Book 3, Chapter 101 - Azura's Inspiration

Cloudhawk had returned to Sandbar Station for two reasons . First; to see if Gabriel was back .

When he returned to his store he discovered it nearly closed by the new, stringent rulers of the city . Luckily he returned when he did, otherwise they would have seen nothing but a load of contraband . The poor shop a.s.sistants running it would have been wrongly executed .

Gabriel, Barb and Vulkan were still gone . Cloudhawk didn’t know whether it was because the valley was farther than he antic.i.p.ated, or they ran into some sort of trouble . He supposed it was also possible that they were living it up in comfort and weren’t in any hurry to get back . Selene’s whereabouts were also a mystery . His return to look for help turned up empty handed .

Second; find a clue as to Adder’s whereabouts from his bar .

This guy’s scheme’s to steal the Dark Atom’s atom bomb had really p.i.s.sed him off . He still didn’t know a hundred percent where that snake-f.u.c.k was going to use the thing . He had the power to level a whole city, erase hundreds of thousands of life in an instant . Terrible, evil power in the hands of an untrustworthy man . It had to be destroyed .

Cloudhawk could only imagine what sort of calamity would unfold if he let Adder keep the weapon .

He couldn’t just stand by and let countless innocent souls get annihilated . Nor could he let Adder’s insanity put the people he cared about, like Asha, in danger . It was a problem that suddenly very much became his business .

“You’re looking for Dad? He left several days ago and hasn’t come back yet . I don’t know where he’s gone either!”

Adder wasn’t at the bar . Hardly a surprise . With the weapon in hand it wasn’t like he would bring it here, where it could be easily discovered . But although the man himself wasn’t here, it afforded Cloudhawk a chance to poke around . If he was lucky there might be a few valuable clues lying around that’d tell him where the a.s.shole was hiding .

Luciasha, in her simple honesty, didn’t think too much of it .  

By now the young girl, Azura, had come to .

Squall’s medicine had been very helpful, Azura was in much better shape now . She blinked her big crystal blue eyes . “I’m not dead?”

“Silly child . You’re still young, with many long days ahead . Don’t even think about dying . ” Luciasha gave her a gentle hug, then introduced her to Cloudhawk . “A girl like this is rare, I don’t think I’m strong enough to protect her myself . Do you think you can help?”

The poor child was beautiful, but life had dealt her a cruel hand . Her hands were covered in small wounds, and thirst had caused her lips to crack painfully . Only her two big, beautiful eyes maintained their youthful vitality .

Cloudhawk spared a glance for the drawing she’d scratched into the floor .

He looked pa.s.sed the simple lines, at the beautiful life it represented . At the life the little girl hoped to regain . She had clung to the best part of her short life in the moment when she thought she might lose it . In many ways she was like Cloudhawk when he was little . Who knows what she might accomplish if she were allowed to grow up .

Cloudhawk hunched down and fished some medicine from his clothing . It was one of the cultivating bundle of herbs from the sanctuary, intended to foster and increase one’s inner potential . “Azura . That’s a pretty name . Since Luciasha asked, I thought I’d give you something . It’s simple, but with practice you’re going to get stronger and stronger . You’ll never get sick like this again . ”

Cloudhawk taught her the basic motions of the demonhunter training regimen . It was a quick thing, provided on a whim . How much Azura retained would be up to her .

Much to his surprise, the small girl picked it up in a hurry . She got the basics after one go, a fact which surprised Cloudhawk . Judging by this alone it was obvious to him she was no average little girl . She was brilliant, but she’d had the misfortune of being born a wastelander . Otherwise, with a good teacher, she would be a great success in less than a decade .

Luciasha clapped happily nearby . She spoke excitedly with the girl . “Cloudhawk is such a wonderful man, don’t you think? This is the first time I’ve seen him teach anybody what he knows . You should call him teacher . ”

Even at just six years old, the little girl was clever . She solemnly bowed before Cloudhawk . “Thank you, teacher!”

“Alright, alright, none of that . s.h.i.+t . ” Cloudhawk waved his hands before him defensively . “I don’t have the right to call anyone my student, so don’t you go calling me teacher . It sounds weird . ”

“I don’t have a mommy or daddy anymore . I don’t have anywhere to go . ” Yearning sprang up in Azura’s crystaline eyes . Her little heart was sensitive enough to know that this was her chance to change her circ.u.mstance . Maybe her only chance . She bowed again, pressing her head to the floor . “I want to be as great as you, teacher . ”

Cloudhawk found the scene to be both funny and infuriating .

The kid showed real talent and intelligence, rare talent . But what right did Cloudhawk have to be a teacher? Azura had an instant trust and dependence on him, probably because there was so much about them that was similar . It was easy and immediate that they should take a s.h.i.+ne to one another . Somewhere a thread of fate had drawn them together .

“Why do you want to get strong?” Cloudhawk asked .

Tears started to well up in the girl’s eyes . Was she thinking about her dead parents?

“Because there are a lot of people in the world who need help!” Her tiny hands balled into fists as she made her shocking declaration . “I want to protect everyone who can’t protect themselves! I want everyone who is hungry to be full, and everyone who is cold to have clothes! Everyone without a home should have a place to live . I want the world to be full of flowers . ”

Cloudhawk wouldn’t have believed a six year old would say something like this . But here it was . A child… what, did she want to be the whole world’s savior?

Something like a trance overcome Cloudhawk as he thought back a decade or so .  

Back nearly farther than he could remember, an old scavenger plucked Cloudhawk out from the ruins . Back then Cloudhawk was humble as the dirt, but like the girl he had unrealistic ambitions . Back then there seemed to be so much to look forward to . Now he was an adult, and all that youthful optimism had dried up .

Now here was Azura . Was this fate, or just a coincidence?

Cloudhawk sighed . “You can live in my shop . ”

Luciasha, her face bright with joy, explained to the girl . “That means Cloudhawk has agreed to take you in . ”

Azura rubbed the tears from her face and quickly brought her head back down to the ground thankfully .

A moment’s weakness, and now he had a disciple . It didn’t matter how talented she was, the d.a.m.n girl was six . He was staring down the barrel of at least ten years of responsibility . He hadn’t shown her the demonhunter forging method in the hopes of making her some grand hero, he just wanted her to be ready if she ever got herself into trouble . No matter what the world took from her, she would have that inner strength .

But maybe she could achieve what Cloudhawk never could . That was his hope, anyway .

After enduring the harsh journey back home, here he was . It’d only been maybe half a day . Now that the business with Azura was done, he slipped into Adder’s secret treasure room to see what he could glean . But like his first objective, his attempts were fruitless .

He was at his wits end . As Cloudhawk mulled over the helples situation, he suddenly felt something . Faint, but there – the resonance of a relic somewhere in the bar . It was so faint he wasn’t even sure it was a relic… a token! A demonhunter token!

Cloudhawk quickly returned to Luciasha . “Is there a demonhunter token around here somewhere?”

She looked at him in surprise . “How did you know? Yes, there is . ”

He took the token and poured over it carefully, peering at every detail . And then, all of a sudden, his pupils contracted like he discovered something frightening .

“I should have thought of that… I should have thought of that!”

For most they wouldn’t have noticed anything about the token besides the obvious . Cloudhawk, however, recognized the insignia . It was enough to confirm Adder’s ident.i.ty, because it was a token of the Cloude family . The markings were very similar to the ones on Selene’s token .

Every one of the Cloude family’s younger generation was talented enough to rise to the rank of veteran demonhunter, and carry their own token .  

Selene Cloude!

Zephyr Cloude!

Adder was Zephyr!

Cloudhawk remembered very clearly when Selene confronted him outside of this bar and told him to be wary of Adder . The two had come face to face and yet she hadn’t recognized the one she grew up with . It had never even occurred to him .

Zephyr… Zephyr… You sure know how to keep a secret Adder, you piece of s.h.i.+t .  It all seemed so obvious!

Adder was the Crimson One’s son . He lived out here in Sandbar Station, secluded, feeding information back to his father . This was how the Sanctum of Judgment was able to gain a foothold in the wastelands so quickly . Without someone gathering intel, it would have been almost impossible to keep their secrets hidden from the elysians . All of it was orchestrated by Adder .

He’d managed to muster together his own group, which meant Adder didn’t have to rely on the Crimson Church for manpower . But that didn’t mean he wasn’t working for them . Going after the atomic weapon was an act in service to the Crimson Church, definitely . A slow, ponderous plan – but once the Crimson One’s ident.i.ty was revealed, they were forced to speed up their timetable . Adder had to make the dangerous trek to the heart of the Dark Atom himself in order to ensure the primeval weapon was captured .

Years ago, Zephyr was a veteran demonhunter . He knew how to get information to the right hands at the border forces, and fast . He also had to know how to make the intelligence look convincing enough to make the officers act without question . It was clever: Make the border forces attack the Dark Atom headquarters, and use it as a distraction to steal inside . It worked, and now that rat f.u.c.k was somewhere with a city-destroying bomb .

Somehow the Crimson Church had to have known the Caliph of the Sands was there . Adder would be in danger, so it would only make sense if the Crimson Church had come as part of some arrangement . A business transaction . . . that’s what Wyrmsole had called it .

As for what the Dark Atom thought about the whole ordeal, Cloudhawk couldn’t say .

Wolfblade would probably say that there was only one weapon, so you only had one chance to make proper use of it . Smuggling something like that into Skycloud and detonating it was a real tall order .

But Adder… he was different .

He lived in Skycloud, at least back when he was younger . He almost certainly still had contacts, and thus a way to get the weapon pa.s.sed the border . Doing that would be exactly what the Dark Atom had wanted from the beginning . It was also a fine way for the Sanctum of Judgment to a.s.sert itself in the wastelands .

So was Adder’s target Skycloud city?

There was no clear evidence to support the idea, though common sense would say it was the best way to break the elysians . What would be a more crus.h.i.+ng blow than reducing their grand capital city to rubble? After growing up in the city Adder had to know it inside and out . He was the perfect agent to get the job done .

A cold sweat broke out over Cloudhawk’s body . Madness… it was all madness .

What would happen to everyone else when Skycloud was blown to smithereens? He couldn’t wait, not a second longer . The consequences if he let this happen were unthinkable!

But was he too late?

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