36

(DubVision, Emeni- I Found Your Heart)

Adam

I had just finished training with the guards after a really long day of drilling combat exercises. Normally, I would hate that sort of thing, but my body was so much better acclimated to physical stress. The pain and the soreness of working myself was energizing, something I had always wanted to experience in my former life. I had tried exercising and lifting, searching for that runner’s high or that adrenaline rush from lifting heavy things. I never found it and fell into a slump. The surge of power was like a drug to me. Needless to say, I was pretty fucked up. Bruises and cuts littered my body, although they were extremely shallow if I even did get them.

I had a few guard friends who were always trying to test just how strong I was. Perive and Kaya slammed dull swords into me by accident which surprisingly bounced off, barely even a mark. We were astonished, so they tried again, swinging heavier until I reacted, but they only got a cut in after the tenth try. They were good friends and fun to drink with.

I realized I was strutting through the halls of the manor with a stupid smirk on my face. I needed to get healed up before I could have some fun. I stepped into the infirmary and glanced around. I only saw Aleri, one of the servingmen, inside cleaning the cots.

“Hey, where is she right now?”

“It’s all busted after curing the Viscount.”

“What do you mean, ‘busted,’ huh?” A sudden wave of dread rose in me.

“Used a sigil. Apparently it’s lost its shit.”

“What do you mean, ‘lost its shit’?”

“Just like the last regenerators. Went stupid. Went crazy.”

I hoofed it out of the infirmary and down to the cells. The wooden walls turned to torch-lit stone and I heard low voices coming from down the stairs. The usual guard posted at the doorway didn’t give a shit if I visited during daytime hours, but he turned and tried to halt me.

“Adam, please, I believe it within your best interest to refrain from visiting it at the moment.” He looked nervous. I could see under his stupid bushy mustache that his lip was quivering when I looked down at him. He was scared.

I leaned down and put my face right up in his. “Why shouldn’t I look?”

“I am not stopping you, but you don’t want to see that.” He shrank into his chain armor.

I pushed past him and turned the corner. Tarynn was leaning against the wall, out of sight of the cell. He was completely flushed. Eyes puffy and red.

Then I met the gaze of those foggy, bloodshot red pearls. They completely sobered me. Hopeless. Deep scratches riddled her body. Blood streamed from her nose, ears, and eyes. Her hands frantically clawed into her shoulder and ripped at her hair. Tremors shot through her every half second as she shivered violently. And yet she smiled. Her lips rambled silently and endlessly. No sound in the air except for the muffled croaks that escaped her lungs and the collar clicking with every shock.

“What the fuck happened?!” I grabbed Tarynn’s arm. “How do we help her?!”

“I don’t know,” slipped off his tongue. “They usually die upon the instant.”

“What did she do?!”

Tarynn was staring blankly at the wall when one of the guards spoke up. “She cured father of his illness.”

Freezing fear carved my chest out and chilled my blood. “Vetia?! Can you hear me?! Are you okay?! Vetia?!”

Her jittering head tilted and gazed emptily into my eyes. Her face was soaked with bloody tears and wrought with burst capillaries, but she stared right through me. She didn’t even register that I was there. Her mouth hung open, in fact the entire left side of her face drooped and her left shoulder limply dangled. However, when I said her name her eyes finally focused on her surroundings. The shivering calmed to sporadic jitters and that awful croaking ceased. A wad of fur and bone slopped out of her mouth followed by dribbles of bloody saliva. She grabbed the sides of her head, turning it with her hands to look at me, then next to me, at Tarynn, who stood back up. She covered her ears and her wide eyes turned to the wall, mouthing something to herself.

“I presumed you would be here, Adam.” Simira’s voice cut through the air. She casually strolled down the dungeon hallway. Tells was behind her, shellshocked and verging on hyperventilating. Captain Zev followed closely at her side, solemnly monitoring Tells.

Simira cocked her head to the side and offered a gaze of faux sympathy. “Adam, you mustn’t say her name. I’ll allow that to pass as this is an unprecedented situation, but please remember your position here.”

I frantically looked around at everyone who were all staring at me like I was hysterical. My chest tightened. I barely remembered how to speak. “Wha- what happened? Why did you do this to her?” There wasn’t a thing I could do and I wasn’t in a position to make anyone do anything. The imposing walls were closing in around me, like my entire being was locked in place and unable to impact reality.

“I didn’t do this to her. This is the result of my father’s will.”

I couldn’t hold back anymore. “AND WHO THE FUCK-”

Captain Zev slammed my stomach, knocking the wind from my lungs and sending me to a knee. “Control yourself, Adam!

Simira continued, her jaw shaking ever so slightly as she glanced at Tells. “Tomorrow, we will meet and she will plead her case for freedom.”

“Sister, is this not enough already? Look at her, she is lost. Her sanity has disappeared entirely. She will never recover.” Tarynn pleadingly took his sister’s hands, his face haunted by the woman in the cell.

Simira stepped forward and intensely gazed into his eyes. “Tarynn, leave now. You needn’t stay any longer.”

He didn’t move. Simira was struggling to keep the situation under control.

Tells tried stepping forward and looking into the cell, but Simira put her arm out. “Lady Simira, may I please see her?”

I tried speaking up. “Tells, she-”

“Everyone!” Simira yelled out, finally scrunching her nose and abandoning her position. “OUT!”

I stepped up to Simira, who was surprisingly small beneath me. I’d never been so angry, so close to outright slamming the shit out of somebody. I spoke low, clearly, directly at her. “Look at her. You did that.”

Captain Zev pushed me back just as Simira’s eyes caught something behind me, widening in fear for a moment. “Adam!” Captain Zev’s booming voice shook me. “You will obey the Lady’s orders! Must I send you back-” he halted, his eyes locking in the same place Simira was staring.

Vetia’s face pressed through the bars as far as it would go, stretching her psychotic smile even wider as her agape eyes stressed to see us from the peripheral of her cell. Cracks rang out as she pushed further and further. Blood trickled from her cheeks, spelling out “SIMIRA” in little cuts all over her gaunt, ghastly face. Her lips fluttered silently, deliberately mouthing “Simira.” Her head stopped, unable to push anymore, that wicked stare aimed at the one who imprisoned her. She reached up like a magician with a wand, held up a finger and then drove it into her eye socket, flicking quickly and plucking her own eye out, unfazed through the whole process. Vetia tossed the eye at Simira’s cheek, leaving a gooey red blob, then shut her eyelids, smiled, and poked her tongue before quickly returning to that psychotic stare. Her bloody hands carved a sigil in the air and began remaking her eye, mouthing “I got my eye on you” and pointing at Simira, that smile never leaving.

Tarynn sprinted off down the hall, covering his mouth and dry heaving away.

Captain Zev stepped forward quickly and pushed her head back through. “Out! Clear the dun-” He rushed forward, catching Tells, who fainted against the wall. “Adam!”

I came back to my senses, catching my breath, unsure of what to do at all, noticing Simira’s wide, confused eyes, clenching her teeth, finally speechless.

Simira picked up Tells and Captain Zev grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to look at him. “Get ahold of yourself, Adam! There’s nothing you can do for her now!” He guided, or, well, tugged me out of the dungeon, that clicking croak following us the whole way.

We arrived at a fork in the hallway, Simira carrying Tells off and Captain Zev and I heading back for the barracks. “Adam. I will not feign understanding of where your mind dwells, however your anger and mistrust is quite evident. Walk alongside me and allow me to give you an iota of my experience.” He sounded tired. Beyond tired. Like he’d been doing this for his entire time here and gotten used to seeing this.

“I presume you have doubts about the Lady, based on the nature of your brief interactions with her? Your eyes did not deceive you, nor did ours deceive us in that wagon on the road. That display which the Lady presented was… unbecoming of her. But you must understand that it was not the first time she had acted in such a way toward unruly people. In fact, it was merely a display, an act. Alas, it is never gratifying to see her acting in such a way, as her farces often go beyond what is necessary, but that does not mean she is ill-intentioned.”

He’s standing up for her? Justifying brutalizing somebody who was a little mouthy? This isn’t sitting right with me, even if she was just pretending, she was beyond cruel about all of it.

“With all due respect, Captain Zev, how was she not ill-intentioned by cutting out somebody’s tongue and then attempting to kill her?”

“Everything she did was calculated, else she would not have done it. Why cut out a person’s tongue so harshly if there was not a feasible way to undo the otherwise irreparable damage? She knew the fireblood in the village still had a tongue. She was aware of herself and her brother’s feelings. Him stepping between the two of them was expected, and should he have watched from the side, she would have spared your companion. She knows the value of people, but she also understands the ways people think, and how to evoke their potential. Some people require direness before their eyes are opened.”

Every word he spoke sounded so sure, so full of conviction. Even so, I wasn’t so sure to believe it. I had seen this a hundred times before, where somebody claims to have been all-knowing after the fact, after everything had worked out for them. I lost my composure a little.

“Who’s to say she wasn’t covering for herself to try and justify her tantrum?”

He stopped, his head finally turning to me, and his eyes demanded my respect, not for him, though.

“Adam, you have grown bolder over the past month, but do not allow your heart to cease your mind, lest you become rash and disrespectful.” He returned to his walking demeanor and kept talking like nothing happened.

“I am not speaking from hearsay, nor am I describing disillusioned falsehoods. Fifteen years ago, I was a Zeshuo of the Kyoh League. I was merely a novice to war and peace, yet I was brash and eager to partake in the conquest of Ur’Ipnoa, the westernmost end of this continent. The fleet was set to cross the Kyohteni for a surprise invasion of a strategic archipelago off the coast of Ur’Ipnoa. After weeks of sailing, we reached the first island where several Ur fleets were anticipating our arrival. The entire operation was upended by an information leak and the fleet was annihilated in a matter of hours. Few of us escaped, and were marooned on surrounding islands. My injuries were mostly minor, but the other Zeshun were severely broken, if they could even move at all. They all submitted to their wounds within days, so I spent months surviving. I created makeshift rafts to move between islands at night. I survived until the winter, when I crossed the ice to the mainland. I hardly managed to survive. I was feeble and mad. At some point, I was captured as a prisoner of war and sold into slavery. I spent five years as a slave, doing menial tasks and hard labor for people who saw my kind as invaders, destroyers. They hated the Kyoh and wanted us to suffer. I was sold further and further eastward until I was being used to farm grain for Calder’s defense against the Triali Empire. It was at the end of those five years when Monarch Gossam led Triali forces into the heart of Calder and overthrew the government there. My owners fled westward, so I lived in their house. Eventually, a squadron of Triali forces under the command of the young Lady Simira Amien presented themselves to quantify their gains in the conquest. She immediately recognized I was a soldier. I told her that I wanted no part in her war, for I was still spiteful and defiant back then. She offered me a position among her guard, but I declined and insulted her for trying to force me back into servitude. I told her that she would be better off tying her boots together and trying to run from a potor. She took great offense to that and demanded I kneel before her. I refused, so she made me kneel. Despite thinking I had a physical advantage to her, her ability to read and outmaneuver her opponents was, is, impeccable. Not to mention her blade skills which I had never seen, and could not counter. She never made me kneel, though. She just kept hitting me with the blunt of her blade until I couldn’t move. I do remember what she said to me as I lay struggling to stand. ‘If you stay on this farm now, you’ll die here alone and unfulfilled. You have potential, and I can find that in you, even if I have to beat it out of you. I’m taking you with me. If you don’t want to stay after a week, then leave.’ I was going to leave at the end of the week until I realized how much respect I had for her, as a warrior first, then as a leader. She quickly knew what skills I was inclined toward and taught me to be the best at them. By nature I was rash and cynical. She helped me hone those into prowess and strategy. She only resorts to violence when people are being belligerent and disrespectful.”

I don’t know what to say. Sure, I have questions about his life, but it isn’t the time. I realize, though, that I hadn’t thought about one thing yet. This is a different world. I can’t pretend that what she did was right or kind, but for the people of this world, especially for somebody who had been a slave, her sporadic abuse would probably seem like a breath of fresh air. Or maybe he’s still a conditioned slave who thinks his master loves him.

“Then, Captain, why take somebody’s right to speak and live freely, and why imprison them if she is trying to better them?”

“Adam, mind your words. It is not prison, it is training, rehabilitation. She is training all of you to be the best at what you are naturally inclined to do. That is why I was able to take you in so soon and train you. You have some of the tendencies that I did those ten years ago, and I want to help you refine them.”

“So everything down there is okay because Simira said so? I just have to watch my friend mutilate herself and lose her fucking mind?”

We reached the door to the barracks and he stopped before it, turning to me and putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Do you think that is the outcome any of us truly wanted?”

“Doesn’t seem to matter, because she’s just ‘it’ to all of you anyway.”

He took a breath, clearly worked up at that comment. “I know better than anyone what being ‘it’ is like. I do not revel in your friend’s demise, but we are not in a position to act on it. Even I… as Captain of the Guard… am still an outsider, no matter how much I give to these people, to the Lady I swore fealty to. That is the burden I carry, and I exist within my limitations. Adam, we are only people because they allow us to be people. Our only power lies in our bodies for they do not respect our minds until those above us recognize us. Many half-breeds have suffered like her before, and in the eyes of law, if neither jorlad nor lonsu claim her, she is not human. We are lucky, still claimed by heritage if not jorlad society. Not everyone is so lucky as us, for even though they perceive us as outsiders or alien creatures, we are still human.”

Pain croaked through my throat. “Why’s it gotta be this way?”

Captain Zev shook his head, speaking in a somber tone. “I hope, one day, you will tell me your story as I have told you mine. I cannot imagine where you came from to have the generous perspective you do, but I imagine it was much nicer than here. Regardless, everyone here is an ally to you, and learning to trust us will serve you well.” He pulled his hand away and turned. “Go. Rest. It is the only way you will heal for now. There is still hope yet for her, if you trust in Lady Simira.”

“Yes sir.”

I opened the creaky wooden door and loomed past all the other soldiers mulling around. It wasn’t that late yet, but I was too tired to do anything else, even eat. I laid on the stiff bed and lost myself in thought. I hadn’t ever seen anyone who had gone crazy, but Vetia was completely gone. I only hoped that she would have enough of her mind to be able to speak at whatever the trial was supposed to be.

* * * * *

Anxiety plagued my mind. Combat training was impossible to focus on, even though it was lighter than usual. I was getting much better and it was easy for me to destress, but not that day. I couldn’t relax, and I couldn’t stop thinking about yesterday.

That evening, I was led to the Viscount’s court. A tall room similar to a castle’s throne room with gray stone walls and floor. A long light orange carpet ran from the entrance to the throne, and Amien banners down every wall. The whole room was illuminated by mid-day sun coming in through the towering stained-glass windows, rounded at the tops with a star pattern.

The Viscount was away, so Simira stood at the throne. Tarynn was next to her, head down, absent in his own mind. I was placed on the same side as Captain Zev, who was in full dress armor, engraved dagger and sword by his sides. Only a handful of servants and common people were present to observe. Tells locked eyes with me from across the throne room, and I didn't even know what we were trying to communicate, but she looked oddly confident. She looked like she was trying to make me feel that same way, like she wanted me to cast off my doubts.

“Bring her before us,” Simira barked to some servants out the door.

Two sets of boots and dragging chains muted the entire chamber. Servants dressed in orange robes dragged a limp Vetia by the arms, who may have been a corpse already. Patches of scabs littered the spots she had ripped her own hair out. Her darkly-circled eyes stared forward absently and her sunken cheeks stretched against her skull as her mouth hung open, but the scratches had healed and her eye fixed. They set her down on her knees and unlatched the collar, freeing her for the first time since she had gotten here. Her eyes finally started to move and she mouthed something to herself.

“Court. Upon this moment the trial of the regenerator begins.” Simira shifted her stance and crossed her arms. “Woman, you will be tried on three charges. One, minor assault of a lesser noble, which has already been paid with time and service. Two, malign remarks toward a lesser noble. Three, adulterous acts with an arranged lesser noble.”

Vetia’s wide, sagging eyes locked onto Simira. Her mouth was still silently moving all the while.

“So, healer, what say you? Do you finally admit to your wrongdoings, or shall you defend yourself?”

Vetia’s mouth still chattered silently, unable to create a sound. Her eyes welled up as her hands groped at her bruised, burned, and withered neck. She rubbed her eyes and heaved.

“This is your time to speak, woman. The collar has been removed. Unless you have finally run out of words.”

Simira was trying to hide a smirk with that last comment and that sealed it for me.

She takes pleasure in seeing all of this. She revels in seeing people in pain and she loves making people suffer even more. She has an iron grip on everyone here, making them think she’s so righteous, but she just enjoys controlling people. Something about seeing her twisted face just made it all click for me.

Tells, surprisingly, spoke up, speaking robotically as if repeating something she had been told to say. “Lady Simira, if I may?” Simira nodded. “I have known her for most of my life. She can be rebellious sometimes, but I don’t think she would do something like that intentionally. I believe she didn’t realize how she was manipulating Lord Tarynn to partake in adultery.”

“Then what intentions did she express to you? Were they malicious?”

“I don’t suppose she was intending to be malicious, Lady Simira, but her desire for him may have been rooted in our poverty at the time.”

What the fuck is Tells talking about? Has she lost all faith in our friend and sided with Simira? There’s no way. I refuse to believe it. She’s always had a strong sense of right and wrong, so why is she going along with this? Fuck it, I can’t stand by. I’m getting involved.

“Objection!” I stepped forward and everyone’s eyes locked onto me. My ears suddenly clogged, my heart pounded, my legs wobbled so much that I couldn’t stand still. I could only say what I felt. “Lady Simira, nothing here is concrete evidence against her, her character, or her intent! Nothing Tells has said supports any of your claims and is entirely speculation!”

Captain Zev angrily stepped in front of me, “Adam! You are not permitted to speak yet! The Lady will ask for you if she-”

Simira stopped him. “Captain. You need not intervene. Adam, continue this once. Speak your part, as this is an open trial.”

“Your argument is bogus! Tarynn was manipulated by somebody who didn’t know she was manipulating because she was scared of poverty?! That’s just childish romance!”

She squinted at me. Her expression changed from a haughty child playing queen to that of a lawyer deconstructing my argument. “Then what of her knowledge of Tarynn’s commitment?”

“Her arms were broken and she couldn’t walk, which is why we had to get that fireblood. Therefore Tarynn would have had to approach her in the clinic if any romance was to start, and even then, any acts would have been initiated by him due to her lack of mobility and function.”

Simira ever so slightly lowered her head to think, hesitating on her reply. “Even after her treatment, she wooed him. Seduced him into her tent in the middle of the night. Had I not interfered, they would have committed irreversible acts.”

I didn’t even let a beat sit in the air and pointed at her. “But her wooing was the result of Tarynn’s initial seduction! Had he not initiated the adulterous relationship, she never would have continued!”

Her face fell, a scowl crossing her lip for the briefest of moments. “What are you-”

“THEREFORE, both parties are complicit in the act! Regardless of her comments and personal offense to you, which I believe to be the root of your excessive retaliatory punishment, regardless, this accusation of one-sided adultery grossly and needlessly incriminates her!”

A pungent silence held the air. My knees were on the verge of giving out and I was struggling to calm myself off whatever high I was feeling.

A stern, surprised, and somewhat proud look took Simira’s regal face. “Very well. Then the intention is innocent, but she is still guilty of the act.”

Holy fuck, I think I might be able to do this. I just need to appeal to her sense of righteousness for the final nail!

I stood tall, pointing at both Vetia and Tarynn. “No, respectfully, Lady Simira, she is not guilty of the act. THEY ARE guilty of the act of attempted… ATTEMPTED adultery. They are both perpetrators equally, therefore a victimless crime, save for Lord Tarynn’s future kzjae, who has yet to speak out on this matter. Where one is punished, so must the other for this crime, lest your rule dictates that his stature holds him to a separate standard of justice than the people.”

Simira closed her eyes in thought for a brief moment, then breathed and opened them, gazing down on me. Respect and a surprised approval gripped her face despite her clear indignation at losing. “Very well. In accordance with the law and grateful that no dire acts were committed, I deem you both innocent on the charge of adultery. You cannot be incriminated for attempted and failed adultery, being that it is no longer a criminal act by the Viscount’s decree of the past spring festival.”

A wave of relief washed over me and I allowed myself a moment to breathe.

Thank you, Phoenix.

“However,” she began, “her baseless malign remarks and implicitly malicious behavior were pointed to stir response. Instigation of this sort cannot be excused so easily.” She put up a finger to me as I readied my counter-argument. “You may speak when I have finished speaking. I excused your last interruption on the basis that you do not know the legal system, but from here on, you will act in accordance with legal procedure. I will now question Tells of the woman’s actions, as an assessment of character.”

I nodded respectfully.

“Tells, has she not manipulated people into arguments and buffoonery in the past for the sake of personal satisfaction? You have told me as such before, in regards to initially innocent hijinks which resulted in one of Hallax’s guards losing his job due to damaged reputation.” Tells nodded, but didn’t speak. She wasn’t looking up. Her head was down, hiding her face. “So she has a history of inciting arguments for the sake of entertainment?” She waited for Tells to nod, then continued. “Due to behavior and clear intent to damage an innocent guard’s reputation, even if for the base purpose of comedy, her character not only displays selfish intention, but also negligence. Adam, her legal representative as it were, you were also present for this.

“No, no, there’s a difference between what you’re accusing her of and what has happened in the past. Playing some jokes, being a lighthearted trickster is not even remotely comparable to slander. She couldn’t have known that would happen to the guard.”

“And it is for that reason that the behavior requires correction. Acting without thought for consequence is the mark of an uncivilized individual. As a foreigner, she must act in accordance with Vehfirn law. And if that is not so, then she must accept correction to become a lawful citizen or be exiled.” She sighed and softened her eyes toward me. “I do not abhor the woman, nor the lot of you, and my intent is to civilize unruly people. Tells and you display civilized behavior and have thus been rewarded as such. Now, I wish not to make brash assumptions about you and yours, but is it possible that she is not entirely the same as before? Are you not newly travelers? Leaving home and exploring? Is it not possible for a change of setting to change somebody within, to bring on childish wonder, which may naturally cause foolish actions?” She waited for my objection, but I couldn’t think of a thing and conceded with a nod. “I can be sympathetic to such circumstances and lighten her sentence should she accept correction humbly and willingly, and seeing that her… sanity is returned, she may speak on her own behalf, if she so wishes.”

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She raised her eyebrow at me, a final bargain for our eventual freedom, all in exchange for Vetia’s submission.

I stood there stuttering, trying to think of something through the lightheaded dizziness. Tells was still looking at the floor, and Vetia’s eyes were wide, peering right into me. Her lips moved silently as she began picking herself up. The guards next to her lurched to grab her, but a hand from Simira kept them still. Vetia stood, her legs wobbling, hunched over and swaying like a stiff breeze could knock her over. She slowly hobbled toward me, eyes locked with mine.

She was hushed, but sounded like she was trying to yell while stumbling around. “I haven’t changed, have I? Have I changed? You would tell me, right? Right? I haven’t changed. There’s no way. Wouldn’t I notice? Wouldn’t you notice? Would I notice?”

She reached out and grabbed the sides of my face, forcing me to look down directly into her eyes. A hollow dread clutched her eyes and it horrified me to my core. She started digging her nails into the side of my face. Was she trying to get blood or something from me? Her eyes turned frantic and she began repeating her questions louder.

“Adam! Tell me! What happened to me? Am I different? I’m not what they say I am! I swear!”

I mustered enough of my thoughts to try and calm her. “No, hold on. Just, let go and-” her nails slid down the side of my face and my hands acted independently. I quickly reached and threw her hand off of my face. Her whole body stumbled and crumpled to the ground, several feet away by where she had been kneeling. The guards heaved her up and she stared at me. No, all eyes stared at me.

Her eyes watered like a begging child, “Adam, why? Do you hate me?”

“No, no! Hold on! This is…”

She apologetically beckoned me to step toward her. I unwittingly started over toward her and heard Captain Zev’s voice behind me.

“Adam, keep distance.” His order was low, but stern.

I ignored it and kept walking over, kneeling next to her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

Simira’s voice rang through the chamber. “That’s enough, Adam. Listen to your superior officer.”

Vetia scribed a sigil quickly in the air. It was three shapes, a triangle, an eye, and some teardrops. She did it incredibly fast with her left hand, and used it to seal the wound on my cheek and neck.

“Step back from her! Now!” Captain Zev’s voice boomed and his hand pulled me to my feet, dragging Vetia up with me, who crashed into Zev and slammed into the ground. “I will not have you stepping out of line again! Post on the wall and be still!”

The court murmured and chattered, confusion spreading. Simira yelled. “Silence! Continue the trial! Guards, hold Adam still if he cannot control himself! The woman can hardly move as is!”

She pointed at the guards next to Vetia and they pushed me back against the wall.

Simira continued, “If she will not speak, then we shall end the trial now and I will declare the final charges.”

Vetia locked her eyes onto Simira, the same hollow, blank, murderous stare on her face. She spoke with empty words to match. “Lady Simira, I am innocent.”

“I implore you, tell us of your innocence. Should you have proof of character, bring that forth here and now.”

“I would request to ask Lord Tarynn for a conversation.”

“How do you mean?”

“I wish for Lord Tarynn to come forward, that I may bare my heart before him, before these people, that they hear of my actions from me. That he may corroborate his story with mine.”

“Granted. The guilty wishes to prove her innocence in questioning Tarynn Amien.”

Tarynn stepped forward before her, ten paces away and gazed into her eyes with worry, or fear, maybe even regret. He had that same horrified stare from the chambers beneath the manor.

Vetia pushed the hair from her face with still-glowing fingers and glanced up at him with a longing, pained smile. “I was so scared after leaving home. And after everything that happened, after being in that stuffy clinic with broken arms and burned organs, I think your comfort, your company, saved me. I think I fell in love with you, and I may have been wrong, but I thought you loved me too. If you did not, would you have kissed me so? Held me so tightly? Did you not feel but a drop of love for me, or have I deceived myself?”

Simira’s brow rose and her eyes popped open, baffled at the odd turn. “This has nothing to do with the current charges, unless you would now plead that this is, what… romantic hysteria?”

She turned to Tarynn with a subtle viciousness, who met her gaze. Tarynn’s mouth was quivering, trying to say something, anything. His eyes fell onto Vetia, then the ground. “No. I never did.”

Vetia’s shoulders and chest fell for a moment, and her face flashed through so many emotions at once, before she reset herself and looked up at him. “He lies. For his sister’s fragile grip on her people, he lies. She fears the tongue of those who would question her, so she deceives this court with her brother’s honest reputation. I am no criminal, only a sacrifice that her reputation remains unsmeared!”

A silence took over the room as servants and guards glanced at each other in confusion. Simira noticed and stole back the attention of the room. “It does this court no good to cry ‘liar’ back and forth at each other. Let it be known, even without your collar, you seek to sow discord in this court. Own your actions with dignity or prove yourself!”

She ignored Simira. “Tarynn, I am asking you. Tarynn the kind Lord. Tarynn the man. Without your sister in your ear. You have the power to end this. Why are you afraid of her so?”

Tarynn wouldn’t raise his eyes, the floor being his only safe place to stare. I could have sworn I saw a single tear fall from his face, but he just turned his head down further.

Simira pulled Tarynn back. “This is foolish. You are only displaying your reluctance to break from these childish, instigative ways.”

Vetia chuckled, staring dead at Lady Simira, her mouth curled up in sick glee. “Congratulations, Lady Simira. You have won over the court. You hold your brother as a trophy. And you have deceived my own family against me. There is no game to win, I realize. Only players in a show. Your show. Your ascent. And I am the one who suffers at the whims of your power… no longer!” On her knees, she lost herself to whispering hysterics. “And I heard tidings of your end, Lady Simira! Your death is written in stone, buried beneath bodies, and smeared in clotting blood! An arbiter of fate has dictated thy demise, I the messenger, and you the victim! Thy fate is all but sealed, save for one hope, brittle as a dead man’s hair.” She cackled and took a deep breath in.

Lady Simira growled and clenched her fist in frustration. “She has gone mad from sigils and rambles of treachery in an honorable court. Seize-!” She was interrupted by the tearing of flesh.

Vetia slid Captain Zev’s thin blue dagger from under her thigh and plunged the blade into her abdomen, dragging across her stomach. Blood spilled and organs slowly slopped out of the wound. The court boomed with gasps and then there was utter silence apart from cracking bones as she shredded up and behind her ribs in barely a few seconds. She growled, yanking the dagger free as Captain Zev bounded over, throwing her aside and seizing the dagger. He stared for a moment, stepping back from the gutted woman in front of him, about to call for a healer until he realized it was the one who could no longer be saved.

A hateful grin stretched across Vetia’s face as her feverishly mad bloodshot eyes locked with Simira’s. Simira stormed forward, stopping before the pool of blood like she wanted to intervene, but was unsure of how to. Vetia lunged out, grabbing Simira’s shirt, then pulled her down to eye level. Captain Zev stood close, but didn’t intervene, as nothing would frighten the already dead. Blood dripped from Vetia’s mouth, forced up from her lungs and spattered across the floor, gargling through her whispered curse.

“My truth lieth in my heart, Lady Simira, and thy murtherer lieth in the court.” A sickening chuckle splashed from her twisted smile. “My truthless tongue doth profess, thus my heart must confess.”

She released Simira and shoved her hands into the cut, under her ribs, deep into her chest. Blood and shredded organs poured from the wound, sloshing around inside of herself. Her hands suddenly ripped free, splattering blood around the chamber and across Lady Simira’s face. She collapsed forward into the mess of gore, her outstretched hand holding her heart out to Lady Simira, one final beat oozing blood.

Silence.

Captain Zev declared “Clear the court! All ye bear witness to this today, a half-breed gone mad of sigils, born of the Viscount’s use, unlistening to the gracious opportunity and just trial of Lady Simira!” He pulled Simira back, who was positively frozen. He whispered aggressively until she pulled herself together and feverishly glared around the room.

“Guards! Send for Miriel of…” she trailed off, locking eyes with me, then turning to Tells, who was on her knees, wide eyed and shellshocked. Tarynn stood broken and backed out of the room to a door behind the throne. His hacking heaves could be heard throughout the entire chamber even after the door had slammed shut. Finally, the guards let me step forward carefully, a spear poking into my back and I broke out of my trance of shock.

“No no no no…” I kneeled and turned her limp body over, lifting her into my arms, searching for a sign of life. I couldn’t see through the tears anymore. I couldn’t speak. I only stuttered over sounds and spattered from choking on my own tears.

The chamber shrunk to suffocating silence. Simira growled “Cease, guards, and court, remain but a moment. No need for Miriel, not another apothecary needs suffer at my father’s whims, those whims which broke this poor woman who I condemned to his servitude and failed to save. This court is disbanded, the healer posthumously deemed innocent of all charges, unfit for legal trial on grounds of jzanmah induced insanity.” She turned to me. “Take her to the farmland burial grounds, to Kivu the undertaker. I… Give her rites as you would. Return by the morning with the cost… I must see to my brother…” She trailed off and stepped away, hurriedly grabbing the frozen Tells by the shoulder and leaving through a back door. Tarynn’s muffled, raging yells at his sister were quickly cut off, then nothing else from the back.

Vetia was so light in my arms, but my feet dragged as if weighed down by boulders. My sloven legs carried me out of the throne room, through the massive halls of the manor, out through the training grounds and up the hill past the manor, overlooking the farmlands in a blurry distant instant.

The world around me was empty as gusts of wind cascaded autumn leaves around the hilltop. Burning autumn toned trees swayed and my eyes cleared, holding her, staring up from the zenith of the hill. On the other side of the leaves above were clouds like crimson fire from the distant rays of the setting sun. I set her down against the massive, dark tree whose leaves rippled from red to orange to yellow to light green borders around the blotchy ripples.

Tears poured down my cheeks, my face giving up its composure entirely. Nothing held back, I wept. The emptiness within and the weight without became unbearable. I wanted to collapse and…

I don’t know. What do I want to do? It’s all nothing. There is nothing. I just want it to all be a lie. I want to be done with this world already.

I stared at her lifeless body, devoid of any thoughts, any ideas.

What can I even do anymore? What’s the point? I should just leave the manor. Run off on my own until I find the others. But how can I run when I’m a big green beast? I’d be brought back, or maybe even killed the instant I was seen, a runaway, dangerous at that.

My words croaked and wailed miserably. “Fuck, I didn’t wanna be right. I wanted you to get better. I wanted to leave. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I just wanna wake up and be done with this. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Why did it have to go like this?”

I sat against the tree next to her, unable to move anymore.

“How could you just give up when the others are out there looking for us? Did she push you that far? Did she really break you?”

Rage seeped into me, despising the manor and everyone in it. Her head fell to the side and landed on my shoulder, a short gurgle working its way out of her body.

“I only know what I know how to do. What do I tell them? I let our best friend that we’ve known our whole lives that she just… This can’t be real. But it is. It is. Wasn’t this supposed to be a fresh start? New bodies, new lives, cool powers. We were all supposed to live it together or die like heroes or save the world or something...”

I sat there next to her. I didn’t know for how long, but I just sat. My mind was blank, feeling like a piece of me was missing. The wind blew again, and I looked back at Vetia, the sun, glancing one last peek over the horizon at us, blinding me. Her strands of hair tossed up by the wind like wildfire, burning down the fields and the manor on the other side of the hill.

A glimmer of sunlight caught her ruby eyes and a smirk crawled across her cheek.

“What?” I whispered to myself and crawled around her, stumbling to see her face, if it was really moving.

Her chest tensed aggressively and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Jaw rapidly biting up and down, shards of teeth chipping off and grinding in her mouth. It went on for about a minute, just her seizing until it stopped and her chest aggressively heaved three times. I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there. My heart raced, scared, but weirdly hopeful as a flowery scent cascaded over the hill.

Wait, she’s a fireblood. Did she live?

Finally her body stopped seizing and her eyes relaxed. She groaned miserably, the left side of her face sagging. Her eyes peered down, where a small rodent crawled through the grass toward her. Her arm snapped out, snatching it up and biting its head clean off. She put the bottom half of the creature in her mouth and sat there draining it until the next one trotted up.

Her face returned to her control and her eyes turned straight to me, taking in rapid, shallow breaths and wincing through horrible pain as she swallowed the ket whole. Sharp breaths escaped her mouth like she was laughing, but couldn’t move or breathe fully.

She raised her other arm, shoved another ket in her mouth and squeezed one to death in her hands, forcing her claws into it and dribbling the blood over her leg, eyes rolling back in her head again, each time, like she was being reinvigorated by their deaths. Ten of them later, her face relaxed just a little and her eyes opened fully.

I was so confused that I just hugged her tightly. Nothing made sense to me, but I didn’t care. She was still alive.

“What’s going on? How are you alive?” Fresh tears broke through my eyelids again.

I released her from my hold and she slowly glanced around, first up at me, then out over the gently swaying fields of orchards and stalks. She turned back to me and smiled the most genuine smile I had ever seen. She whimpered, her eyes glassing over in sheer joy, then breathed in and slumped against my shoulder again.

We both leaned back against the tree, quietly letting the tears run down our faces, whimpering until we were both chuckling.

She looked toward the sky, her eyes wide and mouth open, nose up, taking deep breaths of air in her nose and out her mouth like it was the first time she’d ever done so. “I did it. I’m free.” She laughed out, staring blankly upward in a fit of ecstacy.

Why is she scaring me? Where’s my friend?

I spoke weakly, still in shock. “What’s going on? What’s up with you?”

Her head turned and she stared widely at me, then through me, then down, biting her lower lip in thought.

“What?” She stared at me blankly. “Did you say something?”

“Y-yeah, what’s going on with you?”

“Oh, that. I think I go back to normal. What is normal? Am I not normal right now?”

“You’re a little forgetful, I think.”

“About what?” She shoved another rodent in her mouth, staring blankly into my eyes.

“Do… um, do you remember where we just were?”

“I was in the dungeon. Wait, was I? No, I was… at home? Where is home? What is my home? I feel like I’m so close.” Her eyes met mine again. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was I rambling? I do that a lot. This is rude. I didn’t even ask your name.”

“Hey, uh,” horror crept through me, “you’re just fucking with me right?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come off like that.” She squeezed another rodent over herself. She squinted at me curiously. “Adam.”

“Yeah. That’s me.”

“And I’m Vetia.”

“Yup. That’s you.”

“Oh. I forgot.” Her face twisted with fear, breaking down into a fit of tears. “How much have I forgotten?! Or am I remembering? Who are you?! Are you real right now?! Am I talking to you?! Are you really here?!”

I hugged her again and she reluctantly shuddered until she realized I was real, breaking down into my shoulder in a fit of weak, rapid, terrified whispers. “I don’t remember much and I don’t know how much is real. Adam, I don’t wanna go back there. Please don’t take me back. I can’t do it anymore. She locked me in the dark. Adam, they were inside of me, eating me. Adam, I was a corpse. I died. I felt dying. I felt my brain dying. I felt my heart stop beating. And then it started beating again. I was there the whole time. My body didn’t let me go. I think I had a stroke. And I think I went into shock. But I don’t know how much of it was real. I don’t want to lose myself.”

She was shivering feverishly in pure existential dread.

“Adam, I don’t want to be immortal. Is this real? Did I cut my heart out and make a new one?”

“Yeah, you did. You’re here. You’re real. I’m with you.”

She cried like a baby who had just been born, clutching me tightly and wailing into my chest.

This went on until long after the sun had set, when she started speaking again and I let her out of my arms.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said. “Yes, but we have our goal. I know, I just want my head to stop hurting!”

She seemed completely unaware that I was even there.

“It will stop hurting so long as we feed. These little rat fucks aren’t much, it’s gonna take a while. No shit. That’s why we should-”

“Vetia,” I asked, “Who are you talking to?”

She turned to me like a deer in headlights and spoke blankly. “Huh?”

I hesitated, fearful of what would happen if I told her. “You’re talking to yourself. Having a conversation with yourself.”

The sweet aroma of the air became intensely stronger as panic overtook her face and breathing. She dragged herself around with one arm, grabbing rodents and gnawing them apart desperately.

“Blood will fix me. Blood will fix me. Blood will fix me.” She pushed herself to stand, hunched into her disemboweled left side in a frenzy, head whipping back and forth, eyes darting every which way while her body seemed to drag her along in an animalistic fit to drain every living thing around her of blood, except me.

We were out there for hours until she finally calmed down enough to stop eating. I watched the entire time as she fell into states of madness, then back out. Or spoke to herself, maybe voices, and then upon realizing she was talking to herself, go into an anxious breakdown. The spiraling fear of insanity broke her over and over and over to no end. Eventually, she finally calmed and gazed around our reality as if taking the world in for the first time, again.

Vetia sat down against the tree, her stomach largely scabbed over, but no longer bleeding.

I awkwardly sat back down next to her. “How’s the… everything?”

She shook her head, staring off into the fields as if in a trance, light voice and cheery tone. “It hurts. I’m used to it.”

“Does your head always hurt after using sigils?”

“No. Just when I’ve used ‘em too much.”

There was another pause. I swallowed and asked the question I’d been scared of. “Hey, uh, what was that back there? What did all of that mean?”

She lightly chuckled. “Just me having a little fun. Before the main event.”

“Is there really somebody after Simira?”

She smirked. “Mm-hmm. Why would I lie about that?”

“What if she suspects us?”

“She knows I would never out either of you. In fact, she’ll probably keep Tells even closer under her wing now. Do me a favor and keep this a secret from Tells. I can’t have her terrible lies cluing Simira in that I’m alive.”

“Then what do I tell her?”

“Nothing. You buried me in a spot out in the woods and you don’t remember where because you were in shock.” She gently hummed. “I like this spot. The sunset was gorgeous, the flora is wonderful, and just being able to see those islands out there is a spectacle in its own right. And those dazzling green little lights. So beautiful. It’s not a bad spot to die in.” She pointed to the floating islands orbiting the planet. “ What are those? Do you know? I haven’t seen them, being so… secluded.”

“I think that’s the skybelt. I heard some stories about all the cool stuff up there. It’s where some crazy rich and powerful royalty live, like a kingdom that orbits the whole planet.”

“I take it back. When I die, I want it to be in that massive cool parthenon-looking place up there. Oh, it’s good to be free again.”

“What are you gonna do with that freedom?””

She took a long breath and broke her trance, like she was realizing she had a body at all. “First off, I’m gonna bathe. I need a proper cleaning. But I think I’ll spend some time letting my body and brain heal. Hunting. Maybe find something more easily sustainable than just killing random animals.”

“I mean, I’m sure none of us would care if you had to drink our blood sometimes.”

She turned to me and grimaced. “I can’t. I’ve tasted all of your blood fixing wounds. It’s rancid to me. I just don’t know why. First time I fixed you, I spent twenty minutes vomiting all your blood back up completely catatonic.”

“Well, worst case, you can always summon more kets.”

“Heheh.”

A shrill squawk pierced my ears and I snapped over to see a green and yellow bird in Vetia’s mouth. She looked like a dog with an oversized stuffed animal, except this one was still alive and trying to get its wings out of her mouth.

Once the noise settled down and I heard a dull thud on the ground, I peered over at her. She stared idly off at the distant manor with a weary, melancholy look in her eye that I had seen in Desmond and Brenden’s eyes after every break up each of them had.

“Did you love him?”

She was surprised for a second, then embarrassed with a half-cocked smile until a wave of depression eroded her dishonest visage.

“He reminded me of home, comfort. I don’t care anymore, though, not after all of that. I have so much more now.”

It was like she’d completely disconnected from reality, plucking birds that flew down until there was a nearby pile of bloodless birds in the dark twilight until her head shuddered and she blinked rapidly, like something had switched inside of her. She closed her eyes and let her head lay slack.

“Do you want to sleep? I’ll keep watch if you want.”

She raised her head and groaned, a sad smirk breaking through. “I don’t sleep anymore. I haven’t slept this whole time. Do you know what it’s like to go without sleep for so long, when you can’t talk? It’s enough to make you go completely insane. I’m still seeing fuckin’ shadows at the corners of my vision and imagining things that aren’t there sometimes. I can’t rest. I can’t sleep. I can’t turn off my brain. I don’t even know how long it’s been.”

“How have you been managing up until now?”

She broke into laughter, then tears. “Managing? Have you been listening to a goddamned thing I’ve said?! Do I look like I’ve been managing?! Well I’ll spell it out for you. I haven’t been. I just spiral until I break and the next thing I know it’s morning. I was fine with it on the road, but being locked up in that goddamn cell… that did things to me. I can’t think about it without wanting to fuckin’ kill someone!” Her hands shook violently, staving off another frenzy.

“Hey, hey, hey!” I grabbed her arms. “Look at me. You’re not there anymore. Look at how fast your head has healed already. You were like a late stage dementia patient earlier. Now you’re you again. You’ll get better.”

“The hunger won’t go away, Adam. Even now. I hate it.”

“You’ve gone through a lot. You’re still wounded. You’re thin and malnourished. Simira was using you like a heal bot, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes you a while to get your strength back. To feel sated.” I let her go and she slumped back against the tree.

Her eyes batted back to me, then she smiled and looked down at herself. “Look at me, doing nothing but bitching about everything and making you listen. I’m so conceited it’s pathetic. I don’t have a damn clue what you or Tells have been up to.”

“I’d bet that you probably had it a lot worse than me. You saw me most days anyways, and I kept you updated. Just a few cuts here and there. Honestly, seeing all the fight you had, have, it’s sorta what’s kept me going. I’ve got it figured out now. Don’t worry about me. The best thing for you now is to try and rest. Ease your hunger. Have a few birds, kets, and whatever else is in this world.”

“I suppose.” She paused and asked hesitantly, “What are you going to do? Are you going back before it gets too late?”

“I think I deserve a night off. I’ll just chill here while you recharge to make sure you don’t get hurt or killed while you’re still wounded.”

“All night? Adam, you’ve gotta sleep at some point.”

“I won’t be sleeping after seeing you rip your still-beating heart out of your chest earlier.”

A morbid chuckle escaped from her. “Yeah… I suppose I probably did traumatize some people.”

“Oh yeah you did. I am never unseeing that.”

“I’m… really sorry. I never wanted to… make you or Tells see that, or worry, but I couldn’t think of anything else, and… I… I was at the end of my wits. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Well, you put on a whole-ass performance with it. It was convincing to me, so your problems there should be done.”

“I really did choose the most gruesome, fucked up thing to do, didn’t I? Classic me.”

“The critics in there really seemed to be struck by it. High ratings for that crazy prop work you did. That heart and blood really seemed like the real thing.”

She laughed loudly, clutching her reopening side as her face twinged in pain, but she couldn’t hold it back. “Yeah, I found a bucket of blood and a super realistic heart in the infirmary cabinets.”

I found myself laughing uncontrollably along with her. “Thank fuck the last regenerator left it behind for you. Must’ve been a real homie.”

“Yeah we’re actually just unwilling actors on a movie set and everything is fake.”

“Mhm, and all those birds you had are props. Bunch of government drones to keep a watch on us in this meth-induced group hallucination while we trip behind a Wafflehouse dumpster.”

“Yeah, those birds are nasty. Straight up full of battery acid. I gotta stop drinking em. Big battery got my guts fucked up.”

I laughed so hard that I lost my balance against the tree. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t stop laughing. After such a fucked up day, my brain was too fried to react to anything normally. The laughing sputtered out and died down, and I felt so much lighter.

Vetia groaned. “I just reached for my phone again. God damnit. I thought I broke that habit. I just wanna be able to text again. We could keep Brenden and Desmond in the loop of what's going on. Or even just to talk to my family again. That would be nice.”

Both of us fell silent for a moment, and I found myself looking at my own hands, thinking about my family.

If they saw me, they would think I’m a horrible monster or something. Even though we’re both in new bodies, the crazy motherfucker next to me still recognized who I was back at the start. Who I am now. Maybe, even if there is a way back, there might be a sliver of hope. Just a tiny chance that I can go back to how I was. Do I even want that anymore? Manor aside, city aside, it’s not that bad.

Vetia sharply gasped next to me. She pushed into her chest until there was a crack and whispered to herself, “Good lil rib.”

“You feeling a little more up to snuff now?”

“Fuck no, this shit hurts. A little less broken than a few hours ago. This fireblood healing is fucking insane, man. Not like instant regeneration, but as long as I’ve got blood or jzanmah, I can heal just about anything I guess. I was channeling jzanmah when I cut it out, rebuilding my heart as I sliced it, but any normal person would die from that. I mean, I basically killed myself and my body said “fuck it we ballin,” even through my organs and shit factory resetting. See? My left hand is already movable again.” She raised her left hand up and evaluated it in front of the blue, swirling gassy moon. “Still hurts like hell, but it shouldn’t be broken much longer. I think.”

“Are you, like immortal then?”

She stared off, analyzing her memories. “As long as I don’t lose all my blood, I can keep my consciousness, just like I did. I felt you carry me out, but I wasn’t letting my body restart yet. I don’t know, it’s… miserable, but I died, stayed in my body while holding back my healing, and then let my fireblood healing get going again when I sensed we’d stopped.”

“How the fuck did you control that?”

“I died more times than I could count in that cell, Adam. I lost my mind and killed myself some nights… most nights… and then waited in numbness until my eyes dilated from the sunlight when my body would naturally start kicking again. Like, I wasn’t ever fully dead, my body was just a corpse on standby. It’s weirdly peaceful. I’m just glad there weren’t any emergencies or they woulda found my dead ass down there.”

“What, so like Dark Souls?”

A low wheezing laugh like a teapot escaped her mouth, then followed a wild witch cackle into hysterical, crying laughter that never stopped building on itself. “DYING IS JUST LIKE DARK SOULS HAHAHAAH!” She clutched the sides of her head and frantically ripped out chunks of her hair, throwing it out in front of her. “THERE GO MY SOULS HA!” She ignited her hand with the fire sigil and thrust it into the pile of bird corpses, cackling maniacally. “BONFIRE LIT!” She shot up and praised the sun, then kneeled in front of the fire.

What am I supposed to do here?!

“Ve- dude! What are you-?!”

I reached out to grab her hand and she rolled away, leaning over the pile of corpses, bashing her face into the growing fire, flinging blood across the field, reopening all her wounds and catching her whole head of hair on fire while madly rambling, “Kindle! Humanity restored! Level up! Shit I need souls!” She avoided my grasp again, digging her claws her head, ripping away at burning bits of flesh and hair and tossing them onto the pile of burning animal corpses. I stumbled up and grabbed her away, clamping her arms in, smothering the fire on her head, and wrestling her tail from my face, holding her too tightly to move as I stomped away the corpse fire.

“Vetia! Calm down! Dark Souls isn’t real!” After a minute of struggle, her body went limp in my arms and I dropped her, laying her against the tree on the instant. “Fuck! No! I didn’t mean to-”

She laid still, eyes hollowly staring past the hill, lying against the tree in a mindless state that I could only describe as completely mentally shattered. Her weak voice crept through her barely moving lips. “I’ll be fine, I just need time.”

Silence took hold. I leaned back against the tree and the autumn night breeze brushed my face. A massive burden was lifted off my chest, but at the same time I felt several new ones appear. Figuring out what to say to Tells, finding the others, and getting the hell out were each going to be projects. And now I had to worry about the schizo lunatic beside me, but I couldn’t even go with her to keep an eye on her. Some time between watching the stars and dawn, I accidentally fell asleep.

* * * * *

I remember being in a daze at some point in the night. Somebody was shaking my shoulder, and I glanced over and saw the familiar blur of crimson and white, her hair seemingly having grown back and most of the blood cleaned off.

“Hey big guy, I’ve gotta skedaddle before the sun rises. I’m gonna figure out what I can about this world and I’ll try to find the others. I’m not sure what I’ll find, but if you can get the two of you out of that manor, I’ll be checking the farmland by where we came in every day.”

“Wha… huh? Hold on I’ll go-”

“No no no. Sleep. You need it. You’re safe. I’ve already killed most of the wildlife in this area. Don’t worry.”

For some reason my head started spinning and I couldn’t help feeling like my brain was mush, so much so that my next memory was waking up at some point in the middle of the day to Captain Zev somberly prodding at my shoulder with the sheath of his sword, all of the corpses and viscera gone.