by Skyler Grant
That was a plus.
A wagon rumbled along the road, coming through town, and it stopped beside them. Lima poked his head out of the back and gave them a wave. "Ready to do some killing?"
"We need Migo alive," Van said.
Alexa said, "You can leave that to me. I'll make sure he is subdued and out of the way. You just worry about shooting everything that moves that isn't bean-shaped."
The Beans laughed at that. They seemed to enjoy the names quite a bit.
"So from what we hear, they have a camp set up we're heading to. Word is they have over a dozen men," Lima said.
"We'll abandon the wagon from a distance and go in on foot. Any of you have guns?" Van asked.
The Beans all shook their heads.
Van told them, "We get close before we do anything. If they have a watchman, try to take them out quietly."
It was about twenty minutes outside of town when they finally came to a stop. Van could see several campfires burning in the distance. There looked to be six tents pitched.
The night was cold, and Van had to hope that whoever had drawn guard duty was ducking back frequently to warm themselves by the fire. If so their night vision would be compromised—which would make it easier to kill them.
Van was trying to figure out how he felt about all of this. The fact was he'd never killed anyone before. Perhaps his Prime had—by the sounds of it he'd killed enough to get a nickname related to death. Van just didn't have those memories.
Yet, here he was. They weren't here to threaten anybody, to convince them to surrender. They were here to drop bodies because it would get them something they wanted.
It wouldn't do to dwell on it. There was work to be done.
Things went wrong almost from the start. While creeping up on the sentry one of the Beans got spotted—and a bullet too for his trouble, and that roused the camp to alert. They might have been half-drunk, but they still had a lot of ammunition.
Van charged towards one of the campfires, making himself as big and visible a target as possible.
Perhaps it was the drink, perhaps they were just lousy shots, but he only took four bullets by the time he reached the fire. Getting shot in the armor was a bit like taking a punch. You felt it, but not that much.
Not so much when someone threw a stick of dynamite in the fire. That sent Van flying. The battle was a lot more confusing than he expected. The bandits were lousy shots and Van rather suspected he was as well.
Even if he wasn't effective in the killing department, he was a great distraction and within ten minutes they'd taken the camp.
14
Umaru the Great Turtle was known to fly through space. On his back were the three great schools of Umaru that are known to have ascended at least five masters between them. Last seen swimming into the dark there has been no contact from Umaru or those schools for over four hundred years and the paths are assumed lost.
When the shooting had stopped Van went looking for Alexa and found her saddling two horses. One already had an unconscious and bound man draped over its back.
"That him?" Van asked.
"Sure hope so. We didn't exactly have a picture, but he was the best dressed and in the nicest tent," Alexa said.
"That was ... kind of crazy."
"Battles are, especially your first. You'll get better, our training will help with a lot of that. Focus is everything and that's the problem in battle, it's easy to lose it."
"Don't suppose you found the loot the Beans were so excited about?"
"I can show you. Give me a minute."
Alexa led them over to a tarp and pulled it inside. Beneath were boxes, letters, and a lot of items. All of the boxes had been opened. Clearly the bandits had been going through their take.
"Not much of it. Garbanzo died for this," said one of the Beans.
"It'll be enough. This is all just a bonus. We got their gear too, boys. We're big time now," Lima said.
"But we get our first pick," Alexa said.
If the Beans were going to betray them, now would be the time. Instead Lima gave a half bow and his wide grin. "Fair is fair."
Alexa began to sort through the boxes. One of the Beans—Navy, Van thought—stayed behind to keep an eye on them. The rest went to strip the corpses.
"We looking for anything in particular?" Van asked.
"They'll have taken anything obviously valuable to them. Gold, gems, anything of high technology. I'm hoping they weren't as aware of what is valuable in the Dynasty and missed some prizes," Alexa said.
A box of what looked like peaches was set aside.
"Fruit? Really?" Van asked.
"Even your eyes are good enough for this. Just fruit? Out in the desert for weeks and still good? Fruit is fuel for a seed to grow. Powerful plants have powerful fuel. These aren't that great, I'd barely get anything out of them, but they'll be a head start for you."
"If they're good for me why aren't they good for you?"
"I'm a bucket, you're a shot glass. What fills you up isn't going to do much for me. I'm in my third evolution. I know that doesn't mean anything to you yet," Alexa said.
"Not much, except I get the impression more is better."
"Enlightenment and power come in stages. For now just trust me, these will help you. We wouldn't want them to be the end-all of your advancement, and they won't be. Most people cheat, trying to make getting power as easy as they can, and there are ways to do so. Favoring the now in favor of tomorrow. The thing is, when you are striving to become an immortal, the tomorrow is everything," Alexa said.
"And these aren't cheating?"
Alexa shook her head. "They could be, overused. We won't let you do that."
After a bit more searching Alexa set aside a box that contained three small glass spheres the size of marbles. Withdrawing one she held it in her hand for a time, eyes closed, before replacing it.
She said, "And these. Break one in your hand and they'll grant you a short period of invisibility. A high-end essence user will see through it but even so, useful."
Van wrapped one in a cloth and tucked it into a pocket. Alexa took the other two for herself.
They made their departure shortly thereafter. They both thought it was best to try getting to the spaceport while still dark.
They were closing in on it when they began to discuss their plan.
"How do you want to handle this? They'll be looking for you, and if you want off-world they know you have to come this way," Van said.
"I'm hoping they're gone, or if they're here—less of an issue. The Dynasty doesn't travel between the stars like the Empire. Ships aren't simply things, they are alive, living and beautiful. I poured fuel inside and set it on fire," Alexa said. Van could hear the regret in her tone.
"So they might have taken it away to recovery," Van said.
"If it lived they'll have had to. It's going to need a water world. If it died, they'll have lost their main source of water essence here. I've learned to live in a dessert, but without support they'd be weak."
It was something to hope for.
Whatever the case might be they encountered no resistance on the way to the Bounty Hunter Guild.
It was a small block building at the edge of the starport. There were no windows and the door was solid steel with no obvious way of opening it.
Van hauled Migo off the horse. The man struggled with his bonds. Together Van and Alex approached the door. There was an intercom beside it and Van hit the button.
"Yes?" crackled a voice.
"Here to collect on the bounty for Migo Dantoyo," Van said.
"Identification?"
Alexis said, "Unregistered. Looking to exchange target for Guild membership and transit."
There was a pause, and then with a hiss the door slid aside.
The room opened up into an office with a glass cubicle glowing with an orange light right beside the entrance.
"Place the bounty in the chamber," said a heavy-set bearded man behin
d the desk.
Van shoved Migo into the chamber and stepped back. Orange light flashed brighter and bands of it surrounded him.
The man checked a display. "Verified. Congratulations. Come on in and have a seat."
Van and Alexa took chairs before the desk.
"So you want to join up? Prowl the galaxy hunting bad guys, wicked-doers, and those otherwise unfortunate enough to have offended the wealthy."
"Something like that," Van said.
"And you're a team. Always room for teams. Five times the survival rate of solo hunters. I'm Hank, by the way. You don't care. You're never coming back to this hole again. And you are? The names you want to be known by, not your real ones, if you're running from something," Hank said.
"He's Van Steel, I'm Alexa Stone," Alexa said.
"Steel and Stone, I like it. Memorable. One heavy-armor pistoleer and one essence user ... third evolution?" Hank said.
"Good sensors," Alexa said.
"Some of the best," Hank said, scavenging through a drawer and pulling out two badges. Instead of the star of a sheriff or deputy badge, these were silver crescents. Van's had a single star offset to the side while Alexa's had three.
"As a team you're cleared for level three bounties. As individuals just up to your star count. You'll find a bounty office in every starport with a list of our suspected bounties on planet," Hank said.
"Just like that?" Van said.
"You make us regret it, you go on the list. We clean up our own messes. You wanted transit? Where to?" Hank asked.
"We want gone in a hurry. What are our options?" Alexa asked.
Hank tapped at keys and peered at a screen. "Three freighters leaving in the next twenty-four hours. All of them would let you board now. One is going to Ardanos. Prison planet, miserable, but you'd be off the grid."
"What else have you got?"
"Bangora. Marketplace world, you can catch a flight from anywhere there and lots of bounties to hunt."
"A firm maybe. The last?"
"New Diablos. Frontier world, booming mines. Rich, feral, savage," Hank said.
Alexa gave a wicked grin."Perfect."
"Dock Five. I'll let them know you're coming. Welcome to the Bounty Hunters Guild," Hank said.
15
"Shoot fast. Shoot often. Shoot first. Shoot last". A Gunslinger’s Guide.
Van and Alexa took their time, keeping low and being cautious on their way to the freighter. As they got a good look at the vessels docked they saw that the ship which most concerned them was gone. It must have survived Alexa's sabotage.
The freighter was expecting them. It wasn't exactly a luxury liner, although the single room they got was bigger than Van would have expected. They actually had space to walk around and both a bed and a couch.
"Don't suppose we're sharing the bed," Van said.
"We can switch for the couch. According to the schedule I saw we'll be two weeks in transit. We'll spend it working on your training," Alexa said.
Their room had furnishings. Apart from the single bed there was a table and two chairs, the couch, dresser and a bath that you could stretch out in.
Van settled himself in one of the chairs. "So start at the beginning. What do I need to know?"
"The core of what we in the Dynasty do involves essence. Perceiving it, processing it, using it. Essence is everywhere, it's around us right now although in only small quantities," Alexa said.
"Why small?"
"Because this ship wasn't built on a world particularly strong in it. Because no effort was made to weave it into its construction. Essence makes things stronger. Your armor has essence woven into it and so is stronger than armor that doesn't. In the same way the body of an essence-user becomes harder, stronger."
"So why doesn't everyone in the Empire do this?"
"Because there are other ways to gain power? To become something to be feared? In the Dynasty the pursuit of this power is truly everything. Your birth gives you advantages, but strength truly is everything," Alexa said.
Van thought about this and nodded. "Well, even if the other me didn't have that kind of power I'd still want it. So how do I get it?"
"There are three major components of your essence. Mind, body, and spirit. Each has to be strengthened individually. Each has to ultimately be strengthened by a challenge. When all three have advanced to the next stage you may undertake an evolution that binds them all together."
Van had asked for information. This seemed to be rather a lot coming all at once. Still, he focused on understanding it.
"What are the challenges?" Van asked.
"That depends on quite a bit. You're always working towards something, at least if you are doing it right. I've told you before that I'm on the path of the blood river. My Prime was and I am following her path," Alexa said.
"Why? It sounded like you hated her. Couldn't you choose your own path now?"
"All the streams ultimately become a single river. That can't happen while both she and I are alive. I'm still on the path because one day I'm going to suck her dry."
Van stared at Alexa for a moment. She seemed perfectly serious. It was fair—her Prime apparently worked hard enough to do the same thing to her.
"So what about mine? I don't have a clue what my Prime did," Van said.
"If he became a Sage, it is possible he didn't travel any well-trod path. Sages have mastered their given field better than any other. For now we're just going to make you stronger and then research what rituals are open to us that give you your best chance," Alexa said.
"What about you? Isn't the plan for you to get stronger as well?"
"New Diablos will have opportunities for me. The journey to get there doesn't. In your case, we're going to start with body."
Alexa opened up her pack and set the peaches out on the table. "Go ahead and eat one, and just one."
Van did. The fruit had stayed perfectly preserved despite however long it had been since it was picked. When his teeth bit into it, flavor flooded his mouth, intense, with a sweetness that was almost overpowering.
It was about halfway through the fruit that he felt a strange tingling in his chest. Warm, almost like the sun falling upon bare flesh.
Alexa was watching him closely. "Feel it? That is your little shot glass overflowing. It won't hurt you, not with a single fruit, although more than that and you might actually do yourself some damage as it burned off."
"So just eat a peach every so often?"
Alexa laughed. "Not hardly. I'm about to teach you a whole new way to breathe. Right now we're just doing that. Get the air moving in and out of your body like we want it to. Channeling that breath to the power inside of you and letting it circulate everywhere. You can think of it like watering the fields, if you like. Right now your bones, your blood, every part of you, is starving and it doesn't even realize it."
"Just breathing? That sounds simple."
"It isn't. In the Dynasty you learn to do this from a very young age. You are getting a very late start to a very basic skill and because of that it's going to come hard to you. If you were a child we'd start with the most basic rhythm, but I don't want to do that here. We'll instead do the simplest that does a thorough job. I don't want to waste a bit of this power while we have access to it."
The next few hours would prove her right. Van could hold a rhythm for a time, when he focused intently. But the moment his attention drifted in the slightest that pattern was lost. Alexa was a patient tutor. By the time dinner came around he felt some slight difference. The warm glow the peach had given him had grown more diffuse with hints of it to be found throughout his body.
16
Personal Profile: Lyrka Cass, Sheriff of Old Hambrik. Cass is known to have served for fifteen years in the territorial marines, primarily in conflict with the House of the Amber Eye. When her entire unit went silent they were all presumed lost, but a century later she returned with most of her body transformed into incredibly resilient living diamond.
The newly-forming Sheriffs offered her a job and she has served in a dangerous sector now for over a century, not seeming to age a day since her return.
For the next week Van almost felt that all he did was breathing. The crew of the ship met for a meal three times a day and they joined them. The freighter crew was uncouth but friendly, and respectful of bounty hunters.
Other than meals, when he woke up he started breathing. He always had, obviously, but never had he focused on it so much. Falling into a breathing rhythm that at first took him minutes to achieve. Later, he was able to do so at a word from Alexa.
Then the training really started, maintaining it even while running laps around the cargo bay. The cargo was mostly bricks, large stacks of them with aisles between. It wasn't valuable enough to be locked away and Van got used to running between them.
The first peach took three full days for him to exhaust and need another. The second and third took only two each.
On the seventh day they were done with eating and training, and Van was sprawled out on their couch while Alexa did some of her own practice. Her movement between combat stances was incredibly fluid. At times it seemed her body really was made of water, the way it flowed from one step to the next.
"Am I going to learn things like that? It doesn't seem it would be much use in a gunfight," Van said.
"You're going to get disarmed sometimes. It would be foolish not to prepare for that eventuality. Yes, you'll learn something, but not like this. I don't really know much about gun techniques. I'm thinking they must be strong on fire, air, perhaps metal. All have their own very distinct combat styles." Alexa shifted position once more, her hands flowing in front of her as if blocking invisible punches.
"How so?" Van asked.
"Fire is fast, furious. Extremely offense-driven where the goal is to take down an opponent before they can take you down. It's part of the reason my own school is so effective against them. We can avoid that force, redirect it as we choose."
