"You've got ten minutes."
Tala blinked.
"Ten...?"
"To choose," he said simply. "You're one of us, an executioner. Whether you like it or not, there is no way around this."
Another Executioner stepped forward, a girl with silver-threaded sleeves and a voice like cold water.
"You kill your ten now… Becuase even if you don't they will all die, might as well get your quota in, right?."
"Okay, enough talking we're moving soon," the tall man added. "This is your chance to pick your ten, don't even think about warning the others."
"Even if you do, they won't escape."
Tala didn't answer. She couldn't. Her voice had been caught somewhere in her throat.
Then, without another word, the group of executioners retreated back into the tree line like shadows. But they didn't leave. She could feel them watching. Waiting. A ring of wolves surrounded the camp stalking their prey.
And the fire kept burning. Crackling. Hissing.
Tala's legs finally moved. Slowly.
She turned, stared down at the girl who had died beside her, the one with the clean red line across her neck and the vacant, glassy eyes.
She'd never even known her name.
The paper still sat at her feet. You are an Executioner. She picked it up with shaking fingers. Turned it over. Nothing on the back. Nothing except the weight of a decision she didn't want to make.
Ten minutes.
She had ten minutes to choose between murder… or a massacre.
Tala folded the note with trembling fingers and slipped it into her sleeve.
Then she stood up quietly, trying to move as slowly as possible so as to not draw attention.
Like if she moved too fast, the entire forest would collapse in on her.
The fire crackled behind her, a low hiss as another ember drifted into the night. It floated upward like a dying star before winking out into darkness. Around her, the camp still held the warmth of life, a flickering hearth, the rustle of sleep, the soft thud of a turning body. Somewhere to her right, a student murmured a few words. Someone else snored gently. The scent of burned wood and iron hung in the air.
But beyond that stillness.
The wind stirred through the broken trees, carrying a chill that whispered through the cracks in the stone. It didn't howl. It didn't scream. It crept. And it carried something darker beneath it, the stench of cold steel and spilled blood, even if the slaughter hadn't begun yet.
She moved through the camp like a ghost, each step practiced, muted. A hand brushing a stone. A pause beside a collapsed column. She didn't go directly to Corin and Vessa, not yet. The hooded figures were still there, shadows draped across the treeline. Eyes hidden beneath black masks.
Waiting.
She paused beside a barrel of water near a tent . Dipped her fingers in before splashing it against her face. The liquid clung cold against her skin.
Only then did she glance sideways, catching Corin's eye in the firelight.
He noticed her. He was sharpening his blade against a silver stone, back leaned casually against a broken archway. But his posture stiffened as he caught the look in Tala's eyes. His hand slowed against the whetstone, coming to a stop.
Tala drifted closer, crouching beside him like it was nothing.
"You're late,"
She didn't answer right away. So many words flashed through her mind, crys for help, words of warning.
"There's going to be a slaughter."
The blade in his hands stilled completely.
Vessa stirred beside them, still half-asleep, her twin braids tangled in her cloak.
"What?"
Tala leaned in. Close enough to feel the heat of the fire. Close enough that the shadows behind her felt like knives waiting to press against her back.
"We need to move," she said. "Quietly. No panic. Wake only the lookouts. No one else."
"Why? Are you feeling okay? Maybe your just tired."
Tala hesitated for a second then let it fall from her lips."They're coming. Killers. Other Students."
Corin didn't reply, warily looking at Tala. His fingers twitched slightly on the hilt.
Vessa, who had just woken up, pulled herself up slowly, more alert now.
"How many?"
Tala turned her hand upward, the blue ink of her runes catching the firelight faintly beneath her sleeve.
"Eight," she said."Maybe more."
The wind returned. This time stronger. It sighed through the trees with the sound of falling ash.
Corin looked over the camp, at the students sprawled in their makeshift beds, some sharing cloaks for warmth, others curled beneath collapsed stone columns.
Vessa's hand hovered over the dagger near her bed, hand holding on so tight her knuckles turned white. Corin was looking at Tala with suspicion, a million possibilities running through his head.
"And how do you know that."
Tala didn't look at him. Her eyes were on the trees beyond the camp.
"Because they told me," she said."Because they gave me a choice. They told me to kill ten of you guys "Her voice cracked." Its apart of their trial, we are got different roles... I'm one too.... an executioner- BUT I haven't killed anyone, not yet."
Corin's expression darkened at this revelation. His hand tightened on his sword hilt as his muscles tensed.
He stood abruptly, eyes sweeping the camp.
"Everyone prepare for an a-"
He barely finished the sentence before the muffled footsteps rang out.
The moment the words left his mouth, the Executioners who were hiding in the shadowsmoved.
Like cars waiting at a traffic light, the second they heard corin begin to speak they ripped into motion, gliding across the grassy plain like rabid beasts. The treeline erupted. Screams followed soon after.
A girl, woken by the sounds to Corin's left dropped before she could even sit up. Before she could scream a torrent of blood came out of her mouth. Another student tried to draw a blade, only for it to shatter in her hands, her head jerking sideways with a sickening crack before falling to the ground, lifeless.
Catching the sight of a shadow moving towards another sleeping student Corin rushed forward and swung his sword in an attempt to slay the idiot who dared to kill the people under him . But he missed, the blade whizzed through the air digging straight into the ground. The shadow was too fast. He turned to strike again. Too late.
A blade pierced the boy beside him.
Then the shadow vanished back into the treeline."FUCK!" Corin roared. "STOP HIDING!"
Tala didn't move, she couldn't. Her legs were rooted to the floor, her hands trembling. Tears traced hot lines down her cheeks.
"I told you," she whispered."We needed to leave…"
Chaos.
A firepot spilled, catching someone's cloak. Flames spiraled. Smoke rose. A student screamed for his mother before going silent. Another tried to crawl away, dragging his body along slowly until a silver dagger pinned his hand to the stone.
A girl with braids and broken glasses reached for the sky, begging for mercy. A blur passed. Her arm fell to the ground before she did.
Blood soaked the stones. The wind howled carrying the scent of blood. The night was drowned in death.
And then silence.
Only three figures remained among the students.
Tala.
Vessa, bleeding from a shallow cut across her cheek and Corin, leaning on his sword, his side soaked in red.
The Executioners who had just finished cleaning up the other students stepped forward.
The tall executioner stepped forward, taking off his mask, a cruel smile on his face that sent chills down the trio's backs.
"You had your chance," he said to Tala."We can't kill you because you are one of us. But we can kill your friends, haha."
Tala's hands lifted.
She didn't speak. Her fingers flashed through a rapid series of sigils, blue light spiraling around her arms.
The ground answered.
A web of frost burst outward from her feet, snaking across the camp like a living thing. Ice leapt up the Executioners' legs, binding them, climbing higher. Their motions froze mid-step.
"Let's go!" Tala cried, her voice breaking."Please run!"
Corin and Vessa bolted, using the time Tala had bought them to the best of their ability.
The trees whizzed by as they ran through the forest, jumping over overgrown roots and random chuncks of stone.
Behind them, cracking sounds echoed, the sound of the executioners breaking free. The trio strained to speed up, Tala was digging into her mind for anything that could possibly help in this situation but she couldn't find anything. "Shit, I'm useless, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
A chilling ring! cut through the air.
A flash of light zoomed past Tala who was running behind Corin and Vessa.
A sharp pop was heard as the dagger slammed into Vessa's shoulder.
She screamed but didn't stop running, she pushed herself harder
"STOP! PLEASE, STOP THIS!" Tala shouted behind her, tears .blurring up her line of sight
Corin stumbled beside her, gasping.
Then he stopped and turned to face the executioners who were chasing after them in the shadows, although he couldn't see them, he knew they were there. He turned to Tala, his gaze full gratitude and sadness, a tear trailed down his cheek.
"They can't hurt you,"
"Thankyou for warning us, it was pretty cool to hang out with you the past few days, your strong."
Tala's eyes widened, still rimmed red from crying. "No, stop talking please keep running"
"Haha, Don't blame yourself Tala, you tried."
She choked on her breath.
"Okay, okay…"But her voice broke."Now please… keep running, they will catch up soon."
Corin smiled, blood staining his teeth. "It's alright tala, I can't go on."
He looked down at his leg which was stained red, an injury he got back at camp, Tala felt like screaming, she cursed herself for not learning any healing magic, helpless all she could do was watch as he turned away from her, facing the shadows as he raised his sword one last time.
Vessa who was watching corin get ready to fight fight and gave Tala a look.
With pained smile and a trembling voice she nodded at Tala "Just go".
"NO, I can buy you more time, they can't hur-"
Corin looked back at her, his face taking on a slight look of anger before flashing a wry smile.
"Leave, I don't want you to see me die, otherwise you won't remember me as someone cool haha."
"I don't think Vessa does either, so leave us."
Tala's eyes were stinging, the last time she cried like this was when her city was getting destroyed and her family dying one by one infront of her.
"Why are the people around me always telling me to leave."
She turned and bolted away, leaving behind Corin and Vessa while they prepared for their last stand.
"It's because I'm weak, damn it"
Tala flinched as she heard Vessa's scream in the distance before it got cut short.
A few seconds later the sound of metal striking metal rang out, Corin's bitter laughter echoed around the forest as the sounds stopped.
Tala kept running until she couldn't feel her legs, before she finally collapsed beside a tree, any tears she had in her were all used, she turned behind her hoping to see Corin and Vessa run out from the forest telling her they were fine, but she knew they weren't, there was only silence.
No footsteps.
No voices.
A faint cry, full of sorrow and anger escaped her mouth before she collapsed on the ground, too exhausted to open her eyes.