Chapter 4-101: Past and Present (1/2)

“She’s aware she’s dangerous to those around her by what she does,” Shiv said softly. “Those ridiculous nightly walks she goes on...”

Hank Blakhamar’s eyes sparkled darkly. “Jamie says the drug pushers in the whole north of the city are down by seventy percent, and none within two miles of Vrune’s place. Got four schools in that area. She says there’s a dozen kids who got recruited as pushers, and wound up in the hospital for it. The people who supplied them seem to be missing.”

Shiv narrowed her eyes, watching the slow but steady improvement of her younger brothers. With chi bolstering them, they weren’t going to get tired of this easily, and if they were getting dusty, it only stirred them to get up even faster. “How bad was it?”

“Nine dead by overdoses, dozens of addicts, big rise in petty theft to fuel the habits,” he told her quietly. “Had to bring in Amanans to break the addictions for our own.”

“They put out strains just for non-humans?...” Shiv murmured darkly.

“Aye. Worse for the humans, though.” Shiv glanced at him. “Infected with a strain of white rot that reacts to clerical manna.” Her dark eyes widened ever so slightly. “Aye, it was targeted at the poor. Six of the dead were kids from poor or broken families. One of them was an urkhar who went mad on Apop, and killed his best friend and his friend’s sister. You read about that one in the papers.”

Shiv nodded slowly. “And the op-eds from ‘concerned citizens’.”

“Imprusar.” Hank’s eyes were like jet pools, gleaming with Crystal chi. “I ever tell you I was born human, Shivaeli?”

Shivaeli closed her eyes. She knew her father was old, but not how old. Nobody knew how long their races could actually live to, but her father had not noticeably aged in the forty years she had known him, while humans greyed all around them both. “Mama mentioned it in passing once, but no, not you.”

“I was sixteen when the Shroud came, and I started to change. I used to be a head taller, a skinny little fool running from the Germans in the motherland.” He took a puff of his pipe. “They took my whole family, and I’ve not heard a lick of them in this world, even with the technology as it is now. They are somewhere under the Shroud in the motherland, dead and walking with those what killed them.” There was no gratitude or even irony in his voice, only sadness. “I was as human as any damn Imprusar, and there weren’t no magic in anybody back then, Shivaeli. Them Imprusar who got magic are no more human than I am. Them talking about human superiority is just like those Germans back then, and all their Aryan superiority.”

“They didn’t learn the lessons those fools did. What were they called?” Where the Russians were tragic victims of the Shroud, the Germans were basically fools who brought their doom upon themselves, with those they’d massacred rising up to kill their slayers.

“National Socialists. Just Aryan pigs. The same words from the Imprusar, the same hate cloaked in self-defense, self-interest... and them the ones giving the orders, of course.”

Shiv had never heard that level of old, stoked anger in her father’s voice. “There is a lot of anger in humans who didn’t get any magic, Papa,” she said softly.

“Aye, but the Imprusar don’t care about them, either, or they’d not be spreading disease among the poor,” the dwarf huffed. “You do what you have to do about them. Lots of good people in the world, and they may not care to act against those squealing about ‘representing’ them and all, but they won’t miss the bastards if they are gone, either.” He nodded slightly at Sama Rantha as Mord was sent whooping ten feet into the air, spiraling crazily. “Hagchilds be no-magic humans too, you know?”

“No human is as strong as she is,” Shiv swore.

A bushy brown eyebrow rose. “Ye’ve not seen enough humans, then. And Amazons be human enough, no?”

Shiv scowled. “They’ve got a Pact. That’s different.”

“Mmm. Perhaps. Ancients?” he went on, and she inclined her head... but Ancients were as rare as ex-Ukrainian dwarves. “Berserkers?”

“They can’t sustain their frenzy. They are nothing if you are smart enough to outlast them,” Shiv sniffed.

“I’ve a feeling there’s humans out there who can surprise you... although this one is definitely special. I’ve the feeling that even if she knows there’s heat coming down on her head for going up against the Imprusar, it won’t stop her in the slightest.”

Shiv silently agreed. That light in the younger woman’s eyes was something she’d seen in Paladins and zealots before... although tempered by a lot of cold cunning and merciless efficiency. That was a woman who believed in herself, what she was doing, and that it was for a higher cause.

Those were always very dangerous people to be around...

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“Look, lunkheads, you’re gonna need shields,” Sama said calmly, as the three Blakhamars sat down around her. “You’re big. You’re meaty. Put any of you in a group of humans, and who is the one they are gonna want to shoot first? Who’s gonna have the hardest time finding cover?”

Everyone looked at Mohono, who raised his hand sheepishly.

“At the same time, you’re big enough and strong enough to use a shield that can actually stop small arms fire, right? Unless someone pulls out a cannon, you can just charge them? If you Enhance it, it can even stop AP.50 Cal rounds, and that’s pretty much the biggest portable thing you’re gonna see that can actually target you.”

“Yeah, they’ll save the rocket launchers for something that can’t dodge them,” Grik grinned. After all, the boys weren’t slow.