by Skyler Grant
"The others?" Van asked.
"Air is all about mobility. Leaps, twirls, as you grow more powerful, even flight. It's about being where an opponent does not expect you and always being ready to capitalize on any opportunity. Metal is strength, invulnerability, becoming a fortress that will not be moved."
"The first two sound like good matches for a gunfight. That last doesn't," Van said.
"Are you sure? One of the first things you should do in a gunfight is find cover. Defense. With metal, you are your own defense. You'd need to pair it with a very powerful gun though," Alexa said, assuming a new form by crouching low, her movements sinuous.
"I can't believe I didn't leave myself some sort of guide for all of this. It's terrible planning," Van said.
"It's yet another reason to be wary of your Prime's motivations. If he really is dead, he left you woefully unprepared. If he isn't, he'll have no interest in you reaching his level of power." Alexa moved back to stand normally.
"I'm making good progress though."
"You are learning one of the simplest of skills and it has taken a week of dedicated practice to do it. This next week is going to be even harder."
Alexa gave Van a serious look.
"I'm ready," Van said.
"You really aren't, but we'll get you there. By the time we land I want you to at least be able to train all three aspects. Even better if you can do them together."
"You mentioned elements. Should that influence what I'm doing now?"
Alexa gave a wry smile and took a seat in one of the chairs. "Ideally, yes. Practically, usually not. The breathing pattern you're doing now is not the one you'll eventually settle on. Nor will the mental focus be the same, the invocations of spirit. If we knew exactly what path we were going down we'd be training you with the basic techniques of that path, but we don't."
"So when are we going to decide?"
"When we get a clue what we're doing. Guns are weird and I need to do some research. For now, if I did anything, it would be to train you like a bow-user and I'm sure some of that applies, but some probably doesn't. There is your own choice as well. What feels right, what resonates. When I mentioned the traits of fire, wind, and metal earlier you seemed to react instinctively against metal."
Van said slowly, "Guess I did. I can see the appeal of being an unstoppable juggernaut, but it doesn't feel right."
Alexa nodded. "And I don't think it is. Your Prime had a reputation for being sneaky, which means he probably went wind. Although with a name like Red Death he might have gone fire as well."
"I still can't believe I didn't leave instructions with myself."
Alexa gave him another long and serious look. "Well, let's go with being true to yourself here. You think you didn't, but maybe you did? You didn't leave any obvious instruction manual, but how else would you have done it? And why?"
Van thought it over for a few moments.
"The why is obvious. That other me didn't trust what people would do once he was dead," Van said.
Alexa nodded. "Perhaps they feared someone would steal the knowledge for themselves. Perhaps giving you a clear roadmap to more power would make you even more likely to die. I don't think it the case, but it is a theory. So what would you do?"
Van said, "Either I'd arrange for a message to be given to me at some point in the future—with what I needed to know. Or I'd have hidden it on me. My armor? My pistols?"
"It could even be hidden in your genetic code, if you want to get fancy. If you want I'll go through your things tomorrow. I can sense things you wouldn't until further in your development. Trust me, you're going to have enough on your plate," Alexa said.
17
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The problem about only having one set of clothes was that when your roommate and mentor decides to go through them looking for secret messages, it leaves you without a thing to wear.
Alexa had packed herself a few changes of clothes in her emergency escape pack—she was fine even when clothes had to be cleaned.
"I'm sure we can borrow a set of overalls from one of the crew," Van said.
"Don't be so insecure. It's nothing I haven't seen. Besides, it's good for this exercise. You are trying to be aware of your environment, and now every bit of your skin is like a new set of eyes," Alexa said.
There was something to that. Today Van was working not just on his breathing, but on the fundamentals of both mind and spirit.
That meant meditation along with awareness of his surroundings. Being fully aware of every sound, every breath around him, of processing all of that information on a far deeper level.
Spirit all resolved around the warmth created by eating another peach. Alexa didn't just want him to feel that flowing through his body, she was insisting it went elsewhere, that he needed to follow that flow beyond the physical.
Van kept up his breathing, the now familiar pattern of that a comfort rather than a struggle. The challenge was in keeping stray thoughts from slipping in. Concerns about clothing, and wondering how Alexa's inspection of his pistols and armor was going.
It was a bit astonishing to Van that he'd never realized until now just how quietly Alexa moved. Even the sound of her breathing was faint, although when he really focused he could at least hear that.
Van's eyes were closed and his mind wandered around the room, in some ways around the ship. The faint thrum of the engines somewhere off to his right. Below him someone was hammering, the sound and vibration faintly felt through the deck.
Van was feeling pretty good about the whole thing until he got kicked in the face. The force of the blow sent him sprawling backwards and crashing into a chair.
Alexa was standing over him, her arms folded.
"Disappointing," Alexa said.
"You kicked me. In the face."
"And our enemies will be doing a lot worse. Get used to these surprise attacks. I'll be doing more of them until you are reliably able to detect me. Oh, and you can get dressed, there is nothing in your armor."
Van wasn't about to protest. Apart from the modesty issue the ship was cold.
"If you get to sneak up on me and kick me in the face, I should get to sneak up and scare you in the bath," Van said and paused. "Make that less creepy."
"Van, if you somehow actually did manage to sneak up and startle me, I assure you that the last place you'd want to do it is when I'm submersed in water."
That was probably true, it didn't mean it wasn't tempting.
"You mentioned my armor. What about my guns?" Van asked, as he finished pulling his pants up.
"There is something there. Carvings not visible to the naked eye on the insides on the chambers. I wondered at first if it was some artifact of the smithing, but I don't think so," Alexa said.
That was news. That seemed like pretty big news.
Alexa flashed him a wry smile. "Don't get too hopeful. If it makes sense to somebody, it isn't to me. When you were growing up did you use any sort of cipher or code?"
"Nothing like that," Van said. "You think I left myself a coded message in the guns?"
"I think you're picking up this message far earlier than you are supposed to. I don't think anyone but a second evolution or higher would be able to find it, and then they'd have to be looking. Perhaps by the time you're that powerful, you'll have the means to understand it." Alexa slid his guns back over to him.
"It there is an instruction manual, it's stupid to give me one without a key," Van said.
"You were supposed to follow the script. Meet up with the voice on the other end of your line. I'm sure if you had, they knew exactly what rituals they'd want to put you through."
"There is that much variety?" Van asked.
"Lots. Just take body.
There are rituals that would make you incredibly strong, but leave you relatively squishy. Others would make you well-rounded but excelling in nothing. Others don't give much but are all about taking away weaknesses. One of the primary fire initiations is just that, burning away the weak."
"What was yours?"
"Winter's journey. I was stripped naked, doused in water, and thrown into an ice-covered cavern. There was no exit, no way out that didn't require days of wandering. Jagged ice that could cut the flesh everywhere, ground so slick it was nearly impossible to walk on." Alexa's eyes grew distant.
"They did that to a princess?"
"Every one of us, when it is our time. Some poor girl is probably down there right now. Even with our training, our blood, only about one in eight make it through. They try to fight the cold until it kills them," Alexa said with a weak smile. "But you can't fight the cold. The cold is eternal. You embrace it, become it, let it inside and make it yours."
"How does that work?" Van asked.
"Winter is a choice, and it is always inside me. I'll let you feel it," Alexa said, reaching out. "Take my hand. Feel, really feel."
Van did as she said. Alexa's hand was tiny inside his own. It seemed frail compared to how much strength she could wield. There was a quick flush of warmth at her touch, but as he probed deeper it was cold. It was so very cold.
"I take it you didn't actually work at the brothel," Van said.
"You don't need to take it there. Though no, I did not, not that way. The cold is relentless, unstoppable. To have ice in your veins is a powerful gift. Don't think of this all as a game, Van. You need to be strong, but always be aware that pursuit of power is going to be your death unless you are your absolute best. Be your best—for the winter is your teacher, and she will have no mercy."
18
The path of the Divine Bow is one of the oldest schools of bow arts known to exist. While many of the later schools are considered deadlier, the purity and raw strength of this old path remains greatly admired.
The second week was far more punishing than the first. It was all about meditation, Van sitting with his eyes closed while he breathed and he focused. It was also where he got kicked a lot in the face, groin, punched, splashed with ice water, and in one instance set on fire.
Alexa always seemed to take him by surprise. He never heard her approaching for all that he was constantly vigilant. At least, even if he wasn't detecting her, he was getting really good at focusing through expecting an impending attack. By the time the end of the two weeks was closing in he even had a breakthrough on spirit.
It had been some time since an attack and he was really starting to sink deep into his own head when he saw it. A shimmering lake surrounded by peach trees, basking under the sun. It seemed almost real.
It didn't feel as real as the smack that Alexa delivered upside his head.
"I was just getting somewhere," Van said.
"I know. That was why I hit you. What did you see?"
"A lake, peach trees, the heat of the sun. It was idyllic."
Alexa grinned. "We'll make a poet of you yet. You'll get all the Dynasty girls."
"Having pretty terrible luck with the one I already know," Van said, peering up at her.
"Then stop half-heartedly flirting with one with a heart of ice and expecting to get anywhere. Your mind is trying to make sense out of what it perceived. Terrible job, by the way, just awful," Alexa said, reaching down to offer a hand and help him to his feet.
Van accepted the help. "Don't insult my brain. It just had a breakthrough. So what am I seeing there?"
"The lake was your natural essence. How big was it? Did you get any scale of size?"
"Small," Van said quickly. It had been hard to judge size, but of that much he was certain. "Dwarfed by the trees around it."
"Right now you are filled with essence you haven't earned. That isn't really yours. It came from the peaches and while you can use it, you are just kind of borrowing it." Alexa moved over to the table and pulled out a notebook, flipping through the pages and making a note.
"What are you writing down?" Van asked.
"Your progress. The design in your guns. Things to help you," Alexa said, showing him a page. It was a diagram that looped back in and around itself.
Alexa pointed to one segment of a longer line moving towards the center of the design. "Long breath moving inward. Opening sequence of your breath ... out ... the pause ... in again. See it?"
Van did, now that she was explaining it. It was a visual representation of the breathing pattern he'd been doing.
"I see it," Van said.
Alexa pointed at a set of tick marks. "Visualize the lake here. Let go of the image here. You are going to feel resistance, and it's going to hurt. Force it. Every time you hit this section of the pattern, without fail."
"Why?" Van asked, mystified. "I get that with the breathing itself I'm spreading the power through my body. What is this doing?"
"You're forcing a quantity of the power into your natural reserves. You are cutting a branch off the peach trees and throwing it in the lake—if you want to think of it that way. Do that and the water level begins to rise."
"But if I use that power the lake goes away," Van said.
"And it refills. On its own with time, or if the level is near empty doing just what I just told you will refill it faster. Soon I'll teach you a new routine, one entirely focused on maximizing how much we are sending towards your spirit. But for now I want you to master what you're currently doing."
Van did just that. By the time they landed they had gone through the last of their peaches and Van felt he'd come a long way from where he'd started. He could now visualize his own essence at will, bringing it into being in an instant. He could drop into a breathing pattern quickly, and maintain it even through a good bit of physical exercise. His senses were undoubtedly sharper, although still not sharp enough to have yet caught Alexa in one of her frequent ambushes.
It felt like a lot of progress for a short time.
They were waiting for the ship to land, all their belongings packed up.
"I'm going to miss this place. It has started to feel like home," Van said.
"If we stick together we'll have time like this again. Freighter travel is slow and it's our usual form of transit between worlds," Alexa said.
"What are our plans when we hit the surface?"
"We're broke. I've got a little bit of coin, but if we are going to do anything else we need more resources. We're going to check in with the bounty office and get ourselves some targets."
Van was rather looking forward to that. Meditation was all very well and good, but he was craving some action.
"Know much about this world?"
"Not much except it got real rich in a hurry. The Dynasty, the Empire, legitimate business, illegitimate business. Everybody has come for a piece of the pie. We're going to be drowning in business."
"And probably drowning in competition."
"Perhaps. I'd rather we stick to targets that are a fair challenge for you. Only if we have to, we'll go up a grade. We'll be able to get you some better ammunition here once we get some coin."
"What about those hunting for us?" Van asked.
"There's not many places we could have gone. Fair chance they'll come looking. If you're lucky, you'll finally see an ambush coming," Alexa said.
19
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The starport of New Diablos was wildly different than the one from which they'd departed. For one thing it was busy. Instead of being distant from any town it was surrounded by one, and there were at least three dozen ships all unloading cargo.
The
Bounty Hunter Guild was a two story structure and far larger. A scan of their badges got them in the door and directed towards an open desk staffed by a tattooed woman.
"I'm Iris. Welcome to New Diablos, Stone and Steel. Catchy," Iris said.
"Busy place. Hope you've got some work for us," Van said.
"Not a problem. We've lost a few hunters lately. It means we have a lot of jobs left on the sheet."
"Losing a lot of hunters? Anything we need to be concerned about?" Alexa asked.
Iris shuffled through some papers. "We don't know yet. Senior hunters are investigating the matter. For now we're recommending you stay cautious, and if you think you're being targeted to contact the Guild."
"So what have you got?" Van asked.
"I've got three assignments open. You can take one, or take all three. I can't guarantee nobody else will get put on these, but right now we're understaffed."
"What are the details?" Alexa asked.
"Mortimer Snidley. Con artist, rake, and card cheat. He's broken the hearts and drained the bank accounts of a string of heiresses from here to Old Berliner. No clue where to find him, but we know he's on-world. Thousand marks to bring him in. He's not dangerous. It's just that he's been on the books so long the bounty has kept going up. We want him alive," Iris said.
"You're tossing us one of your unsolved cases," Alexa said.
"They're all unsolved cases. That's why they're open, but yes. I'd like to clear this one off the books. The second one is easier to find, but a lot deadlier. Lei Eris, enforcer of the Widows. All the Widows are wanted, but Lei has a habit of wrecking businesses. Six hundred. We think she's a second evolution. Dead or alive," Iris said.
"Do you know anything more?"
"The Widows follow spider teachings. Venom, immobilization," Iris said.
Alexa nodded slowly. "I might be able to do something there. What about the last one?"
"Ones. The Butchup Gang. Rates vary here. Get us one, or get us all of them. The more you get the higher the rates go. Dead preferred. Big bonus for John Butchup himself. This one comes straight from the Empire, they hit a federal armory."
