15.

Asher rose to his full height after Miles and his students left, dusting himself off.

Shisui’s boots waded through the blood and gore as he stepped closer.

‘Well done.’

Asher bent and cracked his back.

‘I was almost done for, you know. Glad he stepped in when he did.’

The Meteora teacher had come in clutch.

‘Were you?’ Shisui murmured. ‘Almost done for?’

Asher kept his grin to himself. He’d decided beforehand he wasn’t going to use any of his major arts when fighting Ryu. Otherwise…well. The future would tell what the result would be. The boy had a nasty skill himself.

‘I’m just glad my effort doesn’t go underappreciated,’ Asher said. ‘Sneaking in a few dozen soldiers is easier said than done.’

‘That’s the part I’m trying to figure out,’ Shisui said, easily accepting the change of topic. He crouched next to Ko’s corpse, playing with the dead girl’s hair. ‘Why hire these two and release rumours of their coming if it makes your job harder? Testing yourself?’

‘The opposite,’ Asher said. ‘The complete opposite.’

Shisui looked up, tilting his head.

Asher strode over to Ko’s corpse as well and placed a hand on her chest. He closed his eyes and searched.

‘Your blind spots,’ Asher said, ‘are never more pronounced than when you’re on high alert, thinking you’re protected.’

There it is. A fading sphere of life energy around the heart. Asher flexed his fingers. His foul energy shot down his arm and into Ko’s body, piercing the core and implanting a seed within.

Shisui followed the proceedings with a keen interest.

‘I see. Like wearing a piece of armour?’ Shisui said. ‘Walking naked through the woods would make you skittish. But, if you’re wearing full metal plating, you’d be less careful with where you step.’

‘Exactly like that,’ Asher said. ‘Rise.’

Black roots branched out from the seed Asher had planted, enveloping the heart, and forcefully making it beat. The girl shot upwards, drawing breath with a gasp. A hand instinctively went to her throat. But a mortal wound meant nothing to the dead. She was fully functional. As if she was alive. Only she wasn’t.

‘Welcome back,’ Asher said.

Shisui defeatedly shook his head.

‘So even the bones were a part of your deception…scary.’

Asher put a hand to his heart, feigning offence.

‘Deception? Please. Don’t make me out to be some master manipulator. It hurts my feelings. Image. Say I simply care about my image.’

Shisui chuckled.

‘Of course. Excuse my rudeness.’

Asher turned to his newly summoned construct.

‘Did you get the thing I wanted?’

KO flicked her hands, and from within her pocket dimension she retrieved a statue that could fit within a person’s hand. It was shaped like a tower. But curving around the walls was a giant, black tentacle.

Asher laughed uncontrollably.

‘Do you know how much they sold this for?’

‘Two million, right,’ Shisui recalled.

‘If they had quadrupled the price,’ Asher said, ‘it would’ve still been a steal…the follies of ignorance.’

He gave the item back to Ko, who put it away, then placed a hand on her head.

‘You can go to sleep for now.’

Tentacle-like protrusions spread from his hands, combined with purple light, and they sucked the new undead into his soul space, storing her there for whenever she was needed.

‘Of everyone gathered here tonight,’ Shisui said, smirking, ‘I think you’re the sole person that got what they wanted from the start.’

‘Jealous?’

‘Not at all. I adore talent. In any form.’

Asher hummed.

‘Didn’t the Meteora get what they wanted, too, though? They left with the Primordial.’

Shisui shrugged.

‘We’ll see.’

Asher waited but the man did not continue the subject.

‘I have a request of you,’ Shisui said instead.

‘Do tell.’

‘I want you to deliver a message. In-person.’

A message? That’s quite the unusual request. And why would he need me to deliver it?…Ah.

‘I’m not traversing the Portal if that’s what you want. Demons don’t particularly find me good company.’

Shisui chuckled.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘Don’t worry. It’s a little closer to home.’

Asher raised an eyebrow.

That coy upturn of the lips was ripe on Shisui’s face.

‘Do you get seasick?’ he asked.

Part II

0.

I was strolling through the forest with my father. Just us two. Grandmother once said the bond between a man and his first child were unbreakable. Could never be matched. Not even by four other children put together. I hadn’t heard it from her lips. She was two years gone when I was born. But holding my father’s hand as he led me through the dark, cold woods made me see the truth of it. He lifted my small body over a fallen tree trunk, careful not to let the flames of the torch he was holding touch anything.

Daddy, what are we doing here? I asked, standing atop the trunk, waiting for him to climb over himself.

We’re wandering, sweetheart.

Where to?

Nowhere.

We’re wandering nowhere?

I glanced around me. Across the trees where shadows pooled on their bark. Sometimes I thought I saw them move. But I felt no fear. Father was here.

Nowhere. he repeated in an amused tone.

And we walked. The trip was quiet except for the rustling of the underbrush, the whistling of the wind between the gaps of the forest. I felt closer to Father than I ever had.

Eventually we reached a part of the forest which wasn’t so dense with growth. I ran ahead to survey. Interrupting the continuity of the landscape were patches of low forest growth, bushes and whatnot. Beyond which the trees continued. However, splitting the treeline were two pathways veering away from each other at an angle. The dark made them look the same. And thinking on it, they should’ve been. It was the same forest. But I had a feeling. An intuition that the path we took would decide the rest of our night together.

I peered hard. Tried to sniff in both directions. If there was a difference, I could not spot it. Then a warmth passed above my head. Father’s boots thudded on the muddy forest floor, his steps taking him in the direction of the left path.

Father, wait! We need to choose wisely! I yelled after him.

He didn’t answer. His firelight became smaller, though, and I rushed to follow him.

Father! I said, once more at his side.

He watched me then. His eyes peering from underneath his hat, the torch at the side of his face illuminating the smallest of forest flies buzzing at his head and his darkened skin.

There is no choice, my child.

I frowned, not understanding his words in the slightest, which he picked up on.

He smiled. Look. It is simple. he said.

Father stopped in his tracks. Turned and lifted his torch so it lit what was behind us. Trees which had not been there before blocked our direct way back. Father looked at me again. He waited. Waited for what felt like an eternity, giving my brain time to work. Understanding didn’t come to me.

Smiling still, he rubbed his free palm on the top of my head and walked on. I watched him go. Watched the cast of his back in the firelight disappear as the dark swallowed him like a maw.

Then the dark swallowed me.

1.

It was dark and cool. Chilly even. Where was she? The forest? No. It was not. All around her was a void. A space devoid of anyone or anything.

No. False. There was something.

Beside her. Inside her. Enveloping her. The void opened like a curtain, revealing vertically slit eyes. They weren’t straight, not truly. The edges were like tiny, tiny mountains, the peaks of which housed entire worlds. Worlds surrounded by the deep red that was the sclera. As the eyes neared her and came to a standstill right in front of her, she saw clearer.

It was a gate.

And the key—

Wake up, Silvah.

..

..

Silvah was staring at the ceiling, unblinking.

She only noticed that she was laying down when a cushion under her head sprung in response to her moving. It was dark. Turning to the window on her left, she saw that the reason for the darkness was that it was night. She must’ve taken a nap and fallen asleep.

‘You’re awake. About time.’

Her heart jumped out of her chest. Her head swivelled. She faced the door at the other end of the room, where the voice had come from. There was no one there. When she turned back, there was a man standing at the foot of her bed.

She launched from underneath her covers, her hand reaching for underneath her pillow to retrieve the knife she always kept there…only to find nothing, leaving her standing next to her bed with empty hands, half-naked.

‘Good habit. But I’m afraid you didn’t have the luxury of placing one there.’

Silvah tried to get in a fighting stance, hands a little in front of her and her feet bladed. However, when she leaned on her back foot, her still half-asleep leg gave out and she fell to the floor. A hand caught her. That of the same man.

Again, she had not seen him move. What in the fuck was going on?

‘As much as I like toying with others, calm down. You’re not in any danger. Silvah Nighthart.’

He added her name with a flair then helped her upright and distanced himself. A set of clothing had appeared on her bed from thin air.

‘You’re still recovering but you should be well enough to dress and walk out yourself. Come outside when you’re done.’

Then he was gone. Not through the door or even the window. He was just gone.

Am I dreaming?

She pinched her arm and found herself fully in the realm of the living.

Shouts outside reached her ears. She frowned and strolled to the window, taking care to properly balance herself.

Systematically spread lampposts lit the courtyard below her. A winding path just outside her window led through well-kept gardens and to a large field on which…students?…were practising hand to hand combat. She thought they were students because they were all wearing a uniform. The same one the man had left on her bed. Black, silken pants that were billowy at the thigh and a buttoned shirt of the same material. On the front was the logo of a meteorite glowing with a blue hue. She’d never seen that school emblem before.

If she listened closely, she could hear the rustling of leaves and the soft murmur of a nearby stream.

Beyond the training field was an eight-story building that was just as wide. The stones were smooth and dark. The roof was curved and tiled, reminiscent of an ancient temple. Transparent windows revealed the distant figures of other people walking through its halls.

It was ancient, true. Yet it looked like a normal school building on every other account.

But.

Silvah took a step back.

She didn’t know how to explain it. There was this…aura radiating off the building. An energy that pushed down on her physically, like Asher and Ryu had done in the auction house…

Memories flooded back to the forefront of her mind. Her meeting with the Ryūjin-kai, Damien, Miles, the auction house, and all that accompanied it. Then there was the ending. All she remembered was…black. Darkness.

She placed a hand on her bed and took a second to rest her mind, trying to make sense of everything. She couldn’t. Minutes passed before she finally gave up and instead focused on the goal that had been given to her. A thing she could understand. She dressed, finding the uniform to be far from a perfect fit, which was nothing new. Silvah was taller than average for a girl.

The man—Miles, she remembered the name—was waiting for her outside. His eyes went up and down her physique.

‘Looks good on you,’ he said.

‘…thanks. You as well?’

He was wearing the same buttoned shirt as her, but his pants were tight, going as far as to stick to his skin.

‘The school has a private tailor where you can request personalised items,’ he said. ‘Will cost you some credits but it’s worth it.’

‘Credits?’

‘School’s reward system. You’ll learn more about it in the briefing. Just follow me for now.’

He walked off without waiting for her to respond, leaving her with no choice but to hurry behind him.

The hallway was spacious, with enough room for five people to walk side by side, which is why the desertion lunged at her like a predator. There was no one except them in the hall. No people in a school building? Her college facilities at Yumekyo University were packed even at night. Was this building special somehow? Looking out the repeating windows in the wall to her left, past the courtyard, she saw that the school grounds were entirely surrounded by forest.

‘Where are we?’ she said, awe entering her voice. This was a retreat monks would pray for.

‘Yumekyo Meteora Art College. We’re on the mountains at the edges of the capital.’

Meteora College. Shisui had mentioned the name. Instinctively, her hand went up to her earring. It was still there.

Seems like his guess would be proven right. She only wondered what means they would use to convince her to join.