A few more arrows flew through the trees only to be burned away by the raging inferno that once was Nadine. I looked up from my spot upon the ground and found her once large, playful eyes to be soulless and cruel. She searched through the woods with a cold calmness while she spat fire at any attempt to subdue her. Then, her blackened brow furrowed and with a deep breath that brightened the veins of fire in her charcoal skin, she unleashed a terrible wave of flames through the forest. A screech of pain cut through the night, shaking the trees as birds flew from the safety of their branches.

"Stop!" demanded a woman's voice, a small waver of fear reducing the threat in her growl. "We give up. Just stop. You'll burn this whole forest down."

This new voice wasn't wrong. The forest floor was littered with kindling and Nadine's feet had already sparked quite a few flames which only failed to spread thanks to the fairly moist dirt beneath them. However, her most recent spurt of fire had caught several low hanging branches, which Zane had taken upon himself to put out before it could spread.

Despite Zane's efforts, the woman's pleas, and the whimpering of an injured man somewhere in the distance, Nadine maintained her fiery stance and I wondered if she was capable of changing back now that this drastic skin searing transformation had occurred.

"She won't disarm until you show yourselves," said Zane with a grunt as he tried to leap up and swat out a little flame on a particularly high branch.

"Some of us can't come out," growled a man's voice.

"Just carry him," replied the woman, who now emerged from the trees, throwing her bow to the ground.

"But Vina, Darrien is pretty bad..."

"Enough Chris, just bring him out." Vina was a tall woman who carried herself straight and proud. Her eyes, dark and brown, darted around, while the rest of her remained eerily still.

Not long after Zane finished cleaning up Nadine's mess, an equally tall man came out of the trees with their wounded brother in his arms. Darrien's clothes had burned away from his right arm and past his now charred shoulder. What his hair used to look like, I wouldn't know because the right side was seared off so that his blistering scalp was completely exposed.

"Monster," growled Chris.

At this Nadine raised her arm and I worried she would retaliate, but instead she did a little flourish and transformed back into the youthful woman I knew Nadine to be. Except she now stood before all of us completely naked.

"Here love," said Zane, pulling his shirt over his head and giving it to Nadine, who looked unconcerned to be so exposed to so many pairs of eyes. She accepted his gift and the long tunic slid over her lithe frame, effectively covering her up down past her hips.

"Would you like up now?" asked Zane, who turned his focus on me and extended a helpful hand. I took it and rose up without a word.

"I'm surprised one death in many was enough to rouse the useless soldier of the king. I guess we should feel honored," snapped Vina.

"Oh, I only came because she asked," he said, kicking his thumb towards me.

"I didn't..." I said with a slight stutter. "It was Nadine who asked you to find them."

"Yes, but you pressed the matter, which you wouldn't have done if you didn't care."

Care. He gave me a look when he said that. I suppose he expected Gwen to have just left it alone had she been the one here, but she had a bleeding heart and would have followed after them without hesitation. She did try to help me after all.

"Enough," growled Chris who still carried Darrien in his arms. "What do you want with us?" He asked the question, but immediately growled and looked to Vina. "We should gut them and go."

"You should turn yourselves in," I snapped back at him. "You keep up these violent tendencies and you'll get a violent end. Turn yourself in and perhaps they'll grant you mercy. You can't expect to survive out there, wanted and alone, with your brother injured the way he is."

Despite knowing these three killed a man in cold blood, it pained me to look upon Darrien. Tears welled up in his eyes as his teeth clenched beneath the pain that had to be radiating from his skin with the strength of an inferno.

"Think of your brother if you can think of no one else," I muttered.

"What good will it do him?" demanded Chris. "Their mercy is none that I want. You want to hand out forgiveness, then do it here and let us be on our way." He sent a wary glance over at Nadine, but she watched on with a glassy expressionless gaze.

"Chris," said Vina in a lighter, more tired voice than before. "We killed a man."

"We need to eat," replied her brother with a sadness that gripped at my heart. "We have to live on for them. Those people in town would have us die."

"She's right though," sighed Vina. "Darrien won't survive out there. We should except quick mercy. Better than running and befalling the same as..." She struggled with an emotion, but shook it away. "I told you we should go back."

"No Vina."

The two of them seemed to have forgotten us completely, their debate happening in a vacuum outside of the charred circle we made in the forest.

They hadn't made up a decision before Vern and Luci arrived with a band of several men and women.

"There they are," said Luci with a terrible screech. "Why do you just stand and do nothing Zane?"

I looked to Zane and didn't miss the roll of his eyes, even in the near moonless night.

"No need to wake the dead," hissed Vina. "We come." She looked to Chris, who bit back some words before following behind her with Darrien still whimpering in his arms. As they passed some of Luci's pack, the willing Gundersons were apprehended and pulled along with strong grips upon their arms. I tried not to feel pity for them. Luci had lost a man she loved that day and though Darrien was hurt, it is better he healed in jail than die on the run.

"You are so new to this world," said Zane, who took up by my side. "I wonder what your world is like for you to be this way."

He didn't elaborate, instead he ushered for me to move forward, while Nadine silently took her pack back on her shoulders.

We followed the group back to town where many had risen from their beds and stood out in the street with lanterns burning by their sides. The Gundersons were pulled into the center of a circle that formed without any instruction. They were joined by Vern and a man that had been with him at the tavern. Vern's partner was just as burly, just as wide, and just as intimidating.

"Do you admit to killing Mikael? Do you admit to the slaughter of my husband?" demanded Luci.

It seemed a crude trial, but considering Zane was somehow their only form of authority in town, I supposed I couldn't expect lawyers and a judge. It was at that thought that a sudden chill gripped my spine and my breath caught in my throat. I didn't look to Zane, but he didn't need me to to understand what fear just bit at the back of my brain. He placed a warm hand on my shoulder and I did not shake it away.

"Yes," replied Vina with the same tall, strong stance she had back in the forest. She did not waver and she did not bend beneath Luci's fiery gaze.

"And you Chris Gunderson?" she demanded.

Chris held his tongue for a moment, staring off above the heads of the crowd, but after another pitiful moan from Darrien, he answered. "Yes."

Then Luci turned her rage on Darrien, but did not ask since it only took a single glance to see he could not speak.

"Then you confess," stated Luci with finality. "All is right before Breydar."

My breath, once caught in my throat, now quickened at the invocation of, well, I suppose my name. I wanted to look away, to turn to Zane and see if I was wrong, but I couldn't pull myself from it.

"All is right," replied Vina, her voice now softer and filled with acceptance. "So we ask for his mercy."

The corner of Luci's mouth twitched and her nose scrunched as if something repugnant suddenly wafted beneath it, but she replied only with a nod.

Within seconds, Vern and his partner placed their hands upon Chris and Vina. The snap of the siblings' necks lingered in the air long after they hit the ground. As for the poor, last brother Darrien, wounded and trapped beneath his brother's dead body, he had only a minute to deal with the terrifying scene before the two men ended his pain with another quick snap.

"All is right," said Luci to the still night air.

"All is right," echoed the crowd.

Most then dispersed, but a few ran forward to help load the Gundersons into a cart which was not taken to the undertaker's, but instead headed out to the woods.

"Where?" I asked in a breathless voice.

"They'll dig a pit and dump them," answered Zane. His hand stayed upon my shoulder, but his body drew closer as my legs began to grow weak.

"Witnessed Breydar's judgment," said Nadine in a cheery voice. "I can rest." She smiled and waved for us to follow her back to the inn, but I'd lost all ability to stand. I fell to the ground and cried harder than I'd ever cried in my adult life. Nadine stopped where she stood and watched on with a perplexed gaze. Zane, however, joined me on the ground and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in and against his still bare chest. Neither said anything until my eyes had no more tears left to shed.

I knew Zane wanted to point out that this was why I was "Ms. Heart," but he remained silent as he walked us back to the inn.