The Messengers of Sanctuary

22 - Chicory

Chicory stretched happily around four am, getting out of the soft bed with some reluctance. She had to go on a run, otherwise, she might've stayed there for a bit longer.

She had yet to track down Zach, but she had a feeling he would find her. Sure enough, he was sitting quietly outside her door as she opened it. Glaring at her. It gave her a bit of deja vu really to see him sitting there waiting, just like the first day she'd met him.

She smiled hesitantly at him, "You want to yell at me, how about we go on a run and you can do that while we're out there?"

Zach continued glaring at her but nodded, "I can show you where I usually go."

Chicory nodded back, she would have to run longer than him since her heartfire was fully developed, but she could just keep running after he returned to the stronghold. They left the gates, the sentries seemed used to Zach thankfully, so they didn't even have to argue about leaving the fence before sunrise.

And then Zach began to grill her, "What is this thing anyway?"

"We call it heartfire, it fits, right?"

Zach cringed, perhaps remembering a time when he had let the heat have its way. "Yeah."

"It's a virus, but you know that already I think."

"Where did it come from?"

Chicory grinned, "Do you want the short version or the long detailed version that would take me hours to recite?"

Zach blinked at her, "Um, the sort version please?"

"One of these days I'm going to get someone to agree to the long version..." Chicory sighed, "Anyway..." She proceeded to recite the same explanation she'd long since given River, telling him about Diane's original discoveries and journey.

Zach blinked, "so it is a mutation then?"

"Eh, sort of. There's this whole scientific reason that Diane told me once when I got too curious. I forgot it immediately."

"And uh...how does one make it contagious? Nina's been trying in blood samples but nothing's working. It just attacks everything."

Chicory shrugged, "Well your heartfire isn't developed enough yet for that, it's around the six-month mark when you gain the ability, though I think there was a guy who did it a month early during an emergency. If Nina wants to do some tests on contagious heartfire I can get her some."

"But how does it work?" Zach asked, "You did something, your blood started glowing, and then suddenly it could infect me."

She glanced to the side as she saw an interesting plant, "It's really hard to do. You have to focus on the desire to help and protect someone, and then you have to hold onto it as the heartfire turns cold and you get a massive headache. Then for the rest of the day, you're super tired. It's really weird and I don't remember the full explanation."

"Okay...you said there's a place full of people with heartfire? How many are there?"

Chicory screwed her face up, "see, that's an unfair question. I'm just a humble messenger, it's not like I count everyone all the time. Plus I'm barely ever even there."

"But what's your estimate?"

Chicory sighed, "I think it's around two to three thousand at this point. But honestly, they're adding new people all the time. Since for some unknowable reason, everywhere else is scared of glowing eyes, but an equal amount of people just really want superpowers and this is the closest they're ever going to get. Add in all the people who get bitten, and we've got a big number."

Zach blinked at her, "there are over two thousand people who went through this before?"

She grinned, "Yep! All from one person who got lucky."

"And there isn't a cure or anything?"

Chicory tried to imagine how that would work, "Well no, we can't cure people of it. I think some people would be happy if they could go back to how they were before, but they can't."

"Oh." Chicory couldn't quite tell if he was disappointed or relieved about that, perhaps it was both.

"But hey, having heartfire is pretty great, we don't get mosquito bites for one! Also, we have almost limitless energy so it's really hard to procrastinate what we want to do!"

Zach smiled at that, but it didn't seem to quite reach his eyes. Alright then, he'd been hoping to go back to how things had been. "That's nice I guess."

Chicory raised an eyebrow, sensing his emotional turmoil, "Alright then, what do you think you'll be doing in five years? Do you have any sort of long-term plans?"

"Well...not really. I'll probably track down some people but that's about it."

"You can join Sanctuary if you like, it'll give you some more ideas of what fired people do with all our energy at the very least."

There was a long note of silence, but it was the thoughtful kind, not the kind that River liked throwing at conversations. Where was River anyway? He should be around here somewhere. In fact, he had a bad habit of stalking people instead of talking to them. So it was possible that he was following them now that she thought about it.

After a moment, Zach sighed, "I could try it out I guess."

Chicory smiled sadly, feeling the pain and sorrow that extruded him, this was more than just being unsure of the future. But she couldn't do anything about that until she knew what was wrong. It could be trauma, perhaps when he got bitten. Or maybe it's deeper than that?

Chicory hummed softly, "You could just come around with me and River until you figure out what you want, there's lots that we need to get done."

"River? You mean the weird guy from Featherwood?"

Chicory glanced at Zach, remembering that he didn't know River was a zombie. In fact, she doubted most of Featherwood had known that fact, he was so secretive..."yeah, him, though now that I think about it, he might not like you coming with us, I could get you into a different messenger team?"

Zach furrowed his brow, "Well I guess delivering messages can't be too hard."

Sparks, I keep forgetting that I don't even have River trained in our procedures...going around with one or two more experienced messengers would help Zach with that, and she had been thinking about setting up an apprenticeship program because training everyone at Sanctuary was getting to simply be a hassle.

Mmmm...but who would be nearby?

The obvious first answer was Thomas and Kade, who were going to Alliance territory to let them know that a trader group was on its way. Putting Zach in that group might be a terrible idea, but hey, Thomas knew how to do his job right, and Kade was the senior messenger and therefore in charge of where they went and when...

Really all that mattered was that they got along, and Chicory couldn't think of any clashes with personality. Zach was a lot more laid back than the other two, but that wasn't a big issue.

"Yeah if you want I can definitely get you into a messenger group. I have one in mind."

Zach blinked, "Oh, well in that case I guess I'll try it out."

Chicory tried to do the math in her head, but she had to stop their run for a moment and get out her map, overlaying it with a special ruler that the map had been scaled to the size of. "Mmm, yeah they should be passing around here in two weeks or so, we can meet them there if you want, I should be done here in time."

Zach nodded, finally a tiny spark of purpose igniting behind his eyes.

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Zach does something important with every vote :D