Chapter 573: The Line Between Halves

The checkpoint sat where the barricade split the town in two.

A narrow gate had been built into the wall, manned by four guards who watched both sides with equal suspicion.

Vane studied them from the treeline.

This wasn’t a border against an outside enemy.

It was a border against half their own town.

A young woman approached the gate carrying a covered basket balanced against one hip. She said something to the guards.

One shook his head.

She tried again.

The answer remained the same.

Isole narrowed her eyes.

"Medicine."

Ashe looked at her.

"You’re sure?"

"Not completely."

The woman lifted the basket slightly as she spoke again.

"She wants to take medicine across."

"Why aren’t they letting her?"

Valerica was watching the woman rather than the guards.

"Look at her hands."

Vane did.

She wasn’t nervous.

There was no furtive glance toward the basket, no hesitation, no movement that suggested she was hiding anything.

She looked angry.

Not frightened.

"She’s not worried they’ll find something," Valerica said. "She’s angry they think there might be something."

Nyx studied the checkpoint.

"No Imperial presence."

She scanned the rooftops and the road beyond.

"None nearby, either."

Her eyes returned to the wall.

"This is entirely theirs."

The barricade.

The guards.

The rules.

"They built this themselves."

The woman spoke one final time.

The guards answered more firmly.

One of them gestured back toward the side she’d come from.

He looked almost apologetic.

That was what caught Vane.

The guard wasn’t enjoying denying her.

He was simply enforcing a rule he didn’t seem entirely comfortable with himself.

The woman finally turned.

Her shoulders stiffened.

The basket remained on her hip.

The medicine remained inside it.

She walked away.

"That’s just sad," Mara said quietly.

Nobody corrected her.

Valerica watched the woman disappear down the road.

"It’s both."

Mara glanced over.

"A war has an enemy."

Valerica looked toward the divided town.

"This has neighbors who stopped agreeing on who the enemy is."

They followed.

A quarter mile past the checkpoint, Isole called out in the local tongue.

Her pronunciation was imperfect.

Her confidence was not.

The woman stopped and turned.

Her eyes moved across the six of them, lingering briefly on their clothes, their weapons, and the fact that none of them looked remotely local.

Isole approached carefully.

"We aren’t from either side."

The woman stared.

"Neither side?"

"No."

The woman studied her again.

"You don’t flinch at the wrong things."

Ashe glanced at Vane.

Vane raised an eyebrow.

Isole smiled faintly.

"We’re not from here at all."

The woman’s expression shifted.

"That might be the only useful thing about you."

She adjusted the basket.

"Dessa."

"Isole."

They exchanged names.

Dessa’s attention moved over the others.

Then back to Isole.

"The medicine is for my sister."

Isole nodded toward the basket.

"Across the gate?"

"Yes."

Dessa’s mouth tightened.

"She married into the other half three years ago."

Ashe frowned.

"Before the wall?"

"Before it became this."

Dessa looked back toward the town.

"Back then, people could still visit each other."

Her fingers tightened around the basket handle.

"Then the walls went up properly."

"Why?"

Dessa gave a tired laugh.

"That depends on who you ask."

Valerica stepped closer.

"Then we’ll ask all of them."

Dessa looked at her.

"Maren’s side says Rurik’s people can’t be trusted with anything important."

She nodded toward one half of the town.

"Some of Rurik’s people used to wear Imperial colors. Some didn’t. Nobody seems interested in distinguishing between the two anymore."

"And Rurik’s side?"

"They say Maren’s people would rather watch a stranger’s family die than admit their old rules for deciding who is trustworthy stopped working years ago."

Valerica was quiet.

"And what do you say?"

Dessa looked at her for several seconds.

The question had caught her off guard.

Finally, she looked down at the basket.

"I say my sister needs medicine."

Her voice hardened.

"And neither side’s philosophy is delivering it."

Silence.

"I don’t have the energy for more than that most days."

Valerica looked toward the checkpoint.

Then the basket.

Then the town.

She thought for several seconds.

"We could carry it."

Dessa frowned.

"You?"

"Us."

Valerica pointed toward the six of them.

"We have no history here."

"That makes you trustworthy?"

"No."

Valerica’s answer came immediately.

"It makes us undecided."

Dessa seemed to consider that.

"Neither side has a reason to stop strangers yet."

"Exactly."

Valerica glanced toward Isole.

"We carry it through."

Ashe studied her.

"You’ve known this woman for ten minutes."

"I know."

Valerica looked back at Dessa.

"But I’ve also spent those ten minutes learning that everyone here distrusts everyone because of what happened years ago."

She gestured toward the wall.

"We don’t have those years."

A pause.

"That means they can’t use them against us."

Dessa stared at her.

Then, slowly, she offered the basket.

Isole reached for it.

Vane expected her to take the weight.

Instead, Isole handed it to him.

"Why me?"

"Because you look least likely to drop medicine while being questioned."

Mara nodded.

"Fair assessment."

Vane accepted the basket.

It was heavier than it looked.

Dessa watched him take it.

"Then you’ll want to meet Maren first."

Valerica nodded.

"Officially?"

"Officially."

Dessa looked back toward the town.

"Before someone sees you carrying a basket across the gate and decides you’re secretly working for whichever side they already hate more."

Nyx smiled faintly.

"Good to know paranoia is thriving."

Dessa’s mouth twitched.

"It’s probably the one thing both halves still agree on."

That got a quiet laugh from Isole.

Even Dessa smiled.

Only briefly.

Then her eyes returned to the barricade.

"Welcome to Meridine."

She looked at the six strangers standing outside a wall built by people who had once lived together.

"I hope you brought more patience than the rest of us have left."

"We’ll do our best," Isole said.

Dessa looked toward her.

"That’s what everyone says."

Her smile faded.

"Right up until the wall teaches them otherwise."

She turned toward the checkpoint.

The six followed.

Vane carried the medicine.

Ashe walked beside Dessa.

Valerica studied the guards.

Nyx watched the rooftops.

Mara quietly memorized the gate’s construction.

Isole kept speaking to Dessa, one careful word at a time.

It wasn’t a grand gesture.

Nobody declared peace.

Nobody lowered the wall.

Nobody suddenly trusted anyone.

A basket of medicine simply changed hands.

A few strangers offered to carry it.

For the moment, that was enough.

Because Meridine had spent so long dividing itself over grand questions that perhaps the only way forward was through smaller ones.

Who is sick?

Who can help?

Who needs to cross?

And who is willing to hold the weight long enough to get the answer there?