Ame Perdue

Chapter Twelve

Most of the time, after a destruction like Riquoiston, the base area was a group of survivors. A place for the people to rest their heads, to come to terms with the loss that had struck them. Eventually, they would join the cause, they would join the fight for their world. The strong would join the guard, the people who were unable to defend themselves, or were simply unsuited for the battles would be protected.

As they grew stronger, they would be led back to the main compound, where they would find their place in this new world. Because in this world, they didn't care who or what you were, you were accepted. You would find protection. It was a good thing that I wasn't in charge here. Some of the people that I had come across here I would have left for the demons to kill.

I had expected to come across the camp set up as such. Expected to see hundreds of unfamiliar people milling around as they tried to make sense of the destruction that they had no way to stop. The camp that I came across was very different from the one that I expected.

There were no more than twenty-five people there, all wearing the thicker materials that would protect them in case of an ambush. All of them were carrying various weapons, on guard for an attack. My eyes flickered between the people, none of them looked like survivors. In fact, there was nothing set up for survivors, it looked more like I would expect as a base camp. A small protected area for the scouts to return to at the end of the day. My stomach dropped.

Riquoiston had no survivors.

I hadn't expected there to be many, not with the number of drop sites that had been spread out throughout the city. Yet I knew that if it was just the bombs, there would be at least a few survivors, no matter how powerful they might have been. The flames wouldn't have affected any creature with a fire affinity, the blast may have gotten some of them, but reasonably, it wouldn't take out all of them. Creatures with a wind affinity could have hardened the air around them like a shield.

They might not have known what a bomb was, but they weren't human. Their powers would have rushed to protect them. If there were no one left alive, everyone slaughtered, then this was more than just leveling a city. These creatures had caused pain and devastation wherever they went, but they had always left survivors. They fed off of the trauma that they were causing, and dead people had no trauma to worry about.

It was a change that worried me.

I felt a shimmer pass through me as Kam lowered us into the camp. I knew without a doubt that it was the effects of Kam's magic, he would have cast an illusion over the camp, making it appear as if it was nothing more than the clearing that it appeared to be. It was a last-ditch protection. Anyone with an affinity for air would be able to see through it with ease, as well as anyone that already knew that it was here. It didn't just disguise it from the enemy either, if Kam hadn't shown me where it was, I would have walked by it none the wiser.

Kam had remained silent on the way over, instead concentrating on having us arrive without falling out of the sky. We could have spoken, he was capable of carrying sound over the wind so that we could understand one another, but I didn't trust his skills. We had done similar stunts over the years when necessary, he had dropped me out of the sky on most of those occasions.

He was not the most skilled with his powers.

Safely on the ground, I stretched, feeling my bones pop at the action. I scanned the camp, my eyes landing on a tent that was familiar to me, the flames surrounding it a calling card to its owner. There was a plain tent beside it that I knew would be Kam's. Since I didn't feel like setting up my own space at the moment, I headed for Kam's. Acilia's tent was larger, but I didn't feel like risking her temper. Two bandages were enough.