Chapter 340
Mira moved over to the armor and slipped into a slot on its back. As soon as she was in, the plating moved down and sealed her into it. The servos of the exoskeleton whirled noisily which was an obvious sign they were worn and torn. Probably wouldn't last more than a few deployments in active combat, especially if there were explosives involved.
The power cell built into the thing’s back hummed and lights flicked on, illuminating the armored fabrics of the T7 power armor. Mira moved her arm, and the metal exoskeleton built into the thing moved along with her. “Feels a little choppy, young miss.”
”Hmm…” I put on that innocent look like I didn’t know much about what was going on and moved over to inspect the power armor. “Its a little scrapped up, isn’t it?”
”Nothing a new coat of paint couldn’t fix, miss! I’m telling you, you won’t find a better deal anywhere in the market. Truly, only someone as intelligent and sharp-eyed as you could’ve seen through all the trash in this place.” The vendor put on his best flattering expression and lavished me with endless praise.
“Sharp-eyed?” I resisted a laugh and activated Hidden Hands. Facing away from the armor, I not so subtly worked my way into the internals of the suit and sabotaged parts. It wasn’t even that difficult thanks to the wear of the armor.
While doing that, I pulsed it with Technical Expertise and found an evil surprise lurking in the chassis. My plan abruptly shifted and I dropped the noble act. I also ran his face through the Crusade’s database.
The vendor didn’t seem to notice, but Mira did. She quickly exited the power armor as he hopped around it. “It’s top-tier military salvage. Hard to get stuff like this without paying an extremely high premium and answering lots of questions.”
I didn’t look up, instead taking a deeper look at the set. “This ain’t top-tier.”
The man flinched, and his smile immediately fell. “Of course it is. Came straight from a Sentinel assembly line.”
Mira crossed her arms, not so subtly flexing her muscles. “She says it isn’t.”
The man twitched, and then slowly backed up. His eyes flicked to me, and surprise turned to anger. “You—“
“Half this stuff is from a construction rig.” I poked at the power armor. "Third-rate at best, and that isn’t even considering it’ll likely fall apart after being shot once. Hydraulics look like they’ll collapse under their own weight, which is quite frankly impressive. The wiring is also a mismatched mess, and these laser-etched serial numbers are all wrong. Did you do it in your mother’s basement?”
The vendor made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh so much as a strangled groan. “S-still, this is functional armor. Fine, fine, maybe eight hundred was a bit much, but you lied to me too young miss.”
”Watch your tone, bastard. Who are you to speak to the young miss like that?” Mira took a step forward. She towered over the man, though that wasn’t much of a surprise. She was taller than most people now.
The vendor shrunk backward before finding his spine once more. “You can’t do anything to me—the Constellation PMCs reinforce—“
“Ah, what’s this?” I reached into the chassis and messed around with the internal components for a moment. There, hidden behind a cooling vent, a small bit of metal stuck out awkwardly. “A tracer tag in the chest plate, eh?”
”That—“ His expression immediately broke and his face went pale.
“What do you think?” I tossed the small chip to Mira. I also activated Fear the Reaper at a low intensity to unsettle the man.
Mira checked the chip and held up toward the light. “I think this guy sells the armor, and then his buddies show up at the buyer’s house with guns and a not-so-polite refund request.”
A couple of the nearby vendors who’d been watching the show almost immediately distanced themselves. One of them put in earbuds, and the other went back to chopping noodles with the ferocity of a lion. Although the Night Market didn’t have many rules, respecting the trade was one of them. Setting up a buyer like this—it directly violated said rules.
“I don’t like that plan very much.” I pulled away from the armor and hopped up onto his table. My legs idly kicked while I stared at him.
The man swallowed dryly. “Look, maybe—maybe someone added that without telling me?”
”Chek, chek… that could’ve happened.” I nodded my head in agreement with the man. “The Constellation Night Market could also have a problem with a vendor targeting their customers with such a scheme. You could end up finding your feet encased in cement and dropped into the bay.”
All a bluff, of course. I had no idea what they’d do. From the looks of things, he didn’t either. “What—what do you want?”
Nova, he was backed into a corner now. It was the time to strike. “Here’s how this works. I take a few power cells, components, and things I think look pretty. You get eight hundred and we both go our separate ways.”
“Eight hundred?” The guy’s eyes lit up and his expression twisted back to looking at me like I was a fool. “Deal.”
I transferred just eight hundred, not the eight hundred thousand he was expecting to receive. His face immediately twisted and it was like he completely forgot what just happened. “This won’t even cover—“
Fear the Reaper came out at an intensity enough to paralyze him. I slid off the table and lightly patted him on the shoulder, sneaking a Dragonfly onto his clothes while I went. “Eight hundred was me being generous. Your little tracer already paid for anything I want.”
I shook my head and wandered about his stall, picking up various components and loading them up. I was mainly after the rare stuff. Power cells in particular, but specific actuator’s, servos, and microchip arrays were also stashed in my bag. Basically, the stuff that would be annoying or time consuming to make myself.
I left the rest. Most of it was junk anyway. I nodded to Mira, and she pushed the guy back into his market stall. We left just like that, heading out into the market once more. We were just another two faces in the crowd.
”Eight hundred was generous.” Mira said once we were far enough from the stall.
”He was a small-timer coward.” I shrugged. “At least he got something, so he won’t risk pushing this further.”
”Think he’ll try something?” Mira glanced over her shoulder, though we’d already left the market stall behind.
”He’d be stupid to.” I passed her the bag of components. “But this city runs on stupid.”
”So do we.” Mira cracked a smile and grabbed the bag from me.
”Yeah, well, we’re better at it.” Besides, I left a tracker on the guy. He’d have a not so nice run in with the Crusade as soon as he left this place. Bounties made some stuff so much easier.
We worked our way deeper into the night market, with me buying various things for projects I either was working on, wanted to work on, or had planned for the future. Graphene nanocoils in particular were high on my list, and I made sure to buy enough of them that I wouldn’t have to come back anytime soon. I could make Graphene with Transmutation, sure, but actually getting it into the coil shape required a bunch of specialized processes I didn’t want to bother with.
Just as we finished buying everything I needed, I spotted something with Aetherial Perception that stood out through all the noise of the Aether. An ethereal strand snuck through the air and lightly wrapped around my wrist. It tugged me loosely like it wanted to guide me through the night market.
I stopped, causing Mira—holding several heavy boxes—to stop alongside me. “Uh, change of plans.”
”That doesn't sound like you.” Mira frowned, though nodded her head. “What’s up?”
“I’m going to speak to an… old friend.” I guess that wasn’t entirely wrong. I wasn’t entirely sure what to call him, though.
“Lead the way.” Mira shifted the boxes around to get a better grip and followed after me.
I followed the ethereal strand, allowing it to lead me through the stalls and market strands. It ended up dragging me to a lift flanked by Constellation PMC’s. Neither one of them made a move, letting us get on and take the lift all the way to the top of the nuclear cooling tower.
At the top, it opened up onto a completely barren floor. Err-almost completely barren floor. Suvroc sat behind the only piece of furniture, a desk, while leaning back and snoring softly. A small golden coin rested on the table, with the ethereal string connected to it.
”Ahem.” I coughed lightly.
The vendor shot up from his seat and pulled into a low bow. “Ah! How fortunate Suvroc’s favorite customer comes once more!”
”How have you been, Suvroc?” I eyed the man’s six eyed mask that seemed to stare right into my soul.
He hopped up onto the table, causing his black cloak to spill out around him like the feathers of a bird. “Very good! Very good! Suvroc was given the chance to rejoin his family!”
”Family?” I tilted my head to the side. “You were kicked out?”
”Ah—the topic is too heavy to talk about with Suvroc’s favorite customer. Suvroc will get embarrassed.” His head shifted downward for a moment. “Truly, this is perfect timing! Suvroc wanted to see favorite customer one last time before leaving.”
“You’re leaving? No more Night Markets?” What a shame. I actually kind of liked the guy. He was extremely useful every time I needed something.
“Indeed! Suvroc doesn’t have wares this time… but Suvroc did prepare a gift for his favorite customer!” He lifted the mystical golden coin and flicked it to me.
I caught the golden coin. It radiated a certain warmth that drew my attention to it. “A gift?”
”Favorite customer is favorite customer.” He nodded his head a few times. “And as a thanks… you’ve helped Suvroc with a rather troubling matter.”
”Did I?”
”Suvroc’s dear, stupid brother…” He shook his head in sadness for a moment. “Guess he really was Suvroc’s brother, at the end of the day. Birds of a feather…”
I stared at the man, if I could even call him that, and a few things slowly started to link together in my mind. It was way too outlandish to be true. And yet, I found myself leaning more and more in that direction with each passing moment.
Suvroc… honestly, I didn’t blame myself for not seeing it sooner. I just thought he had a weird name. “Corvus, is it?”
The man—or should I say Greater Sprite in human form—bowed low. “Let Corvus reintroduce himself. Truly an honor, Scion Tsukuyomi.”
Mira, behind me, just stood there without realizing the gravity of the situation. Honestly, I only half felt it. I’d met a lot of Greater Sprites in my time… but to think he was one? Were there any others like him hiding amongst humanity? Not that I could think of, but there might be.
“Crow taking you back in?” The eidolon needed it, to be honest. He didn’t have many Greater Sprites remaining from what I’d heard from Fox. It was literally just Corovid, and he was partially busy with me. I hadn’t been summoning him though to help out Crow.
The greater crow sprite nodded his head and lifted a hand to touch his mask. “Corvus’s glorious name has been given back, and he’ll return to the Aether soon. He just wanted one last interaction with favorite customer. And to give a gift.”
I lifted the coin up into the light. I could probably find some use for it. Or maybe I could give it to Mira? It would help her attract customers to her agency. “I’ll treasure the gift. Thank you.”
“No, thank you.” The bird pulled into one last bow and then moved toward the edge of the cooling stack. ”Until next time.”
Corvus looked over his shoulder one last time and then simply stepped into thin air. He didn’t plummet to the ground, but instead stepped into the Aether directly. Just as the rift he used started to close, his human guise fell apart and he returned to the form a massive crow. The mask he wore, with six red eyes, bounced lightly and then slipped back through the rift to our side.
“Well… that was something.” Mira’s hand was dropped to her gun like she was lost with the whole interaction. “What the hell was that?”
”Corvus, Greater Sprite of Crow.” I moved and picked up the mask, sliding it into my bag alongside the coin. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
— - —
ANL How many of you saw Suvroc being elder brother Corvus? I know it was called out on Royal Road once or twice. Definitely not my best hidden plot line. Then again, naming tricks have worked for over three hundred chapters. Did you guys see the pricinipal, Vio Bously (obviously), being the bad guy? Or Drew Idism, the thief that got Shiro involved in the Crusade, as part of the circle(Dru-idism)?