My name is Amber Valance. I am the Commander of the Imperial Third Expeditionary. I was born in the village of Oaklies, daughter of a blacksmith and a farmer. I will not forget my name.The woman dashed through the forest of the fae, the laughter of maddened beasts dogging her every step. All around her, pale trunks twisted into malformed things, their bark either smooth as bone or thick with flesh. Their branches sagging with rotting fruits, each sprouting tumours of grinning heads. The shapes that moved in the fog were unnatural. Too tall, too thin, too many legs.Too many of them.My name is Amber Valance. I am a soldier of the Imperial Army. I was raised in the steppes to the north. I will not forget my name.The exotic firearm in her hand once had a name — a designation worthy of its might. She could no longer remember it. She had abandoned its moniker twenty minutes ago to waylaid a gluttonous mountain of tongues earlier. The sacrifice saved her life, but she became weaker in the exchange. The pistol’s strength was dulled — its power sapped by unknown and ancient arcana.Logic and physics had no hand in it. The pistol had lost its name; it was now less because of it.If Amber did not escape soon, she would share a worse fate.My name is Amber Valance. I… I am a citizen of the Empire. I grew up… in a village? S-somewhere with snow…Focus. Focus! A gun in my hand... I am a soldier. I am Amber Valance!Her gun was the last familiar weight in that impossible place. A hefty barrel of steel. Four chambers (...)