It took two hours for the village to finally quiet down. There were no more screams and growling. Just silent sobbing and wailing. The army had come. Saving all those they still could, slaying the monsters at every step they took. 

The girl was found by some of the soldiers who were sweeping the grounds for more monsters still in hiding. They helped her down the tower. Even after two hours, she felt no strength returning to her legs. If anything, the whole ordeal left her drained and kept on seeping her energy ever since.

The villagers were huddled in the square, where she was to rest as well. 

Beyond herself, she found her eyes trailing the man’ backs, searching for the one that would feel familiar. She told herself she only wanted to return the cape, which was still warming up her freezing body. She dared not to entertain more thoughts his way. She was just a lowly servant. She knew her place in the world, and it was very close to the bottom.

As if to prove her troubled heart right, a shrill scream echoed through the square. It was a high pitched and maddened ‘you’, but only those who knew the madam would be able to make the word out. The madam stomped her way towards the girl, yanking her up. But the girl could not stand and the madam could not for all her rage support her weight. They stopped awkwardly somewhere in the middle of the movement.

“You!” the madam screamed again, “How dare you! You lazy slob! Stand up this instant!”

Hurriedly, as if her body was not hers, the girl tried to stand up and failed again. She knew it in her head - that she could not - but her body acted on instinct. The instinct to follow orders of her madam.

“I’m sorry,” the girl croaked, her voice not coming out quite right.

“Sorry? Sorry? As you should be! Hiding away selfishly instead of aiding your masters! How ungrateful! How useless!” The madam shouted and with each scream came a heavy hand.

The girl tasted the iron in her mouth, offering half spoken apologies. But they wouldn’t come fast enough before another slap came, leaving the words unfinished on her broken lips. Yet, the girl had to soldier on, one apology at a time. She had survived the monsters, so she could only do what she had done so far, survive some more.

“And what’s this?” the madam yanked on the cape. “Where did you get that. Oh Mages, you went stealing when everyone was dying around! Despicable! Have you no shame? You-You-” 

Hearing the choked-out words, the girl thought her mistress simply ran out of names to give her. Anyone in the village knew she sometimes ran out of the names to call the girl, and when that happened, she would just use her hand or whip to talk some more. But the hand ceased at the same time as the names, leaving only eerie quiet of the square.

She opened her eyes, one at time, wondering when had she closed them. A familiar sight greeted her. A tall back. The air crispy, as if it was a few hours before, at the tower. But this time, there were no monsters to slay.

“You-you,” the madam found her voice, trying to shake the hold on her arm, “Who are you to meddle in my affairs!”

“I gave her the cape,” his words came calmly, as if he was just answering a curious question.

When fury overtook madam, she knew not left from right. She only knew up and down of her hand and the force behind it. She was from wealthy family, by the village standards, second only to the village chief’s family. She was never stopped so abruptly when disciplining her servants, which made her fury that much greater.

“Do you even know who I am?” she seeped. “You degenerat-“

“We’re ready to return,” another man stepped in, quite hurriedly, giving the madam a side-eye, “My Lord.”

His Lordship gave the man in uniform a look, then a quick nod. He let go of the madam’s arm, making her stumble. He ignored the obvious plea in her paling face and the words forming and dying at the end of her tongue. He simply turned around to face the girl handing him his cape with shaky hands.

It was a moment before he reached out for the cape, but instead of the fabric, his hands landed on her sides, lifting her all the way up. The girl whimpered with pain, and would sink back down if the Lord didn’t hold her steady, albeit with a frown.

“My Lord?” the other man, a soldier, hesitated for a moment, “Should I bring her over to a healer?”

Seeing his Lord silently shuffle the girl in his arms just confused the soldier some more. His Grace was never one to handle matters like these personally. The only thing his men ever found him holding gently was his sword.

Despite the fear of annoying his Lord, the soldier questioned again, “My Lord?”

The frown on the Lord’s face deepened. The soldier followed his Lord’s eyes, noticing his bloodied palm. The blood was starking black and oozing with mana.

“Monster poisoning.” The Lord stated flatly, as if the girl had a runny nose. “There’s not much time.”

The girl heard the words as if from afar. She felt her body being lifted up and carried. At least that’s how she imagined it would feel like. Her sight grew hazy for a while now, more so with every minute. There was a neigh of a horse, orders shouted and then soothing flow of warmth, with a simple - yet that much more gentler - sentence spoken close to her ear before she passed out.

“You’ll be alright.”