The camp was abuzz with the news. Shea betrayed everyone to gain Mistress’ favour. Without success. That’s why she was still here. Hiding in her room. But her betrayal will result in everyone’s misery. It was well known that Mistress was already concocting a plan to steal Iago away.

Alec listened to the whispers, knowing better than to believe them. Yet worry still wormed into his heart. Whatever the reason, if Shea made contact with the Mistress and told her about Iago shaping food for them, they were doomed. They couldn’t fight against her coming to pick him up and forcing him to serve her.

There never was a chance for that. And neither could Iago resist himself. By his own admission he was never a great talent.

If at some point Alec had doubted the claim, lately he was coming to believe it. Previously the shaper was fine. But with the addition of more people and having to shape sand rather than old, rotten products, he was ageing by hours. Every time Alec met him the man looked more haggard and thin, the light in his eyes dimmer.

How long would he be able to last like this? He didn’t want to consider this but who else would. It was his task to protect the survivors. From themselves if that was what it took.

On his way to the tower, he met Scorpius striding purposely towards him. “We need to talk,” Iago’s caretaker said in a commanding voice that brook no argument. Having the same thought, Alec nodded and led to a side street where they found a crumbled house.

“We shouldn’t be interrupted here,” he said and sat down on a large stone.

Scorpius didn’t follow him and stood in the middle of the street. He was dressed in his usual dark brown knee length cloak and a thin and extremely long red scarf. It was wrapped five times around his neck, with a few looser lengths falling to his arms. Still the ends hung past his mid section and flew around him with the blow of the wind.

Not for the first time Alec wondered how he wasn’t boiling in that get up. Especially since he didn’t cut his hair either. It reached his shoulders and hung in a mess around his face, often hiding his features. Or right now making it look like his two eyes stared from a deep dark hole. Uncanny.

“Have you talked with Mala lately?” Scorpius asked and Alec was puzzled where he was going with this. Did he want Alec to control her? He knew the two didn’t get along. To put it nicely. But the shaper’s assistant should know better than to think Alec was capable of ordering her around.

She thought Iago was the Lady’s chosen champion, and told that to anyone who would listen. Unsurprisingly, many listened. Their fear and awe of the shaper made it easy to deify him.

“No. Should I?”

“This morning she came to Iago telling him to bring the rain back.”

Alec raised an eyebrow. That was new. “Can he?”

“Of course not!” Scorpius burst out, his face twisting in anger. “Who do you think he is?” Alec refrained from replying which only seemed to infuriate the man before him even more. Fisting his hands, he glared at Alec. Then shook his head and started to pace.

“He’s just a man. Stronger than many, smarter than most and certainly kinder but that does not make him a deity! He can call down the rain no more than you or I can.” His eyes met Alec’s to make sure he was paying attention. “All he can do is shape the water that everyone needs. But it would kill him! He’s already on death’s door, you must know that! If this continues..! And you want to add even more burdens on him? Have you no brains in that head of yours? He can’t take it!”

“I wasn’t the one who thought of it!” Alec spluttered, pushing himself off the rock. This was pure idiocy. Even Mala had to see the shaper was standing on his last legs. A smallest wind could push him in Lady Death’s embrace. “I knew nothing of this! Otherwise I’d have stopped it before Iago heard anything of it!”

He swore under his breath. What was Mala thinking? Iago was their only lifeline. Without him they were dead. They should be thinking of ways to ease his load, not to add to it!

Thinking about the mess she brought out, he took up Scorpius’ pacing. “We’re running low on water but it’s not that bad. We can last a week at the least. Two if we start rationing. There’s no need to start panicking yet.

“But it is a problem. I’ve been so busy training I forgot to consider it. We will have to start looking today. Or tomorrow. It might take us the whole two weeks to find a water source. Still, where to look for it… We have no tools, no idea where to search, and the whole land is covered in sand…”

His pacing didn’t stop. Where to find water? City wells… But they all collapsed. He remembered upon waking up searching but finding nothing. It was only luck they all stumbled upon some noble’s supplies that had survived the cataclysm. Otherwise they wouldn’t have made it even to the rain.

But what now? It wouldn’t conveniently start raining when they started running out again.Only a fool would put his life on such a chance. He needed to find a better solution. The sooner the better.

“Is there a chance there’s any water in the city?” Scorpius asked from a stone he’d settled on. The one Alec had sat on previously.

“Maybe. We’ve searched most places but we could’ve missed something.” The city was huge, hundreds of thousands of people lived within its walls. They investigated all places that seemed likely to contain water but neither of them yielded results. All besides that one noble’s house.

Scorpius nodded in acknowledgement. Alec stopped to pay closer attention to his half-hidden expression. Lips set in a tight line and a small wrinkle on his forehead.

“You’re going to look into it?” he asked and the man nodded.

“I need to.”

“Give me an hour. I’ll meet you outside the tower and we can go.”

There was a weird look on Scorpius’ face when he said it but it disappeared as quickly as it came. “All right.”

***

Scorpius stood waiting by the tower when an unexpected visitor assaulted him. An old acquaintance of his.

The little boy walked over with his chin up to the sky, hands behind his back. In what probably was supposed to be a surreptitious way, he looked around to make sure there was no one else on the street. There wasn’t.

Certain of it, the kid abandoned his nonchalant act and dashed towards Scorpius. They’ve met a couple times after his coming openly into the camp, but Scorpius still had no idea what the boy wanted from him. He’d learnt that his name was Orin and he was a distant relative of Malek, one of Alec’s guard. That’s it.

“How have you been?” he asked squatting down by the kid.

Orin beamed at him. “Great! We got apples yesterday!” Then he leaned closer to whisper in Scorpius’ ear. “And I still have mine. I know the adults like you received none!”

It was partly true. They received at least one if they asked for it but Scorpius would never do that. If he could save Iago a little bit of strength, he would do his utmost to achieve that. What was the marvel of an apple when compared to his friend’s health?

Not wanting to disappoint the kid, though, he didn’t blurt that out. Instead he looked at him expectantly.

As if it was the greatest secret, Orin peered about to make sure there was no one watching them. Then he reached beneath his shirt and produced two beautiful red apples. Against his own better judgement Scorpius was filled with longing. Fresh meals were one thing but it had been so long since he tasted any kind of fruit.

Nosferatu, unlike what normal humans thought, didn’t live off solely of blood. It was part of the meal. Half their bodies were bats that required blood, but the other half was human with omnivore needs. Substitution was possible but not for long. Without both kinds of nourishment a nosferatu would waste away and, after a time, die.

The kid cleaned the side of one apple on his tunic and presented it to Scorpius with shining eyes. “For you,” he said with happiness and pride clear in his voice.

Scorpius wanted to refuse him. It wasn’t right of him to take the boy’s share. He had refused his own. Yet the boy came especially to give it to him. It would be extremely unkind and hurtful of him to reject it.

“Are you certain of it? It’s your little treasure. You need it more than I do.”

“I’m certain!” Orin stated. He pushed the apple harder into Scorpius’ chest. “It’s yours! I said so!”

“Thank you,” Scorpius said without any more arguments. He took the precious fruit and bit into it.

Freshness overwhelmed his senses. The apple was crisp and just the right amount of sweet. Uncaring about what the kid will think of him, he swallowed the apple in a couple of large bites. It was gone before he was even aware of it.

Laughter took him off-guard as he was lamenting the quick disappearance of the treat. He looked up to see Orin holding onto his stomach, his cheeks red from laughing so hard. Noticing Scorpius’ attention, he tried to stop but only burst into another bout of snorting and chuckling to himself.

“You- Your face! Hahah! It- it.. “ Orin tried saying but could not finish. He was laughing too hard.

Slightly annoyed, Scorpius straightened and stood up at full height. The young boy didn’t reach up to his waist and half bent he was even smaller. Yet he didn’t seem to notice the glare aimed at him.

Thinking of something, Scorpius grabbed the boy by his waist. Orin squealed in surprise as he was lifted into the air, holding tight onto the remaining apple in his hand. He would never dare to let go of it.

“Who’s laughing now?” Scorpius asked with mock maliciousness.

“That’s not fair! You’re bigger than me!” Orin instantly refuted him, and waved his free hand in a small fist. “Wait until I grow up! I’ll show you then!”

“Is that so? I should teach you to respect adults until then.” As he said that, Scorpius took a step away from the tower wall and wheeled the kid around him. Orin was probably a bit too big for that, too old but Scorpius was a nosferatu. To him the boy weighted no more than a feather would.

His victim yelped in surprise, closing his eyes as he flew in a circle. But the next moment he opened them up and extended his arms. “I’m flying!” he hollered and whooped in joy. Scorpius grinned at him and adjusted the altitude to the boy’s excitement.

“What is this?” a voice asked with amusement and Scorpius lowered the kid down to see Alec with his group coming over to them. After noticing them, Orin hid behind Scorpius’ leg, breathing hard.

Scorpius put a hand on his head, tousling his hair before turning to Alec. “Waiting for you. Are you ready?” His business-like answer surprised the militia leader but he quickly nodded in answer. “Let’s go then,” Scorpius told them. Turning around, he dropped to one knee and smiled at the kid. “Thank you for coming to see me. I have work now but I’ll see you later, all right?”

Orin bobbed his head in answer and sprinted away. In a blink of an eye he was gone.

Alec shook his head in wonder, he hadn’t known that anyone in the camp actually liked Scorpius. As far as he knew, the shaper’s assistant was as much of a loner as his boss. It was shocking to see him acting familiar with anyone in the camp. Especially one of the children.

He glanced at Malek to gauge his reaction but his look only contained the same surprise Alec held. But it was clear Scorpius didn’t want to talk about it and they marched off after him, deeper into the city. There was little chance to find anything, but trying was better than doing nothing.

They walked for a few hours until Scorpius slowed. “Have you searched through here?” he asked, looking at the crumbled houses around them.

This had once been one of the richer parts of the city. Some of the houses might have had indoor plumbing systems. It was worth a shot trying to look here. “Maybe,” he answered with a shrug. “Maybe not. We’ve ran around aimlessly at the time, it’s hard to say what we checked and what not. Might have even missed some things in our hurry.”

Scorpius nodded in acknowledgement and turned towards a house on their right. Alec shifted his attention to his group. “You know why we’re here. Spread out and look for it. There must be a water source somewhere in this city.”

“Yeah! Let’s do this!” Denni shouted out, pumping her fist in the air. She grabbed Lyra’s hand, and the two of them rushed off. The others soon followed their example and left in groups of two and three.

Alec decided to follow after Scorpius. He was interested how the man was going to look. Maybe he had some special method?

Apparently that wasn’t the case. Scorpius jumped around the rubble, lifting a couple stones before moving on. He would sometimes make a strange clicking sound with his tongue and listen for a moment. But that was it.

Then again, what did Alec expect? The assistant was no shaper. All he could do was the same as everyone else. Shrugging at his own unreasonable expectations, Alec returned to the street and searched for a well.

It was awhile before he located it. The structure was hidden under a pile of rubble and once Alec moved it away, he found the well collapsed within. Pieces of masonry filled it to the very top. It would take long weeks to clear it out, and there was no promise of water at the bottom.

Sighing he marked the place in his mind and went to look around more. But until the evening nothing more caught his eyes. Nor did anyone else called out.

He tried not to be too discouraged about the fact. They had only a thin chance of finding water, after all. Yet he could do nothing but worry about the future. If they couldn’t find it in the upcoming week, what will happen then? Iago couldn’t take on more responsibility. Even if he wanted, it was beyond his capabilities. If he tried, death would claim him in a couple days.

When their group was two thirds of the way back to the camp, Scorpius froze in mid-step. “Quiet!” he shouted out with obvious distress and listened.

Alec stopped, signalling others to do the same and sought the sound that had caught the assistant’s attention. But there was nothing. Wind blew the sand, hooted between some stones and that’s it. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

Scorpius’ face, however, grew more worried with each second. He tilted his head towards the camp, waited and then burst into a quick jog. “Something happened while we were gone!” he shouted out and left first.

Alec looked at his soldiers. All of them stared at him with puzzlement. “Did you hear anything?” Lyra asked.

He shook his head. “No, but…” He glanced at the running figure. “We might as well follow. He could have some sixth sense.”

Malek looked sceptical and Tyr openly sneered. It wasn’t something easy to believe in. Checking it, though, cost nothing. They needed to get to the camp anyway.

“Come,” Alec told them, and they fell into a comfortable jog. It wasn’t as fast as Scorpius’, who ran close to a superhuman speed, but fast enough that they wouldn’t get left behind too far. At this pace they would reach the camp in no more than ten minutes.

When they got closer, Alec instantly knew that something had happened. Something extremely terrible. A woman was screeching up ahead, her voice impossible to understand through tears and warbled words. Only a notch lower were arguing voices of many more people. Neither of them sounded like they cared what they were saying.

Before they reached the event, Alec noticed Scorpius’ figure walking at a snail’s pace. His hands were limp by his side and he was staring holes into the ground.

“What is it?” Alec shouted out in a panic, forcing his muscles to move faster and faster. He needed to get there. Now. Maybe there was something he could help with. Maybe the situation could still be-

His thoughts were cut off by a quiet voice of Scorpius. “A child was killed, one of the newcomers’. His mother looked away for a moment while she was chatting with her friend, and when she turned back the child was gone. They found his dried husk in the next street.”

“But it’s broad daylight!” Denni shouted out in disbelief. “They don’t.. they can’t attack in daylight!”

“It seems that’s no longer the case,” Scorpius answered wryly, motioning ahead of them.

The group of people was in their sigh now. They stood in a circle, surrounding something. Jistas was holding a thrashing woman as she screamed and cursed him. Others ignored her and were shouting among themselves without anyone listening.

Alec cursed himself for having left the camp today. If he had been here… That was a stupid line of thought. He was no hero. His presence would have changed nothing.

All he could do now was try and calm everyone down. Make sure they learnt from this and didn’t repeat the same mistakes. From now on, they would have to be even more careful. They were no longer safe even under the sun’s bright light.

What could protect them then?

Deep within his heart he wondered if it was meant for them to survive in this.