Damned Healer

In the conference room of the Azure Haven Clan, the group assigned to the mission was gathered. Rhea and Damon were there too, waiting for Darian to arrive.

This would be his first real mission—a moment when lack of experience could easily get you killed. Since everyone there had been through it before, they gave him time to be with his family before leaving. Meanwhile, they discussed possible issues related to Raon.

For this mission, Darian would have his blessing active and be at full power. That carried a lot of risk. Still, everyone felt like that idiot didn't have the brains to pull off anything serious. As for his clan, they probably wouldn't do anything that could ruin their image even more. Plus, the Empire had its own ways of stopping High Humans from causing too much trouble.

When Darian arrived, Leander handed him a small silver crystal, about three centimeters wide. "This is your group crystal. Pour a bit of your energy into it."

Darian did as told, and the crystal changed to red. Leander continued, "Everyone on a mission is required to keep it outside their spatial ring. It lets us track your location and communicate. It also has a recording system. If Raon tries anything shady but still completes the mission, the Empire will know."

Darian nodded, thoughtful. "There's no way to mess with this?"

"The group crystal is one of the Empire's most valuable artifacts. It's made to be tamper-proof. Only some overwhelming outside force could interfere with it—and if you run into something like that, you're not coming back alive anyway," Rhea said with a snort.

"There are some secret ways to bypass it," she added, "but the Empire forbids the sale and use of that stuff. After the mission, the crystals are checked. If there's tampering and no valid reason, Raon and his clan are going to get hit hard. They wouldn't risk that over a personal grudge."

Darian listened carefully. On Earth nowadays, nothing was really unbreakable or truly impossible. There were tons of artifacts with strange effects, and some that could cancel each other out.

Still, he'd seen his power work on things considered untouchable—like those daggers of his. Would it work on a group crystal too?

'Better not try anything without a reason,' he thought, then focused on what really mattered.