98. Secrets: Ruku

Skygge came back to the safe house with an arrow wound in her arm, and her leg wound bleeding again. Ört patched her up, and I think my Refreshing Mists is on permanently. Before she went to bed, she asked me to be available tonight to meet the Pack Rats. Modrica and I will play bodyguard. It sounds like she is this Black Shadow person. I am swapping the watch mid-morning with Najprej, and I will also need some shut-eye before tonight.

I am interested in this water skin armour that was apparently on the Water Shamans. I wish I could have seen it. My Whirlpool Shield is external to my body, not embedded in my skin. From my Water Manipulation, I know there is a lot of water in the human body. My Hydatre Skill, combined with my Master level Water Manipulation, is very effective at flushing out poisons and other toxins. It seems the Shamans could not do this with this Water Skin armour they had as Sten, or Wiremu as he is called said the Venom built up in their body. This Water Skin Armour seems more effective against piercing and cutting attacks than my Whirlpool Armour. It might be very powerful if I combine it with my Hydrate Skill and flush the Toxins. I can’t practise here, though. I need access to a lot of water, and failed attempts also tend to spread, or explode, a lot of water in my experience. I will plan a trip to the beach whenever I get my next day off.

When I swapped the watch with Najprej, I asked her what I should be calling Skygge and Sten and who Nyx was. She said I needed to discuss that with Skygge or Sten. I need to do so before tonight, but for now, I need to hit the sack.

I woke late afternoon and sorted out my gear for the evening. My armour is going to need some repair soon. Sten is better at it than I am. I am used to handing it to the Marine Armours and then picking it up the next day. I will stick with my sword and shield, with a couple of knives as a backup. Modrica has her mace and fists, and Skygge has her knives. We have no ranged weapons, which concerns me. My shield will defend against ranged attacks, but we could get pinned down without adequate response. I will talk with Skygge about taking Skavt with her Throw Weapons Skill. I know she sent Skavt and Drugič out to the Quarry with the new kid Abigail. Abigail apparently has a Wood affinity and will help rebuild the defences there. We are very short-handed with the losses at the Quarry and so many injuries.

Skygge had Modrica, and I joined her for dinner to prepare for tonight. She took us to a local tavern and booked a private room. It was a small room on the upper floor with a balcony, and the first thing Skygge did was pull out six small pieces of leather with runes enchanted on them. She put one piece of leather adjacent to each wall, one pinned to the ceiling, and one on the floor under the table. They were common sound reduction and distortion enchantments to help ensure we had privacy.

After the waitress left our order, I started my normal blunt way. “If Sten is actually Wiremu, what do I call you?”

She sat there for a moment in thought. Then she said, “How much does Sione know?”

“I don’t know how much Sione knows. I have not told him anything since signing with you. At that time, he thought you were Tabitha Carter and Sten was your brother Warren.” I replied.

She sat looking at me for a few minutes. The waitress brought in our drinks and some snacks. When the waitress left, she said, “You have only been with us a few weeks, Ruku, and already you have seen more action than would normally be seen on the entire trip to Kirghiz, and we haven’t even left Obalno yet.” She paused, then continued, “I don’t trust easily. However, if you come with us tonight, you will probably gain knowledge that only Wiremu and Modrica know. Even the Canine Queens only know some of the generalities of this. This is deeply personal to me and involves things I have done that I am not proud of. Will you keep what you hear a personal secret? It is not nice or legal. If you can’t, Modrica and I will go alone.”

It was my turn to pause in thought. She was injured in her arm and leg and wanted backup. She would have taken Wiremu if he had been here. As a Marine, I had worked with undercover operatives on the wrong side of the law, but I was generally part of the backup enforcers. We were the ones raiding the suspected smuggler ships, not the ones doing the smuggling. From what she said, she has regrets about whatever it is. That is a good sign. I have never really understood her and Modrica. They seem such opposites.

I like Sten. I must get used to calling him Wiremu. If Skygge is not his sister, it seems strange that they are together. Wiremu looks out for her more than any brother I have known, and she seems to be the same even though they seem so different. They are both young. I am old enough to be their dad. I feel this is not just a promise about keeping a secret. This is about becoming family. How the three of them became a family is a big mystery. I should say four of them, as you have to include Tāoke. I am missing the camaraderie of being in the Marines, and nothing is holding me here. I have seen a lot of families more dysfunctional than these four.

I looked at Skygge and Modrica. “Where is this ship heading?” They understood I was considering a larger commitment than just keeping a secret, and I got a nod from Modrica.

“Wiremu has a powerful anti-slavery stance, and we are heading into a clash with the empire over it. All this,” and she indicated to include all their current activities, “is to gather resources, contacts and the Skills and experience ready for that.”

Wow. They are gearing up to take on an empire. I have seen that they are already operating as well-equipped, high-level operatives. Anti-slavery is something I can get behind. I have not had personal dealings in the slave trade or known anyone who has. However, the worst of the smugglers were smuggling people out of the kingdom and into the empire to be enslaved. This was no small goal and no small commitment.

I made a decision. Even though my Orcish was only mid-Apprentice Level, I said, “Pridružite se klanu,” which roughly means, “I will join your Clan,” although there are a lot of deeper connotations that go with that.

They both relaxed, and Modrica, in the role of the senior Clan member, said in Orcish, “Dobrodošel brat,” welcoming me to the family.

At that point, the waitress came in with our meal, and Skygge waited until she left.

As we started eating, she said, “Sione has one thing correct, I am Tabitha Carter. My brother Warren was killed when we were escaping from the empire. Wiremu was travelling with us. We had a skirmish with an Imperial investigator at the border town of Kirsk, and Wiremu injured the investigator and ended up with a Capture or Kill contract on him. He needed a new ID, and Warren’s was the easiest.”

There was obviously a lot more to that story, as squads of well-trained guards always protected imperial Investigators. I noticed she didn’t say why they were all escaping the empire. I just nodded for her to continue.

“We ended up in Jern. This is the part where it becomes relevant to tonight's meeting. Have you heard the tales about what is now known as the Month of the Black Butcher in Jern?”

I paused with a fork full of food halfway to my mouth. I put the food down. There were Bards tales about that war between Crime Lords in Jern. Apparently, there were bodies left on the street daily and firebombings of entire blocks of buildings. Even allowing for bardic exaggeration, it sounded horrific. The thing all the stories had in common was that the biggest butcher of them all was the Crime Lord Black, who ran the Shadow Guild. All the stories told of her evil beauty and the Blacksteel war knife she carried. The same knife that I saw two nights ago. All the stories also told of her death. Yet, here she was, sitting in front of me. My new clan.

“I see you have heard the tales,” she continued. “Those were dark times. The thing about the bard’s tales is that they are not highly exaggerated, and I was most certainly the greatest butcher of them all.” She paused to take a bite, but she was observing me carefully, trying to judge my reaction.

Tabitha continued, “Wiremu wasn’t there for that month. He was with the Canine Queens fighting goblins. Modrica walked with me through the month of hell. She is my Krvne Sestre.”

The shocking revelations continue. That she is in a Blood Sister relationship with an Orc is unheard of. Those relationships are extremely rare even amongst Orcs. To become a Blood Brother or Sister means you have walked through hell together and survived. It is rare anyone survives those situations. Modrica will have at least as much blood on her hands as Tabitha.

I was speechless. I think my mind had frozen, not knowing what to think. Sione is not often out of his depth, but he is over the Mer ocean trench in this one, and he doesn’t even realise it. If Sione realised that he had hired the Black Butcher to do his dirty work, I think his mind would explode.

I cleared my throat, “You will have to give me a minute. That is a lot to process.”

They both nodded, and we ate in silence for a bit. Well, they ate. I think my body was as frozen as my mind. I was going over what I knew of Wiremu and Tabitha. From first meeting Wiremu and watching the hilarious show to fishing and the Catkin. To working under Skavt and fighting beside Najprej and Drugič. Ört, the healer and Kryddor, his bond. These were not bad people. They had all known Wiremu and Tabitha much longer than I had and were happy and comfortable with them. They are an eclectic caravan of people who appear happy and relaxed. The picture of Modrica playing with the kittens stuck with me. I have already made my decision. This is my Clan. Sione will have to find another source of information.

I looked at them both, “I will need to resign from my part-time consultancy with the Marines. Please tell me there are no more earth-shattering revelations.”

They both grinned widely. I think it is the first time I have ever seen Modrica smile. Those grins didn’t give me any confidence about there being no further revelations.

My heart sank as Tabitha said, “But you haven't met Nyx yet.”

“Can it wait until the dessert? I need another drink.”

After the waitress left and we had our dessert, I said, “OK, who is Nyx, and when do I meet them?”

Tabitha grinned. I was starting not to like that grin. She said, “Nyx is my bond, and you can meet her anytime.”

Tabitha had never given any indication of having a bond, and I had never seen an animal around that might be bonded to her. So I said that to her.

She replied, “Nyx is not an animal. Nyx is a Shadow Elemental, and she generally lives in my Blacksteel knife.” She made a motion, which must have been for my benefit, and a pool of darkness spread out from behind her into a roughly humanoid shape standing next to her.

This was huge. I had never heard of a person bonding with an elemental, and I had been privy to knowledge about many bonded people. I also had read about all those with bonds in the military and those in the army of our neighbours that we knew about. This is huge. This… I am speechless again. I took a huge gulp of my ale. Nobody has an elemental bond. How does that even work? It would be like me trying to bond with that Sand Elemental. How does it even think? I am not going to say that out loud. I am not even going to think about it. Otherwise, the next thing I know, Wiremu will be bloody trying to bond with it. These people are doing the impossible. No, they are impossible.

“I …” I tried to say something, and I failed. Tabitha just raised her eyebrow at me in query. “Shut up,” I told her, even though she hadn’t said anything. “You people are impossible,” I said finally. “At least I now know how you are performing those impossible feats in the Barman and the Nobles Daughter.” She just nodded. I turned to Nyx and said, “Hello, Nyx, nice to meet you.” I didn’t know if she could even understand me.

“Nyx doesn’t really speak a language,” Tabitha said. “She does get intents, somehow, through her Spiritual Senses. We are still working on understanding how she perceives the world. She acknowledges your greeting. I have told her to treat you like Modrica, Wiremu and Tāoke. She will not feed from you without permission and will come to you if she is in trouble.” Tabitha handed over a small piece of Blacksteel connected to a metal necklace. It was worth a bloody fortune. “Put this on, and she can hide there if she needs to. You will notice a small temperature change when she is there.” I put the necklace on against my skin. “Nyx,” she commanded. The black shadow flowed into the Blacksteel, and I noticed the gem get colder. I nodded to Tabitha, and she must have communicated with Nyx, who transferred herself back to the knife strapped to Tabitha's back.

“You said something about feeding?” I asked.

“Yes, Nyx syphons energy from living entities to live. Obviously, if she takes too much energy, the entity slows down and eventually dies. This would take anywhere between two days and a week for a human. Rats will become lethargic within 5 - 10 minutes and dead in less than half an hour. This is an important piece of information when we are about to meet a group of people, all with bonds to a rat.”