Waterstrider

Canvas Town, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fifthmonth, 1634 PTS

Karie watched expectantly as she waited for the soldiers to finish their assigned tasks, and was delighted when a cacophonous chain of booms echoed through the afternoon air. Moments after the explosion, the upper floors of the stack began to crumble, and multiple further explosions resounded within the barrier as it all collapsed inward. She gleaned over to see the reactions of others. Sulno’s eyes grew wide and horrified, while Pakas had an icy, resigned look. Karie herself, meanwhile, did not even bother to hide her own smug grin as orange smoke drifted upwards from the collapsing structure. Sulno turned to her with that terrified expression still on his face.

“How could- I can’t believe you would do that! Your cousin was inside!”

Karie chuckled, enjoying the man’s expression, before making a look of mock horror.

“Oh no! I had no idea! If only I had been told!”

She then snorted and turned back to watch another explosion within the barrier, which soon collapsed.

“Good riddance,” she muttered.

She then glanced over to Pakas.

“Let’s kill any survivors,” she said.

He slightly trembled, but nodded, raising his terminal to send the order out.

“By your will, First Commander.”

Sulno was trembling as well, and his surprise and fear had turned to rage, as it often did for that sort of man, in Karie’s estimation. Deep down, Sulno was hardly any better than his son was.

“You could be disowned for this! Or executed!” he barked. Anything to soothe the concern he felt for the loss of benefits he would receive if Juen were to die.

Karie sneered at him.

“We’ll see. Like they would give up a spirit refiner.”

“They might…” he muttered, still enraged.

Karie turned away, ignoring his meaningless gripes, and moved to approach the still shifting rubble. She knew the danger of her actions. However, she had now destroyed the base, and there was a reasonable chance that Juen might have died as well.

Before she had even stepped on the bridge, however, she was interrupted by an incredibly bright yellow light, glowing from deep under the rubble-strewn surface. Beams of light shone from cracks in the debris, blazing all the way up to the dome, far above.

Karie frowned, confused about the potential origin of the light. She could sense traces of extant miasma, decidedly not something she expected from the Celans. Had Juen done something?

The light quickly faded, and the rubble shifted again, a large portion of it tumbling down into the depths of the stack as if down a sinkhole. Karie began running faster towards the area, hoping to find the corpse of a relative. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Even more unfortunately, it was not she who found Juen, but one of the soldiers, who quickly shouted that he had found a survivor in the rubble. Pakas swiftly approached, leaning down to confirm his identity. Juen’s face was severely wounded, but his identity was clear, and he was taking slow, shallow breaths in an unconscious state.

Pakas glanced back over to Karie, and then gave the order for the soldier to help pull him out and take him to the chief apothecary to receive medical attention. Karie said nothing.

The man’s disregard for her orders rankled Karie, but she dismissed her annoyance at the situation. It was to be expected. If Karie had her position stripped, he would even be promoted. From his perspective, there was no need to risk his own position on her behalf. It was instead better to pretend she had never given such an order in the first place, and assist the man who seemed to be everyone’s preferred candidate.

Of course, Karie was aware that she and Juen were not the only candidates. In fact, the second most likely candidate for the position was another cousin of hers, Lorelei Hadal. The difference between her and them was that she lacked the family backing that the others had. After all, Karie’s family was dead aside from her mother and half siblings. Even if Juen were to die, most of his supporters would probably flock to Lorelei rather than her, or perhaps even one of Karie’s own siblings.

Based on what she had heard, she was seen as unpredictable and ‘difficult to manage.’ As far as Karie could tell, all this meant was that what the other Elders wanted was a puppet.

“It seems my luck is poor once again,” Karie sighed, as she watched her unconscious rival’s life being saved.

For several moments, she fancied the idea of running over and slaying him, but she knew that there was no way to keep it unseen. The clan would never accept a kinslayer, or at least not one who did it openly.

Her mother might have been able to get away with it, and the Supreme Elder certainly could, but Karie was simply not powerful enough both in terms of her progression level and her position.

Across the stack, she could see Juen being assisted upwards. His body was covered in scratches and deep red marks that would likely bruise heavily. SHe suspected that he had probably also broken a number of bones, regardless of his physical durability. He would likely have to spend some time healing after this, something that Karie appreciated, at the very least.

The conniving bastard deserved far worse.

Having reluctantly accepted her cousin’s survival, Karie sighed and sat down on a large piece of rubble, pushing around what looked to be a portion of a Korlove leg, still clad in the remnants of a soldier’s garb. Her hands reached back to her waist, pulling out the string ornament she had been working on, continuing the meditative process of craftsmanship.

After several further minutes of searching, she was interrupted by Pakas, who updated her on the situation. Juen had been determined to be the sole survivor.

They had not dug their way through all of the rubble, nor had they used technology to visualize the internals of the wreckage. Instead, they had simply used their soul senses to see if they could feel any living people underneath. The results had been negative.

The way that Pakas delivered the report was as crisp and professional as he usually was, and Karie couldn’t help but admire just how shameless he was. One minute he actively disobeyed her orders to assist one of her enemies, and the next he acted submissive and dutiful before her.

Like many things in the past hour, it got on her nerves.

“Understood,” she said brusquely. “Search through the wreckage to see if the Celans left anything valuable, and send the excess troops back to guard the border areas.”

“Of course, First Commander,” said Pakas, bowing respectfully.

He quickly left to execute the order, not pressing his luck. It was wise of him. If he angered her any further, she didn’t feel she could be held accountable for any actions she might commit.

After about a quarter of an hour, Karie finally finished her stringwork, and held it aloft to admire it. It was a complex, braided charm, and once she was finished, she tied it into her hair. Midway through the process, her terminal buzzed, and she removed it from her robe’s internal pocket to see that her ‘uncle’ wished to speak with her. She accepted the call.

Wei’s face looked haggard, his eyes filled with concern. Still, she felt suspicious of him. Had he really arranged for Juen to be secretly placed within her force, without her knowledge? She couldn’t be sure.

“Greetings, Uncle Wei,” she said with a smile.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I’m fine. What brings you to call?”

In her current mood, Karie had little desire to engage in smalltalk. Wei sighed, reading her intentions. He had known her since she was born. He probably knew her even better than her own mother did.

“I was told you blew up the stack while Juen was inside?” he asked.

So that was what he wanted to know about. Why was she surprised? Karie sneered.

“Hm? I don’t believe anyone even told me that he was present?”

Wei sighed once again, his expression growing even more tired.

“I’m sorry. I wished to inform you about his presence, but your mother ordered me to keep it a secret.”

“I’m sure she did. I’m sure everyone else agreed on the matter as well. Was I the only one who didn’t know?”

Wei was quiet for a moment, within which the silence stretched out as if in eternal repose. When he finally spoke, it was quiet, as if he was reciting her funeral dirge.

“I hope you know that you’ll have to be punished for this, Karie. Everyone will be in agreement about that. Your mother won’t take sides, at least not in any blatant sense. I’ll do what I can, but I can’t promise anything. At minimum, you won’t be able to retain your position.”

Karie shrugged, a physical expression that did not quite come through fully across the video call.

“It’s impossible to succeed in life without taking risks.”

Wei’s brow furrowed hearing this.

“Regardless of the dispute between the two of you, you and Juen are still family, Karie. Family shouldn’t be fighting like this.”

Karie sneered again at his words. What did she care about such meaningless bonds such as blood? Personally, she cared about her mother, her siblings, and Wei and his family. If the rest of the clan were to die, she wouldn’t mind dancing on their graves if she felt the urge. What good had they ever done for her?

“Is that all you wish to speak with me about, Uncle Wei?”

He sighed again, repeating himself to her.

“I’ll do what I can, Karie. But if you really want to become the heir, there’s one thing I will say. Internal backing is unlikely, at this point. You’ll want to look outside. Your mother has been planning to-” At this he paused, as if unsure whether he should continue to explain or not. He then shook his head. “I can’t say any more. But consider what actions your mother has been taking recently. If you make the right connections, new opportunities will arise. Good luck, Karie.”

Karie smiled.

“Thank you, Uncle Wei. I’ll see you later, when you revoke my position.”

Wei sighed for what had to be the fifth time in this short conversation, and bid his goodbye, before closing the call. Karie was still unsure whether she could truly trust him or not. Wei was like a father to her, as her own had died back on Canvas, and she could barely remember him. But she knew all he was truly loyal to were her mother and the clan, and Karie knew that she could not trust the things he would willingly do to preserve the balance between factions.

Still, she couldn’t help but trust in him. If even her Uncle Wei had turned against her, there would be no hope left.

Naeratanh and Flickering Miasma: [Naeratanh, a material invented by the Celan civilization, is an extremely rare material that is created with a secret method involving flickering miasma within the incursion. It is the only known physical material capable of tearing lesions into reality with mere movement, bringing into question whether this is due to the unique properties of flickering miasma, or whether similar materials might theoretically be possible to forge using other miasmas. Such speculation is illegal to discuss in public within the Pantheonic Territory, according to a ruling set by the council in the year 1606 PTS.]