Port Finally was just a short walk away, of course, and one they completed before the sun hit its zenith. The timing of their arrival provided a perfect window of opportunity to look around for transport and find someone who'd take them without having to wait too long for departure. None of them wanted to hang around the port - or anywhere else - after everything that had happened.

  Fern and Ember were carrying the packs this time around, looking suspiciously like Ravenna's servants given how the three of them were dressed. But neither one cared about appearances right now; they just needed to get out of this pce and onto the road. And after a brief round of negotiation with a reasonably well-off but slightly desperate merchant, the three of them climbed onto the floating cart and made themselves as comfortable as they could.

  In any other circumstances Ember probably would have been keenly eyeing the engines, or the other set of artifacts that kept the cart hovering evenly without sending it too far aloft, or maybe just talking with the engineer. But at the moment she just didn't have the energy to spare for anything but the guard job that - as they all knew - would be the most difficult shortly after they left.

  Maybe after we get through this minor bullshit, she mused, her eyes half-closing, I can just sleep on the road for a bit. These two can probably handle themselves well enough, and they know the country better anyway...

  "Midy, forgive me for asking, but - are you certain your, ah, attendants are up to the task?" the merchant sitting near the front inquired as the cart began moving toward the port's south gate. "They seem a bit... well, tired."

  "Oh, worry not!" Ravenna returned cheerily, waving the thought away with a gloved hand. "We're all tired. And besides, when the bandits come, they'll be too distracted by the temptation of a noble dy's ransom to worry about what trying to carry away whatever you're hauling today, don't you think? All these heavy-looking crates would surely be more troublesome than simply snatching me away in their grubby little arms."

  He blinked. "I- I suppose? If you're willing to take the risk, midy, I suppose I won't argue."

  In the back of the cart, Ember looked over her shoulder at Fern. "How much time you figure before the small fish start showing up?"

  The fallen hero shrugged. "I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but if it was me..." She looked ahead of the cart, toward the gate. "Wherever a vehicle has to slow down and can't maneuver freely, that would be a great spot for an ambush. We jumped down the cliffs on our way here, but this thing is gonna have to take the long and winding path to get to the upper elevation. That'd be a real prime location, if I was interested in ruining someone's day."

  "Thanks for the heads up. Here's hoping they don't ruin ours."

  I mean, the day isn't a complete loss, but it'd be far better if I could just shove my nose in the books I got, Fern thought to herself with a quiet little sigh. Then again, she was tired enough that absorbing information might be an issue.

  The st time she was gearing up for a fight with port bandits was at the end of a day's travel; this time it was after less travel, but less sleep. She couldn't figure out which was worse; the fatigue numbers met somewhere in the middle and she didn't know where. All she knew was that she wanted the bandits to hurry up and attack so they could get the whole thing over with as soon as possible, and then maybe a nap.

  No one jumped out of the trees as the cart hummed out of the south gate, at least. The engineer knew to keep a proper pace to discourage anyone from trying anything in most stretches of the journey, which was smart; but it also made the slow parts that much more nerve-wracking. Any time the engine pitch dropped from its steady, mildly irritating whine to allow for a harder curve in the road, Fern felt herself tensing up. A brief gnce at Ravenna and the merchant showed the same; Ember probably would have, too, but she still had trouble reading the healer's uncanny calm.

  But they made it through the trees at st; and then the cart took a sharp turn, and started up the slow and winding path to the upper elevation of the pins.

  No one needed to say anything. Fern felt the pulse of darkness from Ravenna even as she pushed out her own. It would alert anyone with aetheric sensitivity, of course, but at this point it didn't matter; either the trap was set or it wasn't. They just needed to know who was coming.

  "Five," they said at the same time. No ambiguity here; the bandits had approached close enough by now that their return signals were so strong as to be unmistakable.

  "Oh good," Ember returned with an evil little gleam in her eye as she stood up and cracked her knuckles. "Two for me, two for Fern, and one so Her Ladyship doesn't get bored."

  "Okay, but those aren't strict lines, right? You're not going to be upset if they're all perfectly grouped up for me and I take advantage of it, are you?"

  She waved her hand, grinning zily. "Just a general idea, yeah, no called shots."

  This is nice, Fern thought, even as tired as I am. Just the three of us, a little banter, and probably nowhere near the same level of expertise in the people showing us the pointy end of their bdes this time around. It's almost rexing, in a weird sort of way. She drew her duelist's sword, rolled her shoulders, and let out a little yawn. "Just don't make a mess or anything, okay? They're just bandits. People trying to make a living, in their own way."

  "Right, right. Just not this time," Ember retorted, but she was smiling too as the first highwayman came over the cliff's edge from above and started skipping down the rock face with the aid of a sturdy rope, followed shortly by two more of them on two more ropes.

  In one fluid movement, the healer went over the edge of the cart and pnted both feet firmly on the ground, knees slightly bent. A brief wait - and then she unched herself at the cliff, at just the perfect angle, and smmed the descending bandit back into the rock face like a bcksmith's hammer striking the anvil. She vaulted back off him as he skidded down the rest of the way, uncontrolled - too disoriented to break his fall, if not already unconscious.

  Well that's one way to break the ice, and maybe some bones, Fern mused with a vaguely worried little smile. But she had a part in this too, and she intended to py it properly. A twist of her wrist sent her bde spinning in an arc backward, sweeping along enough darkness for a simple trick like this - though she infused it with a little extra anyway, just to be sure. She hadn't gotten enough sleep to py too much with safety margins, and so in lieu of precision she'd just have to overcharge it a little.

  With eyes on the nearest of the two remaining bandits, the fallen hero took aim, and sshed a quick horizontal cut from where she stood on the bed of the cart. The technique weakened with additional range, of course; forcibly moving the air itself to the point that it developed a razor edge took a significant effort already. But all she needed was a thin stripe, aimed just right.

  The air bde connected with the already taut length of rope, and severed it handily, lightly scoring the cliff face behind it as the bandit tumbled, useless rope in hand, and crashed onto the trail with maybe a bit less force than his companion had been shoved into the cliff. Either way, I guess we're not being very merciful today, Fern pondered.

  If she was being honest with herself, though, she didn't feel particurly merciful at the moment. For as much as she'd said the bandits were just trying to make a living, they were trying to make it off their hides; a point which she was pretty sure Ember would have put forth if not for the short timeframe and the cursed tiredness. Is this how I lose my empathy? she wondered, with a little pang of concern. Because I'm tired and it's just... inconvenient?

  Now was not the time for that line of thought, though. She checked the third bandit, who'd made it more or less safely to the ground and had just drawn a pair of short swords with a frenzied look on his face. Must be desperate to not back off after seeing two of his pals get taken out so fast.

  "I'll take care of those," Fern heard Ravenna say, accompanied by a soft, unfamiliar keening. She spared a brief gnce over her shoulder to see the dark mage with her hands poised like an archer wielding an unseen bow, her aim and eyes focused on the top of the cliff where another gnce revealed the other two bandits peeking over. Ranged support. Not a bad idea, and those guys can cut and run a lot easier if things go wrong. Or they could have, at least, if she hadn't already noticed them.

  The aether around and between Ravenna's gloved hands twisted violently, the keening strengthening to a shrill scream; and then she released her vortex arrow. It would have been more powerful with a proper focus - or any focus at all - but she'd been able to stand still long enough to charge it up to a reasonable potency. The distortion sliced through the air, as fast as any mechanically propelled bolt, and smmed into one of the more traditional archers atop the cliff, lifting him off his feet for a moment before he was carried back out of view.

  The dark mage let out a quiet sigh. That should have pierced, not impacted. My control isn't where it needs to be. Now instead of one nice clean puncture in his shoulder that poor man's going to have some broken bones and possibly worse. She wilted a little just thinking about it. Fern's going to get upset at me for that if she finds out, I bet. At least I can say it wasn't intentional this time.

  The other archer had decided to retreat, or at least hide from view for the moment, so Ravenna turned to look at the two, right as they almost casually disarmed the dual-wielding bandit and very ungently tossed him to the side of the road along with his companions before climbing back into the cart, which had never stopped moving. It had all happened so fast, but the engineer and merchant just kept their heads down and kept going the entire time. Which was, after all, the whole point of hiring competent guards.

  "Satisfied, midy?" Fern inquired, the weariness coming through in her tone right alongside the pyfulness.

  "For now, I suppose," she returned, a little pensively. "There yet remains one of the little nuisances, but given the treatment the other four have suffered, I suspect they may just back off and not trouble us any further. I certainly hope that is the case; we could all use a rest after how this trip has gone. A long rest."

  The fallen hero smiled, just a little. "Personally, I'm looking forward to a long bath. I daresay there's easily room for three where we're headed."

  Ravenna considered the thought, looking at Fern, then Ember. After living so long without a partner to share her life, and then having one delivered to her doorstep, she'd naively imagined things would simply be perfect from then on. Yet it had all gone so wrong with a handful of words at the wrong time, the wrong steps taken. And fixing it would take more than mere apologies from her; but with these two, with the strange bancing effect that had arisen at their centerpoint, somehow she felt as if things would work out.

  Room for three, huh? "Yes," she murmured, gazing up at the approaching hilltop, "I suppose there is."