Standing behind Daniel was the woman from the battlefield, Diane. She was taller up close, probably seven feet, possibly shorter, but only slightly. Up close, Daniel could see the scars on her face. She glared down at Daniel.
“What are you looking at?”
“Sorry, aunt Diane.” Sarah apologized.
Aunt? Daniel looked at the two of them. This woman’s face shape didn’t match Sarah’s much, but their eyes, Daniel could see it, they had similar eyes. As for Jace, he could see that they had the same high cheekbones.
She completely ignored Daniel and looked at Sarah. “Have you determined who he is.”
“Disciple of Western Fiend.”
Diane didn’t seem fazed, unlike the other two. She looked down at Daniel, staring at him. He could tell that she was sizing him up. He recognized it when someone went to check a person out. A person could tell how strong a person was based on their stance. How a person stands told about their foundation. A strong foundation increased a person’s defense and striking ability.
“I can see it,” she commented.
While she was looking at him, he was also sizing her up. Her foundation was strong. Her left leg was slightly longer, making her balance slightly off center with her just standing there. She also had a rather sizable muscles in her arms. She not only was a leader of the Traditionalists, she also had the power to back it up. Daniel estimated that he could land fifty out of a possible thousand.
“Hey kid, what’s the Western Fiend doing in the Pure Land Territory?”
Daniel sighed. “I have no idea. My sifu and I have been wandering for years in the wastelands. I’m guessing we stopped here because it just so happened to be on our way.”
The Traditionalist’s leader nodded her head. She then turned back to her niece. “So why is he here? You should be bringing him back.”
Sarah looked at Jace.
Even if she didn’t mean to, that was all Diane needed to see. “What did you do?” She didn’t shout. But there was something there, a threat, daring her nephew to say something to make her angry.
Jace, the usual talker, found it in his best self-interest to keep his mouth shut.
“It’s just a slight cut,” Daniel tried his best to sound fine.
Diane glared at him. “I didn’t ask you.”
“He asked me something,” Jace said in a rush. “I thought it was a threat, so I wanted to give him a warning cut.”
“How deep?” Diane asked.
The room was silent.
“How deep!” Diane asked. She stuck her hand out. Her hands were claws of a wild beast, threatening to claw at Jace, tearing him limb from limb.
Sarah moved in front of her hand. Diane’s hand stopped, her palm thrusting into Sarah’s chest. Sarah moved back a few steps, but she did not falter. She spat out blood on the ground. She stared at her aunt. She didn’t seem like some helpless little girl, she was mother bear watching over her young.
Diane didn’t say anything.
Jace ran to his sister. “Sarah, are you ok?”
Sarah began to nod. Just as her head was going down, the rest of her body went with her. Jace was already ready. He held onto her arm and ensured that she didn’t fall too far. Her body was slumped and her legs couldn’t keep their composture.
“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked.
“Quickly, hand me that bottle there.” Jace pointed towards a green bottle on the shelf.
Daniel saw it was a twist off. So he twisted it off before handing it to Jace.
“Thanks,” he said as he took the bottle from Daniel. He reached his finger in to take out a paste like substance. A strange, soothing scent came from the bottle. Jace placed the paste on Sarah’s neck.
“Is she going to be ok?” Daniel asked.
“She wasn’t hurt too bad. Good thing we had the stuff near us before it spread.”
Daniel took a look at the area where Jace applied the paste. He could see that a part of Sarah’s neck was starting to turn dark, as though it were losing oxygen.
Sarah coughed. Jace heaved a sigh of relief.
“What happened?” Daniel asked again now that Jace seemed calmer.
“Two headed Diamond Rattlesnake Venom,” Jace hissed.
Daniel knew of that mutant, they were native to this particular region. They were descended from Timber Rattlesnakes. But if one saw one, they wouldn’t see much of a resemblance except in the color of their scales. The color was right, but it had the pattern of a diamond and they had two heads and had a length of up to ten feet long. While traveling, Daniel saw one partially buried in the sand, basking in the sun.
When he heard that she had used the venom, Daniel felt both shock and fear. People said that his uncle was a monster.
Diane looked down at her fingernails.
Daniel followed her gaze. She had fake fingernails on. There was a kind of shine on them.
A poison master. Although they were known as poison master, there was a difference between poison and venom, but poison was more prominent in people’s minds, thus many just referred to them as such.
Daniel knew how deadly someone who had mastered the arts of poisons was. He only knew one other poison master, his uncle’s friend, Lian. Although friend would have been too strong of a word. It would have been more accurate to call him Gram’s supplier. Whatever price he gave, Gram paid. Even when it was more expensive than before, Gram would pay it.
One time, Daniel asked why he would be willing to pay such a price. Gram told him, in battle, it would take roughly ten cuts to put someone down. With a single drop of the right poison, only a single cut could take a life.
The three of them stared down at Sarah. Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing.
“Get her back to her room,” Diane ordered.
Jace nodded. He picked her up and began to walk away.
Daniel followed after.
“Not you,” Daniel heard her say as he turned his back. He turned around and found that Diane was looking at him. “You’re coming with me.”
Daniel looked as Jace was leaving. But he didn’t go with him. He turned back and picked up his shirt. He then followed after her.
She began to walk in the opposite direction. She walked past different rows. Daniel’s eyes wandered through the aisles. He saw a few more medicines in the vicinity, but there were also large bins filled with spices, expired candy, and other odds and ends.
“Will she be ok?” Daniel asked.
“The concoction was our own brew. I can be rather forgetful I have these on,” she held up her nails, more for her to see, but Daniel could see them as well. They didn’t look sharp at first glance, but with a closer glance, he could see the edges of the nail were filed down to a sharp edge.
It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that a person tended to forget.
“After all these years, one would think I would have found a suitable replacement,” she gave a halfhearted laugh. “Sorry, there’s something about you that- never mind. Tell me what were you saying about the Lone Rider Gang earlier.”
“My sifu once killed a group of them that attacked my home.”
For the first time since Daniel had known her, Diane smiled. “So they were killed?”
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“All of them,” Daniel nodded. “I was the only one to survive, that was why my sifu took me into his care.”
“Good. Good. Good.” Her face changed as she took all his words in. Diane to let out a snort. “I doubt he did took you in out of the goodness of his heart.”
“I know he didn’t,” Daniel replied. If it wasn’t for the fact that his mother had asked him, he knew his uncle would have just left him to fend for himself. But now that his sister had asked him, Gram, while still stubborn and brutal in his training, actually showed that he cared for Daniel. Not many people would be willing to part with their money, even to their children, let alone three gold piece. Even his brutality was meant to teach Daniel. Whatever he did, he knew that the world would do worse. Thus, he needed to be prepared for whatever life threw at him.
Daniel felt nothing but grateful to his uncle.
“Tell me kid, what’s your name?”
“Daniel,” Daniel said. Knowing someone’s name wasn’t that big in the world. Besides, he doubted that there were people who even knew or even cared about his name.”
“Do you have a family name?”
“It was too long ago,” Daniel said, “I barely remember things from that time.” He didn’t know whether she could see through lies like her niece, but he felt that he should be cautious.
“My sifu showed me a piece of the motorcycle that one of the Lone Riders rode. It had their symbol on it.”
“Besides your sifu saving you, do you have any other connection to him?”
Daniel was caught off guard. He didn’t know what to say.
She continued on without even allowing Daniel a chance to respond. “Because I would like you to join the Traditionalists?”
“Me?” Daniel sounded surprised. Although his assessment was that he could land fifty blows on her, the ones that he could manage were only superficial ones. And even if he got away for a breath’s worth of time, where would he even go. He still had no clue how to get back to town.
“You have a strong foundation. And being so young, you would have plenty of time to grow and have much longer time to defend this tech cache or even go to our other branches.”
“There are others?” Daniel asked.
“Naturally,” the woman replied. “Traditionalists have spread throughout the wastelands looking for tech cache.”
While Daniel didn’t find her to be that nice of a person, he still felt that she had her heart in the right place. He couldn’t fault her for that. He also didn’t want to tell his uncle anything that he learned from here, because he knew that if his uncle asked, he would tell. He had enough beatings over the past five years that his mind didn’t even think when his uncle asked him a question.
“I should ask my sifu first,” Daniel said. That sounded like the best response he could come up with. It made him sound bound to his honor, and any upright and true righteous people would understand that.
“Very well, we can ask him when you get back to him. Which,” Diane drew out the word, “how badly were you injured.”
“Not at all,” Daniel said, “it was only half an inch cut.”
Diane’s eyes went wide. “That much and you’re able to keep walking.”
“Yes.” Daniel gave his best cheeky smile. Now that he thought about it, he never really thought about how durable other people’s bodies were. For Daniel, half an inch deep of a cut wasn’t that difficult for him to heal. And with his qi, he could expel some germs and bacteria from his body. Actually after he left the room, he had clinched the area of the wound to minimize the amount of blood that came out.
She looked down. There was definitely puncture wound on Daniel’s back. It was slightly off to the side of any major organs, but it still looked like it should be painful. “We’ll get someone to tend that,” Diane assured.
“Please don’t hold it against Jace,” Diane said.
“Sarah already told me what happened to him,” Daniel explained. He had heard of worse cases.
Diane led Daniel over to an area off to an area where makeshift benches were set. They were wooden benches, but they were different kinds of wood. And the edges of the wood were wavy, and not in the artistic way.
She took a seat. She then clapped her hands. From around the aisle, a man appeared. He was middle aged man. In the olden days, he would have seemed to be half his life. But in this era, he practically had a foot in the grave already.
In the man’s hands was a box with a latch on it.
“Jeffry is our best doctors,” Diane explained.
Daniel looked at the man. He guessed he might as well indulge his host. He took a seat, exposing the wound to the doctor.
Jeffry set down his box on the bench. On the inside it had multiple layers to it. He just had to push back the top layer to reveal the others. The shape was similar to a staircase. He grabbed a bottle that was filled with some kind of fluid. Alcohol, Daniel guessed.
He grabbed a cloth and poured some of the alcohol on it. He then wiped the area where the wound was.
Daniel gritted his teeth in pain. “This is your best doctor?” Daniel laughed through the pain.
“Our only doctor,” Diane clarified.
That made more sense.
Jeffry put the cloth and the bottle to the side.
He took out two more objects from the box.
He took out a small device. It was roughly the size of a hand. There was a plastic piece on the bottom that held some flammable substance. On the top was a piece of metal and flint. He struck the lever and the lighter flashed to life. A small flame burned at the top.
In his other hand, Jeffry took out a small metal needle. On one end was the point, and on the other, there was string tied to the end. Jeffry began to heat up the end of the needle. He held it there, over the flame, watching at the metal was starting to glow hot from the flame.
Once it was sufficiently hot, he began to thread the opened wound closed. Daniel grunted in pain through it, but he didn’t cry out. The pain was slightly worse than the beatings his uncle gave him. But it still caused him to grit his teeth.
After it was all done, Daniel let out a sigh.
“Impressive,” Jeffry remarked.
“What?” Daniel tried to look, but it was a part of his back where he couldn’t see.
“Your skin, it was rather tough, much harder than most people your age.”
“Oh,” Daniel said. He wondered if that his qi, a natural response to the pain or if his body had just gotten naturally hard after all the years training against his uncle. He wanted to ask the doctor about it, but Diane didn’t waste any time.
“How long before he’s ready for far distance travel,” she asked.
“Based on his wounds-” Jeffry looked up in the air as he began thinking inside his head. After a few seconds, he came up with an answer. “I’d say tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Diane asked.
Jeffry nodded. “As I said, quite impressive.”
“Is that even possible?” She asked.
Jeffry shrugged. “I’m just a small town doctor. But if you ask me, he should be ready to go around noon time tomorrow.”
The answer seemed to satisfy Diane.
“Fine then.” She stood up and motioned for Daniel to follow her. “Let’s see what we can do about lodging.”
She took Daniel down the aisle until they found an area that must have been added. The wall that was put around the area was a completely different color from the rest of the building. To be more precise, the wall wasn’t even painted, the wood could still be seen and it stuck out like a sore thumb on the blue walls.
Off to the left side of the wall was a door. It was the only part of the wall that had any pain on it. But the white paint was already starting to flake off.
Diane opened the door to reveal a hallway. “Girls go straight ahead, boys are off to the far end. And if you are neither, there is an area just past the bathrooms.”
Daniel looked down the hallway in front of him. It curved off, so that no one could see the entrance to the girl’s dorm. But Daniel had no interest there. He went off to the right.
Just as Diane had said, the first threshold he saw was for the bathrooms. There was no door, but an area that sectioned off into two small hallways. Signs were placed on the door, with the one with a circle having a W on it and the one with the triangle having an M on it. Even though there were doors on it, he could still smell the stench of the place. Still, the area did seem like it had indoor plumbing, so Daniel was fine with it.
Daniel went past the bathrooms and went to the very end of the hallway. There, he found a door much like the one that opened to this area. He opened the door and found that there were only two other people in the room.
Jace was sitting on the side of a bed, a chair placed right next to him. The bed in question looked more like a stretcher with it being nothing more than a cloth over two pieces of wood that held it taut. He looked up when the door opened.
Daniel looked at the bed with Sarah in it.
“Is this everyone here?” Daniel asked.
“For now,” Jace said. “There are a few girls in the girls dorm. They didn’t let me in, so I just decided to bring her here for now.”
“And there are other people here?”
“Yeah, we do drills and trainings during the day. The only reason we-” he gestured to Sarah and himself. “-didn’t was because aunt Diane asked us to watch over you.”
Daniel nodded. “So is just anywhere fine, or does everyone have their preferred places to rest?”
Jace pointed towards a couple beds, actual beds with mattresses on them, explaining that the people who slept there were the older people and needed to have a better area to sleep. As for the others, people didn’t really mind, so Daniel took a seat on one of them.
“Does your aunt often accidentally poison your sister-” Daniel began to say. But he stopped, but it was already too late.
Jace didn’t seem to react at all as though this question came up a lot. “Not too often, but it does happen on occasion. In the olden days, she has what is called Attention Deficit Disorder or something. I wasn’t really paying attention when she was telling me that stuff. Anyway, being the leader sometimes distracts her from taking care of the little things around her.”
“And she’s in charge?” Daniel asked.
Jace held up his hands. “Don’t get me wrong, my aunt has her flaws, but she is the only one qualified to act as our leader. She’s been looking for a successor, for a long time but-“ Jace looked down. “they don’t always seem to work out.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, my aunt once had three possible people. One was this really nice guy, got along with everyone. He died from radiation poisoning from some food he ate. Then there was this girl, she was strong like my aunt, not exactly the most friendly, but enough that people didn’t mind her being in charge. She got killed in battle.” Jace seemed to go silent.
“And the last one?” Daniel prompted. He wondered if Jace had forgotten he talking.
“She- she sold out the Traditionalist, getting a lot of traditionalists captured and sold into slavery. Our order almost didn’t recover.”
Daniel could see it on Jace’s face. It looked as though someone poured a bucket of ice on his back. “Was your mother one of them?”
Jace nodded. His face had gotten cold. He gripped his pants so hard that Daniel expected them to tear.
“Well, there’ve got to be other people who can take charge?
Based on what Daniel saw, there were at least twenty beds in the area. A place that had this many should at least a few candidates.
“No one. Everyone is too young. Or they weren’t born into the sect. Or too many people don’t trust them. My aunt can’t really handle it all, but she is the only one that can.” Jace’s voice was starting to rise. But he realized he was shouting, and took a breath. “Sorry, I guess seeing my sister like this affected me more than I realized.”
“Maybe both of us should get some rest,” Daniel suggested.
“Yeah,” Jace hopped into the nearest bed.
Not even a second passed before Jace asked, “So what did aunt Diane want with you?”
Daniel stretched. “She asked me to join the Traditionalists.”
Jace went right back up. “Really?”
“I told her I needed to check with my sifu first.”
“Do you think he’ll let you join?”
“Unlikely,” Daniel said. But he didn’t know for sure. Gram was still an enigma to him. Even after traveling with his uncle for so long, there were still parts to his uncle that were still a mystery. But the more Daniel thought about it, the more he was unsure whether he actually wanted to leave his uncle.