12 – Aniki

Silence loomed over Tiode as I made my way back through the village. My eyes scanned every window, every alley, and every doorway, but I didn’t see anyone watching me. Years of warfare gave you a good sense for when you were being watched, either by scouts or marksmen, but I felt none of that usual tension around me.

It was possible nobody but Mikan and Haita’s idiots had seen any of that. I had to hope, at least. But rumours in small towns flew like flocks of little birds. Even if nobody had seen anything, people would be quick to guess and murmur their assumptions as facts.

Certainly, that had been the way of things back home.

I found them outside the general store, Mikan dousing a rag with some alchemical agent that stank of crushed flowers and cut grass, using it to tend their wounds. Haita hissed as the rag pressed against his brow.

“I know it hurts,” she said soothingly, “but we cannot let your wound get infected.”

“Right, right.” He paused, looking up at me with his good eye, which sharply widened at the sight of me. “Holy shit. You… you’re alive? In one piece?”

“In one piece,” I said. On that front he was correct, though the ‘alive’ part was much more open to interpretation. No doubt wizards and clergymen would have a riveting debate on that particular subject.

Haita rose quickly to his feet. Or, at least as quickly could, for someone who had had the living shit kicked out of him. “How… how did you… those pricks were cultivators! We heard the explosions in the distance and-”

“Shut your mouth and listen,” I hissed, motioning toward him. “You saw nothing, and you heard nothing either, you understand me? Didn’t see me do anything to them, didn’t see them do anything to me. Understand? I’m not having word of this spread. Nothing. Happened.”

Haita looked at me for several moments, then he nodded. “R-right. I won’t say a word. Yun, Takeda, you stay quiet too.”

His two friends, who looked almost as beat up as their ringleader, nodded weakly. “I dunt thin’ I cah talk mush ah ahll,” Yun said, slurring on a swollen tongue.

“Even if you want us to be silent, I will just say one thing.” Mikan set the medicinal bottle aside and offered me a smile that could light up a darkened room. “Thank you, for helping me. You’re… a good man, Master Amon.”

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I sighed, closing my eyes. Getting punched a dozen times with blows that could turn stone into dust didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as that poor girl being fooled into thinking I was a good person. “Don’t thank me. And don’t call me a good man, whatever you do. You don’t know anything about me.” Even if I was living a lie out here, there were some things I wouldn’t accept as part of that deception. “But, I am glad you are okay. Those… cultivators, do they often do things like that?”

“Today was… more than the norm,” Haita admitted, an annoyed grimace on his face. “Every couple of months some of their disciples come down from that fucking mountain, looking to cause trouble. Maybe they’ll damage property, rob things… if they’re in a foul mood they might even beat someone just for crossing their path. It’s not just Tiode they do this to, but… it was bad luck on our end.”

Takeda, the short one, frowned and stared out across the silent street. “Never saw them try to force themselves on someone like that either. But you hear stories about it, cultivators abusing mortal girls because nobody can stop them.” A small shudder ran through his body.