Merevaika
She could finally stand. She could finally do something other than sit and scheme and wait until she could put the plans into action. It hurt, oh, how it hurt, every movement torture, but she could do it, and she wanted revenge.
It was best served cold, she knew that, but Merevaika flamed red hot, burning inside and outside, and needed to let the fire spread. She had to, or she would be the one engulfed in the mighty flames, trapped under them as she struggled to breath.
Murder was the first thing on her mind. Her fingers ached to snatch up a knife and bury it in the man's chest, deeper and deeper until his heart stopped for the last time. She longed to hear the last breath, just like the murderers he had sent would have heard hers. But she couldn't live with more blood on her hands, and not because of her own sanity. If she lost it, it wouldn't be from murder. It would be from the traces of her summer in Riverfall. No, it wouldn't be because of this.
But there would be no way to kill a man without appearing as the bad guy in the situation, for there was no way to prove what had happened. There would be no way to kill him at all, not without Merevaika being driven from Endrykas, at the very least. Murdering an Ankal - for he must have assumed the position with knowledge that his father was dead - would most likely have a much worse sentence. While Merevaika had no care for law, she had care for herself. Killing him would be committing suicide.
She had a much better idea.
Godwin must have believed both dead, or at least cut Merevaika out of the picture. If she wasn't dead, he would assume that she would never return, for fear of being blamed. Her arrival into Endrykas, an arrival he hadn't prepared for, would throw him severely off-guard. It wouldn't be hard for him to convince them all that she murdered Juniper, but she had worked ways around that. To do those ways, however, Merevaika had to gather certain items first, to make the whole thing a little more... dramatic.
Juniper stopped her the minute she hobbled out of the tent. "Merevaika, you must rest. Your midsection is truly injured. You cannot leave."
"I..." Merevaika stumbled before settling on a lie, "I want some fresh air. It is stuffy in the tent. I will only walk down the stream, not far, not long."
Juniper showed reluctance, but with a wave of his hand, directed her onwards.
Making sure to regulate her breathing and move slowly and steadily, she slowly reached the river, strolling by it while her muscles learnt what walking was again. It made her think about Meda and Tachi, who waited back at her camp in Endrykas, most likely forgetting all their training. She would have taken them to a small river like this to water them, and her dogs would have been playing around her feet. A few more days, at most, but she planned to return to Endrykas by tomorrow. She needed the city.
