Ascended

I had a problem.

I had a lot actually, but there was a very pressing one that I hadn’t realized until Val just pointed it out.

“What are you going to do about your eyes?”

“What do you mean?” I could see in the dark, I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to do about it.

“Everyone is going to know that you’re a Touched the minute we walk into town and they see you with those purple eyes.” She shook her head, “Do you really think me being Bokor will be enough to protect you?”

The short answer to that was yes. People obeyed the Bokor because if they didn’t then whenever a Zombie Horde tried to take down their walls, they would be on their own.

Most towns were on the coast, so that they would have boat access in case they were besieged by Zombies. For the towns that weren’t it was because they had some other resource that was too far away. Like Val’s hometown with its farmland or Gher with its ore.

I stopped and thought for a moment. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“You’d better think of something.” She pointed at my face, “Because those things show up better than these.” She tapped her markings.

“You’re right.” I could always stay outside the town, but that would have its own set of dangers. I reached down and took a bandage out of my bag and began wrapping it around my face. I left little slits for me to see through, but after a few passes, I’d covered most of my eyes. “What about this?”

“I can still see the glow through the slit…” She walked over and looked at me, “But we can tell them it’s just your marks.” She looked over my body, “Where are your marks?’

I swallowed, “Touched don’t have them.”

“That…” She shrugged, “We’ll just have to find some way to explain it.”

“The really old Bokor can condense their marks down to where you can barely see the lines.” I gestured with my hands, “We could go with that.”

“Bokor might sometimes look young, but an old Bokor doesn’t look that young.” Val shook her head, “And you don’t come across as an old Bokor either.” She shrugged, “But I think that will work for now. Just don’t take those off in public.”

I rubbed my face. Having the bandages on felt very restrictive. But I’d learn how to deal.

“We don’t have much longer until we reach a scout.” Val was looking around. There should be a torch or something we can see soon.’

“Unless the town is under attack.” I had a bad feeling. She was right about seeing some sign of life soon. We were almost through the valley and there was no sign of anything.

“There!” Val ran over to a platform and jumped up on it. “There’s blood up here!”

The lip on the platform was a good ten feet from the ground. If Val hadn’t been a Bokor, she wouldn’t have been able to jump over it. I didn’t see any ladder or any way to climb up the posts that were holding the platform up.

“Do you see anything else?” I was looking at the bite marks on the wood, but they were all old.

“Nothing.” Val jumped down beside me, “There’s not even a signal or bow. Whatever attacked this place took them.”

She was right. For an alert station like this, there should have been at least a week's worth of rations as well as a bow and a signal arrow. The signal arrow would be lit, then shot up in the air. The explosion would signal the town that there were Zombies coming. Since there was nothing up there, then it was either other humans or a Touched. Either of them would have to be dealt with.

Humans killing each other to steal resources was a death sentence as far as the Bokor were concerned. There were too few humans as it was, humanity couldn’t afford such needless acts.

Which meant that there was a good chance there was a Touched involved. I motioned at the mouth of the valley, “We should hurry.”