“Pssst.” A hissing half-protest was his only response, so he tried again. “Psst!” Another distraught droning came back, but at least this time she stirred.

“The academy is in sight. You don’t want to miss the magical moment of seeing your unique, total originally designed new home for the first time, do you?” He waited as she blearily looked out the window. At the moment her face contorted in recognition he began to hum.

“Stop that Zekhow!” she protested through a laugh. “You’ll blow your cover!”

“What?” He hummed another section. “I learned this from a sojourner I was in prison with. He said it had something to do with a hirsute sculptor or something? I didn’t really follow, but the song is nice. It just popped into my head for some reason.”

Her hissing laugh grew louder, little screechy chirps breaking it up. Finally she clapped her hands over her mandibles to hold it in. After a while she recovered and mock-glared at him. “Shut up Zekhow.”

“Y-yeah, shut up Zekhow” Oresus mumbled in his sleep. The other two shared a look of disbelief, then burst out laughing anew.

...

“Here we are my dear, our first and most important stop. This is Healer Genera, our head nurse. She’s going to check you out and make certain you’re right as rain.”

The woman gave a matronly smile and motioned toward a chair. “Please have a seat. We don’t often have Manty patients but rest assured my dear, I spent the whole morning brushing up on your physiology.”

“That’s reassuring.” If you didn’t know Emokha her comment was wholly convincing. If you did you might detect a hint of the sardonic.

“Now this won’t hurt a bit, just sit still please.” The woman held up one hand, palm facing forward. After a moment it began to glow with a green-white light. “Malnourishment, strain, stress, a number of still-healing wounds…” she paused and looked up sideways at Conrad questioningly “…a bit of demonic taint?”

“Lady Emokha was engaged in furious conflict with various demons earlier this week, including a rather close encounter with a number of vampires. Would that account for what you’re detecting?”

“Yes, thank you.” She turned back to her patient. “I recommend several days’ bed rest and a hearty diet. Aside from that…” she paused again, frowning. “A good deal of your exoskeleton appears to be quite new. Less than a year old?”

“Yes. Demons khripple and mutilate their prisoners.” Emokha held up her lower arms. “A number of my limbs were regenerated, along with most of my eyes, exhtensive sections of my kharapace and who knows what else.”

Genera looked over at an open book next to her, then her frown deepened. “My texts say Manties have very limited ability to heal exoskeletal wounds. Did you use your ability?”

“No, one of my khompanions akhuired a potion while we were ekhaping. It healed our wounds, although it nearly khilled us in doing so. It was immensely painful.” She smiled. “I would not rekkhomend it exhcept in exhtreme cirkhumstances.”

“Fascinating. Do you know what this potion was? It must be some sort of new demonic concoction, seeing as I’ve never heard of it. I hope there aren’t any side-effects.”

“We khonsumed it some time ago, so we probably will be fine. I do not know much else.” She turned. “Where exhakhtly did you akhuire that potion Zekhow?” She smirked at him.

His eyes glinted, then he bowed deeply. “Lady Emokha, that potion was bequeathed to me by the warden of the camp. It was his last, deeply held wish that I have it. As he was dying he kept trying to reach out for it in order to give it to me but,” he began to weep silently, “he couldn’t muster the strength. Looking at his poor lifeless body I could read his last unspoken intention and shared it betwixt the three of us in memoriam.”

“Huh. Odd given he tookh several of my eyes. Bit of a change of heart there I suppose” Emokha muttered.

“I can confirm that there were definitely significant changes to his entire thoracic cavity.”

“Ah.” She turned back to the nurse. “Well there you have it.”

“I…see. But what was the potion?”

“It was fire” Gloe intoned solemnly.

“I khan khonfirm that it certainly burned. To a certain exhtent it glowed red-orange as well.”

“I…see.” The nurse seemed discombobulated, but quickly moved past it. “Well, it’s a shame you don’t know more but I’m glad it worked out for you. Let’s make it four days’ rest, just to be certain. I’ll have a talk with the kitchen, make certain they prepare balanced meals that suit your digestive system.” She looked up at Conrad. “That’s all I have. Anything else?”

“If you would be so good, could you check these two for demonic taint?”

Distaste flashed momentarily on her face but she held her hand up in front of Oresus. “Very minor.” She frowned once more. “Large sections of ki channels are new?” She looked back at Emokha.

“As I rekhall one of the demon researchers was exhperimenting with surgikhally removing abilities without khompletely khrippling subjects. Ori was one of the luckhy ones and managed to survive when they abandoned the projekht.”

“Hmm.” Genera digested that and moved on to Gloe. “Moderate taint…I’m somewhat surprised he isn’t extremely ill. Still, nothing that poses a threat to those around him. Oddly healthy otherwise.” She frowned.

“Very good, very good” Conrad said bluffly. “Moving right along then! Let’s keep this train a rolling so we can get you into your well-deserved bedrest my dear.”

They proceeded down a series hallways until eventual arriving at a large set of elaborate double doors. “Here we are my dear. Best behavior now, look smart everyone.” He knocked on the door and pulled it open. “Headmaster, may I introduce Emokha?”

The headmaster was a genial looking older gentleman, running just a bit to fat. “Pleased to meet you my dear. Have a seat, have a seat. Conrad, do you have time to stay yourself for a bit?”

“Just for a bit old boy. Places to go, you know how it is.”

“Quite, quite. Sit, sit. Now my dear, I understand you’ve been through quite an ordeal and need a good rest. I just wanted to meet you briefly and assure you that you are welcome and safe here. This institution was created primarily for the purpose of preparing sojourners such as yourself for life in this world. Rest assured that when you finally leave this fine facility you will be prepared for anything and everything. You have my personal guarantee of that.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“Khomforting.” Again, you had to know her to hear the sarcasm.

“The other matter is my report. I need to dash off a note to my superiors. Would you be so kind as to give me a brief bio? No need to go into uncomfortable details, just a broad sketch of your life so far.”

Silence hovered uncomfortably until she slowly nodded. “Very well. I was born to a small family in the Dytoj Khlan, part of the Abgy Khonfederation of the Viluota. The khonfederation kept the fact that I was a Sojourner tightly khonfidential, but they did have a reqhuest. My ability is multi-applicable, but they askhed that I apply myself first to the martial disciplines in order to help preserve myself and my people. They were persuasive, so I agreed.”

“Mother of Weapons Khokhonas was likhewise khonvinced to bekhome my teacher. She khontrakhted with Dytoj to periodically train their militant khore and trained me privately whenever she visited. Although I still have much to learn from her she dekhlared me ready for basikh khombat when I reached adulthood.”

“I joined the Svieras…”

“I beg your pardon, what is that?” the headmaster interjected.

Emokha paused, giving him a long look. For a moment she seemed primed to say something before thinking better of it and simply answering his question. “Our military is primarily khomprised of two groups. Most military-aged females join the militia, as do a few males. The Svieras are khloser to full-time, and serve as…the khlosest eqhuivalent you would have would be a fusion of heavy and light khavalry.”

The headmaster didn’t seem all that enlightened but motioned for her to continue. Again Emokha hesitated before clicking her mandibles quietly and continuing. “With the Svieras I engaged in a number of raids and skhirmishes. The demons under Laukis began violating our armistice more and more often. We weren’t sure why at the time, given that we had a fairly favorable trade agreement with them.”

“When they came in force they used some sort of ability to prevent early detekhtion. We had a variety of evakhuation plans and chose one that prioritized the population, deliberately leaving material assets vulnerable. The idea was that they would move to sekhure them while we eskhaped. It didn’t workh.”

“As a last resort the militia covered the evakhuees while the Svieras exekhuted a number of Letint and Ietint to slow the oncoming demons. My unit was assigned a Letint. Unfortunately the same ability that khept us from seeing them khoming also khoncealed Laukis’ presence. He used his ability on us while we were in the middle of a swooping mid-air charge.”

Her emotions spiked rapidly. Gloe ate everything above the threshold. Her mandibles clicked once softly, and she continued. “I akhtivated my ability the moment I saw him. When I wokhe I was brokhen, lying in a khrater. But alive. My sisters were not so fortunate.”

Another pause. “The fight was already over, and the demons were sorting through the survivors. I kharried no special gear and no one realized I had survived Laukis’ attackh. They thought I was just an ordinary aberration, so they shipped me to an aberration workh-khamp. Not before I diskhovered…” she paused again. Her emotion was peaking, but thanks to Gloe she wasn’t feeling it incredibly strongly. Perhaps she just wanted it to be clear that she was not happy, or maybe she was covering for him. “…Laukis was breeding up his army of demonlings, and they needed food. I will leave it there.”

Visibly composing herself she moved on. “The khamp was of khourse a waking nightmare. I am certain you have read reports. I met Ori there” she gestured at Oresus “and we began planning an eskhape. When our friend arrived” she waved towards Gloe “the moment came. He khreated a distrakhtion, which allowed Ori to steal the kheys to our shackhles. The healing potion regenerated our missing limbs and we were able to flee.”

“We were pursued for a long time. There were many engagements and enkhounters. I will not bore you with the details. We were unable to break khontakht and reach my people. Eventually the vampires found us, right around the time the chosen and reavers began returning for the winter. Our movement was inkhreasingly restrikhted, and we wound up where Khonrad found us.”

“I see.” The headmaster nodded sagely. “Terrible stuff, terrible stuff.”

“Just awful” Conrad agreed.

“Well that’s all behind you now. Time for a good rest. Next week we’ll do a brief evaluation and place you in your classes. I’m sure you’ll find your time here immensely rewarding. Our graduates are equipped for anything this world might throw at them, so you’ll be able avoid a recurrence of such a terrible situation.”

“Akhtually, given that I am already trained and have reached adulthood, I would likhe to reqhuest a temporary permit to allow me to legally proceed to your northern border. Understandably I wish to rejoin my people as soon as possible.”

“Ahhhh…” he seemed to be completely caught off-guard. “I’m terribly sorry my dear, but I don’t have that kind of authority.”

“I see.”

He quickly recovered. “I will, of course, pass your request on to the relevant authorities, but in the meantime I think your time here will be fruitful. Certainly your recent ordeal has shown that you could benefit from additional training, no?”

Emokha cocked her head. “You have a khounter to Laukhis’ ability?”

“Well…” again he hesitated.

“Not as such my dear” Conrad broke in smoothly. “However the academy can school you in a variety of useful fields. Not only can they help you hone your ability and combat skills but they can teach you tactical, diplomatic and etiquette techniques that can aid you in evaluating and reacting to or even preventing situations.”

Emokha blinked. This went on for some time. Her rage was reaching apocalyptic levels. Gloe was able to eat the overflow, but he was glad he had leveled up substantially since Tranche. Back then he wouldn’t have had the capacity.

Abruptly she stood. “I find I am displeased with the implikhations of recent statements. As such I am going to use the diplomatikh and etiqhuette tekhniqhue of exkhusing myself before I say something we all regret. Have a pleasant day.” Her voice was cold, barely within the realm of courtesy. She gave a slight nod and began walking out. Wordlessly Oresus and Gloe fell in behind her.

“I am sorry to hear that. Rest well my dear. Hopefully you feel well soon.” The headmaster had recovered once again. His response did not do much to smooth things over though.

There were guards outside the door now. Interesting. “Lady Emokha, I will escort you to your room now.” He gave an elegant bow.

“And I will see your…retainers…out.” The second guard barely tried to conceal his contempt.

“A moment, if you please.” Emokha held one hand up. “Ori you have our warchest?”

“Of c-course.”

“Please liqhuidate the rest of our loot and lookh into acqhuiring material. We will all need certain necessities in order to proceed. I will meet you at the akhademy gates in the morning three days from now, agreed?”

“Of c-course.”

“Exhellent.” She turned away, then stopped as if struck by a sudden thought. “Oh, one last thing. I reqhuire something a bit personal in nature, so please be diskhreet in acqhuiring it.” She leaned in and briefly whispered in his ear.

When she was done he nodded quickly. “I’ll take c-care of it.”

“Exhellent. Best behavior Zekhow. Listen to Ori.”

“Tch.” Gloe waved as she followed the guard away.

“Alright, move you two. Let’s get you back where you belong as quickly as possible.” The guard’s tone made it clear that where they belonged was definitely not anywhere near the academy.

“Prison?” Ori shot Gloe a look of disbelief at the comment.

“Now there’s an idea. Probably a waste of good rations though. I was thinking an unmarked grave somewhere. I’m sure that’s where you’ll end up eventually anyway.”

“Best b-behavior Zekhow” Oresus said warningly.

“I’m always on my best behavior Ori. You know that!” Gloe said brightly. Oresus ran his hand despairingly up and down his face.

“Shut up and move.”

“You know, people say that to me all the time. I don’t know why. It almost never works.”

The guard stopped and half-turned, one hand on his sword hilt. “Well it had better work this time. I want you silent, and I want you gone.”

Up ahead was an arch leading to a courtyard. Sunlight was streaming in, blanketing the uncovered area. Gloe grinned. Snapping upright he clicked his heels together, throwing a distorted mock-salute left-handed. Then, snatching up Oresus in both arms he bolted for the courtyard.

“What the…?” the guard was taken aback.

By the time he recovered the pair were gone, not just from the room but from the entire academy. Gloe leapt from building to building, making certain they weren’t being followed. “What did our fearless leader say to you?”

Oresus sighed heavily before answering. “That was s-so unnecessary.”

“But fun!”

Another sigh. “She s-said we should play along. For n-now.”

“And if they don’t play fair? They probably won’t you know.”

“She said we should p-prepare ourselves. She didn’t s-say for what.”

Gloe’s smile deepened.