Book 2, Chapter 5- Fah Aust, Meet The Elder Of Monte Cristo (Patreon)

This title presents an interesting conundrum. It has simply no connection to any culture or mythos in the setting. It's completely and entirely exclusively relevant to people from our world, rather than being an indirect reference. Opinions on if I should keep it or change it?

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Revenge is the ultimate motivator. It ties together two of the strongest emotions a person can ever experience– survival instinct and hatred. Hatred for whatever was done to you, easy enough to identify. Survival instinct because the mind will do almost anything it can to keep itself from collapsing, and externalising all that trauma and grief and rage onto someone else makes for a potent coping mechanism in the face of true pain.

It’s not the only motivator by far, nor is it the most useful or healthy or even necessarily the most long-lived, but it is by far the one I’ve seen make people do the stupidest things the fastest, and then keep doing them in spite of every bit of evidence pointing to it being a terrible idea.

Then again, sometimes terrible ideas are the best inspiration you’ll ever get. 

-A drunken wanderer, ruminating on the human experience in a bar full of corpses

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“I am aware that we have remained here longer than the norm,” Yun Ka says, gesturing with the whirring and slender mechanical apparatuses on her. They shift and move until thin mechanical limbs like that of a spider have formed an array around her. “Now that the primary politicking has been resolved, the local Imperial governor has enlisted our aid in addressing the source of the attack that was experienced while we were on-site.”

Kaena raises their hand. “Isn’t that also politics?” they ask, all sweetness.

“Words can be construed to mean many things,” Yun Ka replies. “We will be leaving the city and heading towards the projected launch site of the modular necroframes we encountered. Senior Researcher Taurus Boriah and I have been unable to accurately replicate the exact specifics of the weapons, which indicates additional sophistication we can’t track, or potentially interference like Demonic or Truth-based techniques.” 

As she speaks, the arrayed limbs begin to glow, small shards of jade, glass, and metal in different pincers letting off faint whisps until Raika smells a circuit kick in, a mix of ozone-without-ozone and powdered dust and sharpening forming a visible image in the air. Projected in front of Yun Ka, like a glowing ghost of a terrain, floats a translucent map of what looks like a section of woods with a large mountain nearby, the model three-dimensional and detailing both most of the mountain and a hazy, solid chunk of earth beneath the “floor” of the image. The only really notable details about the area being projected is the mountain and a small town a few miles off from its base, a large stone platform raised above the ground to one side of it with a walled campus atop it, aligned with a nearby riverbank.

“This is the area we have deduced the weapons were most likely launched from. We do not detect any major established infrastructure in the area, but will be canvasing the mountain, town, local sect, and surrounding countryside to make certain. While there will be a small detachment of Imperial Guards aiding in our deployment, they will remain isolated and in reserve unless a province-wide emergency is recorded, at which point their orders will be to retreat and contact higher authorities. You all should be familiar with our operating procedures.”

Kaena and Hao Kai both nod, Maen looking confused, while Raika just watches, her face perfectly and utterly still.

“As usual, any changes to cultivation, biology, spirituality or psychology should be recorded immediately, and brought to either myself or Senior Researcher Taurus Boriah. Hopefully we can settle this before the week is out, but if not, know that missing a check-in will be taken as a sign you’ve been incapacitated in some way, and if this is proven incorrect, will lead to severe reprimands. Those without chaperones and who don’t volunteer, you’ll stay well away from the town unless commanded otherwise.”

“Kaena, you and I will be in charge of establishing and maintaining peaceful contact with local factions. You will be our primary social anchor while I set up a more detailed on-site detection array for the Divination Division to use on our behalf. Taran, you and yours are on guard duty; we’re bound to get an influx of spirit beasts or worse, setting up an array in such a usually Qi-stagnant area. Command wants to get a better look at some of the varietals you can equip, so if you can switch armaments here and there, please do.”

Maen tentatively raises a hand. “What… um, what exactly are we looking for?”

“We’re not sure,” Yun Ka admits. “An underground lair, secret mountain base, hidden realm, massive skeletal structure- its particulars are unclear. Locating a crash site for potential Sunstone deposits would be a useful first step, however.

“On that note, Maen, you’re assigned as partner to you, Raika. Seeing as your particular mutations make you incapable of using Qi to interact with basic arrays like a communicator?”

Raika shrugs, face as flat as she’s kept it the whole time. “Haven’t tried.”

“We’ll operate on that assumption. Until your round of official testing once we’re back home in the Division headquarters gives us more insight, Maen, it’ll be your job to send out alarms and perform check-ins, with Raika present as well of course.”

Maen hesitates, looking over at Raika, but when she gives no sign or response, nods her head.

“Additionally, Raika, you’ve been granted an amount of leniency with your assigned role. You’ll be tasked with acting as our spotter and local scout in the generalized local wilderness.”

Yun Ka hesitates. “I understand this might not establish the preferred amount of trust as we would like, but considering the nature of your recruitment, it was believed that–”

Something cracks near where Raika’s sitting. She looks down, noticing how hard she’s gripping the stone step she’s been sitting on.

Yun Ka hesitates. Raika notices Kaena and Hao Kai both looking at her. Kaena in particular is tracking every movement, worrying at their lip.

It feels performative. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Either way, Raika forces the tendons in her hand to uncoil and relax. She hadn’t meant to do that, and she still needs Yun Ka for her insight. Later, once she’s figured out how to use her without being used herself.

“Well, it’s, uh-” Yun Ka stutters, looking a bit ashamed and awkward at the slip, “it’s a lot of trust. Theoretically, your senses have the highest chance of detecting the target from the furthest away, besides an array and the Divination division, so you’ll have the largest search assignments. Senior Researcher Tarus Boriah, on the other hand, will be focusing his attention on the mountain proper. Any questions?”

“Um…” Maen hesitates, but, looking at Raika and apparently gaining some courage from her, asks- “well, why are we doing this, exactly? Why not just have the soldiers do it?”

“Ah. You haven’t been properly run through the mechanics, then?” Yun Ka pauses, reflecting. “Well, synopsis, soldiers are for killing and guarding normal stuff, we’re for finding and catching interesting stuff, and the more we use your cultivations and abilities and engage them in unique scenarios, the more we can learn about them to help you grow and see how best we can benefit the Empire. Ergo, the soldiers shall remain on guard for greater threats while we analyze and seek to better understand your abilities and unique variations during the pursuit of further research opportunities.”

Maen… doesn’t say anything to that, looking possibly more confused than when she started.

Raika is still and silent.

“With this, the briefing is concluded. I am glad I caught all of you. It can be a bit awkward trying to find everybody on their own. But it’s so exciting! Ahh… it’s been some time since our last proper expedition!” 

Then she pauses, collects herself, girlish enthusiasm fading almost abruptly. “Ah, a final note. Raika, Senior Researcher Taurus Borias wishes to speak with you whenever you have the chance.”

Raika says nothing. Her plate is mostly empty, but she still sets it down slowly and carefully.

It is difficult to move slowly and carefully right now.

“Now might be a good moment?” Yun Ka asks. 

Without Qi, with how her features never seem to emote quite “right”, the way her tone varies… it’s hard to get a read on her.

Raika gets up, slow, towering over the smaller woman.

She moves her flesh into the proper shape, smiling politely and bowing just a bit. “Of course,” she says. “I’m always honored to be called upon by Master Boriah. In his study, then?”

Yun Ka brightens, either too oblivious to read the room and Raika’s failed attempt at controlling herself or too uncaring of it. “Yes! If you’d like, I can send you both some tea while you talk. Any requests?”

Raika shakes her head, holding the polite smile. “Not necessary, but thank you,” she says, softly and warmly. “I’ll find my way to him now, if that’s alright!”

She begins to walk off, and is surprised when a second set of steps begins to follow her. 

“Ah, that's-” she hears Yun Ka say, before she’s cut off by some unheard gesture or signal.

Raika turns, expecting to see Maen perhaps, and is surprised to find Kaena at her side. Looking back, she can see Maen hesitating, and gives her a small shake of the head. Better to not put her in front of Taurus, see if she can’t get him to speak more freely, perhaps. And yes, she has to admit to herself; she’d rather kill someone than let Maen any closer to Taurus than she has to. Perhaps not necessarily an appropriate reaction, given their limited relationship to each other and the limited amount of time they’ve had, but… Raika doesn’t have a lot of people.

Kaena walks beside her, giving her space and not reaching out for any sort of contact. She just makes sure she’s not alone.

A part of Raika marvels at how perfect this is. With her Qi sense, there’s every chance she might pick up on a slip from either of them, get more insight into their dynamic, into its potential weaknesses.

Another part of her is grateful for the company. 

Neither part is stupid or unhelpful, she thinks, which makes holding onto both a bit of a strange affair.

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“Come in,” Taurus rumbles in a voice like a rockslide as Kaena knocks lightly on his door. Same as always, Raika can hear the sound of a quill scritch-scratching on paper constantly, even from down the hall, and it doesn’t stop when they open the door and step inside.

“Hey, boss,” Kaena says softly. “Kept her company on the way over. Mind if I sit in?”

“Actually,” Taurus rumbles, “I’d rather you didn’t.”

There’s a moment of silence in the room. Feigned or not, the tension feels plenty real as Kaena stands right where they are for a while longer.

“Kaena,” Taurus says softly, “it’ll be fine. We’ve been through this before. It’s no different.”

“It’s a little different,” Kaena retorts.

Taurus looks up from his desk at them, meeting their gaze. He’s hunched over the miniscule, human-sized writing aid, his horns making him, even while seated, a good five and a half feet tall. His eyeline is barely under Raika’s chin while sitting down, and his shoulders are wider than hers by a solid foot. To call the half-man, half-bull a giant would not be inaccurate, and even in the surprisingly alien features of a muzzle, all-black eyes, and strangely ivory teeth, his displeasure is clear.

“You’re not helping, Kaena,” he rumbles.

“I very much am,” they retort.

Taurus snorts, the sound animalistic and letting out a blast of air, a bit of Qi slipping through and making the runes all around the room flare very lightly. Kaena shudders slightly, but (and this, Raika immediately shifts to take notice of) their ever-present cloud of Qi sort of… buffers them from the pressure. Raika, of course, can’t really sense Qi pressure directly except as a smell, but with enhanced control she can sense how it changes the air pressure on her skin, makes the jelly of her eyes tremble, makes it slightly harder to breathe. She’s able to detect enough for it to potentially be used against her, but only over time, rather than the overwhelming impact it can have on those who are open to and perceptive of Qi.

But Kaena shoulders the burden of pressure from a being that might be a full realm and change above their level with minimal stress, the cloud of Qi they seem unable to stop emitting compressing under the omni-directional pressure and protecting them.

“You’re being uncourteous, boss,” Kaena whispers, voice surprisingly low, surprisingly sharp.

Taurus meets their eyes, and, to Raika’s surprise, Kaena doesn’t even seem intimidated.

Then Taurus sighs, and the pressure disappears. “You’re right,” he says, softly again. “I apologize. The promise still stands, I hope.”

Kaena nods. “It does,” they say. “But I’d rather stay, if that’s all right, because quite frankly, honorable leader, you’ve fucked this up pretty royally.”

Taurus matches their tone with a look. “I did what I felt I had to,” he replies.

There is silence for a while.

“Fine,” he grumbles. “Sit. Not like there’s much secret here. But if I make it an order, then you leave.”

Kaena nods.

Raika sits, kneeling on the floor before the desk, which itself is enough to put Taurus’ eyeline a good two feet above her head, Kaena following a moment away. They sit a ways to the side, rather than beside Raika as she was expecting, retreating to the side of the room like a respectful assistant or courtesan, enough to be out of line of sight and allow the conversation unimpeded.

But they’re here.

What it means, Raika isn’t sure of yet.

Taurus sighs.

“So,” he rumbles, voice a bit deeper and a touch louder while speaking to Raika than it is with Kaena. “You heard Yun Ka. We’re going to explore the wilds. You’ll be allowed to wander a considerable amount of space with less oversight than you currently live under.”

She nods, and says nothing, face shifted to hold an expression of pleasant silence and a soft smile.

“While out in that space, you’ll be free to leave.”

She stops the blink from happening. It almost makes it through.

“I have no intention of putting you on so tight a leash it chokes the both of us, and the amount of effort and enchantment it would take to keep you on said leash may well compromise the whole reason I picked you in the first place. So, while you’re out there, feel free to run wherever you please.

“But know that you’ll be hunted.”

He holds up a hand, placating some minute signal from Kaena that she didn’t pick up on. “Not by me. There will be consequences for me, admittedly. Might take me a few years and quite a bit of pain to recover, but I will. This much I have done before, from worse falls than you could cause. Your allies, the healer Li Shu, the-” (and here he pauses, checking a scroll off to one side of the desk) “-lesser cultivator Qen Hou, and their extended relatives and allies are likely to come under scrutiny and harassment, maybe some targeted assassination if you’re unlucky. They are likely to be fine, so long as you do not actively travel alongside them. Cultivators and healers are lucky like that, and if they keep from rocking the boat too much, chances are they’ll either be recruited or just left under watch for a few decades, maybe after a bit of enhanced interrogation. Hell, you could probably take Maen too, if you can find where her tracker is implanted.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what makes the honored one think I could do such a thing,” Raika says, voice pitched to be calm and pleasant. 

Taurus grunts. 

“Either way, you’ll still be hunted. The Division won’t just let you go. You might make it a while, but, and please understand my perfect sincerity when I say this, there are many in this department with far more power than I and far more willingness to be cruel with it. They will treat you as a curio, to be torn apart and studied under a blade and scope, alongside anyone you’ve touched they think might be of interest. And there will be nothing you can say or do to change their minds, because the Grandmaster and Emperor itself wills it to happen.

“Maybe someday you will understand why I acted as I did. However, I do not deny that it was cruel, and that you need not forgive me for it. In light of this, I’m approaching our relationship rather distinctly from how I usually operate.”

Raising his hand, Taurus begins to circulate his Qi. She can sense the weight of it, the way it changes the flow of the air in the room, the way it dries her throat and makes her blink with how much of it he is gathering. In his palm, a single dot of what looks like a strange, iridescent black liquid forms, slowly, moment by moment.

He tilts his hand, and lets the droplet roll over his palm and fall onto a tiny circle on the right of his desk.

Immediately, Raika realizes her hearing has gotten a lot better than she’d noticed.

She can’t hear the wind, the creaking of stone and wood throughout the building, the slight whine of metal, the sound that air makes when it goes through her hair, or over Taurus’ fur. Everything goes silent.

And into that silence, Taurus speaks.

“Perfect honesty,” he rumbles, his voice even stranger than normal in this impossible silence that pressed upon the room, upon her and him. She can see Kaena getting up, hesitating, confused and clearly unable to hear what they’re saying.

“Perfect honesty,” she says, quietly.

“Keep up the act,” he says. “Pretend to be broken. There are some who’ll buy it, and that’s useful. But I have not, so in the spirit of cooperation, I’m going to make you an offer.

“On top of the continued safety and protection your people of interest enjoy so long as you remain in my unit, and on top of the relatively loose hand on your leash I intend to maintain whenever I can, I’m going to tell you a secret.”

She’s not sure she cares. She’s almost certain that whatever he’s about to say won’t change the vision she has of his throat in her teeth.

But she listens. 

If nothing else, she has learned the value of being patient as she plans.

Taurus smiles at the look she has. It should be no look at all, if her arrangement of muscles is correct, but he sees something.

“If everything goes according to plan,” he whispers into the silence, “I won’t live to see five years from now, and by the time of my death, three of the Empire’s divisions will be unmade, including the one which protects Feng Gui.”

She does not dare let herself breathe. She can feel his teeth closing in around her, a deal too good to be true prepared for her to sink into. Worse, she can see in his eyes that he thinks he can make her sink into it willingly, and the longer he speaks, the less sure she is that he’s wrong.

“By the time of my death,” he continues, “I intend to have you strong enough to kill me, Feng Gui, and maybe even more if you start feeling righteous enough. And I intend to have you do just that.”

He leans in, closer. “Don’t care for me. Don’t forgive me. But stay with me, and I will make you into a sword sharp enough to kill me and anyone else you choose. And then I’ll be dead, and you’ll have your revenge, and what comes after matters little, doesn’t it?”

The silence around them flickers, sound and smell and a hundred other nuances and touches she’d taken for granted flooding back in, and she takes in one, shaky breath.

He extends a hand.

“Do we have a deal?” he asks.

She feels the teeth of the trap close.