❖ Chapter 5: And Then the Night Moved
Jio didn't sleep.
He never did, not really.
He just waited.
And the night answered him.
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It started as a murmur — like wind pushing through wet leaves — but Jio's ears caught the sound beneath the sound.
Boots. Careless ones.
Metal scraped lazily against stone. A wheeze. A snort. One man was drunk. Two were whispering something crude.
Bandits.
Maybe ten of them. Maybe more. Traveling light. Voices too confident to be wandering.
Jio moved like fog.
The fire was dead before it had the chance to protest. The embers hissed out in silence.
In a single motion, he leaned across and pulled Havella close — a sharp movement, protective but efficient.
His scarf, rough and earthy, wrapped around her shoulders and head, dragging her scent into shadow and dust. Her breath caught.
His arms held her like something to shield, not something he owned.
They sat frozen, the remains of a home wrapped around them, and Jio's eyes never left the shapes in the dark.
From the cracks in the wooden wall, faint outlines — large men, hunched, tired, weapons at their hips. Too organized to be starving raiders. Too quiet to be wandering fools.
They didn't look around. They weren't scouting. They were heading somewhere.
The village.
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Jio held his breath as they passed.
Then exhaled softly.
Stillness.
Then—
"…You didn't run," whispered a voice near his chest.
Havella.
She was awake. Maybe had been the whole time.
He didn't answer.
"You didn't even think about it…" she added, her voice quieter than thought. "Didn't drop me. Didn't say a word."
"…You were cold," he said simply.
It wasn't the answer she expected.
She shifted slightly in his arms. "I thought you'd leave me behind."
He blinked.
"You think strange things."
---
The bandits didn't knock.
Down the slope, torchlight painted the village in orange pain.
No screams yet. Just shouts. Doors being kicked in. Maybe they were recruiting. Maybe they were taking.
War changed the shape of evil.
Havella tried to rise, but Jio's hand stopped her.
"Not yet."
"You're going to let them—?"
"No," he said.
Just that.
---
They stayed low.
Havella's thoughts raced. Her "steal" couldn't stop a blade to the throat. She could fool a shopkeeper, distract a dog, vanish behind an idea — but bandits?
Soldiers?
She watched Jio.
He was still. Like a beast crouched under its own patience.
"…You're not normal," she said.
He didn't deny it.
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From their ruined shelter, they waited.
The sounds in the village would tell them everything. Who screamed. Who was dragged. Who didn't resist. Who begged.
And when to move.
And Jio, who should've been frightened — wasn't.
Not because he didn't feel fear.
But because something in him was older than that.
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End of Chapter 5
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