They did not arrest her. They were too confused. She walked through the gate, across the gravel no-man’s-land, to the edge of the Howling Wood. The trees were black, their bark weeping silver sap. The air smelled of rust and honey.
Guards stopped her. Two men in full plate armor, visors down. They saw her tunic. They saw her bare legs beneath. One of them laughed. “Lost, little font? Women’s quarters are west.” cmnf fantasy
“You’re naked under that, I assume?” the second guard said, bored. “Technically, that’s fine. But the tunic is a man’s garment. That’s a crime.” They did not arrest her
Without the Tithe, crops would wither. Without the Tithe, the boundary walls against the Howling Wood would collapse. Without the Tithe, a woman’s own untamed magic would burn her from the inside out by her thirtieth year. The trees were black, their bark weeping silver sap
“The first thing you must understand,” Kellus said, not looking at her body but at her eyes, “is that the Tithe is not magic. It is a cage.”
“I am going east,” she said.
Elara looked back at the city. Lights were flickering. Alarm bells beginning to ring. Somewhere, Master Kellus was smiling. Somewhere, the Order of the Fold was scrambling to rewrite scripture.