NOVEL NEXT Chapter 43 - Unforseen friends
"How?" Han spat, his eyes seething. "How did you make it out? There were no other tunnels. You should still be buried back there."
"Sorry to disappoint," Rix said, coming to a stop. His eyes darted briefly to Luna. He hadn't been sure if Han knew he'd actually cornered Rix up against a zone he theoretically couldn't enter, but it was clear now that he did. That made keeping Luna's secret a little trickier. "But maybe you should have looked harder."
"They must have found something, Han," said his second, the woman with the tantos. "They're here, aren't they?"
Near the portal, the Divemaster's jaw tightened, and he took a purposeful step forward.
Han sucked in a few long, shuddering breaths, his face twisted into a snarl. Rix might have made a joke about the man's blood pressure, except Han genuinely looked a single wrong word away from losing it completely and ending Rix then and there, guards be damned. He'd suffer for that, no doubt, but it would be worse for Rix, considering he'd be dead.
Thankfully, Han seemed to get himself under control. "Rats always know how to scurry through the tiniest spaces," he growled. "Don't think this changes anything. You think you'll be so lucky on the next dive? Or maybe it'll be in Spiritlock itself. You're in C block, I hear." The man sneered. "Time, runt. It's just a matter of time."
With that, Han led his crew through the portal.
The Divemaster studied the two of them with barely disguised contempt. "Do me a favour, dreg," he said, his voice flat. "Next time you let him corner you, do it somewhere I won't have to find the body."
Rix met his gaze. "I'll try to be more considerate, sir."
The man stared a moment longer, then turned away. Rix let out a long breath. In the exultation of their escape and surviving the fight in the tunnel, it was easy to forget that their victory was temporary. He was still hunted.
***
That night, when he was alone in his cell, he forged his essence.
Path
Tier - Whisper (High)
Class: Unfused
Weapon bond: Quarterstaff
Style: Foundational Quarterstaff Basics (Low)
Embodiments: None
Aspects: None
Mana: 200/200
Essence: 0%
Techniques:
Wind Blade (Mid)
Force Hammer (Mid)
Body
Agility - 19
Strength - 7
Vitality - 7
Mind
Acuity - 20
Mana Control - 10
Mana Capacity - 10
Soul
Authority - 0
Sovereignty - 0
This time, he evenly divided his 8 points between acuity and agility. Having those two attributes roughly equal had been working out for him so far, and he saw no reason to change the balance. At some point, he may need to revisit his approach, particularly as his mana pool wasn't growing at all, but for now he was content.
The experience of forging was just as exhilarating and disorienting as before. A rush of pure distilled power, like a storm surge sweeping through his body.
For a few minutes afterwards, he basked in the sensation. Again, the improvements were tangible and immediate. Everything sounded a little crisper, and he could smell something new in the air, something he could only describe as cold and earthy. He thought it might be the stone of the walls themselves.
It was another benchmark. Another step along the Path. The next time he faced down Han, he'd do so a little more powerful, a little more dangerous. It wasn't enough. Not yet. But he had to enjoy the wins when they came.
***
The next morning, Tolson found Rix, bleary-eyed but doing his best, in the training yard. Despite ranking up and being surrounded by prisoners and guards, the near miss of the previous day led to a largely sleepless night.
Being tired wasn't ideal. Rix had a big day ahead. Not only was he getting a new technique, but with his style set, he was ready to fight in the arena for the first time. That thought filled him with nervous energy.
Tolson came bearing good news. "The Shadow Runners are willing to speak to you," he said without preamble.
Rix froze. "Are you serious?"
Tolson grinned. "I am. Their leader here in the Farm, Wing, was pretty impressed with how you dealt with Yutaro and Kenzo. But then she heard about your escapades yesterday, and it apparently tipped her over the edge."
"Holy shit," Rix said. He'd basically written off the idea of a faction at this point. It had seemed like nobody would take him. But with the way things had escalated, it could be a huge boon. He couldn't afford every dive to be like yesterday. If you rolled the dice enough times, eventually they'd come up snake eyes. "Thank you."
"It's no problem," Tolson replied. "Just understand, it's not a guarantee. All you've done so far is catch their eye. They'll want something more from you. The Shadow Runners don't take anyone that doesn't earn their place. For now, I've organised a chat with Wing. She's waiting for you."
Rix steadied himself and nodded. That wasn't unusual. Gangs typically asked something of you before admitting you, a proof of loyalty or value.
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"What's she like?" Rix asked.
"She has her quirks," Tolson replied, "but she's a woman of her word. More importantly, she looks after her people. If you do manage to impress her, you'll have yourself a proper ally."
"Sounds like just what I need."
"We need to collect your friend too," Tolson said.
It took Rix a moment to realise who he meant. "Luna?"
Tolson nodded. "She tried to get in with them a while ago. They said no to her too, but apparently something made them reconsider."
Luna had mentioned that, though in the chaos Rix had forgotten. Still, he was glad for it. Luna had put herself on the line for him and had earned Han's ire in the process. To leave her alone after she'd stuck her neck out for him would have been truly shameful.
He followed Tolson to the mess hall, where they collected Luna. She beamed at the news.
They were then led around the kitchen and into a back storeroom for the meeting. On their way, they caught a volley of death stares from the Iron Hand table. Luna gave them a cheerful wave.
Wing was a slight woman with shoulder-length black hair and hard features. As she appraised them, he got the sense of somebody with a keen eye for value and risk. A prototypical citizen of Cloudpiercer Citadel.
"I hear you two have a problem," she said.
Rix pursed his lips. "That's one way to put it."
There were two other Shadow Runners with her, including Huan, the man Rix had spoken with the day of his first dive. The man gave him a small nod.
Wing looked to Rix. "Word's already circulating about your little encounter with Yutaro and Kenzo the other day." She gave an approving little nod. "Handy bit of work, that."
Rix shrugged, trying his best to sound nonchalant. "They claimed I had a debt to pay. I thought they deserved a little interest."
A ghost of a smile appeared on the woman's face. "A reasonable position to take." Her gaze moved to Luna. "And then you recruit this one, and somehow get away again, this time from Han himself."
Luna made a face. "For the record, I don't particularly enjoy that he's here because he fought two men, and I'm here because we successfully ran away."
Wing laughed. "I've seen you in the arena, girl. Your skills are not in doubt."
That seemed to mollify her a little.
"Plus, I've been thinking on your…other talents," Wing continued. "The ones you mentioned when you applied initially. I believe I may have underestimated their value."
Rix looked askance at Luna, but she just shot him a conspiratorial wink. The only thing he could think of was that it could be a reference to her bloodline.
"Honestly, it's been a while since a new prisoner made as many waves as either of you," Wing said. "And given our current…situation, we can use all the useful people we can get. Particularly those who have shown no compunction getting into it with the Iron Hand."
"No qualms there," Rix replied. Though the words were fairly innocuous, they came out far more sharply than he intended. Everyone in the room glanced his way. Even Luna seemed mildly surprised.
"Good to know," Wing replied, a little bemused. "Well, like I said, you've got my attention, but we don't let people in without some more direct proof of their worth."
Rix nodded. "I know how it is. What do you want us to do?"
She glanced around at her fellow gang members, then back to them, as if trying to decide whether to reveal what was on her mind. "We've recently stumbled upon an opportunity. Do you know much about our little business?"
"You're smugglers, right?" asked Rix.
She threw up a look of mock offence. "Such a crass term. I prefer 'entrepreneurs.'" She gestured vaguely to the walls. "Out there in the city, there is a growing demand for treasures unstained by grubby corporate fingerprints. We merely help serve that market."
Rix found himself smiling. Wing reminded him of some of the more colourful people he'd grown up with, the kind that enjoyed the game itself as much as the result. Perhaps intentionally, she was also appealing to his instincts to bleed the corps wherever possible.
"So, what's the opportunity?" he asked.
A twinkle appeared in her eye. "A source has let us know that the Iron Hand recently made a discovery of significant value. A treasure that only comes around once a year or less."
Rix chewed his lip for a moment. He could see where this was going. "I'm guessing you want it stolen." A fairly standard sort of initiation. He'd had to do something similar with the Porcelain Knives back in the day.
"You're guessing correctly."
Rix considered this for a moment. "Isn't this just going to escalate things with them even more?"
Wing gave a dismissive wave. "We've been raiding each other for weeks now. Another one isn't going to tip them over the edge. We've done this dance before. They get their hackles up for a few weeks, bark a lot, then eventually back down. It never gets really violent."
"They know not to push us like that," Huan interjected.
Rix glanced at Luna, who shrugged. "I don't have a lot of experience 'stealing' per se, but I believe my skills could extend to 'forcibly relocating through combat.'"
Rix grinned. "Tell us more about the situation."
"Attaboy," said Wing. She clapped her hands. "Okay, so the target is an entropy pearl. It's a dark purple sphere about the size of a fist. Very rare, very valuable, very obvious to anyone with a spirit eye."
He nodded. Every treasure he'd found so far had felt fairly uniform to his senses, but it made sense he'd be able to discern their strength much like he could with other Martial Souls.
"The issue is time sensitive," Wing continued. "The only reason we have a window at all is that the Iron Hand are artless thugs. They're not set up to get that thing through security. Right now they're holding it in the realm, desperately trying to cobble together some solution. But they're inevitably going to botch it and send that poor beautiful treasure into undeserving corpo hands. You need to get to it in time to avert that tragedy. Probably tomorrow."
Rix couldn't help but laugh.
"Something funny?" Wing asked.
"Just imagining the look on Han's face when he works out he couldn't find me because I was in his quadrant."
Wing snorted. "Yeah, that is a pretty picture."
Rix drummed his fingers on the table. "Did your source say what kind of defences were in place?"
Wing's smile grew. "That's the best bit. Han is…emotional at the best of times. He already pulled people to chase you down yesterday, and word is he nearly blew a gasket after you somehow got away. We hear he's going to go after you even harder tomorrow. If we engineer it right, with a little luck, the Iron Hand quadrant will be a ghost town. You should be able to just waltz right in. Nice and simple."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "In my experience, whenever someone says 'nice and simple,' it's usually followed by something catastrophically complicated." She cracked her knuckles. "Which, to be clear, is fine by me."
Rix suspected she was right. There was a pretty good chance that, in practice, it might be more difficult than Wing made it sound, and if something did go wrong, they'd be handing themselves to Han on a silver platter. But he couldn't help but enjoy the irony that the Iron Hand chasing him might make them easier to rob. And the truth was the opportunity was too good to pass up. Having people at his back would hopefully hold Han at bay until Rix was ready.
"Well, okay then," Rix said.
Wing beamed at them. "There is one other quirk you should know about. Part of the reason the pearl is so rare is that it only forms in areas of intense entropy, typically where two or more entropy fields overlap. Take it out of that environment for more than a day and it starts to degrade. That means the place the Iron Hand are keeping it is one giant entropy field."
"That shouldn't be a problem," he replied. While technically a complication, at this point he felt a certain affinity for those little pockets of agony. It might even be a boon, given that he probably had more experience in those spaces than most.
They talked a little longer, further refining the plan, before eventually parting ways.
***
"Well, well, if it isn't my favourite 503," the Quartermaster said, as Rix poked his head into her study. She was leaning backwards in her chair with her feet on her desk, reading something on a sheet of paper.
"Aren't I the only 503?" he asked, stepping inside.
She scoffed. "You're the only 503 right now. You think you're the first ever? The moment you leave Spiritlock — alive or otherwise — that number goes back in the pool, ready for the next fresh blood who walks through the door."
"I had no idea, mistress."
"To be fair, you don't have much in the way of competition," she said. "The last 503 was honestly a proper piece of work. They threw her in here for using mortals for target practice."
Rix blanched. There was almost no way the Quartermaster knew of his history, but still, just her mentioning such a crime sent a momentary wave of grief rolling through him.
"I didn't know they actually charged people for that," he said, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice. It had always angered him that those responsible for his family's death had never been caught. Han was here for something unrelated. Something that had actually been considered important. Not that a few years in prison would have been justice enough for his family's lives, but the complete lack of action ate at him to this day.
Most Martial Souls didn't actually go about their day killing mortals, but it wasn't out of any sense of caring or empathy. It was more like a sense of propriety. It was viewed the same way as an adult beating a child bloody; uncouth because of the sheer power differential.
But when it did happen, well, the child probably had it coming.
The Quartermaster considered him for several seconds. "They do if it's bad enough. And this was. If it's any consolation, a fade gutted her a month into her sentence. Turned out a real opponent was beyond her."
"Thank the heavens for small mercies," he replied. Even that fate was too good for such a person, but he wasn't afraid to admit that hearing that filled him with a grim satisfaction.
The Quartermaster cleared her throat. "To happier topics, maybe? You could just be here for the pleasure of my company, but I'm guessing perhaps you've got a gift to receive?"