Carmine

I shook. My stomach tensed. I leaned up and a wave of pain swept my fingers and up to my arm.

Fantastic...

I opened my eyes. Janilla motioned at something. Muffled voices entered my mind and before I got a gauge of my surroundings, Janilla looked down.

"Lady Carmine," she said.

"She's awake?" Valor's voice sounded distant. Soon enough though, his smiling face hovered over me. l sat up. The thick sheet rolled off my body. A firm tightness traveled against my stomach. As my hand moved along the dress, I detected wrapping under it.

"I treated and redressed the cut on your body. You should feel better for now," San Rosa said.

I groaned. Which part of me felt better? She must have lost her mind. I tried to pull myself up and I got dizzy instantly. My legs lost feeling, so I dropped into Valor's arms.

"Hey, easy there. You just fainted, take a minut—" Valor said.

I made the sound of a frog in my disdain. Five was there. The little girl with ponytails walked off and left down a corridor.

"We need to leave." I lightly pushed him to the side as I labored in between him and Janilla.

San Rosa turned as if she detected my eyes on her. In her cupped hands were glass vial bottles. The liquids were of different colors. Five came beside her.

San Rosa said, "I'm glad you are okay Carmine, should I address you by your title or—"

I tilted my head at her. "It might not matter. I will be dead either way." The weight of my current situation was clear to me.

Valor's eyebrows raised at me.

I plastered on a smile. "It's a jest."

That was only half-right.

I looked at the mark on my palm. The wounds were healed, but the memory was still fresh in my mind. The pain was a constant reminder of what awaited me.

When I slept, I felt no pain, I had no memory. If I was asleep—I shook my head and exhaled. San Rosa presented a vial in front of my face. Small white round orbs shook inside it.

She took off the wooden cap and poured out some orbs in her palm. She pinched one orb in front of my eyes. "Cut one of these in half and take it per day after your breakfast. It will help with the pain."

I took the orb. It rolled down into my open palm. My wrist wrestled with pain when her hand gripped it tight. I looked up at her face. "Do not take more than that do you hear me? No matter how sweet the relief, got it?" she said.

I kept still even though I wanted to step back from her glare. My wrist was ripped free or had she let go? I was not going to be taken for a child. "I understand it, San Rosa."

San Rosa smiled. "Good." She gave two other vials to Five.

"Carmine, let me cut that for you," Valor said. I turned and gestured it toward him.

He unslung his ax and I protested. "No, don't you dare cut that with your bloody ax."

He gave me an incredulous look before frowning. "I just washed it. It is not bloody my Lady. I mean, look at it." He gestured with the unwieldy ax.

I waved negatively at him. "Use anything else Valor, please."

He groaned as he started looking around. Five came up to him. Valor looked at him.

Five took the orb and turned. He threw the orb up. He made one motion with his hand. I felt pressure. A gust of wind passed me as his hand sliced through the orb. He caught both pieces in a crouch and gave me one.

A cup appeared. The liquid inside it was clear. Was this water? The hand holding it belonged to San Rosa. She said, "To help you swallow it whole, do not bite it, just swallow and drink."

I looked at the orb. Then at the boys, they nodded their approval. Janilla was watching with intense eyes. Was it fear or anger?

If they wanted me dead, I would have been dead a long time ago.

I popped the orb into my mouth and swallowed without much difficulty. The water was taken and it was unpolluted. Too clean, yet refreshing to down such sparkling water. Not even the King of Eathen’s palace carried water so tasteless and crisp.

San Rosa was already turning away. "Where did you get water so—clean?" I asked.

She did not turn around, but her voice was cheerful. "It is not hard to get for us."

"Is there anything you can do for me?" I asked. My eyes flung around the room. This was a different room. Books, vials, and bottles were stored on wooden shelves built on the wall. All were printed in an obscure language I could not decipher.

I moved my knapsack to the side and took out the book.

"What about these, do you know what this is?"

"Mm?" She turned.

San Rosa looked at the book and her eyes widened in genuine shock.

"Wh-where did you get that?!"

Valor added, "The hell, how?"

"The Chapel of Erot," I replied.

Her shoulders relaxed. "That is a—tome. We scribe down our discoveries on paper, to remember them for later. This might be the discoveries of whoever once held this book."

San Rosa came closer and took it in hand. She went through, taking a peek at the different sections. "This was written by a Biometh named Ada, but it is the property of Corona. This is Biology, never thought that power monger would be interested in such a simple discipline."

"Biology?"

"It is one of our discipline branches. You know what science is right?"

I nodded my head. My memory assumed it to have something to do with inventing machines and the like.

She gave me back the book. "This is the science of nature, plant life, microorganisms." San Rosa motioned at her curvaceous body with a spread of her hands. "The human body and the body of other animals."

I showed her the rings.

San Rosa rolled all five rings in her hand and stared down at them. "Useless. These are encoded to Corona's DNA." She sighed. "...let's just say only she can use these. You could get the encoding cracked, but that will be difficult based on the etchings I am seeing."

Before I left this place I should feel somewhat safer. The future held little promise and a vicious tinge of what awaited me.

"I want help," I said.

San Rosa placed the rings in my left hand and waved up her hands at me. "Oh no, I don't want to get involved in your war."

"My war?"

She smiled, but it looked fragile on her face now peppered with a few spots of sweat. "Carmine, I don't think you understand. The battle between you and Erot will drag whole nations and lead to the slaughter of millions in both of your names. I plan to not be one of them."

I grabbed my arms within each other's grasp. My fingers dug deep into the fabric biting my skin. "Better I just kill myself then?"

Everyone except Five looked at me with widened eyes of shock.

I replied quickly, "I am joking."

Valor's eyes narrowed at me.

I partially was not, but I needed to ask myself the question the more I thought about this. Was fate so cruel? Could I not get along with Erot?

Valor approached. "Carmine." Then he turned towards San Rosa. "Look we are not asking for much, but we could use some help. Something to least to protect Carmine—"

"From what? Erot will send stronger Champions if you guys hang around. That woman has no limit. She will slaughter a whole town just to kill one person. You are lucky her own coven is a basket case of madness, because that must be why she is slow to moving even now." San Rosa almost continued. Her eyes rested on me. Her lips pursed tight. She nodded her head and walked off to the right.

San Rosa pulled out boxes and other things onto the floor from the lowest section of the shelf. The dust raised, while she searched. Her arms stopped moving.

San Rosa smiled and shook her head in affirmation. She drew out a smaller long box and handed it to me. It was colored with a flat bluish-gray. I lifted the top. Inside was stuff, yet it was a lot of stuff.

There were a pair of gloves. Metal was along parts of it. There were empty bottles filled with dust and an extension of fine string.

San Rosa said, "Elam was built on a community of men and women. They were all working together for a common goal. Each one had specific roles back then. A person would train all his life in it. This box belonged to a man once dear to me. He was one of the originals and he trained and worked most of his life as a tactician.

"A tactician's job was to organize the hunters in their coordinated attacks on prey. They would ensnare, trap, and control prey in an effort to make the hunts as fruitful as possible. Most of this stuff is obsolete now as tacticians are an old and buried job. Still, a few things might be useful to you."

San Rosa took out a necklace from under the glove and slid it around my neck. The necklace carried a big spectacular-looking circle that broke apart into a blooming flower. Its base silver color was accented by the red and dark gray swirls twisting around each other on every petal.

"A Sector Bloom will block anyone reading your thoughts, penetration, and tracking of you." I grabbed the necklace tight. San Rosa took out a small object that looked like some tightly wrapped gauntlet with a wooden plank across the center.

On the side of it was a roll of string. She held it up. A high-pitched sound caused me to wince. A thud made me turn my head in shock.

An arrowhead struck the wall. The string was almost invincible to the eye, but it was attached to it. She continued, "A gun. Mainly used for setting up traps, but it can be transformed into an effective weapon in the right hands." She laid that into my palm. "There is some other stuff. Not sure what the rest of it can be used for. This is all I can afford you."

"Thanks for everything," I said.

"Oh, I should welcome you." She turned around now.

Her eyes fluttered making her eyelashes look like butterfly wings. "You are a part of the high society that comprises us metrologists and the few humans that know. The rest of the world do not know what you do. Saying anything will get you branded a heretic. Keep your mouth shut if you want to live longer."

I shuddered at hearing those words. The smile San Rosa gave me was so sweet, yet her voice dripped with wickedness.

Valor quickly changed the subject. "So where do we go from here Carmine?"

"Tiam," I answered. Valor smiled brightly at that. I turned away from those ever-following eyes of San Rosa, for I distrusted this woman.

“Fine, lass?” Valor was motioning at Janilla. “I will drop you outside the city. There is a hamlet, Greary, a good place to hide. Y—"

“Valor, she is coming with us.”

Valor stared at me then with a tilt of his head gestured at Five. “I guess the defected beta doll is coming too?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Both of them are.”

“No.” Valor waved his hand at me. “No, no, I will not be carrying around an ignorant liability of a lass and a defected traitor who will eventually betray us.”

Janilla laid her hand on her chest in shock. Five did not react. I replied, “I do not care what you think! They are coming. They saved my life and where were you? Hm?”

Valor snorted and looked away. By the time he faced me, he gripped my hand and pulled. “I only need you.”

I pulled back. Valor gripped me tighter and pulled me. Five swung the back of his hand in a chop hitting Valor’s forearm. He let me go and stepped back to stare Five down.

Their stares were vicious. I smelt violence in the posture of their bodies. I stepped between them. “Listen, I am coming, but I come on my terms. That means Five and Janilla are coming with me.”

I owe Janilla, as for Five, he was my safeguard against Valor. Valor rubbed his arm and cut his eyes, turning he said, “We must hurry in the night. The claws of our enemies are closing in on us.

We left and it was close to the evening. The dusk was upon us. "Was I out for that long?" I directed towards Valor. He nodded his head positively with an added grunt. I must have been tired. We stepped out into the dreary streets. It was quieter. The peddlers were packing up.

A few voices resonated throughout the derelict dusty street. Shouts of commerce, while loud chatter permeated the place giving it some measure of life before the darkness took over.

The pain was gone. Relief was good, yet I was still tired. In my bones, I felt it. I knew not what the future held for me. Ninety-nine coins assured that I would have a tragic end, but I held one coin. Maybe that was all I needed.