...East of Hoburns…

Fluder did not enjoy this. He'd been patient with many things over the years, but he was a bit old for a 'merry chase' like the sort Skana had been engaged in. It had been such a stressful time that he'd barely said two words to her in weeks. Finally though with her announcement of going on the offensive, he had questions.

"What exactly is your plan?" He asked. "You've kept me in reserve this entire time, but you've been looking at me like a second head has sprouted from my shoulders for the better part of an hour now."

Skana's grin was vicious. "Tell me Fluder, what do you know about fox hunting?" She asked.

"Little. I grew up in a village, went to school, studied magic, you know where I ended up, all that I ever cared about really, was magic." He said patiently.

"I grew up in a village, but ours was a little different. Most villages aren't that close to their lord's manor, but by some twist of history, ours was almost in the shadow of it, I never knew why. It doesn't matter though, the important thing is that our lord was particularly fond of fox hunting. Only it wasn't 'foxes' he hunted, it was people who he called 'the fox'. He'd take peasants, usually bandits or some other person nobody would miss, have them 'painted' and then give them a head start in the woods. After that he'd turn the hounds loose and run them down."

Fluder winced. "Bad way to go."

"Yeah, yeah it was." Skana nodded, "Can't say most of em didn't really deserve it though, some of em, well… running out of bandits didn't stop the hunts."

"Ah, the point, if you please?" He asked.

"The point, my dear magic caster, is that the lord didn't live to see Jaldabaoth. One day he got the wrong criminal, or perhaps just the wrong victim. They ran, but not away. He turned the hunt on its head. I was just a little girl at the time, but I liked the woods, and by chance I came across him as he worked. He turned the woods into a weapon. Spike traps, falling rocks, trip wires out of vines, horse pits that broke the legs of mounts. The dogs went first, then he started targeting the hunting party. After he killed the third one, the last three tried to get the hell out of there. He didn't let them leave. I didn't see every kill, when he spotted me, he sent me away, but I saw some of it, that was how our lord died. Not some grand battle, not hunting some noble beast. He died from a wooden dagger in the throat, on his back, on his own lands."

"And what do you want to do?" Fluder asked.

"Something similar. We move these bodies to the woods, it shouldn't take long. Once they track them to the edge, they'll find that we've gone in there. Then we trap the place, there are a lot of them, but there are enough of us that we can make these traps very quickly, and that is where you come in." She said.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked.

"The first stage will be fairly simple, we start by using your magic to create some fire sharpened spears, and you make some pits for us. They still don't know we've got you with us, so their numbers have been increasing. I lost more people than I planned for, but we did get a lot done, and that's made the enemy equal parts arrogant and eager to get things over with. Once they're in the woods, we lay false trails. Astraka's soldiers are mostly city people and his peasant conscripts aren't from around here, so we have the home field advantage. Once they're after us in earnest, I want you to start blowing them away in small groups, wait until they get separated, I don't want them to know their own losses. Just stay off safe somewhere, look for an arrow in the sky, then target that spot with the strongest spells you can, we'll trap who we can, you destroy the rest." She said savagely.

"Fine. Seems like a good enough idea. Then what?" He asked.

"Then we go back to Prart. We've done all we can in this region, anybody who hasn't left is either dead or on their side." She said with a regretful look. Then she focused on the old magic caster, "By the way, I didn't say this before but… thank you for coming, their magic casters are simply too many if we don't have some serious support."

"If it leads me further down the path to magic, I would stroll through Jaldabaoth's garden." He said firmly.

The next few hours as they got the bodies and moved them towards the woods, Skana spent her time explaining various trap methods to the fighters she still had left, and vengeance hungry faces met her own.

She had the bodies laid out, and then her soldiers went into the woods with only the pretense of an effort at covering their tracks. Fluder moved himself a distance away from the woods, to its very edge, and concealed himself at the edge of a hill. It took quite some time before the soldiers in pursuit found the trail, found the dead, found the evidence of the movement into the woods. Even from where he stood, he could almost hear the commanding officer's thoughts about how it was time to finish Skana and her band off for good.

They spread out and entered. Fluder was not a military man, but from where he was, it seemed they were spread very thin given who they were going up against. He barely heard the first scream.

Skana was ecstatic. She'd drawn first blood with her arrow and then dashed away while a group of a dozen soldiers chased after her. "Catch me if you can!" She laughed at them as they chased her down. Her auburn hair flew behind her, the light but powerful armor given to Neia's elite hundred proved considerably better than that worn by Astraka's infantry. It was easy to stay ahead, she kept them chasing her though. She'd turn and fire another arrow, bring another man down, and egg the others on as she led them farther and farther away. She only had to take down three of them before one fell into the first trap. His foot went into a small spiked pit where the spikes had been coated in human feces before being embedded in the ground. It went right through his cheap boot and into his flesh, he wouldn't be walking on that any time soon. He'd be lucky if he weren't sick or dead before dawn. The next soldier died when he tripped on a vine rope and yanked a snake bound to it, directly into his path. It bit him in the leg, and though the snake died when he severed its head with his sword, the poison finished him in minutes.

From the cries in the forest, similar things were happening all over the place. Leaders were always a priority target for their archers. Black Justice soldiers, especially the elites, were trained to think and respond dynamically to changing situations, and though she had only a few elites, their willingness to adapt and be creative was now thoroughly embedded in the martial culture of every unit, and smart peasants could gain status by coming up with new ideas. However, Astraka's soldiers were a more traditional military apparatus, follow orders or be punished and you are not paid to think. Deprived of leaders, small groups were often lost about what to do.

Making things worse, her archers were some of the best of the known world. Fluder saw the first arrow go up above the trees. He used a fly spell and flew towards its position, as it came back down, he targeted the spot it would land and launched a fireball. He couldn't see 'what' he needed to hit, but he knew 'where' he needed to hit. Odds are there were mages there, those still posed a problem for fighters. He heard screams. He didn't care.

He moved to a safe position and waited again. Ten minutes later, he repeated the exercise. Keeping him a concealed asset seemed to have been the right choice. Against a company of mages, even less powerful than he, well, a fireball was a fireball.

The cleverness of that young girl began to hit home for him as he realized how many soldiers they'd used to try to bring her down. All her daring raids, all her kills, her distinct appearance and her name being made well known, had leveraged more and more power to the east to try to stop her, and everything used against her, was not being used against Prart. She'd tied up thousands with a relative handful and kept a surprise… himself, ready to decimate them. "War is its own magic, I suppose." He said with a begrudging degree of respect for the martial acumen of the Vice Commander.

He heard a laugh somewhere down there, female, it was probably hers. Fluder didn't care about having to take lives, it was just something that had to be done to advance his knowledge of magic. But she took pleasure in her victories.

Another arrow went up. "Back to it." He said to himself.

By the time mages had had enough and started trying to save themselves, it was already too late for most of them. They'd lost much of their leadership, and the willingness to obey their orders had left them in too small a number to matter to the much more powerful Fluder Paradyne. When one gave up and fled, Fluder sentenced him to death. All of them would be too many, but one or two at a time was like having dinner, just finish them one bite at a time.

The more dense soldiers didn't realize how they had been tactically outmatched and with their leadership whittled away, it became worse and worse, and from an organized engagement to just flailing in the woods until they were ambushed and brought down.

It was almost nightfall before a handful of Astraka's soldiers staggered out of the forest, having thrown away their shields and discarded most of their armor to flee more quickly. Fluder descended to the ground and left the woods to wait for their return.

Skana was very, very happy. She was tired, she was sore, but she was happy. Especially when she emerged from the woods and saw the soldiers fleeing. They'd abandoned most of their armor to flee more quickly.

Some of her people were with her, stepping out of the woods like gods of death, they watched the handful go. "Anyone see them surrender?" Skana asked, looking to her left and right.

"Vice Commander, they're running away…" One of her soldiers said.

"I can see that." Skana said. "I asked if you saw any of them surrender. Now did they surrender or didn't they?" Her voice was cold as death.

"No." He said softly.

"Do it." She said.

"Ma'am?" He asked.

"Finish them off." She ordered, clarifying in a voice that said she wondered if he'd lost his wits.

"No ma'am." He said.

"What was that?" She asked in a disbelieving voice.

"They're running away, there's no fight left in them." He said.

"I don't see a surrender, that makes them combatants." She reminded him.

"We won, they can barely move. I mean look at them, they're stumbling they're so tired, most of them don't even have swords anymore!" He snapped out at her.

She snarled and whirled on the dissenter, a palm strike putting him into a tree. She grabbed him by the throat, her green eye on fire as she stared into his face. "I didn't ask if they were happy or full of piss and vinegar. They're combatants and if we don't take them down then they'll end up at Prart! Do you get me soldier? They'll end up where my wi- my Commander is. One of them might take her down, or one of our comrades there, you want that on your conscience?!"

Two more of her soldiers grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled Skana off the one she'd struck. "Ma'am, get a hold of yourself! We'll chase them down and take their surrender! They're broken, alright?! You know the rules! We're not butchers damn it!"

"Gah!" Skana said and relaxed. "Fine, take them prisoner, offer them one chance, and only one chance. But if they don't take it, and I mean immediately, you take them down without fail!" Her voice was alien even to herself as she said that. As directed, her men, took off at a combat shuffle that increased as they drew closer to the desperate fleeing soldiers.

She stabbed her sword into the ground and slammed her mailed fist into the tree she'd shoved the dissenting soldier against. She fumed, breathing hard and heavy. The laughter and mockery she'd heaped upon her targets had morphed into hate as she saw them flee in the direction of Prart.

Practically speaking, she knew they weren't thinking of going there, they were just fleeing for their lives and picked that direction because it was not in 'her' direction. But emotionally speaking… they were going in that direction to kill Neia. She touched the side of her head and took several deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down.

She took up her sword, wiped it clean of blood, and put it back into its sheath. A few minutes later her soldiers were back, with bound men, whose heads hung low in defeat. Her rage had not abated, there were five of them.

"Raise your heads or lose them." She said coldly.

They lifted their gazes to hers. Her people were right, there was no fight left within their bodies. They were young for the most part, pale, dirty blond or brown hair, probably from the same area given their similar features. Only one of them had dark black hair and tan skin.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked.

One of them nodded mutely. "Skana." He said in a hushed voice.

"I will be blunt. I ordered my soldiers to kill you. They sort of talked me out of it." She said, then looked at the one she'd struck. "Sorry about that earlier, I was out of line."

He nodded. "It's fine." He said with a smirk, "I get to tell the story of how I survived a blow from Skana the Bold to my future grandchildren!"

That actually made her chuckle.

"Now, as to what we'll actually do with you. I'd still rather put you all down." She said, "You're traitors to Queen Calca, you're part of the force that has been butchering our people, and to be honest I didn't much care for being hunted so I'm cross with you at the moment. Very cross." She said as her voice took on a more even tone that was somehow worse than when she sounded angry.

They were shaking.

"But like I said, they talked me out of killing you. You're prisoners, but we don't have the means to take prisoners with us anymore. I'm prohibited from mutilating prisoners of war, or executing them, according to the Draconic Accords. So on top of everything else, you've profoundly inconvenienced me." She said in a plain spoken, rational sort of way.

"Uh… ahm, sorrah…" One of the captives offered 'helpfully'.

Skana rubbed her forehead. "I have one option, and I'm going to leave it to you to accept or reject, not many prisoners get to make bargains, but I'm out of ideas."

They went quiet to listen to her.

She took out her sword, they flinched.

Fluder, having seen all this take place, decided to approach.

She saw him as he came near, "Good, I thought I'd have to send someone for you." Skana said with relief.

"What do you need?" He asked.

She looked back at the prisoners. "This is the deal, I have my friendly magic user here heat up this sword enough to burn flesh, then I mark each one of you somewhere visible. That'll mark you as being 'paroled'. You go back to your villages, back to your lives, and don't take up the sword against us again, and you'll live out your days in peace. Go to a Black Justice temple when all this is over, and they'll remove the mark for you. But if you take up the sword against us and get 'caught' again, it'll be your head next time. What do you say?" She asked.

The five men looked at one another.

"Just one mark?" One of them asked.

"Just one, and not very big, just enough that we can't miss it, also I'll give you a bandage and ointment to wrap it afterwards so it heals quickly and doesn't hurt for very long. Now, your answers?" She asked.

A few minutes later they were on their knees as a red hot blade made a long thin line across the back of their left hands. They had sticks in their mouths to bite down on, and though they shook when the burning happened, and screamed into their improvised gags, each injury was quickly daubed and wrapped with a clean cloth.

"It's done, unbind them." She said.

"Take off your armor... then get the hell out of here, and never let me see you again, because if I do..." She cut the sentence off and held the sword up, the tip inches away from them and still burning hot.

They nodded.

"RUN!" She shouted at them in fury, and they ran, far, far away, never to return.

She waited until the sword had cooled again and then put it back into her sheath.

She took the horn up from where it hung at her side, and blew it three times. It took awhile for her soldiers to exit the forest, but as soon as they'd begun to do so, she took a count of her numbers. Losses had been very light, and the victory complete.

"Now what, ma'am?" The same soldier from before, asked her hesitantly.

"Now we go back to Prart, there's a question I'd like to get an answer to, and there are going to be several armies to crush." She said eagerly. "Oh, and thanks. You kept me from committing the type of atrocity that the Theocracy and Astraka happily engage in." She said to him, and when the last of their forces were ready, they started to move west again.

AN: Well you got a few chapters today so...be happy and all that. I know, you want longer ones, but it's a pain in the arse to format this stuff for FFN.