The first thing John felt upon seeing the Captainina again was a sweeping wave of concern. The woman was strong he knew, possessing an intense will and righteous cause, even if she did order a salvo that could have potentially killed him and his friends when the Mauler started charging too close to their mechanical caravan. But seeing her now, it almost looked like a fragile shell of herself. Each movement was too stiff and slow, twitching with the evidence of pain obvious even without the layers of bandages wrapping her like funerary cloths. But even more striking was the steel remaining in her eyes, and the choice of words she had.
“Now, forgive me for asking, but do you come as friend to us or friend to the Empire?”
“I’m sorry, what do you mean by that?” Cobalt asked, evidently as confused as he was.
“We have come so far north, to the far boundary of civilization, for a reason. As you well know, there are those who seek to break us to their cause, who want the Toro Rojo for themselves to fight in their wars. I cannot accept that, we have all come too far to die in someone else’s war. So I ask again, out of courtesy for the sins we have done against you and the memory of your aid in our time of need, why are you here?”
“If I may, miss um…” Faith piped up.
“You can call me Captainina.” The bandaged matriarch ordered, as sharp as ever.
“Ah, miss Captainina… two of us are not even from the Empire.” Faith pointed out.
“It true! From Mother Forest we come!” Gorekin’s gruff voice echoed.
The old woman tensed for a moment, before relaxing and letting out a loud huff, letting her native rural accent slip more into her speech. “Ya veo… your accents speak of truth, though I find it hard to believe you came from that forest, you did come from that direction. How did you all survive?”
“My tribe live there for centuries! Deep connection with Mother Forest!” Gorekin grunted proudly.
“I had a mask… it got shredded by a beast deep in the forest, however.” Faith explained. “One of my blessings accelerates healing, for myself and others, perfect for the image of the first woman, nurturing and submissive. Along with my other mutation to survive with little more than water and the air, I am truly blessed.”
John thought it was a little creepy how… mechanical the last part of her words was, and he was the one who was half machine at this point.
“Gorekin gave us masks when we appeared in the Forest,” Cobalt explained after shooting Faith an odd look of her own. “Then we had a bit of a misunderstanding with an ancient fungus-infested golem that, apparently, represents the forest’s will, and we got given some strange medicine to help us breathe as an apology.”
“Let me be sure I am understanding correctly… when you said appeared, what do you mean?” The captainina asked.
“Alright, so it’s a long story but-” John coughed, gills flaring as he began to organise his thoughts. “I suppose we should start a bit after we last met…”
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After John had recited the long story on how the two of them ended up this far North, the seemingly Curse-afflicted leader of the Toro Rojo crew sat there in silent consideration. Right now she seemed tired, her age shining through. Cobalt knew the woman was old for a mortal, and it looked as though she was attempting to cultivate, it was quite frankly a miracle she could still move and talk freely while the Curse seemed to have progressed to this condition. Then again, willpower was always one of the factors that separated the mortals from the cultivators, and willpower was something she, evidently, had in spades. Nonetheless, willpower on its own wasn’t everything either, and she wasn’t sure if they had left her to her fate the woman would make it out alive.
“Mis condolencia… you have lost much, haven’t you? I knew the Dragon Khan was coming, I had heard whispers of his presence, but we have not stopped in any city or town long enough to truly understand.” The Captainina said solemnly.
“Thank you, it- it still doesn’t feel quite real.” John responded slowly, he was doing an admirable job holding back, but she could see the telltale traces of barely suppressed emotional shudders across his body. Between everything that happened, the time they had to truly grieve was very slim indeed.
She understood perfectly.
“But the tale of the strange world you found… it reminds me of an old folk tale. A tale from the age of the Red Star.” The old woman contemplated. “They say when he ascended the Red Star saw a vision of a ruined heaven, and took the power he needed from the body of a dead God.”
“A dead God…” Cobalt muttered to herself as she remembered that awful sight. That massive corpse bleeding gigantic insects into a dead world, insects that accused them of terrible crimes from all-too-human faces.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“So the world that we went to, the world I go to when I get knocked out of my body… that’s meant to be Heaven?” John asked.
The Captainina shrugged. “It was just an old folk tale, a legend, I never put any real stock in things like that…”
Before she could continue further she doubled over, heaving painfully. Cobalt moved forward in a flash of instinctual movement to support her before she fell, a pool of blood leaking from her mouth. A group of the Toro Rojo crew also rushed forward, likely medics and the personal
There was power in that blood, she could smell it. Delicious and heady like a feast presented just for her. Before she caught herself she found herself licking her fangs, and bit down on her tongue to stop any further wayward thoughts, or worse, actions. Not now. Please not now.
“I can um… I can try healing you…” Faith offered, reminding all gathered of her presence.
“You can heal the Curse?” John asked.
“I helped some junior disciples through the process, I can’t truly stop it… but I can deal with some of the worst of the damage. Something like this though, it will take a few hours, and quite a bit of focus. It will get her to a more stable position… after that though she’ll be on her own.” She explained.
“Gorekin, get some healing herbs out of the sack. Nothing mixed with spirit stones… I think she has had quite enough!” Cobalt called out once her tongue regenerated with a mouth full of her own blood.
Gorekin nodded and quickly sorted through the gift bag. Evidently far more well-versed in this than any of the humans here, he quickly presented a fungal paste of some sort. “If too hard swallow, rub in sores.”
One of the nurses nodded and took the paste with a quick “Gracias” before moving directly to apply it to the woman. Faith had made her way over and was resting both hands on her back, a warm green pulse moving from her hands to the Captainina’s body.
“Will she be alright?” John asked, a green slime like the one Nicole produced leaking from his right hand. Evidently, he had called upon Artos to aid when the woman collapsed as well.
“I hope so, but I truly cannot tell.” Cobalt sighed. She knew how precarious the last steps of being a Wretch were. She figured either the old soldier would overcome the Curse and gain her first Mutation… or she would succumb here and there. As it was, it was a coin flip.
With the steady application of Faith’s healing pulse, the Captainina appeared to have regained some of her composure. Panting and gagging each time more of the paste was applied to her lesions. “I am… fine…”
“No, you are not!” Cobalt insisted, doing her best to hold back the fiery energy in her dantian. “I have been helpless to prevent far too many deaths already! Not on my watch! You hear me!”
“Who are you child to-” The woman tried to argue before Cobalt swelled in size, skin and the fibre sown into her robes flaring an angry red.
“Younger than you I may be, but I am your senior in manners of cultivation, understood!? Each year an average of forty Aspirants made their way to the Lead Cave, the most who had made it through the process with all our aid and support at a time was 5! But even those who failed, they would have a chance to try again, should they have lived! And will you be more useful to your people dead or alive?”
The Captainina grew silent at that. Letting herself go limp in the arms of her carers as they prepared a stretcher to move her into a medical tent. “Very well then. Fue una tontería or una estupidez.”
Cobalt didn’t understand the last part, but she knew she had gotten through. A rush of relief washed over her as her body deflated.
Sadly that was not to be the end of things.
From inside the Toro Rojo, a soot-stained boy hardly any older than she was called out in a half-panicked voice. “Imperials!”
She didn’t need to hear the rest of what he said as her senses hyperfocused on the distance. Indeed there were shapes coming on the horizon, a small patrol force reinforced by some light armoured vehicles. War-bounties from the Red Star’s Khanate. Much smaller than the Toro Rojo, but more than enough to send a message to a group of grounded refugees.
“They… won’t dare make a move… not with the Core in the war-rig.” The Captainina wheezed in a rattling voice.
“You don’t know what mutations they have…” Cobalt said as she continued to get a read on who was coming. At least two Cultivators, Mutant Steps 3 or 4 based on their power… outwardly they didn’t appear that different from Wretches in physiology from this distance which made them all the more dangerous. That meant the mutations are potentially hidden or psychic in nature, wild cards they would be less able to counter if they truly did mean ill intent. Although, as she focused further… “They don’t appear to be here for a fight?”
The woman on the stretcher laughed bitterly. “That’s because they don’t see us as a threat… they look down on us, we only use the Toro Rojo and maybe have the expertise needed to ride it. They likely heard the news of my condition, try as I might to hide it… Cabróns… they probably believe they could strong-arm their way in while I am on my way out…”
Cobalt didn’t want to believe it… but she knew what sort of man her father was. If the Empire was willing to tolerate someone like that for so long, she could certainly believe at least some would go as far as pull underhanded tactics like this.
“Hmf, I hear about this, tribe steal from tribe. This happen lot in human world, thought rare?” Gorekin asked.
“I think it should be um… rarer…” John responded. “There’s a lot more to it I’m sure… but things seem pretty strange right now.”
“Regardless, they are too powerful to be mere bandits. I have a feeling she’s telling the truth.” Cobalt admitted.
Just then the air began to shake as a voice propelled by psychic power rippled through the air.
“TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TORO ROJO!” The voice cried. “SURRENDER YOUR VEHICLE TO THE EMPIRE AND DISARM YOUR WEAPONS AND WE WILL OFFER YOU AID, TREATMENT AND TRAINING! RESIST AND WE MAY BE FORCED TO PURSUE MORE FORCEFUL MEANS!”