Waterstrider

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

It had taken us a few hours to create the operational structure of the newly christened Redwater Sect. Neither I nor Rachel actually cared about the name of the sect, so we had just co-opted that of the gang we had taken over. According to Rachel, it would simply be easier that way. I didn’t disagree, though it helped that I believed the name to be fitting for us. This sect’s role was to grow in power and slay anyone who stood in the way of my and Rachel’s plans.

We had decided on a simple command structure that I was accustomed to, one similar to that which the Downpour Sect had used. There was me, the Sect Leader, and then there were several Palace Leaders under me. As our ‘sect’ was young and built in the confined space of a city like Tseludia Station, the term palace was more metaphorical than literal in our case.

In the Downpour Sect, each palace operated out of their own individual palatial mansions. In comparison, all the Redwater Sect owned functioned only at the surface, or simplest level.

I had granted the roles of Palace Leader to some of the gang members who had been in leadership roles, and didn’t seem like they would immediately betray us. They were those who did not seem to have much loyalty at all to Sunlit Hall and the Hadal Clan. Of course, as I had explained to them all in detail, if anyone betrayed the sect, they would be punished according to the practices of the unorthodox way.

There were to be five Palaces initially. Rachel had been very excited to name them, though I found her choices of names to be rather odd. Why would someone name such vital organizations after mere materials?

The Alabaster Palace was in charge of internal affairs and management of the duties of disciples. I had granted Kein Huang the role of its leader. He seemed to be a natural leader, speaking up to protect his subordinates. While he did strike me as suspicious, I could put his skills to work while keeping an eye on him.

The Golden Palace was in charge of managing sect funds and any businesses that might be owned or operated under our banner. The Redwater Gang had not personally owned any businesses, but they owned various debts, and had a sizable protection racket going on in the surrounding area. I had placed Ran Ishun in charge, as Rachel had informed me that the woman had a surprisingly well-educated background. I had told her to cease the practice of usury on the debts and just allow the debtors to pay it off over time.

The Silk Palace was in charge of developing and utilizing an information network to keep us apprised of what was going on within the station. I didn’t expect to get a lot of use out of it at first, as Rachel was quite adept in that field, but I hoped that in the future it could be developed into quite a useful tool. I had given the role to a pompous and shifty man named Eli Dan

The fourth palace was to be the Iron Palace. I intended to speak to Cinto later and bring her into the sect as she had agreed to in the previous week. In theory, it would serve to train and develop the Sect’s disciples into a stronger fighting force by training them with far more effective techniques and practices.

The final palace was the Steel Palace. After tempering themselves inside of the Iron Palace, disciples would in theory be placed under the command of the steel palace to serve as the martial fist of the sect. I hadn’t yet decided who to put in command of it, so for the moment it was controlled by myself. Rachel’s opinion was that leaving a final leadership slot available might help to incentivize hard work from the disciples in the early days, something of particular importance due to the weakness of the organization in these earliest days.

Traditionally there should be other palaces such as one for medicine and pill-crafting as well as one for protecting and maintaining records of sect techniques. However, both roles were not vital at the moment, as we could use hospitals for medicinal issues. As for the techniques, all we had at the moment was the basic techniques that the former gang members already knew as well as my own techniques. I saw no need to dedicate an entire subgroup to protecting so little. Perhaps one would be needed if we managed to expand further.

I had somehow managed to stay awake through all of the set up, and had made someone grab me some bandages while we ironed out the details. The bandages on my wounds helped, but there was only so much they could do. A mere bandage could do nothing to fix a cracked dantian.

I was starting to get the hang of controlling the rampaging sanguine miasma, but I remained very concerned about the issue. The fact that it was calming was actually a larger potential problem, as it meant that my meridians were adapting to the sanguine energies. If I couldn’t find a way to heal my dantian, sanguine miasma would become just as much a part of me as formless. This could have extreme negative impacts on my more important techniques such as the Water Striding Steps and the Heart of Rainfall.

At the end of the ‘meeting,’ I blearily stumbled my way out of the former gang headquarters. By the end, it had likely become obvious to anyone observant in the group that my injuries were worse than I had presented them as. Luckily, nobody had tried anything.

As I shuffled my way to the nearest usable sky dock, I asked Rachel a question I was concerned about.

“Is Cinto good? Is she ready to begin working for us?” I asked.

Rachel hummed a bit before answering.

“After you got dragged into that mess in district 8, tensions between her and Hidoro’s forces began to flare up even further, though there hadn’t been another similar attack. I think they got the impression that Cinto had killed them herself, causing them to believe that she was stronger than she is. I expect she’ll be more happy than ever to hear about Hidoro’s death.”

I nodded, pleased by the information.

“Good. I’ll talk to her tomorrow and get her on board with the group,” I replied.

After reaching the sky dock I took an aero back to the fifth district, feeling too exhausted to walk the long trek back, not in my current state..

I didn’t feel that we could trust the former gang members of our Redwater Sect yet, so we had returned to Hestky’s town home for me to get some sleep. Despite my relatively high realm, I still needed a minimum of four hours every night to function optimally.

I intended to tell Hestky in the morning that we would soon be moving out of his place, leaving him free and no longer involved in our business. I intended to thank him for housing us in our time of need, though I was well aware he had only helped because he was under duress.

I slid the hatch open and entered the hall, making my way to the living room where I intended to lie down and finally rest. I had already spoken with Rachel about the matter of watching my meridians to make sure the wounds were not exacerbated by my lacking attention. She had agreed, promising to wake me if needed.

When I entered the living room, however, I found it filled with uniformed Staiven. Their gray uniforms were not that of the Justice Office, but seemed to instead belong to some sort of private military outfit. They were covering every exit to the room. Including, I noticed, the one I had entered from.

I paused in shock at what I was seeing. I had not noticed any souls when entering the room. Was I really so exhausted that I failed to notice their presence? That couldn’t be the case. They had somehow hidden themselves from my perception. If so, that was a terrifying ability for the Staiven to have acquired. For a moment I wondered if I should inform the Hadal Clan about the matter.

I frowned, my tired brain sluggishly trying to figure out how to handle the issue. As I did, I realized that one of the figures wasn’t wearing a uniform. He seemed to be middle-aged, with an intimidating aura despite a protruding belly and a stature shorter than my own. He smiled as I watched him and beckoned me further into the room.

“Hello, Mister Yu,” he said. “My name is Nahalken. We have… much to discuss.”

Sunlit Hall: [Serving in multiple roles, Sunlit Hall is simultaneously a government, alliance, and church. The ruling power of the continent that the inhabitants of Canvas refer to as the Halls of the Sun, Sunlit Hall is an alliance of the sects and clans that comprise the orthodox path. Though in theory Sunlit Hall is merely a coalition of martial forces, it is in fact by far the most powerful organization on Canvas, in no small part because Sunlit Hall are the followers of the deity known as Ceirra, who is the creator of the Seiyal race. Sunlit Hall are the ones who decide what is and is not orthodox, and have historically used the claim of unorthodox technique usage to attack others for Sunlit Hall's own benefit. While Sunlit Hall sees the unorthodox path as an enemy, its true enemy is actually the Reth and their own goddess, Saaya. A campaign of extermination led by orthodox forces into the Reth homeland was the reason why the race abandoned their homeworld. It is said that the ongoing wars in the continent of Bounty are in no small part caused by Sunlit Hall in order to expend the resources of its enemies. After first contact between Canvas and Staive allowed the Seiyal to emigrate their people to Staiven worlds and stations, one of Sunlit Hall's goals has become to expand their influence far out into space.]