56.

Downtown had turned into a burning warzone. Corpses lay strewn everywhere with thick knots of the ape’s surrounding singular or some case knots of dead humans. While they had been taken by surprise, the Apostate’s forces had held their own. Regardless, it had been a devastating day for them. With the destruction of the den what was left of the Primus troop would disperse. There was nothing left holding them together and Santi had finally finished clearing the city of the multitude of dens.

There were a few smaller rifts left, but he’d leave them for those who needed levels and experience. Once this betrayal was fully realized and settled. Once funerals were conducted and the full scope of the damage was seen. Santi had been moving too fast to truly understand just how much Abraham had taken from them while he had been burning from what Abraham had taken from him.

The man’s blood hadn’t been enough. Yesi stood feet away, refusing to look at him as she held back her tears as they crept through the downtown toward where Tank and the others were. She was still seething with rage and it was mixing with grief. Santi just felt wrung out, exhausted of all his strength and desires. He just wanted to lay down and sleep.

That’d be impossible, he needed to be strong enough that all could lean on him. That he would be the pillar of his community as they recovered. The loss of the powerful riftheart would set them back and only serve to enhance Duncan’s plans. Santi needed those supplementary classes ASAP and without the riftheart they’d be doing it the slow way.

Tank and the rest of the squad had fortified a corner store with bars over the shattered windows. Dead apes and people littered the ground outside of the store. Some of the bars were twisted and partially sagging as if they’d been heated and left to droop.

The moment they turned the corner Bianca was sprinting out of the building like a human missile. She slammed into Yesi, wrapping up her baby sister in a fierce hug as she squeezed her tight. Santi watched for a moment then turned to watch as the rest of them came moving a bit slower than Bianca.

Cameron jogged to him, his clothes ruined and bloodstained, grief and exhaustion tattooed across his face. His long arms wrapped around Santi and Santi was forced to smell the stench of battle at close proximity as he was hugged. He reciprocated for a moment before patting his friend’s back to let him up.

Tank was there the moment Santi came up for breath. A multitude of spells crashed over him as Tank worked without a word. He looked as stretched thin as Cameron but the relief on his face was overwhelming.

“Yesi first. I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. You’re a mess of half healed wounds, cracked bones, and torn ligaments. Did you already use a healing potion?”

“Two of them.”

“Damnit Santi, this is what you look like after two of them?”

“I’m alive and most of them are dead. That’s a win for me.”

“Yessenia, I’ll be over there in a minute to start working on you, just let me get your brother to the point he can stay on his feet,” Tank spoke gently over towards Yessenia who still hadn’t been released by Bianca.

There was no confirmation besides sobbing as the two sisters held each other. Cameron drifted over to put a hand on Bianca’s shoulder and just stood close to offer his support.

Hana and Daniel had reunited and moved off to the side, sitting down with their shoulders firmly pressed together. Chloe was watching him with the eyes of a hawk, but the warryness of a street cat. Chad kept watch, arrow nocked and ready to be used at a moment's notice. Santi was glad for all of them, to have come for him and his sister.

“What was camp like after I left?” Santi asked Tank.

“Shit was going wild, but Helena was locking it down quick. Rayleigh is staying with your mom right now. Safety for both of them. There’s a lot of anger right now to the handful of people Abraham didn’t take with him.”

“I don’t think Rayleigh had anything to do with this. Surprised he left her alive honestly.”

“I don’t think she’s involved either, but people are scared and mad. We haven’t had a human on human crime like this since the initialization. Fights and harsh words, but not this.”

“How was Mom?” Tank paused, his skills still working nonstop, as he thought of the right words.

“Quiet. She didn’t leave your Dad. Didn’t speak, didn’t scream, just sat there quietly until Bianca and Cam left. Shock probably.”

“Go check on Yesi and let’s go home.”

“Santi, you need to take this seriously. You are hurt. Badly. My skills are working but, you’re a mess.”

“I know. We need to get home and try to straighten everything out. Without Abraham there food won’t be coming in. I need to be there and getting things organized.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Marisol is smart and I bet she’s already gotten things moving in the right direction.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. If she decided to press the issue on leadership again, Tank, I won’t tolerate it a second time.”

Tank grew quiet and his eyes darkened for a moment, his body tensing. For a moment Santi feared his friend would offer a rebuttal, that he wouldn’t understand what needed to be done. Tank sighed, his shoulders slumping and Santi breathed a sigh of relief.

“Alright, let’s get Yesi in shape and then get home then.” Tank walked off, breaking up the small cluster of people around Yesi while his skills worked overtime.

Chloe marched up to him and hugged him, putting her shoulder in his recently repaired sternum and squeezing hard enough that Santi struggled to breathe.

“Fuck you for running off and not taking us,” Chloe whispered harshly, not looking up to him.

“I wasn’t really thinking.”

“We know. I’m sorry about your Dad. He was a good man.”

“Thank you.”

She squeezed him again and backed up, using the back of her hand to wipe away an errant tear. She coughed once to clear her throat and turned to the side so she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“It’s done then? Abraham is dead?”

“He’s dead but it’s not done. There was someone else here who Abraham was taking orders from. It was him that told Abraham to take the riftheart and Yesi.”

“Who was it?”

“Religious nut. Preaching about his lord this and that. He’s good. Very, very, very good.”

“Better than you?”

“I’m stronger right now, but his class is like Daniel just dialed to eleven. He’s damn near invisible and sneaky with his attacks. If you run into him without me, stick close to Cameron and Tank.”

“You let him live?”

“No letting about it, I kicked his ass but they messed me up pretty bad. I couldn’t finish him off and his people got him out.”

“I’ve never seen you not finish a fight.”

“It’s not the first time and it’s not the last time. I’m alive and that means I can keep trying again and again until I bury the bastard. Just have to keep practicing until I can handle him and his agents permanently.”

“Next time we’ll be there with you. As a team.”

“As a team,” Santi agreed, the two of them meeting each other’s eyes.

“Alright! We’re good to travel. Let’s go home!” Tank broke the growing tension between him and Chloe. The others pretended not to have noticed and then they were away again. They followed the streets out of downtown, avoiding the freeway that Santi had come from.

Bianca had dragged Yesi until the three of them were inches from each other, Yesi still huddled into her older sister. Cam walked behind them while the rest formed a ring as they walked in near silence. So much had happened in such a short time frame that Santi was having trouble processing it all.

Dad gone. Yessenia kidnapped. Abraham killed. An Apostate wounded but alive. The city clear of monster dens. All done in an afternoon.

It took an hour at their slow pace to make it back to Homebase. A distant train of thought took in the patrols that he saw out much further than normal. They were armed and armored in the first wave of dwarven gear.

The first patrol that had seen them had taken a trumpet and blasted out a few notes. Moments later the same notes rose again, then again, each growing more and more quiet as the patrols all around them called out. A decent early strategy for an early warning system. Duncan had clearly thought so as well.

The eight man team had offered them water and food and any assistance they could, but insisted they needed to finish their patrol. Santi and the team took them up on their water but left them with their food. After that encounter they ran into two more patrols before finally reaching the first barricade.

Everyone was tense, but the looks of pure relief when they saw Santi was enough to make him relax. There was no second attempt at unseating him. The soldiers were too happy seeing him coming back alive.

They finished their travel, with no one else bothering them until they stood in front of their home. His friends slowly broke away, Chad the first to leave and Chloe the last. She squeezed his wrist and then walked home without a word. Bianca was trembling as she stared at their house and Yessenia was clutching her hand with white knuckled intensity. Cam stood behind them all and just waited for the siblings to take those first steps.

The door opened first and Rayleigh stepped out. She walked swiftly down the steps and stood in front of them and spoke without pause.

“Your mother needs you all. You Dad was taken to the hospital. I cleaned up best I could with what I had. I’m going home now.” She was looking distraught and nervous as she crossed the street towards her own shared house and Santi took note of the glares she received as she made it to the safety of her own house.

“Come on,” Santi muttered, walking up the few steps and into the house. The smells of violence were buried under the heady smells of lemon scented cleaning supplies. Everything had been cleaned up, plaster, wood splinters, smeared blood. There was still a hole in the wall where his father had been thrown through it.

Mom sat on the sofa with a blank stare at first. She wasn’t looking at anything or anyone, just staring into space. As they all stepped into the room she looked up and life flickered in her eyes.

“Yesi?” Santi?” her voice was quavering, shaking as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing as she rose slowly. Her steps were short and quick, taking her to them in a blink and then they were both being wrapped into a crushing hug. Mom was gasping, choking on her words as she held them.

“Is he dead? The one who did that to Vicente?”

“He’s dead. I killed him,” Santi answered her.

“Good. May he never rest.”

They stood there for a few minutes, just all holding each other until Gabriella finally released them. There were quiet tears and murmured words as they all held each other, not knowing what to say or how to act, just living in their shared pain.

Santi finally got them to sit down and went to the kitchen and started getting tea for them. Cam stood off to the side and helped quietly while the three women talked to each other. Santi prepped a few easy to make sandwiches and cups of cold tea before going and sitting with his family and they sat and drank and sipped their cold tea and ate their sandwiches in silence.