When Amari made it to Sabi's house, it was packed with members from the Jaded Blade. She pushed through the crowd, making it inside and spotting Jamie near the farther door.
"Jamie!"
Jamie's eyes were tired, but her body wouldn't stay still. Her head snapped up as Amari ran to her, her steps slowing down as she got in front of her.
"Amari!"
She reached out, hugging her tightly, and Amari pulled back after a moment to look at her. "What happened? Are you ok?"
Jamie nodded her head. "I am but Alex and the chef – they—"
"It was the reapers, those bastards." Jace muttered under his breath
"The reapers?" She looked at him. "What happened?"
He sighed. "They had gone to Otto's stand, and after a while, Jamie had a bad feeling, so we went to check on them, and... Alex was dragging the chef back with a broken leg, and the chef... his fingers—God, his fingers were bent in a way that was unnatural."
Jamie took a shaking breath. "We took them to Sabi as fast as we could – he is in there with them now."
*****************************************************
Sabi closed the door behind him as he walked out of the room. "Okay, I have some pretty bad news."
Jamie stood up. "Are they okay?!"
"Yeah – yeah, they are fine...mostly – that's the good part though." He rubbed his temples, clearly exhausted. "So Alex's leg is going to take a while to heal, that is to be expected. However, the chef's fingers are much more delicate. They are going to take longer to heal. He cannot perform any strenuous movements with his fingers, including cooking, for at least 3 months; even after he returns to cooking, it will take time for him to adjust.
"Oh hell nah!" A gang member yelled, "We can't let this go!"
Noises of agreement sounded from the rest of the gang but were cut off by a question.
"What can we do about it?"
Everyone looked at Jamie as though baffled by the question.
"What do you mean? We go there and give them the same treatment Alex and the chef received!"
"How? We can't take storm the place. Aaron is sick, and Sebastion is gods know where – other than Amari, what other strong people do we have?"
"I...have to agree." Jace said, "Most of us are one stars – going there right now would be foolish."
Amari stood up.
"Then we have some work to do."
*******************************************
Andy fell to one knee, Sebastion sprawled out on the ground.
"And you want me... to train you?" Mr Hines spoke, standing in front of them.
He circled them, tapping Andy's knee once. "You fell off. What happened to you?"
He turned to Sebastion. "And you? I gave you my sword for a reason, only for you to not know how to use it? Why do you keep extending your arm like that? A sword is not a spear, boy."
He went back to the front. "But if you want training... I'll give you training."