WebNovelKlel89.00%

89

"Wait!" one of the men calls out as you turn to go. "You can't just leave us here! If we can't get down soon, we'll die! We need your help!"

You briefly consider turning around, showing mercy. But the images of human crimes flash before your eyes: torture, murder, and enslavement. They can rot.

Emerging from the alley into a small green, you catch a flicker of motion out of the corner of your right eye and dash toward it. You grab a thin arm protruding from behind a low wall before its owner has a chance to know they've been seen. You pull the culprit out of hiding, and your eyes go wide.

"Tiva?"

She blinks as you let her arm go, the scars on her face twisting as she frowns. "What do you want, Klel? I thought you were a soldier who avoided my traps. Why were you chasing me?"

"I wasn't chasing you," you stammer, still surprised to see her. She's been reclusive for well over a month now since she was attacked by the first pacification squad. You imagine that taking the life of a fleeing human changed something inside her. "So you set those traps?"

She nods. "Bastards have been tracking me for days. Ever since I killed that soldier, I haven't been able to go home or stay out in the open for too long. Lapu's been sneaking me food. He's been really good to me lately, I don't know what I'd do without him. The same squad cornered me in a building the other day. If you'd heard the things one of them said to me, you'd have strung them up to die, too."

The tension seems to drain out of Tiva, and she sags in place, falling into a slouch against the rubble of a nearby wall. "So what brings you out here, Klel? I assume you're not out hunting the hunters?"

You were on your way to the scrapyard to the north, hauling materials for Ahote's secretive resistance efforts. You feel like Tiva might be trustworthy with such sensitive information, but she's been reckless lately. Trapping those soldiers on her own could have ended in disaster.