Chapter 2: The Wounded Priestess
Melanie victory over Deinnelle was quickly forgotten when Vermillion said those words. There were hushed whispers within the crowd as they started to talk amongst each other, discussing what had happened. Her mind went blank for a second, before her senses returned to her as she leaped off the arena and ran up towards Vermillion.
" Where is she?! What the hell happened?!" Melanie yelled.
Vermillion looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Despite being her superior, both in the army and the Holy Order, it was quite well-known that Melanie and Vermillion didn't go well together, as if they were like oil and water. Azaroth could see Vermillion trying to resist giving some witty remark at the moment, because after hearing what had happened to Selene, she might just beat her despite whatever she said.
Thankfully, Vermillion had enough sense, which was sometimes surprising, to not further comment and turned around to lead them towards the infirmary. Azaroth squeezed through the crowd to follow his commander, and Aesis decided to tag along as well after saying " Tend to Deinnelle now, and clear the mess here," before running along to check on what had happened.
The infirmary was located near the church grounds, a large square shaped building which looked more like an oversized brick someone plopped in the middle of the city. Azaroth decided that Pronteran architects had no sense in basic architecture after staying in Prontera for some time now, since besides a few notable buildings, like the church and the main castle where the Royal family resided in, the rest of the architecture was bland, or just too normal. The only thing that had Prontera going for architecture sake was its humongous size.
Vermillion barged in the main doors like some bull, throwing aside two wooden doors, scaring everyone in the vicinity. Everyone else was then further terrified when they saw Melanie enter the door, radiating some sort of fury of sorts, about to explode anytime soon. Closely following them were Azaroth and Aesis, and most of the nurses and priests in the area wondered what this was all about.
Vermillion stormed through to the back of the infirmary, and Melanie's heart sank. The room in the further back were for emergency treatments, and if Vermillion was heading there, then something really serious had happened. Vermillion turned around a corner, only to skid to a halt. The rest of them could clearly see why.
Commander Reinne stood by the corridor outside one of the treatment rooms, and she seemed to be cleaning her slightly bloodstained hands. Melanie's eyes widened in shock when she saw that, and she felt speechless.
" Relax, Captain Selene's fine. Her Majesty Princess Reinne has tended to her, and she had just been transferred to the upper wards where she will be recouperating for the moment. No need to worry, she'll make a full recovery," said a familiar voice in a rather tense and nervous manner. The four of them turned around to face Teranis, Selene's alchemist friend, who they didn't noticed before as she was leaning on the furthest wall to their right.
" Thank God…" Melanie sighed loudly, breathing a sigh of relief. She dropped herself by a wall, falling to the ground, taking deep breaths to calm herself. Azaroth and Aesis breathed sighs of relief as well, although Vermillion decided to now crack a sarcastic joke as Azaroth heard her mutter '…Pity…' under her breath, careful to keep her words away from Melanie.
" Just what the hell happened?" Azaroth asked.
" Hold it, you are all not going to see her," Reinne replied.
" But wait, she said she had something to tell us, and that she needed to see someone…" Melanie started.
" Selene's well-being shall be under my jurisdiction, and under no circumstances shall any of you, nor anyone else for that matter, see her in the ward unless I see fit. Now, you will all sit tight, and I'll inform you when she's able to talk," Reinne replied harshly. Nobody argued with her, not even Aesis, who looked around sheepishly.
" Why did she return like that? What happened?" Azaroth asked.
" No idea. I was taking a nice long soak in my bath when my maid came running in yelling that some priestess had somehow warped herself into the middle of my room, all bleeding and injured. When I came out, I saw Selene barely alive, bleeding on my carpet and suffering burns all over her body. I quickly administrated some potions and then warped here in an instant," Teranis explained.
" Warped? How did you…oh," Azaroth replied seeing Tenaris hold up a Butterfly wing in her hand.
" Selene was in command of following a number of acolytes on a trip somewhere north. It's sort of like training for the acolytes, and she was to oversee some of them. I had issued a small platoon of army irregulars to escort them there, a total of 16 acolytes, 5 swordsmen, 3 mages, and 1 archer. From the looks of it, it seems that they were attacked, and she somehow made it back alive," Reinne answered, tossing the bloodied cloth she used to clean her hands aside in a bin nearby.
" Wait, no one else made it back?" Melanie asked, sounding surprised.
" I know what you are thinking. Selene is hardly the one to escape an attack, especially when she had acolytes in tow. It is more in her nature to warp them else where before she escaped herself. Returning alone would make me assume the worst," Reinne answered. The 'worst' meaning no one else survived.
" What? She could have warped them somewhere else," Azaroth suggested.
" But somehow we have yet to hear from them. Selene's not that dumb of a priestess to warp a bunch of acolytes to some unknown destination. She would have sent them somewhere where we could fetch them, or near a city where they can contact us. It has been 6 hours since she warped into Teranis's house. If there were any survivors…they should have contacted or informed us by now…" Reinne said sadly.
" What if one of the acolytes opened a warp portal instead of Selene herself?" Aesis suggested.
" What?" Vermillion exclaimed asked.
" Perhaps the acolytes knew how to open a warp portal themselves," Teranis replied.
Reinne pondered upon the thought for a second, frowning. " Well, it would make sense. Meillienne recently mastered the use of the warp portal, and if there is any acolytes among the group which was with Selene who can open a warp portal, it would be her," she said.
" What the hell?! Meillienne was with her!?" Azaroth exclaimed loudly in surprise. Azaroth was suddenly reminded of the young sweet girl that came by his barrack room, half the time with a cake she baked in a basket to keep him company during his stay in Prontera. He was suddenly riddled with fear and guilt all of a sudden, hearing that she might be dead.
" Ill's going to have a fit," Vermillion muttered.
" Ill?" Teranis asked.
" Grimjaw…you know him," Vermillion scowled.
" Ill?" Teranis repeated again.
" It's a short form of his 'real' name," Vermillion answered.
" Meillienne only knows one point where she can open a warp portal, which is somewhere north in the Canning forest. I'll issue a platoon out to look for them, if they made it there," Reinne answered, stepping up and walking away. " I'll inform you when Selene's able to speak. I advice the rest of you to go back and get some rest."
As Reinne walked off, the rest of them stood there, pondering upon the events that were happening right now.
-
" You look stressed," Melanie said as she walked back to their barracks with Azaroth and Vermillion. Teranis had decided to stay in a nearby inn, close to the infirmary so that she could check on Selene once in a while. Aesis left to deal with other things, and the three of them walked back silently to the barracks.
" Is it that obvious?" Azaroth asked.
" If it's obvious enough for me to see it, then it should be obvious enough for everyone to see it," Vermillion replied.
" Is she someone important to you?" Melanie asked.
" Yes…I suppose she is…" Azaroth replied, sighing. Melanie knew that he was trying his best not to sound too depressed. " Relax, I'm confident in her survival abilities. She's probably somewhere in the middle of Canning forest."
" Hell yeah, nobody can take our good old Meillienne down!" Vermillion exclaimed enthusiastically. Melanie and Azaroth always found it weird that a person such as Vermillion would even take interest in a girl like Meillienne. It was strange indeed.
Vermillion was, not in a particular sense, sociable. Indeed, she was acquainted to Azaroth, Tryzen, and the rest of them in general, but even though she might treat them as friends, she still never shed that tomboyish, rough exterior she always showed everyone, talking in a rude loud voice, behaving much more like an urchin than a lady, a total polar opposite of what one might want to find in a female. Yet, she had this strange friendship with Meillienne that nobody could even explain, not even Azaroth, who knew her the longest.
She was gentle with Meilleinne whenever they meet, although gentle might be an understatement at best. Azaroth had spotted her keeping Meillienne company, which was a rare sight since Vermillion never really gave a damn about keeping people company, and not only that, even bothered playing with her once in a while, something that struck Azaroth, and the rest of them, as pretty scary. Meillienne was the only one who could make Vermillion give a genuine smile, not the usually sarcastic, maniacal grins she showed most of the time, but an honest, gentle smile, almost as if it was a smile only a person of Selene's character might produce. This also applied to Grimjaw, and Azaroth always wondered how she worked her magic.
Despite being rather disturbing to see Vermillion smile like this, Azaroth was actually quite relieved that Meillienne could exert such a change on Vermillion, even to an extent of making her a different person. Azaroth wondered if this was one way for Vermillion to overcome Serene's death. He knew that the elf's death had affected her greatly, although he was not sure of their strong relationship before. It was indeed strange to see Vermillion form attachments that were so strong, and Azaroth usually figured she didn't really bother about it anyway.
What Vermillion stated before was true. He had not visited Serene's grave in a while, possibly close to a year already. Vermillion visited her grave without fail each week since her death, and she didn't show any signs of slowing down her visits anytime soon. Azaroth wondered if he was being selfish for not visiting a dead friend.
Her kiss had haunted him in his dreams for nights.
He thought that Vermillion's affection to this young girl was merely a way to burn away the pain, but Azaroth never asked whether it was true or not, since knowing her nature she might just beat him up for asking. Meillienne's arrival was indeed some sort of blessing to all of them, as she was able to cheer everyone up using her charm, which usually consisted mostly of a smile. Azaroth wondered what Vermillion's head was going through now after hearing that something might have befallen Meillienne.
" Geez, this is really troublesome…call me when that lady wakes up," Vermillion said, leaving. Melanie was still a little too shocked to be bothered that Vermillion had addressed Selene in such a carefree manner, and thus had taken no action against her. Azaroth and Melanie walked along the streets quietly, their barracks not too far away.
" Azaroth…" Melanie started.
" I'm fine, really…" Azaroth replied quietly.
" That wasn't what I wanted to talk about," she replied. Azaroth stopped walking for a while, looking at her, wondering what was up.
" Oh, then what about?" Azaroth asked.
" The match between me and Deinnelle…how did I win?" she asked.
It had indeed been bothering her for some time now. She somehow had no recollection of what exactly happened during the final moments of the match, and it was now bugging her slightly. As much as she was excited in beating her master, it still scared her slightly that she somehow had no idea how she won, not to mention that weird thoughts she had in her head, as if she spoke to herself. She looked at Azaroth, who was looking at her in a slightly quizzical fashion. She then wondered why she even bothered confiding in him in such a matter anyway.
" Did the impact from the shield flying off Commander Deinnelle's hand and hitting your head give you slight memory loss?" he asked. He made an emphasis on using the word 'Commander', even though Melanie didn't bother using it most of the time.
" Perhaps…" Melanie replied, chuckling. That would explain the impact I felt on my head during the final moments in the match…I didn't know that as well…she thought.
Something fishy is up…Melanie never chuckles…Azaroth thought.
" Well, Commander Deinnelle was narrowing you to a corner, when all of a sudden, you sort of yelled out loudly that you needed to win, or something along the lines, then started to strike furiously back. You then did a quick swing, bashing the Comander's sword out from her hands, and then crashed your sword painfully three times on her shield before she lost her grip and it was sent flying, hitting you in the face and forcing you to reel backwards," Azaroth said casually.
" Really?" Melanie asked. I only remember striking back once…
" Yeah…"
" What do you mean when you said 'crashed your sword painfully'?"
" Well, from the amount of force you applied, Commander Deinnelle was wincing in pain from your blows, and surely, from those impacts you made that could even damage your sword, I can only imagine that your hands must be painful now," Azaroth answered.
Melanie was not sure how her hand felt. It sure wasn't painful, that's for sure. She gripped her sword hand over and over, finding nothing wrong.
" You alright? You should get a check-up. Going up against Deinnelle itself is a feat. Don't push yourself," Azaroth replied.
" I'm fine," Melanie answered.
" Really? I should still…"
" Why the hell are you bothering me? Think you know me better? I'm fine, damn it, and I don't need your concern," Melanie snapped back. She could have sworn that Azaroth gave her a quick smile, but she wasn't too sure about that.
Azaroth felt glad, hearing her revert back to her original tone and voice, the tough cookie she always is. If that was so, he didn't need to worry about a thing.
" Well, I'm just your lowly subordinate being concerned of your well-being, Commander. It seems that my concern is of no use, so I will leave you alone as of now. Sorry to bother you," Azaroth replied in a light, mocking tone, grinning as he waved his hand and walked away.
Melanie frowned. She hated it when he spoke like that, as if she was some kind of child who could not look after herself, but some part of her felt grateful he was at least concerned about her. She had spent most of her childhood alone, parentless, found in the middle of a drain, and thus, had adopted a ingrained thinking that she should only stand up for herself. Melanie rarely bothered with her subordinates concerns about her, probably because she hated it somehow. But then again, she wasn't being very fair to them, and it was strangely ironic because she was talking to the man whom she once attempted to prosecute once.
" Oi, wait up, I have something to tell you!" Melanie called out after him.
-
Azaroth's barrack room was unlike the rest of the soldiers. Most of them were given a basic room: a roughly 30 by 30 meter room with a small kitchenette for cooking with the living room, dining room and bedroom all combined into one. Toilets and bathrooms were shared outside, be it segregated bathrooms or mixed ones. Married soldiers were giving larger living quarters, especially the ones with children as well. Since Azaroth was single, he had one room all to himself. Melanie had a larger, much more elegant and well furnished room upstairs due to her rank.
Most of the soldier's rooms were quite simple, after all, there was nothing much they could keep or afford, not to say that they were underpaid, but there was no need for that. Some of the richer soldiers, who had either gone into other businesses as well or those who had saved enough money, bought larger houses outside the barracks. However, the room he was having was given to him for free, and Azaroth felt it was much more comfortable than his original hut back in his old village.
However, unlike most rooms, Azaroth's room was stacked to the brim with all the things he took from his old hut, which included metal pots and pans, props, wooden and clay equipments and stoves, his old straw bed, his old furniture and even including all the wood that was used to build his old hut, which he used as firewood now. He had even made a small plot in his room where he grew vegetables, and there were several cabbages and beans growing about in the specific 'garden' corner of the room. Melanie shook her head when she saw it. Apparently, some things were hard to change.
" So, which platoon am I taking care of?" Azaroth asked as he placed a cup of tea which he had made for Melanie to drink.
" The 5th platoon of my squadron. You'll still be under me," Melanie replied, taking the cup with one hand and drinking the tea, not bothering about the heat. Pity…Azaroh thought cynically, although he was careful to not say it out loud. He then noticed that her eyes were roving all around his room, with an appraising look at her surroundings. She had seen his room countless times, but this was the first time she came in and stayed for more than 5 minutes.
" Why plant vegetables?" she asked all of a sudden. Azaroth raised his eyebrows. Is she talking to me just to make me feel better, or is she just curious?
" Because I can…" Azaroth replied.
" Apt answer…" Melanie muttered under her breath.
" I don't know…a bad habit, I guess, but hey, nothing better than making soup from the food you grow," Azaroth said, sitting back on a wooden chair and stretching his legs out on a short coffee table.
" I wouldn't know…" Melanie replied.
" What? You don't cook?" Azaroth asked.
" Rarely, and my dishes never taste good. I eat out most of the time," Melanie admitted.
" Hey, nothing wrong with cooking your own food, and with a little training, you can actually do wonders. Not to mention you are a woman after all," Azaroth said. His ears caught the sound of something cracking and his eyes shot towards the side where Melanie held her cup. His clay cup now had a nice crack on the exterior.
" Was that some sexist remark?" Melanie asked, scowling.
" Perhaps…" Azaroth replied, smirking.
" Tch, you're just more domesticated than I am," Melanie replied.
" Ooh, really?" Azaroth replied in a teasing voice. " Well, fancy this, sipping tea with my Squadron commander, and here she is, telling me she doesn't know how to cook." Melanie could feel her vein popping at the comment he made, but made no effort to say anything about it.
" Look that was just a joke. We joke all the time. The problem with you is you can't seem to take a joke well enough. Lighten up, loosen up, go out and have fun once in a while. It's kinda depressing to see you stuck in your room most of the time, not socializing with the rest of us...alright, you drink a lot in the taverns and bars, but you do it alone most of the time. I mean, look at Commander Aesis, or Commander Reinne for example," Azaroth replied.
" Yeah, I bet you do a lot of socializing," Melanie answered sarcastically, finishing her drink.
" For God sake, just go out there and…"
" Not another word!" Melanie warned, knowing very well what he was about to say. Azaroth kept quiet, but he had this mischievous grin on his face. She was about to say something else when there was a soft knock on the door. Melanie almost jumped with a start. " Who's that?" she asked, not knowing that Azaroth might be expecting visitors at this moment.
" I'm not sure," Azaroth said, getting up and heading towards the door. " Listen, nobody's going to get any ideas about you sitting her in my room, alright? It's just…Selene?!"
The priestess was leaning on the side of Azaroth's door, and he spotted her weak body propped along the side of his door's frame. She looked weak and tired, and from the rate of her breathing, she shouldn't be in any position to be moving about. Azaroth caught her immediately when he saw her, and with Melanie's help, moved her to his bed where they placed her down gently.
" Good God, Selene…what are you doing here?" Melanie asked.
" I…I need to tell you all something…" she gasped. She smiled weakly as she saw Melanie's look of concern over her. " Please…listen…"
