"Are you ready?" asked Ren from above and behind her.
Was she ready? Makoto honestly wondered that. Only a week ago, she was waking up in her childhood bed in her childhood home, a luxurious mansion in the aristocratic district of Tock-Yo, the largest human city in the known world. What would that past self think of her now, in this moment?
She was on her bare knees in the gravel of a riverbed, maybe a hundred kilometers from anywhere she had ever been. Sunlight was casting rainbows in the mist of white water rapids. She was almost entirely naked, except for an ad-hoc cloth shift. She had spent the night before in a cave, wherein she had passionately made love with her half-vampire hybrid employee. That man now stood behind her, a fire-heated ring in a gloved hand, poised to burn a brand permanently onto the back of her neck like she was his new ox.
Was she ready? God. At this point, what wasn't she ready for? She had made the choice to come with Ren when he announced he would return home to report to his family, and perhaps Ren had thought that Makoto coming with him was her choice made on a whim. But it wasn't. Impulsive, yes- but not whimsical. Ever since Father had gone missing, Makoto had wondered what was outside the walls of her city. Wondered why the world was the way it was. And now, she intended to find out. She needed to find out. Even if it killed her.
And the world had made a good attempt on her life last night.
She also knew, in her heart, that Ren would cast himself between her and anything trying to kill her. He'd done it before, multiple times. Hopefully, he would not need to do so again. In part, due to proper preparation- like this branding operation.
"I'm ready," said Makoto.
She felt a brief pressure, just above the top of her spine. There and gone before she even felt any heat. Then the pain hit her- an intense pain, searing and white, like when she'd accidently picked up a hot kettle as a child. She gasped, but even in the middle of the moment, she found herself thinking:
"T- that was it?" said Makoto.
She then felt Ren's ungloved hand on her shoulder, cool and calloused, holding her still while he, presumably, examined his work. Makoto had seen cattle and ox branded, and it involved multiple men, a screaming animal, sizzling flesh. This had, thankfully, been nothing like that.
"Yes," said Ren. "I've only seen this done a few times. But it was always quick. I- think this is right. The skin is very thin here, so any more time than an instant is far too much."
The intense pain of the immediate burn was dying down to a latent, scorching heat. Though some of that heat might be from a slight bit of anger at Ren's sudden admission of amateurism. He was just mentioning that now?! She glared up at Ren, her burned neck protesting at the sudden movement of flesh that the turn required. She winced.
"W- why didn't you say you had never done this!?" her voice sharp with pain and aggravation.
Ren was silent a moment and stared at her, then his eyes narrowed. "I'm not a slaver, Makoto. I never spent my time, going around, branding humans, you know?"
Makoto winced back at that. He had a point. She wasn't at her best, at the moment. But even then, surely some information should be offered, when it came to it.
"I'm sorry, Ren," said Makoto, accepting that her own expectation of his expertise was perhaps insulting to him. "But remember, please, that I- I don't know what I don't know. You need to offer information, even when I don't ask for it. If you think I might need to know it."
After a moment, Ren nodded his assent. "All right. Sorry."
She stood and looked at him, standing in the shadow of the river canyon wall- she herself was bathed in morning sunlight.
"Is there anything you can think of that I need to know right now?"
"You should keep that burn covered for a while," said Ren. "I have a clean cloth, but nothing physician-like."
That made sense. With Ren's natural healing capacity, it was not a surprise that wound treatment was not a packing concern for him. Makoto had had a kit, but it was lost with her horse, somewhere in the wilderness.
"Thank you. Anything else I should know?"
She saw Ren frown slightly, or at least she thought she did, the morning light was in her eyes.
"No," said Ren, though there was… something in his voice. It reminded Makoto of the old Ren. The one back in their earlier relationship. The Ren who would simply not answer her questions. She never had caught him in a lie, but if there was a way to technically avoid the question, he would take it.
Was he doing that now? At this juncture? After everything they had been through? And the leap of faith she was taking with him now? With his family name literally burned into her flesh.
"Ren…" said Makoto, leaving the question hanging in the air, silently.
"No," said Ren, firmly. His expression intensely placid.
Makoto felt relieved. She must have offended him again. Perhaps she was tired and misheard his tone of voice earlier. "Okay. Thank you. I think I will try and wash the wound a bit."
As Makoto turned towards the river, had she eyes in the back of her head, she would have seen Ren's expression melt into a look of pain and guilt, which then vanished almost as soon as it appeared.
They set out in immediate haste. The ghoul swarm was in the area, and they both were eager to be long gone before the next sunset. Yet even in their haste, they paused before their surviving mechanical horse took them around the next bend of the river canyon. They both gazed back at the small hole of that cave, and both of them noticed the other's wistful glance, blushed, and said nothing. In that moment, there was nothing that needed to be said.
At earliest opportunity, Ren took them west through dwindling woods. Progress was intermittently galloping and walking, depending on the terrain and vegetation. Ahead of them, the central hills of the forestland gave way to grassland. And beyond that, the salty, bone white shimmer of long and flowing sands and rockland. Makoto had heard of the region, but had never imagined she would see it. The greenery of life seemed to run up against a sort of invisible wall, and after that, nothing but sand and dust for as far as the eye could see: the aptly, if uncreatively named, bonelands.
"My God," said Makoto from her seat behind Ren on the horse. "Does anything live in that?"
"Yes," Ren said. "Nothing friendly. Giant sandrays, snakes, lizards, ghouls. Best avoided. And the sand can get into the horse and break it."
Ghouls. Always ghouls. "Where do all the ghouls come from? Surely the world would run out."
"They don't die on their own and no one bothers to cull them," said Ren. "And the port we are going to? The ship goes to the island with lumber and humans. It comes back with ghouls. They get released into the wilds twice a week."
"What?! Why?!"
"They don't go after vampires," said Ren, glancing back at her, "and they keep humans away and walled in their cities."
Makoto recovered from the shock of the idea and thought about it. Ghouls were the byproduct of a human that was fully consumed by a noble vampire. Essentially, they were kitchen scraps. So the remnant Empire on the island was effectively defending their territory with their own garbage. The efficiency was about as impressive as it was disturbing. How many innocent people died when caught outside their cities at night?
But it was a major puzzle piece in Makoto's assembling picture of the world's true nature- and they weren't even on the island yet. And that vast rocky void of the bonelands landscape was surely another piece, but Makoto had no idea how it might fit in. Though, the edges looked far too exact to be natural.
"What caused that? The bonelands, I mean."
"I don't know," said Ren. "Mother says she doesn't know, but I know she's lying. I think an Imperial city used to be out there. I'm almost sure of it."
"You mean: whatever caused the bonelands is what destroyed the city?"
"Yeah. From what little bits Mother lets slip: a few imperial cities fell to human uprisings, like Tock-Yo, Yoko-Ham, and Sen-dai. But the rest... look like that out there. Most of the world looks like that, I guess."
Ren got the horse back into a gallop, using the far edge of the bonelands to race along west. The speed made it too challenging to hold a conversation, so Makoto gazed off into the bonelands. She saw motion on the horizon, but the hazy air made it hard to make out. Perhaps some of the giant sandrays, Ren mentioned? Those would be a wonder to see.
But most of the world… was like this? Grey dust, sand, and stone? Sparsely populated with predators and the undead? If that were true, then the entire world was effectively a ruin. And her home, Tock-Yo, was a ruin within a ruin. Like a mushroom in a dead log. And Makoto had had absolutely no idea, till now. But if that blasted land marked the end of the Empire… Makoto felt pretty sure she should be happy for it. And for some reason she couldn't quite explain, -that- fact made her sad.