The Aftermath - Part 1

*Shing* *Clang*

Octavia's eyes flung open as she heard the sound of metal hitting metal.

Looking up, where she had just seen a slaver swinging his sword down about to end her life, she now saw two swords, crisscrossed, his attack having been stopped in mid-air.

"No student of mine is going to go out like this while under my watch."

Rolling her head back just a little further, Octavia saw the owner of the voice, a voice that she knew very well given how much it had grated on her during her time in the Castle.

Althea

But before she could do or say anything else, her vision blurred and she felt herself being pulled by someone.

As she moved, she heard the sound of blades clashing again, followed by a cry of pain from the slaver.

"Here get this down you."

Octavia didn't know who said this, but he did so just after whoever it was stopped dragging her. The next thing she knew, something was pressed against her lips which was followed by a liquid pouring down her throat.

She was still very much out of it, the blood loss making her dizzy. She ended up just swallowing the liquid without even realising it, but before long, too much passed her lips causing her to choke and cough up some of it.

She hacked away, some of it probably having gone down her airway given how much there was, but once she did, the person pulled it away. The next thing she felt was some other liquid being poured on her body.

Well, her wound to be exact.

"Ahhhh!" She cried out in pain from it and struggled as she tried to get away from who even was hurting her, but several hands quickly held her down. It was a frightening situation to be in, several strangers just forcing you to drink something and doing something painful to your wound. Her delirium just made it even worse.

"Octavia, it's okay. It's okay."

But that all went away when she heard the voice of her good friend and travelling companion, Sylvia. She relaxed, as much as she could from the pain she was feeling from her wound, and just closed her eyes.

…

"How's she doing."

"Good, considering."

Octavia slowly opened her eyes having been woken up by a couple of voices.

"A wound like that would have killed a human not long after it was inflicted. The blood loss is normally quite rapid, causing them to pass out and die within minutes. For her to have received such a wound and then go onto fight three people is quite extraordinary."

Looking around the room was quite the struggle, and brought about several clicks from her neck turning. Scanning the place, she found a man and a woman, neither of whom she knew, both standing a few meters away discussing…her as far as she could tell.

It was hard to remember what had happened, but things were coming back to her as she started to regain her senses.

"Good, good…Oh, she's awake." The woman said as she spotted Octavia looking at her.

They both quickly walked over to her, the man heading to the other side of the bed she was on, and started to do something. The woman knelt down in front of her.

"How are you feeling?"

Octavia wasn't sure how to describe it. There was still some pain, but from what she could recall it paled in comparison to what she had felt before.

"Tired and in a bit of pain."

The woman and then the man went on to ask her all sorts of questions, such as where it was hurting, how bad it was and what she could remember. They were just about to ask another question when they were interrupted by shouting outside of the building they were in.

"I told you to leave me alone. Why can you not get that through your thick head."

"But my love, we are alone. Why would you want to go visit that creature and ruin the time we are spending together."

Octavia's eye started to twitch all of a sudden after hearing that second voice. It sounded very familiar and it really made her want to hit something because of it.

"You just- did you not listen to a word I said. You are just so…so…"

The next thing they all heard was a very loud cry, almost a therapeutic or exasperated one. Then there was a thud, followed by and even louder thud.

The man and woman beside her just looked at each other, not sure what had happened. Then all of a sudden the door to the room opened, and in walked Sylvia.

Who for some reason was cradling her right hand with her left.

"Ohh, that stings."

Looking up from her hand, she spotted Octavia and started to run over to her.

"Octavia, your awake."

Then next thing she knew, Sylvia had her arms wrapped around her.

"Ahh, damn." She cried out with a wince when her right hand connected with Octavia's back. But she grinned and bared it, keeping the hug going.

The hug passed by in silence for several moments. At that point, they started to pull back, and Octavia figured she should confirm who it was that Sylvia had been talking to.

"Was that who I think it was?"

"Yes. Sir Roderick, was apparently the first man on his horse when Lord Desmon got our letter. Not that they even asked him to join the 'rescue' party or anything. He didn't even do anything when he got here either."

"Did one of the slavers take him down instantly?"

Sylvia giggled at that, being reminded of the first time she met Octavia, which was when Sir Roderick strode into the bandit camp and was instantly knocked unconscious by one of the bandits.

"No, unfortunately. But, he did manage to knock himself unconscious when he fell off his horse charging at a slaver."

"…"

"…"

Both of them just burst out laughing at that. Even the other two in the room couldn't help but be infected by the laughter, managing to chuckle and giggle behind their hands.

"So, what happened with the slavers?"

"Can you remember anything that happened?"

"Bits and pieces. I remember fighting off a couple of slavers, but then it just goes all blank."

Sylvia retold Octavia the tale of her feats, how she had fought off the slavers, but her injury had taken her out of commission. She had lost a lot of blood from the wound, and was very close to dying, even if that last slaver hadn't been close to delivering a killing blow to her.

If it hadn't been for Althea and the other soldiers showing up, she would have been a goner. Among Althea's retinue, there were a couple of healers or doctors. In a world of magic, the line was a little blurred in terms of what they were practising both magical and 'modern' medicine. They didn't restrict themselves.

Althea and the soldiers had headed into the village to take care of the other slavers that were trying to get to Octavia, apparently, there were several others stuck in the crowd after the fight had started. They also headed to the grocery store to deal with the remaining slavers that were in the process of packing up. Sylvia had mentioned its location in her letter.

While this was going on, the two healers had taken a look at her and got to work. Sylvia didn't know the specifics of her treatment, but the healers in the room told her what they had done. Really, it boiled down to closing her wound with magic and potions, to stop any further blood loss, then it was tests and checks, along with various potions to help heal her and get her blood levels up.

"How long was I out?"

"Only a couple of days."

In that time, Althea and the soldiers had captured all the obvious slavers…the ones that fled from them fought them and were in the base. Now they were in the process of finding any others that were involved. With members of the guard being part of it, they were being thorough in their investigation, looking deep into all the guard's backgrounds, whether they had met or knew any of the slavers, and if they were receiving pico from them. So far three had been arrested.

Then with their authority, they were checking other people in power, just in case they were involved, but so far, none had been found guilty of being in league with the slavers.

Then there was dealing with the former slaves, and trying to track down slaves that had been sold.

The second part should have been difficult, but it would seem that the slavers kept great records. They had details on all the people who had purchased slaves, including their names, positions and where they lived. So locating slaves that had been sold was going to be simple. They just needed to get the information to the right people.

The first part of dealing with the ones Octavia and Sylvia had freed, wasn't so much hard, but with the beast-kin having been captured by humans, and it was again a load of humans trying to deal with getting them back home, trust issues were cropping up.

You would think that them having shown up to take care of the slavers would have solved this, but for many the trauma ran deep, and in their minds, telling these humans where they lived was like they were giving them directions to more prospective slaves.

"So Althea has asked for our help. She hopes we could help ease their fear."

"I see. Okay, let's get going then."

"Whoa, easy there." The male healer said. "You have healed for the most part, but that was a serious wound you received. You need to be careful and take things slow."

The female healer nodded at that as well.

So, with the healer's advice in mind, she and Sylvia set off out of the building…slowly, to meet Althea and the former slaves.