Lucy

The journey back to Clearvein was rough, for a number of reasons. I tried to ask Kate about what had happened back at the camp, specifically what she had seen and how she had gotten away, but her answers were vague at best.

As far as I could tell, she was being held in a shed of some kind and had taken the opportunity to escape in the chaos. I asked her about the fiery creature, or about seeing Cyrus, but she just told me the same thing as when we first met inside the camp.

Cyrus had apparently helped her to escape amidst the chaos, but had been shot in the back by Magnus, the boss of the organisation. I pressed Kate for more, but the most I could get out of her was that they called themselves “Obsidian Outlaws”.

I assumed that the young researcher must have been in shock. She had just lost someone who had saved her life and been through a kidnapping. She had likely almost died in the escape several times, as I had myself.

Despite all this, she didn’t show any emotion at all. She just kept on walking towards Clearvein with me, occasionally mumbling in the affirmative whenever I asked if she was alright.

As we went, I couldn’t help but keep looking back over my shoulder. I kept expecting to see a horde of the outlaws riding their crystal creatures across the starsand to capture us, but they never came.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason I kept looking back. I knew it was next to impossible, but my childhood friend had returned from the dead once already. It was just such a cruel twist of fate, my brain had trouble processing it.

But at the end of the day, that was just how things went in the Scorch. A lot could happen in a very short amount of time. One minute, you could be scouting out a new trade route with your friends, the next you could be under attack by a swarm of crystal hornets and two of your friends could be dead.

If you didn’t learn to adjust and adapt quickly, you didn’t last long out here. The Scorch was the land of ultimate freedom, and I loved it for that, but that ultimate freedom came with an ultimate price.

Once Kate and I arrived back in Clearvein things were a blur. The town was in full lockdown, and I had to wave my arms and jump up and down just to make sure we didn’t get shot on the way in.

Practically all of the wooden buildings had at least two armed guards on top, looking out for any threats with rifles and bows. I was a little confused at the use of the archaic weapons, until I noticed what was tied to their arrows.

“Dynamite archers? Glad to see we’re pulling out all the stops.”

“It was actually Cyrus’ idea.” Zari hung her head sadly for a moment.

I had met up with the older rook soon after arriving. I explained what I could, and Kate asked if she could return to her room at the inn.

Neither Zari or I were too happy at this, but we let her go with a promise that she would come and talk to us once she felt more up to it. She was incredibly important, and it was almost certain that the Obsidian Outlaws would be coming after her, but we still had no idea why.

In a way, it didn’t matter. We were rooks, and it was our job to protect those who needed it. We could do that easily enough without knowing the exact reasoning behind the criminals, but the idea that we could be missing essential information worried me.

We had stationed a guard outside of Kate’s room at the inn for the time being. It was doubtful that anyone would be able to sneak into town, but not impossible.

For the time being, I was patrolling with Zari. It was a good opportunity for us to catch one another up on what had happened while I familiarised myself with the defences.

“How’s the side treating you? If you need to sit down, just let me know.” Zari gestured to my injured side, where the spider had punctured my armour.

“Yeah, still pretty painful if I move around too much, but think I should be good for now.”

I winced as I turned a little too fast, and the pain flared up. Vera, the town doctor, had treated me pretty well as soon as I had gotten in, but she had warned me to take it easy.

As soon as Kate and I had got into town, Zari had insisted on Vera checking us both over completely while I told her what had happened. That meant I had the displeasure of being the one to tell the doctor that Cyrus was dead.

She had seemed deeply saddened by the news, and kept muttering about “that crazy kid and his deathwish” until we left. Zari too had grimaced and taken a moment to process the news.

It was strange to see all these people reacting to the death of Cyrus. I knew he had only been in town for a couple of days, but he seemed to have left quite a lasting impression on people.

I almost felt jealous in a way. They had probably known him better than I had from our brief time together. I wanted to talk to all of them in more detail, and discover more about who Ryan had turned into in his time out here.

To many, he seemed almost like a hero, but from the brief time I spent with him it didn’t seem like he thought of himself that way. It was easy to tell he was deeply troubled, and he almost certainly was even before he lost his arm.

I made plans to ask around more when everything was over. Maybe I would see if Kate felt up for sitting down with me and having a long talk about him.

The guy had come back into my life just as suddenly and violently as he had left it all those years ago. I didn’t want things to be over, even though I knew they had to be.

For the time being, I did my best to put Cyrus entirely out of my mind. There was no use dwelling on how I should have smashed that stupid crystal apart and gone with him amidst the chaos. I had to focus on my duties. Clearvein needed me.

In a word, the defences were lacking. In two words? They were severely lacking.

The dynamite arrows were definitely a nice bit of creative thinking, but it was unfortunate that they were our best ranged defence against crystal creatures. The town was new enough that it didn’t have large walls and cannons like some of the larger Scorch settlements, and just settled for regular rook patrols at the moment.

However, with most of the rooks recovering, Zari had rounded up a posse to arm the best she could with crystal weapons and basic guns. The force was untrained and heavily inexperienced by rook standards, but I was hopeful they would put up a decent fight if it came down to it.

A lot of them were miners or merchants who had clearly been out here for a while, which meant they were no strangers to hard work at the very least. I had seen crews of miners take up picks to defend themselves in dire situations before, and even traders had to learn a few survival skills to make it out here.

A couple of the rooks who were too injured were giving as many people as they could some basic tips on how to most effectively use the heavy crystal weapons and guns they had been armed with.

When push inevitably came to shove, I knew they would stand and fight rather than run. Zari had done an excellent job quelling the fears of those who had wanted to flee town without rook protection. She was truly a rook to admire.

I was just fine when it came to the fighting part of the job, but leadership like hers was something I was sorely lacking at the moment.

“So, think we can hold out until backup arrives from Emberstone?” I asked Zari as I looked through the leftover crystal weapons, trying to find something to replace my beloved emerald axe.

I could still technically use it, but I preferred something slightly less weighty for my particular style of combat.

“It depends. If all went well with your caravan, another shift of rooks should have been coming back here tomorrow.” Zari scribbled something down in a small notebook she was holding as she examined the supplies left in the armoury. “It won’t take them long to realise something is wrong when the caravan doesn’t arrive, but procedure calls that they’ll have to fully secure the route. At best, two days.”

“I think we can make that. Whatever happened at the camp hurt the outlaws as much as their attack did us, if not more.”

“From what you have described, I am confident that our current forces should be able to repel a full assault with minimal losses. What worries me is the unknown factors, like the fiery creature. If something like that were to appear here? I’m not sure we could handle it.”

“Outlaws couldn’t seem to scratch it with firearms or crystal creatures. Doubt we’d stand much chance.” I frowned slightly as my gaze fell across a crystal halberd. “Who knows though? Maybe whatever that thing was finished them off for us.”

“Certainly a possibility, but not one we should count on. I want to talk to Kate as soon as possible to see if she has any explanation for what that could have been. I don’t believe anyone else here has the level of magical knowledge she does.”

I nodded in agreement a large ruby-reinforced blastpick caught my eye. It was much like one of the common pickaxes that the miners used, except with one crucial difference. The blastpick had a small compartment through which you could load ammunition, and a trigger much like a gun.

I had seem the impressive weapons used quite a few times, but never tried one myself. The idea behind it was simple. You swung the pointy end at your enemy and pulled the trigger mid-swing or when you hit. The explosive force of a gunshot would propel the pick and shatter through most types of crystal.

“Is the blastpick spoken for?” I asked Zari as I picked up the long weapon, admiring the well-maintained ruby point.

“Nope. All yours if you want it.”

I had felt the need to ask as melee weapons that used gunpowder or bullets were quite rare. Most people opted for either a gun or a bladed weapon, not some combination of the two.

Despite this, there were certainly some interesting designs being tested in the Scorch, the blastpick being one of them. I had also seen a couple of crystal gunswords and gunaxes during my time out here, but as far as I knew the blastpick was the most popular of the type.

A lot of miners had invested in the weapons due to their utility in mining and combat, and while it wasn’t my usual style I was certainly interested in the possibility.

“Sure. I’ll give it a shot.” I grinned at Zari, who simply nodded and scribbled something else down in her book.

“Just be careful with it. Maybe ask one of the miners for a quick lesson so you don’t end up blowing your head off.” Zari spoke in the same calm and calculated tone as she always did.

“Sure, thanks for the concern.” I chuckled nervously.

I probably shouldn’t have been messing around with a new style of weapon when things were so dire, but the ruby blastpick felt like the right choice. I knew that my thoughts of Cyrus were influencing my decision somewhat, but I could make peace with that.

The weapon really was an effective choice, and if it let me honour his memory then that was a bonus.

Things were starting to get dark, so I hurriedly followed Zari’s advice and found a miner who was using a similar weapon to my own. Blastpicks could be modified to take a wide range of ammunition, and the one I had selected used shotgun shells.

Figuring out how to quickly load them and testing out the timing with my swings was honestly kinda fun, and ended up taking my mind off things.

Every time I pulled the trigger, there was a resounding boom and the weapon accelerated mid-swing.

It was powerful enough to smash right through the small clusters of crystal growing around town with ease, but I did have to slot in a new shell with every explosive swing.

My new weapon wasn’t quite as impressive as the ruby repeater Cyrus had been using, but it was much more my style. Also, I couldn’t deny the excitement to try propelling myself through the air with a shotgun blast for extra impact.

Once I was happy with the blastpick, I met back up with Zari and asked how I could help. She assigned me to go and help spread some large emberlite chunks around the Scorch nearby town, so it would be easier to see anyone coming at a distance.

It was a solid strategy. More well-established towns and settlements used huge chunks of emberlite attached to large wooden posts in order to create beacons of light around them, but we were quite limited at the moment.

Thankfully, a lot of the miners were more than happy to part with their supplies of emberlite in exchange for scrips from Zari. As the leading rook she was technically authorised to seize items that would be useful in times of crisis, but exchanging them for slips of paper that the merchants could redeem for goods and services at rook outposts definitely made people a lot happier.

It was small things like that which made Zari a great leader. She understood the importance of keeping good morale in bad situations. If it were me? I’m sure everyone would have been panicking.

Scattering around the emberlite went mostly without incident. I did run across a solitary crystal beetle while I was out in the Scorch, but the armoured insect exhibited no strange behaviour. It simply scuttled around the starsand, seemingly curious about the softly glowing orange lights.

As soon as it saw me coming it let out a screech and leapt at me, trying to impale me on its sapphire horn. It was laughably easy for me to duck out of the way and bring down my blastpick on it however.

I decided not to pull the trigger on the grip of the weapon, and simply smashed the bug to pieces the old fashioned way. The people of Clearvein were no doubt on edge despite Zari doing a great job calming them.

I imagined hearing a shotgun blast coming from just outside of town would worry people, so held myself back. As soon as I finished my job I did make sure to report the encounter to the lead rook regardless, just in case.

“You did well. Most of the people here are very much on edge, despite my best efforts. When the real fighting breaks out, I don’t want them to panic and run off into the Scorch.”

“So, it’s when and not if then?”

“I tend to plan for the worst.”

“After all this? I think I’ll start doing that myself.”

“I’ve had plenty call it a bad habit and been accused of being paranoid more than once.” Zari sighed, looking ruefully out over the softly glowing Starsand. “You know, I used to live in Raiken before coming here.”

“Really? Met a few people from there, quite rare this far north though.”

Raiken was the heavily forested continent to the south of the Scorch. I had never been myself, but a lot of stories about legendary heroes and monsters seemed to originate from there.

“I don’t think I ever really fit in down there. Everyone from my village was just so passionate about fighting, going to war and dying a glorious death on the battlefield.” Zari chuckled softly, resting a hand on the slim crystal rapier stowed at her side. “Most people would never guess I was born to a berserker tribe.”

“Wait, for real?”

My eyes went wide as the muscular, black-haired woman looked down at me and grinned.

“For real. I was given the name “Spineripper” as a child.”

“OK, I’m calling quartz. No way.”

Zari stared long and hard at me for a few long moments, her grin totally gone. I was about to stutter out an apology, terrified that I had just angered the wrong person, when she broke into laughter.

“You got me, but I had you going right?”

“Oh you son of a-”

I punched Zari in the shoulder and she kept on laughing.

“Sorry, I just love pulling that one on people. They never expect it.” Zari smiled. “I was brought up to be much more, restrained, than most people emotionally speaking.”

“No offense, but I can tell yeah.” I stuck out my tongue at my fellow rook. “So where are you from really?”

“Oh I am from Raiken. Berserker tribe and all. Just didn’t go by “Spineripper”, that was the only part I made up.”

I was silent for a few seconds, staring appraisingly at Zari and looking for any tell that she was lying.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“I mean, you definitely have the body for it. I’d never have guessed with your attitude though. You’re so calm and collected.”

“That’s because my parents sent me away from the tribe at an early age, used all their money to pay for a boarding school where I was taught swordsmanship.” Zari patted the rapier at her side. “Unfortunately, one year I went home to find my tribe completely gone.”

“What happened?”

“They found what they were looking for. Died on the battlefield in some war over land. Whether or not it was glorious, I couldn’t say.”

“I’m… sorry to hear that.”

“It’s alright. They did genuinely seem to want it. I think my parents just wanted better for me. I barely knew them but they loved the thrill of the fight. Made peace with their deaths. Part of me wished I could have been there beside them at the end.” Zari sighed. “No wonder I gravitated to such a hellhole.”

We were both quiet for upwards of a minute after that. I didn’t really know how to respond, but that was OK. Zari seemed to be enjoying my company as we patrolled around the outskirts of Clearvein, and I was enjoying hers too.

The starsand was honestly quite pretty at night, with the soft orange glow of the emberlite illuminating it and making it glitter. The Scorch really could be a beautiful place at times, even if it had claimed the lives of many of my friends.

“I guess we could be dying on the battlefield pretty soon too.” I finally spoke up. “Like Cyrus.”

“If it’s my time to die, so be it.” Zari shrugged. “I’m not one for regrets.”

It was a scary attitude to have. I logically knew that every time I fought, I could die. Hell, at the camp I had nearly been killed plenty of times. I tried to avoid actually thinking of it though.

“Fair, but I at least want to buy you a drink first, think you can hold on until then?”

“Sure.” Zari chuckled. “We’ll pour one for Cyrus, too.”

I smiled up at Zari, and was about to ask her how well she had known the gunslinger, when suddenly a distant cry rang out from the other side of the town. It was quickly followed by gunshots, and an explosion that seemed to shake the starsand all around us.

“Dynamite arrow. Must have been.” Zari started sprinting in the direction of the commotion, and I hurriedly dashed after her. “The outlaws must be here.”

I was about to ask if she was sure, wondering if it may have just been a stray spider or another beetle that had spooked someone, but then more gunshots and explosions started to ring out.

The Obsidian Outlaws hadn’t waited to recover, they were coming for Kate. I steeled myself and tightened my grip on the blastpick, ready for revenge.