"What kind of question was that?" Noel asked scornfully. "Yoma have always been here. It's like asking where people come from."
The short-tempered short haired warrior was taking her ease at the stranger's camp using her sword as a back rest. The other warriors, with the exception of Priscilla, had likewise thrust their swords into the ground for use as chairs.
It was a measure of Priscilla's profound state of shock that she hadn't yet retrieved her own blade. Ilena wasn't comfortable with her having a sword near to hand anyway, given her recent mental breakdown. Most likely that was why no one else had pointed out the absence either.
The young warrior wouldn't have been able to sheath it in anything other than the earth since her armor had been destroyed in her battle with Teresa.
In more than one sense.
Priscilla sat on the stony ground, curled up in the big human's cloak while he dug thorough his pack for an extra shirt. She seemed lost in her thoughts again, but Ilena noticed she was sitting as far from Teresa as possible without actually leaving the campsite. With her youthful features and short cap of curly hair she resembled a woeful toddler wrapped in a blanket.
"While I have some idea where babies come from, I'm not so clear about yoma," Clare responded drily. "Perhaps you could enlighten me?"
She had positioned herself between Teresa and the other warriors, likely to deter further conflict. Ilena reflected that Clare was either greatly confident in her own abilities or foolishly arrogant to surround herself with potential enemies. It was too difficult to gauge the enigmatic warrior's strength to allow her to judge which it was.
The other Clare, the little girl, sat huddled against a rock. She kept Teresa between her and the warrior who bore both her name and, more oddly, her face. Despite her unease she seemed fiercely interested in the conversation. Likely she believed Teresa could protect her from whatever might happen.
A not unreasonable thing to believe, Ilena acknowledged, considering how handily the rogue number one had defeated her group.
Noel spluttered angrily, to the visible amusement of her rival Sophia. Ilena, sitting between the two, interrupted before the situation could escalate.
"Our purpose as warriors of the Organization is to kill yoma, not to study them. We are only given the information we need to fufill our purpose."
"Knowing the reproductive habits of yoma would certainly be helpful in exterminating them," Clare pointed out expressionlessly. "But it isn't the Organization's policy to exterminate the yoma, is it?"
"Hardly," Teresa of the Faint Smile agreed. "Warriors are assigned to kill yoma only when a town agrees to pay the Organization. It would destroy the Organization's finances if we eliminated the yoma completely."
Ilena found it odd to hear such cynical words spoken so serenely, but couldn't truly disagree with them. Judging by the looks on their faces Noel and Sophia also wished they could argue, but they knew the truth of Teresa's words by now.
Ilena spared a glance for the idealistic Priscilla, but she seemed not to have been listening as she tried on the shirt Raki brought her. It was dark brown and far too large but she seemed to find it preferable to wandering around in just a cloak.
"Here's another question for you," Clare said, tapping the sword she reclined against with a knuckle. "Have you ever seen one of these break?"
"You seem to be asking us a great many questions," Sophia observed with a faint air of impatience impinging on her customary attitude of pleasantly amused calm. "I was under the impression you were going to answer some of ours instead. Was I mistaken?"
"Humor me for a moment, I'm getting to it," Clare assured her. "So? Have any of you seen one of these swords broken? Perhaps in a battle with an Awakened Being?"
"Never," Ilena admitted.
"An ordinary sword will kill ordinary yoma just as well. As... cost conscious as the Organizations' other policies seem, isn't it odd that they provide us with weapons that are better than we need?"
"I've never had any problems with this," Raki added cheerfully from where he was breaking dry brush down into something useful for firewood. He gave the hilt of his broadsword a possessive pat.
Ilena gave the claim a moment's consideration. The man did move well and was certainly very strong for a human given his sheer size. If he had a way to identify them there was no particular reason he couldn't kill yoma. It was their ability to identify the shape shifters that made the Organization's warriors indispensible.
However... "What is sufficient against yoma is lacking against Awakened Beings. Why else do we hunt them in groups of four when even the weakest warrior faces yoma alone?" Ilena asked.
"True," Clare acknowledged. "These greatswords are clearly designed with something more like an Awakened Being than a yoma in mind. Still, given their durability, it would be possible for the Organization to reuse them. The custom of using a warrior's sword as her grave marker seems unusually sentimental for the Organization. They are presumably quite expensive. How expensive I couldn't say since I haven't been able to find out what they're made out of or where they're made.
"But I see you're getting impatient. Alright, What do you want to know?"
Surprisingly, the first question came from Teresa.
"Do you have a nickname? It could get awkward calling you both Clare," she observed with her signature expression. The little girl peer over at her presumed relative curiously.
"No, I'm afraid not," the leather clad warrior admitted.
"That's not true," Raki contradicted her. "I've heard her friends call her 'Clare of Many Souls' sometimes."
The blank faced warrior blinked in surprise,"I've never heard that."
"Well they don't say it when you're around. I've also heard them call you 'that damn brat' when you aren't around, if you'd prefer to use that as a nickname instead," he suggested with a grin.
Her lips twitched before she fixed him with a level look. "I don't think 'Many Souls' would be convenient in conversation. And if you start calling me 'brat' you're likely to wake up some morning with one of your eyebrows missing."
"Now, now, what kind of example are you setting saying things like that big sis?" he asked, gesturing in the little girl's direction with a wider smile. "You're just proving you earned the nickname, speaking that way."
Her hand rose up to her sword hilt in a decidedly threatening manner. "You know little brother, now that I think about it, you don't actually have to be asleep for me to shave off your eyebrow."
Ilena ignored the byplay for the moment. The things she had heard these two saying earlier implied that there were a sizable number of deserters. (She was shelving the matter of an Awakened Being stronger than the Creatures of the Abyss.) This was something she'd never even heard whispers of before.
Three possibilities came to mind.
The first was that there were no other deserters. Clare was implying that she had comrades to discourage warriors loyal to the Organization from attacking her. Or perhaps to encourage warriors disloyal to the Organization to join her.
The second possibility was that the Organization kept the existence of the deserters a secret because for some reason they were unable or unwilling to destroy them. If that were the case than reporting this to the Organization wouldn't necessarily be a wise move.
The third possibility was that the Organization was unaware of the deserters. For that to be the true than every warrior who learned of them must have been converted to their cause or silenced.
Ilena didn't have enough information to narrow down the possibilities any further.
"'Little brother?'" Sophia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not by blood, no," Raki explained with a slightly sad smile. "My older brother was replaced by a yoma and Clare killed it. I was about the same age as little sister there. After my village threw me out, she took care of me.
"I signed on as her personal cook, which since you hybrids eat maybe once a week, was really strenuous work."
"Yeah, this is all real interesting," Noel interjected. "But what I want to know is-"
"Why did you leave the Organization Miss Clare?" Priscilla asked in a wounded voice. "How could you betray them like that?"
Ilena felt herself tense slightly as her nominal superior joined the conversation at last. Her instability made the potentially volatile situation even worse.
Clare's expression was tinged with bitter amusement. "How could I betray them? From my perspective they betrayed me first.
"The way the Organization treats it's warriors has doubtless led many to consider desertion... or revenge. The only thing that restrains many is the belief that, however evil it no doubt is, the Organization is a necessary evil. Without it humans would be completely at the mercy of the yoma.
"We are used as expendable assets and when we die the Organization replaces us without a trace of grief. That kind of indifference is harsh, but endurable. While I was willing to obey knowing that the Organization had no particular interest in if I lived or died, I was not willing to do so when they started going out of their way to have me killed."
Priscilla's face twisted in distress. "Of course it's dangerous when we're sent to kill yoma Miss Clare, but the Organization doesn't want us to die!"
"If for no other reason than the bother of training a new girl," Teresa agreed. "Unless you broke the rules?"
"No," Clare stated. "While I certainly don't fault you for killing those bandits, especially after they'd massacred a town, I have never killed a human myself. I will only willingly kill yoma and Awakened Beings."
That statement doesn't preclude her from killing humans or fellow warriors, it simply indicates she'd do it reluctantly, Ilena noted.
Clare continued to speak.
"From the moment I became a warrior I was focused on vengeance. My purpose for living was to kill a certain one-horned Awakened Being. All of my training was aimed towards that goal. Partly because I was so focused on that particular opponent, my general skills suffered and I was badly wounded in battle with a yoma. I killed it but surpassed my limit in the process.
"I was in a city and knew that if I Awakened I would kill people who, unique to my experience had expressed gratitude to me. I fought my Awakening with every fiber of my being and was considerably surprised when I succeeded in returning to human form."
Ilena found this dry recitation of events more convincing than an emotional outburst. She recognized that Clare had more traits in common with her than the still unexplained similarities in the their sword arms. She noted that Priscilla seemed to perceive some form of a rebuke in Clare's recitation. A criticism for needing someone else to draw her back from the edge perhaps?
"While I always completed my assignments I viewed them mostly as training for my true goal and made no great show of loyalty to the Organization.
"I was assigned to hunt an Awakened Being. I was the first to arrive and rather than wait for the rest of the team I proceeded to the designated town alone. Fortunately for me there was no Awakened Being. The town was being preyed upon by a small group of yoma and I killed the majority of them before the other warriors arrived. My intended leader was disgusted by, and promised to report my actions. I had never faced one of the Awakened and had little idea of how costly my disobedience could have been."
"It probably would have involved being torn limb from limb," Raki suggested brightly, scooping up a piece of kindling. He somehow managed to make the desiccated plant produce a crackle gruesomely similar to the sound of splintering bone.
Clare regarded him repressively for a moment before speaking again.
"Soon afterwards I was assigned to another Awakened Being hunt. I was the last to arrive and the other members of my group were less than impressed by my low rank."
"And what was that rank?" Sophia asked with what someone unfamiliar with her might take as polite interest.
"I was number forty-seven," Clare answered evenly.
"Damn," Noel laughed. "Lowest of the low! Talk about dead weight. I've never heard of anyone lower than a thirty being taken on a hunt. Maybe they were trying to get you all killed!"
Ilena saw Clare's mouth twitch slightly at this. Strangely, it didn't seem as if she was insulted by the dismissive statement.
"And what were the ranks of the rest of your team?" Teresa inquired calmly.
Clare's face lost what expression it had before answering. Ilena wondered what reaction to the rogue the strange warrior was trying to hide.
"They were numbers twenty-two, fifteen, and six."
Seeing Priscilla's confused anger at Noel, Ilena explained. "It is policy that the leader of any Awakened Being hunt be of single digit rank. The other three may be of any rank, although generally only experienced warriors are assigned."
Noel's derisive observation wasn't entirely unjustified. It was extremely odd to assign such a low ranking warrior to a hunt. Possibly the Awakened wasn't particularly strong and it was hoped that the experience would improve Clare's discipline. Perhaps there was a shortage of personnel at the time. Or possibly...
"Any further questions, or may I continue?" Clare asked with a note of irritation. Hearing none, she resumed.
"We were ambushed on the way by a male Awakened Being who seemed to be expecting us. Our leader informed us that the Organization had once made male hybrid warriors but had discontinued the practice because they Awakened too quickly.
"The Awakened complimented her on her knowledge, but said that she was mistaken on one point." She paused for a moment, then added without emphasis, "He never explained what he meant by that. He admitted he 'd been one of those male warriors and that he killed all those sent to him.
"Over the course of the battle I discovered that my teammates all possessed unusual abilities and that my own training had born fruit, although my technique still needed a great deal of work.
"Our leader questioned us afterwards. As it happened all of us had come close to Awakening in the past, including her. We were also all regarded as troublemakers by the Organization for one reason or another. She asked if we thought it was odd that a group of troublesome warriors was given inaccurate information and sent to fight a powerful male Awakened Being.
"The obvious implication was that we hadn't been intended to return from the hunt."
"No! The Organization would never do that! You would take the word of a filthy yoma that-" Priscilla burst out furiously.
Ilena was surprised that a single sharp hand gesture from Clare silenced her. She didn't let the surprise show on her face, particularly her surprise that the idealistic Priscilla had immediately understood the implications of the phrase 'sent to him.'
"No, I didn't take it for granted at that point that the Organization was out to kill us. Our leader was quick to point out herself that all she had was supposition and not real proof. She felt that we should keep our guard up anyway. She advised us to try to change the Organization's perception of us as troublemakers and keep our near Awakenings to ourselves.
"She also told us, in her opinion, that the experience had strengthened us to the point that we were at the single digit level. That being so, in the worst case scenario, most of our comrades weren't a really threat. She described to us the ones who were dangerous, telling us to avoid number four especially.
"I followed her advice and did my best to appear loyal and obedient. My handler commented favorably on the change in my attitude and assigned me to another Awakened Being hunt. When I arrived at the designated meeting place I found that only two of us had been assigned. My new leader was the number four I had been warned against."
"And what exactly was so dangerous about this number four?" Noel asked. Her expression conveyed no great respect for the position.
Perhaps she has forgotten that number four is no longer Sophia's rank, but her own, Ilena thought absently as Clare turned to answer.
"This number four was so obsessed with killing Awakened Beings that she was willing to goad her comrades into Awakening for the chance to sate her bloodlust. She cut off my legs before our target arrived and remarked on how fortunate she was to be able to kill two Awakened Beings in one day."
Priscilla was plainly rendered speechless with horror at the thought of such insane treachery and Noel and Sophia murmured their own disgust.
Ilena and Teresa exchanged glances that held distaste, but no disbelief. Ilena had never heard of such a focus on Awakened Beings but, remembering the stories she'd heard whispered about a former number one called Roxanne of Love and Hate, she was aware that equally twisted warriors had existed.
"She killed the Awakened Being by herself after I reattached my legs and ran for my life. She soon caught up with me, and my attempt to fake my death by sacrificing my right arm was unsuccessful. If not for the intervention of a deserter I would have died then and there. The deserter, a former number two, disabled my attacker and brought me to her home. As it turned out we had mutual acquaintances, including the one horned Awakened Being."
It is interesting that since she began talking to us instead of her companion, she has ceased to use the names of the warriors she claims to know, Ilena suddenly thought. Is it because she is protecting their identities in case we report her words to the Organization, or because they don't exist and she doesn't want us to be able to test her?
The nameless deserter's intervention wasn't unlike Clare's own actions. If there truly was an organization of deserters, then it might be their policy to send only a single warrior to potential recruits. Sending only one would be a reasonable precaution since, even if detected, one deserter wouldn't greatly concern the Organization.
However, if they had sent Clare to recruit someone so prominent as Teresa of the Faint Smile, then it might indicate that they were almost ready to move against the Organization. The human's remark about how getting Priscilla on their side would make things easier could be taken as proof of this. Priscilla and Teresa working together would be practically unstoppable, especially if her near Awakening had made Priscilla even stronger.
Ilena put her speculations aside to listen to Clare again.
"She attempted to train me in her technique, but I lacked the necessary self-discipline to master them. She became certain that I could not defeat my enemy as I was, so she gave me her sword arm. She informed me that she had no need of it since she'd left the fighting behind her. I promised to return it to her after the one horned Awakened was dead."
Clare glanced at Ilena, and though her face didn't change, something in her posture spoke to Ilena of sorrow... or perhaps shame.
"I was unable to keep my promise. She had remained hidden by suppressing her yoki for years on end, until it became undetectable. Unfortunately she'd had to release it to train me. By the time I returned, years later, she was long dead."
Clare took a slightly deeper than usual breath and straightened her shoulders minutely before continuing.
"When my next assignment was as part of an Awakened Being hunt deep in the territory of one of the Creatures of the Abyss, I was completely convinced that the Organization was trying to dispose of me. Using half doses of yoki suppression pills, I and some of my comrades were able to successfully fake our deaths."
She looked into Priscilla's eyes and said, "That is how I deserted from the Organization and why I don't regard it as a betrayal."
Priscilla's expression was full of confusion and unhappiness, but she didn't seem likely to go berserk again. If the deserter could broaden Priscilla's black and white view of the world it would be all to the good, but it was unlikely that she would be able to turn her against the Organization, so Ilena largely dismissed the girl from her thoughts.
"An interesting story," Sophia remarked with the same pleasant tone that she used at her most cutting. "But not one that's easy to verify. In fact, I noticed only one part of it that could be tested immediately."
"Yeah," Noel said, following her rival's thoughts effortlessly. "We could check if she really is at the single digit level."
Ilena watched her subordinates flow to their feet without commenting.
"No!" Priscilla protested. "We promised not to fight for the rest of the day!"
"We promised not to try to kill each other," Sophia contradicted her. "We aren't speaking of a battle to the death here, merely a sparring match to test our hostess's honesty."
"I should be the one to check her out. Seeing her fight someone with all the grace of a gorilla wouldn't prove anything," Noel remarked snidely.
"Our aim is to test her strength, not her ability to dance with a hopping little monkey-"
"There's no need to argue," Clare interrupted the rivals. In a single smooth motion she flipped to her feet behind her sword, then leapt a dozen yards backwards with it in her hand. "If it will get this over with any faster, I'm perfectly willing to take you both on at the same time."
She stood straight and tall, her distinctive dark leathers seeming to drink in the fading sunlight. She held her sword over her shoulder, positioned as if it were sheathed, although it wasn't actually touching her sling.
"Do they call you "Many Souls' because you hear voices in your head or something?" Noel demanded incredulously.
"The only thing I hear right now is my stomach growling. Can we get on with this? We half-Awakened have to eat more often than other warriors," Clare said deadpan.
"Have fun! I should have dinner ready by the time you're finished," Raki told them as he began adding this to the pot suspended over his cook fire.
"This should be interesting," Teresa remarked, echoing Ilena's own thoughts.
*Author's Note*
With the passing of my last ink cartridge, my effectively antique printer has become an awkward paperweight. This chapter may not seem very long to you, dear reader, but if you had to type it up, recopy it long hand and then type it again for posting, you might be of a different opinion.
But enough of my whining. At least this way I got plenty of chances for last minute editing.
I have to give special thanks to Calamity Cordite and Dany le fou. Without their encouragement and tolerance for my inane questions and semi-coherent babbling I probably wouldn't have updated this. So if you hate it, blame them. This is what happens when people encourage me.
Speaking of, I would love to have a beta reader to blame things... I mean, to help me improve my writing. I'm not really objective about my work, so an outside viewpoint would be much appreciated. If anyone is interested, PM me.
Having read these two chapters back to back, I've noticed that this one seems a lot darker than the first one. This is probobly because I recapped the series basicly. I think I've got the big chunks of nessesary exposition out of the way, but I can't promise that. Sorry.