PreCursive

  Name: Aveline Cir Montbnc

  Age: 10 years

  Species: Human

  That was what Observe read to me when I used the Skill on the little girl as we walked through the busy Solstice’s Fme camp, hand in hand. I had used it for multiple reasons, after my little realization back in the Healer’s tent. One, I wanted to see if Aveline would actually register as having some kind of hidden, early Status in the eyes of the System. And two, to see if Aveline would react to the crawling, tingling sensation on the back of the neck that signified someone using Observe on you.

  But no. What I got back from the Skill was the perfectly ordinary reading of a pre-Awakening child. Aveline didn’t even react to it as well, which should have told me that there was no significant concentration of Aether in the body of the child. Something that was both frustrating and relieving at the same time was that her Status also only categorized her as a pin Human, and not as one of the Netherim people. Frustrating, because it was another dead-end as to the mystery of her vanished people.

  Relieving, because Aveline was protected from the prying eyes of other people if they had the same idea that I did and used the exceedingly common Skill on her. She would register to them as nothing more than a normal little girl.

  For now, it was looking like there was next to nothing I could do other than wait for her to reach the age of sixteen. Then, we could try and get her Awakened to see if the Status granted to her was odd in any way.

  Or if the one I suspect was already extant and hidden revealed itself further. Either way, I had to drop it for now.

  Even more than a week after the victory over Tatsugan, the soldiers were still in a good mood all about us, as Aveline, my friends, and I strolled through it. All around us were relieved, happy cssers chatting around campfires, content ones tending to their kit, and focused, unbothered warriors keeping their skills sharp through practice and sparring.

  Mood and morale seemed high, and for good reason.

  In their minds, the promise given by the leadership of their Order had been fulfilled. Although it might not have been their Grandmaster that truly slew the Wyrm, I had to admit that their help had led to it. I’m not sure if any of us would have been able to even reach the bunker in order to be sucked into Lucretia’s ancient trap, with the way the projected form of Tatsugan had been harrying Shacklock and his soldiers. They, and their master, deserved at least a little bit of the credit for freeing Kawamara from the millennia-long grip of the Returning One.

  Who would return no more.

  However, they…possibly deserved even more of the credit, if Shacklock was amendable to the idea rolling around my rings. Which was why my party and I, Shurenga included, were going to see him at the rge command tent set up in the middle of the camp. I think Shacklock had been keeping an eye on me somehow and knew that I was finally awake, even though it had barely been an hour. He’d sent a messenger requesting my presence at his command center. I didn’t mind trekking over there, even though I was still a little wobbly on my feet.

  Apparently, that was where Kazuma and Venix were spending most of their time now.

  We reached the rge, orange tent before long, and the two Solstice guards posted outside wordlessly drew back the fps to let us inside. There must have been a sound dampening enchantment on the tent, because when they did, I winced at the noise that greeted me.

  Because there was loud shouting now echoing out into the air of Goryuen.

  “-be dense, boy!” I heard Shacklock’s raised, frustrated voice reach me. “Of course there’s goin’ to be a bloody fight! There’s always a fight! And ye’ll be grateful for it in the long run, mind you me!”

  “Blow it out your ass, you stupid codger!” I heard Kazuma yell back at his ancestor. “Those are my countrymen!”

  I stopped at the doorway as I felt Aveline’s hand tighten in my own, the little girl cringing away from the screaming match. I cursed myself for a fool immediately. I Should have known better than to take a child into the presence of someone so…unstable. I caught Renauld’s eye before I went any longer, and to my relief, he immediately understood.

  The Gnollish Healer bent down to eye level and whispered something in Aveline’s ear, causing her to rex in relief. When she looked at me, I nodded at her with a smile in lieu of speaking, as Kazuma and Shacklock continued to tear into each other. Without another word, my friend led her away as I turned back around to face the tent, a new frown on my face.

  In the center of the tent, Kazuma and Shacklock were standing close enough together that they would have been nose to nose if Shacklock wasn’t a shrunken old man. As it was, the aged Grandmaster was having to stand on his tip toes to scream directly into his descendants' face.

  My attention was stolen from the…somewhat ridiculous scene, when I heard a voice echo out from my right, sounding audibly bored. “They’ve been at it for hours now.”

  I cut my eyes in that direction to find Venix standing with all four of his arms folded in front of him and tucked the sleeves of his white and pink robe. He smiled slightly when he noticed my attention. “I am gd you have awakened, Hart. You will make a full recovery, I trust?”

  My own returning smile was slight as I answered him. “Eventually, yes,” I saw elusively, before changing the subject. “So, what are they fighting about?”

  Venix sighed as the squabbling continued in the background. “It turns out that the subjugation fleet from Kawamara is arriving faster than expected. Solstice scouts upon their naval assets off the coast have reported that a fleet of at least a dozen warships have been sighted perhaps only a day’s sail away. They come to root out the presence of this foreign Sect, root and stem.”

  Ah. That didn’t sound good.

  “And I’m guessing Kazuma doesn’t want to fight them, while Shacklock does,” I concluded.

  That earned me a mirthless smile from the Antium samurai. “Correct. Thus, the argument.”

  I turned back around to watch the argument, curious despite myself.

  “Ye’ve got to establish a reputation for yourself now, boy!” Shacklock flung at Kazuma with a raised voice. “The wet chair thinks nothin’ of you and yours after your banishment! If you’re goin’ to lead this Order one day, ye’ll need to present a strong front from the beginning! You’re too weak otherwise! A show of force from me and the men will make ‘em respect ye in the long run!”

  Kazuma agitatedly sshed one hand out horizontally. “No, you madman! I have friends in the Imperial Navy! I know plenty of those people! For System’s sake, I grew up in a port town! My home wasn’t too far away from the Imperial shipyards! I know I can talk them down, subjugation fleet or otherwise! That’s beside the fact that as soon as we tell them that Tatsugan is permanently dead, they’ll all but be bowing at our feet! We just accomplished a legendary feat! The Emperor will probably throw us a damned festival for this!”

  ‘We’, huh. You’d think I might be upset by Kazuma essentially stealing part of the glory, when I was the one to sy the Wyrm’s true form.

  It was the opposite, actually. This was a good point for me to interject.

  I cleared my throat, causing the eyes of Shacklock and Kazuma to snap over to me. The two distantly reted men had completely opposite reactions to the sight of me and the others standing in the doorway, watching the confrontation. While Kazuma brightened up and hurried over to greet me and the others, Shacklock rolled his eyes irritably. “Don’t just stand there gaping like a pack of feckless infants!” He barked, waving a hand forward. “Get in here and shut the damned door behind you!”

  We complied, fully stepping into the tent and letting the fps fall behind us. The minute the pieces of cloth had settled into pce, the noise of the hustle and bustle of the camp immediately cut away, leaving only silence in the tent.

  Kazuma shot Shacklock one st filthy look before turning to face me with a relieved smile. “Nathan! I’d heard you were awake, but I didn’t know you were up and about. What are you doing here?”

  I raised one eyebrow at him, before shifting my gaze over his shoulder in the direction of Shacklock. Kazuma followed my gaze to find that his ancestor looked entirely unapologetic.

  “Oh,” I said dryly. “No reason in particur.”

  Kazuma scowled once more at Shacklock, causing the old man to simply shrug. “Come and sit, you lot,” The Grandmaster said, his gaze lingering on the smaller form of Shurenga almost warily. He dragged his eyes away from her to meet my eyes after a moment. “We got some things to talk about, now that zybones is up.” He turned away to walk towards his throne-like chair, but I still heard him mutter to himself. “Mebbe ye can talk some sense into the brat.”

  His words didn’t seem to be meant to be quiet, so said ‘brat’ made a rude gesture behind his back. I stifled a smirk as I and everyone else approached the same table where Shacklock had revealed both his and Grey’s past to us only…well. I wanted to say days since that’s what it felt like to me. But in reality, that tense conversation had been well over a week ago now.

  I smiled slightly at the sight of Shurenga hopping up onto one of the chairs to sit on her haunches, straight-backed and proud like the queen she was. I noticed, though, that Venix stayed back near his position close to the tent fp. The Antium man remained silent, seemingly content to let the conversation pass him by for now.

  Once we were all arranged, Shacklock folded his fingers together and looked straight at me. “Now, I understand a bit o’ what happened, from what this lot told me,” He said, making a dismissive gesture towards the rest of my companions, including Kazuma. “I’m given to understand that I have ye to thank for killin’ the worm. Apparently, he was just some kinda projection the whole time, and ye shived its real body down in the mountain?” Shacklock raised one craggy eyebrow at me. “The mountain that’s gone, by the by.”

  I inclined my head. “That’s right. But that’s part of what I want to talk about. I want to make a deal with you, Grandmaster Shacklock.”

  The old monster’s other eyebrow rose to join the first. “Oh? Well, don’t keep me waitin’. Go on.”

  I cut my eyes over to Kazuma for a moment and smiled, to his confusion. “I would like it if Kazuma was the one to take credit for sying Tatsugan’s true body.”

  My companions reacted with shock and surprise at my words, including Kazuma himself. The samurai outright goggled at my words.

  However, I noticed that neither Shurenga nor Shacklock looked all that surprised. In fact, the queen of Mt. Umetsuji outright smirked at Shacklock with feline lips, to which said Grandmaster looked mildly uncomfortable. He shook it off after a moment, though. “Oh, is that so?” He said, shaking his head with a small, almost surrendering smile. “What do ye want for such a concession, boy?”

  Kazuma finally found his voice, jumping to his feet. “Wait! Wait a second. Sir Hart-Nathan,” He corrected himself. “I apologize if my comments led you to believe I desired this. I have no wish to rob you of your rightful pce in the history books. This is a truly momentous thing you’ve done. My ancestors would spit on me if I was to so cravenly steal it from you.”

  At the head of the table, Shacklock snorted. “No, I wouldn’t.”

  Kazuma turned and shot his living ancestor a foul look. “The respectable ones would.”

  I smiled slightly at the bypy, but still shook my head. “I imagine your ancestors would not spit on you so when I’m outright offering, Kazuma. Besides, I’m already going to be in the history books for a deed I’ve done,” At his bnk look, I ughed lightly. “Do you remember hearing about the Camity that briefly rose in Elderwyck, in the tail of the Construct War? I was the one to kill it, Kazuma.”

  Kazuma outright choked on his own spit at my words, goggling at me. I couldn’t help but ugh again at the look on his face, and I wasn’t the only one around the table to do so. It wasn’t mean-spirited, though.

  It was a pretty funny face he was making.

  After all, I had never told him about that. I hadn’t been sure I could trust the man before our time together in the bunker.

  Now, I knew I could.

  Kazuma flushed and straightened his colr. “Ah…I didn’t know that. Then, why?”

  “I think I can make a guess,” Azarus spoke up, for the first time since this ‘meeting’ had begun. He turned to face me with an amused smirk on his bearded lips. “Ya don’t want the fame, do ya?”

  I pointed at him and nodded. “Nailed it. After all, I’m already going to be known as the man who killed a Camity before he even hit the first breakpoint. I don’t need the extra eyes that will drift my way when it’s discovered that I indirectly slew a second Camity. No. No, let us instead simply say that I and my party accompanied Kazuma, Lord of the Higanashi Cn, into the depths of the mountain and assisted him in avenging his Great-Grandfather with the newly retrieved family bde.” I nodded to the still-wrapped katana, now returned to Kazuma and slung over his back. “I’ll still receive a bit of attention from the escapade, but most of the credit will fall on him. Because we’ll say so. And,” This time I turned to face Shacklock, who had an amused, almost resigned cast to the crags of his aged face. “It’ll build Kazuma’s reputation in the eyes of the River Throne and allow the Order to avoid a costly, stupid conflict with the Kawamara Navy.”

  Liora chuckled lowly at my words. “And perhaps it will aid in restoring retions with Herztal as well, hmm? After all, Nathan is the public apprentice of Headmaster Greycton, and I am a well-known former partisan of the Crown. Elegantly reasoned, Nathan.”

  I accepted the thanks in the spirit it was given. Partisan, huh? Yeah, I guess the Order of Eclipsed Dawn kind of was like a political party.

  Kazuma just looked overwhelmed at our words, as we argued in favor of giving the man everything he had ever wanted. Justice, for his sin Great-Grandfather. Recognition, for his cn.

  And a future for his family.

  Shacklock nodded sharply at my words. “Alright, I can tell when I’m beaten. I’ll py ball with your little scheme. Now, what do ye want in return?”

  I caught Shurenga’s eye, then, causing the daughter of Tarus to raise one crimson eyebrow at me. I smiled at her and then turned back to face Shacklock.

  And then spoke.