Zhair'lo eyed the pathetic lot of prisoners stomping and stumbling through the forest in front of him. He thought they'd looked haggard back at their camp, but the glaring sunlight of high noon made their filth all the more obvious.
"That's the best they have?" he shook his head.
"You sound disappointed," Sergeant Yung appeared at his side, his eyes never wavering from the dejected group of men.
"Well, look at them," Zhair'lo waved his hand. "They don't even look well fed, sir."
"You're right about that. Hunger is most likely what drove them into our territory and contributed much to the speed of their surrender."
A ray of light pierced the forest canopy, illuminating the trunk of a tree that blocked their path to about the height of a man's waist. Zhair'lo watched as the prisoners laboured to roll their debilitated bodies over it, a stark contrast to the Fighters who hopped atop it and back down the other side like wolves on a hunt.
"So there are bunches that fight back?"
The Sergeant tilted his head thoughtfully, as if wondering where Zhair'lo was going.
"Occasionally."
"Because there must be over a thousand Fighters in Gern, right, sir?" Zhair'lo asked as he vaulted the tree trunk.
"A great deal more than that, Recruit, counting all the men and women, the Enforcers, Guards, Fighters and a few Rangers," Yung replied, taking his turn to hop the trunk.
"So why?"
"Why what, Recruit?"
"Why are there so many Fighters when it only takes a fraction of you to wipe out people like this?"
The Sergeant, keeping to the pace of the laggard prisoners, only half turned his head to look at Zhair'lo sideways with one eye.
"Such things will be made clear to you, Recruit," the Sergeant's voice had gone cold. "These are not our only problems."
"Yes, sir," Zhair'lo twitched in response this dismissal and slowed his pace to drift behind the Sergeant.
He shortly found a stone-faced Zia marching next to him. The girl was shivering, which was ridiculous given the lightness of the forest canopy and the way the sun shone down at them so warmly. Zhair'lo realized she had approached him intentionally, separating herself from the others on purpose.
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah," she stammered, her eyes focused on the ground.
This wasn't the first time Zhair'lo had seen a girl acting like Zia. It was odd to see it here, on the dappled green floor of a forest instead of a bedroom, but he knew that when a girl had something on her mind, the thing to do was wait and let her get it out.
"They just killed that guy," she blurted out, her eyes unfocused as if she was still seeing the body.
"That's what Fighters do," Zhair'lo kept his voice as even as possible, wondering what had happened to Zia's bloodlust.
"I know," Zia reached into the air and tried to grab something imaginary in her fists, "and it happened right in front of us."
"Yeah. I've never seen anyone die, either."
Frustration gripping her, Zia twisted at her dark brown hair with one hand.
"I feel like I missed it."
"Missed it?"
Zhair'lo had to wonder if Zia was disappointed by the quality of their enemies, or horrified by the sight of someone dying. Maybe she was even surprised by her horror?
"Like it happened and – and I wasn't really paying attention."
"I was a little underwhelmed too," Zhair'lo admitted.
"Underwhelmed, yeah," Zia jumped so quickly it startled him. "I expected a battle. Something heroic, y'know?"
"None of that, today."
"No," she sighed, her eyes glistening. "No."
Zia drifted off inconclusively, occupied with her own thoughts, and Zhair'lo soon found himself surrounded by the other female Recruits, deep in a conversation turning into an argument.
"-was clearly nursing, Del," Bree threw her arms up, palms in the air. "It doesn't count."
"They weren't all nursing," Del protested stiffly.
"What's up?" Zhair'lo interrupted.
"Del's all upset about the barbarian women," Tara explained. "Because they had tits."
"They're not supposed to get that big," Del made her argument to Zhair'lo as if he had some authority for arbitration, "without being upgraded."
"I – I hadn't noticed," Zhair'lo admitted. "There was a battle going on, wasn't there? More or less?"
Del twisted her lips at his sarcasm, which just about topped out her emotional range. The other male Recruits, sensing the conflict, had caught up and were leaning in with interest.
"Any woman nursing a child gets bigger boobs, Del," Bree was clearly repeating her argument for the benefit of the boys just starting to listen in.
"Besides Merelda's baby, there was only one other child young enough to be nursing," Del argued. "And those people were nearly malnourished."
"Not the ones with the big boobs," Renzi held up a finger. "Those two actually looked a bit overweight. The clan leader's favourites maybe?"
"The brain on you," Bree raised her eyebrows to look carefully at Renzi, as if she'd never seen him before.
"Did he grow a cunt since last night?" Tara asked, pulling on the waist band of Renzi's shorts.
"Stands to reason, doesn't it?" he batted Tara's hand away. "The clan leader had several 'wives', so they'd probably get first dibs if food is short."
"How big would you say they were?" Del interrogated Renzi.
"The women?"
"Their tits, obviously," Tara put in. "I take back what I said about you having a vagina."
Renzi bit down on a retort and turned to Del, "I – uh – how do you measure them?"
"Upgrades. How many upgrades?"
"I dunno. I was never a 'Seal Breaker' like jackass over there," Renzi indicated Zhair'lo with a nod. "Maybe he knows the sizes."
"Well?" Del turned to Zhair'lo.
Zhair'lo racked his brain but couldn't for the life of him remember, in the gaggle of departing women, noting any significant cleavage amongst all the dirty rags.
"I could tell you if I saw them," he said. "I've done enough upgrades to know anywhere from one to five or so."
He could also, he realized, tell a Sorceress from a Second, but there wasn't any point rubbing that in at the moment.
"C'mon, then," Del said and started jogging away.
"What?"
Running backwards, she beckoned all of them on with a stern glare.
"We can catch up with the women," she said. "Let's go."
Flush as they were with excitement, the battle having failed to use up their supply of energy, they raced through the forest. It was easy to pass the sad group of captured men and soon they exited the cover of the canopy. Travelling was simpler out in the open and it was much easier to see the target group of women. There was no objection from the various squads of Fighters they passed. As long as they stayed somewhere between the front and rear groups of the moving army, and didn't wander back into the forest, they would probably be ignored.
"Okay," Del asked. "What do you see?"
The women, in striking contrast to the men they'd left behind, looked upbeat. Zhair'lo had noticed the fear and panic that had overtaken them when the Fighters had first shown up. After the battle, when Aloe had brought them out, they'd carried a dark but determined air about them. Now, as he looked at them carefully – and as the Temple women continued to encourage them – some of them could be seen to crack very meek smiles as they happened to turn their faces toward the Recruits.
"I can only see their legs and shoulders from back here," he pointed out. "It looks like they've all got two or three Tight upgrades."
"Madra Zen, he's right," Bree agreed. "Do you think they could outrun us?"
"No," Zhair'lo assured her. "They'd run out of air. Look at them. They're barely managing this march."
The Recruits moved up alongside the sheltered crowd of barbarian women. Their clothing was ragged and heavily torn up. He could more than make out the sides of their breasts from his position – he could in fact see little bits of aureola and nipples peeking through here and there. The breasts he could make out were pretty much the size of Talla's.
"You're right, Renzi," he said aloud. "The two that look a bit overweight? They're carrying what look like three or four Abundance upgrades and a couple of Strength. Can't see Point very well, from the outside, though."
The Fighter women began to look suspiciously at the Recruits, which they took as their cue to quietly slink back into the moving column.
"So weird," Bree whispered. "I mean, I know they gave us stuff in our food to hold us back – y'know, to keep us out of trouble 'til we're eighteen – but those women ..."
"Have pretty big tits, yeah," Tara said. "I didn't think that could happen without the Temple."
"You wanted big tits?" Kit asked her.
"No!" Tara's offended cry came out so zealous the others laughed.
"Not worth it, anyway," Zia's voice was stone cold as it cut through their banter.
The others quieted down in response to her tone.
"Even if I wanted a pair that big, I wouldn't want to live in shit like they did. We did them a favour, killing their leader. We set them free so they could live with us and be real people. They won't have to obey that dead pig on the ground, won't have to get beaten by him whenever he feels like hurting them. They can be whatever they want now and they have to know that's better than what they had."
There was a stunned silence in response to this. What she'd said hadn't been surprising; it was the philosophy of the Temple abbreviated and distilled to justify both combat and murder. What struck them was the cold disgust in Zia's voice.
She didn't say another word until they got back to the Barracks.
-----------===================-------------
Standing by the fountain in the Goddess's central square, Talla and Tina watched as V'shika approached.
"What in the nine hells did you do last night?" V'shika whispered, her eyes wide with glee.
"Why?" Talla looked panicked and started walking. The other two followed her.
"They're going nuts," V'shika accused, sidling up close to Talla. "There are Enforcers all over the Synergist tunnels. Squads of them. In and out all morning."
"Nine hells," Talla hissed. "That's our fault. Sorry."
V'shika, however, smiled.
"That means you found it, right?" she asked.
"Yes, but it's useless," Talla held out her hands with their palms down and patted the air in a calming gesture. "It's sealed off so tightly from underground, we'll never get through that way."
"Don't worry," V'shika would not give in to Talla's disappointment. "We still know where it is. That's gotta be good for something."
"You think so? I think Yua and I wasted a lot of time and nearly got ourselves caught."
"So what?" V'shika asked. "So they whip you again. What if?"
Talla stopped in shock, forcing the other two to turn around to face her.
"That doesn't bother you?" she gaped at V'shika. "Do you know how much that hurts?"
"No," V'shika shrugged. "You expect to do what we're doing without any pain?"
