<~> Chapter 94Lunch came a and we were ba the road again. Time passed quickly as we looked over the far horizon. It was cloudy out still, it didn't look like it was going to rain agai but the possibility was there. A few more featherjacks got close to our caravan but none of the other uuna riders had as much of an issue with them. They were clearly more experienced with the throwing spear that was attached to the uuna saddle than I was. I was just happy no one gave me a hard time about it when we were stopped for lunch. From what I could gather most people just thought I was unlucky.

  I tio chat with Silva here and there but we were obviously avoiding any private topics. We joked around a bit but a lot of the time ent in sileg the road slowly pass by. If this trip was driving anything home for me, it was just how long travelling took in this world. Goiween sixty ay miles an hour on ay highway teo get you pces pretty quickly. And air travel was a pletely different story.

  Night finally rolled around and my ass was hurting more than it had the st few days. Even riding an uuna was more fortable than the riding a carriage on with no suspension. The only thing that made it tolerable was that the roads were ft aively smooth but it was starting to catch up to me.

  Tarklin stopped me briefly before dio tell me Fae would be staying with some of the other female adveoday so we could properly separate her from Silva who would be staying with me and my group from now on. From what I heard Fae wasn't that happy about it since she had been attached to Bel but she was also relieved to be away from Silva. It still made me sad that Silva, who had gohrough such great lengths to protect her, would be so shunned by the young noble. I could uand why though, trauma doesn't always let you make the 'good' decision.

  We stopped once again at a fort built along the road. If the road to Traehall became more important, the areas around these forts would probably swell to the size of small towns. For now they were just waystations for travelers. Built by the terra shaping adventurers on their way to build Traehall into a froown. It was only a matter of time before these waystations were settled, the likelihood of finding a dungeon nearby Traehall that didn't have any demon influence was quite high and there was already another dungeon found near a different froown in the same area from what I had heard.

  The five of us were given one room to share so we decided to eat in our room. We had a lot to talk about now that Silva has joined us. Both about my history as well as Silva's. The torchlight flickered in the er as the five of us sat on the crude beds left by the people who set this pce up.

  I cleared my throat. "So, the very first secret that I o share is about Mimi. She's been patient the st few days but now that it's just the six of us, it's time for her to e out."

  Before I could even prompt her Mimi flowed out of the sword sheathe and sat o me on my bed. She was in her normal fain, her slightly reflective gold skin shimmered iorch light and her red eyes stared at Silva curiously. When Mimi first appeared Silva tensed, instinctively ready to fight but once Mimi proved to be non-threatening she rexed a bit.

  "Hi! I'm Mimi. I've been able to watch you but I'm not allowed to talk in public so I haven't been able to say hi yet. So hi!"

  "Er, hi there... I'm Silva?" The rabbit demi looked over at me fused.

  "This is Mimi, she's an intelligent Mimic that is traveling with us. She's an important friend who's saved my life in the past. You don't have to worry about her harming you, she's friendly."

  Silva quirked an eyebrow. "Is she... a monster?"

  Mimi tilted her head but I make a point to answer for her. "She used to be but because of one of my abilities she isn't one any more."

  By the look on her face this just fused Silva even more.

  "I'll tell you more about that soon, first lets talk about you."

  "Right..." Silva's eyes trailed down Mimi's naked form before fog bae. "What do you want to know?"

  I nodded. "Well, first things first we want to know about the circumstahat led to you being ensved. From what Fae said you were accused of murdering a noble?"

  Silva tensed a bit. "Not accused. I did murder a noble."

  "Will you tell me about it?"

  Her face hardened. "Is that an order?"

  "No." I sighed and looked at my friends, they were curious but all of us knew I would have to do the talking here. I refocused on Silva. "That's not really how I do things Silva. I want to treat you with mutual respect, like we talked about orail this m. I won't order you to tell me what happened but trust goes both ways. I've shared one of my secrets with you, mostly out of y but I 't trust any of my other secrets with you until I know who I'm dealing with... I'm not like Fae, I'm more openminded about what might push someoo do that. I just want to hear your side of things."

  Her features softened a bit and she looked at everyone's faces before nding on Mimi's once again. Mimi tilted her head and smiled, always curious but g the text of what was b the demi-rabbitkin woman.

  "Before I start... answer me holy. Are you a noble Lilith?"

  I groaned. "Always with this question, no I'm not a noble. I have my own circumstahat I'll likely go into ter." Torien nodded giving more weight to what I said.

  "...Give me a moment." Silva took a few bites of her stew and took a sip of water while she collected her thoughts. "I grew up as a farm hand. I mostly worked with bulls, horses, and uunas, never learo ride any of them though. Anyway, my family worked on nd owned by Baron Julian Samlin."

  I heard a quiet gasp from the twins and looked over to see they both had shocked expressions on their face. Clearly they k least part of this story.

  Silva g the twins briefly before tinuing. "My family were w the nd and paying a portion of it back for housing and provisions. It was a good deal... at first. Over time the fees went up, it took more and more of our payment to cover the costs. One wihere was a blight that destroyed nearly half our crop and my parents went into debt. We were uer but the Baron assured them it wouldn't be collected right away, they would have time to pay it back. But the fees kept going up. Even though they worked harder thahey were drowning in it more and more."

  Silva took a break to tiing and to put the part of the story into words. "Eventually, the Baron decided to collect. The amount of mohey owed at this point would put them in bondage for life, the only saving grace was that I wasn't ed up in it. I only took care of the animals so other than plowing the fields I wasn't someone who could take over the farm and I didn't owe the debt, only my parents did."

  Silva took a shaky breath, I couldn't tell if it was from sadness er. "The day the Baro his sver to collect my parents I found out that most of the town was in that same cart. He had dohis to the eown. Shortly before adding my parents to the wagon he gloated that they had all been tricked, that they were stupid for letting themselves be ensved. When they opehe door to shove my parents in, one of the other people in the wagon snapped and rushed the guards, several of the other farmers that had been ensved by the Baron's trick rushed to escape as well, starting a brawl."

  She closed her eyes and took another breath to steady her voice. "My parents weren't even one of the orying to escape but the guards pulled out their swords to fight the brawling sves and my parents got killed in the fighting... kicked and trampled to death by their neighbors and the guards trying to suppress them. I... just watched in shock at what happened, I was still young... uo do anything. Six people died in the fighting, including my parents, more than half of the people in the wagon needed healers. Later on I heard the guard that gloated to the sves became one himself, he was forced to take on the debt of the six people who died. Little soe, who watched my parents die."

  Silva rexed her hands. "After that I began training. Julian Samlin tinued doing this to others right up until the day I was ready to kill him. I khat I would probably be caught and killed for what I was about to do but I didn't care. I was once just a stable girl, my life didn't matter in all of this. I was able to sneak iy easily. I posed as one of the many sves he kept in his house. It wasn't hard to get an imitation colr and sneak into his mansion."

  She snorted with amusement. "He actually noticed me right away and insisted I serve him in his bed chamber. And so I followed him to his room and watched as he used a silence spell so we 'wouldn't disturb the maids' as he said. The idiot even had a decorative suit of armor with a spear there, allowio kill him with a spear rather than just break his neck as I po. Even before I started training I had a lot of strength and endurance from my long days w with rge animals. Whe down on his bed and pulled out his own spear, I stabbed him through the neck with the decorative ohe cheap piece of crap broke but it was enough to stop him from screaming even after he dropped his silence spell. Unfortunately for me, all hell broke loose anyway."

  The demi-rabbitkin took another few bites of her stew as we were left in suspense. She finished up her bowl and sat it aside before clearihroat and tinuing. "One of the maids noticed that the Baron had dropped the silence spell and came in to begin ing up after him. Apparently this was such a on occurrehat the maids were traio promptly up any messes from his trysts. She screamed and it wasn't long before all the soldiers in the house were trying to kill me. At this point I aplished what I came to do so I wasn't afraid of dying. I killed twelve of them trying to escape, in my mind they weren't aer than he was. They watched him and took money from a man who was routirig others, having people move to his territory only to be ensved when he saddled them with debt."

  "How did they take you alive?" Torien asked.

  "I ended up passing out from blood loss rather than actually beied. There was a healer nearby that insisted on healihe guards apparently didn't pin thinking I would be publicly executed instead. I definitely would have been had Baron Norrin Morrister not stepped in to take me as a sve instead."

  I sched my brow. "How did they possibly allow that? After you killed the Baron and twelve of his men?"

  "Apparently Morrister pulled some strings, called in some favors or something. I don't know, whatever nobles do. Either way he pulled me off the chopping blod put me into svery instead. He expihat he art of a group trying to get rid of svery in the kingdom and was happy I killed one of his rivals. He told me that arying tet him or his daughter would be the same kind of people that tricked my family into falling into debt. I wao keep on living and I didn't mind killing more people like Samlin so I agreed and trained with his knights. Eventually I was assigo the young dy but early on I told her I had killed a noble, because of that she rusted me, never allowed me to bee close with her. She was cordial but kept her distand didn't allow me to hold a on in her prese wasn't long before the Baron's words came true and people came for him and his daughter."

  Silva looked down at the ground for a minute before looking back up at me. "I am a killer. I don't regret it. I don't feel bad about it. But I promise you that I don't enjoy it, I don't want to kill just anyone, only people that deserve it. I may not like being a sve but I probably deserve it, at least more than most. More than my parents did."

  I shifted in my seat. Wow, I don't even know how to feel about this yet.

  "So," Silva said. "Now you know my story, what's yours?"

  Saine

  Hello! I've beeed to post this chapter for a while now after seeing how much people like Silva as a character. chapter is about how the characters take the story and some resolution. I hope you enjoyed reading! See you ime!

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