They did not stop long after the fight,
there was not the advantage of ground to use even if they had wanted it, the high road ran on in pale open stone, and every minute lingering around the dead was another minute the next hunting party had to come within range. Rhel took the rear with her remaining companion, Istra moved up into the point, Lucian kept Sera near the center, tried to not let the cut on his arm slow them any further.
A while the sounds around them were only the boots, the wind, the coarse breaths coming from people who had not yet stopped bleeding.
It was Sera who broke the silence, "Bren is dead because he walked with us,"
Rhel didn't spare a look away,
"Bren is dead because a Lord-aligned group decided this ground belonged to them, the burden does not rest only on your belt."
"It still was on our route," Sera wiped at dried blood on her knuckles, did not slow her pace, "and if the hunters had taken me for it, you would all have been paying for that too,"
