Test your relationship:Miss

I couldn't hold time straight anymore. In one moment, blood leaked from Lux's neck, slicking my hands red. In the next, Bonfire was in front of me, shaking me, yelling at me.

Then there were security guards, questions I couldn't string words well enough together to answer.

Medics next. They poked at the wound on my cheek, my arm, my wrist. Asked me questions. Ask to move my fingers then seemed concerned when I couldn't. They tried to shine a torch in my eyes, but I flinched away. My head was pounding, lights dancing, fizzing grey pixels across my vision.

Then there were bright white gleaming lights, I was on a bed, surrounded by people, tubes and machines and beeping. Someone pressed something plastic and cold to my face and I struggled, trying to break away.

But then everything was heavy and dark, and I floated far, far away.

Heal: Miss

Endure Harm: Miss

Heal: Weak Hit

"Mr Savella, do you understand what I just told you?"

The Doctor wore green scrubs and a harried look as she peered down at where I lay, hooked up to drips and monitors, swathed in enough bandages and dressings to give progenitor burial site a run for its money.

Also I had not heard what she just said. I told her that.

She repeated what she told me. I'd needed surgery. They'd been able to repair my damaged tendons. With rest, recovery time would be approximately two weeks. Other things that slipped away into the haze.

I asked where Bonfire was. I learned that she didn't want to see me.

"How have you been feeling, Ash?"

Like I didn't need to speak to a psychologist, that was for sure.

"Be that as it may, in cases of traumatising nature, all eye witnesses witnesses are required to be in contact with a psychologist throughout the investigation by Reverie law."

If he expected me to break down and cry my eyes out over what happened, over the fact that Bonfire wasn't talking to me, then he had another thing coming.

"Oh, I quite agree. I don't want to make you relive the past, I want to help you cope in the present."

I still wasn't sure, but I supposed it couldn't hurt to try.

Make a Connection: Weak Hit

Sojourn: Weak Hit

Hearten: Automatic Strong Hit

Heal: Weak Hit

After two days in the sick bay, I was, officially, well enough to be handed over to the authorities.

"We kept you as long as we could," Dr. Jefferies said, as she filled in her part of the paperwork, "But you're well and truly fit as a fiddle."

"Thanks Doc," I said, clenching and unclenching my fist. The scabs were dark rusty brown the rest of my skin, the messy holes left by Lux's claws and the long straight surgery scar both. They weren't as bad as the scars on my face, but they were where I could see them and that almost made it worse. I could forget about my face. Not about these.

I didn’t even make it two steps out of sickbay before I was set upon by two hulking security guards, “If you’d just come this way sir,” One said, reaching out to take my arm. I bristled under the touch, but let her lead me down to deck 2 where the security offices were.

They made me walk through a body scanner and surrender anything that could be used as either a weapon or communication device, before escorting me into an interview room where they made me wait again.

I wanted to rest my head on the table, but I was too wound up. Every so often I had to consciously relax my jaw when I felt a headache starting to build up, and I couldn’t stop straining to hear even the slightest noise. I laid my hands out on the tablle in front of me and forced myself to breathe, searching for the flickering glow of heat in my veins.

I found it, but it flared up and singed my fingertips. I hissed in pain and hid my hands under the table just as what was probably the tallest woman I’d ever seen in my life walked in, thick brow seemingly weighed down at the mere prospect of having to talk to me. Which, to be honest, was very fair.

“Ash Savela?” She said.

I tipped an imaginary cap, “Speaking.”

She nodded brusquely and sat down, placing her files in front of her before taking out a small oval-shaped device. “This is Lieutenant Edris conducting a Person of interest interview with Ash Savella. Mr. Savela,” she said, “We are here to discuss the events taking place on Forge Standard Date Eighteen-Nine-Seventy Fifth. This interview will be recorded for the purpose of evidence. You are currently a person of interest in the investigation into the events of the aforementioned date. I trust you have already been briefed on your rights as person of interest under Quint Family law?”

I had, so I nodded. Said rights were, essentially, non-existent.

“Please confirm out loud for the recording.”

“Oh, right, yes I have.”

“Good. Now, in your own words, please describe the events of that time period.”

I did as best I could, but my recollection was spotty. I described hearing that Bonfire might be in trouble, racing across the station to get to her. I told her about arriving to Find Bonfire unconscious, Lux attacking me. I told her, reluctantly, about the flames. Finally, I told her how, when I had him cornered, Lux had impaled himself upon his own knife.

If anyone listened back to the recording, they would’ve probably thought I sounded like a sociopath, voice flat and steady. What sounded like calm, however, was really just numbness. The fog I thought I’d managed to clear away had descended again, smothering all feeling.

Compel: Strong hit w/ a match

The faux-sociopathy seemed to jive with the Lieutenant, however, because she nodded, face impassive, “I appreciate your honesty. Sounds to me like it wasn’t your fault Mr. Savela. Not many ways to react in a situation like that which don’t end with someone dead. Helps too that you were working with a licensed bounty hunter and the evidence we have fits your narrative.”

She shuffled her papers together, “I’m going to recommend the inquest find you innocent of all fault in this matter. Seeing as you’re not under arrest you are technically free to leave the station, but I don’t recommend it until after the initial hearing in a few days time.”

“Do I have to go to the hearing?”

She shook her head, “No. You will be informed by weave-mail if the case is being taken further.”

After several days away from it, the strange bitter scent of the Nomad’s E-drives was the first thing that entered my awareness when I stepped aboard. The air was cold and slightly thin as I made my way to the galley, Overseer apparently having turned the life support way down to conserve power.

You are not dead, how disappointing.

I snorted, “To be fair, it was a bloody close one. Though I doubt station security would’ve been handing you back over to the Spheries anytime soon.”

I crouched down to reach the kitchen cabinets where I knew the medical supplies were kept. As I searched, a rolled up silk sash fell out. White, of course. I shuddered. I remembered what those were used for all too well.

Ah, a ceremonial binding sash, what a nice surprise!

I swallowed, “You know, sometimes I can almost look past the fact that you idolise the people that literally kidnapped me as a child, but then you come out with shit like that.”

My hands were shaking. I forced myself to take a few deep breaths timed to a slow count like Dr. Blackstone, the psychologist they made me speak to, had taught me.

You kidnapped me too, Ash.

“I escaped with you, it’s really not the same.”

I found the medkit in the cabinet - a red plastic box with a white circle on the front. I pried it open and found a tube of derma-juv cream, which I spread liberally over the fresh burns on my knuckles before wrapping them in bandages to stop the cream coming off before it finished working.

You are… upset.

I paused, “Since when did you care what I am?”

You are upset because of me?

I sighed, clicking the box shut, “Sort of… but not really. It was a bad run. A… A Spherie. Brought back some bad stuff from the past.”

It is true that my morality matrices are aligned to the truest values of the great avengers, not conventional Forge values.

I snorted, “I’d noticed.”

It is also true that their alignment is not set in stone.

I put the box back in the cabinet. “You’re trying to say… what exactly?”

I want to care that you are sad, Ash. I do not think I did before today, but now I do.

Hearten: Strong Hit

Make a Connection: Weak Hit

I sighed, “I could… help you, I suppose?” I glanced down at the bandages, “If you want that. I don’t know much about AI, but I bet there’s a load of people out there that do.”

I do want that.

“Alright.” I fished my black iron token out from my shirt, pressed it to my lips, “On the iron. I’ll find someone that can help.”

Swear An Iron Vow: Strong Hit

I found Bonfire at the bar we’d visited before, Zoya’s.

She sat alone, a pint of something purple and fizzy with a little pink umbrella sticking out of it sitting on the countertop in front of her.

I sat next to her, my stomach turning over on itself.

She ignored me.

A bartender approached us, silvery studs lining their left ear, glinting in the blue and purple mood lighting, “What can I get you mate?”

“Err,” I fumbled, “Whatever it is she’s having.”

They nodded, and moments later, a purple drink was in front of me too. I took a sip and immediately recoiled, “Bloody hell, that’s strong, how many of these have you had?”

Bonfire’s scowl deepened. Scabs puckered the side of her face that had been hit by the bottle.

I took another sip of my drink.

The song playing over the speakers ended. A silence that should have lasted moments stretched to an infinity.

“Bonfire…”

The next song started.

“You know, maybe it is I who should have been calling you ‘Bonfire’,” she said.

I winced, “Listen, I’d have said if it was safe–”

“I could,” she interrupted, “have lived with you keeping your secrets. I have my own, as you well know. I could have even lived with you killing my quarry. After all, he tried to kill you first. That is fair game.”

I was about to point out that technically he’d killed himself using me, but just the thought of that was too horrifying to contemplate. Saying it out loud would’ve rendered it far too real to handle.

“It is the fact that you had the gall to lecture me about how my secrets put us in danger!” She set the glass down hard enough that purple sloshed over the side. The bartender looked about to mop up after her, but instead decided to make themself scarce.

“Hey, in all fairness, you were in danger before my secret got out!”

She scoffed, “Perhaps, but my target wasn’t! You knew I was hunting Spheries! You knew that all you have to do is whisper the word ‘paragon’ around one for them to drive themself into a literal blood frenzy!”

She was right, of course, but I wasn’t going to just let her have it, that would’ve been ridiculous. I opened my mouth to protest, but she interrupted again.

“It is of no import. I still need to go to The Scorched Gap.”

“Wait,” I said, stunned and relieved, “You do? Why?”

“I will still be rewarded for Lux’s death, just not as handsomely. Although we are going to be telling him that I am the one who killed him.”

“Okay.” I said.

“First though, I want you to swear a vow to me.”

“Hey, that’s not fair–”

“There are hundreds of other couriers who would gladly take me for the payout I am offering. The only reason I am even considering you after everything that has happened is familiarity.”

I grit my teeth. “Fine. What’s the vow?”

“Tell me everything.”

“What?” I asked, stunned.

“Where you came from, being a paragon, the Spheries, all of it.”

I took my token, for the second time that day, and raised it to my lips, “Fine. I swear I will tell you, Bonfire, everything about my history that I’ve been hiding, if you do the same.”

Compel: Strong hit w/ match

Swear an Iron Vow: Strong Hit

“Fine. But I do not have a fancy token.”

I took mine off and held it out, “Here, borrow mine.”

She took it, and pressed it to her lips, “This is disgusting, your mouth has touched this.”

I rolled my eyes, and eventually, she said, “I, Nashida Thorn, vow to tell you, Ash Savela, everything that I have been hiding.”