Waterstrider

8th District, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Thirdmonth, 1634 PTS

I had been willing to meet with the prophet Poluus solely because I had intended to leave the district immediately afterwards. There had always been a chance one or both of the merchants I had spoken to was an informant for one group or another, but I had believed I would be gone before they had time to react. Had the Hadal Clan been expecting me to come here? Or perhaps they had a presence right by every black market just in case. It didn’t matter how, all that mattered was that they were here.

I thanked the prophet for his words of warning as I stepped back into the open warehouse space. Behind me, the guards moved in to help shift the large assembly of life support machinery to help the man move out through a backdoor on the far side of the room. I could understand their urgency, as there was a reasonable chance there would be a fight immediately outside rather soon.

I looked around as I exited the offices. In the intervening time, various martial artists in white uniforms had crowded the room, inspecting the buyers and vendors, and letting mortals and non Seiyal through what was essentially a blockade as they searched for me.

According to Rachel, the reason that the Hadal wanted to find me was because they wished for me to join them. I could not help but question their intentions if this was the case. When an orthodox clan attempts to recruit an unorthodox martial artist such as myself, there is always a particular reason for it. I had difficulty imagining that reason would be to my benefit.

In addition, this effort seemed a bit much just to acquire the opportunity to recruit a mere core formation practitioner. Just what did the Hadal Clan expect from me?

Several of the martial artists saw me emerge from the office. I heard one call out ‘Riverfiend!’ in what could either be an awed or fearful tone. The scarf hiding the lower part of my face would be next to useless at this point, but I left it on. For the moment, the fewer people who could recognize me on sight the better.

The room was slowly emptying as people flooded the exits, and it became more clear how many people the Hadal Clan had brought. There were almost thirty martial artists in the room wearing their robes, most of their eyes on me as I continued silently walking towards the exit. I felt the touch of several practitioner’s soul senses coming from the crowd. I let them wash over me, and the staring grew more intense.

Soon, a pair of martial artists stepped forward from the group, drawing my attention.

The first of them was an attractive woman, tall and limber, with sharp cheekbones and deep, compelling amber eyes that reminded me of some of my old martial sisters. Her golden hair contrasted well with the tone of her skin, a pale brown that was evidence of a heritage split between sei and farsei. Like the others, she was wearing the white and green martial uniform of the Hadal Clan, though hers was in immaculately pressed condition. A thin sheath rested on her hip. She smiled amiably as she approached.

The man behind her was taller and bulkier than her, though their features were quite similar. Close relatives of some sort, then. He was somewhat paler, and might have been able to pass for a sei were there a reason to do so. Unlike her, he bore a stony expression as he regarded me. It was difficult to tell if he was looking negatively at me or simply bore that expression by default.

The woman maintained her smile as her path intersected mine. When she was about ten feet away she raised a hand in greeting.

“Mister Riverfiend, I presume? We come representing the Hadal Clan, and wish to have a discussion with you,” she said.

I considered my options before responding. I could run, but would have to fight my way through all the martial artists they had brought. Most of them would likely still be in the process of refining their foundation or establishing their meridians, and thus not an issue for me, however I had no way of knowing there wasn’t a spirit refiner hidden in their number. I could talk to them, but I did not wish to involve myself with the clan yet, and it was possible they intended to stall me until some form of backup arrived.

The senses of my soul inspected that of the pair before me, and I realized, as I had anticipated, that they were also in the core formation realm. There were only so many spirit refiners to go around. I would have needed to be profoundly unlucky for one of them to be here. Chances were the clan had simply set a squad of martial artists under the command of a core formation stage practitioner at each of the major black markets, hoping they could acquire my trail if I visited one.

The man before me glowered as he sensed my inspection of his soul, and I smirked under my face covering at his expression.

“I have not heard the name Riverfiend before,” I said, “But I can spare a moment for a member of the Hadal Clan.” Unlike when I had been interrupted on the street, I was feeling far more predisposed towards the clan. The large force displayed before me had something to do with the matter.

The woman brightened hearing my words, though the man’s expression was still a glower.

“Perfect! My name is Ria Hadal, and this is my brother Taek. Riverfiend is what the media has been calling you. We don’t know your name, after all. Oh! Would you mind introducing yourself? You are the one who defeated an enforcer, correct?”

Ria had a bit too much energy, but I was willing to try and keep up. I had an idea for a way to turn the situation to my advantage. In addition, it seemed that somehow the results of my fight with the enforcer had become twisted somewhat by the time the information leaked to the Hadal Clan. Not that I would complain about having an inflated reputation. In addition, as far as titles went, Riverfiend was in line with my preferences. An intimidating title would always be a boon in negotiations, particularly if it was one not self imposed.

“My name is Cyrus Yu,” I said, “And I am indeed the one you speak of. Would you mind telling me what your clan wishes of me?”

Even though I had decided to speak to them, I still wanted to finish it up as soon as possible. There was no need to take undue risks.

“The Matriarch is quite impressed with your talents,” replied Ria. “She wishes to induct you into the clan. In return we can provide the resources you’re looking for as well as protection from the Heirs.”

I narrowed my eyes at the woman.

“I refuse. Aren’t clan members who are not part of the family treated as servants? It would be better to solve my problems on my own.”

I was aware that this could not have been a legitimate offer. They were either just stalling, or had a better offer prepared for when I refused.

Ria shook her head while Taek’s eyes attempted to drill holes in the side of my head. What was his problem?

“No, um…” Ria fidgeted with the hem of her uniform as she seemed to struggle to find words. “Matriarch Sirena is offering to marry you into the clan.”

I was stunned by her words. Was she serious? To marry an unorthodox martial artist into the family of an orthodox organization… It was not taboo, strictly speaking, but it was also not something generally considered permissible. Though I did suppose they would suffer far fewer consequences for it due to their extreme isolation from the rest of the orthodox path.

Still, the offer was tempting. We would need to revise the plan, but depending on what status I was being offered, joining the Hadal Clan might be better than forming our own sect. I would need to know the rank of the marriage partner in question before I could come to a decision.

“Whose hand in marriage are you offer-”

My words were cut off with a rumble as the warehouse shook. The sound mostly came from the wall to the right, as if something had collided with it.

Ria looked shocked, while Taek’s glower faded as he searched for the source of the noise.

“What was that?” she asked.

Rather than respond, Taek and I had both immediately gone into martial stances, swords sliding out of our sheaths. A moment later Ria had joined us, and the rest of the martial artists followed suit a few moments after that.

A loud, booming voice echoed across the room, coming from outside the warehouse. It spoke in Seiyin, but in a computerized tone that told me it was machine translated.

“Thief, surrender to us and we will spare your life,” called the voice.

I chose not to dignify that with a response.

“Piss off, we got here first,” called Ria, to a shout of agreement from the martial artists around the room.

I felt I could safely assume the voice was coming from the Heirs, who had probably been either tipped off by Otvar or the movement of the Hadal Clan. In fact, I had to question why the Hadal Clan had been so obvious about their search for me. Would it not have been better to just send Ria and Taek? Unless there was a spirit refiner in the crowd of what was presumably subordinates, they would all be only useful as cannon fodder when faced with an enforcer.

“You have no part in this, Hadal rats,” called the voice. “We will be taking him whether you wish to protect him or not.”

“Ha! You’re the Celans, are you not? If you haven’t brought at least three enforcers, would you even dare to fight us?”

The remaining merchants were frantically picking up their goods, having clearly noticed that the market guards had disappeared into the offices. The smarter ones had packed up and left the moment the Hadal showed up. Those who remained would find their situation markedly more problematic soon enough, I wagered. The same went for myself.

Ria continued arguing with the Celan for a bit longer, while I searched the warehouse for all of the potential points of egress. Like the previous one, I could try to tear through the walls, but it was likely the Celans had a better cordon than last time. However, unlike last time I did not have the conduit, and would not be able to teleport to safety. So, I would need a more in depth plan. Luckily, the discussion provided me time to think. I did not believe the pride of the Hadal Clan would allow them to easily give up a fellow Seiyal to be slain by aliens, and so even in the worst case I would have at least a heads up before the two groups turned on me together.

As my mind worked furiously, the argument came to a head as the arm of an oversized metal monstrosity tore through the wall. Fragments of sheet metal scattered the ground before the enforcer’s might.

It seemed they had tired of negotiation.

Meridian Establishment: [The second realm of martial arts. When a martial artist has finished refining their foundation, they must carve passages into their body with miasma, connecting acupoints and dantians in order to allow miasma to travel through the body far more quickly and with more efficiency when utilizing techniques. The largest advantage a meridian establishment practitioner has over a foundation refiner is the rate of activation and heightened control they have over their techniques. For a Seiyal organization to be considered a power, it must at least have access to techniques that can be trained up to the peak of meridian establishment.]