With a sharp gasp, Diana shot up in a panic. Her eyes wide open in fear as she realized she was back in the Leviathan. Ghoul had stumbled out of his seat and was coming over to her. Before she could fully internalize what had happened, everything came crashing in all at once. Her arm felt like it was on fire, her body ached with a dull pain and her head felt as though she had a dagger stuck in it. Like a sack of bolts, she fell back down with a resounding thud. She felt a sharp sting in her good arm as if something cold had rushed through her veins. As it spread throughout her body, the pain subsided to a more manageable level. She looked beside her to see Ghoul had held down her arm with one hand and held a now empty syringe in the other.

  “There. This should get you feeling much better.” Ghoul said in a raspy, almost haunting voice, which was only amplified by his mask. But his words held some truth and with a grunt, Diana sat up slowly, assisted by Ghoul. Her arm was now wrapped up with bandages, with some small hints of the wounds bleeding through. Around her head was another wrapping, her hair matted from dried, flaky blood.

  “You took quite the beating Ms. Diana, we didn't think you were going to make it,” Ghoul said as he started to check her vitals and inspect the wounds once more.

  “How long have I been out?” Diana barely croaked out through her bone-dry throat. She was still trying to regain her balance as the whole world felt like it was spinning.

  “A few hours. Excuse my abruptness but you should not be alive,” Diana shot him a confused look. Ghoul continued giving no emotion through his mask. “Your ulnar artery was cut, your radial artery was damaged. You should have been dead in minutes. Not to even begin on your head injury.” She sat there even more confused, mixed with the grim reality of his words. “What do you mean? How in the hells am I still sitting here then?”

  He shrugged, “When I saw the wound I thought I was only going to be able to comfort you with a painkiller as you passed. Speaking of which, drink this.” He handed her a small bottle with a soup-like mixture of some sickly green liquid. He then continued, “Anyway, the bleeding severely slowed down oddly. Vladimir ordered I tended to you until your heart stopped, minutes turned to hours as you eventually stabilized.” Diana unconsciously drank the liquid, she shivered at its salty and sour taste. After she nodded, she cleared her throat to speak.

  “I guess thanks are in order then for saving me. I understand you not wanting to spend medical supplies on someone who should be gone.” She spoke as she looked around for some water to wash the taste out of her mouth. Ghoul nodded as he slunk back to his seat and then went back to reading what seemed to be a medical journal.

  A few attempts later Diana was able to stand up, after some time she shuffled to get water and then made her way to the driver's seat using the walls as a support. The dizziness slowly faded as Ghoul's concoction made its way through her body. Dried blood stained the ground, and in the cabin she felt the rushing of wind from the torn open driver's side window. More dried blood coated the control panels along with sand that began to build up. Vladimir was hunched over in the assistant driver's seat. He looked absolutely exhausted, his head slowly bobbing before snapping back up.

  “How long have you been driving?” Diana asked.

  Vladimir jumped, his hand instinctively shot to his thigh holster but didn't draw at the recognition of Diana.

  “By the Father Diana, glad to see you're up, and well, alive. I've been driving since you went under.” He responded.

  “Find us somewhere safe to stop, the hexcore needs a break before we burn it out.” She croaked as she looked at some gauges, some were reading nearly in the red. Vladimir acknowledged as he looked through more optics to try to spot a location.

  “Also, thanks for having Ghoul keep working on me.” Diana added.

  “Don't mention it, if this went down,” he tapped the dashboard. “And you weren't here to fix it, let’s just say, I don't think we'd last very long. Anyway, what in the hells were those things?” He asked with a hint of unease at the mention of them.

  “Khesh’khan, or Desert Shriekers. My uncle and I charted this path to be a few days away from their dens. That group was too large to be a splinter pack, so that means something drove them out.” Diana said as she eyed the gaping hole the pack leader left in the window.

  “If something drove those things out, I don't want to meet it.” Vladimir added, to which Diana nodded in agreement, not quite knowing what even could displace a den of them. Diana slowly sat down in the hallway with a few grunts, not wanting to sit in the blood-soaked driver’s seat.

  “Vladimir, you wouldn't happen to know much about magic, specifically Rune magic would you? Being a Judicator and all.” She asked with a pained grunt as the Leviathan rolled over a bump. Vladimir cocked his head to the side, seeming slightly intrigued by the question.

  “I know a very small amount, mostly just identifying a Rune since automatons use Rune magic so heavily. Why?” He responded.

  “It's just, I don't know. I had this weird dream when I went under and it seemed way too real but it couldn't be…right? It was probably just a side effect of Ghoul’s meds.” She asked, now embarrassed, and unsure if she wanted to press further on this subject. Some part of her wanted it to be nothing but a hallucination, but another part also wanted it to be true. She wanted to say that she had experienced magic firsthand and not from some pompous practitioner from one of the main cities.

  “I'd check with him, but last I heard, nothing he gave you could cause those. But now you have my interest.” He paused a moment as if at a temporary loss of words as he eyed her damaged arm.

  “I mean, it very well could have been real Diana. I've seen my fair share of injuries and yours was on the worst end. I only told Ghoul to keep working on you due to personal belief, not because I thought you had a chance. Your head isn't split like a melon after that,” Vladimir pointed to a dent in the metal with a small blood splatter on it where her head impacted.

  “And now you are asking about Rune magic unprompted, only thirty minutes after you've woken up because of a vision or experience or whatever you would call it.” He finished as the Leviathan came to a slow halt in the shade of something. He spun the chair after putting it in park to face Diana, who was still leaning up against the wall. She shifted slightly as she thought of how to explain her dream to him. With a small sigh, she went on to describe the experience she’d gone through. She left out minor things such as details about the memories she saw. Vladimir had placed his elbows on his knees listening, as her retelling went on, his hand shifted over to his mouth as he gave a very perplexed look. The mention of the armored gauntlet and the burning village piqued his interest. It seemed even he was having a difficult time interpreting some of what she had said.

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  “I only have an inkling of an idea but it's a stretch,” Vladimir said as he placed his hand on the back of his neck. Diana motioned for him to go on.

  “Do you have any known magic practitioners in your family?” Vladimir asked. Diana shot him a slightly confused look.

  “Definitely not. We wouldn't be living where we are if we did.” Diana responded with a sound of disappointment at the lack of an answer. Vladimir put his hands up in defeat and shrugged.

  “We can look into it when we get back, maybe someone in the town knows something, or we could find a dream interpreter. If you could call that a dream.” said Vladimir as he got up with a stretch and then extended a hand down to help Diana up.

  “We? Thought this was a one-and-done type of expedition.” Diana stated bluntly as she took his hand.

  “Yea, but we live in the same city and it isn’t that big. I don't just magically appear whenever I have to go out.” He responded with some sarcasm as he hoisted her to her feet. She gave a shrug as she realized his point. Smacking the dust off himself he continued,

  “I want to ask you about that gauntlet you saw, but we can talk outside with some fresh air.” Diana nodded in agreement and followed him as he walked past.

  They made their way to the back of the Leviathan, Vic climbed down from the turret to join. He gave a silent nod to Diana as she slowly shuffled by, she responded in kind. Diana found her exo-skeleton in its charging station by Shocker who was still inactive. She wondered if it would have been of any use in the previous fight. The only thing it could have done was probably be another target. She wondered if its crystal inscription would allow it to attack one of the Khesh’khans or if it would deny it since it was a living creature. She did not want to test what its limits were on which living things it could attack. She gave it a small tap on its disk-like head and slowly got back into her exo-skeleton. As it activated and synced with her movements, she felt the weight of her body lift, bringing in instant relief from her soreness. She stood in there for a few seconds, the only sound being the howling wind outside. She let out a small sigh as she contemplated if the potential of losing her life for this mission was worth it in the end. She knew she had to go because the other scout family, the Armstrongs, would have never made it out of that encounter. She meant nothing ill by that thought but it was true, they were less equipped and she barely survived with the Leviathan and three Judicators behind her. She let out another sigh and thought of home and what she would do to be back there right now.

  Now having regained what would be a normal amount of agility in all but her arm, she walked out the back of the Leviathan to meet up with Vladimir who was already outside. Her footsteps crunched on the cracked and flaky ground, and the hot wind whipped against her face as swept-up sand stung her face. She slid her goggles on and put her shawl over her nose and mouth as she continued. Vladimir had parked them within a shallow but wide cavern atop one of the higher hills in the area. She approached a part of the cave where Vladimir sat on a small folding stool with another set up a few feet away. As she got close he gestured towards the seat which she would have dropped into, were it not for her exoskeleton easing her descent. Vladimir pulled a shining silver flask with an ornate design on the front, slipped it under his shawl, and threw his head back. With a shiver and a cough, he held out the flask. She took it and examined it shortly. On the front was what seemed to be a family crest, a falcon holding a bow in one claw and a trident in the other.

  “An old family heirloom I presume?” She asked as she tapped on it. He nodded a few times as he cleared his throat.

  “Yea, the Drakkar’s. I was told we were once a family of the ocean. From sailing to fighting, if there was a job on the water we had at least one family member in it. But since the oceans either all dried up or became too inhospitable we moved inland.” He said with a sense of lost pride.

  “Damn. My family has been scouts since after the war, we don’t know what we were before. I might have some pictures back home of the ocean I found on an adventure, even a little ship in a bottle.” Diana said. The medicine was starting to wear off and the pain was coming back so she put the flask under her shawl and took a sip. The burning liquor made it feel as if she swallowed fire. It warmed her chest and radiated all the way to her ears. She was thrown into a small coughing fit and had to try to blink away watery eyes since she had her goggles on. She held the flask back out, which Vladimir took.

  “Should have warned you, that's on me.” Vladimir chuckled, “But you seriously have a ship in a bottle? I’d like to see it, if that would be possible when we get back.” He said with a softer and more relaxed tone.

  “Yeah, if we make it back.” Diana murmured as she tenderly rubbed her wounded arm and felt the temporary joy wash away, revealing concern and guilt as the promise of a safe return she made to her parents ran through her head. Vladimir gave a slow nod, even through the mask she knew he felt similar. They hadn’t even made it through Embers Canyon yet and still had to make it to the ruins after that. The silence hung in the air as Diana thought of her promise to her parents that she would return safely. Be it guilt or grit, she found motivation. beyond just her parents and her uncle. The city needed somewhere to expand.

  “Do you have family back at home?” Vladimir asked with sincerity, breaking the solemn silence.

  “I do, my parents and my uncle. Do you?” Diana responded now only missing them more at their mention. Vladimir slowly shook his head.

  “None alive or worth mentioning. It’s the main reason I jumped in line to volunteer for this job.” Vladimir said with a heavy sigh and a long glance at the flask before continuing,

  “I want to start over, you know? A new city, full of potential, a blank slate that I now get to write. Maybe start a family in a place that isn’t bursting at the seams with bodies.” He finished as he shook the flask. Diana watched him deflate with every word until she saw his eyes dart behind her and sit back up.

  “Play along,” He whispered under his breath.

  “Imagine how much we could make selling the tech that's been locked up in there. One good haul, especially to a larger city like New Vanna, we wouldn't have to ever work again!” He exclaimed with a slight unnatural inflection in his voice and a renewed vigor. Diana was taken aback at his abrupt change in personality.

  “Uh, yea. New Vanna does have a few colleges there that would pay a lot .” Diana responded, playing a part she didn’t fully understand.

  “Of course! They buy pre-war technology at a ludicrous price. Great thinking Diana, I knew you’d be an asset to this team.” He continued on with an unexpected enthusiasm. Diana followed where he looked originally only to see Vic and Ghoul had walked around from the other side of the Leviathan. Ghoul locked eyes with Diana, his lack of movement caused a chill to run down her neck, forcing her to pull away. She turned back and nodded to Vladimir.

  “I think we are going to have to do some more negotiating of terms.” Diana said as she got up no longer comfortable with the situation she found herself in. She walked past Vladimir placing her heavy metal-framed hand on his shoulder. They turned to each other and gave a nod as she continued on to the entrance of the cave.

  In front of her, the land stretched out beyond the limits of her vision. Endless sand and stone made up most of the scenery, but off in the distance at the edge of her eyesight, she saw the shadows of a mighty mountain range covering the land as the sun dipped behind them. Several black plumes of smoke reached into the sky from wreckage or camps, the signal of Embers Canyon.