[interlude(channel = 2, type = 1, slot = "m", offset = "-100,-20", name = "cutin_char_14",sfrom = "1,1", sto = "1,1", aduration = 2,block=false)]
Sometimes I think that if there really is a Creator responsible for these lands, he's one cruel bastard.
He came up with a really awful disease, where you feel your body being consumed, gradually being replaced by these crystals, helpless to do anything to stop it.
You can feel your very self being removed from your body, day by day.
You can only accept it.
We can only accept it.
And this creation of Oripathy is actually one of the gentler ones across the lands.
The Infected and the uninfected, Nine tells me our persecution is as old as civilization itself.
So... what about poor and rich? Slave and noble?
Foreigner and local? Disabled and able-bodied? Even abnormal and normal...?
A parasitic disease is scary, sure, but Oripathy is only the most obvious, the most prominent of the terrible diseases out there.
The Creator's really awful inventions are poverty, war, bottomless, insatiable greed, the malice and hypocrisy that bring so much suffering, gaps we can never close.
But the truth is, we all know, no Creator came up with that stuff.
Secret distilleries like this are common enough in Victoria, dodging around punishing taxes imposed by the lords. They could be used to make crude medication for the Infected.
Soaking, mixing, distilling herbs would work, but purification... no way.
I'm starting to admire the Victorian Reunion. They found this place and turned it into a distribution center for medicine.
When did they start calling themselves Reunion and build all this? I'm not sure.
All I know is that the building is just an old house covered in vines now.
No movement around, no lights in the house.
A figure flashes by the window. Red was right, there are people here, and they've spotted me.
I dust of my clothes and fix my hair, trying to look more presentable.
Guard
Hello. Anybody home?
No answer.
Guard
Hi, I'm Guard. I've got a team nearby, I'm pretty sure you saw them earlier?
Guard
Don't worry, we mean no harm.
Guard
The Victorian Reunion used to use this workshop to make medicine.
Guard
It brought hope to a lot of Infected around Londinium. Its medicine even circulated among the workers in the sewers below the city's industrial districts.
Guard
Whoever you are, you know the war is turning a lot more people Infected.
Guard
We want to get things going again here, to help them.
Guard
Since you're occupying the place...
Guard
We need your cooperation.
Guard
We can provide medicine or other supplies. We'll trade fair.
Still, no response.
The doorknob turns, and I grip the hilt of my sword.
After everything we've been through, I know it's pretty likely I'll be staring down a pitchfork or hatchet next. I'm numb to that sort of thing now.
There are more people hiding inside than I guessed. And it's quite a group.
Some of them are obviously Infected, while others leaning against the wall are probably ordinary refugees from the city.
They're all looking over, silently, watching me and the woman in the Victorian Reunion uniform.
Mays
Look away, and clear out.
The crowd falls back, and Mays leads me past their collective gaze.
These people... are terrified.
Guard
Are you in charge here?
Mays
This place is under my control.
Mays
Let's find a place to talk.
...Victorian Reunion... Percival is in Victorian Reunion too.
Our organization doesn't exactly have franchising procedures and once word of the name spread around, the Reunion flag started popping up in all sorts of places.
That also means there have been various acts of violence, acts of revenge, taking place under the Reunion name.
The kind of thing that happened in Chernobog. I start looking at this... Mays.
So you're Reunion, the real Reunion. You came from the north?
Mays
From... Ursus?
Guard
Yes, Ursus, Columbia, and now we're in Victoria.
Mays
That's a ways.
Guard
Your uniform, it's...
Mays
I... used a bedsheet.
Mays
I ran into a group from Ursus before. They said you dress like this. I think I got the emblem right.
Guard
Looks a bit big.
Mays
Did you come here just to mock my handiwork?
Guard
So you control this place just because you dressed up in the garb of the infamous 'Reunion'.
Mays
Let's get to the point. I don't have much time.
Mays
You want to get this place up and running again? To start making medicine?
Guard
Yes, if news got out that Reunion is running the place again...
Mays
No.
Mays
Things are more complicated than you know. We have all kinds of people here.
Mays
I'm worn out breaking up the daily fights between Infected and uninfected. And you want to make Infected medicine? You might as well blow the place up.
Mays
It's hard to keep a balance between them.
Guard
......
Guard
You're Reunion, aren't you? At least, you claim to be.
Mays
More or less.
Guard
Who are your people?
Mays
What else would they be? Homeless Infected, war refugees, people who have lost everything. We all need a roof over our heads.
Mays
I first came here with a few other Infected. We found this ruin.
Mays
Later, more people came, including some... less than honest folk. We don't take anyone else in anymore.
Mays
I'm glad to see you, Reunion comrades, but I don't want to worry anyone here.
Guard
Worry?
Mays
That you're conspiring with us to wipe out the uninfected in our midst.
Mays
Whether or not it's just a pretext to get us to open our doors to you, we can trade supplies. But let's leave it at that...
Guard
There are plenty of uninfected here, so I get what you're saying.
Guard
But I still think it would be a good idea to talk it over with your people before you come to a decision. As long as we can get back to making medicine here, we can come to a long-term agreement—
Mays
No, no thank you.
Mays
Now, off with you. It was nice meeting you.
Mays
If you want to take this place, you're welcome to it. So long as you can take it.
I can't see her expression behind the mask.
Maybe she's just bluffing.
Guard
Alright then.
But I turned around, nevertheless, getting ready to leave.
Mays
Hey, Reunion!
Guard
Yes?
Mays
Is Talulah with your group?
Guard
...She is.
Another Talulah worshiper?
Sure enough, she's our banner, and that's her cage now too.
Mays
I hear she has a nomadic city.
Mays
Does that city of hers only take Infected?
Mays
......
Mays
If you haven't been infected, are you allowed to go there?
Mays
I've heard... from the passing caravans, I've heard it's a nice place.
Mays
We—There's some people here in less-than-ideal positions, refugees from the wilderness, orphans without a single relative. Talk of that Reunion city has everyone full of hope.
Mays
But... you only stand with the Infected, right?
Guard
A... city?
Guard
There might be a misunderstanding here—
Frightened Refugee
Mays! Do you know what they did?
Frightened Refugee
Did you tell them to do it?! Have you gone mad?!
Mays
What are you talking about?
Frightened Refugee
They—Those idiots!
Frightened Refugee
He might've been a fighter in the war here! Or some big important figure, here to doom us all!
Frightened Refugee
We might be just a couple hours out from a battalion of Sarkaz coming in here to wipe us out!
Guard
What's going on?
Frightened Refugee
You... Are you with Reunion, like Mays?
Frightened Refugee
It was you, your people—
Frightened Refugee
Those Infected, they killed a Sarkaz in the warehouse!
Mays
—
Mays
Bollocks!
Frightened Refugee
He... He was Infected too... He's going to explode, right?
The Sarkaz who rode a motorbike, he was a junkman, going around selling stuff he took off the dead.
He was clearly beaten to death, limbs twisted up in unnatural ways.
His hands are tied. He must've tried to break free, judging by his bloody wrists.
The gathered crowd is mostly silent.
I feel a chill, leaving me briefly speechless.
Indifferent Infected
He... he's dead. The Sarkaz aren't so strong.
Indifferent Infected
Here... the medicine he had on him, and some stale bread.
The one who did the killing doesn't look well. He indifferently breaks off a piece of bread and hands it to someone beside him.
Angry Infected
He deserved it.
Someone spits on the ground.
One of them notices me, approaching me while chewing a piece of bread taken off the dead man.
Angry Infected
You! You're with Reunion, aren't you?
Angry Infected
Mays never told us how we could join you!
I remain silent for a while, calming myself down. I lower his hands for him, spotting the Originium crystals growing on his arm.
Guard
Why did you do it?
Guard
Did he threaten you? Try to hurt you?
Angry Infected
Huh? Why?
It's as if he suddenly loses interest, stumbling over to a nearby crate and taking a seat.
Angry Infected
When the Sarkaz burned our farm and humiliated my daughter, did anyone ask why?
Guard
He wasn't a soldier. He wasn't a murderous devil from Kazdel. He was just a wandering hawker, selling his wares on the battlefields.
Guard
He... even helped you.
Indifferent Infected
Huh, what does he mean? Was he Reunion too?
Guard
I am Reunion.
Guard
You lot must know what it is Reunion fights for.
Indifferent Infected
Sure, you're fighting for all the Infected!
Guard
This man that you tortured to death, the one who never even got a chance to share his name...
Guard
Wasn't he an Infected?
Angry Infected
But he was Sarkaz.
Guard
......
'Medicine and compassion cannot help the Infected in a way that matters, but solidary and strength can.'
Solidarity... solidarity.
Infected have no homeland. We share the same fate, the same sorrow.
These people don't understand... they've never thought about it.
But, what about us?
Will the veterans from Ursus on the team treat the Infected from Kazimierz well? Can Sankta Infected coexist with Sarkaz?
Even at Rhodes Island, I...
......
What about the future? If we succeed one day, and the Emperor of Ursus vows to stop massacring the Infected, if he agrees to grant us land and cities...
In this beautiful, seemingly impossible future...
Will Reunion, will the Infected, start killing each other?
Will we fracture, collapse, and give them another chance to butcher us?
Mays
Hey, Guard, his corpse... it's glowing, he's about to disintegrate!
Guard
—
I had no idea his condition was so serious.
Or did he really not leave any medicine for himself, trying to save money for some future that would not be his own?
Guard
Get out of here! Now!
Indifferent Infected
Run! Run!
Guard
Mays! How do you process the Infected here?
Mays
That room, the innermost one!
Mays
Hurry, we have to throw him in there!
Mays
Damn it, damn it all... I need a second, protection... for the nose, mouth, and wounds...
We make our way quickly through the gigantic tanks, some places have already started collapsing. The air is full of the pungent scent of alcohol, with smoke floating in from somewhere.
This workshop, where the Victorian Reunion began, is about to go up in flames.
Guard
We're almost there, quickly now.
The waves of intense heat hit, Mays struggles to stay standing, the herbs in her arms are lifted by the hot air.
But they're watching behind me. Those eyes... are they judging me? Or just judging my insignificant death?
What did they expect of me?
I can't think about it... I can't.
Maybe I let them down with their deaths. They should hope for a more meaningful end for me.
Like, I don't know, dying on the steps of the palace in Deity Grypherburg? Anyway, not here, not dying for an uninfected woman I just met, holding some broken petals in my arms.
How could I face them here?
But I still need to face them.
Guard
Take them... and go.
Guard
The exit is right ahead, don't lose them this time, I might've... crushed some of the petals, give them to a woman named Nine, she knows what to do.
