“Are you sure you do not want me to try and revive him?” Ash muttered to Matthias as they sat with Uzochi’s corpse in the cryo-chamber.
“How will we explain it? And look at him; he’s burned to a crisp. Even if you could reanimate him, what kind of body would he have?”
“We can always make him a new body,” Ash said.
Matthias shook his head, brown eyes soft with empathy. “No we can’t. We cannot do that to him. Not without his permission. I know too well how difficult it is when…” He grimaced. “When I chose to incorporate AX-8721 in my medulla, but most days…” he trailed off, tears falling from his eyes.
“It cannot be easy, living with a perpetual passenger,” Ash said.
Matthias snorted. “Passenger? Most days he drives this vessel we live in. And it would be no different for him.” Matthias inclined his head at Uzochi’s body. “It would be worse because he didn’t ask for it.”
Ash nodded. “I understand. But...I just wish…”
“I know. Me too. He knew what he was doing though when he went into those flames. He made that decision. We must respect it.”
Ash looked down at the orb, which she still had in her possession. It was no longer glowing but retained a curious warmth. She was eager to study it and see if it retained any traces of life.
“He wanted to save his people,” she said and then sneered. “I cannot relate. My people turned their backs on me.”
Matthias gave her a look of inquiry and she shrugged. “I was attacked, he tried to force himself on me. I fought him off. For that, I was punished. They took away my wings. They would have locked me up for years, maybe killed me had I not chosen the Federation courts. And now I must be faced with the violence they abhorred every day. They are hypocrites.”
Matthias smiled. “Most beings are, my friend. We must try not to be too angry about it for it simply eats us up inside. It is one thing that I thank the angels for; that the entity that I live with in this body is at least as straightforward as I could make him.”
Ash opened her mouth and then closed it, shaking her head.
“What?” Matthias asked.
“When you are...in flagrante with Jordan, who is in charge?” she asked, glowing with embarrassment at her own question.
“We share him,” Matthias said, features becoming soft before his eyes glowed blue. “Matthias knows more about sex than me, so I mostly let him steer in bed,” AX said, “but I watch and then, sometimes, I take over.”
“Do your neurons automatically upgrade with the new knowledge you glean from watching Matthias and Jordan?” Ash asked, turning to face AX completely.
Matthias laughed. “AX is a fast learner, but feelings cannot be learned, only imitated. I have no doubt of his fondness for Jordan but he cannot make him respond the way I can.”
Ash smiled. “Are you in competition with your own AI for Jordan’s affections?” she asked with a laugh.
“What? N-no...I...I…” Matthias mumbled, his face reddening. “We cannot be in competition when we are one and the same.”
“More like two sides of the same coin,” AX cut in.
Ash laughed aloud. “I have no doubt Jordan likes you both equally.”
“No truer words were spoken,” a voice from the doorway said, making them both start as Jordan stepped into the room. “This explains why my ears were burning,” he said, eyes shining with amusement.
He stopped laughing abruptly, eyes on the cryo-chamber where Uzochi rested. He sighed, taking a seat next to AX.
“Do you intend to sit vigil for him the entire way?” he asked them both.
“No. Just coming to terms with the reality and finality of his death,” AX said. Jordan nodded sympathetically.
“I think he knew he would not make it,” he said. “His visions...they were coming closer and closer together the nearer we got to the wizard. Uzochi thought he would destroy his people.”
“If we do not find out more about this virus, the wizard just might,” Ash said.
“Zorica said you were successful in getting the samples?” Jordan asked.
Ash nodded reluctantly, exchanging a glance with AX.
“What?” Jordan asked. “I sense subterfuge.”
AX shook his head, not looking at Jordan. “No subterfuge, simply prevarication.”
Jordan looked from Ash to AX. “What aren’t you telling us?”
Ash stood up with a sigh. “Come with us,” she said, and Jordan and AX followed behind. She led them to her lab, closing and locking the door behind them.
“Okay, it's like this: getting into the ward was more difficult than we anticipated and we feared that if we tried to take a live sample, we would not manage to make it to the plane.” Ash took a deep breath before continuing. “So we took a dead one.”
“You took...a dead sample?” Jordan clarified.
“Yes.”
“I see…” Jordan said, although he didn’t really see.
“The thing is, I have this...ability,” Ash continued. “I can reanimate dead things.”
Jordan’s jaw dropped. “You can…”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” Jordan’s eyes narrowed. “Is that why you were sitting by Uzochi’s side? Were you thinking of reanimating him?”
“Yes,” Ash replied.
“But we talked about and agreed that it would not be wise to do so without his express permission,” Matthias cut in.
“Who else knows about this?” Jordan asked.
“No one,” Ash replied.
“Not even the captain?”
Ash shook her head slowly, maintaining eye contact.
“Well…” Jordan let out a breath he was holding. “This is big. When you say reanimate, are you talking come back alive completely or simply the walking dead?”
“I mean their bodily functions are restored completely. As in necromancy.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Jordan said with a shrug.
“Why does it make sense?” AX asked.
“Because she’s a healer. I suppose the ultimate form of healing is reviving the dead.”
“Hmm, yeah that makes sense,” AX said.
“It is also forbidden among my people,” Ash added.
“Well…” Jordan said with a shrug. “You’re already an outcast, right?”
AX glared at him. “Really, Jordan?”
“What?” Jordan said. “It’s the truth. We’re all outcasts here; that’s why our name suits us so well. We are the misfits.”
Ash was staring at him in bemusement. “I guess you’re right,” she said.
“Of course I’m right. I can’t lie...which means you should probably tell at least captain Jaime about this new skill of yours before it comes pouring out of me at the wrong moment.”
“It’s not really a new skill,” Ash said.
“It is to us,” Jordan replied.
AX grabbed his arm. “Come on, let us go and leave Ash to her work. She has a lot to do.” He began to drag Jordan out of the room but the other man turned to Ash.
“Do you need help? Will they be violent?” he asked.
“I can make them obey me. Never fear,” Ash said. “I am safe.”
And so they left.
∞
Not too long after the couple had left her alone and she was making preparations to reanimate the first corpse, Jaime walked in.
“Hello,” he said, looking puzzled.
Ash turned. “Captain.”
“Jordan tells me I should speak with you.”
Ash nodded, turning away from him with a sigh. “Instead of speaking, I might as well show you.”
Jaime took a step closer. “Show me what?” he asked then looked down at the body, an eyebrow raised. “You stole dead bodies? Will that really help your research?”
“That’s the part I need to show you,” Ash said and then lifted her hands over the corpse, eyes closed as blue ligh
t began to emanate from her fingers. She stood for a while, just pouring her healing light into the body until tremors began to shake her body.
“Ash? Are you alright?”
Ash’s knees began to buckle even as she nodded her head, the blue light wavering a little before steadying again. She swayed and Jaime jumped for her, hands slipping around her delicate waist to hold her steady, his body a rampart against which she could lean if she needed it. She leaned back against him and he spread his hands out along her hips to hold her more securely.
The corpse on the bed began to vibrate, and Ash and Jaime watched open-mouthed as the corpse’s eyes opened. They were blue and bloodshot, moving from side to side as if the person it used to be was trying to figure out where it was.
“Relax,” Ash said, still leaning on Jaime, and the corpse closed its eyes again.
“What just happened?” Jaime asked.
∞
Epone walked into the hold, where the wizard was confined in a cage of iron, inside a circle of salt, his hands and feet cuffed to the floor with chains. He was sitting listlessly on the ground, head hanging, looking for all intents and purposes, defeated.
“How old are you, wizard?” Epone asked, keeping a safe distance from the cage.
There was no response.
“I know that you have taken a huge blow today. I also know that you are not as frail or defeated as you would like us to think you are. In your long life, surely you had made contingency for this. So, talk to me wizard. Perhaps we can help each other.”
The wizard raised his head, face still hidden by the hood. “Where is the half-breed?” he hissed.
“You mean Zorica? She is around somewhere. Why? Do you need her for something?” Epone took a curious step forward. “What is so special about Zorica?”
“You should know. Are you not her lover?” the wizard hissed.
“I am her lover, and her friend and confidante. Now I have established my interest in the half-breed, why don’t you tell me yours.”
There was a low rumbling sound and Epone realized the wizard was laughing.
“Where is the torture? Surely you do not expect me to give up my secrets without pain?”
“Pain has been proven to be an ineffective means of getting at the truth. Do you not read all the medical journals? Oh no, these days there are much more effective methods.”
The low rumbling sound came again. “Surely you do not mean to coerce me. As you said, I have lived a long time.”
“And seen much, I am sure, wizard. However, that does not make you immune. Come now; just tell me what I wish to know.”
“Beg,” the wizard said.
“I will beg if you give me your blood-bond that you will tell me what I ask.”
“No guarantees,” Eshugurin the Wizard said.
“Then how am I supposed to beg if it is all for naught?” Epone asked.
“You will not know if it's all for naught if you do not do it.”
Epone rolled her eyes, sighing as she looked up at the ceiling. “Very well then,” she said and got down on her knees. “Eshugurin, wizard extraordinaire, hear my plea. I beg you to tell me what I wish to know.”
The wizard raised his hands, chains clanking noisily as he moved and pushed back his hood. Epone gasped, stumbling backward in shock.
“Satisfied?” the wizard said and burst into low rumbles of laughter at Epone’s expression.
“How?” she asked soundlessly, no breath in her body left for speech.
The wizard flipped his hood back on and sat back down on the floor. “I have answered your question, now leave me be.”
∞
Zorica bumped into Epone outside the door of her bunker, and Epone jumped back with a low cry.
“Apologies, I did not mean to startle you,” Zorica said.
“No no, it is my fault. I was not looking where I was going,” Epone replied.
Zorica peered closely at her, noting the extreme pallor of her complexion and the sweat on her brow.
“What has happened?” she asked.
Epone shook her head. “I asked questions whose answers I wasn’t ready for,” she said, her lip trembling as she looked at Zorica with wide fearful eyes.
Zorica grasped her arm and pulled her into the bunker, shutting the door firmly behind them. She drew a soundproofing spell, just to be safe, and turned to Epone. “Tell me,” she said.
Epone took a deep breath, still shivering now, and Zorica went to retrieve the blanket on her bed and drape it around Epone’s shoulders.
“I went to see the wizard,” Epone began.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to know!”
“And what did he tell you?”
Epone raised her head from her vantage point on the only chair in the room to stare at Zorica who was standing in front of her.
“He showed me,” she whispered.
“What did he show you?” Zorica placed her arm gently on Epone’s shoulder and the Elementalist flinched.
“The truth of him. He showed me himself,” Epone whispered.
Zorica squatted in front of her friend so she could look her in the eye. “What did you see, Epone?”
Epone closed her eyes, hyperventilating. “I saw…you, Zorica. I saw you. He is you.”
Zorica stood up, staring down at Epone in shock. “What do you mean, you saw me?”
∞
“I can revive the dead,” Ash said baldly, and Jaime’s hands tightened on her hips.
“So I see,” he whispered, still reeling. “Is this because of me? Did I do this to you?”
Ash looked thoughtful. “No,” she said, “I had already begun to reanimate the dead before you joined us. However…”
“Oh no, what?” Jaime could feel his heart sinking as Ash looked up at him and laughed.
“Look at him,” Ash said, and Jaime looked down at the body. It looked healthy, with no sign of black veins or reddened skin.
“What…?”
“It’s gone from simply animated to healed.”
“Oh...well, we didn’t want that, did we?”
Ash laughed again. “I mean we did, of course, we want to heal them but…”
Ash held up her hand for him to stop his rambling. “He has regressed to the beginning stages of his illness but he is still infected,” she said.
“Oh, good. I mean...not good. But now you’ll be able to watch the progression?”
“Yes, and take samples at every stage.”
“That’s good then. Good. Will he er...die, again?”
“Likely so,” Ash said.
“You can’t keep healing him?”
“I could but he would essentially be a puppet under my control. Is that what we want?”
Jaime cleared his throat. “No,” he said and then realized his hands were still firmly gripping her hips. He wanted to let go but without making it weird.
Ash reached out and touched the warm body. “You just take it up to a thousand,” she whispered to Jaime. “That is so amazing.”
Jaime cleared his throat in embarrassment and continued to hold onto her.
Chapter Thirty: Snakes and Ladders
Zorica ran silently through the ship, headed for the hold, Epone barely keeping up behind her.
“Wait!” Epone whispered frantically, but Zorica simply ran faster. She skidded to a stop outside the hold and turned, breathing hard. “Tell me again,” she begged Epone.
Epone paused to catch her breath, bending over and breathing hard before straightening up to look at Zorica. “He has your face, exactly. Down to the golden skin, the silver eyes, everything.”
“But how? Is he an ancestor of mine?”
Epone shook his head. “You’re modified anyway. If he was an ancestor, he should not have your augs.”
“And then there’s the fact that he is male,” Zorica pointed out.
“Yes, there’s that.”
<
br /> “Okay,” Zorica said, turning to the door of the hold, “time to get answers.”
She opened the door and stepped in, reminding herself to breathe. The wizard raised his head, features still totally obscured by the hood of his cloak.
“Half-breed,” he hissed, sounding pleased.
“My name is Zorica,” she said.
He stood up, approaching as close as his chains would let him. “Half-breed,” he hissed again.
“Take off your hood.” Zorica’s voice shook even as she tried to sound stern and uncompromising.
The room rumbled as the wizard laughed. “You wish to see? I will show you,” he said, and he reached up to throw his hood back.
She gasped, stepping back from him and blinking rapidly as if by doing so she could change the image in front of her.
“It’s some kind of glamour, magicks,” she said, her voice trembling.
He smiled slyly, moving his foot and coming up short as the chain clanged in protest.
“Come closer, and feel it then,” he said, beckoning with his fingers.
Zorica was already shaking her head. “No. Stop,” she said.
“Stop what half-breed? I have done nothing.”
“Take it off!” Zorica cried, and Epone came up behind her, placing her hands on Zorica’s shoulders to calm her down. Instead, she startled the savant quite badly. “Take it off,” Zorica repeated.
He opened his mouth to display quite the set of sharpened fangs - very different from Zorica’s teeth - as he laughed; the rumbling sound causing his cage to shake.
“You are scared of your own face,” he said, still chuckling.
“Why do you wear it?” Epone asked, clutching at Zorica as she hyperventilated.
“I do not ‘wear it’. It is mine,” the wizard said.
“How do you come to have the same face as Zorica Killa Warwick!” Epone snarled out of patience at last.
The wizard simply showed his fangs again, looking quite happy to have stymied them. “Let me loose and I shall tell you.”
Epone laughed. “You must think us brain dead,” she said.
Eshugurin the Wizard looked smug. “Soon, but not yet,” he said, cryptically.
“Is it your infection you mean? Because we have a cure,” Epone said, unable to stop her glance at Zorica. Again, the wizard tried to take a step closer, baring his teeth.
Mage Marine Misfits: Book 01 Page 24