Ch. 18: Meeting the Resistance

Rosy eyed the army in front of her for a moment. They were wary of her, but the stalemate wouldn't last. A quick count showed twenty-fine close combat units, ten archers, and five mages clad in robes, magic users most likely. Even heavily injured, Rosy knew that 40 normal people with basic training stood virtually no chance against her, and even with one arm, Adrian could be trusted to take care of Lily as long as he carried that Void magic in his sword. 

Rosy slowly drew her sword, going into a fighting stance much different than what Adrian had seen before. This stance wasn't subtle and teasing, seemingly full of weak spots to exploit, but something more traditional, flashy with no clear holes at all. Was Rosy getting serious?

Ignoring his powerful urge to run, Adrian shakily drew his Whiteblood sword and stood in front of Lily.

"Drop the swords before we have to force you to." One of the men in front ordered.

"If you fight me, you will all die." Rosy told them. The look in their eyes clearly showed that this army was prepared for that inevitability.

Neither side wanted to make the first move, especially since this fight would likely lead to lots of loss for both sides.

Rosy wasn't scared of anything, so nobody was very shocked when she made the first move. She lifted her sword high above her head, took a step forward, and plunged it into the dirt with a moderate amount of force. The ebony blade parted the earth like butter, easily sinking halfway to the hilt before she let go of it.

Adrian couldn't believe his eyes. Rosy was surrendering. Injuries meant nothing to her, and she truly believed that she still had the upper hand, yet she surrendered instead. Following her lead, Adrian dropped his sword on the grass behind her.

They were immediately bound, gagged, and manhandled to the ground. The last thing Adiran saw before he was blindfolded was a group of four men struggling to pull Rosy's sword out of the ground.

The resistance treated Adrian with less respect than they did Rosy. They were both thrown to the ground, and she was watched as they gagged him and bound his hands behind his back. Rosy was gagged, but her hands weren't bound as tightly as Adrian's. She wondered if they needed to make a new entrapment charm for her, but it didn't really matter. Her body went into shock and passed out when they started to remove the armor that had fused itself to her back.

When Rosy woke up, she was wearing a new shirt and her torso beneath it was covered in bandages. On top of that, she was blindfolded, her hands tied behind her back to the wall of a moving covered wagon.

An internal analysis of her injuries told her that her burns still hurt, probably even more than before. Luckily, without her armor, her vampire's regeneration was already starting to kick in. She'd have a nasty scar for about a week, as well as a few broken ribs and partial hearing loss in her left ear, but eventually it would all regenerate by itself given enough time. She was a little concerned about her ear, but she was convinced that the chunk that was burnt off was small enough that it would grow back eventually without magical help.

Rosy concentrated on listening through her good right ear, and almost sighed in relief when she was able to pick out three distinct breathing patterns besides her own. If the one who had been beaten unconscious was Adrian, then they had only two guards. Naturally, a quick sniff confirmed that they were probably Wulfic, rather than human.

"Looks like she's awake." A foot hit Rosy in the chest, scraping her back against the floor.

"So this is going to be our entire trip, then?" She asked, not even caring enough to be annoyed.

"So it's true that you're completely immune to pain, huh? This'll be fun." Rosy rolled her eyes. At least Adrian was too unconscious to be indignant on her behalf, and Lily was probably being treated rather well thanks to her father's position as a real member of the resistance.

"Let me guess... I did something unspeakably horrible to most of your loved ones, and you joined the Resistance out of a personal vendetta?" The foot pressed harder in response to her casual guess.

"The battle of Nighthaven. Do you remember it?" Suddenly, Rosy was bored with the man's anger.

She remembered Nighthaven. She had intercepted a report that a large rebel supply camp was giving aid to an enemy country, so she split off a small army of a few hundred in hopes of weaking her superior's main force. The battle had basically been an active suicide attempt. The idea of someone from the side of the battle that had easily won holding a grudge didn't exactly draw out empathy from anywhere in Rosy's heart.

"You won at Nighthaven." She reminded him, letting her lack of emotion shine through via her tone.

"And we took one single prisoner. You killed my wife when you escaped."

"Her fault for herring near me." Rosy replied immediately. She'd held out for three weeks of torture while they did nothing to lower her bloodlust at all. Despite her best efforts and warnings, Rosy had taken quite a few lives when her bloodlust had finally boiled over. 

"We were assigned to your guard. She was on duty when you broke out." Like someone caught in a natural disaster. Still, Rosy didn't have sympathy. She did remember one guy who chewed leaves and spat on er a lot. Seemed very similar to this idiot.

"I told them exactly what would happen. They're the ones who didn't believe me."

He spat on Rosy's shirt before kicking her face. She didn't bother reacting or stopping his boot from bruising her cheek. She knew better than anyone that allowing them to hurt her wouldn't actually solve anything, but as long as physical pain didn't matter, it was the only way she knew to validate his emotions when she didn't sympathize with them.