The Outpost – Nothing Short of Heroic

By: Patience Kapfer

With Talon (Jessica Green) injured and now all alone since she sent Zed (Reece Ritchie) back through the portal, she is extremely vulnerable. In pain and out of water, she decides to rest next to a tree only to be met by Prime Order soldiers. She tries her best to hide her wound and her black blood as the lead soldier tells her that it’s dangerous for a woman to be traveling alone at the border road. She tells the soldier that she’s just resting and will be on her way soon, continually refusing their help of escorting her to the next rest stop. Despite her best efforts Talon moves her hand, revealing her black blood and the soldiers move in to arrest her. She makes a move to remove her sword, but the soldier says there’s a reward and promotion whether they bring her in alive or dead. Talon reluctantly puts away her sword and the soldier knocks her unconscious.

Since Talon is tied up and in the custody of Prime Order soldiers it seems all hope may be lost. That is until Garret (Jake Stormoen) arrives pledging his allegiance to The Three. Garret tells the soldier that they captured his prisoner, but the soldier insists that they bring her in to The Three together and share in the glory. Garret tells the soldier that Talon has valuable information about the false queen and if she dies before he can interrogate her it would greatly displease The Three. The soldier tells Garret to interrogate her now, so Garret tries to explain himself and his plan to Talon. Talon is not quick to believe that Garret has changed, even though he explains that Janzo (Anand Desai-Barochia) was able to cure him. Garret formulates a plan to cut Talon loose and they will each attack the other guards, but Talon needs to act like Garret is actually interrogating her. Even though Talon doesn’t automatically trust Garret, she still follows through with his plan and after fighting all of the Prime Order soldiers they make their escape.

Once they are far enough away from the soldiers, Garret explains that The Three altered his mind and Janzo really cured him. Talon believes him since he had the opportunity to kill her and he saved her instead. Garret then manages to convince Talon to come with him to the Capital to get revenge on those who brainwashed him and made him try to hurt those who care about him. Garret and Talon manage to make it to the Capital and sneak inside the walls when the guards are distracted by a large explosion. It seems after Garret’s failure The Three designed a weapon of their own to use against Gwynn and the Outpost.

Janzo has had enough of his mother’s shady colipsum business and decided to take Gwynn (Imogen Waterhouse) right to the Mistress’s (Robyn Malcolm) secret basement where she has been hiding plaguelings that she’s using for colipsum. Janzo fully acknowledges that once his mother finds out what he’s done, and he’s managed to cure here, that she will kill him. Gwynn claims every piece of dirty money illegally profited at the expense of her people and instructs that everything else in the basement be burned. Gwynn praises Janzo for his actions, but still is steadfast that he will be properly punished for helping a traitor escape once he has found a cure. She does; however, decide to remove the guards that were tasked with constantly supervising Janzo.

As a necessary precaution the Mistress is forced to sleep in a cage just in case she turns into a plagueling, which she is not exactly pleased about. She is also growing exceptionally impatient that Janzo hasn’t found a cure for her yet, especially when he managed to cure two other people who weren’t even his relatives. Janzo is quick to note that she isn’t his relative either, since he is adopted which she frequently reminds him. The Mistress then tells Janzo that he was worth the investment of her time and money. She shares with him a story that when he was six years old he caught the swine pox. It was killing all the other children, but instead of sitting down or lying down at all he went in search for a way to make the pox go away. Janzo tried putting anything on himself to make the pain go away and eventually found that horse manure was the one thing that alleviated his suffering. After seeing how smart Janzo was, the Mistress had decided not to sell him. Instead, she trained him with the master brewer. Janzo then became the master brewer at the Nightshade at the age of ten and the Mistress tells Janzo that he was a good investment then and is one now. It’s the first time she’s shown any signs of approval toward Janzo and it’s obvious that it means a lot. But when she tells him that she never meant any of the mean things she’s said and she will treat him better when he manages to find a cure, Janzo doesn’t believe her. When he tells her that he told Gwynn about the colipsum she gets angry but then tells him he did the right thing and that’s why she loves him.

When Janzo returns with food for his mother and new treatment options he is surprised and saddened to find she has turned into a plagueling. With the stakes having increased exponentially with his mother turning, Janzo steps up the pace in finding a cure. He knows the cure has to somehow be correlated with the flowers, but he has tried every combination with the vines, flowers and soil and none of it has worked. So, Janzo returns to the hill where he had his other two successes and while there notices some annoying, stinging bugs. He then remembers the itchy spots on the two people that were cured and decides to bring back a sack full of the bugs to test on his mother. He puts the sack over her head and allows them to sting her multiple times. When he removes the bag, she coughs up the plagueling parasite and eventually resumes her normal demeanor.

Janzo determines that the plagueling parasite must be allergic to the sting-flies and rushes out to the forest to find more of the flies. While in the forest, Janzo finds an entire sting-fly nest and is then attacked by an entire horde of plaguelings, but luckily Janzo is smart enough to smash open the nest. To Gwynn’s surprise Janzo returns with not only a cure, but also an entire group of new recruits that he successfully cured. Even though Janzo cured Garret, turned in his mother and found the cure for the plaguelings, Gwynn agrees to spare Janzo’s life but insists he still go to prison.

This week Gwynn also receives a surprise when a man (James Downie) shows up at the gates to the Outpost claiming he is her close relation. When Gwynn reaffirms she has no relations, the guard tells her that the man said his name is Alton. This immediately sparks Gwynn’s interest. Upon seeing Gwynn, Alton greets her by calling her “sister.” Gwynn doesn’t believe he is truly her brother since her brother was executed along with the rest of her family. Alton says he was actually spirited away like Gwynn was and was swapped for the court scribe’s son who looked like him. He says he only heard about her when she sent word to the Cormacks calling for them to join her against the Prime Order. He is less than eager to go into the “boring details” of who raised him and how he knows the Cormacks, which might still peak Gwynn’s suspicions. Despite Alton’s use of his old nickname from childhood and knowing stories only he would know, Gwynn is hesitant to believe this man is really her brother. Gwynn also recognized that this man might just want her throne since Alton would be the rightful heir. However, this man says he doesn’t want anything to do with the throne. It seems he’s “just happy to be reunited with his big sister.”