Chapter Twenty Seven: Deathly Cold

Silas watched Ronin sleep, his body tense on his bunk, the woman who'd saved him seemingly disinterested in him.

"He is an amazing fighter," she spoke.

Silas nodded and said, "He is. He's the best we've got." 

Sitting beside him, she smoothed his hair out and he relaxed slightly.

The woman watched her and said, "You really love him." Silas looked up at her, a look of surprise on her face and said, "What makes you say that?"

The woman smiled, her black eyes shining softly, "I know the look a person gives when they'd die to keep someone safe."

 Blushing softly, Silas responded quietly, "Yeah...I do love him...I don't know how he feels about me though...I know he cares for me."

 The woman's black hair slowly changed to blue, even more noticeable against her dark skin, and Silas pointed to her hair and said, "What's with your hair?"

The woman's cheeks flushed red and her hair rapidly finished changing blue and Silas, despite herself, smiled gently.

"Are you blushing with your hair?" Silas asked, touching her face, excited.

The woman grabbed her hair and covered her face with it, her hair turning bluer as she did.

Silas giggled and asked, "What's your name?"

The woman opened her hair a bit and looked out at Silas, saying, "My name is Azue."

Patting the chair beside the bunk, Silas motioned for Azue to sit down and as she did, Silas asked, "You're pretty young, aren't you?"

 Azue nodded and said, "I'm nineteen now, but I'll be turning twenty soon."

Looking at Ronin, Silas said, "We're not that far apart...what are you doing on Charon?"

Ronin gasped and shifted closer to Silas, his hand moving gently, reaching toward hers, so she held it.

Azue frowned gently and said, "My family is...gone. We were fairly well off, but the people think I'm bad luck, so they wanted me out. I took what money we had left and just got on the train. I was seated further back, but when I heard the explosion, I decided to investigate."

Silas nodded, understanding what it meant to be driven out of your home, and said, "You must be a pretty good fighter yourself to have taken down someone that was giving Ronin so much trouble."

Shaking her head, Azue said, "Merely fortunate. The large man seemed to be using heat based weaponry and was clearly fatigued by the time I arrived. I merely happened to have the correct weapons on hand when I reached the battle."

Scalpel walked into the room and asked, "How's he doing?"

Silas gently lifted Ronin's head into her lap and said, "He seems to be doing well...I don't think he got hit, it looks like his Aether energy burned out very quickly and his body couldn't keep up with the strain."

Shaking her head, Scalpel said, "I keep telling him he needs to practice the activations so his body can handle them." 

Azue spoke, her voice gentle in comparison to the other ladies in the room, "He does not strike me as a man who would want to rely on some strength other than his own."

Looking at her curiously, Silas asked, "You've barely met him, what makes you think that?"

Smiling gently at Ronin's sleeping body, Azue responded, "He could have easily attempted to knock him off the side, or used a large weapon like the other man who fought in the halls did, but he instead fought the man face to face."

Scalpel nodded and said, "It's going to get him killed someday."

Silas scowled at her and said, "He'll be fine."

 Scalpel shook her head and said, "We can't always rely on the ice queen here to show up and stab our enemies in the back as they stare us down. If Burning Blood is any indication of what we're going to see in Neyk, we're all in much more trouble than we thought."

Silas was silenced by the idea of more people as strong as Burning Blood and Azue said, "I do not get the feeling that the large man, Burning Blood, you called him, is any average man."

Scalpel sighed and said, "Even if he's one in a hundred, that means there still may be hundreds of other people LIKE him, and we can't assume they'll all be friendly."

Silas looked at Scalpel and said, "None of us could have stopped him...even Azue says she got lucky. How would we have guessed something like that even existed?"

The train slowly began to shake to a stop and Ronin's eyes slowly opened to find himself surrounded by the girls.

Azue leaned in and said, "Are you feeling better sir?"

Silas pushed her head away with a finger and said, "Back up."

Azue smiled knowingly and started to walk toward the door as she said, "Be careful...he is interesting, someone might try to take him for themselves."

"What's she talking about?" Ronin asked, and Silas smiled at him and said, "Nothing at all. Just teenager prattle."

Scalpel followed Azue out, leaving the two of them alone and closed the door, saying, "Can I take a look at your hair?"

Shaking her head, Azue said, "I have already been seen by many, so far none have been able to give me an answer."

"Can you control its color?" Scalpel asked, clearly intrigued.

Azue spoke, her voice barely a whisper, "It's blue...always blue."

Sensing that Azue was done with this conversation, Scalpel pulled her alongside as she made her way to the team's doors and said, "Let me introduce you to our little family here. It looks like you're alone, so it might be good for you to come along for a while."