Shocker's Stories
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Chapter 70 - To Know Despair
🕑 Added 2024-11-10 09:56:15 +0000 UTCElijah reached up with a shaky hand, pressing his blood-smeared palm to Coin's cheek. The mimic grimaced. A wound that deep, and this much blood lost... it did not take a genius to understand that a human could not survive such an injury for too long.
"Damnit," Coin hissed, hoisting his arms under Elijah's knees and shoulders. A third limb, an ill-defined coil of flesh, sprouted from his right arm and pressed firm against Elijah's midriff. It would not too much to staunch the bleeding, but it was a damn sight better than nothing.
"Healer... got to get you to a healer," Coin huffed, his cheeks shimmering as he soaked in Elijah's drying blood.
The old man grunted. "Too late for that. Far too late."
"You let me be the judge of that," Coin growled, turning and bolting for the open doors. His shoulder slammed into one, wrenching it off its hinges.
Valle... he'd kill the bastard. Eat him alive from the ankles up, make sure he understood exactly who he had chosen to cross!
"Only the temples would be open now," Elijah wheezed. He was growing paler by the second, and looked as if he was aging rapidly in Coin's grasp. "And they... there's nothing... ain't nothing they can do..."
"Stop saying things like that!"
The mimic's mind raced through a mental map of the city, trying to recall everything he knew of Sentinel. They had passed the temple more than once, for it sat near the border between Lowtown and the Merchant's Quarter. It was distinguished by the great silvery dome of its roof, and Coin knew he would be able to see it from a considerable distance if he could get the right point of view.
It was a modest distance from the Spokes, and reaching it by foot would take some time for a normal human.
Fortunately, Coin was far removed from a normal human.
He fought back against the burning exertion in his muscles, tried to dull the pain that Leona had inflicted upon him. Power surged into his muscles, and he took off in a mad sprint.
The Spokes, by daylight, were a confusing tangle of smoke-filled streets. At night the scenery blended into an ugly haze, and Coin found it hard to retrace his steps.
He kept Elijah clutched tight to his chest, doing everything he could to keep his body stable. The old man was groaning all the same, seeming to slip in and out of consciousness.
"Lad," he tried to groan.
"Just... just take it easy," Coin growled. "You saved my skin when I got poisoned. So now... now it's my turn to do the same thing for you!"
Of course, Coin knew all too well the limitations of a normal human body, and that his mentor definitely lacked the same inhuman vitality that Coin could call upon. Even if Elijah was in the prime of his life, an injury like that would be a nightmare to endure, let alone survive.
Thinking quickly, Coin clutched his mentor closer and summoned a whirlwind under his feet. It took considerable focus and effort to lift the weight of two men, particularly when Coin's body was so dense from compacted biomass. But he pressed on, lifting them higher and higher until his heels settled onto the roof of a workhouse.
The elevated position showed a clearer route across Sentinel. There, shimmering under the light of the moons, was the silvery dome of the temple.
"So far," Coin whispered.
Going at his full speed, he could cross that distance rather easily. Trivially, almost. But when he was carrying an injured man, who had been slit open, he had to debate with himself about how quickly he could or should go.
"Funny, ain't it?" Elijah huffed, closing his eyes. Despite the pain he was in, making him shake and shudder with each laboured breath, he was smiling. "A mimic, trying to save the life of a human. That... that right there? That's gotta be one for the history book. First time ever that something like this has happened."
"Stop talking. Conserve your strength." He set off at a trot, crossing the breadth of the rooftop. Another gale blossomed at his feet, carrying the two of them across the gap to the next roof. Then he did so again and again, hopping across the roofs with small currents of wind guiding their passage.
"A mimic saving a human. If the world knew what you are..." Elijah grimaced. "Hopefully they'd accept you for your true nature."
Coin frowned to himself. He couldn't take that risk. If anyone in power didn't like the prospect of a smart mimic knew of his existence... then his existence would suddenly have a much shorter time limit attached to it.
"You're a lot like him, you know." Elijah murmured, his words growing progressively fainter. "My Zeke. My boy. Just as stubborn as him. Never knew when to call it quits."
So that was who Elijah had spoken of all those weeks ago. His son. Coin's mouth contorted into a deep frown. Maybe he'd seen Coin in that light from the moment he became his apprentice. Or maybe it was a recent development.
It didn't matter, Coin tried to tell himself. And yet he couldn't help but dwell on it. He couldn't remember his own parents, the mimics who spawned him. Even if he could they were simply monsters driven by instinct, as all procreating wild animals are, and had no love for them just as they would have had no love for him once he was grown.
To mimics, there was no such thing as 'family.' In truth, almost their whole existence was one of skulking and solitude.
But the idea that Elijah saw him even close to being like family... it made Coin's chest tighten.
Elijah's breathing had grown ghastly faint by the time Coin reached the border of the Merchant's Quarter, and he barely so much as stirred as the mimic floated them back down to street level. The streets around them were dark, save for the burning brasiers that marked the double doors of the temple.
Those doors were partially ajar, revealing a large banner on the far wall that sported the diamond symbol Coin had seen a few times now. "Made it. I made it! Thank goodness!" He sucked his tendril of extra flesh back into his body just to keep up appearances.
He gripped Elijah closer and rushed through the door, and soon found himself to face with a woman in a wooded white robe, and a rather portly man in a similar garment. They stared at the newcomers in stunned silent, but soon focused their gaze on Elijah's bleeding body.
"By the Goddess!" the woman shouted, whipping her hood down and sweeping her dark locks back into a bun. "Elgaris! Run to the healer's chamber and prep a bed!"
"R-right away Sister Steele!" The portly man turned and broke into a sprint, moving rather quickly despite his plump build.
Sister Steele moved closer and pressed her left hand to Elijah's brow, a meteorite ring glittering on one finger. A halo of warm orange light shone around her fingers and faded after a few seconds. "Goodness, he's barely hanging on. Follow me! W-what in the world happened to him?"
Coin fell in behind the older woman, his chest rising and falling with laboured breathing. "A maniac stabbed him, tried to slice him open at the waist."
Valle. The mere thought of the man made his blood boil. He had the man's scent now, and there was nowhere in the world he could go that Coin wouldn't track him to.
"I'll do what I can to heal him, but..." She trailed off as they entered a large room that had a plush bed in the middle of it. The cabinets and shelves on the back wall were laden with an assortment of potions, and mason jars full of herbs. "But I can't promise anything. Please, wait outside."
"But-"
She held a hand up to silence him as Elgaris lowered Elijah onto the bed. "I know you are worried, but you will only get in the way here. So please... for his sake."
Coin hesitated, but ultimately relented. This woman was an expert, and he had no choice but to trust her judgement. And so, ultimately, he withdrew.
His eyes met Elijah's one more time, the old man sporting a tiny smile. "My boy," he mumbled, only barely audible to Coin's sharpened ears.
Coin spent the next two hours seated in the temple's entryway, hunched over and gnawing on the tips of his thumbs. Elijah's blood had soaked his shirt clean through, and then dried into a flaking mess.
A continual reminder for what they had been through.
When Sister Steele emerged, she was partially hunched over from the exertion and her face carried a sheen of sweat to it.
She locked eyes with Coin and, with some effort, pushed through her exhaustion and stood upright.
"I'm... sorry," she said, brushing a few strands of hair from her brow. "I did all I could to stabilize your friend. But in the end there was only so much I could do. He's... gone."
Coin stared at her in silence, mouth agape, as his world shattered like glass around him.
