The Messengers of Sanctuary

56 - Chicory

Chicory woke up in the middle of the night, laying on Nicky's floor, trying to figure out if the story she remembered was actually true or if it was a heartfire induced fever dream. It was...possible for that to happen, right? To be so tired from donating blood that you hallucinate an entire story into existence?

Chicory blinked a couple times, her eyes basking the area in a bluish haze that illuminated three objects lying on the floor in front of her, a can of soup, a bottle of soap, and a crowbar which Nicky had brought into the story somewhere in the middle.

Chicory also found an absolutely terrifying amount of knowledge that Nicky had gifted her throughout the story.

Chicory stared at the objects for a long moment, shuddering and glancing at Nicky, who was sprawled on her bed in a very confusing position. It looked like she was trying to do yoga in her sleep.

The younger woman shook her head slightly, glancing at the door and checking the levels of heat out of habit. It was lower than it normally would be after missing her evening run, but having made the virus contagious would skew her schedule for the next day or two.

Chicory got up carefully, somewhat surprised that most of the floor was bare, but now that she thought on it, she recalled they'd kept cleaning as the story progressed, and by the time they were done Chicory had been too tired to go find her room.

She exited the door quietly and ten minutes later, she was running through the blue-tinted wilderness.

"Thanks for keeping Nicky distracted earlier."

Chicory jumped at the voice behind her and whirled to face it, finally noticing the silent nightstalker sitting beside a tree. Chicory blinked at the red eyes that were evaluating her and frowned, "She's really not bad company. Not nearly as bad as some customers I have to deal with."

Trinity nodded, seeming to get that logic, "And now Nina's trying to organize another road trip. That's your fault?"

Chicory nodded, "Yeah, she needs more data. I'm kind of surprised how easily she agreed to the idea."

The nightstalker smirked, her white teeth glinting in the moonlight. "You gave her a new toy, she's determined to figure it out. That's just Nina being Nina. She talked to me while you were having your slumber party and tried to convince me to come along. But Nina doesn't know the specifics of the situation, just that there's fancy zombies to be found. So, tell me, is there anything down there that you might need my help for?"

Chicory blinked, her mind whirring. Was there anything they would need a second nightstalker for? Mostly Chicory couldn't stop thinking about the story that Nicky had told her. The story in which Trinity had been the main character.

Having a second nightstalker around wouldn't be too much of a gain, but well... "There's a lot that can go wrong with this, I knew about that before even going south. It's kind of like those unranked zombies that Nicky was telling me about, we don't know if we'll find something too skilled or powerful for us to deal with. So if you come it would mostly give us another fighter who can help to keep everyone safe, especially since we're taking one of the only scientists capable of manufacturing new cures with us."

Trinity tilted her head at that, "Very good points I suppose. Though Nina has put a lot of energy into teaching trustworthy people what she knows, so you don't have to worry about her research dying out if this fails. Plus she'll have Daniel there, he's a better fighter than almost anyone can ever hope to be."

Chicory shrugged, "Well it all depends on what you want to do I guess? All I know is that the more capable people we take, the more likely this will turn out alright in the end."

The nightstalker nodded at her, "Fair points. I suppose I'll have to think more on it."

---

Chicory arrived at breakfast long before breakfast was ready. This was a common occurrence, especially since it was barely 4am and only the farmers and a few others were up at this hour.

Chicory helped the cooks with breakfast, cheerfully scrambling the eggs but otherwise becoming just a silent presence that responded when asked questions. When she was like that, it was trivial to overhear practically every conversation in the kitchen, she had faded into the background, it was unlikely that most of the cooks remembered she was even there.

Chicory would have searched for secretive things in the fray, but generally, she ended up daydreaming instead as her thoughts drifted back to that airplane. What would it be like to fly? Who was it that was dropping pyros from the sky? Chicory suspected that Song was lying about at least part of her story, or at least bending the truth a bit.

Although Chicory wasn't sure about that part now. Nicky had said zombies could smell lies, could pyros? She knew that the demons had decent noses, they'd measured that a few days ago when Nina was getting a bit desperate.

It was certainly possible though that Song was just so good at lying that she'd figured out how to trick her scent into not giving her away. Chicory knew nothing about the concept, so she wasn't going to discount that possibility.

Chicory wasn't sure about a lot of things these days.

Chicory finished cooking the last batch of eggs and handed them off to a very confused head cook, who apparently hadn't even realized that Chicory was there. Perfect.

She exited the kitchen, running straight into Nicky, "Oh perfect! My apprentice is here! Be my tape wench, will you?" She handed Chicory two rolls of tape and gleefully skipped off, holding a rubber duck, three books that seemed to be about world domination, and a letter opener. "Come on! I'm going to need help setting this up!"

Chicory followed, mostly confused but also intrigued. It would certainly be interesting to see what Nicky would do this time.

Nicky stopped just outside the archery range, glancing inside with that wide-eyed look that all kids achieved when they were trying not to be caught, she held up a finger to her lips and pointed across the way, rushing past the archery range with surprisingly stealthy moves.

Chicory followed her, holding the tape dutifully as Nicky pulled out a couple lengths of string and opened one of the books, tearing out a few pages, she held out a hand expectantly and Chicory readily supplied it with tape.

"Have you even read those books?" Chicory asked quietly.

Nicky had her tongue stuck out, fashioning the page into a strange shape that...probably served some sort of purpose? "I tried the first page, it was like the ravings of the mad and I've got plenty of that in my head already. Figured this was a fitting punishment for being boring."

Nicky held out another hand and Chicory dutifully gave her more tape. "And what is this?"

"Oh, you'll find out. I can't ruin the surprise!"

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Vote to give Nicky coffee!