Chapter Text
“Now if you’ll excuse me.” Sylens started back up the steps.
Aloy opened her mouth to deliver another retort but it suddenly slipped away from her. Confused, she furrowed her brow. The inside of her mouth was strangely cold. And dry. When had her legs begun to shake?
“Aloy!” Beta. Beta was safe.
A fire began to spread from her right side, scorching her from the inside out as it began to devour her inch by inch.
“Aloy?” Beta tried to catch her as she fell against the table, scrabbling for a hold she couldn’t find and collapsing to the ground.
Pain. Unbelievable pain. Tilda. She must have been a better shot than she’d seemed.
There was a commotion beyond the blackening edges of her vision. Cold hands pressed against her burning skin. When she opened her eyes, she was momentarily mesmerized by the look on Sylens’ face as he stood frozen at the base of the stairs.
It was almost—almost—concern. Huh.
Kotallo wasn’t entirely sure what he was seeing as the elevator platform rose to the top level of the Zenith base. A glowing red orb was the first thing he noticed, pulsing in the air as if it were a living thing. But that quickly became secondary as the lift came to a stop and he watched Aloy slip from Beta’s grasp and sink to the floor.
“By the forge, what—“ He pushed around Erend, his feet driving him forward as his brain tried to make sense of the gasps and whimpers of pain coming from Aloy.
Beta spun to him, wild-eyed, as she reached to cradle her sister’s face. “There’s so much blood.”
His eyes moved from her panicked face to Aloy’s. Her left cheek was streaked with blood. Because Beta’s hand was covered in it. “Where?” he demanded. “Where is it?”
“Her, her side! She stumbled and I tried to help her and her whole left side’s covered in blood.”
“Get her on the table!” Zo slipped her arms under Aloy’s while Erend took her feet and they carefully swept her up onto the table. “Beta, tell me what you know,” Zo instructed as she began to remove Aloy’s armor to expose the hidden wound. Beta was right, much to Kotallo’s creeping fear—Aloy's clothing was wet and dark with blood.
“She seemed fine when I got here.” Beta wrung her hands together as she watched Zo’s movement. Alva stepped close and wrapped a supportive arm around her shoulders. “She was speaking to Sylens but then…I didn’t realize anything was wrong until she stumbled and I saw the blood.”
“Fire and spit.” Erend’s eyes widened as Zo peeled away the leather base layer, leaving Aloy only covered in her chest wrap and exposing a grisly gash along her stomach and flank. “How did she keep going after that?”
“Adrenaline,” Beta murmured, her own eyes round and swimming in fear as she watched the blood ooze from the wound. Zo pressed her hands against it in an attempt to stall the bleeding but crimson quickly began to streak through her fingers.
“Adrenaline? What does that mean?” Kotallo demanded, harsher than he intended as he bunched up a layer of Aloy’s discarded leathers and pressed it on top of Zo’s hands.
“Uh, she, she was feeling an intense rush after the fight. And so she didn’t notice it until she started to come down from it.” They were all familiar with such a high after an encounter with a foe. The energy coursing through his body at the Embassy had dulled the tear of the bristtleback’s bite just enough for him to hang on and bring it to a stop. The agony that had followed had taken him under until he’d been dragged out from under it some time later.
“We have to stop this bleeding.” Zo’s voice was sharp but admirably steady, much steadier than he felt.
His focus beeped and GAIA’s voice flooded his head. “Zo.”
Zo removed her hands from under the leather and only then did Kotallo notice the slight tremble. “GAIA?”
“Aloy’s blood pressure is dangerously low. The wound she has sustained cannot be stopped with simple bandaging. You will need to close it quickly.”
“How? We don’t—”
“Cauterize it.”
Kotallo jerked to look at Sylens, the man’s face impassive as always. “What?”
“Cauterization would work,” GAIA agreed. “If you can find a suitable instrument and heat source it would be the quickest way to seal the wound.”
“Can you point me at any blaze, GAIA?” Erend asked.
“Indeed. Two levels down, less than twenty feet from the elevator platform is a cache with three canisters.”
Erend turned to Kotallo. “You keep her alive.” He held the Oseram’s gaze and nodded once.
“You will need to have a continuous source of heat. It is likely to take several passes in order to fully close the wound.”
“Beta, Alva”—the two women snapped to attention as Zo barked their names—“gather anything we can burn.” Alva nodded and took Beta by the hand to lead her away. He was still pressing the leather against the wound when Zo placed a bloodied hand on top of his. He stiffened. Her voice was a gentle whisper when she spoke. “We’ll need your knife.”
He nodded and released his grip on the leather, allowing Zo to continue the pointless effort to stop the bleeding. For a moment he stared down at his crimson coated hand.
“Kotallo.” Taking a shuddering breath to clear his mind he retrieved the knife from his belt and wiped the blade against his armor to remove as much of the lingering blood as he could.
Alva and Beta had finished piling up several of the ornate chairs from around the table and whatever additional bits of fuel they'd scoured as Erend returned with all three blaze canisters. Within a few moments of cracking them, the pile was burning tall and hot.
“It would be a good idea to hold her down for this procedure.”
“Kotallo.” Zo nudged him and nodded towards the knife he held in his fist. As he passed it to her she tilted her chin to Aloy. He looked up to meet Erend’s gaze and understanding passed between them as they positioned themselves at each end of her body. Erend settled his grip on her shins as Kotallo leaned down and pressed his arm across her shoulders.
“Hold the blade in the flames, Zo.”
His eyes never left Aloy’s face as he felt Zo move away. By the Ten, he hoped she would stay unconscious through this. He flexed his fingers against her right shoulder and willed himself to stay steady.
“Press it against one end of the wound and hold it until I tell you to stop.”
Kotallo braced himself as Zo returned with the red hot blade. “Ready?” He nodded in the affirmative and gritted his teeth as the blade made contact and sizzled. The smell of burning skin made his gut roll but the horrible smell was forgotten when Aloy began to shake. His eyes darted across her face but she didn’t wake. Her lashes fluttered against her cheek as she seemed to seize underneath him. At her feet, Erend whispered a curse.
“That’s enough, Zo. One more pass should do.” He released the breath he’d been holding as his pulse jumped in his throat. “Again, Zo. Kotallo, Erend, please try keep her restrained if she awakens.”
As the knife made contact again, Aloy arched off the table. “By the forge—hold her!”
Her eyes snapped open, hazy with pain and confusion as she screamed in agony against the burning metal. He pressed her harder to the table as she struggled. “Aloy—“ She yowled like a dying animal and his heart pounded in his ears. She tried to claw at him to get free and fight off the source of her pain. He pressed his chest against her body, trapping her left arm underneath him and catching the other securely in his grip before she could disrupt Zo.
Her skin was wet and cold against his and he whispered prayer to the Ten to end this quickly.
“That’s enough Zo.”
Zo released a shuddering breath as she pulled the knife away, the skin underneath raw and tangled under the smears of blood. “Did it work?”
Even though the wound was closed Aloy’s breath was still rapid and shallow. For a moment her eyes seemed to clear and Kotallo’s own breath caught as they focused on his face. “Aloy, I—“ In just the space of his whisper they clouded again and she began to shake. Violently. “GAIA, what’s happening?” he roared as tremors wracked her body.
“She’s going into shock.”
“Shock like an arrow, shock?” Erend asked as he tried to keep a hold on her legs.
“It is a biological stress response to the trauma of her injury and the cauterization. Erend, please elevate Aloy’s legs to promote blood flow to her heart.” With a grunt of acknowledgement he lifted her ankles to his right shoulder and wrapped his arms around her knees as she continued to shake.
“You will also need to raise her core temperature.”
“Here.” Kotallo blinked up at Sylens as he dropped a blanket over Aloy’s body. “Consider it a gift from the Zeniths.” He turned and strode back towards the large ship at the edge of the space without a parting word.
Within a few minutes of the added warmth the tremors through Aloy’s body began to calm. The jerks became shivers and the gasps became sighs. Tentatively, Kotallo pulled back from her and pulled the blanket up to her chin. Zo stood next to him and smoothed her sweaty hair back from her face. “GAIA?”
“She is stabilizing. But she should be monitored and kept warm until she awakens.”
“When will that be?” Kotallo asked as he watched her face, looking for any sign of life.
“Given the severity of her experience, I would expect at least several hours though it could also be a day or more.”
Alva tightened her arm around Beta. “Days?” She worried her lip as she looked to the others.
“Well hell, we can’t keep her up here on this table for days,” Erend grouched, anxiously running his hand over the back of his neck.
“I would suggest moving her to the nearest settlement for the remainder of her recuperation. Thornmarsh is my recommendation if you would like to use her sunwing. Otherwise Fenrise is to the northeast of the beach where you entered the underwater tunnel.”
Zo’s brow furrowed. “GAIA is it safe for us to move her?”
“Yes, Zo. In this instance the benefits outweigh the risks. Machine activity in the area is currently minimal. The weather conditions will be clear to allow for travel but the temperature will steadily decline and rain is expected.”
They all looked at each other in silence as they contemplated their next move. “Erend,” Zo began, “do you feel comfortable carrying Aloy on her sunwing?”
He shifted nervously. “By the forge those things freak me out.” Then he cleared his throat and straightened. “But for Aloy? Yeah. Yeah I can do that for her—get her someplace safe as quick as possible.”
Kotallo flexed his hand at his side. He trusted Erend, especially with Aloy. But the idea that he would have to split off with her while the rest of them made their way on foot rankled him. Zo nodded and wiped her stained hand against her stomach. “Okay.” She slipped two fingers into her mouth and whistled.