Chapter 504: Interludes Delta

The visitors were leaving the Southern Reach when Yriliuna finally got a peek at one of them. How odd... the handsome young man looked familiar to her. Like someone she had seen in a different place and time. It was only after they departed that it connected for her.

"Who was that Goralian man?" Yriliuna asked her grove. "Was he related to all those troubles?"

"You didn't hear?" Her sister looked incredulous. "He was the one fighting the cultivators!"

"Oh, was he?"

"How could you have missed that? Never mind, why do you care, anyway?"

"I think I saw him years ago," Yriliuna mused. "You remember when I went to Goralia to help out with their trials? He was a nice boy, and he let me finish my job faster."

Her sister goggled at her. "Wait, you were there when a hero was having his first trial and you didn't say anything?"

"I didn't realize until now. He grew bigger, I think. Humans don't usually do that." Yriliuna shifted back against her tree and yawned. "I would have said hello if I'd seen him earlier, but I don't know what we'd really talk about."

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..

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Technically, the most important thing was training for the incursion. Bonto told himself that, but he didn't really believe it.

Leaving the continent was insane enough on its own, much less visiting some mysterious magic island. The place was filled with a deeper power that still astonished him, and danger as well. Kai Clanless had told them that there were no dangerous monsters, but when they'd first run into one, some of them had nearly died. Everything about this place screamed important.

And yet he just found himself wishing that he could strike the right note with the others.

After he finished his training, he wandered into one of the sparring courtyards. Kifaela the naiad was there, balanced on her hands and doing push-ups. She was smoking hot, which was kind of ironic for a naiad - was there a joke there? Since she was usually so serious, Bonto went to try to join her, struggling just to balance on his hands.

By the time Kifaela had finished her training, Bonto had fallen down a few times. She gave him an odd glance as she went rightside-up and began fixing her hair, so he shrugged sheepishly.

"That's harder than it looks," Bonto said. "Give me some tips later?"

"I suppose I could," she said as she combed her blue hair down over one side of her face.

"Thanks. I feel we get a bit left out, you know? Everyone else is from the Frontier nations, so they're used to this incursion stuff."

"You aren't?" Kifaela asked, colder than he'd hoped.

"Nah, I'm from Birtaegal. That and the Southern Reach are the only two areas that don't border the Frontier, so we're the odd ones out, huh?"

She grunted and it seemed like she was about to finish combing her hair, so he only had seconds left.

"Hey," Bonto said with a chuckled, "how can you see anything like that? Or are you self-conscious about your eye or something? It's a nice eye."

She gave him a strange glance and departed, leaving Bonto to fall back and groan. A woman in Birtaegal would definitely have laughed at that, but naiads - or maybe just Kifaela - were apparently too serious. He'd tried to play up them both being outsiders, but the truth was that she seemed to get along fine with the others. Kifaela ate dinner together with Mariyay and Tori, and trained with the tougher men like Ankrastor. She was getting along fine.

Bonto suspected that the problem was that he was Birtaegali, and his people didn't have the best reputation on the continent because they stood apart from incursions. And, he had to admit, there were more than a few Birtaegali mercenaries who didn't always behave the best. But he'd abandoned Birtaegal, so they shouldn't hold that against him.

He groaned and pushed to his feet, looking for someone else. On his way out, he passed Tori, who was working on her sword forms. When he gave her an Irunian bow, she mirrored the gesture, but it was difficult to tell if that meant anything. Bonto had worked with some Irunians in his time, and they were all polite, but Tori was absurdly polite with everyone.

Obviously he knew better than to try to tease an Irunian. Even in his wildest dreams he didn't imagine he'd ever joke around with someone like Tori.

Back in the mansion, Mariyay and Ankrastor were sitting at one of the kitchen tables, talking while they ate a quick meal. Bonto thought about asking why the two of them were so sweaty, then immediately realized that'd be a bone-headed move. Neither would find it funny, Mariyay would glare at him for the innuendo, and Ankrastor would probably just explain that they had been training in a somber voice.

"Hey!" Bonto grabbed some food and sat down beside them. "Gotta say, you two kicked my ass in sparring. How do you do it, Ankrastor?"

"I would help if I could," the Waterborn man said, "but I don't think my methods would be applicable to you."

"No doubt, we're made of different stuff. But you, Mariyay, you're always making things... that was an impressive hammer the other day. Any way I could convince you to make me a weapon?"

"No." Mariyay stood up and walked out, just like that.

Getting rejected like that after putting himself out there stung Bonto, he had to admit. He hadn't even tried to make any jokes, he'd just asked them for help. Wasn't that supposed to be what the Frontier nations were all about?

"Geez," he said to Ankrastor, "what set her off? Think it's that time of the month?"

"That is not an appropriate thing to say about a fellow warrior," Ankrastor told him sternly.

Even though that sounded like a line he'd exit on, Ankrastor didn't leave the table, which just made things more awkward. Bonto wanted to slip straight down into the floor, but he'd got together all this food, so it would look stupid not to eat it.

Before he could finish, Untariin stepped into the kitchen as well. Now there was a man that Bonto didn't even try to be friendly with. Untariin was a former Krysali noble and clearly thought he was better than the rest of them, and unfortunately he was, half the time. He and Ankrastor seemed to absolutely hate one another, so Bonto edged back and waited for sparks to fly.

"Feel free to sit," Ankrastor said.

"Oh, I need your permission?" Untariin asked sharply.

"Yes, this table has been reserved for the worst crystallier in the world."

"Well, how can I resist an invitation from the worst Waterborn in the world?"

Then, bizarrely, Untariin's face cracked a smile and, shockingly, Ankrastor chuckled. They dropped their hostility as if it had been a game, even though just two days ago Bonto had seen them at each others throats for real. They shifted to sit together, talking like old friends, leaving him isolated on his side of the table.

Darkmist Island was filled with deadly monsters, but that wasn't the worst of it. Bonto hoped that Kai Clanless would come back soon, or he'd die of awkwardness.

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..

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There had been a time when the great powers of Rosemount never met, too concerned about their own reputations and vulnerabilities, obsessed with the balance of power. After the disastrous years of demon rule in the Commonwealth, they had met on occasion, to discuss matters that could not go through the channels of state.

Still, it was rare for the Windlord, Elder Graveylin, and the Empress of the Coiled Empire to be standing in one room.

"Some of the demons still remain," Elder Graveylin was saying. "The signs are clear, but we cannot pin down their exact locations."

"A broken few," the lamia Empress said with a snort. "They are no longer any threat to us."

"Perhaps not now, but if any of them choose new prey, begin to hunt elves or lamias..."

"Let them try. Rosemount has exhausted its patience for such predators."

They went silent, not pushing the point that obviously would not reach any solution. For all that Rosemount prided itself on having a superior form of civilization to Cloudspire, their factions could be just as prideful. All of them remembered that they had ignored Matiavel until three others, who should have been much weaker than the great powers, got involved with the war.

It seemed that the Windlord was thinking similar thoughts. Their ambiguous form sat at the end of the table, looking out, not toward the garden but the skies above. After the pause stretched, the Windlord turned just slightly and spoke to the elven elder.

"Has there been any word from the foreigners you so disavow?"

"We know they reached a hidden location," Elder Graveylin said, "but after that, it seems that they went to Cloudspire."

"Went and caused trouble." The Empress shook her head sourly. "We have more trade with Cloudspire than either of you, and the tales have been coming in for months. Apparently those three overthrew multiple sects of cultivators and practically conquered their southern region."

The Windlord's wrapped head shifted in what might have been surprise. "And now?"

"Fortunately, they appear to have remained in order to enjoy their spoils."

"I see." Elder Graveylin gave an odd sigh. "I must admit, politics in Rosemount are easier without such reckless agents getting involved."

"We can thank them for their assistance while also being grateful they are far from us."

The Windlord said nothing, still staring toward the empty sky.

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..

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Sometimes Kojajix thought that some god must have cursed him. As a kid he'd had all kinds of dreams, but he'd ended up working on a boat just like his pop, already aching and wheezing before middle age. He pulled on the ropes along with the others, getting the sails up for all the good it did on this cursed lake.

As a kid he'd hoped to awaken some legendary power, but by the time he was a teenager it was clear his soul was mediocre. After a very awkward adolescence, where he trained but didn't make much progress, he got the fool idea of becoming a mercenary and earning his way to power.

Well, it turned out that even the shittiest mercenary companies had a minimum 1000 Power requirement to join up. So Kojajix had ended up like a lot of other failures, sailing on the Deadlake taking jobs that no one else wanted.

They all had swords and a few scars, sometimes they even talked like they were hard men, but they knew they were nothing. There were maybe five men on the ship who had ever had any shot at all, and they'd dropped out of the academy or otherwise been failures - they even had one foreigner who'd been rejected from a cultivation sect. All they had from those experiences was some less-shit equipment and a stupid gimmick or two.

"Koja, back here," the captain called. Kojajix hastened to obey Captain Yurajix's command, even though it was likely just to be given more work.

If anyone on the boat had even an ounce of talent, it was Captain Yurajix. He didn't seem to have any special abilities, but he could slap aside qi or beat down that one ass who had an "iron body" technique. For whatever reason, he chose to gather hard men and take on desperate jobs.

"Get the oars," Captain Yurajix ordered. "I mislike the Deadlake today."

"You sure, Captain?" Kojajix looked toward the sail, still full in the breeze.

"You'll learn, boy, get 'em. There's nothing dangerous in the Deadlake except the water... but there are all kinds of currents flowing inward."

"Why inward?" One of the good things about the captain was that he didn't shout a man down just for asking questions.

"Hell if I know, it doesn't make a lick of sense. What I do know is that if you get caught in one, and the wind becalms at the same time, you're shit out of luck. So get the oars!"

Nodding, Kojajix shuffled to the back of the ship to pull the extra oars out of storage. Their ship was a simple two deck affair, with barely any room for them below with their cargo. He thought it was a stupid errand, but the thought of getting stranded out there on the endless placid water kept him moving.

When Kojajix reached the oars, he looked up and saw an entirely gray man.

"The fate barrier really is more notable than expected."

"Whuh?" Kojajix stared at the man, trying to figure out who the hell he could be. His clothes lacked color, but they looked finer than anything he'd seen before.

"An emergent phenomenon, I think, but a powerful one. Pity I can't handle things directly."

The man had started to walk forward, not even looking at him, but strangers couldn't just go around the ship like that, so Kojajix went after him. "Sir, what are you doing?"

"Oh, but the P3 has a cycle... I can send in something during the weakening. This must be what led me here, to-"

"Hey, stop!" Kojajix ran in front of the gray man and was about to grab his robes when those eyes finally looked at him.

They were nothing. Gray holes into a gray landscape that seemed like it didn't exist and yet yawned before him. When Kojajix managed to pull himself out of the trance, he realized that the man's face held an expression of mild disgust, like someone who found that their food stores had gone buggy. Except this man stared at him like he'd seen a million stores go buggy and was tired of it.

"I suppose you will be my agents," the gray man said. "Tedious agents, and this brute method is not worthy of me, but it's all this loose end deserves. Almost certainly nothing, of course, but better to eradicate anomalies early, and this is the time."

None of that made any damn sense, but Kojajix didn't dare say anything. He wasn't even sure how he had gotten out of the man's way, yet he was walking onward.

"What the fuck?" Another sailor saw him and started forward more aggressively. "Stowaways get-"

Then he stopped. The man wasn't walking, wasn't breathing, it was like he was a picture in the air. Kojajix stared, sure that the gray man had done it without knowing what had happened: the man hadn't waved a hand or so much looked aside, it had just happened. Of course, Kojajix had never managed to awaken any spiritual sight, so there must have been an invisible trick.

"Very well." The gray man's next step took him into the air, as if there were invisible stairs beneath him. "This group will do. All of you are headed into the Deadlake to eliminate a little problem for me."

"And just who are you?" Captain Yurajix asked as the entire crew turned to look at the floating man.

"I'm not really sure what will happen to you, but you should have the strength to squash a little bug. A little personality manipulation should point out the right bug - that's easy enough, for an anomaly. Then we should get you moving so you break the fate barrier at the right point of the cycle, of course."

Something gripped the bottom of the ship, more powerfully than any tide Kojajix had ever felt. Many fell over as the ship began flying over the water faster than it ever had - when he looked back, he saw the shoreline and safety disappearing rapidly behind them.

"Are there any other details? Oh yes, you're all still at that miserable stage of existence where you need to eat and drink, aren't you?" The gray man waved a hand in the direction of their hold. "Such tiresome details are easy to handle at least. That should let you survive... once you get to that old relic, you shouldn't be challenged, of course."

"Sir, whatever you're doing..." Captain Yurajix started to move forward, and he never finished his step, freezing like the first attacker. But this time, the gray man's head swiveled to face him.

"Hmm, you're a bit too strong, aren't you? This fate barrier really does keep out everyone... very well." He waved a hand and the captain disappeared in a blink. "It's difficult to even tell the difference at this stage, but I think everyone else is just barely weak enough to get through the barrier. This is likely the strongest force that can be deployed there."

Even though Kojajix had no idea what was going on, it seemed like the gray man was going to go away and leave them on the Deadlake. And if he knew one thing, he knew that was death. Not daring to get in the man's way, Kojajix just dropped to his knees near him.

"Please, sir," he begged, "what are you doing? What do you want us to do?"

"I'm sending you to eliminate a little anomaly, a monster in the form of a man." The gray man looked at him briefly and the smallest of smiles appeared on his lips. "You'll know him when you see him."

(This is the end of the fourth book/arc. Update post tomorrow.)