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"The Lady and the Forged"

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Chapter 5: Ashes and Bandages

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Lexi stirred herself awake to more hunger and an overwhelming thirst in her parched mouth. She rustled as consciousness returned, and it soon occurred to her she was sleeping on an actual mattress. She blinked her eyes open and found herself in a hospital or infirmary.

She could tell this was a shitty hospital. There was a lack of privacy curtains so she could see all the pale-faced and skin-to-the-bones patients resting in beds, restlessly coughing as temple monks in gray robes administered care with pitiful 22nd century standards. At least the air smelled of alcohol and chemicals, a probable sign that not all was hopeless.

What stood out was the firebat (the one from yesterda—earlier?), walking around, towering with their height and bulk over all the unarmored healers and refugee patients, and carrying heavy boxes.

Lexi didn’t remember seeing a firebat the last time she was at the temple-fort.

The firebat then noticed her, placed the boxes down, and approached her with a tray of food.

The young woman watched silently as the firebat stopped next to her bed, with barely enough space between her bed and the next one, and set the tray on the tablet next to her bed.

The firebat pointed their surprisingly clean and bulky metal finger at Lexi before asking, with a scratchy voice that probably passed as female through external speakers, “You be eatin’?”

The firebat then pointed to the metal bowl they, no she, carried in her other hand. It was rice porridge.

Lexi greedily reached for the bowl, but a sharp pain cut through one of her hands.

That hand was the one cut by the barbed wire, and was now wrapped in a thick gauze.

The firebat patiently held the bowl for Lexi to gently take it in her wounded hand.

Using her good hand for the spoon, Lexi shoveled the almost lukewarm rice porridge into her mouth. The soft-cooked rice flowed gently down her throat, an easy-to-digest food that’ll hopefully stay in her stomach. She hungrily scooped every drop, and only dignity prevented her from cleaning the bowl with her tongue.

“Bless your heart!” thanked Lexi putting the bowl back on the tray.

The firebat nodded. “I’ma gonna get someone for you.”

“Wait, ain’t ya called Soto?” asked Lexi.

The firebat, Soto, walked away. Lexi took a moment to check the floor and the firebat suit, which was notorious for leaking chemicals even before seeing its first battle. It would be very poor practice to have a dirty firebat leaking flammable, toxic chemicals everywhere in a place of healing.

Maybe her nose was too dry after smelling sand for two days, but the firebat appeared to be well sealed and maintained.

She looked around for a few minutes to observe her surroundings, then absentmindedly observed the bracelet still stuck to her hand.

She wondered where Carnivek was. Did the protoss run away after fighting the zerg and the injuries he sustained trying to escape them? Did he maybe succumb to his wounds? It was perhaps unlikely—he projected a tough persona.

A young man her age approached wearing the same monk robes as all the others. He had short, fluffy brown hair and green eyes on a clean-shaven face. “How are you feeling?” he spoke with a common urban accent.

“I’m doin’ alright, mister,” answered Lexi. “Though I’m hankerin’ for some more grub.”

The man gave a wry chuckle in response, “Well… You’ll have to get in line. There’s not a lot of food to go around these days. This damn war’s cut off all the food imports to Canton. I’m David, David Evans.”

“Doc-,” she stopped herself from stating her now defunct title. “Lexi Nguyen.”

David pulled out a pad-device and started scanning her. “My god. What the hell were you doing out there in the desert? Your face is totally sunburnt, and I saw you in the goddamn barbed wire hours ago!”

Lexi clenched her blanket, “I’m ain’t fixin’ to talk about it now.”

David frowned at her and said, “If you say so. A lot of people here come from all over the sector for refuge, but they don’t realize the whole planet is starving cause they think the temples will help them. I’m afraid you’ll be stuck here with the rest after I clear you from the infirmary.”

Lexi crossed her arms. She knew about this already. “I came here to Canton in the first ships from Tarsonis when it fell, I know about the food problems. I even done stayed in this here temple-fort.”

David raised a brow, “Wait, I’m from Tarsonis too.”

Lexi took a moment to stare back at David’s green eyes. “You’re tarsonian,” she stated mournfully.

David nodded, then frowned. “Hold on, but how come I’ve never seen you before then?”

He abruptly seized the sleeve of Lexi’s jumpsuit and pulled down her shoulder. Next to her sweat-stained bra strap was the shoulder connector implant for power armor grafted into her skin.

“I knew it,” groaned David, displeased. “You left before to play soldier for the Dominion or the UED.”

Lexi felt anger bubble at David’s accusation. “So what was I supposed to do then? Starve with everyone else? At least I got meals while fightin’ off the UED for all us terrans!”

She didn’t care if she was raising her voice in a palace meant to soothe. She had to defend herself.

“And you should have stayed with them,” responded David, “maybe die. It won’t matter because we got more mouths to feed without people like you crawling back to us.”

David rubbed the bridge of his nose. “After I check you out, I’ll escort you to the gates.”

Lexi’s stomach sank at the prospect of braving the desert again without any reassurance that Carnivek would be around to help her again. She grudgingly allowed David to scan and examine her vitals with various tests. Ignoring David’s critical gaze, she looked around the infirmary again. “Ya ain’t got enough hands workin’ here.”

David’s eyes flicked to Lexi before focusing back to his pad as he pressed buttons, “Some of us medically trained either left to support the war effort or died fighting the Zerg. Not everyone has a doctorate in a medicinal field.”

“Whose war effort?” asked Lexi.

“The Dominion,” answered David.

Ah yes, the Dominion. The lesser of two evils in Lexi’s mind. She hummed to herself, “I can lend you folks my medical expertise, I was a renowned doctor on Tarsonis.”

“Who ever paid attention to celebrity doctors?” snarked David. However he was examining her, so Lexi took this as a sign that he was considering her use.

“You’re gonna need all the help you can get,” argued Lexi.

David huffed as he stewed over her words. He crossed his arms. “I’ll talk to Abbot Sima to see if we’ll let you stay. If you feel able, you can wander around the temple, we need this bed cleared soon.”

“Ah, of course,” said Lexi, remembering how efficient, urgent, and pragmatic medicine could be.

“If the abbot says no, I’ll personally show you the door.”

“Alrighty, mister.”

---

Lexi was still dressed in her ratty gray jumpsuit that felt thin in some spots as she exited the infirmary and took in the sight of the courtyard.

The last time she was here, the grass lawns and cobblestone pathways weren't as clustered with refugee tents and people as the present. Here they sat in squalor, waiting. Waiting for what? For their crying babies and shrunken elderly fathers and mothers take in what little rice porridge and bread remained before they succumbed to chronic malnutrition? These people have lost control over their destinies.

She can’t be like them. She refused to suffer this outcome again. She had to find Desiree.

Back then, everyone was hungry. How could all these people in greater numbers be possibly fed?

She heard the distant humming of a starship. A hercules-class cargo ship emerged from the temple’s hangar and soared with powerful thrusters to space.

A ship! A ship was all she needed to get off Canton and go to Tyrador.

She asked a man eating oatmeal and cheese with his elderly mother. “Excuse me, where’d ya reckon those ships are headin’?”

The man shook his head, “I don’t know, man.”

Lexi frowned.

“They’re going off to sell minerals for foodstuffs,” said David, who approached Lexi’s side.

Lexi turned to the fellow tarsonian. “Y’all got them minerals from asteroid minin’?”

David nodded, “We have exclusive claims to asteroids that land near our temple and the Dominion so far has yet to contest those claims. They stay on their side. The UED though, they’ve harassed our miners a few times.”

He pointed to the shrinking shape of the cargo ship high in the sky. “Minerals are the only way we can get credits to buy food from other planets. Sometimes we also arrange for refugees to take the ships to restart their lives elsewhere.”

“Do you know if any ships are goin’ to Tyrador?” asked Lexi.

David sighed, “We tried that once, but Tyrador’s administration banned us from buying food or collecting donations there. They said it would be very bad imagery for all the tourists who want to pretend everyone else isn’t dealing with this damn war.”

Lexi felt her hopes get dashed, “Damn. So what am I going to do now?”

“I was actually looking for you to talk about that. I spoke with Abbot Sima and he agreed to keep you around if you can work in the infirmary. The senior physicians will see what you’re capable of.”

Well, this wasn’t much, but it at least was familiar territory. “I’m much obliged for you speakin’ on my behalf. Let’s get to it…”

---

Even with a wounded hand, Lexi pushed through with the tasks either given to her or she volunteered to the best of her dexterity.

The first thing that made Lexi stand out was her commitment to sterilization protocols even as the overworked staff tried to process the ailments and pains of countless refugees. Lexi didn’t let hygiene slip as she correctly diagnosed ailments and fulfilled nursing duties to civilians suffering from chronic malnutrition or urban city diseases.

More importantly, Lexi was more capable with cybernetics and took initiative to identify problems with patient’s artificial parts while some other doctors were busy mulling over cybernetic manuals (nevermind if they had books for the various mix-mashed models. 

Sure, Lexi had never seen some of these rickety, junkyard scraps grafted onto people’s bodies, and it took her a while to understand what she was looking at. Fortunately core worlders boasted way more advanced cybernetic implants compared to the junk these people attached to their bodies, so she was able to break it down to its fundamentals as she rescrewed nerve attachments, identified malfunctioning components, or just told that one boy with the robot arm, “You’ve done outgrown your arm. We oughta get ya a new one.”

“Where?” asked the boy’s scratchy voice.

“Um.”

Lexi however, had some disagreements with David when she complained about the lack of spare parts and advanced components to restore some cybernetic limbs, so she watched morosely with her arms crossed as he hotfixed some missing parts with improvised repairs.

She had to do most of her tasks with one hand. To the people here, that was better than nothing.

Then came, on a stretcher, a temple-fort monk who was shot in the torso during a skirmish with junkers fighting over minerals and was bleeding through the emergency anti-bleeding patch that could only temporarily halt the bloodloss.

Lexi volunteered to treat the crippled monk. They eventually agreed to allow her to help one of the senior physicians as an assistant to remove the bullet and repair the damaged internal organs using what few laser scalpels they had.

“You’re pretty good with your hands,” said David. He coughed, “I mean, your hands definitely show some dexterity.”

“Thank you,” said Lexi, choosing to spare David any embarrassment. “I told you I was a surgeon.”

But to Lexi’s great frustration, there was one thing she couldn’t treat.

Lexi looked with muted horror at a middle-aged man sitting on a chair outside of the infirmary, for the shape of his ribcage extended from his shrinking body. He simply stared back at Lexi, lips shut.

“That there man’s sufferin from advanced malnutrition,” she told the head physician.

The older monk followed Lexi’s finger. With a flat expression he told Lexi, “We already gave him his ration.”

“One steamed bun and some porridge ain’t gonna cut it, mister!”

“Lexi,” said the head physician. “We have other people to feed. You know about triage.”

“Triage?” repeated Lexi. Her fierce expression faltered. “Triage…”

David grabbed her upper arm so she faced him as he whispered. “Leave him alone, Lexi. He’s not gonna be around for long.”

Lexi could only stare back at David with a face of despair. “What about his family?”

“They’re not here. They came, dropped him off, and returned to New Wuhan to continue working.”

Pity welled within Lexi. She walked away from David. When he was busying himself elsewhere, she took her bowl of rice porridge from the fridge and approached the malnourished man.

“Here, mister. This is for you.”

The man glanced down at the rice bowl, then stared up at Lexi with glassy eyes.

She was morbidly shocked that the man’s skeleton arms had any muscle capacity to lift his hand toward the bowl.

He pushed the bowl in her hands away.

“I don’t need it,” said the patient who refused her treatment.

Lexi rose straight to give one last look at the dead man before she walked away.

She didn’t go through that door for the rest of the shift.

---

“Our shift is over,” said David. He handed Lexi one of two metal cups of milk and carried a tray with steamed buns. “Let’s go eat.”

“I’m feelin’ a cup low,” admitted Lexi.

The head physician waved Lexi off with gratitude.

The two tarsonians walked through the halls of the temple-fort, which too was filled with refugees lounging in wait. The windows allowed beams of the setting sun to illuminate their path amidst the shadows of fading day.

“How many people are here now?” asked Lexi.

“Almost five thousand,” answered David.

“Five Thousand?”

“It’s bad. More people came from New Wuhan when the UED showed up at the city gates, but we had to redirect them to our brother temples. We can barely feed the other millions of refugees. We’re just a drop in the bucket.”

“Can y’all feed everyone here at least?”

“I don’t know. Our food stockpile ran out because we didn’t expect this many refugees, especially after the Confederacy fell. The sooner the Dominion or UED finish fighting, the sooner we can resume trade.”

“Cutting Canton off from interplanetary trade is the cause of the famine starvin’ everyone?”

“You got it. We heard that no civilian ships were able to supply the major cities. The hydroponic farms weren’t built to feed the whole planet. The planet’s too specialized for heavy industry instead of food.”

Lexi frowned, with an intuitive feeling she shouldn’t tell David that she was related to the Tyran Dynasty, who once owned and governed Canton.

“Oh man,” said David. “I heard from the cantonians that it was much, much worse during the Guild War.”

Lexi raised a brow, “Canton’s Famine of 2486?”

“Yeah.”

Lexi recalled the media coverage of the famine when she was younger, alongside what she heard from Desiree, Alois, and Christabella. 

She knew the story.

So she recounted, “War with the Kel-Morians disrupted the food trade to Canton which caused the famine, and the Tyran family lobbied hard to collect relief aid for their ‘employees’. After all, starving and dead workers couldn’t be productive.”

“Was it worth making the entire planet vulnerable to starvation?”

“The weapons from the factories were used to fight the zerg and protoss,” answered Lexi.

“A lot of good that did us.”

David pulled down his collar to show he too had a shoulder connector implant for power armor. “I fought to protect Tarsonis. I was there just like you, fighting aliens and rebels until there was nothing left to protect.”

He huffed and took the cup again. “Whoever wins, Dominion or UED, let’s just hope they’re better than the Confederacy. At this rate, I doubt it though.”

Lexi stood in place, pensive thoughts running through her mind.

She caught up with David, and they both stopped as Soto marched past them. Her boots pounded atop the soft rug in an unchanging rhythm. She carried a body wrapped in cloth within her bulky arms while a tear stricken couple listlessly trailed after her.

David beckoned Lexi to follow them.

“Are we still eatin’ lunch?” asked Lexi, not wanting to stick around.

“We’re still eating,” replied David.

---

The sun was already setting as Lexi and David sat at the foot of the stairs, wide enough for power armor, leading to the temple blast doors.

Soto’s long sun shadow stretched across the grass in the distance, alongside the shadows of a weeping crowd. They stood while the firebat inserted the last coffin into the incinerator.

Soto did not speak. No one could see how the firebat felt as she silently handed the families metal boxes containing the ashes of their loved ones.

She simply continued to work as mournful wails and renewed crying continued until the temple lights turned on with the herald of twilight.

David watched the scene while chewing on his steamed bun. Lexi only nibbled hers, enraptured by the grief she witnessed.

The young man tapped her shoulder. “Drink your milk at least.”

Lexi shot him a weary glare before taking the lukewarm milk to her lips with her uninjured hand. She took a gulp, then questioned her drink. “What’s this here milk?”

“Goat’s milk,” answered David.

“Oh,” responded Lexi, who continued to sip her milk. “Why’re we watchin’ this?”

David threw her a sideways glance, then answered, “You and I, we came from the capital. We’re the lucky ones, so I come here to remind myself how much worse things could get and we have to help these people we’ve ignored for so long.”

“Also I’m waiting for Soto.”

Lexi raised a brow, “You two close?”

David shrugged, “Not really. I’m just the guy who has to look after her.”

“Elaborate.”

David ran his hand over his mouth in thought. “Soto was a Confederate firebat,” he said, as if the answer was sufficient.

“And?”

“Don’t you know that firebats are resocialized criminals?”

Lexi’s eyes darted to the armored woman collecting the ashes and bones of the last cremated body into a metal box. She did her macabre tasks like it was no big deal, like it was normal.

“Y’all let a deranged criminal stay here?!” hissed Lexi. “What if she snaps and burns us all?!”

David stared at Lexi for a few seconds before sticking his fingers between his teeth to whistle. “Soto!”

Cold-sweat pricked at Lexi’s scalp when firebat turned to them after handing off the last ash box.

“If you’re done, come sit with us!” he called.

The firebat obediently marched forward and stopped in front of them.

David pointed over Lexi. “Come sit next to the new girl.”

Soto obeyed, turning around and clunking into her seat on the concrete step beside Lexi.

The firebat totally dwarfed the small tarsonian woman. The black-red armored suit, once sterile and clean in the infirmary, now smelled of soot and char. The painted decal of the Confederate flag on her pauldron was chipped and worn.

“Say hi to Lexi,” instructed David.

The only indication Soto was looking as Lexi could be seen with the subtle tilting of the firebat’s glare proof, tinted visor.

“Hello,” said Soto’s voice, scratchy from the firebat’s external speakers.

Lexi warily waved. “Nice to meet ya.”

David crossed his arms smugly. “Sounds like a violent criminal to you? Soto probably got the lucky end of the brain-panning treatment compared to the other unlucky schmucks. She’s not much of a talker though.”

Soto didn’t respond to that claim.

David shook his head, “It’s horrible what they did to her head. She won’t tell me what she was convicted of before or what she did before she wandered to the temple some weeks back. I’m not sure if it’s because of the neural resoc or because she,” he glanced hopefully at Soto, “won’t?”

Soto didn’t move. She just continued to stare at them.

Lexi glanced between the two awkwardly.

David broke the silence, “Ok, Soto. You’re done talking.”

Soto procured a pack of cigarettes and miraculously managed to light one with a matchstick using her beefy gauntlets.

Her visor momentarily opened, spewing out fumes of acrid tobacco smoke that a coughing Lexi turned away from.

Swatting away the smoke with her hand while coughing in the other arm, Lexi failed to catch a glimpse of Soto’s face before the firebat closed her visor with a fresh cigarette.

The doctor grumbled, “Good lord, how have you not died of asphyxiation inside that pressurized suit?”

“I know right?” exclaimed David. “I don’t question it anymore. I see marines do it all the time and they haven’t fallen over dead… somehow.”

Lexi tried to forget the lingering smell of smoke by asking, “Where did you live on Tarsonis?”

David smiled mournfully, “I lived in New Gettysburg.”

Lexi grimaced, “How did you escape?”

“I don’t know how the hell I got out when the zerg set up base there. I barely managed to escape to the nearest shelter. Then the authorities saw me and threw me into a chicken-shit suit to stall the Zerg while everyone else escaped.” He sighed. “I deserted.”

Lexi was silent. “I deserted too.”

David simply nodded, and his eyes portrayed a foggy, tinted gaze on his uncanny expression. “It was hell back then.”

Lexi downed her last drops of goat milk.

Seeing Lexi wipe her mouth with her sleeve reminded David of something. “Hey.”

He pulled out… Lexi’s red headscarf taken from Carnivek’s waist cape. 

Carnivek!

Lexi subconsciously felt around her neck, realizing she wasn’t wearing her headscarf the entire time.

Where was Carnivek?

David explained, “I took the liberty of cleaning your scarf, cause I think you vomited over it.”

Lexi took the ridiculously silky material into her hands. She ran her thumb over the immaculately woven textile as her mind raced with thoughts. “Thank you kindly.”

“I’ve never seen or felt something like that,” said David. “Where did you get it?”

“Um. A family associate gave it to me as a gift.”

David whistled, “Must be a rich guy. Some kind of manufacturer?”

Lexi spoke, “This is kinda unrelated, but y’all seen any protoss lurkin’ about?”

David furrowed his brows in confusion, “Protoss? No. Why?’

Lexi awkwardly paused to think of an alibi to her hasty question. “I just wanted to make sure we ain’t gonna deal with no protoss anytime soon.”

David shook his head, “Oh no. There’s no protoss on Canton.”

“Yeah…”

---

Back on Tarsonis, in the densely populated city, Lexi would have never known the black night sky held up a whole galaxy’s worth of stars, which illuminated Canton’s sleeping heavens at least on this unpopulated side of the planet.

Canton’s ice, rock, and mineral planetary ring shone brilliantly in the sky as it curved a grand azure road across the purple sky. Every now and then, towed meteors fell from the rings in glorious streaks of fire and energy.

Tugships flew from the planet to tow rocks and ice asteroids to the surface. Each chosen ice asteroid was several stories tall, but much of the water would quickly boil away as they streaked through the atmosphere at a shallow angle.

More solid asteroids were carefully towed to the uninhabited deserts and had the same boosters used to lift off buildings attached to slow their descent.

The asteroids still slammed the surface with unimaginable kilotons of energy. Canton was constantly nuking itself with asteroids instead of mining in space in a bid to terraform the planet over the generations and create their own mineral fields.

Lexi walked along the upper levels of the main temple to the mountain paths in the back that contained shrines, places of meditation with flowering trees, and moisture condensers. Chickens and goats freely grazed the grass that grew along the rocky paths, and they parted as Lexi approached a moisture condenser amidst the bamboo to refill a flask with water.

The mountains were the most desirable locations to live in. All the water ever imported to Canton from the asteroids collected in these high altitude places where the plants could retain moisture.

Crashing asteroids also kicked up constant dust-storms that buffeted the solidly constructed, yet worn, neosteel cities in the desert. When Lexi was temporarily living homeless in New Busan, then later stationed at New Wuhan as a medic, she mostly confined herself indoors to avoid the raging sands washing over stubborn metal structures. Even in the center of the great city, the streets were filled with sand that was only ever cleaned just barely to prevent the city from being buried over the centuries.

She sighed as she gulped down the cool water.

“This place is peaceful, no?”

Lexi jumped, but calmed herself after realizing it was just an aging man with silver in his black hair and a peppery long mustache and beard. She nodded, “Abbot Sima.”

Abbot Sima held a basket of tiny red fruits as he held a palm in prayer and bowed. “Peace be to you. What is your name, sister?”

“Lexi Nguyen,” she answered.

Abbot Sima stared at her curiously. “Are you… Cantonian, child?” he asked ponderously with his tranquil and aged voice.

Lexi shook her head, “Nah. I came from Tarsonis, but my mother was Cantonian. I got her surname.”

Abbot Sima nodded, “I see.” He dug into his basket and held out one of the red fruits. “Cherry? They are seedless.”

Lexi took one to be polite and popped it into her mouth.

It was sweet. A treat to be sure. “Thank you, Abbot.”

“We had to take in so many tarsonians back then. I heard from one of your own that you helped the people here. Praise be to you.”

Lexi averted her eyes, unused to this genuine praise, “It ain’t no thing. Y’all would have kicked me out otherwise.”

Abbot Sima didn’t dispute her words. “That may be so. Who knows what you do in the future in these uncertain times.”

He walked past her, then stopped. “Do you have any other family, Lexi?”

Lexi looked to the abbot with hope, and responded, “I’ve got a sister,” she stopped herself before revealing Desiree’s name, worried that the Abbot would judge her for being related to the Tyrans, “she’s in Tyrador. I was hopin’ to go there and see her.”

Abbot Sima pursed his lips, causing his mustache to curl. “When the Tyran family was still on Canton, they did not allow anyone to exit or leave the planet freely,” He pointed a thinning finger to the horizon, “except at New Busan, the only city on this planet with commercial starports.”

He then pointed to the falling asteroids lighting up the sky in shining air bursts. “All the ships ever sent to collect minerals didn’t have FTL drives to leave the system.”

The middle-aged man smiled. “But after Jihuang Mousha, the famine of 2486, we were finally given the lease to send transport ships to other worlds for food, thanks to Lady Desiree.”

Lexi’s brows flew to her forehead as she sucked in a hopeful breath. “Desiree’s my sister!”

Abbot Sima calmly placed his basket of cherries on the ground. “I thought so. I recognized your younger self in some pictures of your family.”

Lexi couldn’t believe her luck! “You knew Desiree too, will you help me go to Tyrador to get her?”

The abbot’s hand rested on Lexi’s shoulder as he frowned softly. “I would like nothing more than to bring the Lady here to Canton. We now have faster than light ships and the warring powers leave us alone, but we have a limited fleet. Their priority is to feed everyone here.”

“Please,” said Lexi as she bowed her head. “My sister has some money saved up somewhere. If I can get her, we’ll get that money.”

Abbot Sima was silent as he mulled over Lexi’s words. “I will see if we can send you on a ship to Tyrador. The trade fleet will not return for some time, and I would prefer if we can guarantee some transactions at Tyrador.”

Lexi flashed a beaming smile, both expressing gratitude and hiding her lie.

As much as she would like to help the refugees… She and Desiree came first, not to mention that if Carnivek came back he would be demanding his tribute and she wasn’t keen to piss him off.

“Thank you most kindly, Abbot.”

Abbot Sima nodded sagely. “I trust you to do what is best, if your sister spoke truthfully.”

Lexi felt self-doubt creep in. “Whaddya mean?”

“Lady Desiree spoke highly about you. She believed you would help her lift the Confederacy, at least here on Canton, out of our suffering. Now, the Confederacy is no more, replaced by the Dominion. I’m sorry for your family. I hope you and your sister will not only survive, but you will prosper and help others.”

Lexi forced her lips to a thin line. “Thank you, for the kind words and for considering helpin’ me.”

Abbot Sima nodded. He pointed behind Lexi, to the cobblestone path that winded past the goats, chickens, and through an orchard of dark trees with beautiful pink and white blossoms that covered the grass and dirt ground with soft petals.

“I picked cherries earlier and was going to meditate at the highest tree before changing my mind. It is a great spot for peace and quiet. Your sister often went there.”

“I see, why’d ya change your mind?”

Abbot Sima shrugged, “I don’t know. I went to pick cherries from that tree… until I felt chills run down my spine. Perhaps tonight wasn’t good for meditation.”

Abbot Sima returned indoors with his basket of cherries, leaving Lexi to look curiously to the dark silhouette of the highest cherry tree contrasted against the starry night.

---

The good mood Lexi accrued earlier was stifled by a familiar sense of dread and foreboding as she climbed up the lantern-illuminated cobblestone path while toting a hefty medkit in one hand. The goats curiously watched her approach before going back to munching grass.

A soft breeze came to Sihang Temple-Fort’s heights, causing the pale pink cherry blossoms, visible even in the darkness or glowing with the light of lanterns, to fall around her.

With every step, the pressure grew and compelled Lexi to turn back to the comfortable safety of people and lights and sturdy walls.

She sucked in a breath and pushed forward. She felt her pacemaker work to steady her erratic heartbeat.

Lexi stopped at the end of the cobblestone path, where a large cherry tree arched over a soft, dirt grove littered by a thin layer of petals.

At the base of the tree, with a bowl of ash and burnt incense sticks, rested the framed photograph of a young black-haired boy, perhap no older than a preteen; a few years younger than Nova.

Nova was probably dead, like this boy.

She sighed.

“Ya there, Carnivek?” she called out. “There ain’t anyone else here but us.”

The pressure stopped.

What she thought were dark branches shifted within the tree’s blossoms and jumped onto the grove.

Carnivek’s talons thudded the dirt, sending the thin blanket of fallen petals fleeing around him as his red waist cape fluttered to the ground.

He unmasked himself. Red eyes sliced through the dark. “I did not expect you to return, simian.”

“I didn’t even know if you was still lurkin’ after ya ran off,” retorted Lexi. “Where’ve you been?”

Her eyes flicked to his left arm covered in untreated wounds. Blood was left to clot and scab all over his white skin.

Carnivek growled and turned so his left arm was out of view. “I was resting in the forest before coming to this spot. It was the closest I could get to sense your location without revealing myself to the other terrans.”

Lexi took another breath to steel herself. “Carnivek. Lemme see your arm.”

Carnivek glared until his red orbs squeezed into sharp ruby slits. He bared his right arm defensively. “Why?”

“Ya got your damn arm snagged in barbed wire. To hell if I don’t take a look, mister.”

“I do not need your primitive healing, terran. My superior form is more than capable of recovering on its own.”

“I get you’re from a toxic warrior culture, but the sooner you recover the sooner we move on and get our treasure.”

Carnivek continued to leer at her with suspicion, then he seemed curious. “Very well, I will humor you terran.”

Lexi felt annoyance spike within, but she was going with the approach of getting this over with. Treat Carnivek, and get out. She didn’t have to deal with her alien travel companion any more than was necessary.

She took one of the lanterns along the path and set it next to Carnivek sitting beside the cherry blossom tree. Its warm amber light reflected orange off his black armor.

“Now show me how you primitives heal your battle wounds,” said a guarded Carnivek.

Lexi took a cloth and soaked it with a bottle of saline.

She hissed when the salt bled into her bandaged hand.

“Show me your arm,” instructed Lexi.

Carnivek watched her for a second before he offered his left arm.

Lexi saw the large gash cutting across the middle of Carnivek’s arm where the hydralisk broke his armor. It only had a day to clot over exposed dark tissue covered in crusty blood.

“I gotta clean your wound first.”

Carnivek flinched warily when Lexi grabbed his wrist.

“Hold still,” instructed Lexi in nervous anticipation. “This might sting like hell.”

She gently scraped the saline cloth at the edge of Carnivek’s wound.

Even when specifically expecting it, Lexi jumped when Carnivek emitted a short shout and yanked his wounded arm away. She raised her arms defensively against a growling Carnivek baring sharp claws with his right hand.

“That hurt!” he snarled.

Lexi was scared, for the briefest moment, thinking Carnivek would strike her in retaliation with claws that would gleefully tear out her fellow terrans’ eyeballs in one swipe.

Carnivek was dangerous. He trivialized human life by his whim.

Carnivek was petty. He aggrandized himself while demeaning others.

Carnivek was fallible.

He bled.

He made mistakes. Stupid mistakes.

Her teeth clenched. Her bandaged hand clenched, causing the white fabric to stain red again.

He is protoss.

He is a demon.

And he’s throwing a fit!

“It wouldn’t hurt if ya hold still, mister!” she scolded, jabbing a finger up at Carnivek even as her pacemaker ran wild with adrenaline.

She still couldn’t properly read Carnivek’s alien face bereft of a mouth, but he almost seemed confused… or surprised. His claws bared to swipe her face loosened, flexing in waves curiously as he squinted at her.

He stared at her for a second before he shifted, stomping his talon beside her before he pointed a claw at her face. “Had I not needed to defend a weakling like you, I would not suffer this wound!”

Lexi shied away from the claw that could stab through her cheekbones, but she stood her ground. “Well you shouldn’t have gotten us dab smack in the middle of a zerg swarm!’

“I could have handled them myself. Yes!”

“But ya didn’t think about me. If you knew you couldn’t keep me safe, ya shouldn’t have tried. Got it?!”

Carnivek retracted, stunned, and at loss for words without an intelligent retort.

He crossed his arms and smirked with his eyes, a gesture clear as day to Lexi. “What is this? The primitive actually has the spine and courage to speak up to me, a Tal’darim warrior.”

The terran woman’s eye twitched, “Is this some sort of game to you?”

“I never thought you had it in you,” said a smug Carnivek. “The sniveling, cowardly terran had some modicum of… courage.” 

Lexi could hear her teeth grinding; she was pretty sure something chipped. 

She took a calming breath, “Gimme your arm again so I can get this over with.”

Carnivek leaned back against the cherry tree and crossed his metal legs. “No.”

“And why the hell not?”

The protoss snidely replied, “I do not require your primitive healing.”

“You want scarification to go with that arm?”

“Scars are the mark of battle. Begone monkey.”

Lexi had tried, but that was the last straw.

She shouted and threw the wet towel with her bandaged hand which flared with burning pain. “I tried to do right by you even though you near done got us both killed by the damn zerg! To hell with you protoss! Ya don’t give a shit about anyone but yourselves!” She fought against the tears that pooled against her eyes, for Carnivek would surely take it as another sign of her weakness.

“I do not require anyone’s aid,” declared Carnivek, “Because I am not weak. No.”

Lexi noticed the bandage hanging loosely from her cut hand having been undone by throwing the towel. The wound had reopened. 

“Fuck…” hissed Lexi as she struggled to hold the gauze to the bleeding cut while simultaneously packing away the med kit.

“Why is your hand bleeding?”

Lexi heard, but did not look at Carnivek as she focused on putting everything away with her one good hand.

“Do not ignore me,” growled Carnivek. “Where did you get that wound?”

“Don’t ya remember?” mumbled Lexi. “I got it from the barbed wire.”

“The barbed wire,” spat Carnivek. “What nasty terran implements. Cowardly, though admittedly effective at tearing… flesh… ”

He shut himself up for a moment.

“Does it not hurt?”

He asked without smugness or anger. It was a simple question from him to her.

It made Lexi face him, watching, though she was still pissed.

“It stings like hell.”

“Then why did you bother to come here? To me?” asked Carnivek with a stern grimace.

Lexi snapped the medkit’s metal lid shut, rattling the contents inside. “I don’t fucking know. I’m going to sleep.” She stood up and walked away, done with any conversation with the protoss. 

“Wait.”

Lexi stopped at the subdued voice of the protoss who was loud and exuberant. She turned to see Carnivek standing stoically and staring at her with eyes that faintly shimmered in the dark.

His expression, blue in the moonlight, was totally alien and unreadable, for it held absolutely no emotion that belonged on his face. No downward bend of the eyebrows for rage or pride, but instead raised and furrowed. The rest of his face was neutral.

But most telling was that while he stood straight, his head loomed low.

He faced away from Lexi, then held out his wounded left arm.

“You might as well finish what you intended to do tonight, Dr. Lexi Nguyen,” said his voice, calm even as it reverberated with psionic power.

Lexi saw the total shift in Carnivek’s personality. Curiosity compelled her to approach Carnivek once more, to give him another chance with the thought that he’d be more cooperative, this time.

Lexi took from the medkit a fresh cloth that she hadn’t thrown to the dirt and soaked it with saline. 

“You should tend to yourself, first,” said Carnivek, still not looking at her.

She raised her brows in surprise at Carnivek’s first non-derisive show of concern. “I was gonna fix it inside,” she replied, still trying to slow her angry breaths. Nonetheless, she took the chance to fix her bandage.

Once Lexi was ready, Carnivek surprised her again by sitting down. This was the first time she saw the protoss sit, crossing his cybernetic legs together. A humble posture.

This allowed Lexi to comfortably kneel down and steady herself.

With a new fresh dressing, Lexi took Carnivek’s arm. 

He didn’t move.

So she gently dabbed at the wound again.

Carnivek flinched violently in reflex, though this time at least he didn’t tear his arm away.

“Try to hold still,” instructed Lexi.

“I try,” grumbled Carnivek.

“I know, it’s painful.”

“I am forged as a weapon of war. Pain is ever present. Yes.”

Pain.

Lexi looked at Carnivek’s wound in thought, “Did anyone ever take care of your wounds?”

Wind rustled the branches of the cherry tree.

Carnivek did not respond as the petals rushed past him to fall lost in the mountains.

After several awkward minutes, finally cleaned most of fidgeting Carnivek’s blood-scabbed arm when he finally faced her again and asked, “Does your hand still not hurt?”

Lexi resisted the urge to smirk at her patient who was being uncharacteristically cooperative, “Yeah, but since when do you care?”

Lexi couldn’t tell if the protoss was embarrassed.

Or somber.

Carnivek said, “When I was trapped in the barbed wire, you did not flee to your fellow terrans. Instead, you stayed and injured yourself trying to get me out of the barbed wire. You could have been torn by the zerg or killed by terran weapons. Yet you stayed.”

Lexi dwelled on that statement. “Yeah, I did.”

“It was brave,” Carnivek paused, “Why did you stay and risk your survival?”

She racked her brain for an actual response as she applied dressing. “You protected me from the zerg. You did right by me then, so I couldn’t just leave you there. I guess I ain’t that heartless even if you were a damn protoss.”

She took a minute to wrap the gauze and bandages tightly around his cleaned and dressed arm.

“There, I’m all done.”

Carnivek softly examined the bandages. “Why do you try to heal me with hands that are injured and burning with agony? I can feel your pain, the barbed wire cut deep.”

‘What’s with these questions?’ “You’re the one who’s gonna take me to my sister. Figured it’d be easier if your arm was in workin’ order. I mean, treatin’ you… it’s nothin’.”

Carnivek chuckled darkly, “Of course. There it is. The inconvenience of having that wretched elixir burn your own healing hands could only be overshadowed by sheer pragmatism. That is what makes sense. You need me to accomplish your goal. Do not forget, you must deliver your promise of tribute once I take you to your sister.”

That reminded Lexi. She tapped her bracelet. “Do you know anything about this?”

Carnivek glared at the bloodshard jewelry. “It’s how I tracked you down.”

“Okay, but why does my family have it?”

“I do not know.”

Lexi groaned. “Ok, then who told you to find us?”

“My master, Terana. She instructed me to collect the tribute from whoever was summoning me from the signal projected by your bracelet.”

“Who’s Terana?” asked Lexi.

Carnivek glared at her, “What stupid questions. She is a Tal’darim, my master. What more is there to know?”

Lexi rolled her eyes, “I don’t know. Does she know anything else?”

Carnivek stared at the dirt between them, “She did not specify anything to me. She told me,” he paused again, briefly averting his eyes, “she abruptly told me to leave and track you down for tribute. That is all my master ever instructed me to do.”

Lexi raised a brow, “What kind of master doesn’t give you all the details of your mission?”

Carnivek clenched his hand, “How should I know?”

“Can you ask her?”

“Even if I could contact her now. It is only appropriate that I return to her with my task complete.”

Lexi’s gaze softened in sympathy, “You mean you can’t go home until you get the tribute?”

Is that why he’s actin’ like this?

“There are consequences for failing one’s master, terran,” said Carnivek. “Surely your culture must understand this.”

“I see…”

“That is why you will pay if there is no treasure.”

Lexi sighed, “Well. I scratch your back, you scratch my back. Don’t worry, I promise you’ll get your tribute, I just wanna see my sister again.”

He plucked a falling cherry blossom in his ungloved claws from his bandaged arm and examined the flower. It was half-crushed in his grip. “That is the deal. Yes.” reiterated Carnivek.

Lexi cupped her bandaged hand to catch a falling blossom, admiring the perfect piece of nature she’d never seen before in the concrete and neosteel world of Tarsonis. She allowed herself a smile. “I might actually see my family again.”

She held her smile to Carnivek. “You know, even if the zerg was your dumbass fault, I’m glad you got me this far. So, thank you.”

Carnivek, still sitting, stared at her with a blank expression. The thin ray of light that cut from his crimson orbs dimmed until it was gone, leaving only the soft glow from his iris.

He faced away from her again.

Lexi could tell something was off about Carnivek. He now totally contrasted from every hostile and prideful interaction he’s ever had with her.

He seemed troubled, but she knew it would be appropriate to not show him pity.

“So you really care about your sister?” Carnivek asked.

“Of course I do,” answered Lexi.

“Why?”

“Why do I love my own sister?”

“Why is a sister or brother different from any other person?” asked Carnivek. “Yes. You seem to exalt your sister just because you both came from the same coupling.”

“Well, actually, we only have the same fathers. Our mothers are different.”

“Irrelevant. A sibling is just as likely as anyone else to be your rival, your enemy. Why do you care about her so much you’d risk your own life to see her again?”

Lexi held her chin in deep thought, “She’s not just my sister. She’s my best friend. Even though she was born better than me, richer and prettier, she has a good heart. As a sister, she’s my ally in life.”

Carnivek glanced at her briefly before staring off in a random direction again, “Interesting…”

“Do you have any siblings?” asked Lexi.

He abruptly stood up. “Are you finished?” he asked, with the edge restored to his voice.

Lexi nodded up at the towering alien, confused by his shifting mood.

He turned away from her to stand across from the cherry tree to stare out the mountains, once again hiding his face from her. “You should sleep then. Your hand has worked enough today. It would be a shame if you somehow broke it with your fragile constitution. Yes.”

Lexi could tell Carnivek had his fill of talking. She yawned, “Yeah. Gettin’ kinda late.” She cautiously craned to catch a glimpse of his face. “You good out here?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Good night.”

---

Carnivek continued to stare out at the view of the mountains, waiting for Lexi to return to the temple-fort until she was gone, yet still within range of his psionic detection.

He gazed down at the bandages the terran wrapped around his arm.

‘What is this?’

A primitive, albeit simple means of treatment. Even the Tal’darim knew about this basic knowledge when medical technology was unavailable, or simply withheld.

‘Why?’

She wants him to be at peak performance to take her to the sister who will give them both what they want.

So of course that would explain why the terran would do this simple deed of spending the time and effort to use her injured, damaged hand to fix his injured, damaged arm.

Thank you.

His three hearts clenched in a horrible pain that cannot be dodged. No agility or skill could help him avoid the terrible emotions eating at his soul, wounds almost as fresh as the one Lexi just treated.

‘That stupid human!’

What are these feelings that the terran reminded him of? Feelings he buried to focus on his new mission?

Carnivek removed his other gauntlet so that both hands were skin-bare. He turned to the cherry tree.

The feelings bit at his soul like ravenous all-consuming tumors. Burning flames that cannot be cut down with weapons. All he could do was drive his bare fist into the cherry tree.

The blossoms shuddered and fell to the ground as he slammed his knuckles against the tough bark with all his strength.

He growled low with every reckless ram of his knuckles..

Crack

Crack

Crack

With every blow, the tree lost its blossoms. It thinned until its branches were scraggly bare and clinging to the last, defiant flowers.

The pain in his bruised knuckles couldn’t mask the cancerous feelings that grew like malignant seeds to strangle his core.

Did anyone ever take care of your wounds?

It wasn’t enough, so he hammered his fists and wrists against the tree. Harder. Faster.

The trunk of the cherry tree cracked, breaking under his impassioned assault.

Do you have any siblings?

With one final shout, Carnivek dug his bare claws deep into the bark and carved them into the bark even as the splinters pierced his skin.

He bashed his own skull against the tree.

The bark collapsed inward, such that fresh sap oozed from the cherry tree’s deep laceration.

Sharp pain pooled in his forehead from impact. His neck ached from the forces it endured.

The pain of flagellation did nothing to banish the emotions that continue to haunt him. It is an unconquerable enemy. 

Dazed from skull bashing the tree, eyes blazing with energy, Carnivek stumbled away from the tree and stood looking over the edge of this vast height with a deep drop below to sharp rocks.

His talons clenched the rocky edge he stood on as another breeze pushed the fallen blossoms past him to descend to the rocks. 

He took a step back, away from the perilous edge to stare back at the tree. He saw in front of him what his actions wrought. Destruction and scarification for the object that once stood tall in unmarred, undamaged form. Wiry, naked black branches were all that remained.

He ran his claws over his face. He rubbed his eyes.

‘How do I conquer these feelings? How do I make them GO AWAY?’

There is no option now.

And so he did the only course of action left to him and stood tall, reinforcing his will to see this through.

Get the tribute and return to the mercy of his master.

He looked once more to the bandages wrapped around his arm and slowly ran his claws over the cloth.

The terran bound it tight and well, it could not be so casually undone by the slow caress of his nails.

‘When was the last time—?’

The tal’darim was choked by feelings he never felt before, because he did not understand them and had no names to give them.

But he knew at least one of the emotions he was feeling, one so intricately tied to all who were bound low to the Chain of Ascension.

Shame.