Olivia watched as the guards sat down around a fire. They were far too relaxed. There wasn’t the slightest inkling that their employer was in danger tonight. 

She’d be making her presence known, but she'd do that another way. She’d not fight these men. Not this time. 

As she went along the edges of the road, darkness crept onto her skin, coating the edges of her arms. She felt it on her face. It caressed her skin, as if it knew what she intended to do. Was it encouraging? Or trying to pull her back? She only knew that it made her feel stronger. 

The moon was out as well. Olivia risked a glance at it. It was a half-moon. Waxing. What light did reach her stung. 

Anger rose up . She shrank away. She didn’t like that she was acting underneath its light. And yet, it was also a reminder that what happened today would be its fault. It had left her with darkness and shadows. 

She climbed the wall, catching word of the conversation. They spoke of new rumours among the class above their employer. They spoke of being unsettled when they went home, that they felt watched. They spoke of beautiful men and women coming to the towns, drinking and laughing in their taverns. 

The last part unsettled her more. The Astra were still in this area—country. Shouldn’t they have left by now? Who was ruling against it? 

Olivia shook her head, dropping down from the wall, her feet almost soundless. Not one word from the guards had grown hesitant. They were wholly focused on their chatter. It was all that kept them engaged during such a long and uneventful night. 

When their negligence was revealed, would they be relived from duty? Would they be punished as the mortals did to criminals? Would they be executed? No, carelessness wasn’t usually awarded with death. There was the chance they’d be put into a cage.

The thought let her summon a blade of darkness with ease. She looked at the house. It was one of the long and wide ones of wood. Only one story. Unless she wanted a view, there would be no further climbing. 

There was light in the house, but little enough that Olivia could still sneak as she wanted to. 

The point was to draw attention, but she went to where she heard no footsteps, nor soft breathing. Digging her knife into the wood of the house was simple. It gave way easily, rotting as the blade sank further. She cut her entry into the house and pulled the half-rotted piece of wood away. All so easy. 

She thought of someone who’d be horrified of the sight. Several others joined that list. She tried not to think of their faces. She tried to push pale green eyes out of her thoughts. She failed.

The darkness had spread further across her skin. Half of her face might have been covered. She wasn’t sure. She didn't know what she looked like, probably fresh from a nightmare. She pushed that from her mind as well. 

Olivia thought instead of the target. She thought of the crude drawing and the descriptions of his habits. He slept late, spending much of the night drinking in his study, either working or simply thinking. 

She crept down the hall, feet making rustling noises across the floor. Was it made of straw? Or a different sort of cloth?

There were no guards in the house. It was both too small for that and, as the guards outside proved, thought to be unnecessary. She grimaced at how false the statement was. 

Olivia opened one door. Behind it was bedroom. The one in the bed was a young girl. The next held a boy who couldn’t have been older than twenty, if even that. The next room held a woman, but the bed was larger. The space beside her was untouched. So the information that he slept late was correct. Either the woman paid someone for the information or she had known him better than she’d let on.

In the back of her mind, Olivia thought of the boy's age. If the previous woman hadn't been able to give him children, then this man had found another at least two decades earlier. Was Olivia avenging someone who'd died years ago? No wonder there had been so much anger in that human. The outrage and hatred had festered. Olivia knew those feelings well. She knew how they ate away at a person. 

It took some tries to find the study. Some of the staff seemed to live here. Some slept restlessly, but all slept. Once again, it was easy. 

Then, finally, a way’s away from the chamber with his wife, Olivia found the study. She slid open the door, darkness still surrounding her. She saw him in deep thought, a half-full glass in his hands. The room smelled of smoke. It was something she’d seen once before in a land farther away. It seemed such men were more similar than she’d thought.

She stepped inside and closed the door. He glanced up and his eyes widened. 

Olivia summoned a black coil and wrapped it around his mouth. He let out a muffled yell and stood. 

She strode over, took the weak blows of his fists and yanked his arms behind his back.

She took hold of his shadow then and watched him stiffen. The feeling was unsettling, she knew that. How it would feel to those who had never truly known how prominent their shadow was, she didn’t know. 

“Scream and I’ll not hesitate.” Olivia let a long and thin knife appear in the air in front of him. Its point then inched towards the base of his neck. “Will you scream?” With purposefully louder steps, she went around to look him in the eye. 

It was a pathetic sight in front of her. His legs were immobile, he trembled, and his eyes were locked on the weapon in front of him. 

“Will you scream?” Olivia repeated. 

He shook his head. Once, twice, three times. 

She took away the darkness around his mouth. 

“What do you want?” he spluttered. It was loud, but not a scream. 

Already, she felt the darkness wrapping around her heart. It was a gentle embrace. It felt as if it was urging her to speak. 

“I was sent to kill you.” 

A sound very close to a whimper escaped him. He looked at her with new eyes now. More terrified than before. “Why?”

Should she give him justification? Ask if he had actually done what the woman had told her? She hadn’t stopped to wonder if she had lied or not. But she wouldn’t know if he was lying either. 

“Someone wants you dead,” Olivia said. She could’ve described the woman. She could have told him the reasons. But that would open her to hearing his insistence that he was innocent. She would hate to hear him beg. And she would hate even more to hear desperate excuses or lies. 

“Who?”

Shaking her head, she took hold of the blade, pulling it away from the position on his neck. She pressed the point to his heart.

She realised two things then. Pulling it away had been easy. As had bringing it back. Would pressing it down be even easier?

The grip of the darkness tightened over her heart. Its cold grip had spread to her hand, as if to give her strength. 

“Please,” he said. “Whatever you are, whoever sent you, please don’t do it.” 

Olivia waited for him to list his reasons. She waited for him to offer her more money. She waited for him to tell her that he had a family, a wife who would sleep alone in a bed for years, children who would go to bed without their father to say goodnight to. 

She didn’t hear any of it. She only saw his eyes looking at her with a silent plea. 

He didn’t need to say it. Olivia knew his children would miss him. She knew how much they’d miss him. It didn’t matter that they’d known him only briefly, and wouldn’t remember much of their childhood. It didn’t matter that they wouldn’t live as long as she did. None of it mattered, because they’d live those lives without a father to guide and love them. 

Maybe he was responsible for the death of another. Maybe he was the reason for other deaths as well. Maybe his death was justified and the woman who’d hired her would have a peace of mind, knowing that her sister had been avenged. So many things may have been true. And all it took was for one action to be made. 

Olivia took the blade away. The darkness didn't disappear, but its grip on her softened. It helped her drop her arm. 

He looked at it, then at her. Dread was still in his eyes. He expected it to be a trick. 

Olivia absorbed the darkness, knowing it would seep into her fingers and coat them in black. It had the potential to leak into his nightmares as well. 

“Just because I’m not going to do it,” Olivia slowly released her hold on his shadow, “doesn’t mean you’re free of danger.” She turned away and left the room. Only then did she fully release his shadow. Amazingly, she didn’t hear him bellow for his guards. 

Olivia found the place she’d cut into the house and slipped out of it. Hiding in the shadows, she left the grounds. 

This was a failure. She knew Alluin and the rest would see it as such. What would the cost be? Would they force her to fulfil a kill, while someone threatened her own life? She didn’t know. And she wouldn’t go back to find that out. 

She was in a country whose language she knew. Where she went next depended on who else was here. If the Astra were still there, she’d go the other way. But she longed to at least see the woods she’d grown up in. She’d longed to go home and while she didn’t want to see the people there, she wanted something familiar. 

Some of the silver she had with her lined the insides of her clothes, while more lay on the bottom of her pack. It would let her buy what she needed to when she needed it. 

And when it ran out, she’d find another way to get her money. She’d steal again. She knew that much. Would she try something else? Work with a mortal in return for payment? Honest work this time. Their demands of her would pale in comparison to what she’d already been asked to do. 

Olivia reached a crop of trees, a good way’s away from that house. The moment she crossed the threshold, she felt tears start to form. 

She was leaving again. She wasn’t leaving anyone she’d miss, but she was leaving without being forced out. 

She looked down at her hands to find them steady. At least there was that. 

Olivia closed her eyes, searching for those like her or spirits that hunted her. She found nothing. She was alone. 

She didn’t have to leave. She could rescue the burning ties to her current life by turning around. She’d still have a place if she just did what she’d been asked to do. There would be a tent waiting for her. 

And money, Olivia thought. 

Getting money and a place to stay hadn’t been difficult before. She’d stolen to get those things. How different would killing be? 

Very different. 

Her mind brought thoughts of what else she’d done. Had she needed to do that? Had she needed to steal? 

Olivia shook her head. Questioning her own morality would get her nowhere. It was frayed, but not lost. She hadn't killed that man. She could cling to the remnants of her morality now. 

As she walked in the direction of home, she saw the moon peeking through the leaves above her. Anger didn’t wash over her at the sight of it. She just felt tired. 

Even so, as she walked on, something was different. The moonlight wasn’t burning her skin. 

______

Beside her, Chaewon stiffened. 

“What?” Chuu asked. She saw the air in front of the girl brighten. The light went away from her like a hand reaching out. Then it snapped back to the girl. 

Chaewon frowned. “I just,” she placed a hand to her chest, “something's changed?”

Chuu watched the light pull away from her again. It coated the black shards that left her chest. The remnants of the bond. 

Her frown deepened. “Did she do something else?” 

Sooyoung glanced at Chuu, her eyes questioning. Exactly the look Chuu didn’t want to see directed at her. She looked as if she knew Chuu was seeing more than she did. "Is it painful?”

Chaewon shook her head. “I can’t describe it, but it feels,” she trailed off. “It feels better.” 

Chuu watched as the light seeped about a metre across the broken bond. It was still in pieces, but a part of it was silver. It wasn’t grey, nor was it black, but silver. A part of it glowed. There was still darkness, but that didn't make Chuu feel unsettled. It only reminded her of the person on the other side of the bond. It only made her miss her more. 

Immediately, Chuu wanted to tell her. Chaewon didn’t look like she’d been able to see it. What if Chuu’s news would finally bring a smile to her face? Hope to her eyes? 

She pushed the urge down. She couldn’t say it now. And if nothing came of it, what would she have done then? Given someone false hope? Chuu wouldn’t be able to stomach the disappointment. Hers she could handle, but not Chaewon. 

Still, this was something. Chuu looked at the forest floor. There was a clearer path. Chuu knew it led to a town, not the closest one, nor even the one across that. But it led to mortals. And Hyejoo. 

“So did she do something good?” Chaewon asked. “Or not do something?” Her fingers traced over her heart. The hope was already in her eyes. 

“I don’t know,” Chuu said. “But it has to be better than before. If it doesn’t hurt.” 

Chaewon shook her head. She was focused on the space in front of her. She could see it now too. “Silver,” she murmured. Her eyes were wide. “Like her eyes." 

Sooyoung and Chuu exchanged glances. Neither of them knew what that meant. Hyejoo’s eyes had been mostly black, but sometimes they’d held light. Like their own crystal-like eyes. 

“The light I always saw in them,” Chaewon continued. “It wasn’t white, it was always silver.” 

______

Author's Note

I wasn't sure where exactly this chapter would fall, but recent events made it clear that it should be here. My writing often includes themes that I'm familiar with or ones I'm just really fascinated with. Other times I write about topics/subjects that I want explored, if only to offer a different perspective on them. This chapter was always coming, but I wanted to have it here as a reminder that life is valuable. It is also something we cannot think of as simple or fleeting, because it is anything but. We must also be very much aware of the power we can sometimes have in the lives of another.

That's why this chapter was focused on the decision made not to kill, even if there had been a reason to. Shadows can follow us on paths we know aren't right (or ones we still believe are, but don't know are the wrong ones), but they can still slowly fall away depending on decisions and circumstance. 

While this chapter was on the shorter side, I hope it still feels like enough. I may not have written this as a direct response to recent events and it hardly tackles the subject itself, I did write this to establish that mercy and kindness are some of the most valuable things we have in life. There's more to that list, but I don't think I need to list them today. 

I hope you're all well and safe. See you next chapter.