The wounded kept coming and Lana was grateful she was not the only one. She handled the easy injury cases. The rest were taken to the infirmary to be treated by the healers. Lana was getting anxious. What if Quinn died down there? How would she break that to Sil? He would be devastated.
Lost in her thoughts, the teleporter activated once more. More wounded came through then someone came through yelling, "we won! The Sunshields are defeated!"
Lana was shocked and happy all at once. She healed three people, sending the rest to the healers. Then someone came through carrying Quinn. Paul, she thought. She didn't pay much attention as she saw how bloody Quinn was. He needed blood and rest so he was taken to his room. Fex and Paul promised to look after him.
With Quinn in good hands, she went looking for Sam who she had not seen come through yet. She found him just the other side of the teleporter. The level of destruction the faction endured broke her heart. It would need to be rebuilt. She knew they could live on the ship until that happened. The water users were able to prevent a total loss but it still hurt. There were injured this side as well.
Lana was getting ready to go to them when both Shalt and Sam stopped her.
"Why are you here?" Sam asked.
"I was looking for you," she stated. "Do you need help from us?"
"Not yet. We need to sit down and talk about that. The Crow and Eagle factions will be disbanded at the end of the day. That was agreed upon before this started. After the attack, the Cursed faction would be created and the assets that remain from the two factions would get rolled into the Cursed. Everyone will have a choice to stay here or move to another faction. The leadership will remain Quinn, Blip, and Dennis."
Lana nodded. "We have room for people if they want to come to us. We don't have many low-tiers to hunt, though. Hunting would get really boring. If you want king-tiers, we have your number." Lana chuckled wryly.
"Let Kattie know when the Cursed is up. She will put us under you in the system. She will need the back door to allow you to come through my teleporter. Who on your end should have access to us? Has Quinn mentioned it?"
Sam shook his head, "no. He's never mentioned it. I think he wanted you to make that decision."
Lana thought for a moment. "You are his strategist, correct? You help him make decisions?"
Sam nodded.
"Okay, I need you to come through when you can. We are dividing the labor between Family and Faction. I put Kattie in charge of the Faction while I run the family side of things."
Sam nodded once again, "so I should work with Kattie on faction needs and such?"
Lana nodded. "Our three apprentices for the forgery are on the ship now. I was lucky to be here at the right time. I had just brought them through when people came through telling us the Sunshields had arrived."
"Three new forgers?" Sam smiled.
Lana chuckled, "apprentices for now. We will build our own forgery as well and bring one or two back once they are ready, maybe. That is between you and Kattie. It may be more beneficial as is. Another thing is, I'm supposed to be reporting to Quinn or his representative on Sundays so if he's still healing, that seems like it would fall to you? Or should I talk to Blip?"
"It's easier to talk to me. I'll keep everyone briefed of what they need to know."
Lana nodded. "need to speak to you, Paul and Kaz. The sooner the better. Since my pregnancy is so advanced, I have not done much outside of my shelter which has given me time for other things. Do you think you can arrange that soon?"
Sam nodded, "is it a quick thing?"
Lana nodded. "We can meet in my room to keep the information between us. Just to make sure, you have been turned, correct?" Lana whispered the last part so only he and Shalt could hear.
Sma nodded, "I'm not vampire level yet but I will be."
Lana nodded. "We'll go to my room and wait for you. I need to rest."
Sam nodded. "We'll be there soon."
About 30 minutes later, Sam brought Kaz and Paul to her. Lana explained the mission set forth by the King to Quinn and his team since she was sure he didn't know.
"When we were on Earth, in the remnants of Dreamland City, the trees showed me what happened. While I don't care to regale the devastation, I did get a bit of what happened before. I didn't recognize anyone when I first saw it but, now that I've had time to review the files, a ship left the city with three people that we are looking for. This means at least three were still alive at the time the city fell. Where they went, I don't know."
Kaz looked more alert as she heard the words. "Does Quinn know yet?"
Lana shook her head, "no, I was going to tell him after I turned my future forgers over to Alex. Then the war broke out on the planet."
Kaz nodded. "It's not much but I will include it in the next report."
Lana nodded. "I really need a nap now if you guys don't mind."
Sam smiled and escorted everyone from the room. Caser climbed on the bed to cuddle with her. Shalt took his position at her door, especially with all the extra people on the ship. Lana slept about 2 hours then went and checked on her forgers.
She didn't go in the room. In this area, due to things in the past of destroyed work, there was a small window she could watch from. At the moment, Alex was making a piece of what looked like armor and her people were watching but also duplicating his hammer work on a piece of metal to learn the strokes. Lana smiled and went back home.
She walked around talking to people making sure everyone had what they needed. Her next step was going to be building the underground up. The surface wasn't full by any means but she had already rescued so many. The dalki war wasn't even there yet.
The next morning, Kattie informed her they were now under the Cursed Faction in the system. Sam had been given teleport privileges and was waiting for Quinn to find out who else should be permitted. Sam never went beyond C-Rank.
Lana had been thinking about it for a bit. "Kattie, why don't you ask Dennis? He might be able to give us advice on building up the underground portion."
Lana was doing her martial arts class with Steve when Kattie walked in with Dennis. Lana smiled but continued teaching her students the proper form for punches. She was always a quick study on this and had to keep reminding herself it took years for normal people to attain her level. Normal was something she had never been accused of being.
Soon Duff took the stage and began demonstrating the sai. Lana was much slower these days but she grabbed a pair as well. They had been doing this for a month and not a single person had gotten hurt. She considered them miracle weapons. She would always leave the room when Steve did his sword training which was next. She noticed Kattie and Dennis talking while they watched and figured they were waiting for her.
She was right. Dennis wanted to discuss her shelter.
"I love your trees here but I have to ask. How long do they live for?"
"About 30 years. I will need to petrify them at some point but I was wondering when I should."
Dennis nodded. "Can you do this below in any way?"
Lana laughed, "it would be faster to grow it then petrify it but no, not an option."
"What would you like down there?"
"Essentially it to be like a tier-1 city but underground. If we block the exits out of the dumping bait beasts and put in secret exits that are guarded, there will be no threats to the people even if there are on the surface."
Dennis smiled, "I like how you think. Let me put some thought into it. We are rebuilding our home right now, hopefully better."
"Do you need help with that?"
Dennis chuckled, "young lady, you have more going on here than you have people. Do your thing. We are okay for now."
Lana nodded believing that was fully accurate.
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