“What?”

“Shh. Don’t thrash around like that. You’re hard enough to carry as it is.”

Groggily Emokha surveyed her situation. The terrain was rushing by, which was disorienting given the circumstances. She wasn’t moving as far as she was aware, except that she was. She blinked her eyes individually several times, until her consciousness re-stabilized a bit. She was being carried. Over Gloe’s shoulder she could see Oresus, apparently tied in place.

“How long was I unkhoncious?”

“Not long. I pulled together what I could and took off. We’ve been on the move ten, maybe fifteen minutes.”

“Ah.” She was silent for some time. “Will we makhe it?”

“Probably not. The vampires seem to be whistling up reinforcements. My sweeps are picking up searchers at extreme range. They must be trying to track us down. But hey, I thought we were dead back there, so what do I know?”

“Yes, that was strange. Why didn’t their master swoop in and khill us?”

“Beats me. To be honest I’m not even certain he was even there. I figured he was just lying low or controlling himself.”

“Hmm. Something to reflekht upon in the unlikhely event we survive.” She closed her eyes, either deep in thought, or napping. Gloe held his tongue. No reason she should have to die tired.

“Perhaps it was Oresus’ spear. I do not know how it workhs, but it seems most fearsome.”

“He didn’t tell me either, but I have a pretty good idea. Although he hasn’t said anything we both know his seeds need blood to grow. That’s probably why he was classified as a runt in the first place. Who thinks to fertilize so directly? Someday I’d love to hear how he figured it out. Must be a pretty good story.”

“I khonkhur. But the spears?”

“Oh right. Well, I figure, whereas his other seeds need blood in order to grow, these spears continue to eat even after they’re mature. Or maybe they grow a second seed in the blade. Something like that. Both times he’s used my blood to prime it so it can start growing, but once it finds the stolen blood inside the vampire it really takes off, sending out roots looking for more. And there’s not too much going on inside a vampire, so…”

“That’s mildly disturbing. Seems that it would be fairly effekhtive against non-vampires as well. They have more dense internal organs, but also more blood.”

“I imagine the horrifying nature of the whole thing is why he hasn’t used them against anyone else. Plus, like you said, they might operate slower with increased resistance from organs. Maybe it would give too much time to pull the spear free?”

“Perhaps. It was fortunate for us that he khept them around, regardless.”

“Yes. In some ways his ability might be the best out of the three of us. The least immediately useful of course, but the most versatile and adaptive, at least in theory. I’d love to live long enough to see what he all could produce if given enough time and resources. That doesn’t seem likely of course, but it’d be nice.”

“Yes. Yes.” They fell silent. The scenery continued to blur by. After a long while the first hint of lightening began to appear in the sky behind them as sun considered making a visitation.

“Well, at least we’ll be able to see our own demise” Gloe muttered softly to himself. Then he grinned. “Have to try to make it look good then, eh?” Raising his voice a bit he called out in a sing-song voice. “Rise and shine ya’ll. Fight’n and die’n time.”

“Huh? T-trouble?”

For her part Emokha woke more swiftly this time. “We are encirkhled once again?”

“Yeah. Still a few gaps, but I imagine there’s more on the way. They’re closing in though, so we’re going to encounter someone pretty soon. Figure ya’ll might want to be awake for that.”

“You were khorrekht.” She rolled out of Gloe’s arms, staggering to her feet and stretching, groaning at the sensations it brought. “Ugh. I khould have hoped for a bit more rest. Where are my swords? Oh, here, in the sheaths. Ugh. No trickhs this fight, I suppose. I khan barely tell which direkhtion is up.”

“S-still better than me” Oresus grumbled, still fumbling with the ropes that had secured him to Gloe’s back. “Everything is s-spinning. And I’m h-hungry, but I also want to throw up.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“I’ve got a bit of that old soaked hardtack left, if you want it. Probably won’t have much time to chew it though. Emokha, are you sure you can’t fly? They don’t seem to have too many aloft. If you could break through you might have a halfway decent chance of making it out. It would be nice if one of us survived this.”

“I will not abandon either of you” she announced archly, cocked her head sideways and smiled crookedly “but it is a moot point. I doubt I khould makhe it a mile anyway. My eqhuilibirum is khurrently lackhing.”

“Y-you might make it Zekhow. Y-you should try.”

Gloe shrugged. “Ehh, if ya’ll die I might give it a shot. Doubt I’ll get very far. Just because I don’t get tired doesn’t me I can survive against multiple reavers.”

“T-true.” Wobbly visibly, Oresus leaned heavily on his spear. “F-feels like we came pretty far. W-wish we had a way out.”

“They’re drawing close. If we’re going to try to break out I recommend that direction.” Gloe pointed. “They’re excited and nervous, whereas everyone else is…well, we probably should make sure we’re not taken alive.” After a moment he smiled. “But what else is new? Tch.”

They shook out into a loose triangle formation, Emokha on point. Demons began to emerge into sight, and they responded with a wavering trot. Dizzy and unfocused, Emokha hissed a warcry, her swords lashing out at the first demons. Over a dozen reavers or chosen began unleashing their abilities simultaneously.

Before anything could connect though, a single male voice rang out, cutting through all the taunts and shouts. “Firmament” it said solidly. Everything shifted.

The terrain, the sky, the very air in between everything changed into colorful, flowing, nonsensical elements. It was psychedelic. It was nauseating. It was a chance.

The trio wordlessly reached out and seized hold of each other’s arms, then stumbled forward blindly. They couldn’t see the actual ground, but they didn’t let that stop them. Every time they fell Gloe would pull the group back to their feet and they’d stagger onward. He tried to guide them around the other people in the area, but it was difficult. Many of those people were moving around randomly as well, and there were trees and the like in the way too.

Onward they went, until a stationary group suddenly began moving purposefully, smoothly closer. Before Gloe could even shout a warning the apparitions parted in front of them. There was a small group standing there, neatly arrayed in formation. Humans, wearing camouflage uniforms, but with the flag of Nalost on their shoulder. Their leader stepped forward with a bright smile on his face, seizing Emokha’s hand and shaking it vigorously. “Well met fellow sojourner! Well met indeed!”

...

The flight to the border had been long but uneventful. Gloe had once again carried his companions, and the run itself had been relatively relaxed. The Nalost soldiers were moving at their top speed, but many of them were chosen, and not incredibly high level chosen either. He was faster than them, even carrying two people.

More importantly, the ability of their leader made pursuit difficult. Chaos and madness were all around them, with only a narrow, twisting corridor that was clear. It made escape fairly easy actually. On the one occasion an enemy group did stumble out of the haze the soldiers were able to ambush and wipe them out relatively quickly.

At the border itself there was none of the scrutiny Gloe would have suspected. All the guards just waved the group through. It seemed the leader of this group was a big shot.

As he approached Gloe gently shook Emokha awake and set her back on her feet, just in time to hear the man begin to speak. “My lady, I can see you are exhausted. You must have been through quite the ordeal. Unfortunately my people were unable to find a carriage but we have a kavarr for you. Right this way.”

Gloe noticed no one offered him a ride. Not that he particularly needed one of course, but it was the thought that counted. Adjusting Oresus on his back he silently followed behind the two, shamelessly eavesdropping on their conversation.

“My name is Conrad, and I’m delighted to formally meet you. When our scouts reported some sort of irregular enemy troop movement behind their lines we expected to find some sort of gambit. Imagine our shock when instead we found a sojourner slashing her way through a small army of vampires!”

Emokha smiled weakly. “My name is Emokha. Thankh you for your aid. We were in a diffikhult situation.”

“Quite so, quite so! I must say, I’m dying to know how exactly you found yourself in such a dire predictament, and so far behind enemy lines. Here’s the kavarr, up you go, that’s the ticket.” He mounted himself and they joined the rest of the group in riding forward. Gloe continued to follow on foot, easily keeping pace.

“We eskhaped from one of their khamps some time ago, so we began much farther into their territory. Eventually the vampires enkhountered us, and we have been fleeing ever since.” Gloe took careful note of the fact that she elided most of the details of their career as wreckers.

“Not just fleeing, I can vouch for that. Your method for dealing with them was quite impressive, I must say. We were dumbfounded. Not just at your elegant solution, but to find you there! I didn’t even know the Manties had a Sojourner this generation! Very unusual, yes.”

“Yes. We do not khare to advertise that type of thing, which ended up saving me. The demons never realized what I was.”

“Quite distressing, quite distressing I’m sure.” It occurred to Gloe that Conrad was not a particularly good listener. Too busy talking, or at least so it seemed. His overflow emotions didn’t match though. Excitement, achievement, superiority…caution. Too complicated a mix to Gloe to parse, especially without the more subtle emotions that were not overflowing. Nothing he could do but just stay wary.

“But you’re safe now my dear. Just a bit farther and you can have a nice rest. Just bear with us a bit longer.”

As if they had much of a choice. Gloe carefully kept his reservations and concerns to himself as he trudged along in their wake. Still, when Conrad turned away he noticed Emokha subtly turned her head and made eye contact with him. Her left lower arm drifted until it was shadowed by her torso and upper arm, then her claw twitched violently where only he could see it. He nodded almost imperceptibly and she turned away. At least he wasn’t the only one who thought this was a bit off.

Not that they could do anything in the state they were in right now, but it was good to be on the same page. After all, they’d survived up to now. Maybe an opportunity would come up.