Chapter 39: Strategy

As usual, Hugo was silent. He smiled and nodded at the passer-bys, but didn’t offer many words to them either. When we walked past Samuel, he stopped for a beat, and shared one of those handshakes by the wrist. Then Hugo pulled him close and said something only Sam could hear. He gave Sam a pat on the back and chuckled as we left him behind. 

“What was that about?” I asked. 

“He’s my mentee. I was merely offering advice.” 

I raised an eyebrow. “I thought he wasn’t a progenitor?” 

Hugo glanced back at me with interest, with a hint of a smirk on his face, ”The order operates under a different modus operandi. We recruit those with potential and the proper background.” 

“What would be the proper background?” 

“Being part of a branch family. Just like you,” he said and held open the door to the map room. His sharp eyes studied my reaction. 

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not though.” 

“You are. Has your Dorothea not told you?” 

My brow crinkled. What’s his angle? “We’re not on the best of terms,” I said flatly. 

“So I’ve gathered. But I never figured you were clueless as to why.” 

I closed the door without walking in and glared at him. 

This is none of your fucking business. What the hell are you even trying?

I composed myself and got up close to him. He was more than a head taller than me, it made me feel small, but when weapons were involved height didn’t matter. At least not when said weapon was a gun. 

I spoke slowly, “I know why. Neither she, or the family, stepped up to help mom when she begged them. When I begged. When Jacob begged.” I bit of each word with as much spite I could manage, yet he still smiled at me like I was a child throwing a tantrum. 

“They did so for good reason.” 

…What? 

I burst into motion, striking the wall next to him. My fist left a centimeter deep mark in the stone along with a small smudge of red blood. Snaking cracks shot out from the impact zone. 

“What the fuck did you just say?!” I hissed. 

The rustle and bustle in the corridor crawled to a halt. They watched on silently, whispering to each other with shaking fear in their voices.. 

Hugo didn’t even flinch. He opened his mouth to explain, eyes still calm as water, when the door was flung open. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Samara demanded. She grabbed hold of my sleeve and pulled with a low wheeze, “Get in here right this instant! We can’t have you fight in front of others. It’s bad for morale!”

I stumbled into the room, all eyes on me. Yusuf stood in the back, smiling weakly.

As to door closed behind me with a click, I whipped around to Hugo. “You mind your own fucking business. Next time I won’t be aiming for the wall.” 

He chuckled. “Yeah? You’re welcome to try whenever you like.” 

I wanted to wipe that fucking smile off his face if it was the last thing I did. “You fu-” Samara pulled me back with a stern look as I was about to throw myself at him. She couldn’t stop me. I knew this for a fact. Not unless I let her. 

“I don’t know what this is about, and I don’t really care. This stops now,” she said with a matter of factly tone. 

I shook myself free of her hands and glared. “Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?”

She scoffed. “Is this the gratitude I get for saving you?”  

I grumbled, Joanna stepped in with her hands reaching out. “Everybody take a breath,” she turned to me. “She’s right Cal. We drop this, now. This is not the time or place.” 

It felt like she dropped an anvil on me. The one person I expected to have my back on this brushed me off. I had done everything in my power to help her since we reunited. I looked away, chewed on my lip and sat down in the far end of the room, near the window. It gave me a good view of the courtyard. On it, the children played without supervision, shouting and laughing without a care in the world. 

I couldn’t help but sneer at the lack of security. Even with Joanna’s powers protecting the place, they shouldn’t have left the security to the teens like Samuel. 

Joanna cleared her throat, I could feel her glance at me, but I didn’t return it. “As I was saying. We’ve made some real progress over the last few days. The horde has diminished by quite the number, but their threat is still far from insignificant. We still haven’t run into any flesh golems, which means they are preserving their strength for something.” 

Samara cut in with a bang against the table. “Or using them to protect something! I say we find the flesh golems, and take whatever it is they are protecting. It has to be the relic! There’s no other conceivable option.” 

Joanna groaned. “What if they’re not protecting anything? This could all be a ruse to lead our main strike force away, leaving the sanctuary without any strong defenders.” 

Defenders that sit around doing nothing but play cards and chat shit all day. 

Samara slammed her fist into the table. “You would still have Hugo and his militia here.”

“They’re not nearly as used to combat as your strike force.” 

“Precisely the point. We can’t grow complacent! They are trained to attack, not defend!” Samara retorted, her voice cracked.

Defence or offence, the age old question. I kept staring out the window, following the curls and shapes of the multicoloured weave floating in the air. 

“And then there’s the doctor,” Joanna added. ”Cal knows first hand how dangerous he is. What if he decides to go on the attack? We don’t even know if he’s taken a side!” 

I grumbled. “He has. He’s on their side.” 

Samara glared daggers at my back. “How can you be so sure?” 

I clicked my tongue. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because they ambushed me together? You should already know this. You were there, weren’t you? Or did you hang back as usual?” 

I knew that wasn’t the case. I remember seeing her burst through the door, but I knew it was a sore spot from an earlier scuffle she had with Joanna’s people. They had argued Samara might as well stay behind to make room for another fighter if she wasn’t planning on joining the fray anyway. I laughed then. I think that’s what pushed her over the edge. Since that day she kept joining the skirmishes despite her blessing being practically useless against stumblers.

She ground her teeth audibly. “There were no signs of any stumblers or cultists.” 

“Is that what we’re calling them now?” I retorted lazily. 

Joanna cut in, stepping in between me and Samara, “Yes. Since that is what they are.” I chortled, and received a sharp knuckle to my side in response. Only with difficulty did I manage to strangle my lament. She continued. “We need to decide today what we’ll do. We have enough resources to last about two more weeks. After that we’ll have to resort to other, less desirable sources of food.” 

“Like what?” I asked. 

“Whatever it takes,” she whispered. I didn’t want to believe it, but she was obviously talking about the stumblers. They all were.

I shook my head. “Nuh-uh. Ain’t no way I’m doing that.” 

“Then starve,” Samara spat venomously. 

If it came down to it, I’m sure I’d eat whatever it may take. But just the thought of it made me sick. There could still be more food in the Chambers. I’d have to take a look when I went, which would have to be the second I felt up to it. My ammunition was growing dangerously low. 

Joanna continued, “But that still doesn’t force us into a position where we need to press the attack without a solid plan!”

Hugo stepped close to the map and spoke with that despicably self assured smirk. “We should swap out some members of the strike squad to let more people experience combat. If the flesh golems are indeed guarding the relic, then we need to prepare for a large-scale battle.” 

Samara nodded as Joanna rubbed her eyes tiredly. Even her own council turned against her.

Hugo turned to her with a vicious glare. “If you worry about the children being left alone then the answer to the problem is simple. They will need to fight as well.” 

Before I could protest, Joanna bound toward him. “What the hell are you saying?! We’re doing this so they don’t have to fight!” 

He deflected her shooting hand easily. “They have been blessed just as we. Let them decide for themselves.”

“They are our responsibility, Hugo! What will their parents say if they find out they died in battle?”

“I think they would be proud that their children died fighting for the cause.” 

Now those were the words of a true cultist. Joanna balled up her fists, her face practically glowing with indignation. She whirled to me. “And you Cal? You alright with this?!” 

“Obviously not.”  

“Then fucking say something!” 

I was at a loss for words, she never raised her voice. Still, why would I step forward to help her when she did nothing for me?

“What, did you become mute? Just because Hu-” she stopped herself before saying anything that actually hurt our friendship. Though I could half suspect what she was going to say. She pursed her lips and looked at me for a moment, then turned. 

“So, can we vote?” Samara asked with a wide grin. 

“Yes,” Joanna mumbled.

“Then. All those for taking the fight to the flesh golems, raise a hand.” 

Everyone but me and Joanna raised their hands, even Yusuf. There was weight to their worries. The food supply was running out, but the situation wasn’t this dire, not yet. We could still ration harder. The fact that people still had surplus fats was proof enough that we hadn’t stretched the supplies to their limits just yet. 

I stood up with a huff. “Well then. I’m going to the coiled building. Need to restock.” 

Samara dropped her chin. “What? Now? We need time to get a squad ready.” 

I summoned the armour and fastened it tight to my body. The marks of the previous battle still adorned its once shiny, beige shell. 

Nea stepped forward. “Give me a few minutes to get ready. I won’t need long.” 

“Catch up,” I said and left the room behind. Their quiet murmurs of discontent weren’t lost on me. I just didn’t care. I wanted to be by myself for a while. Preferably I’d like to speak to Sera, but that was out of the question. 

As I walked through the halls, it seemed I wasn’t so adept at covering my emotions as I had once thought. The people who usually greeted me with smiles and get-well-wishes, averted their eyes as I passed. No one barred my path, not even the talkative little shit, Samuel. 

There was a slight resistance as I stepped to leave the sanctuary, I turned around to see Joanna looking at me through the window of the map room. I couldn’t make out her face from this distance, but she seemed reluctant to let me go. Still, the sanctuary wasn’t built to keep people in, it was built to keep people out. Pushing through the thin membrane of the green veil posed no obstacle to me. 

I climbed to the rooftop of a nearby building. I used it almost every time I patrolled section C, and had grown used to the paths across the roofs. Coincidentally it also led to the hospital. 

The place gave me the shivers now, so I circled around it widely. I kept my pace slow and proceeded carefully, I didn’t want to fall for another ambush. Once a week was more than enough for me. 

I plucked a blue thread and played around with it in my hand. I already suspected as much when I thought back to the fight with the doctor. My new blessing, brought with it some fresh air. I saw more runes than before, most of them cryptic and written in a way that made no sense to me, not even after fusing with Sera. But there were some new additions.

I looked down at the curled thread in my hand. 

Thread of the seamstress

Description: A thread of magic created by a blessed weaver, and altered by the Seamstress.

The threads are ephemeral in nature and can take on both physical and non-physical form. 

The Seamstress used the thread to bind the very fabrics of magic to the world.