Bloodforged, Part 4

[edonil]

"So what the hell is she?" the mercenary sergeant asked.

"I don't know," Phelan answered, keeping a wary eye on the unconscious girl. "I think she's human, but I'm not sure. She certainly heals faster than I would expect. A wound that should've taken days to heal was closed in minutes."

"Good," the sergeant said with a grin as he cracked his knuckles. "Means that we won't have to be as careful interrogating her."

The assassin's head snapped around, his eyes narrowing. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Doctor," the sergeant sneered. "She's part of the group responsible for killing some of my men. She'll be able to give us some good intel, and she looks like she could even be a bit of fun."

Phelan stood slowly, hands clenched into fists. "Like hell," he said coldly. "There's no way I'm letting any of you bastards touch her."

"Oh really? What is this, one of those 'over my dead body' things?"

Phelan shook his head with a mirthless laugh. "No, sergeant." He snapped out a kick into the man's stomach, and the sergeant doubled over, breathless. His boot lashed out again, slamming into the back of the head, and the mercenary went flying onto the ground. The assassin jumped on the man's back, hand tangling in hair, knife drawn and pressed against the sergeant's throat. "If you touch her, it won't be over my dead body, it'll be over yours."

"Phelan! What are you doing?" Sabine cried, rushing over.

"Just explaining a few realities to the sergeant about the prisoner," he said. He pulled the knife back, tightened his grip on the man's hair and shoved the sergeant's face into the ground. The man's nose broke noisily and he screamed in pain. "I think we understand one another now, don't we, mercenary?"

Phelan stood up, sheathing his blade. He spat on the ground near the sergeant, and walked over to Sabine. "I've got her under a mild anesthetic," he said, jerking his head toward the young girl. "I can wake her up if you want to talk, but I'm going to be there if you do."

"What did he do to tick you off?" Sabine asked quietly as the sergeant stood slowly, a couple of his men coming to help him.

"We disagreed on the meaning of the word 'interrogation', that's all. Don't worry about it."

"Am I going to need to deal with it?"

"If you do, I'll deal with it first," he promised. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Seriously, don't worry about it. Come on, let's go talk with our young guest. Might as well try to figure out why they were trying to attack us."

She nodded, and Phelan walked over to his pack, pulling out a syringe and a small vial. He partially filled the syringe, and grabbed the girl's arm, searching for a vein. His brow knitted with a moment's frustration at how much more complicated the process was with her arms bound, and then he found what he was looking for. Carefully, he injected the chemical into her, then stepped back.

Nothing happened for a short time, then the girl's eyes snapped open, and she immediately tried to back away from the assassin. Her mouth opened and she began yelling something in a language he didn't know, but he could recognize her panic. He clapped his hands over his ears at the shrill sound, pulling away from her.

"Recognize the language?" Sabine yelled at him, covering her ears as well.

"Not a clue," he yelled back. "Want to try to calm her down? I think I scared her."

Sabine rolled her eyes, and walked toward the girl, hands open in front of her. "Hey, calm down," she said, wincing as the girl continued shouting. After a minute of the woman speaking in soothing tones, the girl finally began to settle, or at least, stop yelling.

Phelan looked the girl over for a few moments. She was probably between fourteen and sixteen, he figured. Her face was covered in dirt, and her wide eyes were jet black in the lantern light as they looked around. Her breathing was ragged, and sounded more like an animal than human.

Phelan put a gentle hand on Sabine's shoulder, and the captain nodded to him. The assassin moved around her slowly, hands raised in a nonthreatening manner. "Do you speak English?" he asked, doubtfully. Those black eyes continued to stare at him blankly. "Didn't think so," he muttered.

He turned his head to the group. "Anyone happen to speak any other languages? French, Spanish? Anything else? Hell, even Neverborn at this point?"

"Neverborn?" a small voice asked. The voice was childlike, feminine, hesitant. Phelan turned his head back to the girl, eyes narrowed.

"So you do speak English?" The girl nodded, slowly.

"Well, this is interesting...you've heard that word before?" Another nod. "I wonder why," he mused.

"My father talks of them," she said.

"Why did you attack us?" Sabine asked. "Are there more of you?"

The girl's mouth closed. Phelan looked back at Sabine, eyebrows arched. She shrugged an apology, and walked away.

"Don't mind Sabine," Phelan said. "She means well, but as far as I know she doesn't know kids. What's your name?"

The girl tilted her head quizzically, like a bird. The mannerism reinforced the feeling of odd that he got from the girl. "Name?" she asked, as if unfamiliar with the word.

"You don't know what a name is? Alright...let's try it this way. I'm called Phelan. I'm a doctor, and a lot of people know me as Doc. What do people call you?"

"Nova," she said after a moment.

"Well, Nova, I'm glad to meet you. Do you remember at all what happened?"

A shaky grin. "I remember you," she said. "I almost had you too." The smile disappeared. "Are you going to kill me?"

Phelan blinked in surprise. "No," he said. "No, I'm not." He sat down on the floor, draping his hands over his bent knees. "So. Do you mind telling me why you attacked me?"

"You would have attacked us. You humans always attack what you don't know," she replied with a surprising amount of venom.

"You humans? What do you mean? Aren't you human?"

"Of course not," she said, surprise coloring her young voice.

"What are you, then?"

"I am Bloodforged," she stated simply. Something about the name sent a chill down his spine. Her eyes stared innocently into his, and he shivered. There was definitely something wrong about this girl. He stood up, turning to walk away.

"My father knows you," she said.

He stopped, turning slowly. "What?"

"I didn't recognize you at first. But your voice is unmistakable. I've heard it in my dreams. My father knows who you are, Phelan," she said, voice mocking. "He told you to leave, go back home. Too bad you didn't listen to him."

"Who is your father?"

A cold smile was his only answer.

Author's Notes: No journal entry this update, sorry folks. Little too tired to come up with anything right now...I'll toss in two of them next update. So, because I'm a curious writer, who saw this coming?

Edited September 29, 2011 by edonil

[SteamHammer]

Great work as ever.

[elril]

I have enjoyed the story a great deal. Haven't commented until I have caught up on all the chapters. I like the style, pacing, and for the most part, the characters. My only niggling complaint is: Has the main character's personality shifted a great deal since his previous story?

[edonil]

Yeah, I did change up his personality a bit. I hope you don't mind too much. Malifaux really screwed him up, and heavily influenced his personality in the first story. Now he's further away from that, and he's more back to his 'normal'. Honestly, Phelan in Redemption and a Pocket Watch was a very difficult character to write...and dictated a lot of what I could do with the story, which is part of why I changed him.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the first story and that you're enjoying this one! Other than the personality change, are there any other issues you've got with the characters? I'm always looking to improve.

I'm taking a break from this project for a while, working on a NaNoWriMo attempt, although a month early. I'll be coming back to Phelan, Sabine and the others, though.

[elril]

I am not the greatest critic when it comes to writing style or verse. I am viciously focused on language and consistency though. Outside of the point I made, no I am enjoying reading about Phelan a lot.