The wasteland lay barren behind them. Tentpoles were waving in the mild sand wind. All of this was Waking World material, and someone must have had brought it here. Waynie did not ask about the logic of all this, the incredible richness of items that could transform space. They were now in the hands of his soldiers. Waynie was standing outside. Some ash from an old fire still smoldering.
"Master Waynie? I was told you are in charge of this unit." A man with a striped shirt appeared at the command tent. "I have to ask you about a base of gamblers that was supposed to be almost at this location. It seems to have suddenly just disappeared."
Waynie nodded. The strangers gaze fell on Waynie's right arm, still hanging lump and broken. "You had some kind of accident?"
"Correct. I have to ask why you need to know about the gambler's location so urgently."
"We have set up an important supply network for Ki-Song. The Shaking Fist Clan is a valuable chain. They help us get weapon memories from Anvil through the Waking World over the border."
Waynie stroked his beard stomps. He had not been able to shave in the last days. So much had been happening. "Hold on a second. Do you have weapon memories with you right now? Because my cohort has terrible weapon memories."
"I have four swords and a bow and an axe. But I need one of the swords and the bow for myself."
"And what do you want for the other four?"
"I dun no, perhaps 800?"
"800 soul shards?"
"Maybe less, if you have better shards."
"I don't think any memory you have is worth more than 50 soul shards."
"I have a sword that can move on its own a second ahead. That has to be 120, at least."
Florian who had just walked past the tent, suddenly halted. His jaw had dropped.
"That would be 480. But that is still too much. Besides, why do you even think a sword is worth that much? Soul shards are valuable too. And this, It's worth at best 80. And your other stuff is probably 30. So 170."
"Can I be serious for a moment? I'm still looking for that base. Can you just tell me where it is?"
"I'm sorry, the gambling operations were halted in the name of the queen. I have confiscated all goods and drafted the people involved into the army. They are now being needed elsewhere. "Waynie didn't feel too sorry to swindle this guy. Yes, it was true that he was not really part of Song and was technically a rogue agent and had technically undermined a potentially strategically vital mission for Ki Songs war, but another thought had bloomed for quite some time now in the back of his head. There was an option of rehabilitation on the table now. With an army in his back. They would not so easily discard of him.
Florian turned his face back to the other tents where the rest of the cohort was resting and shouted. "Ouze! Ouze! Master Waynie can do math!"
Not only Ouze but also the man in the cap, Rayne and Senna the healer appeared. "What's going on?" asked Ouze. The guy with the striped shirt watched in confusion.
"The boss can do math!"
"Hey!" Waynie yelled. "Don't be rude. I can do math! Simple math. Multiplication, division, subtraction, addition. Not some weird magical math like gambling. You guys were all cheating anyways! Silence!"
"Oh, it can't be!" The eyes of the guy with the striped shirt grew wide when he saw the man with the cap. "I feared you guys were all dead."
The man in the cap smirked and they both bumped fists with each other. There was a light as if a memory was being transferred but Waynie couldn't tell in which direction. "Hey! Stop transferring memories!"
Waynie did agree in the end to buy four weapon memories, three for the gold miners and one for Florian, who all seemed to be severely underequipped, which cost him around 250 soul shards. About two thirds of all the shards he had confiscated. It was an expensive investment, but Waynie figured it would've been more expensive to let these soldiers die. A second shock hit Waynie when the man with the striped shirt finally introduced himself as Jessie of the company.
'Jessie' was a name that Waynie had heard mentioned by Chi Cho and that meant that he had interfered in his own boss's business. After they had asked him to help him with something. Waynie dug up the contract from out of his pocket.
An ad from between the papers fell into his hands.
*****************************************
Relive the story of Caster and Nephis
Playing Now Live In Your Theatre in Bastion
Where? In the Confectionary Quarters
When? Every Saturday Evening
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Anvil propaganda. Waynie didn't find it particularly tasteful. He had himself invoked Nephis name again, when he had tried to inspire his soldiers. That woman was just that type of character. And as much as he wanted to tell others, he couldn't help but feel his stomach turn by just thinking about how the others would react, if he started to criticize that woman. Next were a bunch of delivery papers. They read something like: 'One pallet of winter clothing', 'One pallet of gas masks', 'One pallet of g/34'. There were about nine of these, most of the others with just pallets of cryptic sounding letters. Then an address and a route. The instructions read:
'Go from Ravenclaw towards the Barren Fortress. Then go south-east to the shrine of the adulterer. From there travel the closest route straight to godgrave.'
They weren't far from where the company had sent him. Waynie knew of the landmark. The shrine was an old building of a lost civilization that had long corroded but not yet perished like everything else. He did know nothing of these ancient civilizations but the small pagoda that served as a shrine was one of the few landmarks that was popular among the locals of Ravenheart. Back in peace times that had been, these days, nobody dared to venture out into their territory.
Perhaps they didn't have to travel back to the Barren Fortress and could just beeline to godgrave where was the approximate west of the shrine. They should've been south of the war right now, but they couldn't risk getting too close to the border. Nothing stopped the nightmare creatures from spilling over into Song territory. It was no place for humans. And Waynie had no handle on how dangerous the situation really was, with his tears out of action. He felt very blind.
"They have left about an hour ago. The ash is still warm." An Fai observed the diggings around the abandoned camp site where Waynie had rested just a bit earlier.
"Why would they travel deeper into this cataclysm?" Skyworld lifted her arm and her batallion stood at attention.
"Perhaps they don't know." An Fai remarked somberly.
"We have to catch up with them." Skyworld gave the command for the soldiers to pack up their things. They wouldn't be staying for long.
"Are you going to risk everyone to save them?"
"They are a hundred people, right? You don't think the queen wants to receive a loss like that?" Skyworld's decided tone gave An Fai pause.
"I do not dare to wager what the queen wants. Go ahead, take all the responsibility, Skyworld."
From the back ranks of the many young women a man in a Ravenheart uniform detached and moved up to Skyworld.
"Marx, do you know what your brother is doing?"
"I have no idea."