The Golden Apprentice - Tales of Death and Victory. Vol I

Year of the Apprentice - Chapter VI

I

So many bodies.

A trail of them was made next to the train tracks and probably more would have been made if the locomotive hadn't stopped on its own before reaching the curve to enter the forest. Maëri had never seen a cadaver before, she surely didn’t expect to actually see one tonight and now she lost count of how many her group passed by. The last three wagons of the train were destroyed, probably burned by Kon’s flames during the fight. So many people were killed by the assassins in the middle of all that disaster, the girl can’t even look at it. 

“Are you alright?” Tamara asks her worriedly.

Her sister has been worried about her since they met in Veren, she had thought something bad happened to them so Maëri had to calm her down before explaining the situation. Still, Tamara is uneasy about all of that, she never wanted Maë to be put in danger and this entire mission has proven to be one of the most dangerous they ever had. “I’m fine…” the engineer sighs and holds her warhammer tighter. “I just don’t like all of this”.

“You should get used to it, potato sprout,” Nikola warns. “Death is a natural part of life, you’ll meet it in various ways until it meets you for the last time”.

“I know,” she wrinkles her nose. “But I don’t have to like it”.

They leave their horses and board the train’s first wagon where half the machinist’s body is inside the firebox, with a knife in his back. “You don’t have to like it, but you have to accept it”, the necromancer says. 

Tamara hides her face with her veil, the smell of the burning body is disgusting, Maë’s used to it though. She burned herself many times working with Lo’rin in the workshop, the smell of flesh is familiar to her.

“Hello, sir, I’m sorry this happened to you,” Filli bows her head to the body and looks at the engine’s controls. “Could you tell us what happened here?”

“What’s she doing? Is she speaking with his ghost?” The girl whispers to her master. Nikola nods and Maëri steps away from Filli, the woman always scared her a little, now she is terrifying. Sometimes she would tell them ghost stories about real ghosts, but the young blacksmith never thought she could actually communicate with them. 

“Oh I see”, the disciple of the White God frowns and looks at the necromancer. “They hopped on the train a little after it left the station, he only noticed when the screams got close to his cabin”.

“Are there other ghosts in the locomotive?” Nikola asks.

“Many… But the assassins are all dead now,” Filli nods to the ghost and relays the message. “He says there’s still people alive there too”.

“Alright, we’re going in,” the witch says and bows to the spirit. “In my world I would give you my blessing and give you a proper funeral, but unfortunately, here I’m just a witch… Please, find your way to the other side anyway”.

“I’ll take care of it, master,” the sorceress of Death smiles. She takes the man’s body out of the fire and Maëri has to look away as to not vomit with the image. Filli takes the blade off his back and prays to her god for a moment. “His body will have to stay here until someone finds it or the animals eat it… But at least his soul can rest”.

“I hate this so much,” Maë covers her mouth and turns to leave for the other wagon. 

The situation there is worse, the smell of blood is strong, most of the passengers are dead, with the exception of a mother and her child hiding in a corner. The woman hugs her kid with all her might and screams when she sees them enter the place, Nikola approaches slowly to calm her down. “We’re not here to hurt you”, she says and raises her hands above her head.