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'We'
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.
Humans, we invented it all on our own.
You and me, we created them.
- Guard
Good news? Or bad news?
- Red
The good news is that the workshop is still intact, the forest hid it good. The dukes and the Sarkaz never got to use it as an outpost.
- Red
The bad news is, someone's living there. We saw lights. I walked up, identified myself, and the lights went out.
- Guard
Might be refugees or deserters.
- Guard
But they put out the lights... that means they're wary of us.
- Reunion Warrior
Our fighters are ready for anything.
- Nine
No, let's not be hasty. They might just be cautious, or fearful.
- Nine
Don't jump to conclusions.
- Guard
And anyway, Red's carrying a pretty long blade. Anyone would want to play it safe.
- Guard
Why don't I go? I'll have a word with them.
- Nine
By yourself?
- Guard
That's enough. The more men we send, the more nervous they'll be. Besides, if they mean us harm, a few more hands won't make a difference.
- Guard
The sky to the south has been red for the past few days. Percival and the others even found an Arts Circle...
- Guard
We need to move fast.
- Nine
There's some risk in that.
- Guard
I know.
- Guard
But we made it out of Chernobog.
- Nine
Fair enough.
- Nine
We'll be ready to provide support on the sidelines, to make a breakthrough.
- Guard
This place was some kind of distillery before the Victorian Reunion settled in?
- Guard
I can already smell the booze. Romanich would've loved it.
It certainly was a distillery.
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
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.
The door opens.
- Reunion?
Reunion, you said?
- Guard
Your clothes... who are you?
- Reunion?
Mays.
- Mays
Come in.
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.
She seems nervous, her gait is unnatural.
We're in the deepest depths of the workshop.
- Mays
Here we are. Nobody comes in here.
- 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?
- Frightened Refugee
We need to deal with him!
- Guard
......
- Guard
I'll take a look.
- Mays
Go, quickly! You should be able to help!
On the ground lies the corpse of a Sarkaz.
I... know this guy.
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...
Mays and I lift the Sarkaz's corpse and kick open the door.
Upon opening it, my personal Originium monitor started beeping incessantly. I've never heard the alarm going so intensely before.
Just...
Just how many Infected were processed here?
Every inch of the room is covered with a thick layer of Originium dust, crystal clusters forming in the corners.
'Danger' is no longer sufficient to describe the urgency of the situation.
I don't know when things are going to get out of hand for this place, but... putting a disintegrating Infected in there is definitely not a good idea.
- Guard
No good, move, move!
- Mays
What are you doing?! Why is the body—
- Guard
There's too much Originium in here. How many Infected have been processed in this room?
- Mays
I... Well... it was years they were being processed in there!
- Guard
There's Originium dust in the air, the place won't survive a violent disintegration!
- Guard
Get everyone out, now!
- Frightened Refugee
Wh-What?
- Guard
Don't you get it? The Originium environment here is extremely unstable. The place could blow at any minute!
- Frightened Refugee
So we leave? And go where?
- Frightened Refugee
Everything out there is—
- Mays
There's no time!
- Mays
We're talking about Reunion here! They have an entire bloody nomadic city!
- Guard
Run, get them all moving!
- Guard
I've contacted some of our teams on the outskirts, they'll take some of you in!
- Mays
Ugh, there's still some booze left in the distillery. If there's an explosion, the whole place is going with it!
- Mays
And that—
- Guard
Hey, Mays, where are you going?
The woman dressed in a Reunion uniform is struggling with the machinery in the deepest depths of the workshop.
- Mays
What are you doing here?
- Mays
I'm... Hngh... Help me pull that lever...
- Guard
Did you work here before? But you're not Infected!
- Mays
Thanks for not exposing me! Hngh... pull harder!
- Guard
Where did you get that Reunion outfit?
- Guard
This used to be a Reunion base, and so many died here... Don't test my patience!
- Mays
I... I didn't do anything!
- Guard
That's what they all say.
- Mays
I was... a worker here. That Reunion lot took over the distillery, and they needed hands to run the machines for them.
- Mays
I... it's just, the mercenaries hired by the lord attacked, and I ran... I'm not Infected, why should I die here with those Reunion?!
- Guard
So why did you come back?
- Mays
......
- Mays
Why?
- Mays
Because I had nowhere else to go, dammit! What other reason would I end up trading my life for a secret distillery?!
- Mays
I'm not Infected, but sometimes I feel like I'd rather be with Reunion! At least they have something to fight against, they have a purpose!
- Mays
Pull harder! It's stuck!
- Mays
First, open the switch for this unloading port. Reunion left behind a whole lot of material!
- Mays
The doctor said this was the cheapest painkiller formula, they were working on it for a long time. It only relieves pain, but that's enough, right?
- Mays
With this... can I be a genuine part of Reunion?
- Mays
That is... I might be allowed a home in your nomadic city?
- Guard
......
A nomadic city...
I take a deep breath and throw out a kick. It makes me sore.
The lever finally loosens.
The machine comes to life. The giant hopper tilts to one side and what falls out of it is countless... petals.
She hurriedly picks up the herbs scattered across the ground and carefully piles them in her arms.
If I don't consider where exactly I am, I feel like this could be... a beautiful sight.
Just like that city.
- Guard
We don't have a city.
- Mays
But, those Reunion guys all said—
- Mays
But, you... but...
- Mays
...Ahah... well...
- Mays
I mean... a nomadic city... a city, you know, we...
People without a home, people with nowhere to go, the Infected across the world are growing more and more numerous.
It's not that the disease is becoming more virulent, it's just that the world is becoming more cruel.
The great worthies have so much to say about the 'modern' era we live in, an unprecedented era of high-speed battleships, nomadic cities, of industry—
How enlightened our era is—
How tragic our era is.
'Stand together.'
Can the Infected really stand together, naturally?
Who do we stand with? Is it just the Infected?
That... nomadic city we're dreaming of, does it have a place for them?
Is a city enough to accommodate everything?
- Guard
Take the herbs, we need to leave.
- Guard
There is no application to join Reunion. If you're willing to fight side-by-side with us, you're already Reunion.
- Mays
But... I'm not Infected.
- Guard
It's not only the Infected who want to resist.
- Guard
And besides, I need you to help me figure out who killed that Sarkaz man.
- Guard
They need to be punished.
- Guard
Now come on, let's go!
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.
- Mays
Agh! My—
Above our heads roars the sound of buckling metal.
Well, alright, I push her away.
Then, I jump up with all my strength, and gather up the petals.
A collapse.
It's hot.
The sun is burning. I'm burning.
Is that the exit?
A few steps further.
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.
- Guard
Don't dawdle, move.
It's hot. It burns.
I remember the afternoon when I first learned I had Oripathy.
What was it exactly that caused my infection? I still don't actually know.
Maybe it was the time I fell in the river and something scratched my leg. Might've been an active Originium crystal instead of a rock.
Maybe it was the dust I inhaled in the mines.
Maybe it was industrial waste from the factories. Maybe.
But when I got home, the smell of smoke in the room hadn't dissipated. My luggage was packed and placed on the table where we usually ate together.
I found a salt lake, but I wasn't lucky. Maybe I chose the wrong place, there was no boat at the time.
I owe a lot to the Rhodes Island operator who came over and talked to me when I was sitting by the lake.
- Guard
Nine, Red, Percival, Talulah, guh...
- Guard
I'm not sure if I'll be burned to cinders by the time you find me, but I hope this recorder survives.
- Guard
You ask—
- Guard
Are we fighting for all the 'Infected'?
- Guard
Whether they're despicable, upper class, or even... royalty?
- Guard
Or... are the people we unite with, the people we want to fight alongside—
- Guard
Only the Infected?
- Guard
Only... them?
