It stank outside the wall.

There had to be around a hundred corpses, only a handful of which had been alive the day before. The piles were densest around the railway tracks, where the horde had been attempting to push through.

Now that the fighting was done, the Wheya had begun their standard negotiations with the locals. The Kode, meanwhile, had stayed to reclaim their ammunition and search for anything valuable on the bodies. Those searching found a few focus guns, which were split between the tribesmen and the townsfolk.

Beck got to hold one for the first time in his life. The first time he had seen one in person had been when the rotters came to town, but even then, he had never seen one so close. The gun he held now was crafted so that it fit perfectly in his hand. Its bronze body was covered in a layer of grime, though it came off clean with the lightest scrub with his sleeve. Both the barrel and inlays on the handle were made of a deep blue metal, from which he could feel a pull like he'd never felt before, like it was trying to take something from him.

He took a minute at most to study it before handing it back to the man who had found it, but he was waved away. "I know Feila's rates. Rina takes good care of us here, so let's just say I'm repayin' a favor."

"Oh, I'm not a priest. I don't even have a Skill for healing, just [First Aid]. I can't take this."

Beck tried to hand the weapon back once more, but again, the man waved him away. "Don't worry about it. You're still family, and we woulda lost a lot more folk if y'all hadn't shown up. Specially you, son."

The man walked away after that, moving at a pace that would have been quite awkward to follow after. Forced to accept the gift, Beck pushed the weapon into his belt before setting off in search of a holster for the thing. After sifting through dozens of rotting bodies, he found one and affixed it to his belt.

With the new addition, and taking into account just how much time had passed, he decided to quit the field before he missed dinner. Not that he had much of an appetite after sifting through dead bodies for an hour after keeping others from becoming much the same. Once he had returned to town, the celebrations were in full swing. Cactus rum filled mugs and cups all over, though a number of the townsfolk had stronger, more expensive drinks, while the kids and young adults, Beck included, drank just water.

A large number of people approached him over the course of the celebrations, and more than a few got closer than he would have liked. The nature of Feila's priesthood never failed to leave him with uncomfortable experiences, after all. Their vestments alone tended to make him blush, the form-fitting nature leaving little to the imagination, though they exposed very little skin.

Thankfully, though, Kenna's presence seemed to ward away some of the older women with hungry eyes. There was one man, though, whose unwelcome hand earned a quick fist to his ribs. He had never expected to use [Pugilism] in a scenario like that, though he had never even imagined being in one either. Thankfully, the festivities ended soon after, with the Wheya having left shortly after sundown and the Kode retiring to tents that they had set up along the wall.

Before he could go to sleep, however, Kenna pushed her way into his tent. Before he could even begin to sit up, she had already fallen upon him, her hands on his shoulders and shaking him vigorously. "Wake up, water boy! It's finally time!"

It took a moment of fighting, but eventually she stopped shaking him and he was able to move her arms. "I was already awake. And what do you mean, 'It's time'? Time for what?"

The large woman's face was twisted in an almost manic grin. "The Dotsp'. Come on!" Before he could protest, she was already pulling him from the tent. His feet almost caught around his blanket, but he was able to shake it off before they were fully away.

"Do the Eyes even know what that is?"

Kenna didn't miss a beat. When she turned to look at him, her smile hadn't faded at all. "You'll find out."

Before long, they had reached the Chief's tent. Inside, the man himself sat with the men that Beck had already gathered were his advisors. A couple of them shot dirty looks at Beck as he entered, but stayed silent. Kennet's face lit up when he saw his daughter, though, and he spread his arms wide. "Tsima, my daughter. Are you prepared?"

Kenna sat directly opposite her father, smile still on her face as she nodded. "Yes, father. I am ready."

The big man nodded in return, his face turning solemn. "Good. You have proven your ability to lead, as well as your strength. You may take a single clansman with you. I assume that he will be the one joining you?" His eyes turned to Beck, and Kenna nodded once more. The Chief's smile returned to his face. "Good. Then you are set. I have taken the liberty of securing these for you."

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He produced a pair of train tickets. "They should help to quicken your journey a little, eh?" Kennet handed his daughter the tickets, which she took almost reverently. "I hope you won't need anything you don't already have, because those took up the entire allotment for your Dotsp'."

Kenna bowed her head and bent forward at the waist, as far as her armor would let her. "Thank you, father. I need nothing else."

"Then you are dismissed. The train leaves shortly before noon tomorrow."

The large woman rose, and Beck followed. Shortly after they had left the tent, and after making sure that no one else was around, Kenna started jumping in celebration. Beck took a step back, to ensure that she didn't hit him in her flailings. Thankfully, she wasn't hollering, so she probably didn't wake anyone up.

She turned back to him, that same manic smile on her face, and he was quickly enveloped in a bear hug before she started jumping again. She spoke in a stage-whisper, but it was still quite loud in his ears. "I'm finally free! I never have to listen to those old fogeys again!"

Beck's own voice was only slightly louder than hers, though not by choice. "That's great and all, but you're kinda crushin' me."

The large woman quickly released him, though she did quickly reestablish a grip on his biceps. "Sorry, just excited. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this."

The young man took a few moments to recover from the rib-creaking embrace. "You still haven't explained what a Dotspa is. And you never mentioned takin' me with you. Or that you were leavin' in the first place. I don't appreciate you just assuming I'd come, neither."

Of course, he more than likely would. The Chief and his advisors already expected it, and he couldn't say that Kenna was entirely unpleasant. That didn't change that she had never given the slightest indication of any of this to him. The grip on his arms loosened, and Kenna's face fell. "Does that mean you won't come?"

Beck sighed, planting his forehead into his palm. It wasn't like they were going to leave forever, and there was still the issue of Bolthead and his ilk. "No, I'll still go. Just, don't go makin' decisions without me, alright?"

The big woman's face lit up, and she crushed him in a hug once more, then loosened to merely tight after the groan of pain that came out of him. Another sigh escaped his lips as he returned the embrace. Once she let him go, the two said goodnight and went back to their respective tents.

Beck laid awake for a while longer, though. His entire life, his family supplied the necessary water for the train to run and for people to drink. Now, he was about to travel on that very train with their best customer's daughter. She still hadn't explained what the Dotsp' was, nor exactly how it made her "free", but he would have time to ask questions in the morning.

So far, he had been coasting off of the skills the Kode had taught him and what he had managed to gain somewhat by chance. That wouldn't be enough. He would fuse his Skills when the time came, but for now, all he could do was attempt to plan his advancement.

The plan for [Shape Water] would stay the same. Fusing it with [First Aid] was non-negotiable, between being required to be deputized and its relation to the last spell he'd seen Ma cast. That was the only plan he had, though. None of his other skills seemed to have much in common, other than three of them being for combat, and even then, [Knifework] would apply to other cutting applications as well. The worst offender was [Heat Resistance].

Beck had assumed that it would level at least once with all the time he had spent in the sun, or the sessions he had with the burning horn. All he'd gained from that was burns, though. His once-pale skin had darkened a few shades, what once resembled pure sea-foam now looking as if the waves had mixed the beach's sand into it. In short, he got a lot of sunburns and tanned a bit afterward.

His eyes closed, and he dove into himself. Where once there was but a crack, there now sat a wide, shallow pool surrounding a rectangular hole at the bottom. He waded through the knee-deep not-water to reach the opening that was barely big enough to fall through, and stepped off.

He sank like a stone until he reached the source of the ever-present humming of his inner world. [First Aid]'s shape was new still, since he hadn't paid much attention to the Skills' shapes the last time he dropped in. He hadn't come simply to admire his gains, though.

Beck drifted over to each of his Skills, tracing their shapes as much with his mind as with his hand, searching for resonance. He found two that he found strange, though maybe one shouldn't have been. Thinking back on the number of dissections that he had watched Ma perform, it made a little sense that [Knifework] and [First Aid] would at least overlap a bit.

The second, though, made very little sense in his mind. [Longarms] and [Knifework] seemed to harmonize the longer he thought about it, disrupting his train of thought with the sound they were making. In order to escape, he eventually brought himself back to reality, though he kept his eyes closed. A ranged and a melee/utility skill didn't have much in common, though the lack of similarities was also found in the pairing of [First Aid] and [Shape Water]. He likely just hadn't thought about it because he already knew it worked.

That didn't solve the issue that the vast majority of his Skills were incompatible with each other at the moment, though. Which meant that he would need to acquire new ones. That alone wasn't an issue, but compounded on the fact that people generally didn't seem to be keen on informing him of how anything worked, his progress in that department would likely be quite slow.

With that matter "settled", Beck refocused on tomorrow. He rose from his bedding to fold his clothes, after which he sat all of his belongings in one of the far corners of the tent. Once morning came, he would wrap everything in the tarp of his tent and be ready to go.

Finally, with everything fully prepared, Beck laid down once more to get a good night's sleep. He would wake up early in the morning to make sure he had time to say goodbye to the people he had started to see as family over the recent weeks.