PreCursive

  “Thank ya kindly for retrievin’ the bde, desdent,” Shacklock said fondly, patting the shoulder of the frozen stiff Kazuma. “I woulda do meself, but I might have ended up killin’ all those cats if I’d tried. This way, I haven’t pissed off the damned sun by killin’ his get.”

  At that, Kazuma turned around to gape up at the man who had, apparently, fathered the founder of his turies ago. “You knew where the sword was?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

  Shacklock shrugged. “Eh, easier this ay it no mind, boy. Ya pyed your part well in this dance, and sit it out from now on. Yer great-great-great-great-great-great grandad will see this out.”

  Violently, Kazuma pushed his chair back from the table and spun to face his aor. “THAT WILL DO ME NO GOOD!” He shouted. “The entire reason I agreed to this expedition is to restore the honor of my house! If I don’t have the bde, what’s the point?! You’ll break it by using it!”

  At this point, I was feeling a bit fotten by the two of them, and I don’t think I was alone in that. By and rge, the heads of the rest of my party were ping-ponging, watg the family drama. However, I noticed that Venix was looking…troubled. The Antium samurai had released his grips on his swords and had stood up to watch the twuing men with a lost expression on his face. With the revetion that Shacklock was the aor of his long-dead master…

  I could uand a bit of internal flict.

  Meanwhile, Shacklock wagged a fi Kazuma, almost mogly. “But ya see, boy, someoeically from the is going to sy the Wyrm. I’ll see this out, make sure the beast is dead, and I have some dots affirmin’ the retionship ya present in court. AND,” He said loudly, overriding the protestations Kazuma looked to be gathering. “I’m not leaving ya with nothin’. In exge for the sword, and syin’ the beastie…yetting the Order.”

  Kazuma froze, staring at Shacklock. “What?”

  “Wel, I’m gonna need someoo lead my life’s work when I’m gone, eh?” Shacklock smirked. “Bein’ the st of blood, that means it should fall to you. Those dots also affirm that as well.”

  Venix finally spoke, albeit quietly. “And your men will abide by this decision?”

  The Antium was afforded an almost bored look, but Shacklock still nodded. “Oh, I’m aware of Wernstrom’s little plot. But it don’t matter. The rest of my officers will fall in line, and he’s bei with, by those in my fidence.”

  Dealt with. I…see.

  Liora sucked in a sharp breath. “That patrol…they mentiohe Captain wasn’t here…”

  Shacklock let out a somewhat…ominous chuckle. “Why did you kids think I was even out there, hunting useless beasties, eh? I sold my men a story about gatherin’ up all the Oni and sughterin’ ‘em before we took on the Wyrm, so we could weaken him. Don’t work like that, o’ course. But most of ‘em don’t know better. I went out for some fun, found you kids and killed what was botherin’ ya, all the while the bulk of my men were out fightin’ the rest of the Oni in these mountains. Between us, there shouldn’t be many of the things left to bother with the final part of the operation.”

  “That’s…” I trailed off, uo properly verbalize what I thought of Shacklock’s pn. A part of me issed off at how easily the old monster had pyed…well, everyone involved. But the bulk of me just admired, and was a admittedly a bit jealous, of the feet of social and military engineering.

  I don’t think I was able to keep my appreciation from my voice, judging by the sharp look Venix shot me, as well as the wink I got from Shacklock. Kazuma, meanwhile, was still frozen in pce as his own pns were entirely wrecked, entirely in his favor. He didn’t have to sacrifice his life anymore, in exge for elevating his family back to promihin the Hinagan court. Now he was going to be returning as the leader of a powerful, if not exiled, Martial Order.

  Still, the trade involved the sacrifice of his aral bde. I could tell that the situation weighed on him, from the fli his faotably, he didn’t protest though.

  Shacklock cast an eye around at the disturbed expressions of most of our faces, either from the revetions about Grey or about how we’d been pyed, and just rolled his eyes. “Oh, it ain’t the end of the world, kiddies,” He said in exasperation. “By the time ya get to be my age, you get better at this kind of thing,” To my surprise, he then faced me and locked his beady bck orbs onto my emerald ones. In a rare moment of plete seriousness, the madness seemed to fall away from the man. “Remember that, the ime you see him.”

  I looked away.

  I’m…not sure I could argue with that.

  Shackloterrupted the mood by g his hands. “Now! Here’s what’s goin’ to happen. You kiddies are going to keep my desdent safe by findin’ yer door, and keepin’ him with ya while this old man deals with the big bad dragon. Everythin’ will go down while yer all down there, and the rain will have died with the Wyrm. Well, if I don’t screw it all up, I suppose. We’re all in uncharted territory here. You lot stay until daybreak, and I’ll be informin’ my officers about what’s goin’ to happen while ya hit the hay. Won’t take long, though. They already know ‘im.”

  Kazuma looked up from his p to stare at Shacklock for a moment. “Is that why you had me shadowing you all this time?” He whispered.

  Shacklock just wi his desdant.

  ……………………………………

  After that, all of us but Shacklod Kazuma filtered out of the a and found only hostile stares from the scattered soldiers huddled around their hissing cookfires. Without even needing to discuss the matter, we collectively decided to veo the edges of the pteau in order to pitch our ow.

  Once we had finished, I was extremely gd we’d opted for a tent capable of housing an indoor campfire of our own. The smoke from the fmes drifted up above us to pass through a one-way, ented membrahat let it out, but didn’t let the rain in. We hadn’t o do this up until now, sidering the heat out in the jungle, but now it was very wele. All of us were soaked to the bone and exhausted after a hard day’s march through the tral range of Goryuen. Most of the time, people at our level didn’t he rest that sleep could bring, especially after we had all takeime to get some within the warm embrat. Umetsuji just st night.

  But I think we were all going to sleep tonight.

  First, though, everyone had stripped down to their underclothes to dry them on a lirung up in our tent, while we warmed ourselves in front of the fire. I wasn’t even phased by the near nakedness of my panions, by this point. There was little room for priva aended expedition like this. It was nothing I hadn’t seen before, and the closeness with which Bel and I sat together wasn’t anythio my friends. Eventually, we’d stopped sneaking around when it was obvious that there was no need for it. Everyone here knew each other, by now.

  It must have been obvious, to them. So, while Bel and I weren’t quite cuddling, we were sitting clether than was strictly appropriate for friends.

  The only noise ient was the silent scribbling of Renauld and the bubbling noise of liquid inating from above the cookfire. None of us had spoken, ever since we had finished crowding around the campfire a a pot of travel stew to boiling. Hangio it was a kettle with collected rainwater inside, which Liora had set for tea. From extended tact with the Gnoll woman…I had learhat she often sought it out when she was stressed.

  I uood that.

  I broke the silearing into the depths of the fire without blinking. “So. We were pyed.”

  Nobody spoke up to refute me, although Azarus grunted in a familiar manner.

  “I…” I tihoughtfully. “I’m not sure I care.”

  That drew a rea. Bel turo me with a raised, doutful eyebrow, while I received simir looks from the others.

  I eborated.

  “Look. All of this?” I said, gesturing with a wide sweeping arm. “This ehing with the Solstice’s Fme and Kazuma and Shackloone of this was in our pns. Sure, we might have gotten a little maniputed by a turies-old madman-”

  I heard Renauld snort across the fire from me, and mutter something under his breath. All I heard was, “…a little…”.

  I pretended I didn’t hear him a speaking. “-but we’ve e out of it mostly fihat’s dohough. Shacklock got what he wanted out of us, which seemed to be keeping Kazuma out of harms way while he purged the dissidents in his Order. Now we get back to doing what we came here for. We’ll find the bunker, go down there with the help of our extra in Kazuma, find what I’m looking for, and then leave. All the while,” I nodded over to Venix, who didn’t look up from his brooding. “Shacklock will be dealing with the proto-Camity above us. Every problem we have will be ed up nid ly, and we’ll probably have the gratitude of the new leader of a historically powerful Martial Order. Excuse me. They call them Sects here if I’m not mistaken.”

  “You are not,” Venix said quietly but didn’t refute my points.

  Liora removed the kettle silently, ao brewing a few cups of her personal favorite blend. When done, she handed o first to Venix, and then to me. “ical,” She said quietly. “But pragmatic.”

  I accepted the cup and cupped it between my hands. “Am I wrong?”

  Liora looked away in answer.

  I hadn’t thought so. Liora and I…we were simir, in a variety of ways. I sipped at my cup, and as I felt the warmth travel through me, I couldn’t help but sigh and cast a g the tense form of Venix. “Did you have any idea that Shacklock was…?” I trailed off, but he uood anyway.

  Venix flicked his pound eyes up briefly, before looking down. “The living aor of my master?” He asked mirthlessly. He shook his head. “No. No, I did not.”

  “Speaking of…” Renauld said, closing his journal with a soft thump. “I’ve been w something if you don’t mind answering.”

  The Antium samurai stirred but did not look up from his ption of the cup. “Speak.”

  “How…did Gozen of the Twin Fangs die?” Renauld wondered aloud. The question caused Venix to tense, but he didn’t immediately burst into recriminations. That must have emboldehe Gnollish Healer. “Because we have no idea, and holy? It might be helpful. It’s looking like we’re not going to be directly fighting Tatsugan, but that might ge. We all know our luck.”

  Hah.

  Well, he wasn’t wrong.

  Venix was quiet. He didn’t say anything for so long that I think all of us had thought he had dodged the question. Azarus was handing out bowls of stew by the time the Antium finally stirred from his ption and spoke. “He fell.”

  Bel looked up from her bowl with a curious look. “What? Who fell?”

  “My master. Lozen Higanashi of the Twin Fangs.”

  Renauld raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, but how?”

  To my surprise, Venix actually huffed a small, humorless ugh. More a scoff than anything. “I’m being literal, Healer. My master died, falling from a great height. The impact upoones of these mountains killed him. His bones shattered, his ans ruptured, and every drop of blood in his body was washed away in the rains.”

  If he was capable of it, I think Renauld would have turned green at that. “Oh.”

  “Yes. Oh. Perhaps the favorite method of sughter to the Returning One is that he loves to snatch his prey up in his great cws and take flight. Once he has climbed to a distao where even his great bulk is naught but a spe the sky, he releases them. He races downward after, to keep pace with the falling form of his victim, in a cruel mockery of their plight.” Venix sighed heavily. “This is the fate that befell my master. I watched it all, helpless, from the sidelines. Every st minute of the plunge.”

  I furrowed my brow, setting my bow down briefly. “How is that your fault? You’ve…implied that Gozen’s death was caused by a failing of yours.”

  Venix lowered his head. “Because I was meant to be the Wyrm’s victim.”

  Ah.

  Everyoopped their dio watch as Venix marshaled his ce to tinue speaking. “I…” He started haltingly. “I was his squire, for the battle. It was not going…well. Many of my brothers and sisters had already died, at the height of the Ryumetsu Matsuri. If Shacklock has already culled the majority of the Oni before the battle, we only be thankful. Because they came i hordes on that day, and nearly everyone else was sin. It was one of the worst casualty ts that the Empire ever recorded for a Ryumetsu Matsuri. otal decimation.”

  I sensed a heartbeat approach the tent, but er. Instead, they lingered outside. Normally, I think Venix would have been able to sehem, but he was too absorbed iale. Liora noticed, though, and I shook my head minutely at her.

  I reized that heart.

  “And so it came to be that my master and I were the st two of the cohort fronting the beast to survive, and the Wyrm was not yet sin,” Venix tinued heavily. “I was the st remaining warrior capable of keeping the Oni from pestering my master as he dueled Tatsugan, bde against cw. However…the beast is clever. In a moment of iion on my part, it must have darted for my unprotected back, as I dueled my iant. It snatched me up, and nearly, nearly made off with me. My master…he was noble indeed. He did his best to save me, leaping forward, bde in hand.”

  “This proved to be his downfall.”

  I internally wi the choice of words as Venix tinued his tale, staring off into spaseeingly. It looked like he was reliving that day once again when he had so obviously done so time and again.

  “I was bait, you see. With his other cw, the Immortal One grabbed my master and darted into the clouds, discarding me like so much refuse with his true prize in hand. I feared that everything we had fought and sacrificed was for naught, all due to a moment’s iion by my fool self. However…” A wan smile crossed Venix’s lips. “The Wyrm had only brought my master closer to his heart. All I saw were distant fshes of bck void iormy sky, the signature activation of the fang. Then Tatsugan’s death scream, followed by a cloud of Miasma that I have never seen matched, rag across the sky to cover it in billows of umber smoke. And falling through that vile mist, I saw the form of my master, plunging towards Vereden’s surface. I knew he would die from such a fall, and yearo retrieve his body and bde. But the Oni were not to be denied. I was alone, and they were still mighty and numerous. Shamefully, I fled for the beach, where the survivors were readying the ships for a retreat. The rest…you know. The Lady Shurenga found and recovered my master’s bde, and safe-guarded it for Lord Kazuma.”

  It was Lord Kazuma, now, eh?

  Venix fell silent after that areated into mediation in the er. I think Renauld was regretting his question a bit, from the expression on his furry face, but he didn't keep the Antium from his solitude. Instead, he just looked back down at his journal and started scribbling again.

  At the same time, the preseside the tent lingered for only a moment more before retreating bato the rain.

  I wonder what you made of that story, oh Lord.