Annie had to give Filch credit, his cargo was heavy. Navigating it back down the tunnel wasn't too terrible, all she had to do was follow the same grooves the smuggler had carved into the dirt and she'd be fine. The real problem was keeping the thing from careening off into the darkness on the ever-so-slight incline of the cave floor. Annie hadn't even noticed it at first but, now that she was 15 minutes deep into a battle with a hand truck that wanted to roll itself into oblivion, she had been made keenly aware of the deceptively slight incline.
She could feel the wound in her side ache with the effort. She was fairly confident she had sealed and bandaged it enough times that it would hold, but feeling the alchemic crust stretch and crack at the edges did not fill her with confidence. By the time she had made her way out of the tunnel and through the tight squeeze into the clearing she was wheezing with the effort. She could only imagine having to haul the heavy thing back up the tunnel and all the way to wherever the smuggler popped put of the mines. No wonder Filch had been so quick their first encounter, the man must have had legs like tree trunks.
The night was still dark and the clearing was still empty. Good. Annie wasn’t sure what she’d do if she saw Jaigra again, and she’d prefer to figure out what exactly it was Jed was smuggling before confronting him. With that in mind, Annie started to drag the truck through the darkened Millpoint streets, doing her best to keep the ancient rickety truck from making more noise than a brass band in the middle of the night.
She had to figure out where exactly she was going to put this thing, whatever it was. She was pretty sure it wouldn’t explode, but beyond that she hadn’t the faintest idea what it was supposed to do. It looked like a machine of some kind, with its blinking lights and tubing and stuff, and that was definitely not the Stranger’s forte. Give her some strange magic or exotic magitech and she could handle it like child’s play. But an honest to gods machine with no magic of any kind? Annie was clueless.
Hopefully Connor might know more, or maybe Lorena. She was a mechanic, and with the way she talked about it Annie figured she did maintenance on the town’s radiation shielding almost daily. That was it! Annie would meet Connor in the morning and the two of them would head straight to Lorena and figure out whatever this cargo of Filch’s was. It was a better plan than most of what she’d come up with so far. Come to think of it, this might be the first plan Annie’s actually come up with on this job. She wasn’t going to think about what that said about her.
Annie stopped as the Time Mill Tell Motel sign came into view. Underneath it was a familiar figure, seated on the steps and slumped against one of the posts lining the porch.
”You’ve got to be kidding me.” Annie said as her hand shot to her gun.
Jaigra looked up at her and spread her hands, “Hey.” she said.
”Don’t ‘hey’ me you asshole! I told you to get lost!” Annie hissed. She really wanted to yell, but the motel’s neighbors probably wouldn’t take kindly to that at this late hour.
“I told you I can’t, not until you hear me out.” Jaigra stood up and gestured to herself, “Look, I’m unarmed and not wearing any armor. I really just want to talk.”
It was true, Jaigra was dressed in a simple black top and loose grey cargo pants. With cat-eye still in her system, Annie could trace every crease and curve along Jaigra’s body clear as day. The shirt was tight and form-fitting, it had no sleeves at all to stash a blade under, it just exposed the bounty hunter’s well-toned arms and the way the muscles flexed as she moved. Her cargo pants hugged her hips before widening out around her thighs. There could conceivably be a weapon stashed in one of the pockets, but if one was there the pocket would show at least a slight bulge from the weight of it. So she probably didn’t have any hidden weapons, Jaigra was telling the truth.
Annie side irritably and holstered her gun, “I’m not going to shoot an unarmed woman, but you could at least get out of the way. You’re blocking the stairs..”
Jaigra shuffled aside as Annie dragged the hand truck to the steps and began the arduous process of attempting to carefully roll the wheels over each of the small stairs without tipping the whole thing over or making too much noise.
She leaned around the canister to look at Annie, “Do you want some help?”
“Fuck off.” Annie grunted as she cleared the last step, then clutched at her side. That had hurt more than she cared to let on.
The bounty hunter trailed after Annie as she rolled the canister into the lobby and finally parked it against the counter of the bar, “There,” Annie said and wiped her brow, “It should be fine here until morning.” she turned and found Jaigra standing behind her.
”Andromeda…” she said hesitantly.
Annie held up a finger, “Hang on. If we have to do this, I’d like to at least be drunk for it.” she leaned over the counter and grabbed a bottle and two short glasses, “You still take your whiskey neat?”
Jaigra blinked, “Yeah.”
”Good. I don’t know how to make anything else.” she poured the amber liquid into both glasses, then took a swig from the bottle and wiped her lips, “Alright, go ahead.”
Jaigra took a deep breath, “I’m sorry for earlier, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Annie laughed bitterly, “Wouldn’t be the first time.” she took another swig from the bottle. She held it out to look at it, frowned, then set it down and picked up her glass.
“That’s…” Jaigra started to argue, then bit her tongue, “I’m sorry for that too.” Her eyes locked on the tiny silver sword dangling from her ear, "That's Tziva's earring."
Annie looked away, "It is."
"You kept it?" there was an edge of hurt in Jaigra's tone.
"Not much else I could take with me." Annie said bitterly.
"Right..." A heavy silence hung in the air between them.
Annie looked her up and down, “Is this a joke?”
The bounty hunter was taken aback, “What? No! Why would I joke about this?”
”That’s the only way this makes sense to me. This is all some kind of sick joke, whoever’s pulling your strings right now just wants some entertainment at my expense.”
Jaigra took a sip from her glass, “Seriously? You don’t think I could possible regret what happened?”
”It’s a little late for regrets, Vrath.” Annie offered a mirthless smile. The two women were quiet for a moment, the silence only broken by the sound of Annie refilling their glasses.
“I don’t actually know what happened,” Jaigra admitted, “After I… exposed you.”
“Bullshit.” Annie snorted.
“I mean it,” Jaigra said with all seriousness, “Your parents won’t tell me and your friends won’t talk to me.”
”Probably because you sold me out.” Annie pointed at her accusingly as she spoke. Jaigra was silent, she kept her expression masked, but Annie could see the cracks beneath, “You really don’t know. Huh.”
”What am I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I outed my betrothed to you, do you mind telling me what exactly you did to her?’”
”Maybe! At least something to show that you actually care!”
”I’m here, aren’t I?” Jaigra murmured.
Annie’s cheeks reddened. She wasn’t sure what to say to that.
”Please tell me what happened.” Jaigra asked gently.
It wasn’t something Annie cared to relive, and Jaigra Vrath was the last person she wanted to tell about it. But something in her voice made Annie want to drop her guard, just once.
”They tried to ‘Fix’ me.” she said, “They used a blood magic ritual to try and rewrite my mind, my memories, and bind me into doing what they wanted.”
”Andromeda…” Jaigra said softly.
“It hurt. It hurt a lot, like my blood was on fire and they were driving needles into my skull.” Annie took a big swig of her whiskey and filled her glass again, “It was revolting, violating. I didn’t think my own parents would do that to me.”
“How did you stop them?”
”I didn’t really. Funny right?” Annie chuckled darkly, “The Herald of the Empress can’t even stop her own parents from cursing her.”
“But you escaped! You must have done something!” Jaigra said.
”It wasn’t on purpose. They didn’t know that the way I transitioned actually changed my body in more ways than physical. Neither did I, honestly.”
“What do you mean?” Jaigra leaned forward.
”I used refined idra ichor. My formula was clumsy compared to what I make now, but it got the job done.”
“The shit you inject yourself with… Is demon blood?” Jaigra was both horrified and impressed.
“Yeah. Demons’ bodies are malleable, they’re influenced by the echoes of memories and emotions in the Veil wherever the Blank spits them. I figured I could reshape my body if I could come up with a refined version of their ichor.” for Annie, the whole matter was academic. Matter-of-fact. It was just another fact of her life that so happened to save her life.
”So the ichor in you blood…”
“Ruined their ritual.” Annie nodded, “They thought they were working with mortal blood. They were not. Didn’t stop them from carving out as much of me as they could.”
“Andromeda…”
”Save it.” Annie snapped, “I don’t want to hear it from you.”
Jaigra swallowed whatever she had been about to say along with her whiskey. The two of them sat in silence. Annie stared into her glass, Jaigra stared at Annie, then at the floor, then to Annie again. She wasn’t sure where she should put her eyes, but the floor seemed like the safer option. She tried not to think about Annie’s blood or her body. The ideas down that path were too confusing.
