Bent World: Chapter 38 The Choice

<<<< Author's Note: I intend to make this the end of Book 1. There will still be a final epilogue, but by and large the first book will end here. Book 2 will begin in seven years, when Sal (the male one) will find himself drawn back to his body's home world after living and exploring multiple worlds. >>>>

Chapter 38

The Choice

I already had everything I needed to succeed. Weapons, armor, and most importantly knowledge. Knowledge of how to kill, and how to survive.

This world took doomsday prepping to a whole new level, which was admirable, especially considering it was this world that ended up causing my world’s apocalypse to begin with.

Slash.

I slice my long sword through the air. The movement so smooth that I barely feel the acceleration, the drop and the sudden restriction of my Telekinesis on the blade falling. A mental reflex that allows me to strike as powerfully as possible, without driving my blade tip into the ground.

“You still practicing?” Sarina asks.

I nod, I am back to having to pretend to be someone else, with so many guests here. Those guests also annoy me, there were ridiculous bids. I know this world is still backwards from my own world, but the idea of selling me off like I was little more than cattle grated at my nerves.

Before today, it was an issue that I would have to deal with in the future, down the road. But today made the entire process unavoidable. Worse, it made the process personal.

Even Auntie holding my choker linked tie was humiliating. Yes there was plenty of give in it, but the symbolism was not lost on me, just as it wasn’t lost on the others.

Furious slash.

Remembering that moment, my body begins picking up the pace.

Blade rises, breathe in, blade falls, exhale.

Those are the actions I am performing, but my body is going a lot faster.

“You okay?” Sarina asks, her normal awkwardness seeping into her words.

I nod.

“You know I am here to talk to you, if you need anything?” She continues, while I just nod. Providing the nod in rhythm of my strike.

Sarina watches, I can almost feel her fear and apprehension at the brutality of my training.

“Right, I’m going to leave you to it, just let me know when you come back?” Sarina asks more than states.

I nod, my body filled with youthful anger and boundless rage of being a pre-teen. I hold it in, managing to restrain everything long enough for me to feel her form truly go away. The minute I can no longer feel her prickling affinities around me, I let out all the anger and rage I had been feeling all day.

“RAHHH!”

I cry out in rage, my blade seeming to fall so fast that I can almost feel it cutting through space and time.

I want to get away.

No, I need to get away, I could have managed to wait until I was a teenager to leave and strike out on my own, but this is different. This is personal.

Slice, think, slice.

With each successive strike I take, I feel anger fuel my next rise upwards, before the therapeutic chop comes down.

Dark purple ripple.

This time, when I strike down, I feel a slight resistance against the very edge of my blade. One that seems to cause the world to pulse and ripple around my blade.

Pause.

Seeing the ripple, I pause. Partly out of awe of what I am seeing before my eyes, and partly from the fact that I am now near exhausted from having increased my training pace. Yet, seeing the ripples in space, I can’t help but realize what it means.

Before, I had always felt there was a deeper connection between myself and the rifts of this world. The fact that with the wave of my hand I can easily close a rift was obvious. But now, it seems that there is more. I can do more.

Smiling to myself, for the first time since today began I felt like my future was back in my control.

Raising my sword once more, I raised it up, focusing my mind on the exact thoughts I had earlier. The thought of escaping, of leaving this world behind and all its odd customs. That’s when I noticed there was a faint glow going from my hand to my blade. A glow that traveled down the shaft of the blade all the way to its edge. Once there, I could see how the energy manifested itself.

That’s when I smiled, rather than cutting straight down the same line, I altered my patch going for a kesagiri cut, one that went from top center to bottom right. At that cut I saw to cuts sparkling in the air. Then it was only a matter of twisting the blade slightly, and performing a backhanded horizontal slash and I formed a triangle.

A triangle that seemed to separate time and space. How did I know it was a different world? Well simple, I had felt energy from this realm before. This was the second dot of energy on my left hand. Or maybe the third dot, the one with the giant snapping turtle that was too big to squeeze through the portal. Seeing the opening, I realized that for once, the fact that I was not fully grown was an advantage, as my three cuts were more than enough for my small body to easily slide through the opening. For a moment I paused, looking through and seeing that the other side of the breach was clear of monsters, unlike what I had expected. Maybe I was just too jaded by the way all rifts that occurred naturally, and were generated by Auntie seemed to form around clusters of giant monsters.

Going up to the rift, I reach my arm through, half expecting it to burn up from going through space and time. Half expecting a hidden monster to use this moment to jump out and give a deadly attack on my otherwise defenseless arm. Yet, nothing happened.

Seeing the rift, I realized that this was it, my chance at freedom. I took one look back, and swore I could almost feel two sets of eyes watching me, but then realized that even if someone was watching me, it didn’t matter.

With deft movements that would make gymnasts jealous, I entered through, making sure not to touch any of the edges of the rift in space. I assumed it was safe given how many monsters I saw climbing and crawling on those very structures, but I didn’t want to chance it.

Once I was through, I took a quick look around to make sure I was safe and no monsters were in my immediate area. Then turning back, I looked at the open rift, seeing my conflicted past. The world I swore vengeance against for destroying my home world, when all we wanted was a chance to outlast our mistakes. A world I somehow knew I would eventually go back to, but not today.

Taking a deep breath, I waved my left hand over the rift that I had created and felt the energy being pulled back into my hand. It wasn’t a straight one for one swap, as some of my energy was clearly lost in the creation and maintaining of the rift. This was something that I would have to experiment with more as time goes on.

One would think that I would feel drained, first from my rather intense training. Then second from my opening a rift and going to a new world. Yet, despite knowing that my reserves had been somewhat depleted initially, I could only feel my power reserves going up. Recharging with every moment I stayed here.

For a moment, I wonder if this is how my mother felt, as conqueror on my planet. The thrum of excess power filling her up every second she was there, infusing with her body and making her feel more alive than ever. Now that I am of the same genetic makeup, does that mean that I too will gain the same relentless surges of energy?

Energy that can make you feel like you can conquer the world?

No, these are dangerous thoughts, thoughts that I should try to squash at their inception. Yet, I can’t.

I stay here for a moment. Knowing that I can likely recreate another rift back home, if I wanted. A bitter taste fills my mind at the thought of home. That wasn’t my home, not really, though I know I can find my way back there easily. First there are three monoliths here that I instinctively know which direction they are in. Monoliths that I also know can take me back to my body’s birth planet. These are all odd thoughts to be having, and finally I decide that the best thing I can do is explore these worlds. Wondering if this was one of the other planets between my true home world and Earth07, or if I have gone further in another direction, away from the one place I will truly call home?

These thoughts and more fill my mind as I begin to walk in a random direction. Well seemingly random for me, until I realize it is the exact direction I would take from my manor house, to Andry mansion. Do I know that life will be there? Or is this just my mind choosing a familiar direction to go in?

I don’t know.

I don’t know, but I will find out.

***

(Sarina)

“He did it?” Sarina exclaimed both excitedly and somewhat confusedly.

“Of course he would, all we had to do was give him enough of a reason to want to leave, that he would begin his pilgrimage, just as the first Pathfinder did,” Dr. Andry stated, her words as cold and calculating as ever. Yet, despite her words, Sarina couldn’t help but feel that she heard a note of pride while she described what was effectively her grandson and prized auctioning item for the Andry house to have gotten up and left on his own.

“Aren’t you concerned that your business deals will fall through?”

“Business deals, hah. Since no official deals could be struck to our liking, we cancelled all negotiations. Even future bids to train with the Pathfinder have been cancelled for the time being.”

Hearing the words of the house doctor, Sarina could only feel more confusion wrapping her mind.

“What exactly is he supposed to find on his pilgrimage?”

“Himself, naturally.” Auntie answered as if it was the most logical conclusion to come to.

The two watched as even the last traces of rift energy eventually winked out on their side, causing a few faint after images of light to remain in Sarina’s retinas. After images that she tried to blink away. Finally, once her eyes no longer saw the residual traces of light, Sarina found yet another question coming to her mind.

“Are you certain he will come back?” Sarina asked, as a note of concern and loss bleed into her words.

Chuckle. “Of course I know, they all go. Then they all come back when they are too powerful to be ignored.”

“Then what?”

“Then they change the world to be a better place, for a time at least.”

At that thought Sarina just nodded, finally seeing just how much of a zealot Dr. Andry truly was when it came to the Pathfinders.

“So what should we do in the meantime? While we wait for him to return?”

“In the meantime, we prepare for the fallout.”

“Fallout? From failed biddings?”

Exasperated sigh. At that comment, Auntie just shook her head, “you have much to learn about this world. When you have two families like the Li and Kingstons who both failed to acquire something this powerful, realize that they will stop at nothing to get it.”

“You mean?”

“Yes, we can likely expect people coming to look for the Pathfinder violently.”

“What do we do?”

“Let me ask you, how do you stop a tidal wave, when you live on the flood plain?”

Hearing the question, Sarina just paused, before finally answering honestly, “I don’t know?”

“You move to higher ground and hope everything you hold dear can somehow be salvaged after the wave hits.”

***

(Salandra Kingston)

“That’s it? We are just going home after all that?” Sal found herself asking over the whirr of the airship they were using to travel back to civilized society.

Chuckle.

“Of course, we were too emotionally involved in the bidding process, which is why we backed out,” Lady Kingston stated, her disarming laugh filling the hull of the ship as they continued their journey.

“But, I thought we wanted it? Didn’t you say the Pathfinder was legitimate?”

“We did, and it was confirmed.”

“And doesn’t the Pathfinder all but ensure the increase in power levels and abilities?”

“It does, and they do.”

“So why then didn’t we bid more?”

Chuckle.

“You think we would buy something, when we can take it by force?” Lady Kingston stated.

Gasp.

Hearing that, Sal gasped at the thought. It had been so odd, so alien of a thought that it never came to her civilized mind.

“We can do that?”

Purring chuckle.

“Not only can we, but we will. Or at least we will try.”

“Try?”

“Yes, try. For we are also up against the Li Family, meaning we will have to strike quickly as they too will likely employ the same methods we wish.”

With that Sal’s eyes went wider, as this was her first taste of this world’s brands of Family politics and she felt a strange thrill course through her body. A thrill that forced a smile to form on her lips.

“I take it, these types of talks excite you?” Lady Kingston asked.

Sal wanted to deflect or deny, but ultimately found herself nodding, “yes, yes it does.”

“Good, you will make a great Kingston heir, if you survive what is to come.”

“Survive?” Sarina asked, confusion and fear gripping her mind.

***

(Yue Li)

Yue sat up, backstraight, perfect posture evident in every move she made. Outwardly she was the pristine model of being well put together, every inch of her the perfect regal example of being the equivalent of royalty. Inwardly things were completely different, as she was a complete mess.

“You seem quieter than usual,” Lady Li finally spoke, only after giving Yue enough time to gather her thoughts from the failed negotiations.

“I’ve been thinking,” Yue finally responded.

“About?” Lady Li asked while pouring tea for the two of them.  Despite the random air pockets that would occasionally cause the steamship to rumble in the air, Lady Li’s posture and pouring were perfect and precise.

“Things I cannot have.”

Silence.

Lady Li let that statement linger in the air for a moment as she delicately slid Yue’s cup and saucer towards her.

“And, how important is this missing item to you?”

There it was, the declarative statement, the bait hanging at the end of the hook. A test to see how dedicated Yue was to the family, to gaining all the power she could to be of service. The fact that her mother, the matriarch of her house came out with her, the fifth daughter of the Li Household, was not to be taken lightly. Added to that was the fact that she now took the time to prepare and server her tea, that spoke volumes about how she thought of her fifth daughter.

In this, Yue could drop everything and give up, having this time be a waste of effort and time for both of them. Or, she could show the fervor and commitment that was expected of her as a true member of the Li Household.

“Very important.”

“And what do we do when we can’t get things that are very important to us?”

At that, Yue looked up and locked gazes with her mother. This was her test, and she needed to show that she was resolute in her answer.

“We take it.”

Smile.

At that, Lady Li smiled devilishly at her daughter, a note of pride evident in her face.

“Very good, glad I wasn’t wrong with putting my plans in motion.”

Yue just nodded, realizing that things were now out of her control. She had made her choice, and she would just need to wait for the Li Clan assets to work their magic, literally and figuratively.

At that, Li almost let herself relax, almost. As she caught herself after seeing that her mother was still watching her even now, to see if she showed any sign of weakness. The Li Family was many things, but weak was not one of them.

Sitting up even straighter, Yue grabbed her tea and began to drink, despite its heat instantly burning her tongue. This was part of enduring the mantle of the Li Household, all knew its cost, and all wanted to bare that burden, especially Yue.