I tasted blood. Tav—who just hours ago had been carefully bandaging wounds—had just hit me. The man who couldn't harm anyone in Veraque's domain had brought me outside specifically to do this.
Pain exploded through my skull. Red and black spots swarmed my vision like angry wasps. My mouth filled with copper warmth.
My tongue found the damage—a bottom molar wobbled loose then detached. I spat blood and enamel onto the wet earth. The night air stung the fresh cavity.
I raised my head, vision swimming. Tav towered above me, silhouetted against storm clouds, shoulders heaving. Not a healer now. Something else.
"Why the fuck did you punch me?" Each word sent fresh pain through my jaw. "I thought violence wasn't possible in Kindness' domain?"
"I'll fix your tooth later." No remorse in his voice. "As for how I hit you—figure it out."
The grass was cold beneath my palms. Thunder grumbled overhead, promising another downpour. Wind lashed tree branches, matching Tav's fury.
"What I want you to do now, Reygir," he growled, using my real name like a weapon, "is stand up."
"What?"
"You heard me. Stand up!" His voice cracked with rage. Spittle flew from his mouth, caught in the wind. "I told you when we were in the forest. Stand up and do something! But you fell to the ground paralyzed!"
Anger surged through me, a furnace mixing with the pain from my flayed leg and broken tooth. Still, I couldn't move. Tav's fist clenched again, knuckles bone-white in the dim light.
"What the hell did you want me to do?" My voice scraped raw against the rising wind. "I can't do jack shit! I'm weak! No weapons, no blessing powers, nothing! I couldn't do anything even if I tried! You know that!"
"And yet," Tav's boot slammed into my solar plexus with surgical precision, "we still fought, even with no chance until Veraque showed up."
Air evacuated my lungs. Stars burst behind my eyes. My stomach tried to crawl up my throat.
He continued, voice deadly quiet beneath the brewing storm. "I wouldn't be doing this if you'd at least tried. But you didn't. You just sat there, petrified."
"Of course I was fucking petrified!" Bile and blood mixed on my tongue as I gasped the words. Something primal drove me to answer, to defend myself. "I was scared! They were going to flay me alive! Carve out my organs while I watched! Who wouldn't piss themselves?"
Lightning split the sky, illuminating Tav's face—a mask of disgust and grief.
"And yet, I fought." Each word fell like a stone. "Reni fought. Fisher fought. Even Kuti fought. Fisher lost his life. Reni will limp forever. And Kuti is out there alone."
Rain began to fall. Fat, cold drops that mingled with the blood on my chin. The storm had found us, just as Tav's rage had found its target.
"So what," I growled, the words tasting like blood.
Something changed in Tav's eyes—disappointment crystallizing into cold fury.
He lashed out again. Methodical. Precise. A kick to my forearm. Another to my uninjured leg. A calculated blow to my stomach. Each impact had purpose—to break me without killing me. The physician in him knew exactly where to strike, how much force to apply. The healer became the perfect weapon.
Red blotches bloomed across my skin like violent flowers. Each breath became a battle against fractured ribs. The world pulsed between harsh clarity and merciful darkness.
Only when I couldn't even whimper did Tav stop. He squatted beside me, hands on his knees, breath ragged. Sweat dripped from his face onto mine, mingling with my blood. The storm above us matched his exhaustion—spent but still threatening.
"I'm not angry that you couldn't stop them," he said finally, voice rough. "I'd be stupid to expect that."
He leaned closer. Rain plastered his hair to his forehead, making rivulets down his face that might have been tears. His green eyes burned with something beyond anger—something like desperation.
"I'm angry because you did nothing." Each word landed like another blow. "Everyone was scared, Bon. Every single one of us. Fisher, Reni, even Kuti. We were all terrified. But everyone gave their best and lost something for it."
The rain intensified, drumming against the ground, drowning out the sounds of the camp behind us.
"But you didn't lose anything, did you?" He continued, softer now. "Because you didn't risk anything."
I wanted to argue, to remind him of my flayed leg, my broken tooth. But those weren't sacrifices. They were just things that happened to me while I cowered.
"Veraque is doing everything she can to help everyone, to help you grow back to full strength. All the refugees are pitching in, pulling our weight to build this place back up."
He leaned so close I could smell his breath. Mint and lamb. The scent of someone who'd eaten recently. Who'd taken care of himself so he could take care of others.
"I'm trying to push you toward the THIRD path. A path without servitude or despair." His voice dropped to almost a whisper, intimate in its intensity. "I don't care that you were a Waiter and now you're too weak to hold a sword. I don't care that you were subject to the Sacrament of Submission and you now have no self-worth. I don't care that you've been physically and mentally torn apart."
The rain slowed suddenly, as if the very storm was listening.
He leaned even closer, until his face filled my vision—one eye swollen shut, the other forced to witness his truth. His green iris shimmered like a lush, vibrant forest, the wide pupil a black hole threatening to swallow everything.
"All I care about," he whispered, "is that you stand up, no matter the circumstance, and fight. I don't care if you get beaten up or even die. All you need is to GET THE FUCK UP."
His final words echoed in the sudden silence. Even the rain seemed to pause.
Tav moved backward, shoulders heaving with each breath. For a long moment, he simply stared at me—this broken, pathetic thing on the ground. Then he extended his hand to my battered body.
"So what are you going to do now?" The question hung between us, heavy with consequence. "Are you going to stand up, take my hand, and find Kuti? Or are you going to stay there on the ground like a worm?"
Kuti. The reason for this one-sided fight. The betrayer who still, somehow, mattered.
I lay on the cold ground, pain pulsing through every inch of me. Each heartbeat a reminder that I was still, despite everything, alive. The choice before me was simple: remain as I was—a victim, a survivor at best—or become something else entirely.
Minutes passed. Tav's hand remained extended, unwavering. Rain returned, gentler now, washing blood from my face.
What did it mean to take the third path? Not servitude to others. Not surrender to despair. Something else. Something I couldn't yet name.
After what felt like an eternity, I lifted my trembling hand. Not because Tav demanded it. Not because I wanted to find Kuti. But because somewhere inside me, something small and fierce refused to die on this wet ground.
Our hands clasped. His grip was firm—the same hands that had beaten me now pulled me upright, supporting my weight as pain screamed through my body.
"Let's get Veraque," I managed through swollen lips.
And then we'll walk into the deadly forest, and we'll find Kuti, the person who had betrayed her own family for her safety.
And then maybe I'll finally find that damn third path Tav keeps talking about.