Broker

The vision was so vivid. It wasn’t like the dream-like states that she’d been in before. She flew over the clouds, down through the icy mist and into the sky above an ancient forest. Trees that reached to the sky called to her, offering rest. She refused them, her eyes focused forward. There was a goal at the end of this. She couldn’t rest. She flapped her wings, and the colors bled, light shifted, the world changed, and once more she was among the clouds.

Not here.

Whatever she was searching for, it was not beneath these clouds either. She flapped her wings again and felt the colors bleed once more. Her strength flagged, but she pushed on, the world washing away beneath her in a rush of movement and then stillness. A wave of exhaustion passed over her; she checked this place as well. No, not here either. She moved on. One traversal after another drained her strength as she pushed through the clouds one time after another, searching.

Here.

The thought came as a tone of clarity that washed through her mind. She dove down into the clouds and exited into a vibrant green landscape of grass. Beneath her, she could see a man sitting atop a log, his broad frame hunched and his eyes focused on the ground. She swept around him once, twice, thrice, before letting out a cry and diving to the ground. When she alighted, she turned her head to look him in the eyes.

The man was young yet old somehow, like his eyes carried centuries. He leaned on his knees, an odd smile on his face as he looked at her. He had sandy brown hair and clear blue-green eyes and exuded a look that was humble, gentle, but achingly regal. It made one want to thank him for simply existing, yet the weariness in his eyes begged her not to. He chuckled at her pause, and he rose to his feet. Not some great mountain of flesh and power. Just a man.

“Of all the vestiges of cultivation for your soul to find…” He shook his head and laughed. “...you come to me in your penultimate vision.”

I don’t understand.

The words didn’t come, but she felt them ripple out to him. He gave her a strange look before barking out a laugh and nodding with understanding. “I see. A lone cultivator then.”

I have a teacher.

He crossed his arms. “And they did not tell you?”

I was told to experience my vision on my own.

His eyes widened, and he smiled. “Ah, you had a good teacher.”

Why am I here?

He reached back and, as if from nowhere, and drew a weapon to his side - a broadsword caught in a sheath made of stone. He planted it tip down on the ground in front of him and rested his hands around the hilt. His blue-green eyes twinkled. “To learn. I will pass down my arts to you, if you will have them, young cultivator.”

Just like that?

“Only someone worthy could come to me,” he said with a sad smile. “I am…” He paused and looked down at his sword. “...We are picky.”

Then teach me.

He tilted his head up and grinned, drawing his weapon slowly from the stone scabbard. He whipped it down, and the air itself hummed with a metal song - a high tone that made the sun feel brighter and the grass seem greener. He raised his weapon and pointed it at her. Then, with a gentle twist of his wrist and a sweep of his arm, he pointed it up to the sky. A crack of sound, like thunder, followed the movement. He took a step to the left, pulled his weapon back, and stabbed forward. Another crack of sound; another fierce surge. Every step was a declaration - a statement that resonated down to his very bones.

More movements, more patterns, sword forms and strikes - techniques she couldn’t have possibly conceived of on her own. She felt the flow of his internal energy like it was a map, saw the draw of his mana, perceived the path of release. It was breathtaking. A master, no, a grandmaster of the sword, yet the strangest was yet to come.

He drew his weapon up in front of his face. “I am Duty.” The world tilted; the grass became even greener, the sky even bluer, and the air even clearer. His body shone with an inner light as he took another breath. “I am the Crown,” he intoned, and the vibrancy increased by another octave. It was overwhelming, but still the tremor shook through her like an aftershock. “I am Noblesse Oblige.” It was like breathing for the very first time. It was like coming up for air. It was debilitating in how free and safe she suddenly felt. Hope, dignity, honor - concepts battered her as the world trembled one more time. His eyes shone.

“So it is Proven.”

His mouth opened, and the words came out like sap from a tree, slow and distorted.

“Thus I achieve-”

Her eyes opened. A slow coming back to reality hit her with a surge of awareness. She blinked slowly, a sound briefly drawing her attention before the heaving came. She doubled over and gasped, eyes bulging as her body purged toxins and impurities. Her entire body shook with the exertions, her mind trying to wrap around what she had seen, what any of it meant, especially the end when he seemed to change just by uttering words. Her head pounded as she slumped onto her side, panting and coughing. A shudder went through her.

“...What was that?” Lillian gasped, rolling onto her back, clutching at her head with one hand. The information seared itself directly into her brain. Techniques she would have to study and master. Not skills she could use right away, but ones she could now perform. It was both exhilarating and incomprehensibly painful. She choked and jerked once, then twice, crying out as the information kept coming. There was so much. He, whoever he was, had passed everything on to her.

When it was finally over, she sat up, pulling away from her own puddle of sick and wrinkling her nose. She rubbed her eyes and searched her instincts, trying to find some kind of explanation that made sense to her. The maneuvers seemed similar to her Marching techniques. Had she somehow been instinctually inspired by this…

Inheritance.

The word hit her hard, bubbling up from her instincts. The penultimate vision of a Mythic-tier cultivation power is an invitation to a receptive inheritance. Her head throbbed. Fenghuang brought me to… whomever that was. I can’t even imagine what Teacher is seeing with Lord of Jianghu. She shook the thought from her head, pinching the bridge of her nose and blinking rapidly. Whatever the case, she’d entered the Mythic tier of Fenghuan. Finally.

She sighed with relief and got shakily to her feet. She needed to eat something and-

Then she saw it.

The source of the sound that had ‘woke’ her from the vision. It was just laying there under a cobweb that she hadn’t seen when she’d come into the abandoned house to find solitude after leaving Shanghai. She walked over and looked down, unable to believe her eyes. She crouched down and ran her fingers over the stone scabbard. “...It’s identical,” she murmured. Her eyes flicked towards the small note on it and snatched it up, reading it.

[A gift from your Teacher. Use it well. - W]

“W?” she mumbled. “Who the hell?”

She looked down at the sword again and picked it up by the scabbard. It felt heavy but… strangely not. Like there was a weight to it that she herself could not experience for some reason. She tossed it up into the air once and caught it. “...It’s light…” she murmured and turned the weapon horizontal. She grabbed the handle and pulled, drawing the sword out with a ringing tone that rippled in her ear. A moment of stillness followed before sound came rushing back. She examined the blade, gleaming like silver but shockingly solid. Words were etched along the length that she couldn’t read.

She swung it once experimentally, and the floor cracked along its invisible path. She jumped and looked at the weapon again. “...Whoa. You are dangerous,” she murmured and shook her head. “Better put you away for now.”

She slipped the sword back into the scabbard and held it by the case. She’d have to get a strap made up for it. She paused and furrowed her brow. Or… She made a motion as if to slide the weapon back around her beltline and felt it vanish from her palm. She looked at her hand and then reached down again, grabbing and pulling. It returned. Her eyes widened as she admired the weapon. “...Why on earth would Teacher give this to me?” she asked. “This thing is incredible and it even feels… incomplete.” She shook her head in disbelief.

‘We are picky.’

The words popped into her mind unbidden, and she looked down at the weapon again. “Was Teacher unworthy? Why?”

She shook her head; there was no point in dwelling on it right now. She had a job to do. She took a deep breath and stepped out of the abandoned home and into the light of a Dharan midday. She squinted at the sun, raising her hand to block the light as she fished in her letterman jacket pocket for her earpiece. Alphonse’s screech of greeting came next, and she glanced up with a smile as the golden hawk settled on her shoulder. “Good morning to you too, big guy,” she chuckled and stroked his feathers as she slipped the earpiece into her ear. She tapped it a few times to get it online, waiting for that little chime.

DING!

She pressed down on the earpiece. “Pandora Committee Dispatch.”

There was a buzz and then, <“This is PCD.”>

“Hero Crusader is returning to active duty. Requesting a portal from my current destination to New York City, East Coast ASTA Guild,” she said briskly before pausing and adding, “And I have a message for my team, if you can deliver it.”

<Acknowledged, Crusader! Welcome back! Portal request has been sent to Logistics. Please wait…”>

—-

Otis was getting impatient. The suspension had extended longer than initially scheduled. His ‘proctor’ for the ‘service detail’ having gone off on temporary leave. His lips thinned into a hard line as he glared down at the trembling form of Doctor Kaidan. She struggled to push herself up to her knees, her skin covered in burns and her eyes flickering as they glowed and dimmed. He tilted his chin up, disgust mixing with interest. The results had been fascinating, cramming broken pieces of abilities into her off and on to see what happened. He’d had to ‘reset’ her a few times, but the final result seemed promising.

He tapped his foot and leaned back in the high-backed chair, slowly tilting his head to examine her as she rose. “Kaidan.”

She flinched, fists clenching as she fought down bone-chilling terror. Her eyes flickered as she kept her focus on the ground. “Y-yes, Majesty?”

“...Are you going to run off on me again?” he asked patiently.

Her breath hitched, a tremor going through her entire body. “N-no, no! No, Majesty. Never again.”

He smiled. “I thought so. Good. That makes me happy, Doctor.”

She nodded furiously. “I’m pleased t-to hear that.”

He narrowed his eyes, the blue light of his irises flaring. “How does it feel?”

She looked down at her hands, her breath coming in slow, ragged gasps as she closed her eyes, diving deep into the instincts of her modified ability. She let out a shuddering breath and cracked a wild smile. Her fingers opened and closed as her eyes snapped open. “Magnificent,” she breathed. “A marvel. An elevation of what I was and more. Your brilliance is unparalleled, Majesty.”

His eyes narrowed a bit. No, not brilliance, brute force. It took too many tries to get it right. It was a good thing the woman was already pretty much insane to begin with. Not much to break when she’s already broken, he thought dismissively. Still, her intellect is still there, and her ability is extremely useful for starting fires to put out. Once the changes settle and her mind clears a bit, she’ll make a proper Herald.

The woman was already mumbling thoughts and ideas about what to do with her newfound power. He cracked a grin and scoffed. “Felwinter.”

A cold presence drifted up next to him. “Majesty.”

He didn’t look at her. “Has Melinoë settled in at the Hero Camp?”

“Yes, Majesty, she has,” Felwinter said at his side.

He smiled. “Good. She should have no trouble getting her license,” he said and flicked his finger. His Side Quest menu opened, and he lingered on the description. It wasn’t a quest he would be able to complete, otherwise, he’d risk more than just suspension. Fortunately, it didn’t require his presence. He leaned back and crossed his legs. “There’s somewhere I need you to go, Felwinter,” he said. “I have a new recruit for you to pick up.” Read complete versıon only at novel{f}ire.net

He wrote down the coordinates and a few details and handed the paper to her. “See that it’s done quickly. Have Craftsman send you with a Rift Amalgam,” he said and waved her off. “Send Riot in before you go.”

He felt her bow. “Yes, Majesty.”

He glanced back at her only briefly as she departed. The bloodlust was pouring off of her in waves. His lip twitched, and he shook his head. “Don’t get killed by the new guy, stupid girl,” he muttered and rested his chin on his knuckles. He watched Kaidan pace back and forth, muttering to herself, gasping, and then pulling a notepad out to take notes. She recovers quickly from mental trauma, he thought lazily as his foot flipped left and right. He listened for the door opening again and heard the steady footsteps of Riot approach.

“Riot.”

“Yes, Majesty.”

“I have a set of coordinates for you as well, another potential recruit. It’s a… bonus task,” he said thoughtfully. “I’ve got a feeling he will be a bit more challenging to pick up, but you’re a smart guy, I’m sure you’ll manage. If not, just… mess up his head or something. I don’t care,” he said with a wave of his hand. “It’s an optional objective.”

A long pause, then, a breath. “When do I leave?”

Otis glanced back at him. The single endless tear streaming down his bespeckled face, the wry, almost cruel smile curling his lips. Otis grinned back at him. “Be there in two days,” he said and scribbled down the notes from the Side Quest. He passed the folded paper off to Riot, who took it with a bow. He stayed low for just a moment longer, and Otis spoke into his thoughts. “Evangelize for me, Riot.”

Riot straightened up, his eyes sparkling with malice. “Yes, Majesty.”