Chapter 21 – Illicit Cargo

She stood, the tip of Erstes Solas gently touching the ground, as she looked over the battlefield, their bodies strewn everywhere, the stench of death overpowering. They had been fools to think that they even had a chance, and so they had paid for their arrogance. Flames danced through her hair as she walked down amongst them, even their blood fearful of her and flowing away from where she placed her feet. Reaching the centre of the battlefield she stopped, drawing the flames together in the centre of her palm, where they danced, whites, golds, and warmth.

“Where one light ends, another must begin. To your souls, I set you free, his servants no longer.”

She gently released the flames from her hand, down to the bodies, the heat suddenly intense as they hungrily devoured the fallen.

And in the centre of it all, she basked.

Wait... what?

“Crys... Crys!”

Crys opened her eyes, Fairweather and Clocky both occupying her vision, looks of concern and worry on their faces.

“Sorry, I think I broke your pistol...” she managed to murmur groggily.

“Are you alright? You just suddenly started bleeding and collapsed,” Clocky asked as Fairweather put her in a sitting position.

She felt a little woozy, as if someone had been spinning her around, but other than that, she actually felt fine. Crys brought her hands to her face, touching her cheeks. Her fingers came away tipped with blood.

“Am I still bleeding?” she asked with concern.

“No, it seems to have only been for an instant,” Fairweather replied as she checked her over. “Can you stand?”

Crys attempted to do so, managing to shakily get to her feet. “How long was I out for?”

“A few seconds,” Fairweather replied.

Crys tried her best to keep herself steady, and she could feel a little of her strength returning. She had no idea what had just happened, but she was now feeling.. odd. Not off, nor sick, just odd. She could clearly recall the words that had been spoken before the impact, more clearly than anything that she had ever tried to commit to memory when studying, and while some of it made sense, other parts didn’t. As to where the voice had come from, she had no idea. She should have been worried about that she knew, yet the voice hadn’t had any malice, and seemed familiar as well. Now, though, was not the time for that. Hadn’t she been in the middle of a fight.

‘Odd doesn’t even touch the surface of it. I felt a surge, but even I can’t identify what it was. It was something more... more than magic...’ Spectre actually sounded confused.

She looked around. Everyone was standing nearby, either looking at her or the wreck of the train. The corpse of the Dark Wolf, if that was even it’s name, was still beside them, the wisps of darkness slowly shrinking and fading. Nothing more seemed to have appeared from the wreckage, not even from Sean’s carriage at the back of the train. They currently had no clue if they had even survived the crash.

“That... Dark Wolf... are they common?” she asked, relaxing a little.

Clocky shook his head. “Never seen or heard of one before. It’s more like something that you’d find in the Innerlands.” He then grinned. “So I guess you get to name it then. Dark Wolf it is.”

“And don’t worry about the pistol. I’ll get another. You did realise though that the magazine had been empty?”

Crys was suddenly confused. “It was?! Then what was I firing?”

‘Even I had noticed that,’ Spectre commented, back to its smug self.

Clocky pointed at the back of his right hand, and looking down at her own, Crys was surprised to see that she had a faint, golden coloured tattoo taking up the bulk of it. It was a set of five circles with chaotic, well to her at least, lines going between them all and the centre of the circle, runic script that was both familiar and not sitting in between the circles, as well as a number of other strange symbols. Her eyes went wide. She hadn’t had that before.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Something magic related I’d guess. There is more to you than even you realise it appears. It was blazing golden when you were firing the pistol, reminiscent of the tattoos that Velvet had when I saw her fight.”

She had magic? Crys couldn’t believe it. Not that she had any clue what she had been doing. Or perhaps it was just related to the voice that she had heard.

‘Yes, you have magic, Crys. You are after all my source of mana. The bond is only possible if you have the capacity to use it.’

“You only decided to point this out now?” Crys said to Spectre with some measure of frustration, then immediately feeling a little embarrassed about the outburst to a comment that no one else could hear. However the revelation from Spectre was after the fact after all.

‘In my defence, capacity and being able to use aren’t necessarily mutual aspects, especially for one such as yourself.’

Spectre had a point there. Crys sighed.

“You did good Crys. You did good,” Fairweather said, giving her a reassuring hug.

Now however really wasn’t the time to be worrying about these things. They had much more pressing concerns, and Crys wondered how Clocky had even managed to smile with one of his team members having just died.

Crys looked down at her feet. “I’m sorry about Mason. Did it kill him? The drivers too?”

Clocky shook his head, his expression going serious. “No, not with its size. Something else did, whether that was also responsible for dulling our awareness as well I am not sure. Their deaths were a lot cleaner too. It does look like Mason managed to fight back though. We will mourn him once this is all over. For now we worry about the living. He would want it that way.”

“First though, let’s secure the area and check on Sean and his men. He has a lot to answer for. Then we can bury Mason and the drivers. Alison, Vorsce, if you don’t mind.”

“You think he’s responsible?” Crys asked as Alison and Vorsce headed off to opposite ends of the area.

“I know he is,” Clocky replied with certainty.

Once they had signalled that the perimeter was secure, Alison and Vorsce headed back in towards the train as the rest of them also did so. Crys was a little worried that at any moment the Dark Wolf might suddenly stir again, but it remained still, the wisps now gone. Like this it looked less imposing, and more like a normal wolf than the Long Hairs had. Dudley’s limp had gotten worse, Clocky now supporting him as they walked.

“You need to have a look at this,” Alison stated to them as they neared the train, her gaze on Sean’s carriage, which was lying on its side. “It’s not pleasant though.”

Crys could feel her skin crawl as she got close. Whatever Alison could see, she knew that there was something much worse in there as well.

The roof of the carriage was gone, shredded to splinters and not by the crash. The dark Wolf had likely come from here, that much was certain. The inside of the carriage was a sickly black colour, and the darkness almost seemed alive. The remains of the two guards was spread across the carriage, and not from the sort of damage a wolf would do. Crys felt sick, the sting of bile in her throat. They hadn’t deserved to die like that, no one did. Of Sean, there was no sign. The six crates that composed the core of Sean’s cargo were still sitting in the carriage, though they were all now lying against the side of it, the strapping that had been holding them secure of the carriage floor having sheared during the crash. Five were opened, the sides having been neatly pried open, inside were large steel cannisters with glass tubes in them. The entire top of each had been taken off, the glass tubes broken. Not ripped off or torn off, but properly removed, the securing clasps undone and top unscrewed.

“Don’t touch the darkness,” Crys said suddenly, her soul screaming out to her about it, something searing inside of her. Spectre, now up on her shoulder, seemed to tense up as well. Whatever it was, it was not good.

Clocky looked at her, then nodded. “Rope and grapple it is. We need to find out what his cargo actually was.”

something no man should ever touch

“Well, probably just rope actually,” Clocky then continued, as he made his way past a couple of the crashed trucks to one that had crates strapped to the top of it. Checking to make sure that it was stable, he clambered up onto it, opening a metal box that was situated at the end of it. Pulling out a red coloured rope, he hopped back down, throwing one end to Alison once he had returned.

“We’ll loop it over it, and then drag it off the carriage. Hopefully it doesn’t drag the darkness with it.”

It took the pair three attempts to get the right feel for it and get the rope to fly over the crate and land on the other side of it, without becoming entangled in anything else at the same time. It appeared that the darkness that coated the carriage wasn’t a sticky substance, as while the rope made frequent contact with it, none of it seemed to adhere to it. Crys was still paranoid about it, unable to abate her unease over it. She had no idea what had triggered it, but even without it she was sure she would have been in a similar state.

Standing on either side of it, Alison and Clocky carefully dragged the crate right to the edge of the carriage, its movement surprisingly smooth as it almost seemed to just glide over the darkness. Double checking to make sure that it hadn’t collected anything else in its passage, they then carefully lifted it off the carriage and carried it a few meters away, gently setting it down on the ground. Prying open the top of the crate, they were unsurprised to find another one of the steel cannisters, this one though intact. The middle of the cannister’s lid was made of glass, three glass tubes, probably filled with just air, going both into the cannister as well as out of it. Given how fragile they looked, Crys was surprised that they were still intact. Inside the cannister, visible through the glass lid, was an inky blackness, swirling around as if it was alive. Crys took a step backwards involuntarily. There was nothing good about what it contained.

“Any idea what that is?” Fairweather asked, looking pale.

Clocky shook his head. “No. You?” he then asked, looking at Crys.

Crys shook her head as well. She wasn’t sure if she actually wanted to know, but she had a sinking feeling that at some point she would likely find out, and it also likely that it was at least partially responsible for the Dark Wolf.

Clocky took another look before placing the lid back on the crate. “Whatever it is, Sean is in well over his head. Seal it back up, and we’ll find somewhere secure to place it for the moment. Audrey needs to be told about this, though I don’t really think that taking it to him is necessarily a good idea.”

“Not that we may have a choice,” Vorsce mused.

Clocky nodded to that. “Indeed. We may not have.”

Once the crate was sealed again, Crys surprised at the various tools that Clocky seemed to be able to find around the train, it was nestled up against a couple of the carriages, sitting snug between them. It was a temporary measure for the moment apparently.

Not wanting to look at dead bodies any more than needed, Crys volunteered to help Vorsce and Alison dig a burial hole while Clocky and Fairweather accounted for the remaining team member and the train’s crew. They found an area on the opposite side to the train that looked to have a decent amount of dirt and not be too rocky, given the nature of the Eastern Teeth, and started to dig. The soil was easy enough to move, and they worked in silence, each to their own thoughts, Spectre watching on. Crys felt that she should be sad about Mason’s death, but she had hardly known the man, and was more disturbed that someone or something had killed him in the first place.

Clocky and Fairweather recovered all the bodies, well as best they could, Clocky explaining that he didn’t want to risk leaving Sean’s guards in their carriage on the off chance that it attracted some Wildlings to the area. Not that he was too worried about the Wildlings themselves, they were after all a part of the ecosystem now, but rather the risk that the blackness in the carriage might do something to them while they sought out their meal. As to what they were going to do, he was currently drawing a blank. Trying to set it on fire had been considered, but given that the bulk of the carriage was made from metal it wouldn’t really solve the problem.

The bodies were laid nearby, covered by blankets that had been taken from their carriage, which currently against the wall of the valley a bit further down from the locomotive. The couplings had snapped during the crash, and it’s contents had survived reasonably well. Vorsce stood over them once Clocky had finished, and said a short prayer.

“Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes. May your souls rest in peace. We’ll get the bugger for you.”

Not much had changed there since her age.

The bodies were then laid in the hole, and covered back over with the dirt. The spot was then piled high with whatever loose stones and rocks that they could find, serving as both a marker for the grave, but also as a barrier to stop any Wildlings that might wander through the area from digging up the bodies. Once they had run out of serviceable stones, it was sitting at about Crys’ chest height.

“I assume that we’re going to split into team then?” Alison asked as they stood by the grave, having finished paying final respects.

Clocky nodded. “Assuming that the buggy is still in one piece, yup. We need to report back to Audrey on this, and let them know about the fate of the train. We also need to find Sean and whoever he was with, or whatever, if that is the case. I don’t think we really have much choice, and I doubt that we’d be able to get the locomotive back on the tracks with who we have here.”

“I’m also pretty sure the wheels under it are warped and broken now too. Recovery is going to be one major headache,” Fairweather added.

“Alright, let’s get to it,” Clocky then said, turning from the grave and walking to the wreckage.

Crys walked beside Fairweather as they all followed him. They stopped beside a truck that Crys recognised as having been directly behind the carriage they had been riding in. The coupling connecting it to the carriage had snapped, meaning that the carriage itself was now separated from the rest of the train, but the truck was still coupled to the ones behind it, and was on it’s side. The front underside looked somewhat damaged, boards broken, but otherwise intact. Like a number of the trucks, the body of it looked to be made predominately from wood, unlike the carriages which were mostly metal. The base of the trucks was still all metal though. Grabbing a large sledge hammer from under the truck, Clocky informing her that it was a utility truck when she gave him a questioning look, Vorsce worked with Alison to decouple the truck. After a lot of banging and swearing there was a loud clank, and the pair emerged smiling.

“Yes, we are going to try and right it,” Clocky stated to the unasked question. Not something that Crys would have even thought to attempt.

While Clocky attached some ropes to it, Fairweather slid open the side door and climbed inside, reappearing a few moments later.

“It’s still secured, and looks to be intact,” she stated to Clocky, closing the door behind her.

“Good,” Clocky replied, then delegating the team to various positions around the train, Dudley included, even with his hurt leg. Every bit of manpower would probably be needed, and Crys hoped that it wasn’t excessively heavy. Mind you, she had seen videos of groups of people righting vehicles, and surely they knew what they were doing.

About quarter of an hour later, with a lot of swearing and grunting, they finally managed to right the train, everyone standing clear as it settled on the ground with a loud thud, spraying shattered stone fragments of everywhere. Wasting no time Fairweather opened the doors again, and climbed inside, Crys finally able to see what was inside. Crys hadn’t quite been sure exactly what they had been talking about when Clocky had mentioned the buggy, but it was exactly what Crys would have associated the word with. A smallish lightweight off road vehicle. Nothing fancy, just a green frame, three black seats and an engine, but it was indeed a vehicle, which she had not expected to see at all. Looking closer she also noticed that it had a small attachment underneath, a set of smaller, closer set wheels. Clocky had mentioned that there were working cars, but still she had not thought that there would be one on the train. Releasing the bindings, it was manoeuvred to the side door, and then lifted down to the ground. It was certainly miles lighter than the truck on which it rode, and further inspection of the truck as they did so also suggested that it’s construction was different than the others, and it was also likely lighter than the rest. She some how doubted that they would have been able to right one of the other trucks with just the manpower that they had.

Crys watched as Clocky tinkered with the buggy, going through the process of checking that everything was still connected inside it as it should be, as the crash could have knocked something lose. He had obviously done it many times before as his familiarity with what he was doing was evident. Once he was done, Alison brought some more containers out of its truck and proceeded to fuel the buggy, while Vorsce and Clocky transferred Sean’s crate carefully into the now mostly empty truck locking it with chains afterwards.

“Alison, take Dudley with you and let Audrey know what is going on,” Clocky stated once they were done. Made sense, as Dudley wasn’t going to be walking any long distances at the moment. “and get him to arrange a salvage and recovery operation. Tell him that Bowser can cover that. Come back to us afterwards. We’ll hunt for Sean. He left the train somewhere between our first stop and the Narrows, though I’d guess somewhere near the crest of the rise. As to the why, I’m hoping that we’ll find out, but the Teeth aren’t a friendly place, and he may end up getting himself killed instead. We’ll use the usual markers.”

“Crys, you have a choice,” he then continued, looking at her. “You can go with Alison and Dudley, and they’ll drop you off in Brightswater, and you can make your way to Odinsphere from there. You might be able to find someone there who may be able to help you, it is a big city. Or you can come with the rest of us to hunt for Sean. It’s the more dangerous option, and I can’t guarantee your safety any longer. But we will try and train you when we have the chance, and once we’ve dealt with this mess I would be more than happy to personally take you to Odinsphere.”

Crys had already made her decision, the thinking and weighing of options done when the splitting up had first been mentioned. There really wasn’t much choice to consider, and Clocky’s offer to take her to Odinsphere was an unexpected bonus.

“I will go with you to find Sean,” she said, making the bravest face she could. “I feel like I’ve had a part to play in all of this, since my first encounter with him, and I will see it through. I will also quite happily take you up on your other offers as well. But I’m sure you already knew what I was going to decide to do.”