Rituals, Regrets, and Really Dumb People

Chapter 12: The Brotherhood of Outcasts, Part 1

I could hear a few people talking, but I couldn't see them. The lights in the room were low, the haze of the long sleep shrouding my sight. I felt a little cold, the air humid and freezing, the frost clogging my nose. I felt like I'd been out for days, felt like my head had been in a vice. It could have been the colder weather, or it could have been the fact that I had been sleeping on a ship, swaying out on open waters. It felt like that to me, at least.

"He's stirring," I heard. It was a feminine voice; Lilly? I think it was Lilly.

I opened my eyes and felt the sting of the atmosphere. The lights were still low, but noticeably adjusted, forcing me to come back to the real world. I looked around, from the cold metal ceilings to the people beside me. I'd been right; Lilly was sitting here beside me. It wasn't just her, though. Jo was sitting beside her, both of them there with insulated cups in their hands. The drink seemed good, whatever it was, steam pouring out from the tops.

"Coffee?" I asked.

"Hot chocolate." Lilly said.

"How you doing, Mathias?" Jo asked me.

I sat up on the cot and pulled the blankets around my chest, securing it to keep warm. "Feel like I've been shot through the head with an auger drill."

"You've been out for three days now," Lil told me.

"Three days?" I asked. "Was my wound all that bad?"

I raised my right arm up and looked at it. I wasn't wearing my robes or my shirt, both removed presumably so they could fix me up. They had bandaged me properly, my entire forearm wrapped in a gauze-sleeve. I took the material and I pulled it down just a little, exposing a pink scar that'd formed along the sensitive, soft bits of my arm.

"It was pretty bad, but I think it was more exhaustion than anything," Lil replied. "You took with fever, rambling incoherently. Said your prayers had been answered. We're actually surprised you healed as fast as you did."

"Blood sorcery," I told her, raising my hand and wiggling my fingers. "Got to be able to mend fast if you want to use your blood as a resource. Three days though—hey, Dimitri—"

"Is fine," Jo answered. "He's been up and about, still a little weak, but he woke up a day ago."

I sighed out; it felt like a burden had been lifted off my back. It was good to know Dimitri was alive, that I'd helped him out. This led to another question, however. "Are we out on the sea?"

"Yeah," Jo said. "It's on auto-pilot right now, but we're not too far off from Typhous and Ishmael. Neb's ships are pretty slow. When was this ritual supposed to commence?"

"Two weeks from now? One week? Hel, we're ahead of schedule." I raised my head and I turned to look at them, dropping my legs off the bed. "We'll get the kid back too."

"We will."

"What'd you all do with the traitors?"

"We sent them with most of the knights and Tom back towards Brutality castle—"

"I really need to change that name."

"Well, okay, but what I was saying was that Tom and the knights of Sanctuary are escorting them back to the prison. We couldn't leave them at Neb's."

"I agree; I'm glad you all had it handled."

"Should be thanking Corbin, Jason, and Geraldine. They took charge when you passed out. Got the men packing the ships."

"I'm glad they were ready to lead."

"Yeah, but it has left us with few men now. We couldn't take them all, the ship isn't all that big. We have maybe a little less than a quarter of what we started with. We took the best of both the cultists, the knights, half the Kin, and a few of the Penitent. Thimble and that bard are here as well. Lilly hasn't moved from your side since we got you on board, and I've been back and forth with the ship's controls and here."