The canyon floor was slick with dew and ashwater when the Bone Court caravan appeared.
Eight armored wagons creaked through the narrow pass, pulled by hulking, tusked beasts with black talisman collars. Bone Court guards walked alongside them, runed halberds glinting in the pale morning light. Suppression talismans flickered faintly from the wagons' frames, weaving a net that stifled the air.
The survivors crouched behind jagged outcroppings on either side of the pass, clutching scavenged weapons. Breath misted in the cold air, too loud in the silence.
Shen Yuan knelt at the front, ribs bound tight, cracked spear in hand. He looked back at Yun Xue, who held her dagger with white-knuckled focus, and Han Fei, who stood at the rear with the branded captives.
You're in no condition for this, I told him.
"Neither are they," he whispered back.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY OF STRIKE: 22% ]
I considered transmitting it to the group but didn't. They were already close to breaking.
The caravan reached the choke point.
"Now," Shen Yuan said.
The survivors surged from the rocks like shadows.
Yun Xue moved first, a flash of steel across the nearest guard's throat. Han Fei followed, leading the branded captives as they cut off the rear wagons. Arrows hissed from the canyon rim, crude but deadly, felling two Bone Court halberdiers before they could raise their talismans.
Shen Yuan sprinted for the caravan's center wagon, spear leveled. His ribs burned, every step a knife-edge of pain, but the world narrowed to the glowing suppression talisman anchored to the wagon's axle.
He struck. The spearhead shattered the seal, releasing a shockwave that rippled through the pass.
"AMBUSH!" a Bone Court captain bellowed, runes flaring across his armor.
The wagons erupted with defense formations. Suppression nets ignited, dropping several Dregs screaming to their knees as their qi was severed mid-strike.
"Push through!" Shen Yuan shouted.
The fight devolved into chaos.
Yun Xue fought like a storm at Shen Yuan's flank, daggers flashing in the flickering talisman light. But even she couldn't cover everyone. One branded captive took a halberd through the chest, another was dragged screaming under a wagon's wheels.
"Hold formation!" Han Fei roared from the rear. He drove his scavenged blade into a guard's neck and turned to rally the captives. His presence steadied them, gave them something to cling to—but it also drew Bone Court fire like a beacon.
"Fall back to the wagons!" Shen Yuan barked.
You're overextending, I warned. Focus on securing the supplies. Every second we delay, reinforcements close in.
"We can't leave anyone behind," Shen Yuan said, parrying a halberd strike that nearly cleaved him in two.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: DROPPING – 16% ]
They reached the wagons.
Yun Xue hacked through the chains binding the first beast, sending it crashing into a group of Bone Court soldiers. Shen Yuan climbed the lead wagon, spear flashing as he drove the driver back.
"Cut the talismans!" he shouted. "Break the suppression net!"
Han Fei and the branded captives dove for the glowing seals along the wagons' frames, ripping them free with bleeding hands. Each broken seal sent a pulse through the formation, loosening the Bone Court's grip.
A captain bellowed a command. Two soldiers turned toward Han Fei, runes igniting on their halberds.
"Han Fei!" Yun Xue lunged, cutting one down. The second soldier's strike caught her arm, ripping a line of blood from shoulder to wrist.
She hissed in pain and glanced at Han Fei. "Keep moving!"
For a moment, something sharp flickered in her eyes.
Han Fei didn't notice. He tore the last talisman free, and the suppression field collapsed in a shockwave that sent dust billowing into the air.
"Now!" Shen Yuan shouted.
The survivors threw themselves at the remaining guards. With the suppression net gone, their strikes carried weight again. The Bone Court line broke.
The captain realized the fight was lost and blew a retreat whistle, but Yun Xue silenced him with a dagger through the throat.
When the dust settled, the canyon was strewn with bodies.
The survivors staggered to the wagons. Inside were crates of dried rations, water, talisman bandages, and, most valuable of all, scroll cases marked with the Bone Court's sigil.
Shen Yuan collapsed to one knee, clutching his ribs. Yun Xue was already moving through the wounded, barking orders for triage.
Han Fei climbed onto a wagon, raising a scroll in one hand. "They're gathering every branded captive at the Nexus," he said. "For a purge."
A murmur ran through the group. Fear. Anger.
Yun Xue climbed up beside him. "Then we move fast. Reinforcements will be coming."
"We can't just run," Han Fei said. "We can free them."
"That's suicide," Yun Xue snapped. "You saw how many we lost today."
Han Fei looked to Shen Yuan. "If we scatter now, they'll kill the rest. You know I'm right."
Shen Yuan's breath was ragged as he met Han Fei's eyes. He looked at the survivors—the branded captives clinging to each other, the Dregs who had fought and bled for this moment.
If you go after the captives, survival probability drops to single digits, I said.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at Yun Xue and Han Fei both. "We take what we can carry. Then we move. But this isn't over."
That night, the survivors ate their first real meal in weeks. They drank ashwater until they stopped shaking. But even as they rested, the Bone Court's shadow loomed over them.
I monitored Shen Yuan as he knelt by the fire, unwrapping his blood-soaked bandages.
You can't keep leading them like this, I said. Every choice you make bleeds the group dry. Han Fei's influence is destabilizing Yun Xue. If you don't act—
"He's giving them hope," Shen Yuan interrupted softly.
Hope won't stop Veylan Dusk when he finds us. Yun Xue sees it. She's fracturing.
As if summoned, Yun Xue approached. She looked exhausted, her wounded arm bound in a talisman wrap.
"Han Fei is going to get us killed," she said without preamble.
Shen Yuan looked up. "He saved lives today."
"He's reckless," she shot back. "And he's pulling the branded captives to his side. If it comes down to a decision they don't like, they'll follow him, not you."
Shen Yuan didn't respond.
"You have to make a choice," Yun Xue said, voice low. "You can't protect everyone forever. At some point, you'll have to cut away the weak or we all die."
I amplified her point in the tether: She's right. Efficiency must come first.
Shen Yuan stared into the fire. "If I start deciding who lives and who dies, I'm no better than the Bone Court."
"That's naïve," Yun Xue said, but there was no heat in her voice. Only fear.
She walked away, leaving him with the crackling flames and my silence.