Ascended

We went over the roofs.

It wasn’t too difficult for us to run over the roofs. There were people milling about, but they moved out of the way for the tree of us. Once we reached the gate, Eveth pulled a rope ladder out from behind a barrel and threw it over the side.

“You could wait for Gili to get back and have them unbar the gate, or…” The blonde was interrupted by Val grabbing the rope and vaulting over the side of the wall.

“Do you need..?”

I shook my head. “I can see pretty well, it’s just…” The truth actually worked well in this case. “Embarrassing. I messed up and don’t like people seeing me like this.”

“Ah, okay.” Eveth backed away from the edge.

I grabbed the rope ladder and began to climb down.

“Good Luck!” Eveth waved as I hit the ground.

Val waved back, then lowered her voice. “Do the Bokor know about that?” She nodded back to the town.

“The cure?” I shook my head, “I’m sure the council would have said something if the report had come in before I left.”

“Which means we don’t have long before a Bokor shows up here.” Val looked around. I couldn’t tell if she was looking for a place to run or for a Zombie.

While there was a part of me that was excited about the possibility of seeing Master Bran, there was a larger part of me that knew he’d kill me on the spot. In Master Bran’s eyes, the only thing you did with a Zombie or a Touched, was kill them as fast as possible and move on to the next mission.

“Should we go back?” I looked at the Gher. “Their research seems important, but…” I swallowed. “If we get caught by a Master…”

I’d already told Val the future that awaited us if we didn’t do something to prove to the council that we were useful to the Bokor.

“A cure could be the thing that we need.” Val gestures at me, “And it could fix you.”

It was a risk, but if I was cured, there was a very good chance that the Council would let Val live. The best play here was to hope that the experiments were finished before the Master got here.

“I think we should stay.” I nodded as we entered the woods. “I think this is big enough to prove we can be useful.”

“Alright then.” Val took out her sword and chopped a tree as big around as my wrist with one slice. She got out her knife and began cutting a groove a couple inches from the end.Once she was finished, she took a rope out of her bag and made a loop, with part of the knot tied around the groove. “It’ll keep it from sliding.”

It was an impressive Zombie catcher once she cut off all of the branches.

“We’d have to make these sometimes if ours broke.” Val sheathed her sword and picked up the stick. “Which way do you think the Zombies went?”

I closed my eyes. There was a small pressure in my head. So small that I had to focus on it to really tell it was there. But once I focused on it, it felt like a beacon pulling me in one direction.

I pointed in the direction that the feeling was pulling me. “I think they’re that way.”

“Then that’s the way we should go that way.” Val bounced the stick on her shoulder. “We’ve got a Zombie to find and a cure to make!”