Having finished up at the vegetable market, Amber turned down a side street. She wanted to purchase a whole chicken, flattening it and seasoning with herbs and lemon zest. She thought she'd seen the butcher's stall down this alley…

When she didn't find it, Amber halted and turned around, then took a left turn, still looking for the butcher's stall.

Amber suddenly stopped in her tracks, realising she was lost. She began to tremble, but held herself stiff and strong, promising herself she wouldn't be afraid. If she simply followed this street to its end, she would soon be back to where there were more people.

Her face set with determination and her elbow looped through her basket, Amber walked forward, ignoring the cloaked figure huddled in the doorway she was walking past.

Amber wrung her hands as she walked, so nervous that when a hand thrust out and grabbed her shoulder, she didn't even scream, only whimpered. She looked up into the round face and tattooed cheek of a Tingaran.

Surely this was a nightmare. It wasn't happening.

He pulled her roughly to him, so close Amber could smell the stench of his breath. The basket fell out of her arms, clattering on the cobblestones. A few mushrooms rolled down the street, down, down, down…

"You're the whore what gave Moragon that brat," the Tingaran said, holding Amber's arm in a grip of iron.

Amber opened her mouth to scream, but his hand clapped over her mouth.

"None of that, love," he said. "You talk nice and quiet, else I gut you here." The Tingaran slowly lifted his hand away from Amber's mouth.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about," Amber said.

"Yes. Yes it's you. Luck, she's with me. They can't call me deserter if I bring you in."

"Please, let me go," Amber said.

She felt herself turned around and pushed against the wall. Her hands were tied behind her back at her wrists, and a balled up piece of dirty cloth was thrust into her mouth.

"There's a few of us," the Tingaran said when he was done, "all wondering how we can get home without being hung as deserters."

Amber cried out, but the sound was muffled. Lord of the Sky, was this really happening?

"Don't worry, girl. We'll get you back to your one-armed lover safe and sound. I expect the High Lord will reward us, for bringing you in. You're coming with me."

~

MIRO was glad Amber hadn't come to the conference.

As the area of land under the allies' control grew, the truth about the prison camp became impossible to hide. It sickened them all to their core, and if there was one thing they agreed on, it was that they needed to push all the way through to Seranthia, removing Primate Melovar Aspen from power and ridding the world of his evil.