Chapter 4: looking for the Bones
Janzo is in the basement of the inn brewing when someone knocks at his loading door.
"Hello?" He asks only for the doors to open and a lifeless body to be thrown down, sliding down his ramp and landing at his unsuspecting feet.
Shortly after Talon and Garret come sliding down his ramp, closing the doors behind themselves.
"Talon, what are you doing? You should be resting." Janzo asks her.
"I'm feeling fine, you did a good job." She replies.
"You have to take a look at my friend." Garret tells Janzo, turning over the body of his former soldier.
"A plagueling? Are you crazy, bringing a plagueling into the outpost?" Janzo asks shocked.
"A dead one and he only turned within the walls." Garret tells him.
"Come on, put him down here." Janzo tells them, clearing a table while Garret and Talon lift the dead body onto it.
"What are you doing down here exactly?" Garret asks Janzo, inspecting the equipment along the wall.
"I disfigure corpses and make potions, what do you think? I brew." Janzo tells him sarcastically.
"Now back to the plagueling, what exactly am I supposed to do with it?" Janzo asks the two, looking at the corpse, now with his glasses on.
"Why do some people turn when they are stung and others not and how come he turned within the outpost walls?" The captain asks him.
"All over the lands everyone tries to figure it out, why in heavens name would you think I can help you?" Janzo asks him annoyed.
"Janzo, it was my idea to bring him here. You saved me with your powders, you're like a healer or a scientist." Talon informs him.
"Correct, I guess I am the most qualified." Janzo replies and looks into the corpses mouth while shining a light with a lamp when suddenly the worm shoots out and tries to stab him, only for the captain to stab it to the table with a fork.
Janzo takes the dead worm as test material, putting it in a glass jar.
"So what do you think?" Garret asks him.
"Think, about what?" Janzo asks genuinely confused.
"Plaguelings, how do they work and how do we fight them?" Garret asks.
"How am I supposed to know? It'll probably take years before I even begin to understand anything about these things." Janzo tells him.
"Years? We need answers now? What is the point of all this if you can't help?" The captain asks, pointing at his wall.
"To make ale captain!" Janzo replies annoyed.
"Look, if you want me to do this, I'll need more specimen. Where can I get more plaguelings?" Janzo tells him.
"We kill plaguelings every night, come to the pass." The captain tells him.
"I need the bodies here, where my tools are." Janzo says disagreeing.
"I'm not bringing more plaguelings into the walls." Garret says.
"Don't worry, next time just make sure they are really dead." Janzo replies.
While this is going on across town the worm, a drug runner working with the inns' owner kills her son who was tasked with following him and sends the woman the head of her late son.
After delivering the plagueling Talon and Garret make their way upstairs to the tavern.
"I've been meaning to thank you captain. I'd have been executed if it hadn't been for you." Talon thanks him.
"Just did what I though Gwynn would want." Garret tells her sounding not too happy.
"Is there something wrong?" She asks.
"Gwyn gave a bond to set you free, you have no idea what that means do you?" Garret asks her.
"No not really." She answers.
"If you break the law Gwynn is equally guilty and Wythers will cut off both of your heads." Garret tells her.
"Even if I were to do something, I'm sure her father can pardon her." Talon says.
"Not lawfully no. When the Prime Order comes to investigate, the whole thing puts Gwynn in mortal danger." Garret tells her, pulling her aside.
"Why does the Prime Order pose a danger to Gwynn?" Talon questions.
"I think it'd be best if you just moved on." Garret tells her after a moment of silence.
"Hah." She scoffs and pushes past him, bumping his shoulder.
"Oh before I forget. Xu is recuperating from the stunt your father pulled and won't be able to join your little guard crew for a couple days." Talon tells him as she makes her way up the stairs to head to her room.
"Pardon me. Lady Gwynn Calcusar requests the pleasure of your company tomorrow." Gwynn's handmaiden tells Talon.
"Tell Lady Calcusar I'd be pleased to attend." Talon says, giving Garret a challenging gaze.
|The next day|
While Janzo and the captain are collecting samples for his research Talon is at the commander's quarters, where Gwynn makes her bath and gives her a dress which pronounces her breasts, making her look even more beautiful as well as has her over for dinner after offering her her friendship, which Talon agrees to only reluctantly.
Later that night Talon enters the Nightshade Inn and receives a multitude of wolf whistles. Looking around amused her eyes stop when they get to Xu, who's sitting near the stairs leading up, his hurt arm in a crude sling.
"Look who's decided to dress up. I'm just glad you still have your braids otherwise you'd be hard to recognize." Xu tells her amused while she joins him, taking a drink from the stunned in place Janzo who was ogling her as much as every man other than Xu, who seems focused on her eyes mostly.
"What's your obsession with my braids? It's weird." Talon asks him with her usual mischievous expression.
"They suit you." He says, trying to brush her hair back, only for her to grip his hand in a death-like grip which doesn't bother him much but he retreats the hand, holding it up in surrender, guessing he crossed some kind of line for her.
"No one touches my head." She tells him, taking a swig from her mug.
"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it." He apologizes, not breaking his eye contact with her.
"My my, I haven't seen a hussy turn heads like that for quite a while. Do you dance? Men would pay dearly to see you dance." The Inn's owner asks Talon, standing next to her at their table.
"Men would also pay dearly to see my pull out your tongue and tie it around your neck." Talon hisses back.
"Well if you change your mind you know where to find me." The woman says, not happy about the outcome.
"Didn't you say you want to take orders, deliver drinks and such?" Xu asks Talon, receiving a stare which signals him to shut up and he only shrugs his good shoulder in confusion before taking a bite from his meal.
"So you want to be a server, will you be dressed like that?" The Inn's owner asks.
"I'll wear what ever I please." Talon shoots back.
"Well, you better earn the money to pay back the repairs for your room. You pay it back starting tomorrow, you'll get three meals a room and whatever tips you can coax out of the men you serve and to do that I'd suggest you wear that dress." The woman tells her before leaving with Talon giving a silent nod as acceptance.
"Sorry, didn't you want this job?" Xu asks confused at her earlier reaction.
"I did but I wanted it on my terms." Talon replies.
"So your room, what happened?" Xu asks.
"Another time maybe. And why are you up already? You should be resting." She tells him.
"You're not the only one who heals faster than normal." He says, pulling his sleeve down quickly, giving her a glimpse of the cut being framed by angry red skin due to the cauterization of the wound and patches of grey skin already starting to cover the wound.
"I guess it's a matter of time before my secret is out as well." He tells her looking down sadly.
"What do you mean?" She asks.
"This tells me that every wound I'll get will turn to greyskin. Sooner or later my unique condition will be discovered." He sighs.
"Did this happen before?" She asks him.
"Everywhere I go. When you found me in the desert I was running from a town where a townsman saw me bathe in a lake and they organized a party to slay the beast." Xu replies.
"I know what you mean. I lived with a human family for a bit but they were about to throw me out until I… nevermind, I don't know why I told you this, sure we have to cover for one another but it's not like were friends or even all that close." She says and gets up to start climbing the stairs, looking down at Xu who slumps over with a sigh while his mugs handle crumbles in his grip, having gotten angry at her refusal to be friends.
She watches him leave the Inn with many people staring at him due to his massive height and stature. Once he's gone, she heads to her room and opens her window, seeing him walk down the street she can see from her window, his axe resting against his good shoulder.
"Maybe I should be nicer to him. I just don't trust anyone, and I don't intend to lie about that." Talon says to herself, closing the window and lying down on her bed after taking off her new clothes.
|the next morning|
The marshal and Danno are standing underneath Talon's window, where a murdered woman was positioned. The marshal sends Danno to follow the trail of blood back to its origin and looks up at Talon's window, throwing pebbles against it to wake her.
"Do you mind explaining why there is a dead body underneath your window?" The marshal asks her after she opened the window.
"Coincidence." She tells him, looking at the body.
"Come down here so we can have a discussion." The marshal tells her and a few minutes later Talon walks up to him, looking at the dead woman who she met in passing yesterday.
"You know this woman?" The marshal asks, seeing her stop for a second.
"No I don't, who is she?" Talon asks, feeling responsible since this must be the work of her demon.
"Probably just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. It doesn't matter to greyskins who they kill, as long as they're human." The marshal replies.
"You think it was a greyskin. So why are you talking to me?" She asks.
"Oh, no reason just wondering why the woman is under your window, you know I had the same thing happen to me when I was a boy only it was a cat which brought dead rats." The marshal tells her.
"So you're telling me I'm keeping a greyskin as a pet?" She asks him.
"Talon, are you alright? I heard there was someone killed at the inn." Xu arrives, looking at her worriedly. The sling around his arm gone.
"I'm alright, it's just some woman I don't know." She tells him but he sees her haunted look and guesses that something is up.
"Marshal, good day. Do you still need her?" Xu asks the marshal.
"No, no. She can go." The marshal tells them, eyeing them like prey.
"What do you want?" Talon asks Xu, as they are walking away from the marshal.
"I know something is up, why don't you just tell me? Maybe I can help." He says.
"Because it's none of your business. Now leave me alone or I'll forget you saved me the other day and remove that handsome little head of yours." She tells him threateningly to get rid of him while she heads to the smith.
"So you think I'm handsome?" He asks smirking.
"Just leave me alone alright? This has nothing to do with you and I don't need your help." She tells him harshly.
"If you change your mind, you know where to find me." Xu tells her and heads to Garret to get his first assignment, but Garret lets him scout beyond the walls instead already having filled all position for the night.
'What is his deal, now that we're keeping each other's secrets does he think we're a team or what?' Talon thinks as she turns around to see him walking away in another direction.
When she arrives at the smithy Talon sits down at the smith's table, telling him "The demon thing killed someone last night."
"Only one? I told you the Lokiri would kill and it will happen again if you don't banish it back through the portal." The smith tells informs her.
"That's why I'm here. Teach me how." She asks of him.
"You don't need a teacher, you already know everything that is required." He answers.
"Ok stop talking in riddles, just explain what I need to do as simply as possible." She tells him.
"Command the demon buffalo back the land of shadow and ash." The smith tells her.
"Of course, everyone knows that." She says sarcastically, annoyed by his tone.
"Not everyone. Only you. It's in that black blood of yours. The black blood belongs to the ruler of the Lokiri and they follow an absolute line of authority." He informs her.
"So I just have to tell it to go back to the other world." She says.
"Well, you have to have no fear, not doubt yourself and act with authority but basically, yes. However, he hates you and it won't be that easy." He says.
"He hates me, why?" Talon asks.
"Because he doesn't want to return to that realm of torture and suffering, and it knows that you'd send him back there. The trick is not understanding how to send him away but to simply command it to do so." The smith explains.
|That night – Nightshade Inn|
While Talon is serving drinks, she checks every man's wrist for the double cross tattoo of the six.
"I think I was proposed to." Talon tells Danno, having just refused the advances of an older man.
"Somehow I don't see you contend being a miner's wife." Danno says amused while she takes a swig of her drink.
"How much worse can it get?" She asks tired already.
"Come on, it's not that bad. What are you searching for anyways?" He asks her, mixing up another concoction.
"What?" She asks surprised.
"The arms. You keep checking the arms of the men in here, maybe I can help." He tells her.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She says, setting down her drink.
"You can trust me. I've never told anyone about your secret." Danno reminds her.
"I'm looking for a tattoo, a double cross, the same one Toru had. He told me one of his friends is in town." Talon informs the brewer, pulling him aside.
"You're not planning on killing him, are you?" Danno questions.
"I just plan to ask him a few questions." Talon half-lies.
"Alright well, I'll keep my eyes open and when I see him, I'll grab him." Danno tells her.
"Did I mention that he's a murdering bastard who'd slit both our throats without hesitation." Talon informs him.
"Alright, then I'll let you know about him without alerting him." Danno tells her.
After their shifts Talon heads to bed while Danno checks in with his mother, who then informs him that the Worm is her source of Colipsum and intends to cut her off.
During the night Talon wakes up when she sees a shadow rush across her window and jumps up from her bed, looking out the window immediately and sees the Lokiri climbing the building opposite to her.
She quickly begins to follow it but loses it when she gets to the wall leading to the Greyskin territory.
"Excuse me, you're not allowed up here!" Garret shouts, opening the door to the wall, stepping out of the headquarters after having heard from a soldier that someone climbed the wall.
"Hello Talon, what are you doing up here?" He asks her, relaxing his stance.
"I uhm couldn't sleep and needed some air." She lies.
"It's almost dawn, far too late for a barmaid to be up." Garret tells her.
"And far too early for a captain." Talon replies.
"Yes well that is your friends' fault." Garret tells her, joining her in looking over the greyskin territory.
"How so?" She asks curious.
"He wanted to go scouting already, despite my concerns and I have to let him back inside the castle walls. Can't exactly make it public to everyone that one of my men is beyond the walls at night." Garret tells her.
"Well if it's any comfort, I'm not up here to make your life harder." She tells him.
"Yeah about that, I'm… It's just if you were to tell me more about yourself and what you're doing…" Garret tries to apologize for his earlier behavior.
"What's there to tell? I'm a barmaid." She shoots back.
"A barmaid with exceptional combat skills. I still can't understand how you killed captain Magmoor." Garret says.
"Didn't you listen? I didn't kill him. Xu did." Says trying to play innocent.
"We both know that is only partially true. Even though I still don't understand how that is possible." Garret tells her.
"Why? Because I'm a woman?" She asks.
"No, well partly yes. But he's also twice your size, a legendary swordsman and probably was even stronger than me." Garret tells her.
"I could show you." She offers.
"I'm not sure that is necessary." Garret says but she pushes him away while stealing his sword, pointing it at his throat.
"Men like you underestimate me." She says.
"I won't let my guard down again." Garret says.
"Good, then just maybe you'll be a decent match, to spar with that is." Talon tells him, handing him back his sword.
"Sounds dangerous." He says, taking the sword and inching closer to her until a dagger flies past his face, taking off a few tips from his hair, barely noticeable.
"What the?" Garret curses on guard, looking over the walls edge only to see Xu standing beneath them, looking up annoyed.
"What was that for?" Garret shouts down angrily.
"I had to get your attention somehow, I was shouting down here for the last minute but the two of you just didn't react." Xu shouts back, uncrossing his arms from his chest when Talon throws him a rope down.
Moments later Xu joins them on the wall, throwing his axe over the railing first before climbing over it himself.
"So, anything to report, recruit?" Garret asks, emphasizing his rank.
"Well there is one camp of Greyskins less, but they didn't have anything of interest on them." Xu replies, holding out a bag of Greyskin hooves.
"What am I supposed to do with those?" Garret asks, looking into the bag.
"I don't care, that's how I learned to bring a confirmation for a kill when I was a bounty hunter." Xu tells him, shrugging.
"Why are you out there fighting them?" Talon asks him, confused since he's partially a greyskin.
"I told you I want to test my strength. By the way if you two are sparring then I'm in, after I get my gauntlets from the smith that is." Xu tells the two of them, leaving no room for protest as he starts to walk away.
"He's a strange one but his fighting prowess can't be denied." Garret says, looking after his new recruit, who only wears the chest plate with the outposts banner on it, refusing to take any other protective gear.
"Yeah, I'll leave now as well. Afterall I can't be up here." She says teasingly and goes after Xu.
She soon catches up to him and gets in his way.
"What is it?" Xu asks her, stopping in front of her.
"You are strong right?" She asks him.
"I have yet to meet my match, yes." He replies confidently.
"How much do you hate the Order?" She asks him.
"Plenty, but what is this about?" He asks.
"Well the Marshal mentioned that maybe some Order member will come to town sometime soon and they'll be looking for me or rather what's in my veins." She tells him.
"So?" Xu asks, not knowing why she tells him this.
"I wanted to ask if you'd be up for a little payback on the Order when the time comes. Because if they send who I hope they're going to send it'll be me versus five or six trained killers." She tells him.
"Who are you hoping they'll send?" He asks, starting to walk alongside her.
"The ones who killed my people and my family." She says angrily.
"They all have these double crosses on their arms and were a band of mercenaries hired to do the Orders bidding." Talon explains.
"In that case I've got your back. On one condition." He agrees.
"What is it?" She asks cautiously.
"I want there to be full transparency on this matter. I know you have a hard time trusting people, believe me I understand it but I'm getting tired of being left out when all I've done is try to help you." He demands.
"I guess that's fair. But this brings me to a question, why are you helping me in the first place?" She agrees, shaking his hand.
"How else am I supposed to prove that I'm trustworthy and that my interest in you is more than one of carnal desire." He says with a smirk.
"So, you are interested in me." She says playfully.
"Yes, but you can save the act. I know you good enough to see that until you've revenged your family you won't be looking to start something real. But I'm a patient man." He tells her with a wink and turns in another direction, heading towards the guards sleeping quarters.
'Well I guess that makes sense, I thought he was still repaying me for saving him in the desert but it sounded like he was telling the truth. Hmpf, at least he's open about his feelings unlike that Captain who tries to get in my pants while having Gwynn hanging from his arm.' Talon thinks.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone