HTG - Chapter 176

Kalon

Chapter One-Seventy-Six: Lon - Part One

Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

Ruling Government: Republic of Hekate

Solar System: D-2,946

Planet: Ravena Minor

Location: Ara Continent, Ravena’s Temple

Kotina strides a pace ahead of me, muttering to herself before she turns the next corner. When we are farther away she finally speaks up, “I can’t believe you broke the fucking door.”

“Apologies.”

My mind is adrift in my thoughts as she speaks curses, I find myself wondering what exactly happened to the Cursed Edict. My hand traces over my heart, I don’t feel different, besides the changes of the bounds. Even Krotha has been silent since I asked her. What does it all mean? When the day is over, I will seek out Amara. She owes me answers.

“It was over a thousand years old, it’s… slag it, what did he say?”

My focus returns as I say, “That I should weigh my options before I decide.”

“Fennec,” she growls, shaking her head, “He must have said something.”

“I did not get that impression.”

“Oh, and what impression did you get?”

“He is strong.”

She gives me an eye backward before the next turn, “And?”

“Even tempered.”

“And?”

“He was testing me.”

She sighs loudly, emphasizing her next word, “And?”

“I am not sure how I did.”

“Gods, dragging an answer out of you is like pulling teeth.”

I take note to study their decorum for conversation and lengthen my stride to keep up with her better.

“When I join this house, what will become of me?”

“When? Are you sure it’s not an if?”

“I am sure.”

“Good, I don’t like fickle people.”

“All people are fickle, it is our nature.”

“No brooding please, you were on such a good roll.”

For some reason when she gives me a grin, I return an earnest one back. I think I will get along with her.

“Anyway, you’re not much of a talker, so I’d wager military conscription route for you. Rise up the ranks, become a small ship commander, someday become a knight and then lead a larger ship, then if you’re really lucky he’ll sponsor you to be a knight commander, then you can really climb.” She gives a look backwards, “But you’ll have to climb over me if you’re seeking the heir’s hand.”

There’s a challenging stare behind the peacefulness, not one of malice, but like she enjoys the idea of competition.

“You’ve already met the requirements technically speaking for the knight commander trials, since you’re past the fourth… though I’m not sure if it specifies Etheric boundaries only. Going to be interesting how our Lord figures that one out. I can’t imagine there are many Netheric bounders, none that I know at least. Did some research on it after I met you, a lot has been redacted from the Imperium’s archives.”

I have been wondering about this as well. My body is a strange one, I suspect Arkon would want to hide that fact. How though? Thoughts for later I suppose.

“So, the path to rise is first to become a soldier in this house?”

“No, not this house.”

My brow furrows, “Why not?”

“You must first serve in the Republic of Hekate and only after are you permitted to join a house’s standing army.”

“Why?”

“It is the law, one must serve the highest order first. So that they can instill loyalty and reverence in you. The only exception is nobility and the children of Senators, because too many snot nosed brats got their throats cut during basic training over the years. Now they just have them do a special course with a knight commander from their house…” she pauses, her lips scrunching for a second, “I probably should have instilled more discipline in Luna when she did her training.”

“She is disciplined, just not in the way of a killer.”

“The Primuses of Raven are warlords, pup, never forget that. For our house was built on blood and bone.”

“You seem proud to be a Raven.”

She grins and slaps my shoulder, “So will you someday. There’s no feeling quite like walking into a room of normal houses and having them stare at the crest on your shoulder. You can practically feel the puckering.”

“Are Raven’s that formidable?”

She stops in the hall and turns, “Do you remember the knights that you ran from earlier?”

“Yes, I think one was named Peren,” I say, recalling him.

“What bound do you reckon they are in?” she folds her arms and leans on the wall.

“The fourth perhaps, or close to the fifth.”

She laughs, a long and hearty laugh and starts walking again.

“What bound are they?”

“They’ve only just broken the third in the last three years.”

“The third?” I half whisper to myself. They were freakishly fast for only having been in the third. Am I that slow? Months of stillness has dulled me again. This will not do.

“What’s wrong, what are you thinking?” Kotina asks with a smirk.

“I need to train.”

She laughs, “That’s the spirit, we might make a Raven of you yet.” She stops in front of a large set of double doors made of metal. There are six spears pointing in a bundle as the insignia. “Before that though, I’d like to know what I’m working with. This is one of the training halls, they aren’t as fancy as the ones on Raven Prime, but they’ll do. Also something…” she stops mid sentence looking behind me.

A ripple of soft footsteps catches my senses, I recognize the mana around her immediately.

“Luna, aren’t you supposed to be working with Dargo?”

“He released me for the day.”

“Did he? So if I message him, that’s what he’ll say?”

“Go ahead, I’m sure he’d love to hear from you,” she smiles, coming to my side. Her hand almost grasps mine, but she holds it still as she must.

“This is boring, come on runt,” Kotina says pointing at me.

I look at Luna but Kotina snaps at me, almost surprising me.

“Don’t look at her, if you’re to join this house, then I am your superior now, you answer directly to me, if anyone except Lord Arkon tells you to do something against my orders you tell them to piss off. Including her,” Kotina says grabbing my shoulder and pulling me with her like I am a rag doll, her strength shocks me more than it should.

“Apologies,” I reply as she pushes me in front of her.

“Sorry ma’am,” She says rolling her eyes, “Did Luna tell you nothing of our customs?”

“Little, ma’am,” I admit.

Luna frowns and gives me a simple yet sweet mouthing of the word sorry.  

“Sir and ma’am for superior officers and knights, Lord and Lady for nobles of our house.”

She stands on the mat and bids me to follow and I do. Luna is about to enter behind us, but Kotina shakes her finger, “I don’t want him distracted.”

“He will surprise you,” she says then turns and shuts the doors behind her, but not before she gave me a warm smile.

“Doubtful.” Kotina groans and looks at me with a bored expression as she says, “Pick a weapon, any weapon. Land a hit on me and you’ll get released early to spend the day with Luna.”

“A single hit, ma’am?” I ask.

She doesn’t even answer it, as though the thought of it being a possibility doesn’t even register. This would anger most… I feel it instead like a fire in my belly, eager now to show her that while I am weak in body, my skill is honed to an art form. We are in the room alone, it is quiet like the sparring mats back home before the chiefs would tell us to begin. The anticipation I have is enough for both of us. I would see how I measure against the one I must climb over.

“Right, I need to assess how worthless you are currently,” she says looking me over with the coldness of a tribe chief inspecting a weapon.

“Any weapon, ma’am?” I ask her looking at the wall, I see a set of knives I like, also a spear and a few weapons I don’t recognize. I grab the spear twirling it, pretending to fumble it on the ground to make her less wary of me.

“For fuck’s sake are you dumb and deaf?” she asks me, rolling her eyes and bidding me to hurry. Is she trying to anger me? Or is she trying to see if I have problems with superiors talking down to me? She should know that as an Ulima, I have endured many insults. Hers slide off like the rain.

I go towards the wall and adorn myself with three visible knives, placing one in each boot, the other on my belt, in my hands I now hold a silver spear again.

“Begin.”

I move towards her slowly, feeling the weight of the spear in my hand and stretching my legs and my neck.

“I fucking said be…” she says but I am upon her now, I was waiting for her irritation to distract her because I know that she is stronger and faster than me. I can feel in the gate of her walk that she has trained for a lifetime, in that feigned dispassionate gaze I see the reflection of my own eyes, eyes that have seen their hands take the life of those who would take theirs.

She stumbles backwards, reflexively overshooting her leg due to the low gravity, or perhaps it is a feigned stumble. Regardless she recovers in time to dodge my spear tip which impresses me greatly, but I do not let it waver my resolve. Her eyes follow my movements, I can see them finding flaw in them, I can see them thinking if she had a weapon I would already be dead, but that’s because I hide my flow to throw her off feigning my movements waiting to strike like a silent Lurker Shulka. Biding my time.

I should be insulted that she is taking this less seriously than I am. She does not even move to strike, as though I am unworthy of it.

Blow after blow she dodges with a deftness I have never seen in an opponent save Dargo. She has found her rhythm and dances with finesse around my stabs giving me no ground. I pretend to stumble near her, she instinctively moves to kick me and I plant on the spear, moving in the air around her abandoning it in the ground drawing my first knife aiming for her armpit.

She manages to dodge it just barely, I can see a wariness in her eyes as a grin appears on her face. I move again flipping in front of her, now hiding my hand as it reaches into the boot grabbing another knife which I bring to her throat, she leans back with unnatural flexibility dodging it. I do not let it break my morale as I follow the momentum and spin around throwing the knife towards her back. She turns and grabs the knife by the handle stopping it in the air, turning and throwing it at me, I narrowly dodge it. It slams into the wall, the dulled blade finding purchase deep in the stone.

She moves towards me, I pretend to give her ground as I know I am nearing the weapons rack, I throw another knife at her to distract her as my off hand grabs a shield, moving it in anticipation for her to throw it back, she does and the dull knife stabs through it. The sheer force presses me back three paces. If I was not a bounder, my arms would have broken twice over. I do not let the difference in strength stop me, she is still not giving it her all.  

I roll away from her throwing up the shield in her field of vision as I throw two knives below it and one behind it. She jumps to avoid the low knives and swats the shield away and her eyes grow wide with disbelief when the third knife riding in the shadow of the shield strikes her chest, bouncing off her armor. She stands there stunned as it falls to the ground beneath her. She bends down and picks it up looking at it as though she doesn’t believe it is real.

“My people learn the blade before we learn to say our mother's name,” I say with great pride as she looks up at me, still surprised that I landed a hit on her.

She stands in silence, rolling the blade over in her hand for a few moments and looking around at the mock battlefield. She leaves the room and bids me to follow when she crosses the door.

“As promised,” she says pointing to Luna as she walks away saying nothing more, still holding the knife and inspecting it.

When she is out of earshot Luna says, “I think you may have wounded her pride.”

“If she had a weapon she would have slew me a hundred times in a hundred ways,” I say with respect as I play the battle over and over in my head, “She did not fight me in earnest. There is no pride to be wounded.”

“She is one of the greatest fighters in the House of Raven,” Luna says, then continues with a playful tone, “One hundred and one ways is more accurate I think. What did she promise you anyways?”

“If I could land a hit on her she would let me spend the rest of the day with you.”

“Wait, you actually landed a hit on her?” she says cocking her head to the side as though not believing my words.

“I did.”

“Fucking hells… you’ve definitely wounded her pride then.”

“She is the second greatest opponent I have ever faced. I should like to fight her in earnest someday.”

“Who is the first?”

“Dargo.”

“I should have guessed that.”

My head turns to look at Luna as I ask, “What should we do with the day?”

She smiles, “I have a few ideas.”