The Hangmen - Tumblr Posts

Tell Me.

They had been trudging all night through the scarred plains of Ascalon, the sole survivors of a fight too large and brutish to not have been a setup. The question, of course, was whether it was an inside job. Whether the victims were, in fact, both victims.

Milli stumbled along, her arms wrapped around herself to ward off the cold of shock and environment both. Her back was scraped deep by large claws and each step was an agonizing ache and pull. Markus had fared no better, arms and torso bearing similar wounds. A few long, dark miles back, Milli had made her peace with things. If Markus was a traitor, he would kill her. She wouldn’t fight him. She had no chance. She would ask for swiftness, mercy if possible. And if he wasn’t a traitor, well…she was waiting for that question as well.

They found a small creek, nearly dry, but with enough muddy puddles to wet their lips, at least. A large hand landed on her shoulder and Milli winced. One way or the other, it had come.

"Did you plan this?" came the deep, gravelly voice.

Milli shook her head. “I didn’t, Markus, I swear.” Even to herself, her words sounded flat and distant. But how to tell him that it wasn’t for lack of sincerity?

He spun her around, glared at her angrily. Even in the dark, she could see the burn of his green eyes. “Make me believe it,” he growled.

"I-I don’t know how," she stuttered, backing away, over the slippery rocks that banked the creek. With a slip she ended up on her butt, back aching like it was on fire. Milli arched, mouth open to scream but no sound came out.

A black-gloved hand wrapped around her throat. “Then figure it out quickly. Those were good people we lost back there. Lost to the Cause.” His eyes narrowed. “You’ve never been really loyal, have you?”

He wasn’t squeezing hard enough to block her air, just to hold her steady. Lying still didn’t seem like a good idea. “N-no,” she admitted. “I-I haven’t wanted to restore Ascalon. B-but I’ve been loyal to the organization. To the Hangmen,” she said quickly. She hoped he’d believe her.

His hand squeezed and she grabbed it, holding on, not sure if she could pry his fingers from around her throat. Not sure if it would do any good if she could. “You have a strange idea of loyalty, girl,” his voice rumbled, rolled like thunder across her. Then he threw her down, on the dry bank next to the creek. “But if you’re loyal to the Hangmen, you’re loyal to the Cause. It’s time you started learning there’s no difference.” Then he grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. “Move.”

"Y-yes, thank you," she said, gulping air. Rubbing her throat gently, Milli trailed in Markus’s wake. To her, it was always the same. She was loyal to what kept her alive.

The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Things were fine until they weren’t, but in retrospect she should have suspected something was wrong. People she knew and trusted grew quickly and uncharacteristically tense and withdrawn. Those who were of a more jumpy nature disappeared entirely. And Jack became strained, one with too much on his shoulders, desperately looking for someone to unload it on. She tried to share the burden, but he protected her even from this. He always protected her.

And then even Jack was gone.

She heard from one of the locals that the Stone Mason’s Guild Hall had been ransacked. And when she checked his room at the Lion’s Shadow, she found it equally ruined. His personal belongings were gone. Whether that meant he’d left before whoever did this got there or they had taken everything when they took him, she didn’t know.

Like the lamps in the windows of a house, her sources of information went dark. Something happened with the Hangmen, she gathered, though what she didn’t know. But people were scattering to the winds.

From then on, it was delicate. She provided what money and supplies she could to those leaving. She didn’t go to Divinity’s Reach. She kept her store open and if a Seraph stopped in once or twice, she showed them only the face of a shopkeeper, though she was left trembling and sweating after.

She specifically avoided news. She didn’t want to know if friends were being tried and hanged. She wanted to space out her heartbreaks.

In a few weeks, she was calmer. Things were back to relative normal. If the shop wasn’t as prosperous, that was because she’d spent the extra on her friends. On buying them safety. It wasn’t something she could regret.

Milli was left in the rubble of what had once been. So she did what she always did. She picked up the pieces and moved on.