The last of spring blooms
Give way to sunny doom
And cries those of whom
All is but an inevitable tomb
-First poem from ‘The Clockwork Foe’, by Ul’gard the Orc-kin
*=====*
“Crave, do we have enough?” Mori asked, gesturing to the store room. The two stood in front of the suddenly quiet orc as they surveyed the room. Mori found the idea of being called to Aekan so soon, without a proper warning, to be idiotic and ill-advised, but she had a gutless feeling that it was not so simple as poor planning.
“We don’t have enough food, mistress. Our supply of Clocksteel is plentiful, but things like runic paint or wood are lacking. We have enough ammunition to last, but…”
“It won’t be enough,” she finished. “Can we ask for some food from the other skiffs going with us?” she asked, turning to the orc trailing behind them.
The man gave a nervous smile and nodded, “Of course. It is the duty of us all to aid our comrades in what we can; a couple dozen more people to feed is hardly an issue.”
“Good,” Mori said, “Then once we get our other passengers we’ll be ready to go.” She led them through the skiff until they reached the dining hall, “So, you said you’d be our envoy for the transit? What happened to Zubov?”
“Mr. Rilig was assigned to the investigation of the Clock Cultist attack, and has decided to join the joint army once the twenty or so skiffs that were destroyed are repaired and sent. For now, I will be the one to assist you with coordination.” The orc man was, if not shrewish, timid. He shied away from making direct eye contact with Mori and made himself small. Mori could not fault the man for his habits, but she was getting a sense for his personality and she could sum it up in one word.
Bureaucrat.
“I see. Will we be meeting the rest of the Green Oasis force in or out of the city?” Mori asked. As far as she knew, they were to link up with the other groups as they left, but she did not want to cause a traffic jam.
The bureaucrat shook his head, handing her a scrolled map, “The combined force will be leaving the city in formation, determined by who gets to the gate when. The Green Oasis Armed Forces are leaving the city first, then will be the independent Hunters, mercenaries, and the like. After them will be the support skiffs; mechanics, doctors, fortimancers, the like. You will be leaving at the tail end of the GOAF’s group, which is why you were notified so soon. Is there anything else you would like to ask?”
Mori held up a finger, unscrolling the map and taking in every piece of the chaotic document. The center was dominated by a map of the city as well as the locations of every skiff and where they would be leaving from. On the borders were diagrams of various formations to be used during both travel and combat. Beside one of the diagrams was a small note, detailing proper responses to attacks from either Clockworks or Clock Cultists. Below that, there was a tiny note detailing the proper procedure for dealing with pirates.
The response to the former two was overwhelming firepower. The latter was to be met with overwhelming numbers of flying ‘dragoons’, as they were known. Mori pointed to the pirate response strategy and narrowed her eye-flames, “Why does it say to ‘rehabilitate all captives’? They’re better dead than being given a chance at stabbing us in the back,” she declared.
The man shook his head, “No, no. If we were to kill them, then we would be without their help. As the motto goes: A corpse can’t fight,” he stated with overbearing pride. The urge to hit the man was growing in Mori, but she held herself back.
She tapped him on the shoulder as he looked smugly at her and glared at him with annoyed eye-flames, “I, my friend, am the one person you should not have said that to. Look around you,” she said, gesturing to the three death knights still in the dining hall, along with the couple of maintenance zombies, “We can fight. We are very good at that. We can not die. Another thing we’re good at. And, on top of that, we’d be ridding the world of a band of disgusting pirates! What’s not to love?”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The bureaucrat looked at her in horror while she heard a small chuckle from behind her, “That’s pretty bloodthirsty, Mori. Do you really hate pirates that much?” The lich turned and saw Fara walking into the room, eyeing everything in it and, for whatever reason, letting her eyes linger on the undead. As she looked at her, Mori could have sworn there was some sort of adoration; less mad romantic love and more deep respect for a person’s physique.
“Hey, Fara. How’s it going?” Mori asked.
Fara shrugged, “I’m alright. I did get a cool new Trait that is making everything so… different. It’s like most of what I built is boring now. Other than that, I was watching you teach those other guys. What’re we going to call them, by the way?”
Mori shrugged, turning to the bureaucrat with a smile, “Sorry, man, but this is private. We’re going to the library to talk. I’ll come and find you when we’re done,” she said, dragging Fara away before the man could get a word in edgewise. Before long, they were in the cozy confines of the Kharon’s library, “So, what were you saying?” Mori asked as she took a seat at the far end of the room.
Fara smiled softly and sat on the end of the table, feet dangling from the side, “I was wondering what we were going to call the group you adopted. I mean, collectively. Your death knights have that title to go by, we other living folk are just called ‘living ones’ by the death knights, and the other zombies aren’t exactly important to think about.”
Mori pouted, “Don’t blow Unio off like that,” she said, pouting harder, “Where is he, anyway? I haven’t seen him since Desire got back from that fighting match.”
Fara shrugged, turning to the two permanent residents of the library, Pride and Jel, as they both shook their heads, “I don't know. Last I knew, Desire should have been taking care of him. Aerolat,” she said as the blood cloud manifested, “Do you have a clue where he went?”
The undead held up a single, hazy finger and ‘closed’ his ‘eyes’ while seeming to concentrate. After a few moments, he nodded, “I found him. He is hiding in the engine room. Would you like me to get him?” Mori and Fara both nodded as he disappeared.
“Anyway,” Mori said, “We’re off track. You want to call the guys from Earth something different? Do you have an idea?” Fara shook her head, “Hrm. Then how about… the new crew?”
Fara gave a pained, if sympathetic smile, “Maybe… What about just ‘the passengers’? It’s not that hard to remember, it’s to the point, and it’s not like they’re going to be here with us for very long.”
“I guess that works… Why bring this up, though. You didn’t seem very interested in them once I started teaching some basic magic theory,” she said, “Why start now?”
Fara smiled sadly, looking down, “I don’t think they’re going to last for very long,” she said, “I know some of them could maybe become a mechanic’s assistant, but the ones that are aiming to be part of the fighting… I don’t think they can last. They have no training, they can barely use magic, and they seem kind of…”
“Arrogant? Big Headed? Overconfident?” Mori asked.
“Undeservedly smug?” Pride added from the side.
“Pomy!” Jel cheered. Mori had noticed that the pyrausta had broken her habit of stuttering for the most part, becoming more cheery and a bit clingy when they were working on a project together. Mori was not afraid of a few hugs and closeness, though, so she was unaffected.
“Pomy?” Pride asked, “Do you mean pompous?”
“Well, which part of the word makes it mean prideful? Ah, that’s another one!” she beamed, “Anyway, is it the ‘pom’ or the ‘pous’? If it’s the former, then it’s pomy. If it’s the latter, then it’s the part Desire wants to use on mortals,” she unflinchingly explained. Mori sometimes wondered what the hell [Chaotic Adept] changed in Jel to make her so different from normal, but she could hardly blame the now-cheery death knight; it was her choice after all and she never complained about it, so it was probably fine.
Mori and Fara watched with some amusement as the two polar opposites bickered back and forth until Fara sighed, “Either way, they’re not experienced enough to go into the fighting. You need to keep them back.”
Sighing, Mori shook her head, “I can’t do that, Fara.” Mori knew what the next question would be, so she cut her off, “If we kick them out, then they’re going to get there. One way or another, they’ve made their choice. As such, if I want them to have the best chance for survival, then surrounding them with somewhat competent people willing to teach them is better than letting them go around and not be taught by anyone.”
“But Mori,” Fara began, “Why do you care? Why do their lives seem to mean so much to you?”
That was the question Mori had wondered for a long while. ‘Why?’ On one hand, it was the right thing to do, not to mention that they were the last bastions of her old life as a human. Other than that, she had no reason to entertain the notion of making them stronger. She had an answer, though. It was one that she wondered if she was using as a crutch, as she explained everything from her battlelust to her necromancy binges away. “It’s just in my nature, I guess. They’re people I need to help, so I’ll help them. That’s it.” Instead of responding, Fara gave a soft smile and leaned down to Mori, giving her a soft hug whose warmth seeped even into her armor, “Thanks, Fara. Thank you.”