3-59. A Realization in War

The Waverider pulled up to shore and dropped anchor. Holt was nowhere in sight. He’d pulled each body out of the wreckage of the Stormcallers, finished his bloody business, and then disappeared with a mocking wave. Everyone climbed out of the ship, wading out to the beach, and Everett looked a little sheepish as he did.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was supposed to make the ship invisible. It is difficult with a moving target, all while also piloting the vessel.”

“You didn’t turn us invisible?” Sami asked.

“No, I did. You wouldn’t have been able to tell from the inside. The problem was… I am not used to these powers. I forgot to also make our wake invisible.”

“It’s okay,” Sami said. “We’re all learning. And we’re alive.”

“I almost got us all killed. I’m just a burden. I… I can’t even be an effective support. I can’t kill. I can’t… I’m useless, Sami.”

He deflated as he said it. Sami had never seen him like this. Everett was always an endless beacon of optimism. A man who’d always had a smile on his face even when they were at their worst.

But their worst before had never involved actual life-or-death stakes. 

“Do you need a friend right now?” Sami asked. “Or do you need your old captain?”

“The captain,” Everett said. “Please.”

Sami nodded, and then grabbed his shield, and forced him into position. “Then shield up! Take point! And don’t you dare fuck up again, or I’m not going to tell you about the twink I saw at Juala’s funeral.”

“Wait, there was a twink? In these islands of nothing but women? You’re lying.”

She flicked him on the end of his obnoxious snout. “I would never lie to you. Now get to the front, and get ready to defend us, because people will come to investigate those Stormcallers.”

Everett puffed his chest out, and then charged out to the beach, taking up a defensive position. To Sami’s senses, she already knew they were alone. At least for now. But it’d be good to keep Everett occupied.

“You handled that well,” Kir said.

“I’m experienced. I’m not good at it. Not all the time. I’ve made my share of bad calls. But I know how to get someone focused.”

“You’re not the monster you think you are,” Vex said.

The redheaded woman rarely spoke, especially to Sami. It was almost weird to have her focus on someone other than Rua, or Otter. At Sami’s side, she could feel her katana almost… buzz. The presence of the entity she referred to as ‘Three’, the Vexurian that Vex had once been, was making its presence known to her. She didn’t activate her Steelsinging, not even passively. She knew what that particular monster wanted.

“I am exactly the monster I think I am. But right now, that monster is what’s needed, I think.”

There was a somber quiet, and the four of them proceeded inward. The island was wild and untamed, the vegetation out of control. Apparently a side effect of Ashborne’s presence in the Isles, one that should have been a clue to everyone that some remnant of the Mythwalker had survived. 

They moved with the quiet efficiency of predators on the hunt. Reinforcements would be coming soon. They would be met with violence. 

It was Sami’s job to be on the lookout for them. Her focus on Awareness made her an excellent scout. But she wasn’t the one who caught first contact.

Vex went still, the fox-like ears on her head twitching, and she inhaled sharply, and made a small hiss of warning, signaling with her hands she’d sensed enemies near in exactly the way the old members of Pledge used to do. She acted just like a member of their old clan.

Everyone went still for a brief moment, and then hid. Sami and Everett weren’t nearly as skilled at stealth as Il-Su was, but they knew what they were about. They’d all bled their skillsets onto one another, so even though each particular person had an area they excelled in, no one was a novice at anything. Everett gestured to the trees, Sami nodded, and suddenly she was being lifted upwards into a branch by him, just as he ducked under some foliage. 

Kir and Vex moved as well, though not as quickly. They were all in position, though Sami and Everett were able to synch up their attacks through the private chat function of the clan system they’d enrolled in through Holt. 

A patrol of Mikovian soldiers trotted through the overgrowth of the jungle, their footfalls uneven, some tripping over roots and vines as they struggled to move quickly, passed within just feet of their party.

Sami descended on them from the tree, sailing through the air with her blade free. Two were dead before the Mikovians even realized they were in a fight. She was in the middle of their column, flanked on both sides, but as soldiers at the front turned to face her, Everett roared and charged into them, shield-first. He bowled one man over, knocking him from his feet, and without hesitation, muscle memory did the rest.

Everett wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t a violent person. But years in virtual reality games had conditioned him for it anyway. 

The shield came down, the edge of it slamming into the downed Mikovian’s neck, and then Everett whirled about, a hatchet he’d been armed with taking off the hand of the enemy next to him before they could attack.

The sight of blood brought him up short, and Sami realized he was in trouble. And then Vex was there, jumping onto the back of the man Everett had just made, making a half-panicked, half-angry noise. Her hands circled up to grab the man’s face and then… his mouth and nose, the skin and flesh remolded itself, sealing shut. He tried to scream, panic in his eyes, tried to do anything, but he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t make a sound, and he tore at his own face to open a mouth that was no longer there.

Sami recovered, shutting the sight away from her mind. She could have nightmares about that later.

Her sword sang out. She could practically hear it vibrate in enthusiasm, eager to part flesh. She handled one side of the column. Kir joined her, a shortsword and shield at the ready. The two made a good pairing, Kir blocking blows aimed at Sami’s weak spots as she surged forward aggressively. 

Somewhere behind her, Sami heard Everett let out a bellow of anger, and the sound of steel on steel filled the air. She had to trust that he was okay, that he could do this. 

In moments, the fight was over. They’d been outnumbered, but with surprise on their side and superior soul power to fuel them, they crushed the enemy. It didn’t feel good. Sami didn’t know these people. Didn’t know why this conflict had to happen, why the Mikovians were betraying their allies. She barely knew the Silayans, and was really only invested in this because of Rua. 

The whole thing felt bitter and pointless and sickening. She had to try to banish the thoughts as she went through each body, identifying which were her kills. Vex made the business of securing soul crystals easy. She planted a hand on the chest of the body, and it opened up, the soul crystal exposed. No unnecessary surgery necessary. The blood itself even scattered away at her touch. 

When they were done, Vex had received one crystal, Everett two, Kir three, and Sami five. Kir downed hers without complaint, though Sami felt uneasy. She forced hers down, one after the other until they were all gone, setting an example for both Vex and Everett, who finally took theirs.

Sami got two points in Will, one in Agility, one in Tenacity, and one in Awareness. After thinking for a bit, she pulled out a soul crystal she’d been holding onto for some time, one from the Orc she’d killed in Holt’s arena some time ago. She’d been saving it to use as currency to buy clan upgrades later, but it just wasn’t the time for that. She didn’t know if she’d be alive tomorrow, much less whenever they’d have enough crystals for upgrading their clan. She swallowed it, the crystal feeling large as it went down her throat, pushing against her esophagus, and then it was gone, dissolved instantly in her belly. The options came up, and she selected the obvious choice for Strength. It went up by three points. 

She flexed her hand experimentally. The tendons felt a little different, a little sharper, unfamiliar. But then that sensation faded, her body adjusting in seconds as if this had always been her proper level of strength. 

“We need to get moving,” Kir said. She sounded tired.

Sami nodded, and they began marching. “Are you okay?”

“No. Those were my own people. But it had to be done.”

Sami nodded. She didn’t know what else to say. How would she have felt in Kir’s place, if she were suddenly in a position where she had to kill members of Pledge?

Well, other than Il-Su.

Sami could fantasize about that all day long.

They moved silently through the forest, and the woods seemed to bend out of their way to grant them passage. Sami shot a look at Everett, who patted his chest pocket, where the offspring of Ashborne resided. Apparently the little Mythwalker had a use. 

Sami’s menu blared, a priority message coming through. She answered the call, pitching her voice low. Rua’s face appeared in a chat window.

“Is that you making all that noise?” Rua asked. She looked worried.

“I can’t answer that,” Sami said. “You’re compromised. Unless…”

Rua shook her head. “Kir’s Pact is still in effect, despite whatever she did. It feels different, though. Brittle. I don’t think I can act against an order, but I have… wiggle room that I didn’t have before.”

“Can you use it? To free yourself, or…”

“To free myself? No. But… I have an idea. One I’m trying not to think about too hard. Yurgein is here, and while he hasn’t been ordered to scan my mind, he might do it anyway.”

That made sense. Telepaths, no matter what they were called in this world, were bothersome. Why did the Dreamers see fit to hand out that toolkit? 

Rua glanced behind her, reassuring herself, and then said, “We’re currently stationed at the Wayfaring gate. Something feels off about this impromptu town the Mikovians have built, but I don’t know what it is. Something’s bothering me about it.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, I… Fables. Have to go. Don’t let Otter do anything stupid.”

And then the message ended. 

Sami relayed the small bit that she’d learned with the others, and Kir shrugged. “I don’t know what it could be. I haven’t been cleared to really be near the Wayfaring gate. I’ve only been to it a handful of times. I haven’t even interacted with any of the soldiers that’ve come through. I’m guessing my father just put them under someone else’s command.”

Had Old Grey foreseen Kir’s betrayal? Had he been cautious, deliberately keeping vital information about troop movements away from her ahead of time? It didn’t seem to match up with what little she knew about the man. He sounded impulsive, boisterous, with all the guile and cunning of a warhammer to the face. Not stupid, just… straightforward. 

Sami mulled it over as they travelled. In the distance, they heard soldiers moving and barking orders, but they were always far off, heading to the beach they’d just come from, and not in their direction. They’d managed to evade further detection, likely from mini-Ashborne’s efforts. 

They hiked for two hours, through dense forest, through two sudden rain showers that disappeared nearly as suddenly as they came, and were sweaty and wet and dirty when they finally emerged from the treeline. In the distance they could see the small town that had been built around the Wayfaring station. Some of the houses were built in the Mikovian fashion, the kind of house Sami expected to see in some kind of Middle Ages peasant village, but some were the stilt houses of the Silayans. And all around the town, there were small farms. Apparently the Mikovians weren’t just invading. They were colonizing. 

“Up ahead,” Kir said. “The walls aren’t built yet, not fully. Might as well just tell a story to us as we sleep if that were the case. We have a full avenue to approach.”

But Sami was examining the town. There weren’t that many soldiers. With her heightened Awareness, she could pick out details from as far as they were.

There weren’t that many soldiers at all. Next to none, really.

She could see Old Grey in the distance. She could see Kir’s so-called Ice Watch. Rua was doubtless among them. But other than that, no uniformed or armored soldiers. Were they all out scouting for their party?

No, that didn’t make sense. They hadn’t avoided that many soldiers.

Sami focused on that town. And something clicked in place. Because there were other people there. And they weren’t soldiers. They were farmers. Merchants. There were bread lines, where food was being handed out to people. Communal stew being cooked and handed out. More seemed focused on building more houses. Not military barracks. Houses.

Sami knew what this was. Why Old Grey hadn’t told Kir about it, not until he needed to. It’d never been about operational security. Why the Mikovians were risking attacking their allies just to secure an island in what could become hostile territory.

This wasn’t an invasion force.

This was a refugee camp.

And something terrifying entered Sami’s mind, as she looked at the Wayfaring station. If this was a refugee camp, if this was the Mikovians running en masse… what were they running from?