Interlude XI Making Impressions (Patreon)

Interlude XI

Making Impressions

(Mr. Qiang Yi)

The whole gang was back, well those that survived until this point. It felt good to be back, even for a short period of time. Qiang sat with the others around General Bloom’s fine gambling table. This was her personal meeting room in the back where she would get work done with dignitaries and local elites.

If transactions had to happen, they were first negotiated elsewhere. Then they came back here to hammer out the finer details. That is why this was the fancy card table, the one with gold and silver inlays over mahogany carvings, that accentuated the green felt of the table. A relic of a bygone era that showed what humanity used to be.

Seeing the table and the sturdy chairs, even the giant oaf Christoph Karl found himself impressed with the quality of the matching chairs. Chairs that seemed to defy logic in that they could support Christoph’s massive frame with no noticeable groans or complaints from the naturally resilient wood.

“I still can’t believe you managed to smuggle these out,” Christoph exclaims for the fifth time. Not today, but since Qiang began counting these gatherings. Each time Christoph drinks, then by his third ale he gets that misty look in his eyes as he remembers the past. Then Qiang swore he could almost see the moment he remembered what it took to get this table and chairs.

“Yes, fortunately I had a good team to help me hold the location where these were. Then it only made sense to keep them as a war trophy,” the General exclaimed, swishing around her snifter of brandy. This was a common tactic of hers, having alcohol available and providing it generously to those under her care, but never partaking of the spirits herself. She would claim many reasons. Everything from ‘someone needs to keep their wits about them with you all running amuck.’ To ‘I’m just enjoying the moment.’ But the truth was far simpler, General Bloom was dying. Every one of her now gathered former subordinates were aware of the fact, but all were willing to let it go, just so they could celebrate this last moment with the General.

There was a moment’s pause as everyone took an involuntary sip of their spirits that were provided. It was odd to have it be midday and already partaking in festivities, but today was an auspicious day.

“Are you sure she is the one?” Markan asks, voicing the question that everyone had been wondering since this experiment first began. A faint head shake no was the only tell that the General didn’t believe what she was about to say but had to say so anyways.

“She has to be, I am far too old to try to find another one,” the General spoke, and as she did, it was clear that this was the truth.  That even if her newest apprentice wasn’t the right one, she was all they had. The last shot at finding a replacement for the General. Not that anyone could truly replace the General, someone who was more myth than capabilities at this time. The very person who every major political leader claimed to have both met and been saved by in various battles.

“Nonsense, you have at least a few more decades left in you,” Christoph replied. His words were both jovial and placating, even though he could barely hide the fact that he knew she was telling the truth.

“Hah, I wish,” the General replied as she took her snifter up to her nose and sniffed the brandy that was wafting about. Seeing her sniff wantingly at the brandy it was a sign. She still craved earthly desires, but she knew her body would not be able to handle the consequences. While she still looked remarkably young and in shape, everyone gathered now realized it was all just an illusion. An illusion brought about by her powerful bloodline that seemed to promise immortality and eternal youth, though it was all just a lie. Even now her bloodline abilities have been working overtime to help keep her alive and help her maintain a somewhat active lifestyle. This was the real reason why she sat out on the last rift encounter, for she would have been more of a liability than anything in actual combat. That if she had to use her powers for anything other than the constant repair of her body, then she would push her body past its breaking point. This was why her sniffing brandy was all she could allow herself as an indulgence, for if her body had to work extra to purify her body and expel the toxins that the brandy would provide, it could be too much. That is why she was now content just sitting back and watching the rest of her former subordinates, as they drank and indulged themselves on her behalf.

“I take it that you two can handle any lingering paperwork from her former school?” The General asked, turning her gaze to the love birds, Christoph and Vivienne, the two school teachers. People who had given up much more prominent positions for a chance to help identify students who might fit the General’s needs.

“Yes, though her graduation should not be a problem as the principle is already placing her image up on the walls as an accepted Healer Candidate for Unity University,” Vivienne began, then with a slight smirk she continued, “it even has a caption, to our model student and an example of what we can all achieve through diligent studies.”

“HAH!” Christoph exclaimed, as he the provided the punchline of the joke and why Vivienne herself was already smirking at the comment of the picture. “The funny part is, the image they chose is one that was taken of her when she first went to detention. The same one that was once used as a cautionary image of what trouble looks like.”

At that, everyone began to chuckle at the inconsistency and how sometimes time changes one’s perspective.

As this was happening, Qiang got his own reminder that his apprentice was doing just fine.

Apprentice’s Task Update: Punch A Bully In the Nose (Complete): Your guidance to your Apprentice has been heard and followed, as your Apprentice has assaulted and won a fight against someone abusing their position of authority. Required reward: Continued Apprenticeship for one year.

Seeing the message, Qiang smiled, knowing that his Apprentice was doing two things. First, she was settling in nicely, and secondly, she was taking his words to heart. Meaning that he would have to see her at least once over the next year, if only so he doesn’t find himself punished by the system.

“She should be there by now,” Markan declared stating the obvious while looking at the ornate clock on the wall that declared it was now just past noon. “I wonder how she’s doing?”

Hearing the obvious concern in Markan’s voice, Qiang could only smile and relax a bit more comfortably in his chair as he already knew the answer. As he moved, everyone at the table turned their gazes to stare at Qiang who already knew the answer that everyone wanted to hear.

“You know how she is doing?” The General asked.

“I do,” Qiang replied with a smile, enjoying the moment of torture as everyone looked at him expectantly. Each second that he waited, an extra torment for them. “She is doing just fine. Though she might have earned her first demerit.”

“A demerit, for what?” Christoph asked.

“For what else, but fighting,” Qiang replied as if it was the most obvious thing. At first Christoph and Vivienne both looked like they wanted to protest, but then found themselves shrugging and realizing this was par for the course, and just how she got her image taken in the first place. The same image that was used as an inspirational message to the rest of the school of what can happen if you truly apply yourself.

“Well, at least she isn’t letting University life change her,” Vivienne provided.

***

(Ankarah Carthwright)

Very few things are worth noting about the mortal world. While the elders have managed to sneak in sympathizers and sycophants into almost every nation, the one and only place of concern has been and will always be the new healing candidates of Unity University. The hope of humanity, and consequently the only real concern for the eldest of the kind.

While Ankarah is relatively new to her new position and role in life, the groundwork that her eldest provided stretched back for generations. People who didn’t even know they were helping the opposition provided information freely, as if they were writing to long lost family members. In a way, they were, just not the way they remembered their family members being.

This was how Ankarah, the youngest of those chosen to enact their Eldest’s plans found herself reading the note of a new healer that by all accounts should have been voted out of the University. But for whatever reason the Healing Matriarch used her grand veto and forced the candidate through.

While the Matriarch of the Healers using her veto power was not unheard of, it did put a damper on her eldest’s plans. For her eldest had already marked this healer as someone to keep an eye on and eventually convert over a week ago. The fact that Ankarah was just now hearing that all the judges she had bribed were outvoted meant that she would now have to try alternate means to separate this healer from the rest of her pack. Not impossible, but something that would require a bit more maneuvering than Ankarah would like at this junction of her undead life.

Looking at the crystal ball, one that would transpose anything written back to her informant within the halls of Unity University, she wrote four simple words.

Begin the second phase.