“It’s not a coincidence that you mention your magic. One came to us shortly after the battle. A slender man with a grey cloak. He had a severe limp and a cane. He asked about a giant and a she-orc, your role in the attack. Your use of magic drew him to us, Rhun. Naturally, the other bandits told this man everything about the battle.”

“Brown hair, with streaks of grey? Short beard?” Rhun asked.

“Yes,” Fara said. “He was about your height.”

“So Carinus has come for me.” Rhun growled. “He’s been waiting to catch us alone, away from Refuge.”

“Can we deal with him, Rhunal?” Bron asked, nervousness in his voice.

She gritted her teeth. “I’ve used much of my stored magical energy. I would need to meet with the goddess, Tempest, to have a chance. But there’s nothing we can do about it now. We’ll have to avoid him, finish our mission. But Bron, keep an eye out.”

“You can bet I will,” he said.

Rhunal turned to Fara. “Don’t worry about the wizard. First, we must get you back to your camp. Take the stone golem with you, drop it somewhere out of sight. A place we can hear your conversation with your people. Unpowered, it just looks like a boulder. Better that your people don’t see it to ask questions. We’ll be listening through it. We’ll know if you get in trouble.” She tapped the central glass window. “Even better if you point the crystal somewhere we can see you. I can look through this stone golem using magic.”

“You want me to lug that heavy thing all the way back?” Fara took the spherical golem, hoisting it experimentally. “It weighs nothing. How is that?”

“It supports its own weight,” said Rhun. “It has a magical core. This power keeps it aloft.” 

Fara entered the camp and made a beeline for the middle. She dropped the spherical golem beside one of the central tents, twisting it around so the glass was facing the fire. She looked over at the rest of her people, who were eating in the center of camp, around the fire. From the point of view of the golem hand, Rhunal saw the young woman physically center herself. Some others noticed her standing there, alone, and turned to stare at her. Without introduction, Fara began to speak.

“Our home has been discovered. Where are we going? Though the other group stopped their attack, they’ll return reorganized and with more numbers.”

“We’ll deal with that another time, Fara. Come have something to eat, it’s been a long day,” said Rodney, one of the gang’s stoutest fighters. 

“We can’t put it off. Not when we have so much to lose. Many of you have formed permanent relationships. This army of cutthroats will take us women as slaves and kill the rest.”

“Why bring this up right now, Fara? We’ve already lost friends in that cave. Can we just forget our troubles for one night? Why are you speaking this way, bringing this evil on us? Now is not the time to speak of things that can’t be fixed. We must move out. With any luck, we’ll find a new place, leave our rivals behind. Mattias was a good leader, but in time, we’ll choose a new one, carry on how we used to.” 

Rodney was a good fighter and reliable, but if he thought he’d make a good leader, Fara knew him to be mistaken. He wasn’t the brightest. “I don’t speak of it for nothing. The answer is not to move further into the frontier. A band of cutthroats would be the least of our problems out there. I know a way out of our situation. If you’ll listen.” 

Rodney laughed. “So will you be our chief, then? So what will we do, great chief Fara, stroll back into Refuge?” 

Fara steeled herself. “What if I told you, that is just what we do? What if I told you, there are already arrangements in place?”

Several of the gang turned around, giving her hard looks, scowls. Rodney stood up from the log. “What did you do?” 

“I saw the writing on the wall, before the attack on the hideout. I met with Kyvril.”

The twins stepped forward. “How could you! That man destroyed our lives. Yours too!”

The bandits seethed at his name. “Cut yourself a nice escape, did you?”

Fara met their vitriol in kind. “If I had done that, I wouldn’t be speaking to you now. Kyvr was angry with me most of all. I told you how I stole his horse, and stole the head of the thieves guild leader, Taino.” 

She pointed to the twins. “It was your safety he cared about, not mine. But I convinced him to make a place for all of us. Refuge is expanding. It has become much more fortified and patrolled. But it needs more people.”

“Do we need to remind you what happened to the last people to ‘expand’ Refuge? Some bandits took offers to farm homesteads in exchange for the removal of their bounties. Most died, and the few who didn’t were forced back into the wilderness, becoming bandits again when they had no other options.”

“The town is not building homesteads. Refuge is being rebuilt. The wall has been pushed out and reinforced with steel.”

Rodney wasn’t the smartest, but he seized on the obvious. “Fara you rat! It was you who brought the orc witch and the giant here! You offered our leader’s life in exchange for your own.”

These people she’d thought she could trust closed in on her, hands edging to their weapons.

”I loved him! Same as you.” Fara shrieked. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” 

Bron shook Rhun, whispering in her ear. “This is about to go bad. Get ready to separate from the stone golem and move in.”