He is not sure how long they can spend with the Skirmishers. They are generous with their help, but Cecily is clearly terrified of them, and he and Ines don’t trust them enough to help dispel her fears. Still, Tatiana needs to recover, and only time will help that.
She surprises everyone by dragging herself to her feet after only a week at the new camp. Tatiana wobbles, almost collapses, then seems to steady herself. The steadiness lasts for only a moment though, and fortunately Betos is close enough to her to run and catch her.
“You should still be resting,” Betos scolds lightly. She tries to nudge Tatiana back towards her cot.
Tatiana manages to hold her ground, even in her weakened state. “I’m fine,” she insists. She takes a second to catch her breath, then tries to walk forward. “I want to see my daughter.”
Betos keeps a hold of her, helping her to keep her balance, but she does not try to dissuade her from her goal. “You will heal faster if you rest,” she says lightly.
“Hasn’t been working the past few days,” Tatiana retorts. They spot Cecily and John playing together near the edge of camp, with Ines nearby talking with Mox. She pushes herself a bit harder, almost stumbling again if it weren’t for Betos’s help.
“I will ask Bejj to examine you again, if you’d like.”
“No, I don’t-” Tatiana cuts herself off before completing her thought. She takes a moment to recollect, then starts again. “I felt the same way waking up today as I did the past two days. I don’t think laying down any longer will help.”
They stop a few feet away the others. Betos looks at her, and for just a split second Tatiana has to hide her own blatant distrust of her kind. “If you have truly reached a plateau in your recovery here, I may know where you can receive additional help,” she explains quietly. “But I would rather not let you leave until you can walk on your own again.”
“And if I insist?”
“Then I would hope you listen to your friends,” she retorts, glancing pointedly at John.
Tatiana glances at him to catch his own worried look, then sighs. “Point taken.”
Betos smiles at her then takes a step back, still keeping one hand on her arm just in case. Once it’s clear she can balance long enough for the moment, she lets go. “Don’t strain yourself,” she warns.
Tatiana offers her a faint smile in return. Without another word, she turns to the others and takes a few careful steps forward. “Cecilka!” she calls.
Betos watches as the girl takes off and tackles her mother as best she can. She shakes her head in amusement and leaves them be.
They find themselves sitting across from Betos in her tent almost a week later. Tatiana does not look much better than a few days prior, but she wasn’t wobbling while trying to stand anymore.
“Go south far enough and you will eventually run into the Templar’s territory,” Betos explains, pointing on a map. “From there you will find one of their bases.”
Tatiana and John stare blankly at her. “You can’t tell us where it is exactly?” he asks.
“I don’t know its exact location.”
“Then how are we supposed to find the Templars?” Tatiana snaps.
Betos looks at her again, her gaze piercing though into her core. “They will find you,” she says.
Tatiana shifts uncomfortably at the certainty in her voice. “And you’re sure they can heal me?”
“Yes. On the odd occasion, some of their members have healed our own. Others have witnessed them healing other humans, too,” she assures.
Tatiana looks at John, and he nods slightly. “We’ll try our luck,” he says, looking at Betos once more. “Thank you for your help.”
The four of them set off the next day to the south after some almost reluctant goodbyes and promises to help each other where they could.
True to Betos’s word, the Templars find them. Two of them appear on a ledge above them, and after some brief introductions, they have no qualms about bringing them to their hideout.
Tatiana hopes that it is John and Ines’s XCOM connections that make them seem almost too eager to bring them back. Betos’s piercing gaze lingers in the back of her mind, but she follows regardless.
They reach the base by nightfall, a building that appeared to have once been some sort of resort that had been half destroyed. As they approach, they spot a girl a few years older than Cecily pestering an older man carrying a baby.
More importantly, the girl spots them. “Dad!” she shouts, running to meet them and wrapping her arms around one of the templars’ waist. He pats her head a bit awkwardly. After a moment, the girl steps back and takes a look at the four of them. Eventually her gaze locks onto Cecily, simultaneously eager and a bit nervous. “Hi,” she says. “I’m Sophie.”
Cecily glances up at her mother, and she offers her a few quiet words of encouragement. “I’m Cecily,” she manages.
Bill urges his daughter back over to the other man so that they can continue into the building. “Sorry about that,” he says, glancing at Tatiana.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” she assures. “I didn’t expect to run into many kids out traveling. It’ll be good for her to play with someone closer to her own age.”
“Good for Sophie, too,” the templar says.
“Maybe we’ll stay here for a bit longer, for them,” John muses, glancing down at Cecily who was still practically clinging to Tatiana’s hand.
Tatiana gives her hand a squeeze in assurance, then shrugs. “We’ll see.”
