Waterstrider

Basements, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fourthmonth, 1634 PTS

“We should try to escape as soon as possible,” Rachel reminded me, and I nodded in response.

“Would it be better to split up to free as many as possible?” I asked.

We were making our way at high speed down the halls. The operating room we had just left was in the part of the facility dedicated to the Elder Staiven, and the only reason that Jihan had been placed there was because the surgery they were performing involved a Staiven as well.

“Will we not need the Lady Extant to dispel the bindings?” asked Jihan.

I couldn’t help but give him an odd look. Had he really believed the theatrics Rachel had performed on his own bonds? I supposed it was reasonable, since he was unaware of her true nature.

Rachel smiled at him, speaking in a sonorous tone, like that of a charlatan.

“Worry not, my dear Jihan. Provided you or Cyrus is nearby, and chants the incantation, I can open the bonds even from far away.”

Jihan was puzzled.

“Incantation?” he asked.

“Indeed,” Rachel called back at him. “It modulates the flow of miasma between the cerebral and central dantians. It can allow an extant practitioner to use their abilities at a greater range.”

“Is that so…” he muttered.

For a moment I pondered whether or not to tell him that she was lying, but I decided to let it be. I doubted the misunderstanding would cause any issues, and regardless Rachel would likely be annoyed if I were to ruin her fun.

“I do think splitting up is a good idea, though,” she said. “I’ll lead the both of you down different hallways to rescue them faster. I can get the bindings but you’ll need to get the door.”

Jihan nodded.

“What’s the incantation?”

Rachel stifled a giggle and then replied without missing a beat.

“Open sesame.”

“Not even real words?” he asked.

“Just vocal modulation. Just say it as I did.”

“I see.”

We rapidly approached an intersection, and Rachel directed myself and Jihan into different directions.

“I’ll go with him to keep an eye,” she told me, though I knew in reality her conduit would remain in a small pouch under my robes.

I nodded in response, and split off down the side hallway. As I no longer had to slow myself to let Jihan keep up, I sped up my movement, my Water Striding Steps filling every movement with great alacrity. Now that all of my meridians had merged with my Water Striding Core, the technique was even easier to activate, and far more powerful. It also no longer affected only my legs. Each and every inch of my body shifted in profound ways, and I knew that dodging bullets and weapons would be far easier. It was as if I was everywhere and nowhere within a short radius, and could shift my individual muscles as needed. This power was only enhanced with my ability to control the shape of my body.

It took mere moments for me to exit the Staiven wing, ending up in what was clearly a different part of the facility. Here the darkness was no longer omnipresent, with small lights set up on spindly stands that created deep shadows in the tunnels. Presumably, the Staiven had wished their captives to be able to see. It made sense. The weaker martial artists would probably be led to various observation and operating rooms rather than strapped to gurneys to move them like more dangerous forces like Jihan would have been. As a spirit refiner, he could easily kill tens of Staiven with just his legs.

This thought brought another question into my mind. Just how had the Staiven intended to deal with a captive uprising? Their physical bodies were far weaker than those of a martial artist, and they had no machines on the level of the Celans’ enforcers to fight with. Not that an enforcer would be useful, given the right confines of the facility’s tunnels. I was certain that they had some sort of countermeasure somewhere.

“What do they intend to do in case of a breakout?” I asked the empty air.

I immediately received a reply through the usual whisper in my ear.

“All of their security information is held in a database these credentials did not have access to, so I’m not sure. I do know that they felt confident in whatever it was, though.”

“Yet another reason for us to leave quickly,” I said.

Rachel’s voice snorted.

“And yet here you are, taking the time to free every single person.”

I didn’t dispute the gripe, since it was true, and my actions were slightly out of character for myself.

“First occupied room should be on the right.”

The hatch opened at my approach, and inside I found a young man with his arms locked behind his back. The room was something of a high tech dungeon equivalent. It was clearly less comfortable than Perivar’s own room had been, with only a small bed sticking out of the wall and a toilet that had been lacking in the Staiven room.

The man looked up in surprise at my appearance. He could easily tell I was no Staiven, though my mask and dark robes were surely odd to his senses.

“Come with me,” I ordered, leaving the room again. I could hear a clicking noise behind me as his bonds unlocked and fell off, but I simply continued onward to the next room. The man called out to me in surprise and curiosity.

“Who are you?” he asked.

I did not bother looking back to him, merely continuing forward to the next open door.

“Does it matter?” I responded.

He laughed.

“I suppose not.”

Rachel quickly opened the hatches and restraints on the imprisoned test subjects, and they slowly began to mill around the hallway in confusion, instinctively looking to myself for guidance. I could tell that they wished for escape, but were clearly still fearful of reprisal. They were a bit less than two dozen in number, and I saw that they were of a mix of ethnicities. Some of them looked very healthy, while others had clearly been here for years or more. I noticed, to my curiosity, that while the captives featured levels of martial arts ranging from mortal to core formation, not one of them was in the spirit refinement realm. Perhaps Jihan had been the only one, or perhaps the others were in the other containment block for martial artists, the one that he had been sent to retrieve.

“If you wish to be free, I can offer this to you,” I said.

My voice boomed, clearly enhanced by Rachel’s abilities. There was a slight clamor, which I ignored. I did not care how they felt or whether they trusted me or not.

“Do any of you know the way to the lobby?” I asked.

A few of the captives raised their hands, and I pointed at them.

“Good. You lead the rest to the lobby. Some of my forces are there defending it. We will leave after we bring the rest of the subjects there.”

Immediately after finishing the instruction, I dashed deeper down the corridor, heading towards the next section of captives.

“Do you intend to save the Reth as well?” Rachel asked.

I had to seriously consider the matter. Reth were an issue. While I did not personally mind them, I had heard that many of their number hated all Seiyal, and I could not trust many of my subordinates not to kill them on sight, much less the other captives. We had not bothered to seed out worshippers of Ceirra when recruiting talents for the sect.

“Let’s save them,” I said finally. “We can leave them for Jihan to manage, and perhaps there is some utility we can leverage from them.”

“Take a left at the next intersection, then.”

I nodded and followed her directions. I had passed through a great deal of tunnels by this point, and had found the facility to be much larger than one would expect given the number of test subjects it contained. It was clear that a great number of the scientists and security guards actually lived within the place, and I had passed through a number of small housing areas. It seemed that they mostly lived and worked within their own parts of the facility. I had to question the design of this place.

I soon found myself in another hallway like any of the others. Unlike the area containing martial artists, this one was left in pitch darkness like the rest of the facility, and otherwise appeared identical to the other featureless corridors. The point lights that Rachel had summoned continued to float around me, the only reason I could see where I was going.

I approached one of the dark hatches, which slid away like all the others before it. I peered inside, and was immediately met with my first glance of the mysterious race.

The Reth appeared like a wretched, emaciated figure, very slim and spindly, her rib bones visibly protruding even through her clothing. I would have thought her to be starved had I not known that this was normal for her people. She seemed to be a woman, judging by her soft features and the presence of breasts on her too slender form. She had a dark gray, somewhat ashen skin which hugged her bones and veins tightly, and long black hair which draped down her back like vines down a tree. She had a pair of red eyes that reflected the light back, seeming to glow. Her nose was crooked, her nails extending out like dark talons. Had she been a Seiyal, I would have thought them to be painted. I could see why they had once been mistaken for ghosts or wights upon first contact with my ancestors.

She looked up at me, surprised and shaken by the faceless figure before her. I looked down to where she lay on the bed, and realized that unless she happened to speak seiyin, I would have no way to communicate with her.

“Rachel, do you know how to speak Reth?” I asked.

“I do not,” she said.

For a moment, all we could hear was some noise echoing from far down the tunnels.

Reth (Species): [One of the three races created upon Canvas, the Reth are the creations of Saaya. Like the Seiyal, they are a humanoid race, and were specifically designed to be very hardy creatures. They can survive in extreme high and low pressure, and are capable of regrowing all of their limbs. They are even capable of surviving within the void of space. Despite this, their homeland on Canvas was very extreme, and they can only consume foods from there, or that have been treated with certain exotic chemicals, though advanced races such as the Staiven are capable of synthesizing them for a cost. After being driven away from their homeworld, it is said that they have become a nomadic people, defended by their goddess who is said to travel along with them. The Staiven have kept the locations that the Reth were moved to fairly secret from the Seiyal, as part of a treaty that was signed after first contact was made. The Reth have their own progression system, and unlike that of the Seiyal and Staiven, theirs solely utilizes sanguine miasma.]