The Arcane Trilogy: Sins of the Past - Book 2

Chapter 19: The Cost of Love

The sun continued to set, filling the warehouse with a soft orange hue. Caitlyn had been resting since Vi had applied the emergency first aid using the former enforcer's guidance, with the young Kirraman propped up against the ancient walls of the warehouse that was scared with the ash of a tortuous past. So much pain and misery had been cast between its walls, so Vi was thankful that the near death experience Caitlyn endured was prevented. That building had taken so much from them both, and Vi especially was determined to not allow it to steal something else from her.

After ensuring that Caitlyn was okay and in a stable condition, Vi promptly searched the surrounding area, initially searching for any signs of the assassin that attacked them. Some small splatterings of blood trickled out of the warehouse's domain, but Vi was unable to track down the assailant's path, due to the trail seemingly ending close to the water's edge. She knew that the likelihood of someone diving into the water with a leg wound was low, but by continuing her search, she would have to move further away from the wounded Caitlyn. That was an action Vi was firmly against taking.

Upon returning to the warehouse and once again checking on Caitlyn's condition, Vi began cleaning up the remnants of the fight the pair had endured. She moved the firelight corpses out of sight, resting them in a discreet corner of the warehouse, but clear enough so that Ekko or his people could find them at a later date. She tried to lay them both down in the most respectful manner she could manage, but their deep cuts and unmoving forms made that task somewhat challenging.

An uncomfortable knot tightened in Vi's gut after she placed Samara and Bartos together in a darkened and damp corner of the stone graveyard that stood over them all. They volunteered to help Vi and Caitlyn, and they seemed to be fully committed to that cause, even if they had a brief yet tense exchange regarding Jinx. They seemed like good and honest people, fighting for a better life, who also ended up dead on Vi's watch. The pink haired Zaunite hated that those kinds of people seemed to drop like flies whenever they entered Vi's life. Leaving the deceased to grow cold alone in a ruined building was not what they deserved, but what else could Vi do for them in that situation? She had to hope that the nightmare ended sooner rather than later, allowing her to inform Ekko of their passing, and how they fought for them until the end.

After tending to Bartos and Samara, Vi then began searching the dilapidated ruin. Her gut told her that they would have to camp out at the warehouse for some time, simply just to give Caitlyn time to recover, even if the benefits she would reap would not be anywhere close to what she needed in order to fully heal. Killing two birds with one stone, Vi decided that searching the warehouse would still contribute something to the pair's plan of finding Jinx, whilst giving Caitlyn some time to rest. If Vi could turn over the right stone, the wounds Caitlyn suffered could prove to become a blessing in disguise.

As Vi navigated the ruined jungle of rubble that decorated much of the warehouse, her thoughts began to flood towards the forefront of her mind with dangerous intent. She quickly discovered that simply existing in the accursed building that was burnt onto Vi's mind was not an easy task. Her many years in Stillwater had given her too much time to think back on the night that changed everything, allowing her to torture herself over every single detail in great depth. After searching for some time, Vi sighed a brief huff of defeat, realising that she had not found anything useful, nor was she in the correct mindset to continue looking.

'I have to be strong for Caitlyn.' Thought Vi as she tried to shove the painful memories that blossomed from the deepest corners of her mind firmly out of reach.

Vi soon returned to Caitlyn, purposely taking a route that would guide her away from Jinx's dinner setup, knowing that seeing such a display again would not help her troubled mind. Seeing Caitlyn retaining some colour in her cheeks settled Vi slightly, as the bladed weapons that Vi had to parry had left fairly deep cuts and scratch marks across the Atlas gauntlets that she had only recently acquired. Vi shuddered to think what would have happened if Caitlyn wasn't fast enough when the assassin slipped past the Atlas gauntlet's powerful strikes.