Kaia the Argent Wing

The Bandoners didn't stick around long after we gave them the samples and a map of the dangers around Edgewood. I did give Brielle an orb from our stockpile, though, and explained how I found one of their people dead and frozen with an orb. I'd used the one he had, but I figured it'd be a nice gesture to return an orb to them, at least. Brielle was grateful, and she said she thought she might’ve known who I found.

When all was said and done, and it was just me, the Captain, and the two rear gate guards, I turned to look at him. “You’re doing a pretty damn good job, you know that?”

He blinked, then chuckled softly. “I try.”

I smiled, then looked in the direction of ‘Silver’s’ house. “I’d better get going. It’s almost dark. I’m running out of time.”

“Running out of time?” he asked mildly, but with obvious interest.

Oops. I think I said too much there. Although… I could give him half of the truth easily enough.

“My class—” I began, then shook my head and restarted, “Being an angel has its downsides. I have much more power than the average person, but it burns out eventually, and I have to hide and recuperate. That’s partially why I disappear so often. Exerting myself also makes the burn out happen faster.”

“Huh,” he grunted, surprised. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“No prob, Cap,” I said, then took a step away. “See you later.”

“Wait,” the Captain said with a frown. “Have you seen Kaia? She went out with that crew to get the logs. I need to chat with her about those crossbows.”

Uh oh. I left as Kaia and came back as Silver. That was a mistake.

I shook my head, hoping I was convincing. “She’s so tiny. Maybe she just slipped in? It’s easy to miss her in a crowd.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Yeah. Okay, well if you see her, send her to me, will you?”

“Sure.”

 

I stayed in the house for an hour, bathing and changing clothes, then as Kaia, I snuck back into the school. I took my current prototype crossbow from where I'd ditched it in the house, too—As an excuse for why I'd been MIA. Rather than immediately seek out the Captain, I wandered towards the workshop, staring at my weapon.

I really loved this thing, if I were honest. All of it had been crafted using magical materials, from the long wooden stock to the rough forged squiron fittings that held the limbs securely in place. I could still see the marks from April's hammer in the metal.

This version had a modern pistol grip stock, unlike the ones from history that had that big metal bar trigger down the underside of the stock. I had a rod currently shoved through a hole in the trigger mechanism that was acting as a safety, although it wasn't loaded at the moment.

I was contemplating how I'd add a drawing mechanism to it as I wandered aimlessly into the workshop, when Charles called me over.

“What's up, Charles?” I asked, placing the crossbow down on a nearby bench.

He frowned down at me, a hand on his hip. “Where the heck have you been, girl? I have work that needs done, and you're off prancin’ in the snow. Remember what I said about working hard…”

“Right…” I mumbled, staring at my shoes.

“Get yer fuckin’ chin up!” He growled. “You ain't a dog that been shitting in my shoes, you're one of my crafters. If I'm giving you an earful, I damn well expect you to take it while lookin’ me in the eye. If yeh can't do that, stare over my damn shoulder.”

My mouth, as usual, intercepted my thoughts at the conception stage. “I can't, sir. From this angle, your ear and your shoulder are at the same height.”

When I looked up, I saw the irritated expression he'd been wearing twitch, and for a tiny second, I thought he'd been fighting a smile.

“Smart arsed little shit,” he grumbled, more to himself than me. Then he glared at me properly. “You've been disappearing and slackin’ off from day one, which is a pain in the butt, because you're a damn smart little cookie. I want an explanation.”

My cheeks heated as I found myself stuck trying to concoct another lie. Huh, maybe a white lie might be better… “To be honest sir, I've been out beyond the wards. Testing things, or finding components I need.”

“You, what?” he blurted, eyebrows climbing rapidly. “You got a death wish?”

I coughed delicately into my fist. “No, sir.”

“Cripes,” he muttered, shaking his head. “You remind me of my damned daughter.”

I giggled, I couldn't help it. I was starting to understand this old man, and there was a soft squishy heart under all the leather and gristle.

“That ain't a compliment,” he glowered. “She came back from Afghanistan in a box, with nothin’ but a service cross and a purple heart to give to her old man.”

“Oh,” I said, my amusement vanishing.

“Yeah,” he grunted, in a way that made me realise he'd made peace with his daughter's death. “Now, you go git. Since you keep havin’ folks drag logs back here, we going to need a sawmill that can hook up to the steam engine. Get tinkering.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, giving him a contrite smile.

He nodded in satisfaction, then glanced at my crossbow. “Ah, and the Captain wanted to see you. Another group went through the library today, and they found some books for you.”

I lit up. “Oh? Do you know where he is?”

“I've been in here all day working, why would I know where the damned Captain is?” He said mildly, shaking his head. “If the man ain't already in sight of this place, I won't know.”

“Right,” I nodded, ignoring his prickly words like they were an affectionate clawing from a grizzled old tomcat. “Well, I better go find him, then I'll get a start on the sawmill before bed.”

“Good lass,” he nodded absently. Already, he was eyeing the leatherworker as he spoke to a frustrated looking woman. Charles the babysitter, off to sand some more folks down until they stopped causing friction.

With a shrug, I grabbed my crossbow and slipped the sling over my shoulder. I'd probably think about the sawmill overnight, rather than getting a start tonight, I decided. Charles wouldn't even notice anyway.

 

I found the Captain in the admin block smiling and whispering with his wife. As soon as he saw me, he waved for me to join them.

“Kaia, where’ve you been?” he asked, with a little too much scrutiny to be an idle question. “You went out with your friends, but didn’t come back. They were fairly tight-lipped about where you disappeared to, too.”

I felt the blood drain from my face, but I tried my very best to act confused. “O-oh… I ended up going to Silver’s house to test and make some changes to my crossbow. Yeah. She went with them instead.”

“Right,” he said, giving me a suspicious look. “I don’t believe that, you’re not a very good liar.”

My stomach dropped.

With a sigh, he glanced at his wife and gave her a long-suffering smile. “Whatever. You’re safe and nothing has gone catastrophically wrong recently, so I’ll overlook it.”

“I swear,” I said earnestly, “I uh… my… crossbow.”

Suddenly, he was staring at it, then up at me. “Hold on… when you say testing it… you don’t mean on actual monsters, do you?”

I gulped. “Um…”

“With your friends, I hope?” he asked, giving me an even more pointed look.

I nodded wordlessly, because I knew if I actually said anything he’d know I was bullshitting again.

“Alright… How's the crossbow coming?” He asked, stifling a frustrated groan.

“Uh…” I laughed nervously, feeling my face heat. “It works great… it just requires a strength stat of three to arm it.”

Both he and his wife gave me puzzled looks. She asked, “Then how do you test it?”

Slipping the weapon off my shoulder, I pulled the string out of my pocket and casually strung the crossbow. Then, I pulled it back and slipped it over the catch. Pulling the safety pin out, I pointed it to the floor and pulled the trigger. It snapped forward and thrummed dangerously. My audience was staring at me in confusion. They understood when I passed it to the Captain.

He held it gently, spinning it around while keeping it pointed away from all of us. I guess he had gun training or whatever you called it. Then, he tried to pull it back.

“What the fuck?” He blurted as his eyes bulged. It took him a lot more effort than me to get it cocked, but he did manage it. Must have a strength stat of four, or possibly three judging by his biceps. He stared at the crossbow, then at me, then at my tiny, only vaguely defined muscles. “How?”

“I have five orbs in Strength,” I said truthfully. Now that I'd admitted to Charles that I was regularly escaping the school, it seemed like a fairly plausible excuse to just say I was a slightly unhinged crafter who was sneaking out to test my mad science— I mean my inventions.

He squinted at me, trying to figure me out. I just smiled nervously back.

Then he groaned through gritted teeth and threw his head back to stare beseechingly at the ceiling. “You little… you’ve been going out there alone, haven’t you? That’s what you’re hiding.”

I gulped. “Uh…yup.”

“Deep breaths, my love,” his wife said, giving me a conspiratorial grin. “This is a new world, full of danger that we’re all going to have to become accustomed to. If she’s surviving out there, let her be. She does good work, or so I hear.”

Phew. Hopefully he’d continue to buy that line of bullshit, and hopefully he’d mention it to other people so I wouldn’t have to cough up the same lie when people like Chloe inevitably asked where I’d been.

Sighing and shaking his head, the Captain pulled a little scrap linen pouch out of his pocket. “Okay. So… you don't need these?”

Ah, orbs. “No, probably not. I think you might need them, though?” I suggested, glancing pointedly at the crossbow. His wife let out a small giggle, and her dark eyes twinkled behind her rosy cheeks as we shared a goofy little grin. I think I might become attached to her. She was great.

“I'll think about it,” he rumbled, seemingly unfazed. “Well, it's a good thing you've been working on the crossbow, because Finn's squad came back with this book.” He picked up a ragged and slightly singed wide hardcover book from the reception desk. “He said you might want it.”

I took the book with interest and glanced at the cover. Oh! It was a medieval weaponry book! One of those ones with lots of fun drawings and cross sections. It obviously didn't have full technical specs or anything, but sometimes these picture books were actually extremely helpful.

Flipping it open, I referenced the table of contents, then paged through to the crossbow section. There, on the second page, were diagrams of six different crossbow cocking mechanisms! Awesome. I needed to go give Finn a hug for getting this back to me.

“This is going to be so helpful,” I said happily, looking back up at them.

The Captain gave me a kindly smile and nodded. “We thought so, too.”

It seemed like he was getting ready to say goodnight or something, but I quickly asked, “Uh… sir. Sorry to do this again, but I think I'm going to need even more trees. Tomorrow.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep, patient breath. “If you take your friends again, I don't mind. Just make sure you don't wander off again. You might feel like you'll be fine out there, but I've lost a lot of people who thought the same.”

“Yes, sir. I'll stick with the group.”

He seemed satisfied by my answer, so I waved goodbye to them and left to fill the gaping hole in my stomach with some disappointing and barely seasoned soup.