Opposites Attract

Setting Out

They left the town a few days later, bags restocked and with better control over their magic. They also seemed a little closer, having spent that week in tight quarters. The walls had been thin, and she'd heard Jax wake up screaming almost every night, so she watched him carefully, almost protectively. If he noticed, he didn't mention it.

After a few days later they set up a camp a half-mile or so from Kurta. Rumors had said that the Unifiers were still holed up there, but they weren't sure. They spent the night there, and in the morning they left their camp set up to go do some surveillance.

Molly felt her throat tighten as she got her first views of her village from the edge of the trees. There were troops doing routine patrols all over the streets, and others just lounging in doorways, eating and talking. The ununiformed ones looked so normal that for a moment she almost thought that they were her fellow villagers. It took her a moment to spot a house she recognized, and a soldier she didn't sitting on the porch. 

Jax gripped her arm lightly, and she kept moving. As they circled the village they spotted more and more damage from the explosion, but not a single person she knew. 

"Jax?" she whispered, "Jax, I'm panicking."

She moved as far back as she could on the tree branch they were sitting on, leaning her back against the trunk and closing her eyes. Her stomach twisted violently, and she swallowed back a cry. It had been a while since she'd had a panic attack this bad, she thought as the shaking set in.

Jax moved toward her, whispering softly.

"Molly. Hey. Can I touch you?"

"Please," she answered, and he moved to her side and pulled her to his chest. 

They held still for a moment, before he murmured into her hair, "We don't have to do this. If you need to, we can go back to camp. Hell, we can go back to town."

She took a breath, slowly forcing her eyes open. 

"No. I have to do this. My people need me."

He helped her back up, and they continued their scouting, finding little more than charred rubble. 

"This was my side of the village," Molly whispered in a horrified tone, eyes scanning over the ruins of her town. 

When they had finished their search they crouched in a tree by the front entrance.

"What do you think?"

Jax thought for a moment, scanning the town.

"If they've given up their magic, I think we can take 'em. Once the grunts are out of the way, we can look for the prisoners- Well, I assume they're prisoners. We just have to be careful of the stronger ones, who were allowed to keep their powers. Sound good?"

"Mm-hm. How're your stores?"

"I have more than enough magic, though I don't have much water on me..."

"There's water all around you. Plants. Trees. The fucking ocean."

"Alright, I get it. If we're going to go, we should do it now."

They dropped out of their tree and made their way calmly to the gates. The Unifiers hadn't even bothered to lock them. Rookie mistake.

Within seconds they were being charged by guards, drawing blades and pistols. They dispatched them quickly enough, struggling through the teeming crowd to try to find the missing villagers. At one point Molly tried just outright asking the soldiers she fought, but none of them seemed too keen to answer her. 

Even without their help, she knew her village pretty well. There was a good chance that they were being held in the jail at the village center.

A number of soldiers around them slowed to a trickle, and in a few moments, they were surrounded by heaps of unconscious and wounded opponents. She led Jax through her village, murmuring quietly to herself as she tried to get her bearings. 

"Lemme see... That there was the bakery. The McManns' house. Taylor's house. Then that was... the market..."

It took them a few minutes to get to the center of the village, and by then Molly was totally entranced, looking tearful. 

She only snapped out of it as a man stepped out from an alleyway. Both she and Jax tensed, whipping around to face him.

"Molly. Jax. I've been waiting for you. My name is Jynx, the necromancer. It's a pleasure to meet you."