The Meeting 2

Looking up, Raian saw a blonde woman. 

Donning a thin leather cloth and garment, hair styled in a unique way, the center was lengthy and flayed into one side, the sides were shaven cleanly. The tall woman had stopped the hand that was going to end his own life. But

The clothes didn't look normal or what people would consider clothes; it was more like an under armor.

Instead of worrying about his current situation, maybe because of a concussion, Raian's head was figuring out why someone would wear under armor alone on top of this snowy mountain. 

'Oh' suddenly it just clicked. They were awakened or ascended, maybe even transcendent. Raian knew the difference between ranks were so huge no one would be able to close the gap, the gap between Sleepers and Awakened were like night and day, and the gap would continue to increase the higher you go. Even the difference between sleepers and normal humans were huge. 

When he was reading the report about the strength difference between your average everyday person and an average sleeper a few days before, Raian couldn't believe his eyes. It's like when you suddenly become a sleeper your whole-body changes, gets reinforced by essence and turns non-human. 

Are sleepers even human? 

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In reality, slowly after looking up Raian passed out either the aftereffects of the heavy throw that shook his entire body or the full exhaustion from the mountain climb and while Raian was having his concussion related thoughts in his mind a strange situation was happening in the Hut. 

The two looked each other in the eye, each silent slowly forming their own conclusion. While holding the man's arm with her grip, which one was stronger was obvious by the expression the man was forming on his face. 

Breaking the intense stare between the two the blonde woman looked down at the unconscious Raian. 

With no change in expression in her eyes she shifted her eyes towards the broad man. 

"Explain." letting go of the hand the woman took both arms behind her. Standing tall the blonde looked at the man heavily. 

The man looked at the woman in fear after getting his arm free and actively rubbing the place where she gripped, pointing at unconscious Raian "He is a spy from the Legion here to leak our position to those Greys." 

"Really?" At the broad man's words, the woman raised an eyebrow, clearly shocked by the information. 

"Yes, he is shown to be a foot-soldier of our great empire, but his feats are not at the level of any foot-soldier should possess. He was able to ascend the mountain and most importantly he showed no reaction to my flames, any other foot-soldier would at least gesture towards it some under Deacon XXXXXX would even kneel and pray before it but he was just blank, maybe he was threatened by the flame thus making his body freeze."

Hearing the broad man's report the woman looked towards Raian again, but this time with some weariness, if the man's words were true, she should be careful even though she was an ascendant. The Grey legion was not a normal everyday squad under those Demons. 

Kneeling with one knee near Raian, the woman proceeded to touch Raian on the forehead. 

"Captain Gemma. "a cry of protest was heard from the broad man trying to stop his captain from touching the spy. 

"Silence" the woman stopped further protest, "if you can knock him out then he is no threat to me." further denying the chance of any resistance. She needed to sound confident even though the spies normally carried anti surveillance tools and suicide bombs on their body. Some even carried them in their body, poisoning their blood and proceeding to blow themselves up, causing more damage with their blood splattered everywhere. 

After a few moments of slight hum from her she stood up, walked to the broad man and proceeded to slap him behind his head. " Geralt you dumbass, he is clean and how can he be a spy in the first place he is laying down so close to your fire, if he was a spy he would avoid your flame in the first place or even being to pray acting as any foot-soldier would, even if he could withstand your flame he wouldn't be able to stand so close to it without showing further uneasiness," 

Pointing towards Geralt, Captain Gemma opened her mouth. "You were blessed by the flame by one of the deacons. How can someone stand tall in front of your flame, use that head of yours to think, you almost murdered an innocent soldier. " 

While listening to his Captain, Geralt grabbed his head, after Captain Gemma finished Geralt shook his head in worry, "Oh what have I done." moving towards Raian. Geralt tried to pick him up to apologize but was stopped by Gemme again. 

"Fool save your apology for later, he is clearly injured if you don't want to worsen them walt until he is healed, rested and woke." 

Looking at his captain, Geralt grimaced "of course, even though being blessed by the flame is such a rare gift the rashness is getting harder and harder to control. One of these days I might do something I cannot be forgiven for. "Blaming himself after learning the truth.

Happy with Gerald's reflection Gemma looked around at the other in the hut, "Emera get down here and heal him already."

A man in a leather shirt walked forward "Captain, Emera is currently sleeping. The area detection earlier must have taken a toll on her, the Camouflage must have exhausted her, casting it in a large area is quite taxing after all." 

"Tch" clicking her tongue Gemma shook her head." you're right, we should let her rest since we will be moving in a day," 

The news of moving caused groans from everyone in the hut. Even if they were qualified warriors of Srum they were still tired after ascending the large mountain and clearing the area of beasts, scouts of demons and other problems that could hinder their progress in the future. Cleaning up was not hard but cleaning up in a way no one would find their trace was much harder. 

Gemma stood before Raian for the second time close to the flame. her emerald started glowing and the flame burned brightly. Under her keen eyes even through the thick clothes no wounds could hide themselves, after all it was her unique aspect, she would use her aspect in order to find weakness in all the things she looked at, some people would say it was a strong aspect but stronger people such as deacons and higher ranking priests showed no weakness in her eyes, and sometimes enemies with knowledge about her aspect would create false weakness in order to lure her or some even adapted mid fight. 

Any mighty power depended on their owners, if a lousy idiot got the strongest aspect imaginable his threat level would be equal to someone competent with a weak aspect. 

"Head concussion, internal burst in 3 areas above the waist looks like most damage is in the upper body core, lungs are bruised, spine cracked, and a few broken ribs." Identifying his injuries, the emerald eyes ceased their glow. Gemme stood tall "no severe injuries, quite impressive for a foot-soldier to be alive after being thrown by Geralt full strength, he even had the will to throw a punch against him." 

Quite impressed by the young man Gemma took off her thin gloves revealing the skin of her hand. The skin looked pale and smooth, but the inner palm was rough and riddled with calluses. 

Right before Geralt could protest against her actions Gemma stopped him by raising her other hand. Puller her pal closer Gemme nibbled on her index finger causing a small wound. 

Pointing the finger to the floor near Raian, a few drops of blood dropped near him, after a few seconds and another few drops of blood something magical happened near Raian. 

From the dozen drops of blood a yellow light glowed, slowly something akin to a plant started growing, under seconds the plant grew and grew forming into a beautiful flower that was leaning towards Raian. 

The flower glowed even brighter. The head started moving, moving like the blooming process but in reverse, after all the pedals were attached together the flower dropped golden liquid on Raian's forehead. 

As the liquid dropped on Raian his breath noticeably eased. The rough and short worked breath were not a calm deep breath showing he was healed and was now relaxed. 

After healing Raian, the captain wore her gloves again and the wound already healed. She stretched out her palm towards Raian and blessed Raian with Greater recovery and pressed some of the meridians for greater effect of the previous blessing. 

Finishing up Gemma walked away from Raian, creating a table and a chair out of nowhere she sat down and looked at the man wearing a leather shirt that appeared previously "Luciel what do you have for me did the base send any new messages yet?" 

Luciel walked towards the memory table, opened his shirt showing his inner pocket, fishing out a small letter stamped with blue wax indicating it was a secret, to be shown to the leading person first. 

Captain Gemme took the letter and opened it reading its content. 

A small smile creeped out on her face "Interesting." were the only words she said while reading the letter.