The rain was potent with sulfur that night. It’s burning smell melting whatever was left of her bleeding arm. Missing arm rather, the solemn acid dripping down the panels of the crumbling buildings, the only comfort Sealant can manage between the excruciating backstab. No amount of pain can compare, she summed up, from the gushing flow of blood swatting her black apron to the menacing cry of her shoulder, no pain can really compare. Her love betrayed her.
Fortunately, she was under the shielding of a rusty roof, perhaps from an abandoned ceiling of the many collapsing constructs of the capital. It protected her from the rain. The steel won’t last however, but it had given her enough time to check her current condition.
The buzzle of the inner city was left without an echo. Sealant was at the outskirts. Safe from any breathing creatures of Alluvium, but from the unbreathing, she was not. Whatever rumors the empty shadows come prey of those the still mortal, Sealant was no stranger. Her burnt thumb spun the cylinder of her revolver and immediately regretting the reflex.
With concrete behind her and the cold night air cooling her feverish limbs, Sealant turned to pray. For just one night, one night! To whoever bastard that lurks in the heavens, or any other undiscovered alien entity, how she begged to spare her soul for the night. Because for tomorrow, the Khilen Galaxy needed to pay.
She was still cursing under Desrhin when, with her eyes closed, heard the faintest clink upon mud. It came from the corner of the street where she had last entered. Realizing prayers were not received in this day and age, Sealant took in the putrid oxygen. It was good that the breathers were the ones to end her, a much quicker death than radioactive ghouls and all the scratching. She gave her last sigh when the armored was noisily doubtless in front of her. She dared not open a glimpse because doing so will end her readiness for expiry.
The being was silent for a while. Guessing it was looking for vitals, Sealant had to breathe dramatically. Another moment passed before the seeker finally acknowledged.
“Nearly flipped the entire city just looking for your ass, Corvid.” It was a familiar title for any collector out there. So was the voice that rang inside the porcelain armor. “Do you know how hard it is to trudge Sunlight City without this thing making a racket?”
Sealant parted her eyelids and barely smiled for her friend and debtor. “Bearer,” Sealant sputtered the title before she glitched beneath the coursing pain of her loss.
“Before I begin interrogating you about your warehouse, let us skip regretting that decision first. Now,” when the mercenary crossed her arms, the porcelain armor sang with the wearer’s aggravation, “is this the end of your road?”
She would not hesitate. Although Sealant was not sure if Frisk was unemotional of clean death, her helmet was the last thing her targets would peep most of the time. But Sealant was sure the executioner will not doubt if she herself did not.
So, with the growl of her new hunger for revenge, she declared, “No.”
There was something wrong with the additional cargo of the Hawker, and Kith was neither interested nor looking for trouble.
“Do not mind her,” the hunter said when he covered the woman with another cloak. As he laid her sleeping form in his covered carriage, tucked between the empty barrels and sacks, just comfortable and aired enough, she had looked like dead weight in the Hawker’s arms.
Hawkers were poachers, not delivery men. “Like you, we will be dropping her off to Airhead Towing. It would pose lesser concerns and my own bullets if I have more company.”
The freight released a groan when Coursier dropped his heft. Seemingly finished with last minute’s packing and with their companion, the veteran turned to Kith’s own rifle.
“Hmph, I presume you know how to use that?” Kith was slightly offended but he drew the firearm from his back anyway. “Carbine. Good enough. Let’s ride.”
Ignoring the obvious arrogance of his companion, Kith put up his green hoody and assembled himself as rearguard. He heard the Hawker slap his buffalo before the carriage staggered forward.
They were at the outskirts of Sunlight City when the hooded individuals had delivered their sick passenger. It was passing the Dawn Bridge and the last of the city militia when Kith’s unusual presence perhaps took the deliverers by surprise. The Hawker often had company in his travels, as Kith had gathered, but these people did not tolerate strangers with a gasmask and goggles.
Nevertheless, the lot were eager to risk their dead away and Kith, as always did not deal with unique contracts. Admonishing the tirade, he eventually picked up his surroundings and stalked within the range of their carriage and the remnants of the forgotten civilization. On the look-out, his flaw of avoiding their cargo caught him in his nerves when the sleeping woman had her eyes gawking at her prey.
Glassy eyed, clearly, she was not herself. But despite her corpse appearance she was still breathing and was following his every move.
Kith barely held the trigger when she spoke. “Sigherd, it was once called.” She could not see it but he had furrowed his brows. Without a reply from her audience, she went on, “Sigherd, the country may have fell but the capital city, Forthland had survived.”
Her voice was tired and thirsty. Kith could not phantom whatever and however the woman suffered. The least she could have done was go back to sleep and discontinue her discussion. Luckily, before she had persisted, her attention was diverted to the crumpled road and the crumbling past.
They were passing to what had been called a park. Sunlight did still have such avenues but they did not have edifices that sprouted water. Or was the clear dried up large body of water. Benches were littered everywhere but acid rains tore through steel and concrete. Regardless of whatever monument the people of the past erected, all that was left were holes, crying statues, and the grey of the lifeless trees.
“Yes, Forthland survived and Sunlight City had risen.” The woman closed her eyes and breathed an endless gulp. “But the people, the people have forgotten.”
