Chapter 18 – Belonging

Crys winced as Fairweather used a damp cloth to clean the blood off her face. Whatever she had on it stung as it went over the cut. The man had managed to split the skin on her cheek as well as leaving a bruise, Fairweather hurrying her into a chair so that she could get it cleaned up as soon they had returned to the carriage. Clocky had disappeared following their return, after a brief conversation with Fairweather, and he hadn’t looked happy. Crys hoped that he wasn’t upset at her over it.

“Sorry,” she said again.

“Shh, he’s not angry at you. Far from it.”

“Hmm... It’s not as bad as I first thought,” Fairweather then stated as she gave it another gentle wipe with the cloth, the wound no longer stinging. Without a mirror Crys had no way of telling for herself, but she wasn’t sure that she actually wanted to look in one at the moment either. All it would do is remind her of the disconnect that she currently had.

“Be strong, alright. There’s light at the end of the tunnel.” Fairweather gave her a kind smile, and then another hug.

“Thanks,” Crys replied quietly.

Crys spent the next while just sitting on the side bench, lost in her thoughts, the carriage quiet. She felt upset and unsettled, understandably, and back by herself she wasn’t succeeding as well at keeping them bottled in. She’d put on a brave face for Fairweather, but right now she didn’t feel that brave. She admired their strength, and lamented her own lack. She knew she had a choice though. While she could just wallow in self pity, and rely on Clocky’s group for strength, that wasn’t going to get her anywhere. At the least she had to try and do something.

strength comes from within

it’s a state, not a measure

Crys got up and made her way back outside the carriage. Standing a little down from the door she unfastened the sword and shield, wielding one in each hand. They felt familiar yet not. Comfortable, yet something also felt off, and she was still amazed that she had managed to do any damage at all with the sword against the werewolf, which still looked as completely blunt and incapable to cutting into anything. Crys thought back to what she had seen in the media and read in stories. Get yourself in the right stance, practice the swings. Familiarise yourself with them. Placing her feet in what she hoped was the right configuration, she held onto the shield firmly in her left hand, while swinging the sword down with her right. Her balance felt off, and she couldn’t feel any force behind her swings at all. But she was determined to try. Something had to be better than nothing.

An amused laugh broke her out of her trance, having long lost count of how many swings she’d done, her arms now starting to ache. Vorsce was there standing beside her, an amused smile on his face.

“Your heart’s in the right place kid, everything else though, not so much. You need a lot of work”

She knew he was right, and he didn’t sound like he was being mean about it.

“Any advice?” she asked as she stopped, relaxing a little.

“That’s the easy bit.” Vorsce grinned. “Your stance is wrong, your shield arm is currently dead weight, and your swings lack any cohesive focus. It’s all contributing. Let’s see what we can do about that. Hmm... For a start, put the shield away. Start with the sword only and we’ll add the shield back in once you have some confidence with it. Otherwise it’ll be too much for you to try and concentrate on. You need to get a good feel for your weapon.”

Crys nodded, putting the shield down, Spectre sitting down beside it. Vorsce disappeared inside the carriage briefly, reappearing with a short sword in hand.

“Right, let me give you a demonstration,” he said, relaxing into position, the sword held comfortably in his hand. Crys watched closely as Vorsce showed her a series of beginners techniques, his stance confident and his movements fluid. Crys then tried to replicate them, Vorsce correcting her mistakes. It still didn’t feel quite right, as if she was missing some part of how she should be fighting, but it wasn’t because she wasn’t using the shield at the moment either. It was something else entirely that she couldn’t put her finger on. However it was still a big improvement on what she had been doing.

They spent the next while just going though the techniques over and over again, Vorsce giving her encouragement and correction. She was drenched in sweat now, the stains highly visible on her clothes. There was no way she would have avoided that, the day had gotten quite hot, and that combined with vigorous exercise always had that effect on anyone. She had no idea what she was going to to about that all, but at the least she felt like she had learned something about how to use a sword, and all things considered she was enjoying the training. She had a very very long way to go though.

Clocky returned about an hour later, Alison walking with him, and Crys sure that they could probably smell her a mile away. Fairweather appeared from the carriage as they reached it.

“Learn anything?” Fairweather asked.

“Nothing good,” Clocky said with a frown. “They’ll be here soon. We know who they are, and I can’t stand stuck up pricks like him.” He then gave a mischievous grin. “It’ll make for an amusing scene though.”

“His name is Sean Nobelesse, one of the sons of Bowser Nobelesse, Brightswater’s Channeller,” Alison then continued for him. “No talent of his own, not that any was ever expected as the trait isn’t hereditary, but his father spoils him like nothing else and he has a strong superiority complex. They are definitely up to something, as they’ve been trying to discretely load some crates onto a wagon from the compound where they’ve been holed up the last couple of days. Hopefully they’re not stupid enough to try and ship something that’ll get us all killed.”

“Speaking of the devil...”

Crys followed Clocky’s gaze, and she could feel the colour draining from her face as three figures rounded the engine. Two men in leather armour and chain mesh tops, and a blonde man dressed in white silk. She had hoped to never see them again, and yet here they were. Crys could hear Fairweather growl under her breath.

Sean stopped and glared at Crys when he spotted her, his bodyguards placing their hands on their swords. “What’s that thing doing here?” he asked, disgust in his voice.

“Hmm?” Clocky replied. “I have no idea what you are talking about. All I can see are the members of my team. You would be Sean Nobelesse then?”

“Yes, you stand in my presence. Now apologise and get rid of it.”

Crys couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Sean was standing there like he was the centre of the universe, acting like everyone was his slave or something. Where before she might have felt some fear, right now she just felt indignation.

“Well, Sean, if that is indeed who you are, we have a problem.” Clocky stated, a dead serious expression on his face.

“What? You doubt my word?” Sean looked flabbergasted.

“You attacked one of my team members you see, and I don’t take kindly to that. But I was certain that Bowser’s children were better than that, as people in power have the responsibility to look out for others, so it makes it very difficult for me to believe that you are indeed who you claim.”

“...” Sean’s mouth just hung open, before he scowled his face. “It was in self defence,” he finally stated.

“Really? Are you sure about that. Witnesses say you landed the first and only blow.” Clocky still looked dead serious, but Crys could detect the hint of amusement in his voice.

“She possesses a demon cat!”

Clocky raised his eyebrows at that one. “Really? I certainly don’t see, nor have seen any such thing.”

“Have you?” Clocky then asked, looking at Fairweather, Alison and Vorsce. The all shook their heads.

Sean glared at Clocky, visibly fuming. “You.. you ingrate. You’ll regret this.”

“This is my run, man-who-claims-to-be-Sean. You will follow my rules, and you WILL respect my team. All of them. Consider yourself lucky that I am still lenient enough to actually take you back to Brightswater. I have half a mind to just leave you and your ‘cargo’ behind.” Clocky’s gaze and intense, and Sean actually seemed to wither under it.

“We leave as soon as it’s loaded,” declared Sean, trying to retain face.

“We leave tonight, once we are ready. Not before. Till then, the safety of your ‘cargo’ is in your hands. I suggest that your men get down to your carriage as quickly as possible.”

Sean looked like he was about to argue the point, but then stopped himself from doing so. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” he muttered as he and his mean walked past, heading down to their carriage which had indeed been coupled up at the end of the train.

“I think it is actually the other way around,” Alison snickered once he was out of earshot, Vorsce laughing in reply.

“Alright, I think we’ve had enough drama now,” Clocky then declared with a grin. “Let’s tie up our loose ends, and make them sweat for a bit. Vorsce, keep an eye on them with Dudley. I’m not expecting any trouble just yet, but lets make sure nothing happens to them before we leave anyways. Fairweather, I’ll leave Crys in your hands. Alison, can you do the second watch with Mason please.”

“On it.”

“All good.”

“Thanks,” Crys said, as Alison and Vorsce both disappeared back into the carriage.

“No problem,” Clocky replied. “We’ve a tough road ahead of us though I foresee.”

Fairweather turned to face Crys. “You though young lady, need a clean. Your clothes too I think. We’ll use the workman’s one.”

If there was one thing that she hadn’t expected to see here, it was a shower. But given the random assortment of technology levels that she had witnessed thus far she shouldn’t have been surprised, especially as in this case it was very rudimentary. But even so, it did seem to be a rather extravagant thing to find in a workman’s shed in a rail yard, but here it was. It consisted of two large elevated tanks of water connected to a shower head, with a pair of taps to control the mixing of water from the tanks and a pull chain to activate the flow. One of the tanks had a firebox under it for heating the water if desired, and with Crys unable to say no to a warm shower, Fairweather had gotten a fire started in it, using coal for a more intense heat. That just left the issue of cleaning her clothes, for which Fairweather pulled up a small wooden tub, which she filled with water and gave to Crys along with a bar of soap. The warm water would be a little while, so in the interim she could clean her clothes.

Crys was somewhat apprehensive about actually trying to scrub them with the soap like she assumed would be the case for this method of cleaning them, given the delicate nature of a lot of modern (well now ancient) fabrics, and in the end after some discussion decided to just soak them in soapy water, and then try and give them a good rinse afterwards. When the issue of being naked arose Fairweather just laughed at her and gave her a towel to use.

So Crys ended up soaping up the water, stripping, and putting all her clothes bar the harness into the water. She was very surprised however to discover that she had a general lack of body hair. Thinking on it, she realised that her facial hair that she had been worried about having to maintain had not regrown at all in the three days that she had been awake, and having stripped, the legs that she had expected to be hairy were in fact hair free and smooth. Further inspection revealed an almost overall lack of hair. Which was confusing, though she certainly wasn’t complaining. The rest of her was certainly still male, but she had a head full of long hair, and almost no body hair. Spectre of course had no comment on the matter other than it was certainly convenient. She couldn’t argue that.

It took them a little bit of experimentation to get the right mix for the water temperature, with Crys almost dying from embarrassment when Fairweather inadvertently saw her naked in the process, but once it was there and flowing it was actually very soothing and relaxing. Using the soap was also a different experience, but aware that there wouldn’t be enough water for a lengthy shower like what she was used to, she quickly cleaned herself down and rinsed, hair and all. Drying took a while longer, her hair, as expected, a mission in itself.

Fairweather presented Crys with some of her own clothes to wear while Crys’ dried out, having rinsed them while Crys showered. They were in fact of a similar height, so the fit wasn’t too bad. A snug fitting green t-shirt, a loose pale blue jumper made from a combination of wool, cotton, and a rarer spider silk that Clocky had obtained from somewhere that was quite warm (not that that was needed atm given the ambient temperature) and very soft to the touch, and a matching pair of leggings, also a combination of the same materials (sans the wool). It wasn’t quite her style, but it looked alright and would do in the meantime. There was enough heat left in the day that Fairweather was sure her clothes would be dry by sunset. Fairweather commented that they didn’t have the sort of fabrics in the Outerlands like what some of Crys’ clothes were made of, but that she was sure Kyla had been wearing something that looked similar the one time she had seen her. Magic certainly had its advantages, not only in combat but for everyday life as well.

With that they headed back to join the others. Being clean certainly did help her feel better as well.

mogust

Hmm... developments... ^^

And many more to come as well, of course.  Not much to say atm that wouldn't spoil what's to come. The next chapter (19 - Team Effort) will be out early next week. The commission is also going well and shouldn't be too far off.

I have however had another look at the Synopsis for this story. I wasn't 100% happy with it (it didn't say a lot about the book itself), nor with the changes I have made. I feel I could do a lot better with it, but the new iteration is an improvement.

Updated version, with main changes/additions in italics, is now:

The demon king has been defeated, and a devastating war averted. The kingdom of Avaraline is on the slow road to recovery with Alysia at the helm.

Velvet sleeps, wrapped in magical crystal, Myne inactive, unwilling to do anything without her lover, the previous cost too high and too raw for them both.

But things are far from over. Ignoring that the demon king's retinue are still at large, and the neighbouring kingdoms are restless because of what had transpired, the world is stirring, the winds of change are blowing, the world on the brink of another evolution, the consequences of which will be more far reaching than anyone realizes.

Destiny however has plans of it's own. Chris, a young man discovering the truth about himself, and Rachael, a young woman hiding who she is, are both about to find themselves intertwined in the fate of the world.

When secrets come to the surface, the results can be far beyond what either party considered. Especially when they hail from an earlier age...

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This story is Book 2 in the Dawn Weaver universe, and takes place some years after the first.

However, it can be read independently of the first book (while knowledge of the first book may make some things clearer, it is not needed at all to understand most of what is going on and enjoy the story for what it is). The two main characters are new characters, as is the majority of the cast. To date, 99% of the story also takes place from the perspective of Chris or Rachael.

Note that this story is much heavier on the transgender themes than book 1, and it comes into it from very early in the story. The gender bender element itself don't come into play until much later however.

It is also not an Isekai story, at least not from a technical viewpoint.

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Let me know what you think of the changes, and where I could improve. Suggestions are welcome.

And as always thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)