Emily walks into the tent and scans its interior, her heart skipping a beat as she spots her friends in the center, their backs pressed against each other and their arms tied behind them, before her eyes keep roaming around to ensure that they’re alone. The tent is mostly empty, besides a bucket in the corner and some wooden plates with what must be the remnants of their dinner inside of it.

  “What, did you get bored of all of that excitement happening outside?” Alastair asks, as his head hangs down, his voice coming out nasally and congested from the crooked nose that he’s sporting.

  “Alastair… Don’t.” Nora pleads with him, as she leans her head back against Alastair’s in an affectionate way that would have had Emily smirking in smug glee in any other circumstance.

  “It’s not like the bastard can pry anything else from us.” He replies. Emily takes a short breath of relief, as she finishes her sweep, finding that they’re completely alone. She starts walking towards Alastair and Nora, a smile stretching on her face as she feels tears start to build up behind her eyes.

  As she moves, her eyes snap back to the plate on the ground, and the leftover crumbs on its grainy surface. Emily realizes that she hasn’t eaten… At all today. She was supposed to have eaten that nice dinner that Bill was going to make her and soak up in a tub, but… Yeah. That ended up not happening.

  Her stomach growls loudly, and Alastair’s head snaps up instantly, his ears perking up.

  “Hold on a second, I recognize that growling…”

  He turns his head slowly, until he sees Emily approaching him, his mouth snapping open in surprise and uncertainty.

  “Emily…?”

  “Wait, Emily? Did he get her too?!” Nora replies, as her head swivels around and spots Emily walking towards them. “Emily! You’re fine! Oh my gosh, you’re really here!”

  Emily lets out a sobbing chuckle, as she increases her pace, running towards her friends and wrapping her arms around the two of them. They lean in to her embrace, and Emily’s heart fills with warmth, the cracks filling in bit by bit as the numbness retreats. They stand there for a while like that, just enjoying each other’s presence, before Emily stands back with a chuckle to really take in her friend’s condition while they did the same to her.

  “Hey, you’re wearing one of their uniforms? How did that happen?” Alastair asks her, as she notes the bruises and abrasions all along his head. His swollen, black eyes and missing teeth really painting a horrible picture to Emily.

  “Did you defect?” Nora asks, her mouth opening wide in shock and horror. “Because you can’t! Those people are bastards! Every single one of them!”

  “We’ve only met one of them.” Alastair says back, as he rolls his eyes.

  “And he’s the biggest bastard of them all.” Nora replies with a huff. “Just look at what he did to poor Alastair.”

  Emily chuckles a little, as she tugs her friends apart a bit, revealing the rope that’s tied around their shackles, keeping them together.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “I didn’t defect, don’t worry,” she says, as she prepares the thinnest wind blade that she can, sweeping her two fingers down and slicing through the restraints with a snap. “I just needed a new set of clothes, and these seemed to work well enough.”

  Nora and Alastair twist to stand up, as Nora lets out a sigh of relief and Alastair shakes out his legs.

  “Good. Because I dunno what the hell we’d do if you did.”

  Alastair shifts his shackles a bit, before looking at Emily, a hopeful look on his face.

  “Any chance you got the key for these things?”

  “No, and I have no idea who might have it. Unless it’s somewhere in here…?”

  Alastair and Nora shake their heads sadly, “The Spymaster keeps it on him at all times. So, I guess we’re stuck like this…” Nora says, as she shakes her shackles around, testing their strength and finding them solid.

  Emily sighs, shaking her head, not having planned around her friends still being shackled. But they were free to move around, at least… So that’s something, right?

  “We’ll sort that out later… Let’s just get you two out of here.”

  “Gladly.” Alastair says, as he limps towards the exit, his teeth gritted in determination.

  “I knew you’d come for us.” Nora tells Emily, as she looks at her hopefully, which chokes out a sob from Emily as she wipes a small, happy tear from her eyes. “I’m just sorry I didn’t get to you guys sooner.”

  “Are you kidding?” Alastair asks her, as he gives her a grin that’s missing a few teeth. “We got here and within the day, you’re breaking us out. I’d call that quick service. I just can’t wait to find out how you got rid of the guards.”

  Emily walks in front of Alastair and holds the tent flap open for them, Nora walking up next to Alastair and pressing up against him to support his bad side a bit. He looks down at her with a grateful smile, the two staring at each other for a moment of comfort before they continue moving through the tent and out of the other side.

  Emily chuckles and walks out after them, her heart feeling lighter than it had for weeks up until this point. She immediately bumps into the back of Alastair’s tall form, as he stands in place, his back to her but tensed.

  “Hey, Emily?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Are those… Goblins, fighting the enemy camp?”

  Emily looks beyond Alastair and spots a fight out in the distance, a horde of goblins slowly pushing back against the oppressive defense of a shield wall. “Uh-huh. I lured the goblins here and snuck in while the camp was distracted.”

  “So it’s safe to say that the camp is surrounded, then, correct?”

  Emily nods her head proudly, before remembering that Alastair can’t see her. “Yeah, that’s right. I think that whole town came to fight.”

  Alastair turns to look at Emily over his shoulder, a look of disbelief on his worn face. “Did you think about how we were going to leave, once you freed us, and the camp was surrounded?”

  Emily opens her mouth proudly, before pausing, a look of confusion on her face as she considered Alastair’s words. She held up a finger to pause the conversation, thinking for a moment before her mouth opened wider again, a word stuck in her throat but not coming out. Her finger lowers, as she looks down pensively, before she rubs her head in shame.

  “N-no… I kind of didn’t get that far… I was uh… Not really thinking straight.”

  Alastair turns back to watch the situation around them closely, before taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “So we’re free… We just need to fight through an entire, organized army to secure that freedom?”

  Emily chuckles awkwardly as she rubs the back of her head. “P-pretty much.”

  “This is why I’m the party leader.”