The infirmary seemed small for the size of the camp, which made Celeste wonder where they put people if they had very many that were sick. Maybe there was more than one and this one mostly served as the main one. There wasn’t anyone lying on any of the beds when they entered.

“Silvvy, you here?” Bea asked as she walked past the beds and to the door in the back, opening it without even knocking. “I brought a visitor.”

“I’m not up for visitors unless they’re ill or dying.” Came the reply. “I just want a little alone time, is that too much to ask? Just one hour a day…”

“So you’re saying you don’t want to talk to someone who knew Orsic and Davik before you did?” She started to close the door but gave Celeste a wink. “If that’s the way you feel about it, then I guess we’ll leave you to your alone time.”

Celeste would gladly leave if that’s what the woman wanted. Annoying others with her presence wouldn’t win her any favors around here. And the woman had been the one to raise the question about her being from the past. But perhaps she was just being cautious. After all, it was a pretty wild claim.

“Bring her in, Bea, and go do something useful that’s not bothering me.” The door swung open, revealing Silvvy. She was probably around the age of Madame Bustier the last time she saw her. But she did seem to be in good health and now that she looked at her hair, it was a very, very light blond and not white like she thought it had been before.

Bea stepped aside to let her by, gave her a thumbs-up, and had the door shut promptly in her face by Silvvy. The medic sighed and went over to her desk. She pointed to an empty chair. “Go ahead and take a seat unless you prefer to stand. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Celeste took the offered chair as Silvvy went to what looked like her lunch. She ate a couple of bites while she stared at her. Celeste remained silent. Several moments passed before the medic spoke up.

“Did you want to ask me about something or did the others rope you into this?” she questioned. “Orsic thinks I don’t come out of my office enough. He’s one to talk. At least I go to social gatherings when there’s one. He’ll show up for a few minutes and then leave.”

“Owain? Miss a big party?”

Silvvy nodded and took a swig of her drink. “Yes, Orsic is not a party person. I think parties make him depressed, especially since they remind him of who’s missing. It was a lot worse when the conflict with the Renewers was in full swing. He hardly showed up at all. Did wonders for morale, but we somehow managed.”

Things had changed with him. It was still hard to imagine that the friendly, outgoing Owain had become a shut-in of sorts. Then again, it was hard to imagine Derrick as a cruel man who seemed to enjoy the power he had over others. She couldn’t help but let out a loud sigh. How was she supposed to deal with this?

“Would you like a drink?” Silvvy offered. “I have a spare cup and you look like you could use some. Don’t worry, it’s not as strong as that swill you drank last night.”

Celeste took a cup and the medic poured her a glass. Whatever drink it was, it was very pale. It didn’t have much of a taste. But it did help her thirst. Silvvy sat back in her chair and ate the last bite of her meal.

“I should probably explain how I know Orsic...and Davik. I met Davik first, shortly before he earned the name, but I didn’t know him as Derrick very long. I was serving as a medic for the Guard, not my choice mind you. I would’ve been happy continuing my apothecary, but I guess they had other ideas for my knowledge.” She grabbed her cup and chugged it all down. “It was through Derrick that I met Orsic. He had just earned his new name. Orsic and I had several interesting discussions and we became friends. Davik sometimes joined in, but most of the time, he wasn’t interested. Your name was mentioned a few times, but neither one of them talked about you a lot. I had to go to Madame Bustier to learn what had happened with you. I guess it just hurt too much.”

“I assume you were the medic through the civil war.” Celeste nodded and took another small drink.

“One of them, yes.” Silvvy put the cup down and sighed, rubbing her temples. “I’ll be honest, it wasn’t pretty and sometimes I still have nightmares about some of the cases. But still, I don’t think it could’ve been avoided.”

“What made you decide to stay with the Revivers? I know Davik seems to only care about strength, but surely your skills would make up for that…”

“For one thing, I have a limp. That doesn’t make me that great in combat. He likes his medics to be combat-capable. For another, I can’t stand Davik and his band. So, I was left going along with Orsic. Not that I regret the choice, but I wish I had more options available at the time.” Silvvy tilted her head at Celeste. “Why do you ask? Are you thinking about staying here?”

“I-I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.” Celeste ran her hand through her hair. There was so much to consider. The Renewers weren’t an option and didn’t even want her there. The Revivers seemed nice enough, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to constantly battle against their suspicions until they trusted her or see Orsic regularly. “I’m just...trying to consider all my options. I can’t stay in Rusty’s shed forever.”

“If you want my advice, Celeste, don’t get yourself mixed up in the whole Reviver/Renewer thing. I know it sounds odd coming from a senior staff member of the camp, but as I said before, I didn’t have options. You do and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Silvvy put the glass on top of the plate and took the plate and left it outside the infirmary before coming back in. “There’s a lot of history between the groups, history that needs to be experienced to be understood. Sure, someone could, and should, tell you the whole story, but you’ll never be able to understand the emotions of that time just by hearing about it. If you’re going to join anyone, I suggest one of the smaller camps around here. Most of them are Reviver/Renewer allied, but not a part of either camp.”

“And this Unification group that’s been running around? What are they about?” Not that she considered joining them, but she was curious. And the fact that Orsic had mentioned them meant that someone on his senior staff probably knew about them.

“There’s something off about them. For one thing, we don’t know who their leader is. We thought it was the man who came to camp but seeing that he’s dead and we saw a small group bearing their symbol hanging around near the border between us and the Badlands. Since none of the dwarves who have visited mentioned an armed group coming through their territory, they must be coming via Costa Tira.”

Costa Tira occupied the whole shoreline from the mountains to the north to the country south of the Badlands, making it a long, skinny country. They were also very rich because of it and could afford a really good military, which was probably the only reason Feon never tried to seize territory from them. If a whole group was coming in through there, they had to have a lot of money to be allowed passage. That did not bode well.

“A foreign invasion?”

“I don’t think so. There were a few foreigners in the detachment that came here, but they were mostly Feonians. You see, when the civil war first started, several of the lower class nobles left the country along with several other people. Some went across the Badlands, some stayed with the dwarves, several took refuge with the Elves, but most went to Coast Tira and rumor has it a group went out to sea to a whole different continent. It’s just odd that any of those groups would be moving after all of this time. If a noble wanted to come in and put themselves on the throne, you think they’d come right after the war was over or right after our conflict with the Renewers cooled down from all-out war to occasional skirmishes and ambushes.”

Sometimes, Celeste forgot that Feon had a monarch. They were rarely seen in public in the Innermost Rings, much less the Middle or Outer Rings. Even most of the Guard rarely declared that anything was being down under the order of the king or queen, but some duke, duchess, earl, or whatever noble there was.

“Maybe the king had a secret kid that they sent to another country and they’ve come to finally reclaim their birthright now that they’re old enough?” She questioned. “That does happen quite often.”

“I doubt it. The last king was pretty sickly. He probably never felt well enough to spend the night with anyone. Now, I suppose it could be the king’s brother’s kid, though they would be better off staying where the king's brother was assigned as ambassador. I don’t see why they’d want to come back. There’s nothing for them here.”

Celeste found that she couldn’t answer. Silvvy was right. With Feon gone, there was nothing left for those who used to rule. And even if they wanted to just because they thought it was destiny, no one would accept any one of a noble house as a ruler. That point was probably the only thing Renewers and Revivers agreed on. It seemed like the fact that they weren’t around anymore, aside from the few who were lucky enough to survive the Shattering was one thing she had heard no one regret. But it sounded like the Unification group was a good group to stay away from, at least until it was clear who they were and what their goal was, especially if they had purposefully sent that group to die against the Renewers.

“You barely know me, yet you’re giving me advice.” Celeste put her cup down. She had drunk all of the drink at this point and she knew she probably shouldn’t drink much more of it. “With the way you were acting early, I thought you didn’t trust me at all.”

“I didn’t. But since Orsic does, I figured I should give you the benefit of the doubt. I might question some of his decisions, but not this one. I don’t think he made it lightly, seeing how much sleep he lost since Glyda came back with her report about you.” She took the empty cup up. “Besides, it’s nice to talk to someone else who was close to Orsic before… well…” She waved her hand around. “All of this. There’s not many of us around anymore. I think on this side, it’s just me and perhaps Quinn. But I barely count Quinn since any memories he has of meeting Orsic before the war are going to be from Malatar.”

“Memories from Malatar?” Celeste thought she knew what she meant, but her phrasing was odd. “You mean he didn’t meet Orsic until the civil war but Malatar told him about meeting him?”

Silvvy shook her head. “No, I meant what I said. And you must be even more out of the loop than I thought if you don’t know the deal with Malatar, Quin, Tundra, and Seraque. Without getting too complicated, let’s just say that they’re dolls and Malatar was the first one created, then the others were molded after him, which is why they all look similar but slightly different.”

Celeste took a moment to process what the medic said. That only made things make less sense than they had before.

“Dolls? But they’re flesh, not wood or cloth or stone…”

The medic threw her hands up. “No, you’re thinking too literally. Have you never read tales about artificially created beings? There’s plenty of them out there.”

“I mean, there was one where a wooden puppet came to life, but I doubt that’s what happened with him and the others. How do you create a human?” She tilted her head. “Other than the usual way?”

“An eccentric noble with too many resources and too much time on his hands. I don’t know how he did it, just that he combined all the elements in such a way that it created artificial beings that had the intelligence of cattle. Then one day, he managed to create Malatar, who had human intelligence. After that, he managed to create the other three, and then the nobles started mass producing more beings based on the three of them. That’s where they got a lot of their numbers from during the war.”

Celeste couldn’t find anything to say about what the medic told her. Malatar and the other three were created from nothing? How was that possible? She was aware of the fact that all living things were made up of the four elements, but she had never heard of anyone just putting the four together and making a person. Not even the dwarves, who were known for creating things, had ever done something like that.

The medic shook her head in response to her confused look. “Maybe I’ve said too much that goes over your head. If you want details, you’ll have to ask Quin, though he won’t answer. Malatar would happily tell you, but for a price. Let’s just say that yes, in a way Quin and Malatar are twins, but they’re not really.”

Celeste simply nodded. It made some sense but raised more questions than answers. She was about to change the subject back to Orsic or even Davik when Bea burst into the infirmary.

"Sorry to break this up, but you need to come with me, Celeste." Bea didn't even allow her to get up before she grabbed her arm and started pulling her out.

"What's going on?"

"Tundar and Seraque are here and they want to see you. They’re outside the gate and they're not being quiet about it either. Anyone living near the wall can hear them yelling. You need to see what they want and get them to go away as quickly as possible. The longer they stay, the more they'll convince people of where your loyalty supposedly lies. Despite everyone knowing how manipulative they can be, somehow people always end up listening to them and it becomes a huge mess for several weeks.

But what could the Inquisitors want with her this time? Hopefully, it wasn't another summons. She was pretty sure she couldn’t face Davik again so soon.