The Longest Road, Part 25
"Get out of here," you snarl at the outlaws. "Run, and don't look back. If I ever see your faces again, you're all dead."
The terrified men need no second bidding, turning and fleeing into the night. But you clamp your hand down on the shoulder of the first outlaw you talked to, preventing him from following his fellows. "Wait," you say. "You're going to tie me up again first."
He shoots you a fearful look, but you respond with a withering glare and he complies, re-tying your bonds and gagging you once again. Then he runs like the rest of them, and soon his scrambling footfalls fade into the night. You draw in a deep breath and let it out. One chore done.
Savoring the newfound peace and serenity, you glance in the direction you came from, toward the caravan. You wonder what Khaytala is doing, and you try to guess her response to the warning you slipped her. She's kindhearted enough that she'd be distraught over anyone in her charge falling into this kind of danger... and considering how fond she's grown of you, that distress will doubtless be magnified.
You just hope she doesn't do anything too desperate.
Lying down on the cold, hard ground, you feign sleep as the hours pass one after another. After a long, boring night, dawn finally breaks, though it's still some time before the daylight really starts to penetrate into the depths of the thick forest.
Eventually, you hear the assassin stir, then crawl out of her tent. You crack an eye open, watching in amusement as she looks around, slowly realizing that her hired muscle is simply gone. Her jaw drops as she whirls back and forth, trying to figure out what happened. "Wha... what the hell?" she shouts.
As good a cue as any. You make a show of "waking up" yourself, rising to a sitting position and looking around. Then you affect surprise at the sight of the near-deserted camp, before turning to the young woman and making muffled noises through your gag.
She stomps over to you, ripping the gag away. "What happened last night?" she demands, caught between fury and panic. "Where did everyone go?"
You shake your head, making yourself sound confused. "I swear, I have no idea!" you lie. "Everyone was there when I fell asleep! I don't know what could have happened to them! Maybe they just... decided this wasn't worth it?"
The girl stares, battling with her shock. Then she spins away and begins to pace in agitation, muttering under her breath as she tries to work out what to do. Taking away her support so early in the game has thrown her plans into disarray. From the snatches you can overhear, it sounds like she'd intended for her men to watch you while she delivered the ultimatum to Khaytala, setting up the exchange in a secluded spot where the assassin could prepare her trap.
Now, however, she can't leave you unguarded. Which is forcing her to improvise.
You say nothing, watching her as she tries to figure out her next step. She wastes quite a bit of time fuming and plotting, pacing endlessly back and forth, but eventually she comes to a decision. The girl crawls back into her tent, gathering her gear, wrapping that red scarf around her face again and pulling the dark, hooded cloak over her head. Then she slings her crossbow and quiver across her back.
"Get on your feet!" she shouts, walking back over to you and untying the ropes binding your ankles. "We're going to go for a walk." You comply, standing up without protest. She shoves you forward, walking behind you with the crossbow trained at your back, ready to be fired with the slightest twitch of a finger.
A single crossbow bolt would be unlikely to kill you, of course, thanks to your regeneration... but no one else knows that. Least of all your captor.
You make use of this time alone with her, deciding to focus on coaxing out what information you can. "Do you really think you're going to get away with this?" you begin. "You know that Khaytala is a big part of the war Nelin and Vekmar are about to wage against Kovora, right? Even if you do somehow manage to kill her, you'll be painting a target on your back for the rest of your life."
"So what?" the young girl says, her voice aching with hate. "Just so long as she dies. That's the only thing that matters."
"Even if you had to kill everyone in the caravan with shamblers to do it?" you prod, still trying to get a feel for her. "Men and women who were just in the wrong place in the wrong time? What about them? What about their families? Do you even care how many other people you hurt?"
Surprisingly, she actually does flinch a little at that, though she recovers quickly. "I... I wouldn't have had to try that if you hadn't warned her the first time I tried!" she protests unconvincingly. "And... and it's their own damn fault for traveling with that bitch anyway!"
Fascinating. You'd already guessed this was something personal, but this girl doesn't even care about her own life just so long as she takes Khaytala with her. That takes a special kind of fury. And the more you learn... especially with this chance to talk with her alone... you're finally starting to suspect how all these pieces fit together.
You poke and prod a little more, but you stop just shy of confirming it. Now that you're holding all the cards, you don't want to set her off before the right moment.
The two of you trudge through the forest, your hands still tied behind your back. Around you, the muted sound of wildlife filters through the dense trees, and by the time you near the caravan's campsite the sun is high in the sky. Eventually, as you near the campsite, you hear the distant sound of raised voices, confirming that the caravan hasn't moved on. Given Arne's antipathy toward you, Khaytala most likely intimidated him into waiting.
As you draw near, you speak up. "It's not too late, you know. You can still stop this without anyone needing to die. Just walk away."
The girl laughs a hollow laugh. "You're wrong," she says. "It is too late. It's been too late for a long, long time. There's only one way this ends."
You raise an eyebrow. "We'll see."
The two of you first emerge onto the forest road, then from there approach the camp. The guards on the perimeter are the first to notice you, and they quickly raise the alarm. Toward the center of the camp you see Khaytala in a heated argument with Arne, but she whirls at the shouting. Her eyes widen at the sight of you, and she covers the distance to the edge of the camp at a dead run.
"Talavar!" she calls out, her face a mixture of relief at seeing you again and worry at the danger you're still in. "Talavar, are you alright?"
Before you can answer, the young assassin interrupts. "Not one step closer!" she barks, and you can feel the steel head of the crossbow bolt jab into your back as she takes cover behind you. Khaytala obeys, holding up her hands placatingly toward the murderous young girl.
You give Khaytala a reassuring smile. "I'm fine," you assure her. "She didn't hurt me."
The battle between worry and relief in Khaytala's expression shifts toward the latter, though she's obviously still distraught. She also looks like she didn't get any sleep at all last night. But she doesn't let that slow her down, showing no weakness as she faces down the enemy who has been hounding her so relentlessly.
The assassin is keeping her distance, though. And for all Khaytala's incredible strength and skill with a sword... there's just no way she could cover so much ground before your captor pulls the trigger and shoots you. Everything about this confrontation is crafted to exploit Khaytala's vulnerabilities.
Rather than attacking, however, Khaytala makes an honest attempt to reason with her assailant. "Listen... kid..." she says. "I have no idea why you're after me. But whatever it is... Talavar has nothing to do with it. We can work this out. Just... please, let him go."
It's at this point that you decide to take control of the situation. "Actually, Khaytala," you say. "I'm pretty sure I know why she's after you."
The crossbow jabs into your back. "Shut up," the girl snaps, her voice tense. "You don't know a damn thing about me."
You ignore her. "The poison was the first clue. You did tell me that it was sometimes used by bandits, even if rarely. And she knew these details about the trade route too. Like how corpse weed attracts the shamblers, and where she could find those thugs she hired."
"I said shut up!" the girl repeats. There's genuine agitation in her words now, confirming to you that what you're revealing to Khaytala is on the right track.
"But it was strange," you continue. "She didn't seem to be a bandit herself. No gang backing her. Even the men she eventually used were obviously just hired muscle. They didn't know her or respect her. So where did she learn all those things that a bandit would know? Who taught her to fight and shoot and ride?"
You turn to face the girl, your hands still bound behind you. Her eyes are red-rimmed, but she looks up at you with an aching mix of rage and grief as you continue. "And why was she so angry?" you ask quietly. "How could someone as kind and noble as Khaytala have hurt her so badly that she was willing to die to get revenge? That she was willing to kill an entire caravan to get revenge? That she was willing to become such a hypocrite, and make so many more families suffer exactly what she went through?"
You can hear her teeth grinding as your accusations strike home. "Shut your mouth," the girl forces out. "Shut your mouth you piece of shit!"
"My guess is he was more than just a friend," you say, looking her right in the eye. "And you're a little young for him to have been a lover, especially if you've been training and planning this for as long as I suspect. A brother is possible, of course... but if I had to lay money, I'd say that the bandit who was stupid enough to attack people Khaytala was protecting was probably your fath—"
"Shut up!" You've had her on a knife edge, and that last insult against her father pushes her over into a blind rage. Which is exactly the opening you've been waiting for. You swing your knee up with all your supernatural speed, up underneath the crossbow, knocking its aim up and to the side. She's so furious that she responds reflexively to your attack, pulling the trigger without thought, sending the bolt arcing away into the depths of the forest.
She screams in fury, as she realizes that her loss of control has cost her the biggest advantage she had. But then she flicks her hand, a knife shooting from her sleeve as she lunges at you, blade slashing for your throat. You fling yourself backward, twisting away from the slice, which barely misses. She continues her assault, swinging back for another slash...
...and then Khaytala is there. She covers the distance between you and grabs the girl by the wrist, stopping her attempted second strike cold before hurling her bodily away from you, sending her tumbling end over end along the forest road.
Khaytala doesn't keep up the attack, though. Instead, she whirls to urgently check you all over for injuries. Then she lets out a breath of relief upon finding that you're unhurt, a look of genuine joy in her eyes. "Thank the goddesses..." she whispers fervently, perhaps not even aware that she said it.
You grin back. But then you nod in the direction of the assassin, who is pulling herself back to her feet. Khaytala turns, the two of them facing each other down. The girl is visibly trembling with hate and grief as she glares at Khaytala. But Khaytala just looks...
...sad.
"Is that was this was all about?" she asks. "This whole time? Everything you've done? Because I..." She hesitates, then presses forward. "Because I took your parent away from you?"
The girl settles into a knife-fighting stance, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she circles in toward her enemy. "It was three years ago..." she rasps, not even bothering to stop the tears from running down her face now. "You killed him like a dog! And since then, I've only lived for this day, when I could do the same to you!"
Khaytala doesn't draw her own weapon. "I've killed a lot of people," she admits, her words heavy. "And you shouldn't have had to lose your family like that. I'm so sorry. But... you have to understand... if I did kill your father, it was because he was trying to kill someone else."
"I don't care!" the girl screams back. "He was my dad!" Then she lunges, her knife slashing out in a flurry of cuts. The savage attack is executed with impressive skill, as the young assassin pours all her skill and all her rage into this one final onslaught, the culmination of everything she's been working toward.
Khaytala takes her apart effortlessly.
The terrifying thing is, she isn't even forced to move particularly fast. Khaytala's iron-clad control over the distance and footwork, combined with her ability to read the girl's moves allows her to avoid the attacks with an economy of movement that is devastating in its simplicity. The slashes always fall just a hair's breadth too short, leaving the assassin off-balance from strikes she was certain were going to land.
Even then Khaytala doesn't draw her sword. Instead she steps in, trapping the girl's wrist and pulling her into a knee to the stomach that lifts her off her feet, knocking the wind out of her and leaving her gasping. She doubles over, staggering to keep upright, though you're certain that Khaytala could have snapped her in half if she'd struck with full force.
Despite barely being able to breathe, the girl flicks her other wrist, shooting out a second knife. But before she can even use it, Khaytala raises her arm and swings it in a backhand, sending the girl spinning through the air and that knife tumbling away as well. The girl lands in a crumpled heap on the ground, her hair disheveled, the red scarf covering her freckled face now askew as Khaytala moves to stand over her.
"You stupid kid," Khaytala says, pained regret in her voice. "Do you really think any parent would want their daughter to throw her life away like this? Don't you think that... that they would want you to live on... rather than destroy yourself in your grief over what happened to them?"
She's pleading with the girl, presenting it as truth. But underneath it all, you feel like she's trying to convince herself almost as much as her attacker.
The assassin slowly rolls back up to her knees, glaring up at Khaytala defiantly. Then she shakes her head, giving the woman a humorless, mocking smile. "No," she insists. "I don't. What's the point of living on, if you've failed the most important person? No matter what... I'll always be my father's daughter."
The words hit Khaytala hard, a conflicted expression crossing her face. But then she locks the pain and turmoil away deep within herself, her face becoming an impassive mask. "There's nothing else I say?" she asks, her voice quiet. But the undiminished hate in the girl's gaze looking up at her is answer enough.
And so, for the first time in this encounter, Khaytala draws her sword.
It's obvious why she feels compelled to do this. As much as Khaytala might feel for the young girl's pain, she let it turn her into a murderous menace. She nearly killed dozens of people in her crazed obsession to get at Khaytala... and it's clear that if she gets away, she isn't going to stop.
At the same time... its painfully obvious in every move she makes that Khaytala doesn't want to do this. "Wait!" you call out. "You don't have to carry this yourself. We can just take her prisoner. Tie her up and hand her off to the town guard in the next city we reach."
Khaytala laughs, a bitter, hollow laugh. "No," she says. "I know what they do to bandits who try to attack the caravans. This... this is my responsibility. At least I can make it clean."
She makes a strong case. On the other hand, if you did want to spare Khaytala the anguish it would clearly put her through to do this, you could probably convince her to strip her of her weapons and let her go. The assassin would eventually make another try, of course... but by that time, you hope to have Khaytala away from this vulnerable occupation and safely in Kovora.
Or, as a third option... you do have the power of your Corruptive Boon. You could pressure the girl into an agreement, especially if she doesn't realize quite how... binding... it really will be. That could make it safe to not kill her. Either by removing her threat permanently... or by forcing her to go somewhere you and Khaytala could exercise more... direct control over the precise nature of her punishment than you could in Nelin.
You can think of quite a few methods by which a murderous girl like her could be taught the error of her ways and pay her debt to society...
Still, time is running out. Whatever you want to do... you're going to have to choose quickly.
