PreCursive

  I accepted the gss of water from Renauld from my pce sitting ba the cot. Said Gnoll sat o me on it, flopping onto the this with a sigh. We sat in silence for a moment, and after I had finished guzzling the liquid, I broke it. “So, how did you make it?”

  Renauld cut his eyes my way, deep bags visible underh them even through his fur. “Mainly due to the band,” He said, refereng his merpany that was seeming less and less like a cover. “When that crazy thing demolished Fort Duality and the Revenants started popping up, we andeered a local Guardhouse. We…tried to shelter as many civilians as we could through the sughter, but…” He shuddered. “It was a bloodbath out there, Nate. I don’t know if you were in Elderwyck at the time, but I think at least a quarter of the popution here got eaten. Probably more.”

  I nodded quietly at his statement. I…remember thinking that it must be pretty damn bad in Elderwyck, while we were skulking through Ttec. I wasn’t very happy to have been proven right.

  “So, we’re in Elderwyck then,” I said, trying to take his mind off of whatever had happeo him. “How did I get here? Last thing I remember I was…bg out after a fall at the Fort.” I paused for a moment, examining myself. “How long was I even out for? I wasn’t i shape when I was knocked out, and I’m fine now.”

  Maybe he had healed me? There was no way I had been out for long enough for my Status to take care of my injuries.

  “Oh, so you don’t remember then,” Renauld said, nodding to himself. “It was actually Honoka that rescued you.”

  I jerked i that, my eyes widening. Honoka was here? I almost instinctually looked around for her, but there was no point to that. I have no doubt the older woman would have made herself known by now if she had been. “Where is she?” I said in shock. “How did she eve here so quickly? Is…Grey here too?” I said, hope in my voice. I stood up quickly, the thought of both of them reminding me of someone just as important to me that needed help.

  Renauld stood up as well. “Uh, well,” He stuttered a little, taken aback by my sudden energy. “The Army and the Headmaster aren’t here, no. It’s just Honoka. Acc to her, the Headmaster khey wouldn’t get here quiough to help with the Camity, so he sent her on ahead. She apparently flew the entire way here.”

  I cursed, my hopes dashed. Still, if I knew Honoka at all, she robably frantically looking for someoh cared about. I was a little startled she hadn’t been there at my bedside to demand if I knew where she was. “Where is she?” I asked him urgently, before ahought occurred to me. “Have you seen annoll too?! A female, with white fur!” For a dread-indug moment, I was terrified at the possibility that Liora had been killed in the brief period between when I had left her, and when Rhazal had been sin. What if a new Revenant had been spawned, and it had found her helpless, unscious body?

  Thankfully, those fears were put to rest.

  “Calm down,” A quiet female voice said from behind me. “I’m right here, Hart.”

  A feeling of relief so intehat I nearly passed out agai over me, because I reized that voice. I steadied myself and turned around, to see a very wele sight, standing in the doorway of the makeshift ic.

  Liora.

  She looked to have ed up a little, as the st time I had seen her, she had been in torn and battle-dirtied Loyalist armor like I had. In fact, she wasn’t wearing armor at all. The Gnoll woman was in civvies, stained with what looked like dust and blood and looking more than a bit tired.

  I couldn’t help myself. I rapidly approached her, and swept her up in a hug like I had Renauld. She stiffened awkwardly but didn’t get the ce to return the embrace before I pulled bad looked her in the eye, my hands clutg her shoulders desperately. “Liora, we o go get-” I tried to get out urgently, before Liora interrupted me.

  “Whi-Sylvia,” She corrected herself. “Has already beerieved from the Lich’s tomb, along with the girl. Lady Honoka is seeing to her at another location, while Isolde has been pced in protective custody.”

  I slumped in relief, letting out a long sigh. Suddenly aware of the grip I had on the Gnoll, I gingerly let go of her with a rough apology and stepped back. “That’s…good,” I breathed. “Maybe Honoka get her up again.”

  Unfortunately, Liora immediately dashed my hopes by shaking her head. “I’m afraid not,” She said, slight regret in her voice. “Acc to the Lady, the Lich was corre his assessment. Whatever is keeping Sylvia asleep, it will require Gre’s expertise to solve. She does not have the ability to diagnose her.”

  I nodded slowly, disappointed but unsurprised. “As long as she’s fiil then, I…suppose I’ll just wait,” I said lowly. We stood around in silence for a moment, before Liora broke it.

  “You were able to do it, then.” She said, in more of a statement, than a question. “There are still questions among the citizenry about how the Camity was sin, and by who.”

  “After a fashion…yes,” I answered her, aware that it was way more plicated than me just out and out killing Rhazal. “I did deal the final blow.”

  We were all startled, then, when the sound of a crash and then a smming door echoed from the front door of the ic. I hadn’t been paying attention to anything over Liora’s shoulder, so I hadn’t caught it in time.

  But it looked like there had been an eavesdropper hanging around the front of the building, spying on my reunion with Liora. I only caught a brief glimpse of some random teenager scrambling as he took off dowreet. For a moment, I was tempted to sprint out of the id try and catch the little shit and ask what he to, but I…frankly I didn’t have the strength to do so. I still felt t out from everything that had happened, with a queasiness in my stomach that hadn’t disappeared since I’d woken.

  Liora, Renauld, and a handful of the other nurses in here had seen the otion as well. I cut my eyes over to my fellow ex-Agent. “How much do you think he heard?”

  Liora sighed. “Enough, most likely,” She said tiredly. “You expect rumors of the man who slew the Camity to start cirg oreets before days end. You do have a distinctive apppeanance, after all,” She my exposed, Primordium prosthetic. As if in respoo her attention, a brief cascade of reds and blues flowed over its surface. Shaking her head, she spped a long bck leather glove onto my chest. “Here, cover that up. Perhaps it will help.”

  I murmured my thanks and slipped the glove over my prosthetic, thankful she had thought of something like that. I chalked it up treater experien her… now-defunct position. While I was doing that, she had sidled up to Renauld in order to have a brief whispered versation with the noll. When she was done, she turned around and me. “Let’s go. I’ve filled Lady Honoka in all that I could, but she still wished to speak with you. Uandably…I’m not aware of everything that happened.”

  I o show my own uanding, and after exging my goodbyes with Renauld, we left the ic behind.

  I braced myself as I stepped out into Elderwyck. Which was…a good idea.

  I had never seen a more war-torn p my life. And I’d seen my fair share of battlefields, by this point.

  The streets of Elderwyck were beyond ghastly. Bodies and gore were everywhere, and more than a few buildings had simply colpsed uhe assault of the Revenants, spilling rubble into the streets of the city. Everywhere I looked, I only saw two kinds of living people. The first were pletely shell-shocked and traumatized from the experience of running and hiding from Rhazal’s creations. These people were either wandering in a daze, barely responding to the words of those around them, having to be led by the hands of kind workers. Or they were sitting wherever they could, sometimes in the middle of the shattered streets, and weeping to themselves.

  Either quietly, or very, very loudly.

  The sed group was what gave me more hope, though. These people were doing what they could to help others. Everywhere I looked, people were stepping up to either tend to the stri or the streets. Grim-faced survivors searched through rubble, pulling bodies from broken buildings to be loaded onto carts. Kind caregivers urged the near atose out of the roads to quiet pces where they could recover. Impromptu food lines had sprung up from the storefronts of restaurants and bistros, doling out soup and bread to the hungry. In a way, the people of Elderwyck were pulling together in the wake edy.

  I only hoped Herztal could do the same.

  Liora noticed the way my gaze lingered on the aid workers, as she led me through the streets to wherever Honoka and Sylvia were set up. “I’ve been doing the same, since Rhazal was sin,” She said quietly. “It’s been perhaps five hours sihen, and the degree to which the people have rallied is…endable.”

  I g her since her words had reminded me of something. I was almost afraid to broach the subject, but maybe…

  “Have you went and looked for any hint of…” I trailed off, but Liora uood me. There was only one person that she would have gone looking for. Someohat…maybe could have survived their st charge. He had been strong enough, after all.

  Li me for a moment and gave me a slight nod. Without speaking, she reached behio withdraw a familiar pair of daggers from a pouch.

  Hooked ones.

  I took a deep breath and looked away.

  Guess that answered that question.

  “I…moved what remaio Lady Honoka’s current residence,” Liora said quietly, a resigned sadness in her voice. I think it had been a faint hope that our leader would have survived his sacrifice, but it had been a hope heless. I couldn’t imagine how she was feeling.

  I didn’t know what to say to a loss like that, despite my own familiarity with it. So I said nothing.

  I think Liora appreciated that, at the very least.

  We walked the rest of the way through the ruireets of Elderwy silence.

  ………………………………..

  Liora led me te, nearly patial estate farther into the city. I had never been here, but I knew what it was, just from briefings.

  The old Ducal mansion, that had been doo the Elderwy guard.

  I barely gave it more than a disied gnce, as Liora led me up to the rge, ostentatious wooden doors. The few guards that were watg their headquarters had barely given us more than a passing gnce before waving us inside, apparently familiar with the sight of Liora.

  I was a bit surprised by this. Liora had an expnation, though.

  “The war is a distant now,” She said, as we plodded along the path up to the manse. All around us in the garden were relief statio up by both guards and volunteers. They looked to be more than busy with their work, so we didn’t bother them. “After the massacre up at the paone of them are ied in holding firm to an oath to a dead traitor. e, the Lady is just inside.” She said, reag for the handle of the double doors.

  However, both of us had to hastily step aside when they were blown open by a surprising group.

  Orcs.

  A group of five very rid important-looking Orcs stalked out of the manse, either snarling in e or simply scowling. None of them gave us a sed gnce as they stalked back dowh we had just walked down. They practically shoved the wrought iron gate off of it’s hi they left the guard headquarters behind.

  I blinked after them. “Wonder what that’s about?”

  “Nothing good,” Liora said, uedly grim. I looked at her in surprise, to see her shaking her head. “From what I uand, Ttec is furious about the losses they suffered from the Revenants. Their regional Governor is said to have lost his life in the fighting, and to make matters worse, they ’t establish tact with the greater Empire. The Portal Stone is apparently malfuning, and they ’t get through to Indiqua for instrus. And…they’re bming us.”

  I tilted my head in thought. “Holy?” I said aloud, before nodding. “That’s…fair. Nerexxa was impersonating a human noble, and…she’s pretty much at fault for everything.”

  Liora just sighed but didn’t test my words. Instead, she led me inside of the manse and up from the rge double stairs at the far end of the entry hall. Eventually, the Gnoll woman stopped at a door he top of the building.

  It retty obvious that Honoka was inside.

  Because I could feel a furious, powerful presence radiating from the other side of it. It was like I was standing with my back to a bonfire, and I was being cooked slowly from it. I wasn’t, but the sensation was extremely unfortable.

  God, this wasn’t helping my roiling stomach.

  “This is where I leave you,” Liora said, doing her best to ighe presence. I shot her a betrayed look, causio just shrug. “I still give more in the relief efforts. I ot give more, by being shouted at. I’ll…see you ter, Hart.” At that, the Gnoll woman gave me a nod and turned back the way we came.

  “Bye…” I trailed off mely, to Liora’s retreating back. I shook my head at my own silliness. I mean, it’s not like Honoka was going to hurt me or something. I had no reason to be afraid of her. I firmed my will and reached out for the doorknob.

  I yelped and ya back when the flesh of my exposed hand sizzled slightly from the head of the metal.

  Okay, maybe she would. What the hell had her riled up so much? It’s not like Sylvia was dead, after all. Just…atose.

  Whatever, I’d just ask her.

  I reached out with my gloved hand, and gingerly opehe door.

  Oher side of it the room was a heat haze that filled the air. I only had a moment to be relieved by the sight of a seemingly sleeping Sylvia resting on a bed along the far wall, before my attention was stolen by Honoka.

  The older woman was sitting on a chair fag the door I had just open, hunched over and cradling something. At my entrance, her head snapped up with startling speed.

  I was shocked by the sight of tears in her vermillion eyes.

  With a snarl, she stood up, knog her chair backward and holding out something that caused my stomach to drop. “Where did you get this?!” Honoka hissed at me.

  She was holding the staff that I had borrowed from Tzo.

  The staff of the Lich that was supposed to have been, once upon a time, a panion of Grey.

  And hers.

  Oh.

  Shit.