemed tailored to her dimensions.

  "Greetings, My Ladies. Where do you wish to keep your guest while you await Master Garen?"

  Sara looked to Evie, who stared bnkly back at her. They were still holding the sort-of-sve between them, her head lolling unconsciously.

  "I don't know. We're going to try and wake her, then probably have a long and difficult discussion. Do you have any suggestions?"

  "Lady Vesta had constructed several small and private withdrawing rooms, furnished with couches rge enough to serve as beds for your guest, complimented by enchantments that prevent eavesdropping."

  "Sounds good to me, appreciate it. Let's go."

  Oddry turned sharply on her heel, leading them down a hallway.

  "I also must inquire," Oddry said as she walked, "If the stories young Emery has been repeatedly regaling the staff with are based in truth."

  Sara chuckled slightly, quieter than she would have in less stressful circumstances.

  "They are. You don't have to treat me as a Lady or Knight or whatever. I'm just Sara."

  "Then, Sara, I will ask another question," Oddry turned sharply down a corner, walking just fast enough that Sara had to struggle to keep pace. "Did you two walk throughout the city dressed as you are, carrying that woman between you?"

  Sara gnced down, suddenly recalling her state of undress. She was wearing blood and beer-soaked shorts, no rger than boxers, and a sweaty cloth chest wrap that concealed nothing, serving only to prevent her breasts from bouncing freely. Evie was dressed in the same manner, and the not-sve they carried was simir, save for a leather binder in the pce of cloth.

  "Uh... yeah, we did."

  Oddry sighed. "I am not the only one among the noble houses watching the streets at night, Sara. The buzz at tomorrow's gatherings will likely be considerable."

  Sara really wouldn't have cared, if not for the fact that it might make Vesta's life a little more difficult.

  "Welp. That's gonna be weird, huh?"

  Evie smirked as Oddry opened a door for them, ushering them inside. "Master, the rumors flying around you are already scandalous enough. What's one more?"

  Sara shook her head as she id out the woman on a wide couch, pcing a pillow beneath her head. Oddry brought over a bnket from a nearby cupboard, pcing it neatly over the woman, for propriety's sake.

  "Will you require my services further, My Ladies?" Oddry asked, returning to formality.

  "Probably not?" Sara guessed. "Not for a while, at least. Can you make sure Toman and Garen know where we are?"

  "Of course."

  With that Oddry slipped through the door, leaving the three of them alone.

  Sara dropped into a chair, csping her head in her hands and groaning. "Fine fuckin' mess I got us in, huh?"

  Evie, slumping into the chair beside Sara, patted her leg reassuringly. "Nothing unresolvable, Master. I'm sure an accord can be reached."

  "Are you sure?" Sara waved to the colr csped around the stranger's neck. "We've seen for ourselves how binding those damn things are, even if it's worked in your favor. And don't forget, by the way, that she'll have the same 'obligations' as you, and I highly doubt she'll be as excited about them."

  Evie's lips pursed. "We don't know her temperament yet, Master. Perhaps she will enjoy her servitude as much as I did."

  Sara shook her head. "Amarat didn't guide me to her like she did you, Evie. She's just a normal woman, forced into a life of svery. Hell, we don't even know if she's into women at all."

  "And we won't know until she awakes. Peace, Master. Leave the unknowns alone for now and focus on what can be done."

  Sara sighed, watching the slow rise and fall of breath in the woman across from her. She gathered her thoughts while she waited for Garen to arrive, pcing her priorities in neat lists in her mind, then on paper when the list grew too long. There was too much ground for her to cover on her own, too much to consider and factor in, but one thing was certain: Sara would never truly own a sve.

  Eventually there was a light rap at the door, followed by it cracking open.

  "I have brought Master Garen, Lady Sara. Are all inside decent?"

  "No, but bring him in anyway."

  The door swung wider, admitting a tousled and very grumpy mage. He'd pulled on his robes, but loosely tied as they were, Sara could see the medieval equivalent of a white tank top and shorts beneath. His hair, Sara also noted, was soaking wet.

  "Lady Sara," Garen greeted calmly, before turning around and angrily smming the door in the face of Toman behind him. He turned back to her with an exaggerated smile. "I hear you've found a reason for my services?"

  "We have," Sara confirmed, indicating the woman on the couch. "Sorry for waking you, but I wasn't going to wait."

  "I am unbothered by being woken, I assure you, even if the method was rather brusque."

  Sara gnced once more at his sopping wet head. "How did Toman manage to get your attention? He told me your quarters were protected."

  "They were, and are. I'd enchanted my room to be unapproachable while I was unconscious, with nigh-impenetrable magical wards wrapping it from head to toe, but he managed anyway." Garen summoned a chair from the ether, sitting to Sara's left. "It was quite ingenious, actually, almost enough to stymie my irritation. There was a small crawlspace above my bed, unnoticed by me, and therein were a set of books stood on end, growing in size as they lead up to a bucket of water. By pounding on the floor above my room, he disturbed the first block, which hit the second, third, and so on, until a rge tome knocked over the bucket of water. The ceiling tile above my pillow was porous and weak, snapping as soon as it was wetted, thus showering me with rotten wood and icy water. Most impressively of all, as none of his actions were of Intent to harm me, much less capable of it, the wards," Garen twisted in his chair to yell at the door, "that would have RENT HIM LIMB FROM LIMB!" He settled back into his chair calmly. "Were never activated."

  Sara, despite the severity of her predicament, ughed. "You got got pretty good there, man.

  Garen smiled. "I suppose I did. A reminder that no matter how well defended I think myself, there will always be someone more forward thinking than I. An archmage could have whaled at my wards for hours without waking me, yet a humble servant did it in minutes."

  "I don't know if y'all have the phrase here, but there's a saying on Earth: Don't bite the hand that feeds you. When you live in a massive house built and managed by one guy, it's a good idea to keep on his good side."

  "Quite," Garen agreed. Then, looking at the woman on the couch, he slowly sobered. "Well, Lady Sara, I think it best we get to business. Why have you called on me so soon?"

  Reluctant to move on to what she knew she needed to address, Sara sighed. "That sve there, as you probably guessed. Before we go much further, we need to wake her up, heal whatever made her pass out the second I freed her from her old owner's orders." Sara held up her bracelet. "And in case it wasn't obvious, she's owned by me now. I don't want her to be my sve, and what's more, I don't want her to be anyone's sve."

  Garen sucked air through his teeth, leaning back. "The second aspect of your request teeters on the edge of impossibility, Lady Sara. But for the first, I think my skills shall suffice." He rolled the sleeves of his robes up, stepping to the unconscious woman. "Can you order her to wake, if you please, Lady Sara? I know compelling someone else by magical means is likely against your ethical codes, but I request it all the same. It is best not to cast spells on someone whose madies you are unfamiliar with."

  The request did indeed cause Sara a bit of reflexive queasiness, but she shoved it down. Months spent in this world had crystallized her preexisting disgust for forcing others to do your bidding into passionate hatred, but even she had to admit that it was the logical thing to do.

  "Wake up."

  The stranger's eyes snapped open, looking about blearily. She threw the bnket off, wild eyes looking for a route of escape.

  Garen quickly dropped to a kneeling position, holding his hands up in the universal sign of innocence.

  "It's alright, it's alright," he assured her, making calming motions. "I am here to help you. Lady Sara and Evie have taken you to me for healing. You see? They are right behind me."

  "It's true," Sara called, standing so she could be better seen. "I had you wake up so he can ask you some questions, to better heal whatever your old owner did to you."

  The woman's jittery motions calmed, no longer looking to make a break for it, but the unease on her face remained.

  "Now, tell me, are you feeling alright?" Garen asked.

  She took a moment to breathe, then nodded slightly. "As well as always. It's been many years since I st was whole."

  "Could you tell me a little bit more about that?" Garen requested. "What about your current state makes you feel less than whole?"

  The woman blinked rapidly, a subtle shake to her head as she cleared old cobwebs away.

  "I apologize, Mage. I am unfamiliar with being without my old master's orders, so accustomed have I become to speaking in useless vagueries. I will be exact. I was forbid any form of sleep for years, forced to remain awake at all times. The commands kept me awake, as they do now, but there was no peace to be found."

  "I see," Garen said, eyes glowing for a brief fsh as he looked her up and down. "You are indeed weaker than should be possible for one still conscious." Turning to address both Sara and the woman, he continued. "I could cast a series of spells to alleviate some of the damage done, but it would be a pallid and temporary solution. In truth, the only cure for her state is genuine rest, and much of it. Do you wish me to cast the spells?"

  Sara nodded to the woman, encouraging her to answer for herself.

  "No," she decided after some deliberation. "I will recover on my own body's terms. I appreciate your offered treatment, Mage, but no."

  "So be it," Garen said, stepping away and returning to his seat. "Now, Sara, knowing this, will you keep her awake for the time being? You said you wished for her input on the next portion of our discussion."

  "Are you okay with staying like this for a little while longer?" Sara asked the woman. "We'll be discussing how to free you, or get you as close to it as we can. If you want to be in your right mind for it, I'll let you sleep as long as you need and resume the discussion then."

  She shifted, bundling up the bnket across her p, pulling it to her shoulders for modesty. After some thought, she shook her head.

  "No. Such a mage is not easy to find the time of, and I will not stay bound any longer than I must. I have lived a half decade in this exhaustion. I will suffer through it for a time more, if it means I am freed."

  "Alright," Sara nodded. "Then can I ask what your name is?"

  Her face twisted. "My old master named me Enevia, some reference to a joke that amused him in his native nguage. You have not given me a name yet."

  "And I won't," Sara said. "You'll choose your own. Until you're ready to do that, though, can I give you a nickname, to make discussions easier?"

  "That will do."

  "Would it be alright if I called you... Kate?"

  All present gave her an odd look, the woman most of all. "I have not heard of such a name," she said.

  "It's just a common one I picked randomly from my old world. It doesn't mean anything."

  "Then it will do for now." Kate pulled her bnket around herself tighter. "Your 'old world', you said?"

  "Oh. Yeah, I forgot you didn't know that. So, this is going to take a little bit of expining..."

  The next few minutes were filled by an increasingly bewildered Kate listening to Sara's story, almost unable to process the fact that she was now owned by a mythical Champion. Sara assured her repeatedly that she was still a normal person, raised among commoners like all the rest, but it did little to ease her anxiety.

  And when Sara got further, expining what Amarat's blessings changed for Kate and any person Sara 'owned', Kate's dark skin paled as much as it could. The obligations and their inherently sexual nature had Kate's knuckles whitening, eyes wide, reaffirming Sara's determination that there would be no compromising on that particur point.

  When she got done catching Kate up to speed, and answering all of her subsequent questions, it had probably been half an hour of just Sara and Kate talking back and forth. It was a testament to Garen's patience that he didn't look the slightest bit perturbed as he silently listened, wearing a solemn expression that matched the severity of the events before him. He even nodded along or looked thoughtful at times, which meant he was really listening. Sara found herself liking the man more and more, from the way he had gently treated Kate on her awakening to the clear focus he dedicated himself to any task he undertook. Idly, Sara wondered if she'd be able to pull him away from Lady Vesta when she left for the south.

  "Now, Master Garen," Sara said, "It's time for your part to py. You've already said destroying a colr to free someone is a near impossibility, but 'near' is a word that means a whole lot to me."

  The veteran mage made a face. "I'm afraid I may have misled you, Lady Sara. When one has seen all that I have, it is difficult to truly decre something 'impossible'. There may exist a method somewhere among the cosmos to break one of these colrs, but it is not known to any mortal mind I am familiar with."

  "Then what can we do to get as close as possible?" Sara asked, unsurprised by his answer. "The first priority would be ridding Kate of her daily obligations, as that would free her to go as far away from me as she pleases. Surely I'm not the first one to try and break someone from this living hell?"

  "A week ago, Lady Sara, I would have had no answers for you. But the undercurrents of our first meeting and the stated purpose of your entanglement with Lady Vesta gave me far greater reason to research these matters." He held up three fingers. "There are three ways that I have found to successfully circumvent the mandates pced upon sves by their colrs. The first, and simplest, is to order the sve to have an alternative method of dispying their devotion to their master. Ruminating upon a painting of their owner for many minutes, or saying a heartfelt prayer to the gods for their owner's safety. The problem with this method is that it requires genuine supplication from the sve. The colr will not accept a ritual that was not truly embraced by its performer."

  "So that won't work for Kate."

  "Not unless she finds herself genuinely worshipful of your person, no."

  "I will not," Kate said simply.

  "The second, then?" Sara prompted.

  "Is more forgiving, but limited in scope. A sve sent on a task for their master is by definition devoting themselves to their owner's will, so they will not be required to return. Tales abound of sves given a final order by their master, instructed to live a long and fulfilling life."

  "But the practicalities of that are ridiculous," Evie interjected. "I know the sensations of my Master's orders. If she gave that command to me before leaving, I would live my entire life compelled to constantly think of her commandment. Imagining it now, I know that before long I would never drink wine, eat rich foods, or even allow myself to get too little sleep. Without my Master's presence to reaffirm her Intent, not just her words, I would be bound to the literal most interpretation of the command."

  Garen nodded respectfully to Evie. "Such is the result of any historical records of these commands being given. A self-enforced hermetic lifestyle, taking all measures to ensure one's own life is preserved to its maximum extent."

  "Still, it is an improvement," Kate said. "Being forced to avoid vices is preferable to a lifetime of subjugation."

  "It's still not good enough," Sara said. "The third?"

  "A theory, presented by some of the more radical abolitionists. If one were to order a sve to be free of their commands, then slit their own throat, the sve would be both ownerless and uncompelled. So long as their band is not picked up again, they will not be forced to show devotion to anyone."

  Sara gnced at Evie, who immediately fttened her ears with a hiss.

  "No, Master. Your life is not worth less than hers."

  "I agree," Kate said immediately. "And how would I stop myself from becoming captured again? I would carry my colr and its controlling band with me, showing to any I meet that I can be stolen with a touch."

  "You wouldn't have to go that far," Sara said. "We could do as I suggested earlier, and have you toss your band into the ocean. You'd have to protect it until then, but I have access to Lady Vesta's estate. A set of guards could escort you onto a ship, keeping the band under lock and key. If you hide your colr beneath clothing, hardly anyone will think to look for the control band."

  "Yet it remains true that someone must die for my freedom to be gained."

  "That's barely a problem, though," Sara said. "I've killed a couple dozen people in the st few months. We just find some guy ready for the hangman's noose, give him the band, then crack his neck."

  Kate looked disturbed by the suggestion, Evie amused, and Garen quietly contemptive.

  "What's up, Garen? There a problem with that?"

  "No, no, it's just that it... seems too simple, I suppose? These colrs have been around for millennia, unchanged. I found mention of the suicidal methodology in an obscure philosophical debate transcript, and only once. Having heard your proposal now, I can't imagine that it would have taken long for us to come up with the idea, even on our own. Why is it not mentioned elsewhere?"

  "People are shitty?" Sara guessed. "You said yourself that you had to delve way deep just to find people even talking about breaking the colr's enchantment. Magical sves are convenient, and since rich people in this world both benefit from them and control who gets educated, it makes sense. Why try and figure out how to get rid of something that helps you out?"

  "Believe it or not, Lady Sara, not all of the wealthy are so capricious. There have been many throughout history who would also rather do away with colrs and their ilk."

  "And they're outnumbered a fuckload to one," Sara said. "Power corrupts, Garen, and money does it quicker than anything else. The people who own sves are inherently the ones least interested in getting rid of them."

  "Not true in your case, is it not?"

  "Sure, and all it took to get me was the meddling of a literal god."

  "A fair point." He cpped imaginary dust off his hands, standing. "Well then. If Kate does not object, shall we go find someone to kill?"

  All eyes turned to Kate, who still had her bnket tucked tightly to her chin.

  "If it is alright with you," she said in a quiet voice, "I would like to sleep now. I'm not required for this, and I do not wish to be present for anyone's death ever again. Too many have died by my puppeteered hand already. To have another die for my sake is... sad."

  "I understand," Sara said, and she really did. Kate was owned by someone who kept guards on hand more skilled than Evie, which was remarkable, and it stood to reason that his sve had been trained to simir or greater standards. Sara couldn't imagine what the poor woman had been forced to do in his name. "I can assure you, whoever dies will deserve it. Would you like to sleep now?"

  Kate nodded, positioning herself on the couch.

  "You are released from all commands."

  With a long exhale, her eyes fluttered closed, five years' worth of sleep to catch up on.

  Garen shook his head, adjusting the bnket on her before turning to Sara.

  "I had no real opinion on the divine colrs before meeting you, Lady Sara. My research turned my mind towards dislike over the st few days, and brief discussion with the estate's servants furthered my distaste." He looked down at Kate, resting peacefully. "But this? Her?" Garen looked back up, a fire in his eyes. "I fear I begin to hate them. What a treacherous path you have set me down, Lady Sara, to oppose such a thing."

  Sara frowned, crossing her arms. "I don't suppose you could somehow prove that you're telling me the truth about that, can you?"

  Garen stepped away from Kate, frowning. "You distrust my words?"

  "Somewhat?" Sara admitted. "It's a bit too perfect of a time to decre your hatred, isn't it? You told me that you work under House Vesta because they're a solid paycheck, secure, and moral enough for your tastes. Someone that pces their priorities in that order doesn't strike me as the type to become a revolutionary because of one woman with a sad life. Especially not when they're a veteran combat mage who's probably killed hundreds in their life. I'm an up-and-coming Champion, one that's demonstrated knowledge beyond your comprehension both in manners of the arcane and mundane. In my skull is a treasure trove that could catapult you to the very peak of mortal power and influence, and you know it. There's every reason for you to appease me, and little for you to voice beliefs that I would find distasteful."

  "So, yeah. Prove it."

  The room chilled.

  Garen stood still for a long time. Evie tensed, hand extended for her rapier to fall into, but Sara just stood with her arms crossed, waiting.

  "...I think there is nothing I can say that could convince you in this moment, Lady Sara. Your suspicions are well reasoned and based in experience. I could cast a truth spell upon the vicinity, but you haven't the magical experience to determine if I have excluded myself. I think that future actions are my only avenue of testament."

  "All true."

  Garen straightened his robes, pinning them together so his underclothes no longer showed. "Are you the type, Lady Sara, to respect exceptionally dramatic dispys of intent?"

  "They're one of my favorite hobbies."

  "Then let me take a stab at it," Garen said, flicking a finger.

  Sara felt her feet leave the floor, stomach lurching as she was shot towards the ceiling like a bullet. She impacted with enough force to rattle the chandelier beside her, Evie nding just a few feet away. Sara immediately tried to stand, or rip her sword from its sheath, but the force driving against her was inescapable. She could scarcely draw a breath, much less fight. Her vision began to darken at the edges.

  Garen dropped the finger. Sara felt her hair detach from the ceiling first, then the rest of her body, plummeting fifteen feet straight down.

  Sara nded with a crash, half her face bouncing off a coffee table. It shattered, leaving shards of wood impaled in her skin. She thought she heard something snap in her legs, and she didn't know if it was bone or furniture.

  Evie flipped as she fell, nding on two feet, rapier summoned and fangs bared.

  "None of that now," Garen said as the catgirl lunged at him. Her rapier disappeared in a fsh, banished back to the not-space it waited in when she didn't have it summoned, and then she was frozen in pce, not even her hair moving. His finger flicked to Sara next, a golden light healing her wounds even before she'd felt their pain.

  Sara stood, breathing hard. Garen looked at her from across the room, hands folded into the sleeves of his robes. The table her fall had smashed began to reassemble itself as he spoke.

  "I have no interest in deceiving you, Lady Sara. It would be unnecessary. Your knowledge is just as valuable as you said it is, but as I've already told you, I have no interest in upsetting the bance of the world. The colrs do indeed irk me, and I respect you both for challenging me on this point, and for the absolute balls required to look the Tiger of Sacia in the eye and call him out. You may not know me or my history personally, but I have it on good authority that Champions are inherently aware of when they are outmatched. That makes your bravery commendable."

  Sara wiped her mouth, waving for Evie to calm herself. The second her ears flicked forward, the rapier was returned to her hand.

  "Well. You've certainly got the chops for drama down, Garen," Sara said, words shaky from the rush of adrenaline still thundering through her veins.

  He bowed his head gratefully. "From a Champion of Amarat, that means much."

  "You are not some House Mage called Garen," Evie hissed. "What is the Tiger of Sacia doing training city guards?" Sara was shocked to hear it, and when she turned to the catgirl and saw her pale and shivering, Sara's shock became astonishment.

  "Sacia was an aberration in my life, Lady Eliah. One I do not wish to repeat. I am Garen. My old self has been discarded. I came here only to study arcane arts that will not further my talent at spilling blood."

  "Yet now you speak of following Master Sara's cause," Evie whispered. "Will you take to the field once more?"

  "No. Even if I wished it, I cannot; I have bound myself by Oath to do no violence."

  Evie let out a shaky sigh, her piece said. Sara looked between the two of them, baffled.

  "Should I ask?"

  "I will not answer," Garen said.

  "And I will request that you do not pursue the point," Evie said. "Garen has no reason lie to us. Learning more will..." Evie shook her head slightly. "Do not learn more, Master."

  Sara was practically fucking frothing at the mouth to know more, because why wouldn't she be, but she bit her tongue. It was the first time Evie had ever demonstrated any desire against Sara's wishes, and she was going to respect that even if it left her dying of curiosity.

  "Alright, message received. Should we three go for a te night stroll and find someone to kill?"

  "Let's," Garen answered cheerfully.

  ---------------------------------------------

  The answer for who they should kill came to them quickly: none other than Lord Alera Vesta, the petty tyrant. Besides being someone they'd been targeting beforehand, the repugnant man owned a plethora of his own sves. Sves that could be freed by his murder. For all the political maneuvering that had been required to weaken his position, Sara had expected a simir level of subtle skill to be applied to his death.

  There wasn't.

  They waited until the crack of dawn to wake Lady Vesta, expining their pn in short order. She was agreeable, and had her staff gather up the magically bound servants scattered across the Vesta estate. It was a testament to the expense of the colrs that there were less than a dozen of them, and purchasing even that many had strained Alera's share of Vesta assets.

  Sara had the main role to py in the whole production. After Garen snuck into Alera's room and hexed him into an inescapable sleep, Sara had injected a provided poison and transferred ownership of Kate to the unconscious man. There weren't even any guards for either of them to avoid; Tarlin's investigation of the Vesta staff had found no one loyal to the tyrant.

  Lord Alera Vesta had a bedroom so decorated in finery it bordered on the obscene. Anything that gold trim could stick to had the shiny metal sloughed on in gaudy globs, bright enough to force a guest to squint when the sun shone through the windows. A four-poster bed was the room's centerpiece, surrounded by chests, drawers, and wardrobes of poor taste and absurd expense. A privacy curtain could be drawn across the whole center of the room, so the Lord could fire off rapid orders without even bothering to dress.

  As she waited beside Alera's bed, doublechecking his bindings, Sara reflected on the ease with which everything had proceeded. She knew she shouldn't be surprised it was simple to kill a sleeping man when you literally lived in his house, but it still didn't fit her sense of drama. He was a hated Lord, tormentor of hundreds, maligned across the nd. He was even famed for his skill with a sword, making him the perfect vilin for a dramatic final confrontation. She should have dueled him through the streets, an onlooking crowd too dazzled by the skill on dispy to intervene as she slowly pushed him to the brink, proving his evil nature once and for all.

  Instead he woke with a gasp at six-thirty in the morning, sweating heavily, heart already beginning to lurch. Sara wiggled a two-finger wave at him from the chair she'd been waiting in, two vials and a needle resting on the arm wrest.

  "Hello, Alera Vesta. I don't believe we've met properly, yet. I am Sara, the Champion of Amarat."

  He tried to lunge off the bed, but thick ropes restrained him.

  "What are you doing?" He demanded. "What have you done to me?"

  "Poisoned you to death," Sara answered, tapping the empty gss vial. "It's been a half hour since the injection, so you should have another half hour left before your heart seizes."

  "Guards! Guards!" He bellowed frantically.

  "Your room is soundproofed, Alera. You ordered it yourself, I was told."

  His wild eyes bored fury into her, forced to do so from an awkward angle. "You contemptible bitch! What is that other vial, then? The antidote?"

  "Excellent guess!" Sara cheerfully said, holding up a vial of milky white fluid.

  "Then what do you want from me? I can feel the poison working, woman. Make your demands."

  "It's quite simple, really. Did you hear how I burned down the sve market the other day?"

  "In my name? Yes! Of course I did!"

  "Well, that was all just a big misunderstanding. You see, I wasn't interested in such low-grade chaff, and their paltry dispy irritated me. I want real sves, like the King gave to me in the capitol. And you, Alera Vesta, have many of them."

  "You want my sves? Fine! You may have them, Champion. I will find more, better chattel, and we will both walk away richer."

  Sara clicked her tongue sadly. "You just don't get it, do you, old man? I'm the Champion of the Amarat, Goddess of Connections. I don't just want your sves. I want them untainted, free of your influence. They're waiting outside, all twelve of them."

  "What is the object of this damnable word game?"

  "In just a moment, I will allow the sves entry. You will give them the following command: 'You are free from all orders'. Then they will leave, you will gift them to me, and I will give you the antidote and leave the city. It's even mixed with a mild paralytic, ensuring that I will have many hours head start before you can send orders to give chase. A fwless pn, wouldn't you say?"

  "Yes, yes, yes," he snapped, chest heaving. His sweat was practically drenching the bed now, a grimace of pain pstered across his face. "Then bring them in immediately."

  "Just one thing," Sara said, standing with a flick of her bde. She walked over to the bed, pressing the greatsword's tip into Alera's throat. "I am a Champion. If you try to order a group of half-dressed sves to kill me, I will sughter them. I would rather not, though, so my sword against your neck will ensure you don't do something so foolish."

  "Just bring them in, you gloating bastard!"

  "You're no fun, Alera," Sara pouted. She walked away for a moment, drawing a privacy curtain between the room's entrance and the bed. "I'm sure you've been in simir situations to my present one." She returned to the bed, bde to his throat. "Now remember: the only thing you will say is 'you are free from all orders', understand me? Anything more and I will give you just enough of the antidote to try this again in a few hours, when you've had some time to suffer and think."

  "Yes, yes!"

  Sara pushed just the tiniest bit, drawing a single drop of blood. "No, Alera. You say 'I understand.'"

  "I. Understand," he ground out, teeth gritted.

  "Good."

  Sara pounded against the wall hard enough to rattle the room's chandelier. There was the click of a door, then the sound of feet shuffling in. She kept a close eye on Alera, making sure he would stay silent. When the door clicked shut once more, she nodded to him.

  "You are freed from all orders," he said, spitting the words between his teeth like they were burning his throat.

  Having already been informed of what to expect, the sves then shuffled from the room. The door clicked, and Alera gasped.

  "Alright, you've had your senseless demands met. Touch your wrist to mine, so I may give you them properly."

  "No." Sara folded her sword up, grabbing the vial and the needle. She drew it up to its maximum, the primitive device having a massive tip for injection. "Now get ready, this is going to hurt."

  "What do you mean, no?" He whispered. "The sves. They're yours. I'll give them to you."

  "I'm sure you would," Sara said, moving up onto the bed to pin his shaking arm down with a knee. "But I'm not interested."

  "What?! Why? What's in that vial?"

  "More poison," Sara said, driving the needle home. The watery substance allowed the plunger to depress near instantly, the pain of the injection forcing a barely concealed scream from Alera.

  "No! No! Why? What do you gain from this? What do you want from me?"

  Sara set the needle on the bedside, putting her hands in her pocket as she stood over him and watched. She didn't say a word, didn't answer any of his increasingly frantic questions, not even when they rose to screams and pleading. She didn't want to watch, quite frankly. She found the whole thing disgusting, the pain in his cries evident. Sara wasn't just killing a man, she was torturing him to death.

  It was fortunate that he deserved it.

  In under a minute his screams choked off, repced by bored breathing. His eyes began to bulge, then flutter, turning red with burst blood veins. When he finally colpsed, unconscious, Sara opened the door and called Garen in. He performed an advanced healing spell, one that targeted only the rope burns and injection site wound, leaving the poison coursing through Alera's veins. That done, Sara untied Alera, tucking him back under the covers. She noted his breathing halting halfway through the process, then heard the sound of his final breath rattling out of his lungs.

  The bracelet clicked open on his wrist, rolling free. Sara watched as it split, magical smoke mimicking mitosis. One bracelet became two, then four, then eight, and then only half split, leaving thirteen ying on the bed. Garen cracked open the door, waving a pair of guards in. They set a thick-walled safe on the ground, then left.

  Sara watched as Garen's spells lifted the bracelets one by one, depositing them in the safe. When all were inside he shut the door, gave the handle a good spin, then whispered a word that heated the hinges until they melted.

  "Well," he said after the guards had come back in to collect the safe, beginning its journey to the ocean, "That was startlingly simple. I begin to wonder if we're the only ones to have completed such a task."

  "I doubt it," Sara sighed, taking down the privacy curtain. "But not enough have done it, clearly. The colrs still exist in the world."

  "And they will forevermore, Lady Sara," Garen said. "Buried or dropped in the ocean, kept under lock and key, the fact remains that they cannot be destroyed."

  "I'll figure something out, eventually. As long as I can help people in the meantime, actually destroying them takes second pce in my priorities."

  "And your first, if you don't mind me asking?"

  Sara snorted. "Freeing as many people as possible, of course. It doesn't matter if they have a colr or not, I'll keep trying to free them until I die. I was sent here to make the world a better pce, and there's no greater evil than svery to pit myself against."

  "Not beasts from the hells, or nightmares slipped through the void, or any of the extrapnar abominations that seek to cw our world into oblivion?"

  "Those are things that everyone'll fight, if they need to. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm the only person capable of stopping the apocalypse. But I can also recognize the fact that there's no one else with my level of influence and potential power that's interested in stopping svery, so that's what I'll do."

  "Your reasoning is sound, Lady Sara. Practically utilitarian. But the fury I saw you suppressing in your discussion with Kate was anything but cold."

  "It wouldn't be an evil worth dedicating my life to stopping if I didn't hate it."

  Garen hummed thoughtfully, stepping to the door as she finished erasing the evidence of their presence from the room. She stepped up across from him, looking the mage in the eyes as he spoke.

  "Lady Sara, may I repeat advice to you that I may not be qualified to rey?"

  "Go ahead."

  "Do not let your hate outstrip your reason. There is a world of injustice to be battled, and your corpse will do nothing in the fight. Keep that hate contained, so it may be channeled and directed. A raging river, course fring over the years, will often flood those that depend on it. But if you dam it, channel it? It becomes possible to spread the water to those that most need it. Mete out your fury in such fashion, releasing it upon those that deserve it, when they deserve it, and not a moment before. Else you risk disaster."

  "Sounds like you're speaking from experience, Tiger of Sacia," Sara said, crossing her arms as she leaned against the doorframe.

  "Hence the hypocrisy of me saying such to you. Your companion was right, Lady Sara. Some things are better left unknown."

  "I'll take your word for it." Sara tilted her head to Alera's cooling corpse. "You want to come with me down south? You do good work."

  "It would take quite a lot for me to leave such an illustrious post, Lady Sara. What exactly do you intend to do in ruined Tulian?"

  "Show the world what's possible. Found a country, not a kingdom, and build it right. No sves, no atrocities. A high school dropout isn't exactly the best candidate for building a government, but no one else is gonna. If I weren't a Champion, I'd never even dream of it, but..." Sara held her hands up in a helpless gesture. "I'm a Champion. That honestly hasn't done much more than get me id so far, but it's gotta count for something, right?"

  Garen ughed. "Your sales pitch needs work, My Lady. You don't make a convincing case for me to abandon House Vesta."

  "Yeah, well, I probably could've tapped on the old goddess-charisma and made it a bit more flowery, but that was the unvarnished truth. What do you say? High Court Wizard of a dead kingdom appeal to your sense of drama enough to outweigh your wallet?"

  Garen actually considered it. Sara could see him pause for a breath, eyes growing distant. But then his attention returned with a sad smile, shaking his head.

  "I think not, Lady Sara. House Vesta was a refuge of peace for me, not just a source of coin. It does not take much thought to realize that your nation will not be a peaceful one for long."

  "Yeah, I know," Sara sighed tiredly. "They'll come for me. Maybe not right away. Maybe I can even buy time with my Champion's status and a few backroom deals, but I can't charm everyone. Sad to say, but a military's first on my list of concerns." Sara ughed. "I can't believe I just said that. Oh, y'know, I'm just your regur old twenty-something from the ass end of Detroit, pnning to raise a military. A nation to go along with it. Gonna have to figure out food, and roads, and taxes..." Sara's smile was wan. "I've never even raised a house pnt. You happen to know a disgraced general of incredible skill that I could poach? Or a finance minister, or something like that?"

  Garen chuckled once more. "If I find one, Lady Sara, I will refer them to you. In the interim, I can only wish you luck."

  Sara put her hand on the doorknob, getting ready to leave. "I appreciate it. Would you mind if I shot you a letter every now and then, ask you things I couldn't other people?"

  "No promises on answering."

  "Fair enough. If you would?" Garen waved a hand, transforming Sara them both into the perfect image of household servants. Sara turned the doorknob, flinging it open and sprinting out in a panic. "The Lord isn't waking! Someone, help!"