Waterstrider

Canvas Town, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fifthmonth, 1634 PTS

After showing the foundational techniques of the Downpour Sect’s martial arts to my disciples, as well as ensuring each of them had achieved at least a rudimentary control of their own miasma, I had left them with a series of recordings of the basic stances which I had altered for each disciple’s weapon of choice. I had not forced any of them to follow in my footsteps and learn the sword, although most of them had chosen to do so. Only Shadowblade, who had great talent with knives, and the tall Gen Feng, who had chosen to further increase his reach advantage by wielding a glaive, had taken another path. I knew the basics of such weapons, but had informed them that I would be able to provide less advice for such a path.

Having given them plenty to practice for a while, I would be able to reduce the amount of time I spent on training them for the next few days. Now, I could focus my attention more fully on other matters.

Matters such as taking full advantage of the war to my own benefit. I would need to find more time to work on refining my spirit, but for now I needed to stay fully up to date on the status of the war.

From the training room, I quickly made my way to my personal office, sitting down in a faux-wooden chair which had been placed behind the desk.

“Have there been any changes in the situation?” I immediately asked, prompting Rachel to appear in a seat across the desk after a moment.

“You know,” she said, “You should really be more polite unless you want me to stop answering.” I gave her a blank look in response, and she chuckled, going straight into business. “Do you remember Karie Hadal?” she asked.

I frowned, not understanding how the question related to the situation.

“That was… the woman who attacked me back at the black market? Why do you ask?”

She nodded sagely.

“Seems that she’s managed to become a spirit refiner herself. She’s been named First Commander of the border forces, and has held off a group of multiple enforcers almost by herself. It’s quite impressive, actually. Oh, she just took one down. Two left.”

“Neither side has regrouped yet?” I asked.

“I think the Hadal Clan’s forces are about to. But the situation is quite odd, actually. They both used their higher level forces quite early against one another, and have been keeping their infantry in reserve.”

She waved her hand, and a small illusionary copy of the battlefield appeared over the desk. I narrowed my eyes as I closely inspected it. The Celan and Hadal forces stood on stacks separated by a single bridge. It seemed that Karie was able to hold them back herself because the bulky machines found it difficult to navigate past her to cross the bridge.

I had not been on the station for really all that long before I immediately noticed another odd point about the situation.

“Why are they fighting over that bridge specifically?” I asked. “There’s so many bridges passing between the districts. They could just move around the Hadal forces. Or under them, for that matter. There aren’t even any important targets anywhere in the area. And why don’t they already have forces inside of the district? There’s nothing stopping them from doing that.”

The stacks were all incredibly interconnected. It was a good part of why borders within the station were simply cultural and logistical, rather than actually relevant geographic boundaries. They would need to defend hundreds of bridges if they wished to keep their enemy outside of their territory. It was logistically impossible. According to Rachel, in the previous war the two sides had formed tight perimeters around their important bases and used ambush and raid tactics to fight their enemy.

“They do have some forces within Canvas Town,” admitted Rachel. “A number of Korlove snuck by during the riot. But those forces have yet to take action. The only current fighting is happening at this bridge.”

“It’s like both sides are just putting on a show,” I observed.

Rachel nodded in agreement.

“The Hadal Clan I suspect simply haven’t played out their hand, and I suspect they’re only defending the bridge because the Celans are trying to cross it. This should be a defensive force while they have a second force that will be sneaking into Little Celah to attack. Their Matriarch is crafty, so I find it difficult to predict what she will do. The Celans…” she sighed, eyes glued to the holographic map. “I have no idea what they’re thinking. Their troops are far less mobile, so I can’t imagine what their plan here is.”

“A delaying tactic, perhaps?” I suggested, though I was unconvinced myself. It seemed more logical to use the forces you controlled to greatest effect to split their forces, if that was the goal.

While we discussed, a new figure arrived among the Hadal Clan’s forces, running in at high speed from stack to stack. I squinted, but was unable to recognize the individual.

“That one’s relatively fast. Should I know who he is?”

“Relative to mortal Seiyal, I presume?” snarked Rachel. “He’s barely half your own speed.”

I smiled.

“I can’t hold others to my standard. So far, I haven’t been impressed with the movement techniques on this station.”

Unconsciously, my mind went back to that Merris I had fought back at the black market. Despite only being a mortal, the man had been extremely fast, and his balance excellent. It was unfortunate that he had not been blessed to be born a Seiyal. He would have made for a powerful martial artist.

“Anyway,” replied Rachel. “That’s Sulno Hadal. He’s a medicine path manifest practitioner. One at the spirit refinement stage.”

“Ah,” I replied. I nodded, recognizing the name. I had long looked into the basic details of the station’s publicly known experts, and this man’s name had easily come up. He excelled at group battles, and in assisting his allies.

“With two spirit refiners, they should have a strong advantage unless the Celans actually make an effort to use their other forces,” I observed.

Rachel’s eyes suddenly gleamed as she glanced at what appeared to be a random stack behind the Hadal forces.

“Did something happen?” I asked.

She met my eyes, her expression telling me that she was impressed with something.

“I honestly have no idea how they managed this without being caught,” she said.

I gave her a blank look, and with a chuckle, she created icons marking a number of stacks.

“Sensors in the area were picking up some small but weird vibrations. It makes me think- did the Celans really only hide enforcers inside of that one stack?”

My eyes widened in surprise.

“You think they’re purposefully stalemating the battle so they can flank the Hadal forces?”

Rachel pursed her lips, thinking deeply about the matter.

“Specifically, I think the main goal is to capture or eliminate the two spirit refiners. Each one is slightly stronger than an enforcer, and their numbers are much more difficult to replenish.”

I continued watching the hologram, seeing the Hadal force regroup and push their war back across the bridge to pressure the Celans once more.

“Perhaps we should warn them,” I said.

Rachel shrugged, leaning back in her chair. It seemed as if it was actually leaning backwards with her, though I knew that was only because she was using her illusions to disguise its appearance. The real chair would not have moved at all.

“What will happen will happen,” she said. “If the Hadal Clan gets on the backfoot, we can help them more, and vice versa for the Heirs.” She glanced at me, her blue eyes seeming icy and devoid of emotion. “Isn’t it better for us the longer this war lasts?”

I sighed.

“I suppose.”

Going silent, I continued to watch the Hadal Clan push further into Little Celah, heedless of the threat behind them. My moment of concern had passed, and I had steeled my heart. It did not matter who was of my own race and who was alien. What truly mattered was benefits. I would help the Hadal Clan if they asked me to, but they had yet to request my assistance.

“Oh,” said Rachel, suddenly laughing to herself. “So it begins.”

I glanced back over to her.

“Did something else happen?”

She waved a letter in the air. It had not been in her hands a moment ago.

“Received a message from the Celans. It seems that what they’ve been waiting on was us all along.”

My frown shifted into a slight smile of understanding. We had not predicted all of their actions, but this one did not surprise me at all. We were a dangerous wild card located deep within the Hadal Clan’s territory. Both forces would desire our assistance, and would rather destroy us than have us ally with their enemy. But neither side could dedicate the resources to do so at the moment.

“What does it say?” I asked.

“We’ll be starting off small. All they asked was for us to take down some more gangs.”

It was indeed a smaller request than I had expected, but this was in line with our interests, so I was not opposed to it.

“What did they offer?”

There was a twinkle in Rachel’s eyes as she laughed.

“What else?” she said. “They’ll be paying us money.”

I smiled.

“I suppose that will do, for a start. How long do you think it will take for the Hadal Clan to send us a letter of their own?”

“I give it a half hour at the most.”

Less than ten minutes later, the message arrived.

Medicine Path: [In films, manifest practitioners of the medicine path are often depicted as healers capable of repairing mortal wounds in instants and healing their allies up to peak effectiveness. In practice, matters are not so simple. Summoning functioning flesh would be an incredibly complex endeavor, even for a manifest immortal. Instead, medicine path practitioners could be considered essentially the same as poisoners, except their medicines are drugs beneficial for themselves and others, rather than poisons. Of all the orthodox paths, the medicine path is perhaps the one whose practitioners are regarded with the most suspicion, as poisoners have been known to disguise themselves as medicine path practitioners to hide within orthodox territories.]