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With the border crossing done Mallory was starting to feel almost optimistic about their chances. They were just under a week from Halcard and nowhere would have as much security as the border. That would give them almost two weeks in Halcard to sabotage Catherine, and hopefully to rescue Julian. It wouldn't be easy, but they would at least have plenty of time to do it.

The towns they were planning to go through may be a bit tense, but with their official documentation and solid cover story Mallory had no real concerns about being caught. At the last village they had passed through Alexander had even dared to purchase some food from the market, a real improvement from purely foraging and hunting.

But while Mallory had put lots of thought and worry into how they would get through the population centers, she hadn't been as concerned about what they would run into on the road. Patrols should be easy enough, and she had no other reason to be too concerned as far as she cared.

As their cart crested a small hill outside of that village though, Mallory saw something she hadn't been ready for. Ahead of them was a cart driven by a wolf with the logo of some trading company proudly displayed on the side. It was just starting the ascent of the same hill, but in the opposite direction. Mallory didn't recognize the logo, but that wasn't what caught her eye.

No, what caught her eye was the line of slaves chained together. Forced to march behind in the dust and dirt of the cart pulling them along. Some were clearly struggling too. The driver of the cart didn't seem to mind though. He wasn't even looking back at them, but he didn't have to. If one of them fell then it would just be on the others to drag them along, and if they all failed then the horses pulling them would do it.

It didn't really matter to him. To the wolf driving the cart they were just a particularly inconvenient cargo. If a few were damaged in transit that was just the cost of doing business.

To him anyways. To Mallory and Amber though, they were people. People that he was hurting all because he wanted to get them to market a little faster. Mallory looked over and she could see the mouse doing the math in her mind. Three of them, only one of him. They wouldn't even have to kill him with those odds.

"We should do it Mal," she says under her breath. "Look, he's got nearly a dozen of them there. Every single one of them could be the next Se Lalin recruit. And one even has runic bindings! If we let him get into town still wearing those they'll kill him for sure!"

Amber was right. This merchant might not know it, but those Kill On Sight orders wouldn't be kind to even only potential witches. But despite that Mallory's tail still flicked about with worry. "And then what?" she objects. "Just cut them all loose? We can't feed them all, and we certainly can't take them with us."

"He's got a cart there, with rations to feed them probably!" Amber pointed out. "We let them take what they want and it'll look like bandits robbed him. Even if some of them get re-captured we'll at least have helped the ones that got away. Come on Mallory, this is a perfect opportunity, you know I'm right."

Mallory wished she wasn't. Something about the situation still seemed a bit off to her. It was just too easy, they had to be missing something. But if they were then Mallory wasn't seeing it. "Fine. But we do it carefully and quietly, got it? I don't want us to be fugitives."

Amber nodded eagerly. "Alright! Thank you Mal!" Her ears were perked up, and her tail was flicking about, her excitement practically palpable. She'd been waiting to do something like this for a long time. "We can use a mirror illusion to keep him looking the wrong way, as a distraction. Then knock him out, tie him up and blindfold him before he can even see our faces."

"I... yeah that sounds good." Mallory seemed surprised at how quickly Amber planned everything. Had she thought about it beforehand, or did it just come naturally to her? Either way it should be a good plan. Illusion spells were some of the simplest to cast, and a hit on the head didn't exactly need precise execution.

Amber practically wiggled in excitement, grabbing a magic crystal from one of their bags. "I'll cast the illusion, so you stay on the lookout. If anything seems suspicious make sure to tell us, or just blast it. Or both. And Alex, you provide the muscle." Alex nodded at that, having been listening in the whole time and picked up a dense wooden rod from the floor of the cart.

"Lookout duty, I've got it", Mallory echoed, but she hoped they wouldn't need a lookout at all. She had never done anything like this, or anything that needed a lookout. It felt wrong, too dangerous. But they weren't going to stop just because she felt uneasy.

"Isibuko", Amber whispered. The air in front of them wavered, then the strangest looking thing happened. It was as if a second copy of their body pulled away from the first one, sliding aside until it was mirroring their actions from the other side of the trail.

It was an easy spell, as most illusions were, but still highly effective. To anyone who looked from the outside, only their copy would be visible, and as long as it was kept close like this, even a novice mage could perform it. Some actions could look a bit awkward when mirrored, but one would have to be watching very closely to notice that.

If the driver of the cart saw anything amiss he didn't show it. Instead he just waved at Alex, the only one visible from the outside of the cart. "Nice day out!", he called over.

"Sure is!", Alex responded in his best 'fellow wolf' voice. "Where you headed?"

"Thornmouth!" He responded. Chances were he was going to the very same markets they had gone through.

They wouldn't have a chance to ask him though. Amber whispered, "Bouk", to hold the mirror image as it was. The wheels turning, the horses trotting, all of the details looping as they were. Giving no indication of the hidden real counterpart's movements, and not even drawing enough magic to stress the crystal she was holding.

Alex knew his cue. He deftly hopped from their cart to the ground, barely making a noise as he stepped onto the slave trader's wagon. The wood creaked under his foot, giving the first real indication of something aside from their illusion. The other wolf wasn't on guard though and didn't even notice before Alex swings the wood bar through the air, hitting the other wolf's head with a loud CRACK.

He slumps down, unconscious. It won't last long, so Alex quickly starts to blindfold and tie him up while Amber lets the spell go. A murmur runs through the slaves when they see the cart apparently switching from one side of the road to the other.

Both of the carts roll to a halt next to each other and Amber hops out, smiling at the slaves. "Don't worry! We're here to set you free. We're with Se Lalin, and we were once slaves too! But you all deserve so much more. We'll free you, and then you can grab some food from this asshole's cart and be on your way. Try to make it look like bandits did it."

Some of the slaves looked absolutely delighted, while others just seemed too stunned to react. Mallory turned her head from scanning the horizon to look through the group, trying to see if there was anyone particularly notable. The horse in the magic-suppressing shackles is particularly promising. "You in the runic cuffs, do you know magic?"

He shakes his head. "Nah, sorry Miss, this was just the last pair they had. I couldn't learn magic anyways, right?" Those cuffs jangled as he held them up for Alexander to unlock. He had grabbed the keys off of the driver and was now going down the line freeing everyone. Many of them still regarded him with suspicion though, given his predatory species.

Amber is quick to cut in, "No, magical ability can turn up in anyone. And there are more prey and domestics than predators, so there are more mages among the slaves than there are among the slavers. If we all band together we can overcome- AIEE" Amber's speech is cut short by a yelp of surprise as an arrow whizzes past her, embedding itself in the merchant's cart with a dull thud.

Mallory's attention is jerked away from the freed slaves as they shout and scatter, her eyes quickly finding two men on horseback further up the road. They're wearing the same colors as the merchant here, they must be the guard! No wonder this was so lightly defended!

Alex was only halfway through uncuffing everyone, so he moved himself in front of them, shielding the slaves from any further attacks with his body as he continued to fiddle with the cuffs. He knew he was in danger, but he had to try to get them free as quickly as possible.

The bowstring twanged again and Amber shouted out, "Hlukana!" A small blue glow came from the mana crystal she was holding, the spell making the arrow veer up and off course when it got close.

In the midst of the screaming and the chaos Mallory kept looking around like she might find someone who would tell her what to do. They were far away, so they'd be hard to hit with magic, but she had the power to do it. "You have to stop them! Use a tangle spell on the horses!" Amber urged her. She deflected another arrow, but the effort of it was wearing on her even with the crystal.

It took a second for Mallory to register her words. There was so much happening it was overwhelming! Tangle spell, she had to translate, OH! "Mele!" It was a one-word spell, but Mallory shaped it so that it would still hit both of the horses.

It didn't take effect right away, but as the one on the left urged his horse to turn he was thrown from the beast, the big animal tumbling like its legs were tied up. His partner saw the fall and urged his own horse away, but that only made his mount fall too! Both of the men were now on the ground, but only one got up.

"Good work Mal", Amber said quickly.

Mallory opened her mouth to say something, but one of the slaves spoke up first. "Hey he's getting away!" A rabbit shouted, pointing down the road frantically.

Running was understating it. That fox was sprinting away, tail flapping wildly behind him. Apparently witches were well above his pay grade.

"Fuck, he's getting too far!" Mallory cursed, trying to draw upon her magic. It had never been this hard to use it before, but her mind and heart were racing. She just couldn't concentrate!

"I've seen you hit shots farther Mal! You can do it. But you have to actually shoot!" Amber was right, she had hit spells at this range before. But never anything that would be non-lethal. She had to either take the shot or let him go. And letting him go would doom every slave here.

Everything slowed to a crawl for Mallory. Every one of her furs rustling in the breeze, every sound of commotion going on around her, the fox running down the road, they were all happening in the horribly vivid detail of slow motion. She felt her magic, felt the world's magic. She connected them as she had so many times, let it flow. In hardly a whisper she said it, "Fletxa".

The magic acted as it always did. Forming a bolt of red that sped out as she commanded, piercing the air and the skull of the fox in an instant. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Mallory could only stare down the road in the direction of that bleeding body. Her eyes were transfixed on it, no matter how much she wanted to she couldn't bring herself to look away. The sharpness and detail that had been so overwhelming moments ago all dissolved away to a background fuzz. The only thing that still had any detail was that body. The body of the man she had killed.

"Mallory. Mallory! Hey, look at me", Amber waved her hand in front of the cat's face, snapping her fingers. Only the interruption to her sightline actually snapped her out of it though. She looked into Amber's red eyes, lost for words and direction. "Hey, it's gonna be alright Mal. Just sit down, breathe," Amber says, holding her friend's shoulders. "Come on Mal, breathe. Deep breaths. In, out. In, out." It was only when the mouse suggested it that Mallory realized she had been holding her breath.

Alex spoke up from outside the cart, "Is she alright? I need a minute, I think this guy's ankle is twisted." Their voices were the only thing that still reached Mallory. She knew that Amber was in front of her, lowering her down to sit in the cart. She could feel the mouse's small hands gently stroking her hair. But her mind was blank of anything but the memory of that body crumpling. The spray of blood. The absolute stillness of his twisted form.

"It's alright Mallory. You did what you needed to do. You did the right thing. It's alright. Just breathe." Outside the cart there was more commotion and movement, but inside there was just Amber softly speaking into Mallory's ear.

It took a few long moments of that comforting and reassurance before Mallory finally calmed down enough to say something. "I didn't... I didn't want to..."

Amber shushed her softly. "I know Mal, I know. Just let it out. I'm here for you." Mallory was a little confused by that. Let what out? She reached up to brush something out of her eye only to find she was crying. Oh, that's what Amber meant.

Alexander finally poked his head in the cart, and his face immediately falls when he sees Mallory. "Mal, Mal, honey -- It's alright. I know it's hard, but you saved everyone's life. It needed to be done. There wasn't any other choice. You did good."

It had to be done. It was the right thing. They kept telling her that, but all Mallory could think about was the sight of his body crumpling. Did he have a wife? Family waiting for him? He couldn't be very old, he had a lot of life ahead of him. Or rather he had had that.

"What about the other one?" Amber asked, still concerned about the combat situation. Alex's face told a whole story. He shook his head rapidly, eyes flitting between Amber and Mallory. Amber got the message right away. "Ah, uh, we'll talk about it later."

Alex very much appreciated that opportunity to step away, but before he could get back to the freed slaves Mallory spoke up. "Tell me what happened." She tried to say it firmly, but her voice cracking undermined any sort of confidence she had tried to have.

Reluctantly Alex turned back around to move in a bit closer. He paused for a moment before asking her, "Are you sure?" His tail was flitting about behind him with nervousness.

Mallory nodded. "I'll have to know eventually. Might as well just tell me now." Despite her insistence she still braced for what was to come. It couldn't be any worse than what had already happened, could it?

There was a moment of silence that filled the cart with an almost tangible tension. Alexander finally told her, "The other man on horseback hit his head when he fell. He's dead too. It probably happened instantly."

Fuck. Mallory had been expecting something like that, but hearing it, having it known as a fact of the universe still felt like a punch in the gut. She had gone from never having killed anyone to a double murderer in the space of half a minute. No matter what she did, no matter how much good she did, her hands would always have blood on them now.

Mallory sniffled and took a breath before speaking. "Alright. Thank you for telling me." Amber moved a bit closer to her, returning the same kind of physical support that Mallory had given her yesterday. Mal leaned into that affection heavily, sighing as she started to calm back down.

Alex reluctantly turned to leave again, leaving just the two of them alone in the cart. There was an awkward pause for a moment before Amber gently pet Mallory's back in the way she knew the cat liked. It didn't end the silence, but it did help the cat relax. Mallory's shoulders fell as she released some of the tension she had been holding there and released another breath she hadn't meant to hold.

Seeing Mal relax, Amber started to softly speak. "I had to kill someone when I escaped. I was such a fucking mess after that. If Julian hadn't been there to help keep me going... well I probably would have gotten caught. And if I had, I mean, I don't even want to know what they would have cooked up for my execution. And especially not what would have come before that."

Amber shook her head to try to clear out those unpleasant visions. "I thought that I would never be the same. I thought that Julian was just telling me things to calm me down and help him escape, but he didn't actually mean them. Who could ever forgive a murderer, right?"

Mallory looked over to her, her eyes still watery. She had sort of known that Amber had a more violent past than her, but had never pried into it. "Yeah, but I don't think Julian could ever be mad at you. Or at least not stay mad."

Amber smiled at that. "Maybe not. But not only did he forgive me, he thanked me for it. Repeatedly. Until I believed him. Which did take a while, but then I woke up the next day. And the next. And the next. The world moved on. And it did it without the person I killed there to make life hell for whatever slaves they found to replace us. And best of all, we were free. That could not have happened without killing him. And then I wouldn't have met you, and Catherine would be on her way to messing up the whole world completely unopposed."

Amber turned to Mallory, a more serious look on her face now. "I didn't kill him because of who he was, just like you didn't kill that man because you wanted to. We did what we had to do to help every enslaved person on this planet. They chose to fight against us, to fight for our oppression. We have a duty to fight back."

Mallory had rarely seen this kind of fervor in Amber's words before. Between how she had spoken to the freed slaves earlier and her speech in here now Mallory felt this was a completely different side to the usually introverted mouse. Still, her case was different. "He was running away though. I literally shot him in the back--"

A firm shake of the mouse's head cuts her off. "He was running away only AFTER shooting at us. He would have warned the others if he got away, and he would have killed us all personally if we had been any less dangerous. They are already killing us every single day. You can not feel bad for fighting back."

That didn't sit right with Mallory. She narrowed her gaze, a bit annoyed at Amber. "What, I'm not ALLOWED to feel bad for murdering a guy in cold blood?"

Amber opened her mouth indignantly, then closed it. She took a quick second to calm down before answering. "No, that's not what I meant. Of course you can feel compassionate on the individual level. But they want you to be unwilling to act. They rely on it. If every slave fought back at once they would lose. So that's what we need to make happen."

Every slave? Was she crazy? So so SO many would die. Slaves and slavers alike. And there were good people among the predators, like Alex! "Amber I... that would be great. But what we need to make happen now is to stop the Church and... and Catherine from making things even worse for all of us. Then we can focus on freeing people, alright?" She had some trouble saying that name.

Amber answered her with a begrudging nod. "You're right, this is more time sensitive. But we can't stay on the run or keep hiding in the shadows forever either. I will not go down in the tomes of history as someone who just rolled over, and I will not have you doing that either."

Mallory was about to respond to that challenge with a bit of fire of her own when she realized what Amber had done. She'd gotten her to stop wallowing. She'd almost completely distracted from the... the murder. Maybe it would get better after all. "Is Alex nearly done out there? We should get moving again."

The words themselves weren't anything special, but her tone was much closer to her normal self. Amber smiled at her before looking out of the cart. "Hey Alex, nearly done?"

Outside things were still bustling. The cart was being thoroughly looted, the horses were being loosed and commandeered by those who knew how to ride, and it even seemed like groups were forming to travel together. Alexander was comforting a black cat girl who on closer inspection only had one arm. His ears perked up before he smiled at them.

"Yeah just a second! Lily here is worried about her former Masters finding her. Might take a minute." He went back to talking to her, leaving Mallory and Amber still alone in the cart.

Mallory nudged Amber, gesturing at him as he seemed so soft and kind with the girl. "I was kind of scared to have a predator like him working so close with me before. But like, now I honestly love him. And it just, it makes it harder for me to see them all as being a part of some big evil thing, you know?"

Amber turned to Mal, a serious look in her eyes. "Hey, I get it. But look, Alex, Sapphire, Lena, all of the predators in Se Lalin are there because they're actively fighting against the others. They chose to forgo their family wealth and opportunities and gave up the easy life FOR us. Predators, unless they're actively fighting against it, are still benefiting from society being like this. And if they're doing that, then they're still a part of the problem."

Alexander did still sometimes talk about his time as a court musician. How he had only the finest food, drank the most expensive wines and liquors, flirted with the nobility and gentry of the land all while doing what he loved with his music. He really had given up a lot to be with a group of lowly slaves and witches and heathens. But Mallory wasn't so foolish as to think everyone else would give up their privilege so lightly.

They both watched him smile at the girl, patting her good shoulder before standing up. "Alright, let's get moving! We don't want to stick around here any longer." As he hopped back on the cart Mallory was quick to get close to him. He leaned towards her as he urged the horses forward. "I'm sorry that I couldn't help you more Mal. Are you feeling better, do you want to talk about it?"

A warm smile spread across Mallory's face. "Amber helped a lot. So maybe later, but for now let's talk about something less serious."