Ascended

Both women looked at me.

Val spoke first. “They could use our help.”

“Everyone could use our help.” I motioned at the door. “We are stronger, can work longer without needing rest and don’t have to worry much about the Zombies. There are plenty of things that we could do for them that would help, but time spent here on Human matters, means that we aren’t somewhere else dealing with Zombies.”

Eveth raised her hand.

“Yes?” Val shook her head. “You don’t have to raise your hand. You’re a Bokor Master. You can speak up if you have something to add.”

“Oh. I don’t know…” Eveth put her arms on the table and tapped her index fingers together. “This is all so new to me.”

“It’s…”

“We’ll help you learn the ropes.” I cut off my companion. I had a feeling she was about to admit that we were also new to this, which was not the type of message that I wanted to send to the blonde. I glanced at Val before I looked at Eveth’s glowing white eyes. “Your transition might have been very unconventional and we can’t repeat it, but we are committed to helping you regardless of what the other Bokor might think.”

I could see the confusion on her face. All of the Bokor that she’d seen had glowing purple lines on their faces and arms to mark them as Bokor. Since Bokor rarely traveled together, except when there was a large Zombie threat, she’d probably never seen but a handful or two. For her to learn that the Bokor were fragmented on certain issues was probably something that she’d never considered possible.

“Exactly.” Val took one of the younger woman’s hands. “Now, what were you going to say?”

“Oh! Right.” Eveth blinked before pulling her hands back. “What I wawa going to say was that we should be looking to save lives, right?”

Val glanced at me.

I had a feeling where her question was going. “That’s right.”

“Then it shouldn’t matter if people are going to die from Zombies or from hunger. We should still try to stop them from dying.” Eveth leaned back to sit up straight.

“She has a point.” I shook my head. “But the problem is that we have no idea where to look for the boats.” I looked from Val to Eveth. “And while we might be able to save some people here from dying of hunger, you have to weigh that against the number of people that could be dying because of Zombies further along in our route.” I held up my hand before either of them could speak. “That being said, I think Eveth has a point. We should look into this, even if it’s just to gather information to give to Master Ju- James when we see him in Port Town.”

The common joke among the Bokor Masters on the island was to call Master James Master Junk. They said it was because he’d never produced an apprentice that had become a Master because he turned them all into junk. I’d been worried when I’d paired with one of his apprentices. Even though Max had died in the first city we’d stopped at, I didn’t think Master James’ teaching was what led to the death of my companion.

I was glad that I’d been able to meet back up with Master James and that he’d shown Val and myself how to use magic. If it had been any other Bokor, they would have tried to kill us and I’m not sure that I would have survived a fight with a Bokor Master.

Neither of the women seemed to catch my small slip up, though neither of them had ever heard him called that since they hadn’t grown up with the Bokor. Eveth seemed a lot more pleased with my logic than Val did.

“Does this mean we’ll get to ride a boat?” The blonde was bubbling.

That had been the plan if we couldn’t make it there in time. While we didn’t have much money on us, I had a feeling that the ships wouldn’t mind having a few Bokor around for protection, but that was only if we could find out what happened.

“Maybe.” I looked at Val. “The three trading ships might have just found a more profitable route.”

Most of the Human governments were centered around the individual cities. Without a safe mode of transportation to relay messages, there wasn’t really a good way for the Humans to enforce law. Since the Bokor were relied upon to deal with the Zombie threat, there wasn’t much reason for the individual cities to ally other than trade.

“But that doesn’t explain the fishing boats.” Val leaned back and looked up at the ceiling before looking back at me. “Fishing is the most important job here, so most of the people on those boats had to still have family here. I can’t see them all just leaving their family back here, especially if they were the main providers.”

“So what do you want to do?” I glanced down the hall. The only reason we couldn’t start tonight was that one of us was going to have to stay here and watch the kid.

“Not many people are going to be out right now.” Val nodded at the door. “Why don’t the two of you go down to the dooks and see if you can find anything weird. The locals might tell you things they wouldn’t tell me.” She chuckled. “Plus, I have a feeling as soon as the two of you start poking around, the mayor is going to remember something.”

“Try not to be too rough on him.” I stood up, then pushed my chair back in. “We’re supposed to be protecting these people, not bullying them.”

“Alright.” Val sighed. “I was just upset that they were being so lazy. Maybe that scare will keep them vigilant for a few weeks.”

I hoped it would be longer than that, but I knew that as soon as we were gone, they’d start cutting corners again.

“Eveth, you ready to go?” I slid the sling on my sword sheath over my head. I’d moved my sword to my hip while I’d been carrying Ziggy, but now I could keep it on my back so I could move faster.

“I guess, Byler.” The blonde stood up and fixed her sword similarly.

I headed for the door. “Let’s go look for some lost ships.”