***
"Lady Magdeline!" cries Serenia.
Ashlyn blinked as she raninto Krysesia and Serenia. She stumbled to her knees, her wounds overtaking her. Something about that demon bone blade had prevented her fully healing.
“He killed him…” Ashlyn sobbed, Wretch’s broken and bloody body slipping from her weakened arms.
Serenia’s healing magic seemed to do little. She could feel the holy energy inside warring with the demon taint. It would win, she knew, with the aid of her own healing magics. But she was tired. So tired.
As Krysesia and Serenia found Luciana and the babies, Ashlyn slipped into a deep black corridor, only vaguely aware of her surroundings. She blinked and slid down the wall, spotting the armored woman that had tortured her at the end of the tunnel. The jewels of her cobbled together combat mage armor glittered in the dim light as she fought someone. Horns? Was that...Etach, the D’Norr wizard that had sacrificed Wretch? Ashlyn clenched her fist, trying to call on her magic, but it was too bound up in healing the demonic taint left inside her by that woman’s blade. The D’Norr, raised his hand, a blast of purple-black energy firing at Ashlyn, but the sorcerer's aim was thrown off by Tara slamming her demonic blade into his arm, nearly severing it.
The last Ashlyn saw of the scuffle, the D’Norr was fleeing for his life as several thugs hired as minions tried to cover his retreat, only to be viciously murdered by that woman.
Ashlyn’s eyes closed for a moment. She didn’t know how long. When she opened them, Tara and Etach were gone, and she was staring into the face of a three-legged cat.
“Que?” Ashlyn murmured as she felt the cat drag her off. Darkness claimed her again.
When Ashlyn roused again, her injuries were bandaged. She heard a soft, female voice in her mind.
"Rest mystic. You will need to confront the forces of darkness you unleashed."
“I didn’t…” Ashlyn protested, but was pulled into the blackness again.
“Wretch…” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
***
Ashlyn wasn’t sure how long she remained unconscious. At least a couple days. When she roused, she looked down at the bandages. They weren’t bloody any longer, so someone had been tending her.
Gently Ashlyn unwrapped her bandages to look at her gut wound. It was smaller. There was a poultice smeared over the wound, and she detected the glitter of silver dust and the scent of holy incense. There was likely blessed salt as well, all mixed with holy water. Her mother’s silver cross, Ashlyn’s holy symbol, had been bound into the dressing over the wound, and it glowed with a faint light. Someone had known how to care for such unholy wounds.
Ashlyn reclasped the cross around her throat. She said a soft prayer, another healing spell, and the wound finally closed completely. She felt her magic deep within. The demonic taint was still there, though minimal, contained. She wasn’t sure she would ever be fully free of it, but she seemed hale enough.
Bonita yipped and jumped up onto the bed, pouncing on Ashlyn, licking her face eagerly. Ashlyn grimaced as the little Westie puppy bounced on her newly healed flesh, but it was just a twinge of pain. She gave the puppy scritches and puppy talk, hugging it tightly. Someone had filled Bonita’s bowls with food and water, and there were no messes, so she had obviously been walked.
Ashlyn gingerly made her way to the bathroom, pulling a hot bath. She added lilac scented bubbles, because why not. She needed a treat. She sank down into the tub with a groan, her naked body barely able to stand the heat of the water. She just sat there and wept for the young D’Norr boy that had been killed.
When Ashlyn had finally cried herself out again, she set to work washing herself of the sickbed stink, washing her long, lustrous black hair. She had an idle thought, a drunken moment, a kiss with a beautiful blonde woman, Krysesia, and blushed deeply. She might need to lay off the tequila for a bit. She didn’t usually drink that much!
Clean and dressed, Ashlyn went downstairs, famished. It was morning, and she devoured a huge plate of huevos rancheros and chorizo and coffee with cinnamon in it. The few patrons in the bar were very considerate. Apparently they’d taken turns taking Bonita out, while Serenia had tended to her medically, along with a local body fixer.
After a few inquiries with the locals, Ashlyn went to the city morgue and claimed Wretch’s body. As a homeless D-Bee on the streets, he had no family. The boy looked like he was sleeping. He had been washed and set to rights, the locals at the tavern even buying him a nice suit. Ashlyn gave a choked laugh through her tears. As if Wretch had ever worn a suit! She made arrangements with a local undertaker for a coffin and a burial plot and ordered him a headstone.
A Faithful Friend who Died Too Young it read. There would be no unmarked pauper’s grave for the boy if Ashlyn had anything to say about it, no being left in the street to be devoured by the feral dogs that roamed El Paso.
***
Ashlyn was as surprised as the others when the barkeeper at the Traveller told them Lord Coake awaited them in the back room. The room was large, and it was more than just the founder of the Cyber-Knights. There was also a very familiar face.
“Sister Penny!” Ashlyn exclaimed, rushing over to hug the woman who had been her novice master..
"Sister Ash! It is so good to see you. Come. Have you heard of Jude Maverick?" Sister Penelope asked.
Ashlyn blushed.
“I...seem to recall you chased him out of my room in the novice house in nothing but what the good Lord gave him,” Ashlyn replied. Jude was the only man she had ever been with, however briefly.
Penelope chuckled.
“And the good Lord was very generous,” she said, and both women gave a quicky sign of penitence for such unholy thoughts!
Lord Coake spoke again.
"Perhaps you have heard of the Crusade New Alamo has partaken, to stem the tide of evil at a city two days from Castle Refuge, the city of Gloom. Something has drawn the wild vampires of these lands towards that city too. I suspect it is... Well, let’s just say if you come across a temporal wizard named Cade, you would do well to kill him and save us all a lot of trouble."
Sister Penelope seemed a bit sad at this remark.
"There was a time Cade's heart could broach the most impregnable defense. Whether your suspicions are true or not, Lord Coake, someone has risen or undone the death of an ancient vampire, Soldad. I believe the reports said he was vanquished by the 13th Set in Silver Bluff." Her eyes welled up in tears. "He alone was responsible for turning three of our Magdalena away from their holy pursuits, and..."
Ashlyn paled at that.
“Did you say Soldad?” She crossed herself vigorously again.
“Madre de Dios! Will it never end!” she sobbed, sinking into a chair and burying her face in her hands.
Sister Penelope looked puzzled, and put a hand on Ashlyn’s shoulder, kneeling down to her level.
“What, my sister?” she asked.
Ashlyn looked up with tear- filled eyes.
“Soldad is the name the vampires called the one who killed my parents,” the young Magdalena said.
“More than that. He...He turned my mother. A few weeks ago, we fought her, and I...I ended her.”
Sister Penelope gasped, tears filling her eyes, as well.
“Oh, Ash,” she murmured, pulling Ashlyn to her in a tight, supportive hug.
Ashlyn clung to her mentor tightly, unable to stop the tears.
The tattooed man, Sebazio, spoke.
"What matters is that Soldad has returned, one of the first, an embodiment of the alien intelligence that plagues this world. This army travels underground, through cracks, crevasses, and old lava tunnels. They will pass by a rift that flows in an underground passage that I believe we can hold until the civil defense force of Gloom can arrive to assist us. I know you are perhaps here in El Paso for a reason of your own choosing. But I, Sebazio Lengdosia; Lord Coake, the leader of cyber knights; and Magdalena Penelope of New Alamo ask for your help now. We cannot permit such an overwhelming horde of vampires to descend on Gloom. The war that city will soon be embroiled in is not your fight. But this task, this singular place of resistance, we can make a difference and give the heroes that fight for the city and our world the chance they deserve."
“We cannot ask you to fight their war, that is not your place. But together we can ensure their war will be fought. If ever a fighting chance was needed, the heroes that defend Gloom need us to provide one. Will you make the difference that is so required of you? What say you?" Lord Coake added.
Ashlyn looked up, her eyes red, but now dry.
“This we will do,” she said vehemently.
“This I vow, to kill this vampire Soldad.” Her words were nearly a growl.
“What of the babies?” Ashlyn asked.
“Do we know their families? If not, the Magdalenas would take them in.” She looked to Sister Penelope. That is what they did, took in orphan girls and made them forces for good in the world.
***