Justice

Tragna was a place where summer's heat would usually linger, trapped in the dense, rich forest that circled the buildings. Once it had been a small village, but it lay on the only road between Lide, the world capital, and more eastern lands. Over time, the village walls had crept outward, further into the Great Forest. Tragna had become a wealthy trading post between Lide and the East and then the walls had slipped a little further out, taking over land that the ancient trees had held. Stone was rare in Tragna, but over the past century, Mayors of Tragna had paid the great expense for stones to be bought up from Lide, to fortify wooden walls and turn them to stone. Summer that year had faded quicker in Tragna than it should have done. The autumn rains had failed and the third season of the year was being eaten by the cold snap of winter. The forest trees had been scorched, then dried out. So the forest fanned out from Tragna in a skinless fashion. Knarled fingers stretching out into the far distance where clouds hung low and black in the sky.

A man sat on the stone wall, his legs hooked over the ledge. His heavy woollen coat, disguising him from guardsmen that patrolled the streets below. Moments after guards passed below, he heard a faint scuffling and someone climbed easily onto the high barrier, but a few paces to one side.

"I heard that nine bandits were found today, alive, but tied to the city gates." The newcomer explained.

"Well done the City," Rolan answered. He turned to the woman walking towards him. He hadn't expected anyone to find him, perched atop the city wall; but if anyone would, it would be Teia.

"They had parchment stuffed in their mouths," She continued.

"Maybe they were hungry?"

"They were confessions," Teia crouched beside him as he sat. His legs crossed as he stared outward, into the night. Despite the darkness of the twilight hour, he could feel her steady blue gaze on his face. "The parchments were confessions, they were signed in blood."

"Well done the City," he lifted his shoulders in a faint shrug. "You know," Rolan turned to his companion as she settled beside him, "The road to Tragna is usually a safe one," he finished.

"I know," Teia scanned the treetops as they rustled in the rising wind. She pulled her hood up, taking care to cover her ears.

"But still, I would never recommend that merchants travel here alone. No road is safe for a lone traveller-" He paused sensing her gaze on him again. He reached out, resting his hand over hers "for most travellers - but not my Sister."

He heard Teia's inhalation, she turned her fingers in his, squeezing his hand. "You found her?" Her voice was soft.

Silence hung between the two shadows on the city wall. Laughter rose up from a tavern behind them. The street to their backs was flooded by an amber glow, as a man stumbled through the door, casting aside a pottery tankard. It shattered on the hard-compacted earth that formed the street. He jeered at the tavern owner, belched loudly and launched himself with hearty enthusiasm into the second verse of a sea shanty as he stumbled north, toward the centre of Tragna. Though he vanished from sight, Rolan could hear him as he bounced from wall to wall in the narrow, densely packed streets. Wooden buildings shuddered at the impact.

"My sister left the Northern forests in search of Meseteo and myself."

"Meseteo is in the North?"

"How could she know that? She looked for us in Lide and heard I'd come to Tragna."

"How do you know?"

"She wrote- I set out to meet her as soon as I received her letter. But her news came after she'd already left the City - this is, I suppose the penalty I pay for moving so frequently. For being difficult to find."

"Rolan - " Teia's calloused grip pressed hard against his, once more. She pushed her shoulder against his until he was obliged to wrap his arm around her, pulling her close. "Those that love you, know you're not one to be found unless you wish it."

"She was my Sister, Eyenne should have been able to reach me."

"Tell me what happened?"

"Eyenne left me a sign on the road to Lide. A merchant caravan had been attacked, I'd have paid it no notice but there was a mark scorched onto one of the wood panels." He glanced at Teia, and traced the symbol he'd seen on her wrist. "It was a mark of Elves, Elves who use dark magic -Shadow. It was your mark Teia, and the mark of all those that follow you," he paused for breath. "I followed the signs of struggle through the forest. They- they'd torn through all the tangles of tree roots, and the thick dark grass you find here. It was hushed, the whole area was far quieter than it should be. Behind the broad leaves I could see them, bandits. They had two guards, the rest sat around a fire. They'd built it up with stones, there was a shelter beneath one of the wider trees, they had been there for a while- they, they'd even set up cages. Flimsy things, but high up, ropes slung over branches and then hoisted and tied."

"How many where there?" Teia asked.

"In the cages? Only two or three, they'd killed anyone not worth shipping to the East."

"Eyenne?"

"I moved toward the cages. One was further from the main camp, I thought that if I lowered it, I could find an ally. I was crawling through the dirt - but she was dead. Nearly naked, half covered by leaves. I pulled her head into my lap - there was blood smeared over her skull, soaked into her hair. He clothes had been cut away, but crudely." Rolan swallowed. He'd heard a low moan of pain in the forest. One he hadn't recognised at first, as being from his own throat. His eyes had been hot, wet. Loss had stolen his thoughts and he'd been left with emptiness.

Rolan looked at Teia and took care to inhale slowly, not to give away his grief. "Her wrists were bruised, battered and as bloody as any I've seen."

"She didn't stop fighting."

He felt as though a knife was held to his own throat, as though a landslide had fallen on his chest. "I failed her- Teia, I was...I was too late to save her."

"No, no Rolan. You are not accountable for the actions of others-" Teia knelt up, she wrapped one arm around his shoulders and pulled him instead against her chest. She pushed her fingers through his hair with a soft sigh. "Become a Shadow, join me - you'll gain all the power you need to avenge Eyenne."

Rolan closed his eyes to the night sky, "I don't need to become a Shadow."

"You took your revenge already?"

"No."

"You could not?" She pressed.

"I moved forward that night, from Eyenne's body and I swear by the gods I wanted to kill those sons of Ogres. The torches died when I approached. I pulled the shadows over me, a cloak of darkness. I took the light out of their fire and left them in blackness before they even knew I was there."

"And then?"

"They were terrified, running to their horses, drawing weapons. I could see them, groping over the earth, pushing each other in the dark, and I wondered - just how terrified was my Sister when they caught her? When they bound her hands and they forced her? They were pathetic, terrified human men and worthless."

"You killed them?" Teia didn't hide the eagerness in her tone.

"No."

His denial pushed her away and she stepped back.

"I am not a Shadow,Teia. I may be a Shadow Walker and by the Spirits I wanted their blood and I could have had it. But Eyenne will have justice, not murder in her name."

The Shadow withdrew from him. Leaving a cold and vacant patch beside him on the wall. He heard her steps, padded though they were, as she sank back into the shadows. "You may not be Shadow yet, but you will join us," she paused "how many where there?"

"About nine."