I sat in the churned up soil near the horse coral, ashen smoke drifted across the nihilist camp. The dead lay everywhere, a silent testemoty to the destruction we had wrought. I had been able to serve as a reliable weapon and a loyal companion. Hakaar was not dead, though it had been close. I flashed back to my time in the sealed mine at the quarry. Had I been as good a companion then? It didn't matter, but I wondered at the paralells.
We had defeated Asha and her followers. The hand of Hod was no more. All things considered it should have been cause for celebration. The smoke from the burning camp cleared again and the carnage of the gunpowder bomb was visible. Figures wandered the shades through an amber fog. Tenner and Floki were pulling Sig's burned and lifeless body from the debris. He had not been the only casualty, but he was the dearest. Captain Cateras and Eboni Blacke had paid a similar price for their part in the fight. Through the smoke two figures emerged. A dark solemn figure aided her broken companion toward Danin and his healing arts. The young woman, had lost two compainons. Though she moved toward Danin I could see that her direction and purpose in her live had been smashed, the pieces of her inner compass in pieces. I too was nearly in her shoes.
It would be hours before the sun would show itself. In that time we could pick clean the carcasses of the fallen to fuel our future adventures. This was the way of things for us. The strong continued and the weak fell. Inside I could feel the cracks in my fabrication widening. It would not be long before I became an unreliable companion. It was clear to me now that Hakaar and I would break from this union and seek our own path for a time. Hakaar's devotion will be tested and his existence threatened as we strike out on our own. The path before us is uncertain. We will not travel alone, at least at first. The Lamia woman E's Va Tou and her companion Raenir would travel with us into the borderlands of the Osterman Flats. From there we will step out into the unknown in search of the healing fire of my origin.
I took another sweeping look across the broken camp. The burning embers cast a devilish light on our somber friends. Would I remember them this way in the coming weeks and months? Or will the happier days revisit my memories. I dusted off the soil and flaking blood from my dress and crossed the distance to rejoin the others. I could feel the hunger inside me that drives my purpose growing. By morining I would be eager once more for the next fight and the souls that would be mine to feed upon. I was a thing of monsterous design, but the desire for life and companionship outweighed my conscience. I am a weapon and I am to be weilded.
