Chapter 63: Chapter 57: Black and white meet again.

Aranea moved her eyepatch to the side, using the sprayer that Svetlana gave her on her crimson eye. She and the others were in the infirmary of the fortress, a rather spacious facility, filled with countless white corridors and rooms equipped with very decent equipment. Judging by the images of Sun God on the walls and the fact that the whole place was utterly utilitarian, with no chairs in the corridors and with a floor made from a seemingly solid chunk of stone, either soultakers or bentos helped in the construction of this place. Much of it was automated. Several reserve generators were ready to be activated if a random shell or enemy destroyed the main generator.

Currently, this facility was used to the bare minimum. With the reclaimers taking over the control, the doctors brought in those prisoners who could still be saved. Blaguna was ruthless in her sadistic tendencies, injecting her victims with various venoms that prevented wounds from healing, resulting in very few people remaining alive. There were also a few regulators, both from rebels and loyalists, injured during the uprising. Scorpio gave the command to treat all of them equally. The investigation bureau will conduct full research into this place, questioning both the guards and prisoners, checking the video recordings, and will eventually find out the ones who willingly worked with Blaguna, punishing them for their crimes. The rest will either join the army or be allowed to return to their families as civilians.

Marco, Hekanta, and a few other doctors were currently busy trying to make sure that Yuki will survive. Annie was in the room with them, the doctors said that Yuki needed an urgent blood transfusion and that Annie had the same blood type as her. Upon hearing this, Sly and Aranea raced to find the wolf hag, who had just returned from her extermination challenge. Annie merely gave Sly a bonk on the head when he tried to beg her for help on his knees and went to the medics silently.

Virginia waited for Annie with a blank expression on her face, doing squats non-stop. Aranea stopped counting the moment the rust-colored wolf hag crossed the line of three thousand squats. Janine leaned her back against the wall, folding her arms across her chest. Her eyes barely blinked while she looked at Sly, who was nervously walking back and forth before the door leading to the operating room. Tiny looked just as nervous as Sly, the smaller wolfkin stood on the opposite side of the corridor, clenching her knuckles. Sonya and Leila also wanted to be here, but Aranea asked them to supervise how the pack was settling in in their temporary quarters in the fortress barracks. Kate and Kaleb sat on the floor cross-legged. Kate’s eyes were half closed, but Aranea sensed a quiet rage coming from her. Rage mixed with fear. The former scout wanted to trash the prisoner’s cells, along with all the gear used for torture, but agent Kassandra forbade this, stating that until the investigation is done, everything stays the way it was.

It took nearly three hours, but finally the door opened and Hekanta came out of it. Annie slumped right after her, shaking her head. Sly jumped to the medic ahead of everyone, asking in unison with Yuki:

"Will Yuki be fine?!"

"I am no miracle worker," Hekanta scoffed, cracking her knuckles. "We got rid of the poisons and venom, but she'll never be able to walk on her own again. Her spine is shattered beyond what natural healing of your kin can fix. No biggie though, the state pays for the augmentation for wounded soldiers. Give it some time and she'll be back in business. Before that, she needs to gain some weight and recover. I will leave Estefania to watch over her when we move her into a separate room, to calm her down when nightmares hit."

"You mean if they hit her?" Aranea decided to ask.

"You stupid or something?" Hekanta looked into Aranea’s eye. The woman moved, pushed the eyepatch away, and looked at the crimson eye, before taking the sprayer and wetting the damaged eye, "Use it more often, lest you want to add more work to our plate. As for Yuki, she got herself into the claws of someone worse than Hecktricktsen, and the whore had a field day ruining Yuki's body again and again. I was in the Torment, you know," Hekanta said as she tapped her fingers around her scalp scars, "Trust my experience. I learned firsthand a thing or two about the mental trauma that follows extensive physical pain. "No shit, she'll have nightmares, it's not a question of if, but when."

"I will stay with her for the night." Aranea offered.

"No, you won’t," Janine said, breaking the silence for the first time, "Aranea you are still injured. I will stay with her," She looked at the others and sighed, "Aranea, you are tasked with assigning turns to the soldiers to help watch over Yuki. This night is mine."

"Piss off, overgrown bitch," Hekanta said, waving her arm, "I don't need someone who mauls troops in my care."

"Please," Janine forced the word out of herself, "I swear to be careful."

Hekanta looked at her for a long while, before finally giving a nod. Annie growled when Virginia offered her a shoulder but forced herself to accept the help. Aranea flanked Sly, while the two of them moved to the south exit of the medical facility.

"Sly. I was thinking about the augmentations that Hekanta mentioned. Till Ingo is supposed to arrive in the morning, right?" She moved the eyepatch to the side, lifting the sprayer, "Do you think that we can…"

"It is you after all." A familiar voice said from the entrance. Keyl stepped inside, still wearing his power armor.

"Fuck my life." Aranea replied, spraying her eye.

****

"You wanted to talk, so let’s talk." The wolf hag said, stepping inside of the room assigned to her and dragging a small round table to the center of the room, before turning on the heater and preparing two cups of tea. An unpacked sack with her personal items lay next to a small bed in the room. The room was brightly illuminated with electric light, it had no windows. Thick walls were meant to ensure both privacy and safety in case of a bombardment.

She and Keyl both visited the armory on the way here, finally getting out of their armors, and now the Ice Fang was dressed in black pants and a white shirt with the symbol of the Summerspring household embroidered on it.

The packs were quartered in the barracks that formerly belonged to the regulators. Now the former defenders were placed in the areas meant to house the refugees and civilians, while most of the officers, Aranea included, received their personal rooms, while the lower ranks enjoyed spacious and comfortable beds.

Aranea felt sick just from looking at this emblem but forced herself to be calm. Keyl was not involved in anything that happened to her, he was just a cub just like she was. Aranea dragged two chairs to the table, setting down two cups filled with tea. Keyl had grown enormous. The span of his shoulders looked nearly as large as hers, and his shirt did little to hide the massive abs. Despite the fact that he travelled for days, escorting the inspector, his fur was clean and even shaven to be the same size. The tips of his ears were fully covered in strange gold jewelry, and his wide eyes betrayed a keen intellect behind them.

"Can’t you leave the sword in the armory next time?" Aranea raised a brow, nodding at the massive sword behind his back, "Even warlords do not walk around with their weapons. Tea is ready. Want some?"

 "Aranea Wintersong, on behalf of the Ice Fang order, and on my own behalf," Keyl moved forward, standing on his knee before the halfbreed, "I am to beg your forgiveness for…"

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"Never dare to call me by this name!" Aranea roared, jumping on her feet, "Aranea Wintersong is no more! She was a good girl, a pride of her parents, one who would never hurt or kill anyone…" She stopped, feeling that she was about to trail off, "She wasn’t me. Wintersong is dead. Dead and buried. Keyl, what in Spirits name are you of all people apologizing for?"

"It was my words that drew you away into the hands of Tilden."

"Are you serious?!" Aranea fell back on the chair, laughing out loud, "Idiot! Numbskull! We were cubs! Just two stupid cubs! What, am I supposed to ask forgiveness for all the time I teased you by calling you shorty?"

"I always called you overground cusack in response." Keyl chuckled.

"Yes, and I... Wait, what was that about Tilden?" Aranea finally got down to business, "And why in Spirits' names are you wearing Summerspring colors?"

"Tilden Summerspring was executed for the crime of selling cubs, as well as for his involvement in the death of Gregor Wintersong and the disappearance of Kalaisa Wintersong and Aranea Wintersong. He confessed to everything prior to his execution, and the elders who were involved in fabricating false charges were also punished. Even sword saint O..."

Aranea slipped from her chair, landing on her ass ungratefully, feeling how Keyl’s words hammered against her skull. She ignored the rest of his speech, hugging her knees and looking forward with an empty gaze, feeling how life itself was seeping out of her. Dead. What Tilden did to her forced her to wake up in the morning, the memory of his crime made her excel better than any of Sonya’s words ever could. She trained, she suffered and endured all in her path, just to one day become strong enough to kill him for what he did to the poor cubs and her parents. And he just… died?

"What… how could I ever make it right then?" Aranea asked numbly. Mother. Father. How can she ever pay for her crime now?

"Lady Camelia Wintersong eagerly awaits your return, Aranea," Keyl said, sitting next to her, "She never believed that you had died. I never believed that you died. I trained day and night, ever since the Summerspring household took me in as a candidate to become a knight. As my penance, I kept the house of your parents clean of any du..."

"Keyl, right now this is sounding like a really creepy obsession from you," The halfbreed told him plainly, "You… Stop thinking that you are at fault for anything. You damn well know that Tilden planned to get me and my parents through me. He and his cronies are the only ones who… Dammit all, I need time to process this all!" She grabbed her head for a moment, remembering about her eye and grabbing the sprayer.

"You have a new scar on your neck. Did someone hurt you?" Keyl asked quietly.

"Keyl, we are at war. Of course, people are getting hurt!" She shrugged her shoulders, feeling his look, "Listen it’s no big deal. Chort tried to cut off my head, but warlord Valerye did him in."

"And your eye?"

"Oh, this? I jumped through the acid mist of Blaguna to get to her."

"But… why?"

"The bitch tortured and killed members of my pack. I owe them this much at least," Aranea clenched her fists, "What am I supposed to do now?"

"You should come back. Lady Camelia waits for you. The entire Ice Fang order owes you an apology…"

"And leave my friends behind?" She looked him in the eyes, "Is this what I am supposed to do? Never."

"If I were you, I would negotiate with lady Camelia. The entire order knows that they wronged you. Use it! Demand that the order provide a new home for your pack and their relatives. Even your warlord could leave with you. Aranea, you don’t belong to this war and…"

"Keyl…" She extended her arm, stopping him, "I am a soldier now. I can’t just take everyone and run away, no matter how much I want it," She looked at the ceiling, thinking for a long time, "But I will think about your words."

"That’s all I ask." Keyl said, standing up and offering her a hand. After a momentary hesitation, she took it, and he helped her stand.

They spend the rest of the night sitting at the table, drinking tea and telling each other stories from their lives. Aranea told Keyl how she first met members of her pack, about her problems with Kate, how Olesya nearly caused Janine to have a permanent nerve tick, and about Leila and others. In exchange, he shared how he was accepted into the Summerspring household, how Zeke was first placed under his tutelage, and how many scandals involving women Keyl ended up having to resolve. Aranea spilled some tea, laughing her head off at how uncomfortable the knight captain appeared while telling these stories.

When the morning came and Sly knocked on her door, both of them jumped off the chairs, noticing just how much time had passed.

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