The Red Hand

"I never thought it could be so depressing to see more of our people alive..." Mizumi said quietly to herself as she walked a dirt road that separated rows of tents. While still technically on 'vacation' she'd returned to the City of Omara to see how the returning survivors were fairing and was currently in her adult form as she intended to meet with those who were running the U.N. aid mission. "They all seem so..." She shook her head, not wanting to linger on her thoughts any further.

The rescued Spirits were slowly moved to Omara after they had been released from Akagi's care, and once they were properly vetted. Most were admittedly apprehensive about their new overlord, but being saved and sent somewhere that wasn't outright slavery was generally considered an upgrade, so they went along with few complaints. However, that did not mean rehabilitation and reintegration were without issues, especially when it came to dealing with the international aid workers.

{We're lucky the Humans from Earth were willing to give us humanitarian supplies and medical assistance to deal with the survivors. Most were heavily malnourished, and more still are disease-ridden due to neglect and poor health from the harsh conditions they'd been living in. It's a miracle that any of them were still alive, and it boils my blood to think that there's still more out there still being treated like this! Akagi! Give those people fucking hell!} (Mizumi)

"But..." Mizumi sighed as she shook her head, again trying to calm herself down. "At least she's is keeping her word. Our people are being brought home, so let's make sure give thanks for that. Its been a long time since I've seem someone follow through with such promises..." She said before continuing down the road and being drawn to the sound of shouting from one of the nearby medical tents.

"Keep your hands off me, Human!" A man's voice pierced the air, followed by the sound of tumbling and glass breaking.

"P-Please, I'm just trying to help." A woman in a medical gown said to the somewhat feral-looking beast man with the face of a lion that was missing its mane. He was covered in bandages and had tossed the medical worker into a nearby cart which fell over from the impact, shattering the numerous glass bottles on the floor and causing a few small cuts on her arm.

"Help?!?" The man growled as his eyes seemed to burn with rage as he glared at her. "Your kind are the reason we're in this mess in the first place." He said as he moved closer to the visibly bleeding woman, the other medical workers backing away out of fear. "I don't know what's going on but we should start by killing every-"

"STOP!" Mizumi screamed at the top of her lungs as she entered the tent, allowing her magic power to explode out around her to bring things to a halt. "Touch one hair on that woman's head and I'll make sure you don't live long enough to regret it!"

{Where are the people I told to guard them? I knew some would react like this!} (Mizumi)

"Lady Mizumi?" The lion man's single visible eye went wide as he turned to her.

"Back away. Now." The look in the Water Spirits' eyes came as a great shock to the lion man as well as the other wounded Spirits. They'd never imagined she could look so angry as she was always a rather easygoing and stoic individual, not prone to allow her emotions to bubble to the surface in such a manner. “Unless you want me to permanently put you down.”

"I..." The lion man quickly backed away, allowing the woman to get up with the help of her colleagues. “What...”

"Listen, these people are here to help us. I will not tolerate anyone harming them." Mizumi said as she retracted her aura. "Does everyone understand? There will be no violence." She asked as her eyes scanned the room, quickly eliciting nervous nods from the other Spirits. "Good." She said as she walked over to the injured woman. "I'm sorry about him. My people are a bit nervous after everything that happened on Enoris. Humans have been an enemy for so long and with everything that happened, I suppose them being like this is to be expected." She said as she used healing magic to mend the scrapes on the woman's body. "But please don't hold it against them too much. They're just scared."

"No, it's fine." The woman said as she cleaned herself up with a small cloth from her pocket. "It's not the first time I've had some unruly patients!" She laughed, her reaction eliciting a chuckle from the other workers. "When I was in the Kongo after the civil war some of the fighters I treated were a bit rough at first, but they'd been through so much hell that I understood why there weren't the most pleasant people at that time. Trust me, I don't take offense. Plus you just healed me up with that magic, so I'd say no harm no foul."

"Even still, please accept my apology on his behalf." Mizumi said with a polite bow. "You've come here to help my people, and they treated you poorly. That is unacceptable and I'll ensure that it doesn't happen again."

{Shinlua told me there was some tension with the survivors after coming to Omara and while I knew it wouldn't be an easy path to recovery for them it seems I still underestimated the problems we'd face. I'll need to do better.} (Mizumi)

"Lady Mizumi." The lion-headed man spoke to her, still confused. "What exactly is going on here?" Why are you apologizing to a Human? And where are we? I thought you and the others had escaped?" He'd been unconscious when Eris' group had found him within an Imperial Slave mine and had only recently woken up.

"First, your name." Mizumi asked him to identify yourself, her words curt and sharp.

"Ah, my name is Wolverin." Wolverin bowed formally to the Water Spirit. “Please forgive me for not introducing myself sooner.”

"Well Wolverin, there's a lot to explain to you and I'll have to let the others handle the finer details but the long and short of it is that we did escape and this is the world we fled to." Mizumi gave him a quick rundown of the situation, abridging most of the details and leaving out a lot of details that she knew would only cause more confusion.

"I... I see..." Wolverin said as he sat on the bed behind him. "So you came back for us..."

{She returned... To save us...} (Wolverin)

"I've been doing everything I can to find and recover as many Spirits that are still alive on Enoris as possible." Mizumi said as she cast a bit of healing magic on the lion man, noticing that he was still in pain from his injuries. "It's not been an easy road and there are those we were too late to save, but I'm glad that you survived Wolverin." She said as she put his hand on the man's shoulder. "You did well to hold out as long as you did. I'm sorry it took us so long to find you."

"Hold out..." Wolverin said quietly, his face growing dark. "At this point... I think it may have been better to have perished in battle rather than have lived long enough to watch everyone I ever knew die during the war." He said with a defeated laugh.

{My family... My friends... Everyone...} (Wolverin)

"Everyone lost someone." Mizumi replied as she looked at the other Spirits, some of which were missing limbs or were badly burned. "And everyone left Enoris with scars."

{Even I did...} (Mizumi)

"And yet you're telling us to be grateful to these humans? The same people who killed our friends, family, and loved ones?!?" Wolverin said with a raised voice. "Lady Mizumi, you must understand that asking something like that-"

"I'm not asking I'm telling." Mizumi interrupted him with an harsh tone that told him there would be no debate. "Harbor whatever hatred you like in your heart toward the people of Enoris. To ask you to let that go of that would be the highest level of hypocrisy as I can assure you that of all our people I hate the people of that world the most." She said with tightened fists, barely holding back her emotins. "They slaughtered us like animals and blamed us for a problem that we never started. They killed us for fun and treated us like little more than pests. I witnessed it all, so believe you me that I probably hate them the most out of all of us...”"

"Then why are you telling us to let it all go?!?" Wolverin yelled. “Why are you making us-”

"Because the people of this world are not the same as those from Enoris." Mizumi said as she pointed to the medical staff who'd gotten back to treating the wounded.

"But they're Hu-" Wolvern was interrupted again by the Water Spirit.

"Humans of Earth, not Enoris." Mizumi stressed the difference. "They had nothing to do with what happened to our people and were appalled by what their kin were doing!" Humanity for all its flaws had unanimously condemned what those on Enoris had done to the Spirits and made it clear that such actions were deeply disturbing to them. Of course, Earth's Humans had their flaws and were in many ways no better than Enoris' Humans. However, they differed in one major way, they'd experienced tragedy and horror far beyond what had ever occurred on Enoris sans Vikes. Massive wars, famine death, and destruction plagued Earth's history, and while the current world was not peaceful Humanity had become sickened by such things and was slowly but surely working to ensure they didn't happen again. It was the same kind of learning that Akagi had explained to Halifax. Contraty to what the Sword may believe Humans did learn and change but that it took a long time and a lot of effort to do so. Both of which were happening on Earth at this very moment.

"So we're supposed to just shut our mouths and look past everything that happened?" Wolverin asked. "We're supposed to be glad that this group of Humans doesn't want to hunt us down like beasts?"

"No, you shouldn't forget it." Mizumi said as she put her hand on the lion man's shoulder. "You should learn from it. Take what's happened to us and use it to help us better our own future."

{We made this mistake once before. When we fled from Earth we didn't even try and make things work. We just accepted our fate and moved on, and it was the same on Enoris. We allowed ourselves to remain outsiders in an alien world and never really tried to integrate ourselves with the rest of it and as a result... We were an easy scapegoat.} (Mizumi)

"We're going to learn to live with other people. This time..." Mizumi took a deep breath. "This time we're not going to run, and we're not going to hide. We're going to face the future together just like Lord Dokorimon wanted, and that means we need to work with other people and not isolate ourselves from them like we've always done. Its time for the Spirits to step out of the Mist and take our future into our own hands."

{Akagi has given us a chance, a chance to correct the mistakes of our past and move into a new future for our people. A chance that I'm going to hold onto with all my strength!} (Mizumi)