Chapter 3: Vengeance

Liam stayed with her for another forty years, for the last of them, they hid away in a tiny cottage in the outback of Gormott, with Natalya looking after her aging "grandfather". In the end, he left her too. It had been over seventy years since the events on Torna and in Indol. And Natalya still did not have a plan for how she could get Indol to pay for their sins. But she did know that they kept collecting core crystals for something. Most likely to create more victims lie her and her Ice-Blade. Natalya had gotten used to the chill in her blood, the cold was still uncomfortable, and she was still shivering almost all the time, but she was resigned to never being rid of it.

Perhaps there was no way to punish Indol, no way to get them to pay, but there was still something she could do. She could stop them from getting their hands on as many core crystals as possible. Every crystal that didn't make it back to Indol was one saved Blade. Having buried Liam next to their cottage, Natalya said her final goodbye and set off.

She was running through the streets of another city, a bag of core crystals slung around her back. Liam had taught her well. She was fast, a couple more turns and they would never catch up to her. The experience helped too. She had been doing this for well over a hundred years now and this wasn't her first close encounter. Natalya would disappear and the core crystals would sink to the bottom of the Cloud Sea with the others she had collected so far. But she made a mistake. She looked behind her to check on her pursuers, and collided headfirst with a group of guards.

"There you are!", their leader growled, gripping her shoulder so tightly she screamed. "Take the crystals and lock her up, the Praetor has been looking forward to personally disposing of a troublemaker like you!"

"Let me go!"

Natalya screamed and struggled, but his grip only tightened on her, as he dragged her further down the street. No, not back to Indol, anywhere but there! The bottom of the Cloud Sea was better than that place! Natalya looked around, but she knew, no one would help her. This was an empty side street, there was no one around. For a second Natalya thought she saw a shadow on the other end of the alley, but when she blinked it was gone. There was no one there. No one was coming for her. It was over. For a moment, Natalya resigned herself. She would finally be able to see her parents again. Misha. It had been so long since she had last seen her little brother. She missed him so much. But could she face him after all this? After she had failed him so badly? After she had survived for so long, while he hadn't? For the first couple decades after she'd left Indol, Natalya had always kept a lookout. She'd never lost hope that she might find Misha somewhere, but even if that boy she'd seen so briefly had been him, even if he'd survived that blast, even if he'd made it off the Titan before it sank, he would have died of old age a long time ago by now. Natalya had stopped looking. Would he forgive her for that too? For giving up?

She felt a gust of familiarly cold wind on her face, and the monks around her collapsed on the ground. Natalya staggered against the wall to catch her balance and raised her gaze to find a masked silver-haired man standing amongst the carnage, watching her with cold ice-blue eyes. Was he going to kill her too? No. If he had wanted to kill her, she would already be just as dead as the Praetorian guards around her.

"Who are you? Why did you help me?"

He ignored her, instead leaning down to fish something out of one of the monks' pockets. Natalya studied him more closely. That armour he was wearing. She'd seen it before. Natalya blinked. Torna. That was Tornan armour, he was wearing! Was he from –? Her heart stopped a moment. A survivor? But how? It had been so long since the Tornan Titan had sunk beneath the waves, most of its people had been assimilated into other cultures by now. Who was this? The man rose and his cold eyes met hers again. The iciness in them reminded her of the crystal in her chest. Was he –

"Go. More will be coming."

His voice was rough, his tone cold. He seemed utterly without feeling, except for those burning cold eyes, which seemed to hide a deep sadness. Natalya wondered, what had he lost when Torna sank beneath the clouds? Well, whoever he was, Natalya thought, he most likely wasn't human, no human could move like that – or live long enough to be a survivor of that time. More importantly, though, he was not with the Praetorium. After all, he had just killed a number of their men without batting an eye. The enemy of her enemy. Natalya decided that had to be good enough.

"And go where? Like you said, more are coming, they will find me, if not this time, then the next time I get in their way."

"Where were you headed before this?"

"Doesn't matter, as long as I get in their way.", Natalya admitted, staring at the floor. "I have to –", she thought it better not to explain what she'd been doing to a perfect stranger.

The masked man blinked. She must have hit a nerve. Natalya took a deep breath.

"Let me come with you."

"What?"

"Whoever you are,", Natalya indicated to the bodies around her, "you don't seem to like them either. And you seem to have a plan. Let me help. Let me make them pay."

He still hesitated. Natalya was almost certain he would say no, when a young man around her age turned the corner. He looked distantly familiar. Blond hair that fell in strands around his face and eyes so blue they put the skies to shame. There was a cat's smile playing on his lips as he sauntered down the street towards them. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw him, but she dismissed the thought immediately. It was impossible. He too was wearing Tornan armour. Another survivor? Who were these people? From the looks of it, they seemed close. Closer than friends. Family then? A father and son that survived the fall of Torna, perhaps? But that couldn't possibly be – Natalya did not understand any of this, but any theory was better than the thought that knocked at the adamantine wall in the back of her mind, trying to send her memories that threatened to overwhelm her.

"Jin? Did you get it?", he asked, then stopped when he noticed Natalya. His eyes widened slightly, and his cat's smile slipped for a moment, as he took her in. It wasn't long though before he caught himself, cocked his head to the side and smirked. "I thought we were done picking up strays."

The man, Jin, turned away from Natalya.

"We are not here to pick up anyone.", he said.

The young man raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" His eyes drifted again to her chest, and Natalya noticed that in the scuffle from earlier, her shirt had torn and the crystal in her chest sat exposed. "She seems like one of us."

"She's human.", Jin said, his voice laced with disgust.

"So am I, remember?", he winked at Jin.

"She's a common core crystal thief."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure we seem like we have completely honourable motives right about now. Did you ask her what she was going to do with them?"

Jin sighed. "Fine. If you want to keep her, fine. But you're explaining it to Malos."

The young man reached a hand towards her.

"I'm Mikhail. I am like you. What's your name?" Her heart stopped beating. No, she told herself. This was pure coincidence. Mikhail was a common name.

"Natalya."

Mikhail frowned ever so briefly. "Well, then, Nat, do you want to come with us?"

She noted the way he used her name. Nat. Misha always called her Talya. Of course, it couldn't have been him. Natalya looked again at the Praetorian guards at her feet. From the way they were acting, neither of these men was a stranger to such violence. These were not the first bodies they'd left in their wake, and they would certainly not be the last. But the Praetorium deserved it. For all Indol had done, to the Blades, to Torna, and to her, they deserved all that was coming to them. Natalya met Mikhail's deep blue eyes, that were far too familiar for her liking, and nodded. "Yes."

"Good.", he turned to Jin, "We'd better get a move on, before we get more company."

Natalya buttoned her coat up to cover up the crystal again – luckily that one had stayed more or less intact, although one of the sleeves definitely needed mending – and the three of them made their way towards the port.