Once again, Viri was at a loss for words, and I couldn’t make out if it was in utter terror or confused embarrassment. She shrunk back a little, but made sure to keep herself in earshot of the conversation that we both assumed was going to happen. Thorn definitely had a story to tell, and as long as it didn’t end with ‘and that’s how Endra infected me’, then I was keen to hear it.

“Alright, how ya doin’ now? Can ya feel your toes?” Okeria fussed as he tried to get Thorn’s cuffs off without damaging the man’s wrists. “Did Endra or Scalovera do this ta ya?”

Thorn kept silent until Okeria managed to get the cuffs off his wrists, then fell into the pool of his own blood with a startled cry. He tried to sit up and struggled against the weight of his own body for a little while before he gave up with a frustrated sigh and gave up to lie on his back.

“If Endra did this, then I never saw her. Scalovera put me in here, and he pulled my legs off over twelve hours. Drown me, I’ve never been so happy that the armor can dull pain.” Thorn laughed weakly. “The most confusing thing is that he never tried to get anything out of me. No information, no functions–nothing at all. Just… brought me here, told someone to use a function on me that fizzled everything I tried to do, and had some of his lackeys rip my legs off while he watched.”

Okeria crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “Sounds like he got off on hurtin’ ya. That don’t sound like the Scalovera I know, but it don’t surprise me that his tastes’ve changed since I stole this city away from him. Fair and square, of course.”

Thorn snorted. “Of course. It’s not like he rigged the election against you or anything.”

“Nothing of the sort.” Okeria said. “Seriously, Thorn, ya need a little while ta recuperate? I wasn’t plannin’ on springin’ ya free, but if this is what Scalovera’s hospitality looks like, then I ain’t leavin’ ya behind.”

“I’d take any way to get out of here. Abyss below, I’d’ve ripped my own arms off if you couldn’t get those cuffs off.” Thorn grimaced and rubbed at his wrists. “Should we be talking like this? I got stuck here in the first place because Scalovera managed to hack into our comms somehow, and if he doesn’t have anyone eavesdropping on us right now… well, I don’t even know what to say. Since he definitely has people eavesdropping on us.”

“Definitely.” Okeria nodded in agreement. “How long till ya can stand?”

“Drown me if I know.” Thorn said in frustration. “I can barely feel my toes, and my armor’s barely at fifteen percent battery. Also, why do I have a new trinket? And how did it equip itself without forcing me to unequip one of the other ones I have?”

That didn’t make any sense. The consumable should’ve healed more than fifteen percent of Thorn’s battery. I leaned in a little to get a better look at the circle of repairing metal that had been a hole a moment ago and saw some droplets of the iridescent liquid flowing down Thorn’s armor. Even if it wasn’t enough to dilute the dose, maybe it had all gone to repairing the heavy damage to Thorn’s armor. Which another dose should help.

“I think he needs another dose.”

Okeria shook his head. “His body’s still processin’ the first one. I’ll give him more when the first one’s done workin’ its way through all the wounds and atrophies Thorn’s strugglin’ with.”

“But shouldn’t the water just work?” I pointed out. “The stuff doesn’t say it recovers over a long time–so it should just happen when he takes it in. Maybe not for his body, sure, but his battery should’ve been filled the instant he took it in.”

“Well, then I’ll just say I don’t know why and leave it at that.” Okeria said. “It’s slow workin’ for some reason, even if it don’t say so on the package. Let’s not take this blessin’ of life and spit on it for goin’ a little slower than we’d like, yeah?”

“Fair point.” I said. I still planned on looking into the water when we got back, but I didn’t feel like giving Scalovera any more info than I already had. “Even if Thorn can’t walk, we can carry him. We need to get out of here before someone from Danday’s inner circle comes after us.”

“Right you are. Viri, make yourself small and light and ride on Sebastian’s shoulder ‘till we’re outta here. I’ll shoulder the burden of carryin’ Thorn for now.” Okeria said. He leaned down and hefted Thorn over his shoulders, then summoned some liquid metal that hovered with crackles of electricity under the man’s feet.

I stared at him as the memory of a certain sled in a certain hazard wormed its way to the forefront of my mind. He shrugged helplessly and stepped out of the alcove, trailing clear blood onto the floors that had already been stained by our earlier fighting.

My hydra plodded over to Viri and locked eyes with her visor. She backpedaled a wide circle around the beast until she was right next to me, then made herself small in a burst of energy and hopped up on my shoulder. The hydra watched her with interest, shook itself and made a strange noise from deep in its throat, and shook itself until many of its scales flew off of it. It kept shaking and shaking until most of my scales had flown away, leaving behind a palm-sized creature that snapped its jaws happily and plodded over to my boot.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Apparently it didn’t want to be dismissed. I opened my interface to check how much battery it was draining from me, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it actually cost slightly less than my passive regeneration.

“Looks like you’re cheap enough to stay.” I told the hydra as I bent over and pressed my fingertips to the ground. It eagerly climbed up my arm and took a position right behind endless’ ribbons.

I rubbed a finger under its chin, and it responded by gently nibbling at my knuckle. I knew how hard the thing could bite down, and I also knew that it had a thing for being a little over-ambitions in showing its affection. At least at this size it couldn’t do much harm to anything but a very small person. Like the one that eyed the pint-sized shark-hydra with wariness from my other shoulder.

“Ya got a whole arsenal of little friends now, don’t ya?” Okeria said and beelined back the direction we came. “Come on, now. We can’t go back ta where we came, and it ain’t for any specific reason. Won’t say more while we’re under surveillance, but ya can probably form your own theories.”

I could, if I cared enough. “So where do we go? Or is that a secret so they don’t put up a barricade there?”

Okeria nodded and rounded a corner back to the stairwell. “See, I knew I liked ya for more than one reason. But I don’t feel like runnin’ in complete silence this time, so why don’t ya regale us with the tales ya managed ta overhear while ya were in that state of self-imposed suspended animation?”

Thorn grunted in discomfort and shifted against Okeria’s back. The spines on his armor had completely retracted, which was something I had no idea he could do, and he cleared his throat once he’d found a comfortable resting position.

“I didn’t hear as much as I’d like, but from what I managed to learn, I think that tells almost more than if I’d had chattier guards.” Thorn tried to laugh, but winced halfway through. “Okay, I’m not trying that again. Felt like my insides were trying to become outsides.”

“Ouch.” Okeria said. “Sorry for that, but…”

“The info, yeah, I know. Important small-scale war and all that.” Thorn started to laugh again, but caught himself this time. “Scalovera’s people talked a lot. Mostly about nothing, which is kind of what most guards and soldiers do to pass the time, but they did talk about how some people acted really strange. And whenever Scalovera’s people got orders, they came from other soldiers or letters that looked like someone’s function made them.”

“But not the others, right?” I said based on the information Thorn had left out. “Were they strangely quiet, a little twitchy, and came and went without so much as a ‘how-do-you-do’?”

Thorn tilted his head a little. “I don’t know what you mean by that, but yes to everything else. It reminded me of how it looks when you talk over your communicators without including me, and I’d bet that’s how they got into our comms.”

“Or they’re communicatin’ usin’ Endra’s parasites. Sebastian, ya said that Danday was bein’ influenced by Endra, right?” Okeria said. “If that’s the case, then maybe she can talk ta the others or let ‘em talk ta each other.”

That was exactly what I’d been thinking as well. “Sounds like the most likely option to me. Not sure how that let Scalovera hack into our comms, but I’d bet almost anything that that’s how they’re talking. Viri, can you confirm that?”

Viri leaned against my helmet and hummed in thought. “Well I’m not part of any hivemind, if that’s what you’re thinking. And I get all of my orders through those letters Thorn mentioned. So if it’s happening, it’s only happening to other people. Sorry I can’t be much more help.”

“If ya had more information, it might be worse for ya. So be glad they kept ya in the dark.” Okeria said as he summoned more metal from his inventory. It whirled around him in a tight loop and crackled with electricity, then shot down the hallway and around another corner. Surprised yelps and pained screams coincided with the sounds of impacts, and when we rounded that corner, there were a half-dozen injured mercenaries pinned against various walls.

One of them stared straight at us as their body shivered unnaturally. And not from blood loss or fear. “That one’s probably reporting what they just saw to the rest of Endra’s puppets. What do we do about that?”

“Nothin’. Leave ‘em be and keep movin’.” Okeria said confidently. “We won’t be around when the cavalry shows up.”

“I’d prefer that.” Thorn said quietly. “If I never see this place again, it’ll be too soon.”

Okeria winced at Thorn’s tone. “Yeah, sorry again about all this, buddy. But on a positive note, Sebastian killed the chosen responsible for turnin’ people into husks. And with ya, we’re one step closer ta formin’ a real plan of attack ta get the city back. As long as we have a few more months ta prepare, we’ll be good ta go.”

I raised an eyebrow at Okeria’s estimation for how long we’d need, but before I could make an ass of myself I thought a little harder. He wasn’t just grossly overestimating how long we’d need; he was flat-out lying for the people who were obviously listening in on us. And if he was confident in saying that, then we were closer to the day of attack than I’d thought.

Thorn stiffened as Okeria turned a corner into a room that looked like a combination kitchen and break room. Not a single one of the plush chairs were in use, but from the food left on the table and the pots boiling on the stoves, people had left in a real hurry.

“Now, does that yell ‘ambush’ to you, or is it just me?” Thorn asked sarcastically.

“Ya always had a good eye for things.” Okeria snorted and gently let Thorn down to the ground. “Make your hydra bigger, Sebastian. And you, Viri, either hold on tight ta his shoulder or hunker down with Thorn. Somethin’ big’s stompin down a hall, and even if ya can’t feel the vibrations, ya should be able ta feel the pressure in a second.”