To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch30 Sparring

Sparring

Astarte stood and tried to leave the meeting promptly, the other captains milled about in the corners of the meeting room discussing private matters with each other. She was just about out the door when a hand tapped her on her left shoulder, she internally cursed herself and her lack of peripheral vision. She turned her head fully but could only make out purple fingers. Grumbling to herself she fully turned her body until she was face to face with Modius.

He scratched the back of his head, his cheeks a little flushed in embarrassment. "Sorry Aster, I forgot about the eye, should have approached from the other side."

She sighed "It's fine Modius, I forget about it too."

He looked concerned "Does it hurt?"

"Not often, your sister patched me up pretty good. It stings sometimes though, phantom pains and all." She shrugged nonchalantly.

He nodded in sympathy "That brings me to my question, how's my little sister?"

Instead of answering she just jerked her head towards the hatch and lead him to quiet and unoccupied corner. Aster bit her lip "She's fine physically, she got through the whole thing unscathed. But she was a part of the initial ambush, I'm told a marine died in her arms as she was trying to heal him."

He looked shocked and concerned, and a bit of Aster's cold heart melted at the sight of his brotherly affection. "And after that?"

"After that they had to fight their way out, I'm told that she had to kill several Eggads to defend herself and her friends"

He cringed "So she broke her vows then" he looked dejected.

"About that, what the hell is up with that? Why swear away your ability to defend yourself, seems stupid to me."

"I feel the same way as you do, stripping a person of their ability to fight back just seems plain stupid to me. Its never really an issue on Torwen, people just leave the healers alone. But out here it quickly becomes a deadly restraint. But that's not the point, the Alwen I knew was very dedicated to Ashendra. She used to tell me about the martyrs who kept their vows to the end, and how she admired them." He scowled.

"And is there no way to ask for forgiveness or something, on Earth we have something called absolution. Do you not have something like that on Torwen?" she asked, remembering the one time her adoptive mother took her to a catholic church after she ambushed someone for their shoes, hers were getting ratty and she didn't want to be a burden. Her mom had spanked her until it hurt to sit and then brought her to the cathedral to ask for forgiveness. She had no problem with Astarte fighting off bullies and thugs, but targeting the weak and defenseless was a point to far.

"We do." He said slowly "But Alwen isn't marked, if she goes to the temple to ask for forgiveness she wont be able to properly explain herself and mark her actions as noble. She would be expelled from the order if she went in and said 'I joined a pirate crew and killed other pirates to save my friends'. Part of her vows is to avoid being in places of needless conflict. If she knew our real goals then it might be a different story"

Aster scowled "Don't you have Torweni doctors abroad the Asmodeus, hell I've seen Ivren board with the marines and fight just like anyone else."

"That's different, not all Torweni doctors are a part of Ashendra's order. My own patron god Torwen, God of war and order, has a sect of war healers for wartime and combat. Sworn to save lives but not forbidden from fighting." He explained. The name the Torweni actually used for themselves wasn't Torweni, they used the word Kayweno, which literally meant person. Since a shocking amount of species simply called themselves 'people' and called their worlds by some variation of the word 'dirt', the Union instead found other unifying feature to use in addressing the varied peoples of the galaxy. In the case of her purple skinned friend the Union had an easy job picking a name since a majority of his worlds people were unified under the nation known as the Pact of Torwen, and had even begun to refer to the world as Torwens' world.