175 Almost there

 Madam Min stared at the remnants of her beloved town. Much of what she remembered had gone. The milliners which had stood on the corner was now a pile of burned out rubble. The butchers was boarded up as was the flower shop. The stalls which had once housed a bustling throng of people and sellers were just splintered wood lying, desolate on the floor. She walked further expecting to see carnage, but arrived at a scene which made her heart sing.

Her boarding house was whole and vibrant. It had been rebuilt and repurposed, housing the children and some of the women she had collected and brought back. One saw her and yelled out, "Auntie!" Others looked up, and all came running to her, like chicklets to its mother.

"You're here."

"You're back."

"Auntie, we missed you. Where's Tantan? She wasn't with us?"

At that moment a frightened face appeared from behind Madam Min's skirts. "Tantan!" one little girl exclaimed and pulled her off towards the other children, laughing and skipping all the way.

Men, she noticed, were working in groups, but their faces were not Chen. Each wore the uniform of a man bonded to his division, one shoulder exposed, revealing the Twin Hammers crest and the letter 'R' beneath. She'd not seen this insignia and went over to inquire.

"We're Twin Hammers Ma'am. We are part of the Reparations division. Our job is to repair or build that what was broken by the Mu forces whilst they occupied." He looked down at his boots, nervous of her and the response he was going to get. He had already experienced hatred and beatings and he could understand that, after all, it was people, who, in his name, had done this.

"I'm truly sorry Ma'am, but I was nothing to do with this. I, like my comrades here, were sent up to the north to fight, but never really fought. All we wanted was to go home but that got harder the closer we got to the Province of Mu. I'm sorry, Ma'am, we are trying to make things right and we don't want to go back....." His voice trailed off as he became aware that all the men in his team had stopped and were standing with their heads hung down and their equipment held passively in front of them. 

"Don't beat us," another man said, standing behind the first man.

Madam Min stopped and looked at them. She realised they were victims too and they were on her side.

"So what are you doing at present?" She looked at the team leader. "If you need supplies or extra hands I am certain I can accommodate you somehow. How many of you are there? Where do you eat? Drink?" She looked around at the stunned men. They hadn't received kindness as yet and it was a new experience. "I am going to need to have a lot of work done in the town and I am sure I could create enough work to involve at least three of your teams." She paused and looked around. "I want to get the vibrancy back in this town, so I want to make sure all the shops are restored or at least rebuilt to a standard that you and I will be proud of. Who gives you your detail? "

"Er," he looked at the others, "sometimes if its urgent, then General Chen does, but most of the time..."

She cut him off, "Alright, this is what we are going to do....." and with that Madam Min took over the rebuilding of Chen town centre much to the relief of Hao, who was up to his eyes in files, tablets and demands that kept him up at night. Then, of course there was the on going fight in Tangun and the concern for Yiran, who lay in a coma at the apothecary's make shift hospital.

Niao looked at the frightened people and concluded there was no running in them. They had been starved and beaten and were barely human any more. 'Beaten ready for submission. This will take a lot of careful undoing'. She looked around and noticed thick copse of trees up ahead. She turned to her charges, "Sssh! Stay absolutely silent and follow me. We won't go too far. I know some of you can barely stand. Hold onto each other, hold each other up, I'm not leaving anyone behind." With that she grabbed two very young and frightened children. Tucking one under each arm, she indicated to follow her.

The alarm call had already gone out and Niao knew someone would be with her shortly, but she had to face anyone who might come back to the warehouse to check on the charges.

Dropping the two startled children in a dell, she called to the rest, "This way, down this slope and get right down. Do not, I repeat, do not lift your heads until you hear my voice, understand?"

They were too frightened to disobey. They nodded frantically and then pulled the children in close, hiding and shielding them from anything that might come their way.

In a flash, Niao had gone. She was returning to the warehouse.

As she ran back she called again. The reply came quicker this time and sounded closer.

She stopped dead.

Ahead were the soldiers she had seen earlier. Five of them ambled along, laughing and joking. They were off duty, that was clear. They carried very little in terms of weaponry, just a side arm, and little else. She slipped into the bushes, choosing the opposite side to the people she had hidden. Sending out a different call, "soldiers...five...quiet" a barking sound returned. They were almost on them.

"Good afternoon gentlemen. And where do you think you are going?"

Three Blades stood in front of them, blocking their way. 

At first they were shocked, but when they realised it was three against five, they began to swagger. Before the lead man could say one word in ridicule, the man next to him fell to the ground, blood spurting from a fatal wound to the neck.

He stopped and spun round. No one was there. He spun back, "you're ghosts, you're devils." By the time he had finished, another fell to the floor beside him. There was blood pouring from a hole in his chest where his heart used to be. The Blades laughed and started to walk forward. The soldiers, too terrified to go back the way they had come, fell to their knees, pleading for their lives.

"I think these would do well in the cages. Let's accompany them to their new dwellings." Niao said from behind.

They spun round to see a woman, dressed in skins, holding two blades, both with fresh blood dripping from them. "Good afternoon gentlemen," she said and then smiled, but it never reached her eyes. They were cold steel with killing intent. "I wouldn't try to run, There's only three of you and three of us. You are truly outmatched and outnumbered." They held up their hands in total surrender and stumbled towards the cages inside the warehouse.

The Blades walked walked with Niao to where the prisoners had been stashed. As they walked, the filled Niao on on what was happening and who had lead the initial infiltration. She wasn't surprised.

"And  Băo? Is he alright? What was it that caused him to react like that?"

"One of the people in the brothel was his sister. He cut her throat for her and then asked for the others to be given the same, dignity. It was hard to watch."

"That is a sign of truly loving someone enough to let them go. He knew there was no way of saving her. She would have been riddled with all sort of infections, let alone the stigma and memory of what she had been put through. May she find peace in her next incarnation and meet someone who will love her and cherish her."

With that, Niao turned to the order of the day. "We have thirty to forty ex-prisoners who were taken from, probably Chen, and were being prepared for sale. There are some very young children too." As she relayed the information she was making sure all the blood was removed for her knives and then tucked the back int her belt.

"Let's go collect them. The we work out what to do with the next"

"Ladies, gentlemen and children, come on up, we have somewhere to go, food to eat and wounds to dress."