Queen's Council

‘’Well, what is your take on him lore-master?’’ Queen Eriana asks.

‘’He is a very dangerous man highness, we should let him be on his way tomorrow as he intends, for to do otherwise would be court a fight. I sensed no deceit or maliciousness from him as we spoke but he is a killer.’’

‘’How do you rate how dangerous he is? Is he leaving knowing our location a risk we can take whilst hiding from the church?’’

‘’No my queen it isn’t,’’ Rexlin answers with a frown at the lore-master for even recommending such a thing.

The lore-master pointedly looks at the knight who has again joined the ranks of the guards behind the queen, eliciting other eyes towards him in curiosity.

‘’Sir Dex, what is your impression of our surprise guest?’’ The queen asks keeping an eye on the lore-master.

‘’As the lore-master says he is dangerous highness, to what extent I cannot say for I do not know the implications of his aura,’’ the knight says having stepped forward.

‘’The implications of his aura?’’ Rexlin asks with squinting eyes.

‘’He is a soul sorcerer,’’ Lore-Master Swiss says trying to clarify. ''He wields sorcery as well as possessing ability that can damage the soul in his repertoire."

‘’You are certain?’’ ‘’Are you sure?’’ Sir Lloyd and Sir Thanor ask almost at the same time.

‘’What does that mean?’’ the consort asks leaning his thigh against the queen in comfort as he stands by her side.

‘’It makes him very dangerous, you are sure?’’ Thanor asks again.

‘’Yes, his aura was illuminating. He calls himself Zanjutsu which means ‘the martial art of the soul-sword’. It is an exotic way of warrior sorcerers from a people very difficult to find known as the Hito. They forge weapons, swords that can harness the power of the wielder's soul in combat to destroy their enemies. They are not known to share their secrets with outsiders, I don’t know how he found them or got them to share their arts with him but he certainly has their aura.’’

‘’Does dangerous mean indestructible?’’

‘’No highness it doesn’t.’’

‘’How many fighting men do we have in the valley Commander?’’

‘’24 knights of the royal guard highness.’’

‘’And how many mages and sorcerers do we have Sir Lloyd?’’

‘’16 highness including the lore-master, Sir Thanor and I.’’

‘’And with these 40 capable warriors, I have you’re telling me I can’t subdue one man, a wondering prostitute who doesn’t even carry this magic sword on his person?’’

‘’I live to obey highness,’’ the lore master says with a bow.

‘’And obey you shall. Sir Dex speak truthfully, could you take him?’’

‘’...I don’t know your highness.’’

‘’What mana evolved is he?’’

‘’He appears to have evolved thrice but that doesn’t gauge the full scope of a sorcerer’s capabilities.’’

‘’Am I surrounded by incompetents and cowards?’’ The queen is visibly frustrated so an angry personal guard steps forward.

‘’Let me challenge the stranger to a ‘friendly’ spar highness, I will force out of him the limits of his capabilities and if the opportunity arises I’ll end the threat once and for all.’’ Damond, Erena’s personal guard says eliciting a vicious smile from the queen as she silences her daughter’s protest with a gesture.

‘’Finally someone here with spine! But hold off on killing him, he may still be of use to me. Go ‘spar’ Sir Damond. Sir Rexlin, ensure our knight doesn’t accidentally bite on more than he can swallow.’’

‘’Yes, highness.’’

*

Sachihiro

There has been a lot on my mind and I’m finding it all starting to overwhelm me shifting my chakra slightly out of alignment. My simmering anger, my annoyance with everything and everyone and this most recent disappointment making me think about a child I’ve fathered in ways I’ve never thought of my children before. I knew something would come to bite me from my time in Tiba but I expected Eros to try more spiritual shit, not for a living breathing person to exist like this. A son, Robert.

Why is everything so fucked up? What did I do to deserve any of this, can’t reality reward the sweat, blood, stamina and tears I put into things? Am I cursed beyond the berserker rage curse inherent in my blood? Do I have living enemies fucking with my life or cosmic controllers playing with my life in some cosmic game beyond my perception?

I write my librarian a letter and am pleasantly surprised to get a prompt response back.

Dear Sachihiro.

Thank you for establishing contact, I was getting worried you had been apprehended by the Draug though your still active membership reassured me of your continued existence. Your feat of not only getting to the Draug but surviving it has increased your reputation greatly with the Library. Getting The Smouldering to agree to take your service-orb was an ingenious move that has made you legendary amongst the library echelon as a dependable and effective agent not to be underestimated.

As a level 6 member, you have full access to everything recorded and filed about you while you carried the service orb. Again, congratulations on a mission well done.

Now to touch on your points of concern.

As a Level 6 member you have direct access to Library teleportation resources, unfortunately, there are no active portals, gates or mirrors currently connecting you to Library resources. Fortunately, experiments with your summoning sigil have been fruitful, it may be possible to summon objects through it from one point to another. Schematics and detail for the modified summoning ritual sigil are outlined in detail in this letter at no extra cost.

Quickly the Library has been increasing the number of active agents and expanding its eyes and ears throughout the world of Gaia and tentatively the world all permanent portals are currently attuned to. Even so, the need for more new agents and active branches is great and could be of much mutual benefit between your and the library’s interests.

Be at ease about losing the spiritual cloaking technique I advised you practice. Now that you have a membership orb and not a servant orb the need to establish spiritual privacy is not so immediate unless you have other spiritual watchers to be weary of. In that case, the technique can be purchased for 60pts along this path LINK.

If you do choose to use the modified summoning sigil as a portal, dimensional mirrors along with orbs that will act as signal boosters will be provided for you to set up. Once set-up is complete you can purchase any resources through the orb and have them delivered directly through a mirror.

There have been some complications with negotiating with the ancient serpent Draug but such matters aren't yours to worry about.

Please do not hesitate to reach out for anything.

Yours Truly:

Mooletre.

I read the response again just to make sure I have the gist of it. There are no hidden meanings as far as I can tell, I’m tired of ambiguity and falsehoods. I check what they’ve been doing with the summoning sigil quickly getting sucked into the study of it.

This summoning ritual I acquired from the Ancient of Days many years ago at the Den, it was a ritual combining dance and sigils to open a path through the spiritual realm. I could use it to summon objects spiritually connected to me no matter where in existence they were, could I summon my kids I wonder? I’m an idiot for not trying on at least Katya my slave to see if it would work safely.

Back in the underworld with the help of the zealot Acolyte and the deity Phosphorus, I made some modifications to the ritual sigils. Modifications intended to summon, trap and overwhelm Keir Airel, the creature I inherited from the fat pervert sorcerer way back when. Ever since those modifications I’ve been keeping away from drawing the sigil for fear of the attention it may bring upon me. I suspect Phosphorus has some booby traps or fail-safes that let him piggyback from the connections I establish with it but it should be safe to use now right?

I’m a sorcerer with only one summoning ritual, a one-trick pony, a dabbler in the mystic arts of spirit manipulation with only one external use of spirit that works for me. Though it's apparently god-tier so it’s a really good ritual. Do I want to risk using it, do I want to experiment with it again knowing that the last time I did I ended up separated from my family and lost in a dark hole?

I check the schematics again. Going over every circle, triangle and symbol written into the sigils I know so well. Nothing about the ritual looks iffy, these are clean beautiful summoning sigils that connect here to there using the spiritual realm as a medium. I used to use this to summon Honour from anywhere; I wonder could I summon my nodachi from within my body to my hand without hurting myself?

I check the map again though it’s already proven itself inaccurate it still gives a fair general outline of the geography of the world. I’m here, the Eldritch Forest is here, the Alderman Foothills are somewhere there. Fuck, that’s months away at best estimate not even considering the shit that’s probably in the way between here and there.

I study the ritual again paying particular attention to the changes the librarians have made, which are minor. This version is not used as a trap, whatever is summoned through it is free to roam around doing as it likes. The specifics pointing at Keir or me or anyone’s spiritual signature are gone, it's pretty generic right now.

This sigil is a door opening to another one mirroring it elsewhere using the spiritual realm as medium to cross the distance. I need safeguards so I start looking through books to find them. A door that can’t be locked in a huge liability especially with everything I know to be lurking around in the spiritual realm. Are the librarians mad making a door without a lock and expecting I’ll just open it to them?

The most promising and safest way is making myself the key, without my spiritual signature the ritual won’t activate. I could theoretically teleport myself directly to the library’s sigil right now, I could theoretically teleport myself directly to the sigil etched permanently in stone deep in the underworld where the Acolyte keeps the temple to Phosphorus. I could be leaving semi-permanent teleportation points everywhere I go in case I get stranded again!

Ahh fuck, two of the knights are breaking off from their little congregation coming right towards me. The big guy always by Erena’s side comes towards me, and I recognise him. The way he walks, his build, his aura even though he wears his full armour everywhere all the time. The guy next to him is smaller, wearing similar armour but more ornate. There is no helmet covering his face, a young unarmoured man walks beside them carrying a sheathed sword wrapped in a blood stained cape.

They stand a few metres away waiting, I open my eyes getting up from my lotus to stand and face the three men as the stars sparkle coldly from a lonely distance in the sky. I don’t even recognise the constellations anymore, what’s the point of all this, what do they want now?

‘’Zanjutsu, am I saying that correctly?’’

...

‘’I am Rexlin, commander of the Royal Atopian Guard, this is Sir Damond whom you’ve met I hear. Sir Damond here challenges you to a duel after which the queen will decide your fate.’’

‘’I win I fuck your queen.’’

‘’Insolence!’’ Sir Damond’s aura washes over everything like a rolling wave taking everything in its path, everything but me.

‘’You don’t find it insolent for her to assume my fate is in her hands?’’ Why am I intentionally aggravating these people, why is every word from my mouth designed to incense them, why do they make me so angry?

Damond nods his head towards me and the young man brings the covered sword holding it out to me, ‘’your weapon of choice is the sword I recall. Draw and fight!’’ he draws his sword in a single impressive motion, the thing gleaming in the starlight like a single reflective piece of tempered glass.

‘’What’s in this duel for me?’’

All three are practically frothing at the mouth in anger but only the commander portrays outward cool, his aura betrays him though.

‘’It’s a duel or the headsman,’’ Rexlin says showing teeth.

No one here can exert any power over me, not really, and the fact that they don’t see that offends me. The fact that this woman leading them thinks of herself to have authority over me irks me, even the Draug with all his power knew he couldn’t decide my fate. Even Phosphorus the shit that he is chose to negotiate for his benefit, yet these people...

‘’I want a cabin of my own.’’

‘’Excuse me?’’

‘’I’ll build it myself, somewhere at the periphery of the queens’ concealment but within it.’’

‘’I thought you were leaving first thing on the morrow?’’

"I may choose to come back, there aren’t many safe places to hide out and a little piece of land under the queen’s concealment would suit me perfectly.’’

An enchantment uses mana within the commander’s armour, ‘’alright Zanjutsu. But if you lose you enter the queen’s service for the rest of your life.’’

Pssh, I’m confident in my superiority but I’m not agreeing to sell my life so cheaply. ‘’For the rest of her life.’’

Rexlin looks at me strangely, assessingly before nodding as the enchantment again flares in his armour. ‘’For the rest of the queen’s life, you’ll be in her service.’’

I take the sword feeling the weight, unwrapping it as I move to a more spacious area. Sir Damond is a shadow staying close, eager to do violence. I bet he’s angry I fucked his precious princess, I sensed it back in Tiba, his discomfort with the whole arrangement. Unrequited love? I unsheathe the weapon.

A sword, simple yet profound in its design. A weapon designed for killing, I feel nothing from it. This isn’t Honour, this isn’t a weapon I feel is an intrinsic part of me but a tool I can use to make a task simpler. I swing it through the air a few times testing its feel before facing my large armoured opponent.

We launch at each other and meet blade against the blade in a contest of strength and precision.

Clank, clank, clank.

Our feet move around each other as I feel the pressure from his reinforced swings on my forearms, surprising him with my strength I notice. I’m faster, moving around him pushing him in awkward positions but he’s not just a brute. Smartly adopting his footing and arms for the best positions to keep me where he thinks he wants me. He increases his tempo the ground taking a pounding as I disperse the force of his swings through me down into it.

I increase the tempo, getting his weapon out of my way before hacking at his armour directly before he can get his guard up. When last did I test my swordplay to its limits? I score on his armour with every 3rd swing using the first two to get him open. I cycle that over and over in different combinations keeping close but shifting and adopting every move he makes, every 3rd stroke getting past his guard to score ineffectively on his armour.

Ahh, this is good. This is what I should be doing more than anything else, more than sorcery more than chakra more than every other discipline I try to pursue to grow myself I enjoy this most. The athleticism, the skill, the mental strategy competing against your opponents.

Clank, clank, clank.

We feign so fast it seems we don’t, every shift in footing a feign, every change of posture a feign and when we do clash the power behind each hit so hard the ground as my feet packing and cracking. My excitement grows as I increase the tempo again to feel him hitting harder as well, I’m pleasantly surprised. My blood pumping warm, Honour peaking from my inner world to witness the display of power and swordplay exciting my attention, now exciting my soul.

I step back as some sort of limit-break occurs within my opponent as his powerful aura suddenly disappears to concentrate within his body, did he get even bigger? My soul resonates with itself as my opponent gets stronger and faster still, my excitement boiling as I move in out and around. Hitting high, and low, defending my unarmoured flesh for all that I’m worth.

My eyes close as I fall into zanjutsu while even using a foreign weapon, my soul's presence coming forth. It isn’t about the weapon I carry to battle, it’s about exciting my soul and this is exciting my soul. Smoothly my senses merge with Shi no Meiyo’s, awareness going monochromatic as I move twice as fast as I was but a moment ago.

His armour starts going dark to my senses as some of the enchantments I’ve been punishing break down. I jump back as he uses the repulsive ability the other knight used, launching back a moment later not giving him any room to breathe. A phantom fist my sword passes harmlessly through knocks me on my ass, I get cut as I manoeuvre and block getting back to my feet. Again that fist comes but I doge now that I know I can’t use the sword, three arms are nothing against me. I get back into rhythm.