Waterstrider

Little Celah, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Thirdmonth, 1634 PTS

“Who are you?” I asked, wary of this mysterious woman. It was no simple trick to hide one’s presence from a martial master of my level. She laughed, her voice melodic and beautiful. A smile graced her elegant face once more.

“I suppose I can spare the time to introduce myself. You can call me Rachel.”

I waited for her to go on, but she didn’t say anything else, simply continuing to look at me with that same smirk on her face. I held back a grimace. I could already tell that she had a troublesome personality.

“I don’t have time for this. Is your plan to distract me until your backup arrives?” I was wary of fighting with her. I did not recognize her species, which meant I had no idea what sort of strange powers and abilities she might have.

“No need to fear, Mister Yu. I’m no friend of the Heirs. In fact, they’ve put me in a bit of a bind that I hoped you might assist me with.”

My eyes narrowed as Rachel continued smirking at me. Her expression was infuriating, so I cycled my energy to help gather my energy and focus my mind. That was when I realized that she was speaking in perfect Seiyin, without even a noticeable accent. That gave me pause, but I cast it aside as I tried to gather my thoughts.

“If you tell me where the marshfiend pearl is being kept, maybe I can spare some time to help you with whatever your issue is.”

“Oh, don’t be that way. You aren’t here for the pearl anyway.” I gave her an odd look before turning away to continue my search.

Even an earthly immortal would have given off some sort of presence, if they had hidden their energy to disguise as a mortal. This ‘Rachel’ gave off none at all. With that in mind, I had arrived at a swift hypothesis. The body I was seeing was something like an illusion technique. If so, there was nothing she would be able to do to me unless her true body arrived.

Even if it was true that she might be concealing some unknown power, I needed to find the pearl and get out before the Heir’s reinforcements arrived. Though the Celan races lacked any form of sorcery or internal reinforcement, their technologies were quite powerful. It would be best for me to be gone before they were able to mobilize enforcers.

“Oh, are you ignoring me? How cute of you, Mister Yu. It would do you well to listen.”

I continued to search through the shelves, and through reflections on the various metallic surfaces I watched her stand from the table to follow after me. I sighed, turning back to face her.

“Fine then. Please explain what you mean about the pearl, and what you want from me.”

“It’s pretty simple, actually. There never actually was a pearl, not here at least. That was false information I leaked in hopes of baiting someone here. Congratulations on being the first fish to bite.” Rachel had a pleasant smile, but I found myself suppressing an urge to punch her.

“So you say. And what is this ‘favor,’ you’re wanting from me?”

“Oh, nothing much. I would appreciate it if you could grab a little something for me on your way out. I’ll tell you where they’re keeping a few particularly valuable pieces of salvage, while you’re at it, if you want.” I narrowed my eyes at the woman.

“Why do you need my help? Why not just take it yourself?” She laughed again.

“I see you haven’t realized,” she said. “I would have thought a Seiyal martial master such as yourself would be able to tell that I’m not actually here.” She reached a hand out to the nearest shelf. Her hand slid down, passing right through the metal shelf as if it wasn’t there. “You see, this body you’re looking at is nothing but a hologram. My true body is elsewhere, and so I need your help to get the conduit out.”

“Conduit?” I asked. Her smile slipped a little, and Rachel pinched her glabella.

“I didn’t mean to explain what it was. All that matters is that it’s quite valuable to me, and I will pay you quite well for your efforts. What do you say?”

I continued to search, but there remained not a single hint of the distinctive energy in the air, no sign of the pearl’s presence. Perhaps she was telling the truth. If the pearl wasn’t here, I should at least take something. Attacking the warehouse would have been a waste of my time, otherwise.

“Fine. Tell me where these valuable items are first, however.” She nodded, walking off toward another set of shelving units while pointing to another.

“Over here you can find the eyes of a few elderly Staiven, and over there is the mucus of a bloodspawn. They also have a set of inactivated Celan energy cores over there.” She was pointing in various directions. “You’ll need to be quick, I give it a couple minutes more before the enforcers arrive. I’ll tell you when they’re close.”

I got to work, stuffing the expensive and highly illegal items in a rucksack I had brought to hold the pearl. I checked the Staiven eyes, but none were suitable as a substitute for the pearl. When they were packed away, I turned to Rachel’s projection once more.

“The conduit you mentioned?” I asked, locking my gaze to hers.

The look in her sky-blue eyes shifted in some way I found hard to define as I spoke, and she broke eye contact as if nervous.

“The conduit is this way. Please be very careful with it, as much as possible.” Her voice stressed the words very slowly.

The ‘conduit’, as she called it, was apparently being kept in what I had dismissed as some sort of large industrial equipment. The machine was bone white, with a blocky black iron overstructure seeming to reinforce and protect it in case it had been damaged in some way. It had a metal slate serving as an interface, covered in shifting Celan script that meant nothing to me. Looking at it more closely, this was certainly an expensive and advanced product of Celan engineering.

According to Rachel, it was a containment unit meant to keep the conduit from interacting with the outside world. Hearing that, I was hesitant to open it.

“Don’t be a coward, Cyrus,” Rachel sneered. “The housing never worked anyway. The conduit is already active.” Her words made little difference to me, as I knew next to nothing about advanced technology in any case. I had the option to leave right now, and I considered whether I should risk myself in order to help her out. I knew nothing about Rachel, not even her species. In addition, she claimed to have manipulated me to waste my time coming to Tseludia Station in the first place. I certainly could not trust her, and what did I owe her?

“Seriously, Cyrus. It’s safe, you just have to input the code and get the conduit out. You’ll be perfectly fine.”

I shook my head.

“I can’t trust you. Sorry, but I’ll be leaving.” Rachel’s smirk finally vanished, leaving behind a look of shock and what was perhaps a hint of fear. Clearly, she had expected me to uphold my end of the deal. She reached out to grab onto my arm as I turned away, but her hand passed right through.

“Seriously, Mister Yu you can’t just back out-” As I started backing away, she shifted her tone to a plea. “You- you can’t just leave me here. Please, just take it, Cyrus. I- I can work for you, I can-” She had fallen to her knees in order to beg me.

The look she was giving me was unnerving, and I was close to reconsidering when a loud crunching noise sounded near the wall I had destroyed. I turned, forgetting all about Rachel and her request.

The loading dock door had been crushed into the floor by a large metal boot, belonging to an oversized humanoid machine.

Standing over nine feet tall, the figure of the mechanical armor was clad in interlocking plates of bronze and black iron. Some of the layered plates were inscribed with text, while others bore furrows and other functional shapes. The suit had six arms sticking out of its shoulders and back. Light glowed from the gaps in the plating, where an orange mist spilled out, slowly disappearing as it crept down towards the floor.

I had delayed for too long, and an enforcer had arrived.

Seiyal: [One of the three native races of the planet Canvas located in the Frontier territory, the Seiyal were created by the Ascendant Ceirra as her artistic ideal for the perfect mortal race. Seiyal have low genetic diversity, and while they have varying facial features and body shape, they all have blond hair and an amber eye color. There are historically two subraces of Seiyal, sei and farsei, terms referring to individuals with lighter or darker skin respectively. The most unique aspect of Seiyal biology is the three crystalline structures called dantians that are located in their abdomen, beside their heart, and under their skull.]