Brian Silver — Aspect of Blades

  Fuck. Powerful.

  The man’s aura stood relaxed around him, unconcerned by the dozens of 21st Branchers shooting angry looks his way. He gave the crowd a challenging stare, and their gazes slowly shied away as he made his way down the bridge.

  Alberta clenched her jaw. "And who are you?"

  The man smirked at her. "Brian Silver, leader of this whole escort operation. But you can call me Sir."

  His aura flared, and half the Novices on the rooftop choked. It was dense — denser than anything Tyler had felt before, maybe save for the bird. But the fact that it was hard to distinguish between the two was already making his hairs stand on end.

  "Y-Yes, Sir," the Branch Leader said through gritted teeth.

  Tyler straightened, feeling the weight of the man’s aura press against him like a soaking blanket. It wasn’t enough to restrict him, but the fact that it was doing anything to him as a Journeyman was alarming. Is that what Peak-Journeyman looks like?

  "Look, you ants can all scramble over these scraps, but I'm here for one thing only. You.” The Blade mage pointed to Emery. “Who's this Tyler Thorn fucker? I can't sense any other Journeyman around here."

  Tyler tensed. His hair was still wet with rain.

  "That one, Sir," Emery said again in monotone. "The one who seems to be un-Awakened."

  Tyler felt Brian’s gaze turn on him.

  "What?" the man said with a hint of annoyance.

  "The Truth Mages have confirmed it multiple times," Emery said. "Despite his appearance, he is in fact a Journeyman."

  “I told you about this, Brian,” Rowan said with an exasperated sigh. “If you’d just listen to me —”

  “You should learn your place, transport captain,” Brian snapped.

  But then as he continued to look at Tyler, the man’s lips suddenly turned up in amusement. In a flash, he was next to them. Tyler clenched his fists as he found himself staring down a Peak-Journeyman a foot taller than him and chorded with muscle.

  “You’re the one that cleared the bounty?”

  “Yes,” Tyler said impassively.

  “I can confirm it, Sir.” Alberta called from across the rooftop. “He’s told me of the unique circumstances that led to this —”

  Seven-Stars Cutting Strike

  A wave of thin metallic energy wooshed towards Tyler’s chest, and the Dragon’s Bones instantly sprung to life, catching the strike and breaking it against his raised forearms like shattering glass. A thin line of blood spread along his skin.

  “What the fuck was that?” Lisa growled, crossbow pointed directly at Brian’s head.

  Half the people around them were in the midst of action, but as Tyler met the man’s gaze with an unamused stare, the crowd stilled. A half-formed translucent shield dissolved into the air just a couple paces away.

  No Analysis. With Rhett, it was because he was never a genuine threat. But with this guy…

  Tyler crossed his arms. That was just a test strike.

  That lingering defiant fire sparked to life in his veins, his mana churning as old memories surged back into his mind. Was this going to be another fight? He found himself preparing for it, despite the difference in advancement levels. He refused to have a repeat of his whole fiasco with Rhett.

  But Brian just gave a disappointed snort. "Fine. Here's the first half of your reward."

  The Peak-Journeyman flicked an arm-sized bag towards him, and if it weren’t for his enhanced senses Tyler wouldn’t have been able to catch it.

  Heavy.

  It jingled with the sound of many, many coins.

  The Peak-Journeyman was already turning back to Alberta.

  "Give me the best room this backwoods place has to offer. I want three attendants in my room by the time I arrive with dinner, hot towels, and elixirs. Don’t bother me until sunrise. Tomorrow, we leave when I say I’m ready."

  “Of course, Sir,” Alberta said with a deliberate slowness. “However, we don’t have attendants…”

  Lisa looked at the Branch Leader incredulously. “What? We’re just going to ignore how he attacked Tyler —”

  "I’ll handle it, Sir!" Brandon stepped in, wrenching Lisa’s crossbow down and putting a hand over her mouth. His sister gave a muffled growl, and Brandon winced as his hand was jerked away with a flash of red light, but he quickly moved it back into place, clapping it over Lisa’s mouth before she could let out more than a word.

  Brandon somehow managed a bow while still wrestling with his sister. "I imagine that someone of your level of advancement expects only the finest treatment. And while we here at the 21st Branch may not be able to live up to the lofty standards of the attendants at headquarters, we will do our utmost to provide you with a suitable experience and are ashamed that we cannot honor your presence in greater ways."

  He exchanged frantic glances with a couple people around them, who grimaced but set off towards the stairs.

  Brian grinned. “Finally, someone who shows proper respect here. You have good instincts, boy. If you were a bit more powerful I might’ve even taken you onboard.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The Peak-Journeyman turned back to Alberta. “Lead me to my room, Branch Leader.”

  Alberta looked back at Tyler, then at the two siblings, who were still fighting against one another in a silent struggle. A bit of pain flashed through her face.

  “Y-yes, Sir.”

  “And I want to see attendants when I get there. Five of them now, since you've wasted so much of my time."

  And as he strolled down the stairs, Brian Silver glanced over his shoulder one final time. "And by the way, Thorn — I wouldn't be getting too big of an ego after blocking that little papercut of mine. Who knows when I might try and put in a bit more effort."

  — – —

  “Why the fuck did you do that?” Lisa seethed.

  She was standing over Brandon, who was cradling a hand with a new bite-mark on it. The crowd had parted a bit around them, and the 21st Branchers seemed to be giving them some distance as the siblings confronted one another.

  “I'm not going on that fucking skyship. I have a bad feeling about this. I've been having a bad feeling about this.” She started walking in circles, gripping at her hair like she was trying to tear it out. “You just kept telling me how it would be fine, but it’s not. I'm not getting on a skyship where the strongest person there tries to carve people up for nothing but his own amusement.”

  “Lisa,” Brandon started, but she'd already swiveled on Tyler.

  “You shouldn’t go either. Who knows what other shit that arrogant fuck is going to pull along the way? What we saw just now was what he’s like when he’s got witnesses. How much worse is he going to be when we’re all on a ship exclusively packed with people under his command?”

  “I knew it was going to be like this,” she growled at her brother. “I knew. And look at Tammy. I didn't want to say it in front of her, but I can tell that shit's not just her ship sickness. That fucker’s probably been making her life hell for that entire journey. This is what the Main Branch does to people — it just grinds you under it for its amusement. And nobody — not you, not those crewmembers, not even Alberta stood up for anyone. You just let him walk all over you.”

  “Lisa,” Brandon said more forcefully, and Tyler’s ears popped as a bubble of silence appeared around them. His sister finally stopped pacing for a moment.

  “You don't know just how bad I wanted to just smash that fucker's face in.” The tall man stood, shaking out his hand with a wince. He grabbed Lisa’s shoulders, leaning down until he was eye-level with her.

  “I was on the verge of snapping. Even though I’m far weaker than you, much less this Brian Silver guy. I was an inch away from trying to throw him off the edge of the roof. But then I might be dead, because this guy is powerful enough that killing off a couple of Novices in a minor branch probably means nothing more inconvenient than writing a report. And maybe we’d be saved by Tyler or Alberta, but then what? Now we’ve put them in a potentially deadly situation, because this guy is still a Peak-Journeyman with all the power of the Main Branch behind him.”

  Brandon took a deep breath, his face contorting with a million different emotions.

  “I want you to go to the Main Branch so you can grow strong enough that you won’t have to deal with people like him. Yeah, you're gonna have to watch yourself for this journey to the Main Branch, but then you’ll be there — and you won't have to see his fucking face another day in your life. And then you'll be a Journeyman. You'll have the potential to be on his level. You'll have actual cultivation manuals instead of just having to make up all your own techniques.”

  “Lisa,” he said, and the words came out half-choked. “I want you to be free. I want you to be happy. But before you can do that, you need to survive. I need you to survive. And then one day, you won’t have to listen to pricks like him anymore.”

  For a moment, the siblings just looked at one another. Then Lisa deflated.

  “Yeah,” she muttered. “I know. I really do. It's just so easy to forget sometimes, especially when I am right. But you're also right.”

  She pressed a glob of red magic into his hand. “I’m sorry for biting you.”

  “It’s okay,” Brandon sighed, pulling his sister into a hug. “I know that they're just trying to use us as another cog in their machine. I know it’s going to suck, huddling down and stroking egos just to prevent your entire life from being ruined. Especially for you. If I was talented enough, powerful enough… Then I could do it. You wouldn't have to.”

  The man looked up to the sky, blinking as he took in the downpour of rain splashing off of the newly-erected shield above them. “But I'm not. I'm still not even Peak-Novice yet.”

  He turned to Tyler, his expression conflicted as he looked down at the small amount of blood still dripping from the other man’s arm. “And I’m so sorry, Tyler. That felt like fucking shit, bowing and scraping over this guy after he just attacked you out of the blue.”

  Lisa blushed. “And, uh. I’m sorry you had to watch me bite Brandon’s hand like a dog or something. And extra sorry I haven’t helped with that injury yet.”

  Another glob of red spread itself over the cut, and the pain diminished just a bit more.

  “It’s alright,” Tyler said with a gentle smile. “You both had my back, just in your own ways. I’m just glad standing my ground seemed to work. I — uh, had ways of knowing he wasn’t actually trying to kill me. I don’t know what would have happened if we got into an actual fight.”

  “You would’ve fucked him up,” Lisa said with absolute certainty.

  “I don’t know about that.” Brandon glanced back at Tyler. “I don’t know this guy specifically, but it's obvious to everyone that people like him have only gotten more dangerous after the Storm. Getting onto that ship could be risky.”

  Tyler nodded. “But you think it's worth it?”

  “Fuck, man,” Lisa said. “Bad feeling after bad feeling.”

  Brandon patted her on the back. “The reward is life-changing, and you two are honored guests. In the sense that — at least for Tyler — there will be big consequences for actually trying to kill you, but also in the sense that they might not leave unless you come with them. And you won’t actually be at much of a disadvantage.”

  He gestured to Tyler, and to the Journeyman auras that they could still faintly sense from beneath them. “With you, Alberta, and Tammy together on the ship, you should stand a pretty good chance. If the Mid-Journeymen handle each other, a Low-Journeyman and a Mid-Journeyman with defensive specialties should at least be an even matchup against an offensively-specialized Peak-Journeyman. And that’s not even considering how you’re hardly a normal Low-Journeyman.”

  “Right.” Tyler tilted his head towards the Wind Journeyman behind them. “And Rowan over there doesn’t seem to like his boss that much, so there might be a chance he and his crew don’t even fight.”

  He probed his Analysis at the skyship, trying to feel out the presence of anything threatening. “But if we’re going in, we should go in with a plan. Don’t provoke him or any servants he might have, but stand our ground if they try to push us around. Maybe sleep in shifts, though I don’t think he’d have the subtlety for anything like that. And I would feel a lot better with you guys watching my back.”

  Lisa chewed on her lip.

  “Fine,” she sighed. “Two weeks. It’s just two weeks. If he attacks you again though, I’m putting a bolt through his eye — regardless of the advancement difference.”

  “I think you're right to be cautious,” Tyler said, “But if we prepare for the worst, I think we can handle it. And I just really need some answers now.”

  “Yeah,” Brandon groaned. “Some answers would sure be nice. I’ll miss you two when you go off — we’ll be lonely over here without some of our most iconic figures.”

  Lisa scowled as he said that, but Tyler just grinned. “I wasn’t just talking about her, you know.”

  Brandon blinked. “What do you mean?”

  Tyler pointed to the Tempest crown. “How close are you to advancing? Brian said he’d be happy to take you along if you were stronger.”