From Ashes and Snow

No Promises.

He was right – I was weak and outnumbered. Holding my tongue was the only smart option, but in that moment, I could only think of the Legion soldiers packed into cells, relieved that I was alive of all people. I could think only of the emaciated slaves locked in the dungeon of the bandit camp, waiting to be sold into slavery. If I held back, if I didn't fight even now, what would happen to people like that?

"I don't see any of my betters here." I kept my gaze level.

An eyebrow quirked, and he chuckled coldly. "Do you want one of my men to slit your throat?"

"You are waiting for him. Until then, I am to be kept alive."

"But that doesn't stop me from punishing you for destroying my nest-egg of flesh to sell. The Saviours is a most holy of movements, but even we need coin."

Anger stoked behind my breastbone. "You're selling people for money."

"I must make the coin somehow." Cladon chirped, somewhat cheerily. "Normally, a little Half-Breed bitch with your skill set could be sold to a lord as a guard, or as his whore. You wouldn't be good for much else. Working as a servant wouldn't be within your un-naturally rebellious mindset."

"Un-naturally rebellious?"

"You question your place in the world. You are a mutt, and all mutts are good for is servitude. My blood is pure and therefore you should be subservient to me. It is the natural order. But alas...He comes for you."

I knew that already, but I still had to steel myself against the news. My stomach knotted, my breath quickening. I wanted to fight the creature with the amethyst eyes but not like this. My leg couldn't support any weight and my body was ravaged from hunger and sickness. It wouldn't be a fight worth having because I would be killed before I could raise my own weapon.

"He may come for me, but you will never get the tablet back."

He scoffed. "You think Haaling will stop him? Your little Keep fell and that had stood for centuries against intruders. You know, mutt, that I was there in Dratlan. I saw the bodies preserved in the snow. I saw the bodies of your tree-huggers and the one that was once the Paladin Commander. He did that and he will do it again to Haaling."

He watched my face as it paled, his smile spreading wider as the colour drained away. "Imagine your little soldiers being ripped apart by those monsters as they crushed the walls and you will be left until last so you can weep and moan about how futile your efforts were."

Asha'da, I could see it too easily. In my mind's eye, it played out with frightening clarity. Kohen crumbling under the weight of the grief, the hopelessness and death around him. Fyr's magic bright and strong until it wasn't and in that brief moment, a Nirani tears out her pale throat. Her Magins would fall around her then, weaker than their Magister but just as determined. The Captain would be in the throng – his sense of pride and duty would put him nowhere else. His men would be cut down beside him and the Captain would fight until his body failed him.

None of them would give up, but death would take them all the same.

Realising then that I wanted to get back to them, to fight for them and to protect them if I could, a dizzying rush of emotion cascaded through me. It seared through my veins and there was a flicker of heat under my skin.  Haaling wasn't my home, but I had found solace in the outpost. Silver light pulsed under my skin, and I hissed at the heat of it.

"It pains me to see a mutt holding such immense power. It belongs to the pure, whether that be Elf or human."

The hum of magic under my skin was maddening. I tried to yank it back under control, but the more I felt, the stronger it resisted.