Ascended

People were hurrying towards the gate.

I got a few confused looks as I walked behind Fyga toward the mine but that didn’t seem to worry anyone enough to ask what we were doing.

There was a little shack next to the mouth of the cave. She walked up to it like she owned it and threw open the door.

“HEY!” Lewiu crouched behind a desk with lots of papers scattered all over it. On top of the papers were a few handfuls of coins. It looked like he was gathering money. “You…” He saw me walk in behind her. “YOU!”

“What are you still doing here?’ I was a little confused. I knew he was helping the Master, but I wouldn’t think he’d want to be here when the Zombies broke in.

“I was just getting a few…” His voice shook as he looked down at the rocks that he had in his hands.

“He was promised to be made into one of the Chosen for his services.” Fyga walked over to the map on the wall and pointed at it. “These places that are marked as Crystal veins are the places where the Zombies will breach.”

“What are you doing?! What about our deal?” His eyes went wide as he registered that she was working with me and not the other way around. “You double crossing… You’re here to kill me like you did the doctor? ” He dropped the ore on his desk and grabbed a pickaxe.

I pulled out my sword. This was a really small place to fight and I really didn’t want to kill him. He might know more about the breach plans.

“She knew too much and wasn’t going to stop working on a cure..” A knife appeared in Fyga’s hand. “She was a risk that couldn’t be taken.”

“And that’s what I am now?” The stout man gripped the pickaxe with both hands, “A risk?”

Fyga reached into her bag and pulled out a purple vial. She put it on the desk. “You want to be made a Chosen? Drink that.”

He looked at me, then back at the vial. “Why? So the Bokor here can kill me?!”

“You’ve conspired with the Zombies. He’s going to kill you either way.” She stepped to the side so he had a clear path to me.

“That’s…” I started to elaborate on what she’d misquoted.

“DIE!” He swung his pickaxe, but when I blocked it, he wasn’t behind it.

Fyga had slid in between us and grabbed his right hand with her left, to keep him from swinging the weapon down. When he struggled against her superior strength, She slit his throat with one slash from the knife in her right hand. She moved to the side and pushed him behind the desk, dropping the pickaxe against my blade, which I parried to the floor. I didn’t bother to check on him. I knew that he was already dead.

“You killed him.” I looked at the blade of ice in her hand.

The weapon crumbled into snow that fell, but never reached the ground. She shrugged, “His deal was with the Master, not me.” She walked over to the wall and grabbed a pencil and scribbled on the map, then pulled the map off the wall, rolled it up and handed it to me.

“I wrote the number of Chosen that I know are with the Master as well as what type of magic they prefer and about how strong they are.” Fyga started walking towards the door. “I’ll be gone as soon as you get that Bokor away from the gate.”

I touched her shoulder as she walked past me. “We’re going to run into each other again, won’t we.” It wasn’t a question, it was a fact. She was going to keep doing jobs for the Master and for some reason the Master was very interested in me.

“And?” She stopped even though it was just a touch.

“Will we be enemies?’

She eyed me for a moment. “Are you asking if I’ll try to kill you the next time we cross paths?”

She was working for the other side, but I wasn’t sure that I was working for the Bokor anymore. I still believed in protecting the humans, so I couldn’t join her side either, but it would be nice to know if an assassin was going to try to kill me on sight.

“I’d like to know if I need to watch my back.”

She motioned behind the desk. “What do you think?”

I looked over at the dead miner. “I think…” I looked back at where she had been standing, except she wasn’t there. I shook my head. It wasn’t a firm answer, but I had a feeling she’d at least warn me before she came to kill me whenever we crossed paths again.

I tucked the map under my arm. I had other things to deal with though. I needed to get to Master James. Before I left, I stuck the vial of Zombie blood in my pocket and scooped the ore and the money into a bag. I had an idea about how I was going to get Felge to hand over the crystals.