“Dispose?” Velmira asked, choking on the word. “Edard?”

  “I think so,” the Priestess stepped back, looking at Vel with sad brown eyes.

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I cannot believe in gods who would rob a woman of her life every eighteen years,” Amalia said. “I am forced to be here too.”

  “Then, Edard could already be dead,” Vel said, moving towards a vanity in the dressing room, leaning on it to keep her upright as she considered the news. I have to get away, she thought.

  “It’s possible, but if Edard had any form of combat expertise, or even skills to help, it’s also possible that he’s not,” Amalia said.

  “He’s a soldier,” Vel responded. “He wouldn’t go down easily, I can get to him, I can━” She looked at a pair of sewing shears on the vanity, remembering something. She might not have skills or stats, nor did she have training, but she was invincible. She couldn’t bleed. She looked at her class description for the thousandth time:

  [Sacrifice: Preordained by the gods to bless the earth with her blood and provide eighteen more years of wealth and prosperity. The sacrifice’s blood is preserved until the time of sacrifice]

  They could hurt her, hold her captive, but they couldn’t make her bleed until midnight. She turned from the vanity, and looked at Priestess Amalia.

  “Will you help me?” she asked. “Would you risk everything to help me escape?”

  She knew it was a big ask, and expected that the priestess wouldn’t━

  “Yes.”

  Oh, nevermind, Amalia was so on team Vel right now. Giving a weak smile, she said, “We need to get me over the wall again.”

  “There’s extra security, considering your earlier escape,” Amalia said, and moved to open the curtains over the room’s only window, a thoughtful expression on her face as she surveyed the south side of the building. Vel moved to the window, looking at the well just two stories down.

  “You want me to go out the window?” she asked, incredulous.

  “No,” Amalia shook her. “You might not bleed, but I don’t know if you can break a leg.”

  She could definitely still hurt too.

  “But we can make them think you did,” Amalia said. She opened the window wide, a patrolling guard moving out of sight below. The priestess took Velmira’s hand, then pulled her towards the closet at the other end of the room. Opening the door, she prompted Vel inside. “Don’t make a sound,” she said, and shut Vel in the darkness.

  After a moment, she heard Amalia shouting, “Guards! Guards! [Sacrifice] jumped!”

  Oh, please work, Vel thought, holding her breath when she heard a door open. Booted feet ran across the room, quieter as they got to the window. “Where did she go?” came a man’s voice.

  “She ran that way,” Amalia said. One set of boots ran out of the room, but the second didn’t move.

  He can’t know, Velmira thought, daring to take the smallest of breaths before holding it again. She closed her eyes, and brought a hand up to hold the pendant. She couldn’t afford to be caught here for both hers and Amalia’s sakes. Please, please go, she thought, silently urging the knight to leave, not that that’d actually help. That was the worst part about this━feeling so powerless. She never wanted to again, but first, she had to escape.

  After what felt like forever, the second knight ran out, Vel unable to hear the conversation he’d had with Amalia. Blessedly, the priestess opened the closet door.

  “Quickly now!” she said, already moving to leave the room. Amalia paused in the doorway, looking both ways down the hall before motioning that it was safe to proceed. They moved down a long corridor, and the sound of a door creaking open at the other end had Velmira nearly jumping out of her bones! Amalia, with quick thinking, shoved Vel into a reading alcove between rooms.

  “What’s all the ruckus?”

  Holy retribution! Velmira cursed inwardly, pressing herself against the wall to avoid being seen by the high priest of all people, only the man that was in charge of the entire temple, and the one who was supposed to sacrifice her at midnight.

  “[Sacrifice], your holiness!” Amalia said. “She jumped right out the window, and ran east!”

  “Holy retribution! Gods curse that girl!”

  “Your holiness!” Amalia exclaimed, proper as any priestess would be about the swears.

  “Pardon me,” the high priest said, and Velmira heard him step away, descending down the stairs.

  Amalia turned sharply, “Come, we must go the other way,” she whispered, grabbing Velmira’s hand and pulling her towards the stairwell at the opposite end of the corridor. Before descending, Vel glimpsed out the window overlooking the west side. There were four guards at the gate there.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  At the bottom of the stairs, the priestess held a hand up to Vel, halting her. Armored feet ran by, the shadows of six knights cast against the wall. Gods, this would have been impossible without Amalia!

  Once the guards passed, Amalia proceeded, Vel in tow. They rounded the corner, going the way the guards came from, and to the door that led out to the well. Amalia peaked out the door, then swung it open. It was a miracle that the south side of the building was entirely unoccupied. Had Vel any gods left to thank, she would have.

  They passed the well, moving to the wall. The buckets from before were no longer here, but Amalia bent over, intertwining her fingers for Vel.

  “What about you?” Vel asked, furrowing her brow. “They’ll figure it out, that I didn’t go east,” she said.

  “Don’t worry about me, just run. Please, [Sacrifice],” Amalia said, nervously looking back towards the door then down along the wall. Vel was wasting time, precious time the priestess would need to use to recover and lie herself out of a sticky situation.

  “Velmira. That’s my name,” Vel corrected, then stepped up into Amalia’s hands. “Thank you, Amalia.”

  The priestess hoisted Vel up, and as she latched onto the wall, Amalia pushed her the rest of the way, as best as the shorter woman could, which was quite a bit better than four buckets. Velmira wasted no time and landed on the other side, catching her skirt and tripping over it.

  “Stop her!” Vel snapped her head, and at the other end of the wall, a set of patrolling guards were racing after her.

  No, no! she thought, struggling to stand as she tripped further over her skirt. Her heart lurched forward, driving her to desperately do the same. Fabric ripping beneath her slipper, she lunged into the street, lifting her skirt.

  No, damn this skirt! Damn these robes! Damn propriety!

  Vel ripped the veil from her hair, tossing it aside, then tore the robes up and over her head as her feet stamped beneath her, propelling her forward. Freed of the robes, she threw them at the knights behind her, the closest one staggering straight into the second as it hit his face. Served them right!

  Racing past the few onlookers here, Velmira drove herself further westward, not daring to get anywhere near the fountain square, not when the enemy knew she went there previously. No, she needed to get to Edard as fast as she could.

  A stitch stabbed at her side, and Vel winced, but pushed onward in her bloomers and undershirt nonetheless, driven further when she heard footprints and shouting in the darkness behind her.

  Come on, you useless unathletic skinny little legs! she growled, nearing the town’s edge, seeking the cover of the trees. She passed little hut after little hut, men and women emerging from their homes to look at what was happening. Just before reaching the trees, Velmira even glimpsed a little girl holding a doll in one hand, and her mother’s hand in the other.

  A mother. I deserved it, Vel felt anger boiling up within her. I deserved to have a family, she thought, face heating up and tears welling in her eyes as she rushed through the underbrush of the forest, running to one of the few locations Edard had taken her.

  No, go to the river, a thought persisted in her mind. The river. By the gods, they probably knew about the fairy field. They had to. Vel, putting the pieces together, could only assume that she’d been followed the day before. Oma, she thought, clenching her teeth. She had to have suspected Vel when she saw the pendant.

  Turning, Velmira ran for the river, the one she knew Edard liked to fish in. She spared a glance over her shoulder, knights upon horses struggling to get through the thickness of the forest. Some of them had dismounted, and were now chasing her down.

  “Shoot her!” she heard, and Vel gasped, flinching from the resounding thunk in a tree beside her.

  Holy retribution! she thought, purposefully trying to place trees behind her as she ran, bobbing and weaving.

  The stitch at her side grew in intensity, and she winced. Ahead was the sweet sound of running water. She was so close!

  Pain clipped her left shoulder, Vel gasping as a hand flew up to hold it. She staggered, another sharpness stinging from her calf, though neither wound bled. Stumbling, she tripped and rolled down a hill, yelping with every new pain from rocks or twigs snapping at her sides and knees. Until finally, she stopped at the riverbank, the rushing water right there beside her.

  She looked up at the hill, staring at a knight, arrow nocked and pointed at her.

  “Retribute this, you bastards,” she muttered under her breath, and dived straight into the cold. She didn’t know if the knight even released the arrow, the water quick to sweep her away and tumble her downstream.

  This was, by far, the dumbest thing she’d ever done. She couldn’t swim! All she could do was hold her breath and hope the river didn’t crush her as it pushed her further west and downstream, its force one to be reckoned with.

  Calm, she thought, try. It was so easy to panic, to thrash for air, and for a moment, she did, gaining a moment of sweet relief before the river dunked her back under and pushed her around stony obstacles. Calm, she told herself again. Edard, she thought, thinking about her quest. She had to live, had to get to him; had to save him.

  The water spat her out, and for a long moment, Vel flew, a terrifying, quickly descending flight to the calmer river that moved down below.

  Don’t you dare die! she thought, twisting in the air and plunging deep into the cold water below. Her feet reaching the riverbed, and bending her knees as she fell deeper, Vel pushed herself to bob up at the surface, her lungs burning when she didn’t come up as fast as she expected. She kicked her feet, and grabbed at water, trying to push herself further up. Blessedly, she surfaced, and filled her lungs.

  Then she whimpered, her legs sore from running so much, now kicking to keep upright. While the cool water eased some of her pain, it certainly didn’t prevent her from tiring out. Looking toward the riverbank, she knew that she needed to get to it now. Taking in a deep breath, she grabbed at the water, trying to angle herself to kick towards the riverbank. First sinking, then surfacing again, Vel was greeted by a boulder that the water gently pushed her into.

  Grabbing it, she found sweet relief for her legs, and grunted. After a moment’s rest, shivering in the water, Velmira slowly pulled herself to the other side of it, then kicked off of it. At last, her foot hit the riverbed, and she trudged the rest of the way out of the water, collapsing on the riverbank.

  Shivering, she breathed for a long moment, resting to regather her strength. They’ll still be searching━hide, she told herself, and groaning when even the thought of moving was painful. Nonetheless, she still pushed herself onto her back, and looked up past treetops into the starry night sky. The moon was just reaching its zenith.

  [Age threshold reached]

  What? Vel thought, staring at the purple words that popped in her vision before her.

  [Class change acquired]

  [Sacrifice] → [Dark Avenger]