The beast lunged at them, claws extended, faster than anything its size had a right to be. Nacho threw himself sideways, pulling Vael with him, barely avoiding a strike that would have taken his head clean off his shoulders.
Sera was there in an instant, her sword flashing in the moonlight. The blade bit deep into the creature’s arm, drawing a spray of something that wasn’t quite blood. The beast roared and swung at her, but she was already moving, dancing out of range with the grace of someone who’d spent decades learning how to fight things bigger and stronger than herself.
"Get her to the trees," Sera shouted. "I’ll handle this."
"You can’t fight that thing alone!"
"I can hold it long enough for you to get clear." She parried another strike, her blade singing against the creature’s claws. "Go!"
Nacho hesitated. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to stay, to fight, to help. But Vael was barely conscious in his arms, and the archers were still out there, and if they all died here then everything they’d done would mean nothing.
"You better be right behind us," he said.
Then he ran.
The tree line swallowed him in darkness and shadow. Behind him, he could hear the sounds of combat: Sera’s war cry, the beast’s roar, the clash of steel against something harder than steel. He forced himself not to look back, not to think about what might be happening to the woman who’d become something more than an ally over the past few weeks.
Vael stirred in his arms. "Put me down."
"You can’t walk."
"I can try." Her voice was stronger now, some of the fog clearing from her eyes. "You can’t fight while carrying me."
She had a point. He set her down gently, keeping one arm around her waist to steady her. She swayed for a moment, then found her balance, her jaw set with determination.
"The forest extends north for miles," she said. "If we can lose them in the undergrowth, there’s a smuggler’s road about two hours from here. It’ll take us to a village where we can find transport."
"You know this area?"
"They brought me through here when they first captured me." Something dark passed across her face. "I’ve had six months to memorize every detail, hoping for a chance to use it."
A roar echoed through the trees, followed by a sound like thunder. Nacho’s heart clenched.
"She’s fighting."
"She’s Sera." Vael’s voice held a conviction that surprised him. "She’s fought worse than that thing and won."
They moved through the forest as fast as Vael’s condition would allow, picking their way over roots and around fallen logs. The sounds of combat faded behind them, replaced by the natural noises of the wilderness at night. Wind in the trees. The distant hoot of an owl. The crunch of snow beneath their feet.
Nacho kept his senses extended to their maximum range, monitoring for any sign of pursuit. So far, nothing. The guards seemed to have focused all their attention on Sera, which was exactly what she’d intended.
"Tell me about her."
Vael’s question caught him off guard. "What?"
"Sera. You’ve spent time with her. Tell me what she’s like now." Her voice cracked slightly. "They told me things, while I was in there. Lies, mostly. That she’d given up looking for me. That she’d moved on. That no one was coming."
"They were wrong."
"I know that now." Vael stumbled, and Nacho caught her before she could fall. "But I need to know what I’m going back to. Who I’m going back to. Has she changed?"
Nacho thought about Sera. About the iron-willed Grand General who’d confronted him in that infirmary room. About the woman who’d laughed in an alley after he’d accidentally charmed her into dropping the charges against him. About the vulnerability she’d shown that night by the fire, when she’d admitted that Vael was the only person who’d ever made her feel like she was enough.
"She’s been fighting," he said finally. "Every day. Against the Elders who wanted to strip her rank. Against the Consortium that’s been trafficking your people. Against everyone who told her to give up on you." He paused. "She never did. Not once."
Vael was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper.
"She came for me."
"Yeah. She did."
"I didn’t think she would. Didn’t think she could." Tears were streaming down her face now, catching the moonlight like liquid silver. "The things they did to me in that place, they made me believe that no one would ever find me. That I’d rot in that cell until they decided I wasn’t worth keeping anymore."
"But you didn’t break."
"I wanted to." The admission came out raw, unvarnished. "Every single day, I wanted to give them what they wanted just to make it stop. But I kept thinking about her. About the last thing I said to her before I left. And I couldn’t... I couldn’t let that be our last moment."
Nacho didn’t ask what she’d said. Some things were private, even between people who’d just escaped certain death together.
They walked in silence after that, the only sound their footsteps in the snow and Vael’s occasional gasps as she forced her weakened body to keep moving. The forest seemed endless, trees stretching in every direction like the bars of a cage that went on forever.
Then, finally, Nacho heard it.
Footsteps. Not behind them, but ahead. Moving fast through the undergrowth.
He pushed Vael behind a tree and manifested his tentacles, ready to fight whatever was coming at them. His daggers were in his hands before he could think about it, the Dagger Duchess Talent humming with readiness.
A figure burst through the trees.
Sera.
She was covered in blood, most of it not her own. Her armor was torn in several places, and she was favoring her left leg. But she was alive. She was standing. And the look in her eyes when she saw them was something Nacho would remember for the rest of his life.
"You’re okay." She was breathing hard, her words coming out in gasps. "You’re both okay."
Vael made a sound that was half sob and half laugh. She pushed past Nacho and threw herself at Sera, wrapping her arms around her with a strength that shouldn’t have been possible for someone in her condition.
Sera caught her and held on like she was afraid Vael would disappear if she let go.
"I killed it," she said, her face buried in Vael’s hair. "I killed it and I came for you and we’re getting out of here. All of us. Together."
Nacho turned away, giving them a moment of privacy. His tentacles retracted, his daggers disappeared back into his inventory, and he tried very hard to pretend he wasn’t feeling something suspiciously like happiness in his chest.
"The smuggler’s road," he said eventually. "Vael mentioned it. Two hours north of here."
Sera lifted her head, and there was a light in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Hope, maybe. Or the beginning of something that looked an awful lot like joy.
"Lead the way."
They walked through the night, three figures moving through the darkness toward whatever came next. Sera and Vael leaned against each other, supporting each other’s weight, their hands intertwined in a way that spoke of years of longing finally given form.
Nacho walked ahead, his senses extended, watching for danger. But the forest was quiet now, and the fortress was far behind them, and for the first time since this whole crazy rescue mission had started, he allowed himself to believe that they might actually make it.
The smuggler’s road appeared exactly where Vael had said it would, a narrow dirt track cutting through the trees like a scar. They followed it north, walking until the first hints of dawn began to lighten the eastern sky.
The village materialized out of the morning mist like something from a dream. Small. Quiet. The kind of place where people minded their own business and didn’t ask questions about strangers who appeared out of nowhere looking like they’d been through hell.
Sera found them a room above a tavern, paying for a week in advance with coins she’d apparently been carrying for exactly this purpose. The room was small but clean, with two beds and a window overlooking the street below.
Vael collapsed onto one of the beds the moment they entered, asleep before her head hit the pillow. Sera sat beside her, holding her hand, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath.
"She’s really here," she said quietly. "I found her. She’s really here."
Nacho leaned against the wall by the window, keeping watch out of habit even though they were probably safe for the moment. The village was waking up around them, people going about their daily business without any idea that three fugitives from a Consortium fortress were sleeping in their midst.
"She’s going to need time," he said. "To recover. To heal."
"I know." Sera’s voice was thick with emotion. "I’ll give her whatever she needs. Whatever it takes."