Guns

Food turned to ash in his mouth as he was reminded of his tenuous position. If guilty he was likely to be executed, he could see that in the serious expression of everyone around as they stared at the white bundle as if it was the baby devil himself swaddled within. Even Myra looked upon the hidden guns with a serious expression that was rather unlike her, while Opi stared down at her plate, poking at the food as if trying to ignore the suddenly heavy atmosphere.

Body still aching Matt stood up on unsteady legs, finding within himself renewed strength to face the challenges in front of him. Lilith gave him only a brief glance before turning her back to him and following the taller woman to the edge of the encampment, her sudden actions left all eyes staring at him as he nervously followed after.

Myra busied herself with calming Opi, leaving Matt to move forwards on his own, suffocating in the apprehensive atmosphere that followed after him, gaining intensity with every step. The tents that they weaved around were like smaller imitations of the larger tent he’d awoken in earlier. They were set up with complete disregard for order. Scattered out in such a way that they had to zig zag through them before they were finally to reach their destination at the edge of the camp.

Forcing his dry mouth to swallow back the bile in his throat he looked over the open region, pieces of old armour and bales of yellowing plants were distributed randomly around the open area, most of which were littered with massive black arrows piercing through them. Seeing what looked like bullet holes in some of the closer pieces of metal plate, he felt a rising horror at the thought that they may already have some kind of gun. His attention quickly returned to the bundle containing his weapons.

The bundle of white cloth was gently lowered to the ground, accompanied by the muffled sounds of metal shifting against metal. The package was roughly the length of his rifle at half a metre long but was large enough that he supposed that it should contain the majority of his belongings short of the fallen armour that he’d left behind in the city.

The tall woman who’d carried the package over was carefully unwrapping it, her hands slow and motions delicate, she was treating the contents a little like one might treat a dangerous explosive. When he looked at the white cloth more intensely he noticed black vines weaving around it, similar to those painting the skin of all the women here.

“These are all the items that were found on you at your collapse, including your weapons.” Lilith stood on one side of him speaking in a low voice, tactfully avoiding the reason for his collapse. Myra, with Opi by her side, stood on his other side moving around excitedly trying to peak past the woman’s shoulders down at the bundle as it was unwrapped. Lilith watched with a little more composure than her more energetic colleague.

“What’s her name?” He imaged the taller woman in his mind as he spoke the word ‘her’.

“Why do you care?” Lilith turned only to give him a filthy stare before returning her eyes to the weapons being carefully uncovered.

“I thought it might be good to get on the good side of your officer.”

“She’s not my Okiniu.” She replied with her thoughts, her mind seemingly translating the word strangely.

“Really, you don’t exactly seem like equals and I have trouble believing that you’re the one with authority over her.” She seemed irritated at the sound of his voice.

“I don’t, and why does a Krilm like you think that I am not equal with anyone else here! What makes you think that I’m any different from any of them?!” He could already tell that it wasn’t a question meant to be answered, but he wasn’t willing to let her tirade end here not after she named him Krilm again.

“That would have to be because you aren’t anything like them. You’ve been treating everyone with contempt other than her,” he indicated the taller woman who was kneeling in front of them. “You seem to listen to her even when you don’t want to, as if she’s your officer or something.”

She hesitated, looking over him again. Although she looked upset she didn’t reply immediately. After a few seconds she looked away muttering under her breathe, “She isn’t my Okiniu.”

“So… who’s the one in charge?”

“No one.”

“No one? Impossible someone has to be in charge.” He spoke with confidence, as it was an obvious and constant truth. As children it was the elders, as a grown-up it was your officers, as an officer it was the System itself. The only reason society could even work was because everyone followed their orders, without an officer there aren’t orders and there is no such thing as a society, he couldn’t understand how she could so casually deny such an obvious reality.

He considered his history lessons as a child, remembering some of what he was taught of the ‘free’ nations from before the System. Most of them had considered freedom as a great necessity, yet all of them still functioned with officers and orders of some name or title. Their freedom had been nothing but a farce so it was only logical to think that it was the same with these demon women here.

“Idiot. Do you really know nothing at all about us?”

“Well it is difficult to learn when you refuse to answer my questions.”

Releasing a sigh Lilith spoke briefly, “Cassielle”

The taller woman briefly glanced back at them at the sound of her name, looking at Lilith questioningly. She replied with a small wave of her hand in Matts direction, earning him an even more earnest stare.

“U-um, Cassielle, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He bowed his head deeply in her direction but didn’t earn any kind of reply before she turned back to her work. He could feel the pressure in his chest die down as her eyes released him from their hold.

Looking over Cassielle’s shoulder he could see the rifles shape imprinted on the cloth beneath the tumultuous motions of the vines. He wondered what was taking her so long to unwrap his gear but as he watched her he soon discovered that what she was doing was not so simple. Her hands weaved back and forth along the surface of the cloth, along the black lines, absorbing the lines as she moved. It likely would have taken her no time at all to complete if she wasn’t treating it so carefully.

He hesitated to ask what she was doing to his gear, afraid that he mightn’t like the answer, that’s if Lilith was even willing to give him one. Nervously he raised his voice to just above a whisper.

“What… What is she doing?”

“Unsealing it.”

“Unsealing?”

“Unsealing.”

“Magically unsealing it?” hesitantly he used the word to describe what was happening.

“Krilm.” Lilith turned to him with a fire in her eyes hand outstretched as if to grab him by the neck but paused a few inches short. Matt stood frozen unable to even step backwards. “Don’t ever compare our Curses to magic or I might not hold back next time.”

“Curses? Okay, not magic.” Shaken by her sudden intensity he returned his eyes to the cursed display performed by Cassielle. He decided it would be safer to avoid that topic from now. “So why was it sealed in the first place?” he tried framing the question in a way that might avoid getting her anger up.

“Are you joking or seriously an idiot?” She continued talking without her voice, “If they are magically imbued weapons they can’t be allowed to sit without being sealed away, and even if they aren’t. If they start killing people on their own like those little Klrikers did someone might actually get hurt. Namely; you.” Alongside the word Klrikers he was delivered an image of small winged reptiles, similar to those he’d seen fighting the eagle only this morning.

He swallowed back his fear, realizing that she really didn’t mind that ending.

A wave of air washed over him as the last of the black vines released their hold on his equipment, the cloth slackening and unravelling on its own. Inside he could peak a glimpse of the rifle that was the apparent cause of his current imprisonment. Cassielle removed the cloth laying it out like a picnic cloth, revealing the weapons that had been confiscated from him alongside the many other pieces of gear that they’d seized, including his collection of ammunition and half wrecked helmet.

“It would be for the best if you didn’t shoot anyone else here. You wouldn’t survive if you did.” Through the venom in her words he realized something.

“Then why aren’t I dead yet, I did shoot you.”

“It would be in your best interest not to speak of that incident.” She spoke without words.

The simplicity of her answer eliciting him to take on a pale complexion as an acidic taste assaulted the back of his tongue.

A strange sensation washed over the crowd at the sight of the weapons, the seriousness that had been building up earlier was washed away replaced with an intense curiosity. They occasionally glanced at him, making him wonder what they thought of him right now. It was strange enough that they weren’t considering him an enemy but now even the seriousness they’d expressed was gone. He felt a little like a child again as they looked upon him without even a hint of fear. Even the way they looked at his weapons was less fearful than would be natural, Cassielle seemed to be the only one treating them with hesitation and care.

Carefully he reached out for the rifle, concerned that they might just strike him down for picking it up but even still they didn’t treat him as a threat. They didn’t move for their weapons which was a good sign but it made him feel unsure about them, as if he truly was weak as a child compared to them, even armed with his rifle.

Firmly pushing his hand out to the rifle he felt a film of ice melting on the metal where his body heat warmed it. Looking over the rifle and the rest of his gear he noticed that they all had that same slight chill to them as if they were just removed from a deep freeze. He tried his best to ignore the strangeness of it as he lifted the rifle into his bruised and bleeding hands.

Working around his broken arm he rested the rifle in the growing bruise on his knee as he checked over the weapon. Pulling back the charging handle a fraction sent a spike of pain through his fingers where his nails had been torn free. Ignoring the pain, he confirmed that there was still a round loaded into the breach and the magazine was still mostly full as it had been when he dropped it. He snapped the magazine back into place with a firm slap.

He was thankful that they hadn’t accidentally fired the thing when they were carrying it around but even if they had he had no idea how it would have reacted to the seal placed on it. “So you want me to fire it? And that’s enough to prove me innocent?”

“Fire it without killing anyone and yes, you will be considered innocent in regards to use of magic.”

“In regards to use of magic? So is there anything else I did that you might kill me over?”

“Personally, yes. Unfortunately you haven’t broken any other laws from our order so I’m going to have to let you live.”

“Unfortunately… is that the target then?” He gestured to the large metal plates down the other end of the range and she gestured her hand out at them as if to hurry him along. The targets looked as if they were simply thick metal chest plates that had been abandoned, now they were so covered in holes that there was little chance they could stop even a thrown stone from hitting flesh. Some of the chest plates still bristled with thick black arrow shafts piercing most of the way through them.

He aimed the rifle down range using his right arm to rest the length of the barrel while griping it with his left. He felt only slightly awkward using it left handed, he hadn’t enjoyed the ambidextrous shooting training but he had passed. The holographic sight appeared instantly as a laser fired into his left eye highlighting the bullet path with a faint red line ending with a bright red cross atop where the bullet would strike. He selected single fire careful of his open wounds on his finger, “Get everyone to cover their ears, normally you’d wear earplugs or some form of sound filtering but…”

“Just get on with it already,” Lilith expressed her impatience as she started toying with the pistol that was still sitting on the bundle.

“Don’t touch that!” He felt a rising panic as she held it in her hand, lowering his rifle and turning towards her.

“It works like this right?” She pointed it at the closest target and fired it once. Her hand jumping from the recoil. “Strange, I didn’t expect it to jump back like that. I suppose it really is different from a crossbow.” The metal chest piece that she’d fired at was splinted into half a dozen metal shards scattered around the area.

Matt’s heart was pounding from the loud crack that split the air, through the ringing in his ears he could make out the women around him chattering to themselves excitedly. The only one who seemed to be effected by the noise other than Matt himself was Opi, rubbing at her ears and shaking her head while shaking slightly. She’d be lucky if she didn’t suffer from some partial deafness after this.

“Hurry up and fire yours, or do you need me to do it for you?” With a sigh he rested the rifle against his leg for a moment and waved to the young girl still shaking her head around. When she noticed him he covered his ears with his hands, but she didn’t seem to understand. Thankfully Myra who was now standing behind the girl understood his meaning, covering the girl’s ears with her own hands.

With that taken care of Matt quickly braced the rifle against his shoulder and aimed it awkwardly downrange at the furthest target, not wanting to risk shrapnel flying back as it did for Lilith’s shot. His grip felt strange as he tried his best to avoid his broken arm but he had little choice, if he wanted to hit the distant targets he had to handle it with his normal hands. Using his left arm to firmly brace the weapon against his shoulder, his broken arm to finger the trigger without holding onto the pistol grip.

The recoil slammed into his shoulder, but wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. The round had already slammed into the most distant target, turning it into shrapnel which in turn managed to knock down a number of small trees which were standing behind the target.

This being the second time seeing a gun fire the demonic women around him didn’t express quite as powerful a reaction, but their interest was definitely peaked. Some were looking over the left over metal from where Lilith had shot the pistol while talking among themselves.

Matt quickly removed the magazine and cycled out the live round, catching it from the air before it hit the dirt. Reloaded the round into the magazine and replaced the magazine back into the rifle. This way it wouldn’t accidentally go off but he could fire it in a moment’s notice by pulling back on the charging handle on the side of the rifle.

Gently placing the rifle back on top of the white cloth he held out his hand to Lilith who was still toying with the pistol. She glanced at him before pulling the slide back, ejecting a live round which she caught with the utmost grace.

“Hey that thing is dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“So long as I don’t pull this part here it won’t fire, will it?” She tapped the side of the trigger with her finger.

“Well, no but…” He stepped towards her again while she inspected the round in her hand.

“This thing is different to the one that came out earlier.” She held out an empty casing between two fingers comparing it to the live round in between her next two fingers. “So this must be the part that flies out.” He felt some tension at how quickly she was understanding the weapon in her hands.

“You’re not going to keep that are you?” Matt spoke hoping that she’d just give up the weapon already before she reverse engineered the thing.

“Of course, but I’m just checking thoroughly for magical residue first.” Her reply was only moderately relieving as she continued to toy with the round in her hand. Dangling the pistol with the bottom of her hand she pinched the projectile in the round tearing it out manually before looking into the newly formed vacancy.

While she was slightly distracted he tried to pry the pistol out of her hand gently, he had the feeling she wouldn’t kill him for it and he couldn’t handle it being in her hands for any longer. Just as he was about to steal it away she quickly and almost thoughtlessly spun around avoiding his attack completely.

“Strange smell, is this by any chance…?” She poured some of the gunpowder onto her finger before it sparked into a quickly expiring life. “So this must be the fuel. Interesting.”

Finally, she gave up the pistol, also pouring into his hands the now worthless casing and projectile. “Thanks.” He muttered sarcastically. Taking the pistol off of Lilith he did the same safety process to the pistol before placing it back amongst his few possessions.

Many of the women were already harassing Lilith with questions again, likely trying to find out what she’d discovered about the weapon. Many of the women were staring at the pistol lying in the bundle of things, thankfully, unlike Lilith, none of them were curious enough to take it out and mess with it themselves.

Lilith turned her head to their questions, “If you are so desperate to find out then take a look for yourselves.”

Apparently they were satisfied with him passing the test since he was still alive and they hadn’t yet destroyed his guns. Lilith in particular wouldn’t have been willing to mess around with ‘magic’ as much as she did with his pistol, not with the way she seemed to despise magic so much.

Myra, kneeling down, was playing with the casing that flew free from the rifle when he fired. It would still be hot but he doubted that would do much damage to her. He picked up the casing from where she was poking at it, it wasn’t quite hot enough to burn his fingers. He offered it to her trying to indicate that it was safe. She seemed confused by it. Probably wondering how it worked as well.

She expressed a few questions his direction but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. She was the same as she’d been since this morning, not afraid of him or his rifles and thankfully not seeming to petition for his death. Taking in a deep breath he decided to trust her. He needed some friends here, some people that he could rely upon even if just a little.

These people weren’t his enemies, at least that’s how they thought about it, but that didn’t make them allies either. He wasn’t trained for a situation like this, almost all of his training assumed that he would escape or be killed so he didn’t know what to do.

“Save them.” The words echoed through his mind reminding him that that was not quite true. He knew what he had to do just not how to do it.

Feeling a little hesitant, he removed a live round from the magazine in his rifle and compared it to the casing that Myra had picked up. She looked on curious as he attempted to show her how the rifle worked. He pointed at the projectile sticking out from the brass casing and then into the empty part of the casing in Myra’s case.

“Boom.” He expanded his hand in an imitation of an explosion, and then pointed at the projectile, “Fwoosh.” and threw his hand outwards quickly trying to imitate the speed of a bullet.

Myra looked on with interest, she seemed to understand a little of what he was trying relay to her. The secret to more advanced weapons that was already in far more dangerous hands anyway, considering how quickly Lilith had figured it out. He reloaded the bullet into the magazine turning back to Lilith and his belongings.

“If you really want to know, why don’t you learn his language and bother him about it.” She was still trying to throw aside her questioners with pointless comments.

Cutting into their conversation he approached Lilith, “So do I get to keep my things now?”

“So long as you don’t go shooting anyone else we don’t have the right to keep them from you. If you’d like I wouldn’t mind holding onto that little weapon of yours.” She spoke without words again making him feel a little hesitant to reply.

“I think not, with my arm as it is that’s the only weapon I can actually use properly.” That and he’d probably die from stress just at the thought of her having a pistol with her while she was anywhere near him. With her tremendous speed she could probably fire off the entire magazine in a second or two, with his weapons she posed a very real threat to real soldiers.

He started fiddling with his belongings putting everything together in a way that he could carry them easily. Fortunately, the rifle had a sling buried away amidst his belongings for instances when he had to abandon his armour. The uniform he’d worn under his armour was rather badly singed but was still mostly in one piece apart from a few holes at his shoulder and one small hole where his bone had cut through the fabric.

The uniform was one piece and designed to tightly fit the wearer so that it didn’t get in the way of the armour that was meant to be layered on top. He struggled to put the uniform on while avoiding his broken arm but by the end of it the wound was aching beneath the tight confines of his clothes. His pistol holster was long since missing but he managed to loop the weapon through his gear belt.

His half-destroyed helmet was quite the sight to see and made him instinctively reach for his face feeling as if his nose might be missing. The visor was half-melted away, all backup switches and controls were completely fried, but the external microphones at the back of the helmet at least seemed undamaged. As well as that, the primary computational devices located within layers of plating at the back of the helmet didn’t seem to be damaged. Theoretically he might be able to recover some use out of the thing, maybe even convert it into a functional language translations system.

He managed to clip all of his spare ammunition into the specialised pockets of his uniform but he could feel a conspicuous absence where his medical pack was meant to rest. He could remember it falling somewhere back when he’d been running from Lilith but even if he could remember where it was, likely gone by now. It would still be worth searching for if he had the chance but he was concerned that going off on his own would earn him another strike in their books.

With his belongings holstered away as best as he could manage he stood awkwardly waiting to be told what to do. Strangely he felt no desire to run back to the portal where he could meet with his own people again, even though it was technically his current order.

Just thinking about it he couldn’t even make his feet move.

“Save them.” He spoke the words aloud again and found himself moving, turning towards the city that was, all this time, looming in the corner of his eye.

He knew that there were others here that hadn’t yet died but he didn’t know where, and he didn’t know how to save them. How could he take on a mission this big on his own when he’d never done anything like it before? No intelligence, no backup, limited ammo and no pickup.

“Just keep trying until something works.”

A voice from the past, words he’d stolen from someone far more heroic than himself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lilith was turning away from her kin to speak with him, it seemed more an excuse to leave them behind than any real interest.

“It means what it means.” He mumbled, looking up at the city.

“You’re planning something stupid aren’t you?” Her words struck too close to home, though in truth he didn’t have anything that he could consider a real plan. “Revenge?”

The word rung strange in his mind, a concept that he didn’t quite understand, “You’re in my head I’m sure you can figure it out if you want to.”

“It doesn’t work like that, bonds like this are only able to transmit the thoughts most conscious on a person’s mind.”

“Then who… or what is Grikith.” She froze up at the name, turning pale and looking to see if anyone else heard him speaking.

“How do you-?” She was speaking without words again as she dragged him off, the other women too focused on the shrapnel left on the range to notice them.

“I think I spoke with it when I was in your head.”

“You what?!” The words ringing his mind. “How did you learn about that? You were barely able to speak with me only a short while ago and now your stepping into my head without thought for safety or god forbid some privacy?!?”

“Privacy?” The word strange to him like many others, “Safety? So that thing is dangerous then?”

She chose not to say anything more for a while, dragging him forwards by his good arm again, but with a little less stumbling this time. He’d partially recovered from his wounds with his rest while eating.

“Don’t listen to anything it says.” Her voice was firm.

“What is it?” He pressed her for answers but she refused to reply.

The sun was already sliding down the horizon, indicating that there was little light left in the day.

“Where are we going?” She was still leading him ahead by the wrist as if he were a child.

“Away from the others.”

“Are we going to talk about things you don’t want them to overhear?”

She looked back at him with concern, “I’m getting away from the pests. Anything that I don’t want them to hear, won’t be spoken of, with or without them.” Her voice pressing to make her meaning clear.

“So where is that exactly, I have somewhere I need to get to.”

“You’re not going to the castle.” Her voice rang out loudly.

“I need to…” He swallowed back the rest of his words, his mind fluttering around anxiously as he wondered exactly what it was he needed to do.

“You want to kill the King right?” Her voice clear but her conclusion confusing. “You can’t, or more specifically you won’t. I’m responsible for keeping you alive and that includes keeping you from breaking any laws that would require me to kill you. Otherwise you would lose your, less than spectacular, value as a witness.”

“Why would I want to kill the king?” He paused confused, “Wouldn’t he just be replaced by another king? It wouldn’t change a thing and only make everything more difficult and, as you said, get me killed.”

This time it was her turn to pause, she let go of his hand and turned towards him, they were both standing on the edge of the white cloth camp. “Why? Didn’t he kill someone important to you? Or was that emotional outburst earlier from something else.”

“I… I guess he might have been responsible for her death, but how would killing him change anything. More killing doesn’t bring anyone back from the dead, the only way to save someone is to keep them alive in the first place.”

“If you’re not after revenge then why are you wanting to go to the castle?”

“There were others.” His voice was low.

She stared at him a moment before moving on, a hanging expectation for him to follow her. The city walls were standing high at his side, this would possibly be his last chance to try and run for home. This could be his last chance to escape this world and still have a place to call home.

He turned his back to the forest where the portal was hidden, instead facing the castle wall where men armed with crossbows walked, eying him suspiciously.

“The gates are open?” The city gates were flooding with people moving into the city beneath the purpling sky, many of whom were rushing to avoid the coming night.

“Well its rather clear that it wouldn’t matter if they were closed. I’m not sure if you saw it but the other gates were blown apart during the escape your allies made. And if the rumours are true your people can just go over the walls themselves anyway.”

“I suppose so.” There was still a thick thoroughfare walking through the gates of the city, guards stood in great number speaking with the people trying to enter the city. Many people were dragging large wagons filled with a variety of things; some were filled with furs, some with fruits, weapons and armour, clothes, pots, wood, and some things that he couldn’t even recognise.

The strangest though were the animals, gathered together and caged up, they were squawking, howling and squealing as loudly as they could, as if they were on their way to their deaths.

The guards were looking through people’s items and taking coins from them before waving them through the city gates which stood at least three metres tall. Lilith with absolutely no regard to the line strode past the guards as if daring for them to stop her.

Though they shared some filthy looks mostly targeting him, the guards were unwilling to step up to either Lilith or Matt. Some familiar faces among the guards elected to turn the other direction entirely in the face of Lilith’s presence.

The buildings that surrounded him the moment he stepped within the city walls were the same clay structures that he remembered leaving behind only this morning. Though at that time he hadn’t taken as much notice of the people that were crowding the streets and in and around the buildings.

Unlike the guards, the people around them showed great interest in Lilith and himself. At first it was only glances and stares and small talk behind his back, but in a few moments an old lady carrying a platter of cooked vegetables approached speaking enthusiastically with Lilith.

Putting on a tense smile Lilith replied to the woman, “Thank you greatly. It would be a pleasure.”, she ended up taking up one of the vegetables by the small stick stuck through it and carefully placed it into her mouth. She didn’t express anything about the taste as the older lady moved on to Matt, shoving the food in his direction. It seemed that she wanted him to taste the food as well.

Hesitantly he reached out for a taste and immediately recoiled from the sourness of the flavour. It didn’t taste awful, in fact it tasted incredibly sweet after the first impact, but the sourness was enough to bring a few tears to his eyes. “It’s good.” The lady not understanding his words started to panic at his reaction, worrying about the food she’d given him.

“He said that it’s so good that it reminds him of his dead mother, bringing him to tears. He is rather emotional; I would ask you forgive his impertinence.” He gave a little bow to the older lady but sneered at Lilith for her exaggerated lie. Dead mother, what was a mother in the first place? It must mean someone important to you, so perhaps it was like his friends as kid, or perhaps like the elders that took care of them?

After the woman left them with a big grin on her face a collection of people following after her suddenly seemed interested in her food.

“What’s a mother?” Matt aimed the question at Lilith who was already walking down ahead, she suddenly tripped over her own feet as she heard what he asked.

“What did you just ask?” She turned to him walking right up to him before looking into his eyes.

“Earlier to the older lady you said my mother was dead. Eh… sorry if I wasn’t supposed to be listening in…” He stepped back in the face of her seriousness.

“Not that. What did you ask just before?” She moved back a step noticing how close she’d gotten to him.

“What is a mother? Is it something like a friend?”

“You… don’t have a mother? The woman who birthed you, who raised you.” She looked at him with a combination of surprise, curiosity and some considerable sadness.

“Who raised me? I guess that would be the elders but, the woman who birthed me has nothing to do with that. It’s not right for children to talk to adults, so I’ve never met her.”

“Never met her… your people truly are cruel.” As she finished speaking she turned back to the road ahead.

Matt didn’t know how to reply, following after here as she was harassed by another citizen of this strange place, this time the person seemed quite short. Unusually short. It took him a moment to realize that it was a child, having met Opi already he understood that children were sometimes let to meet with adults but it was still strange to see them running around adults freely.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too but it’s still some time before you have to think about such things. Enjoy your time now as much as you can.” For the first time Lilith seemed to have a genuine smile on her face as she spoke with the young girl.

“I’m on an important mission at the moment, I’m escorting an idiot through the city without losing him to any holes or passing carriages. Being one of us isn’t always about fighting.” She pet the young girl on the head before sending her off to a middle aged woman who was waiting for her return.

“Who was that?”

“Just a child interested in joining the Sasahara Knights.” She passed off the comment like it was nothing.

“Just a child?” Matt whispered to himself, “What a strange world.”

Just a few dozen metres down the road another young woman around their age rushed forwards to speak with Lilith but Matt was too preoccupied to bother with listening in on their conversation. His mind was racing with thoughts of a world without order like this seemed to be. Children apparently ran about freely and adults seemed to be stopping and chatting around them without any real purpose to the conversation. This chaos was something that he couldn’t quite understand.

The lady that had approached Lilith quickly and politely ended their conversation to rush into a nearby dwelling as the last rays of light fled from the horizon. A chill raced through the air as the streets rapidly emptied, and a cool breeze flowed in through the massive road. Clay stone buildings shone with light from fires and lamps lighting up from within, the people reacting to the sudden darkness with an immediacy that shocked Matt.

“Is there something bad about the nights here?” Matt spoke his mind hoping to distract from the pain still occasionally washing over his body and the discomfort of being somewhere so completely alien.

“No, but there are many rumours,” She spoke in her strange tongue as she walked. “There is no truth to the rumours but still the fools hurry on home to avoid the magics and curses.”

“Curses?” The strange word struck a spark in him reminding him of what she’d spoken about earlier.

“Something you wouldn’t understand a thing about, Krilm. A person can’t be cursed in the darkness or because of the falling of night.” He felt a little irritated that she was still using that word in place of his name but he had already given up by now.

“Curses and magics, this world really is something else.” Matt had studied some history in his childhood and always found it interesting tracking down histories of such things but never did he imagine that they might have some real form. Let alone something so completely absurd.

“Anyway where are you taking me?”

“I’m securing a place to rest.”

“Why didn’t we just stay at camp?”

“Because it’s against the rules.”

“I… guess that makes sense,” He wiped at the blood on his hands. “You couldn’t have a soldier from another army camping with you unless you intend to keep them prisoner.”

“It’s not that. It’s because you’re a man…” She gave him a side long look before continuing, “or close enough.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with everything.” Passion exuding from her mind as she spoke.

“What would happen if a man stayed?”

“It would be likely that they’d be cursed and then, regrettably, we’d have to kill them. Or not so regrettably in your case.” She spoke without looking over at him.

“So a woman won’t get cursed?” He did what he could to ignore her jab and her growing irritation.

“It wouldn’t matter as much if they did.”

“I don’t get it.”

“You don’t have to so long as you do what I tell you to.” Her tone enough to end the conversation.

Ahead stood a large stone building with a thick wooden door, but even through all of that he could hear music and loud voices calling out raucously. “When we go inside do not speak with anyone, or I’ll snap you neck.” Matt instinctively loosened the neck on his uniform.

Lilith opened the door with a loud creak, as soon as the door cracked open music and light washed over them. People were stumbling around at tables while others sloshed tall drinks as they called out loudly towards a short stage standing at the edge of the room.

Lilith quickly made her way to a man standing behind the counter and exchanged quick words with him. Her words fluent and forceful were lost in the loudness of the room and Matt had little interest in breaking into the meaning through her mind. He was too distracted by the woman on stage, moving her limbs quickly in pace with the music while singing with enough life to break through the din.

Although he couldn’t understand the words Matt could feel something flowing out of them. A power that resounded in his chest making him want to step forwards closer to the stage, but as he stepped forwards Lilith intercepted him shoving him towards a thin set of stairs in the far corner of the room. As he was rounded up, the woman singing on stage turned his direction, staring right into his eyes and winking as she finished her song.

She quickly left his sight as he was corralled up the stairs into a corridor with a series of doors on either side. Lilith moved forwards and forced open the furthest door entering a room sparsely populated with only a pair of small beds and a bedside stand between, with what had to be an oil lamp of some design.

With little time to waste and no spared words for Lilith, he threw himself down on the bed dropping the rifle down by the bedside and removing his pistol to the bedside table. With the music still loudly playing beneath his feet, and laying atop a bed as soft as a cloud he passed out, mind filled with the past and the future.