Cause and Effect

Amara was the first to find him. Instantly her maetrayops could see the black poison spreading from the wounds in Akamori’s torso. A few steps behind her, Morwen and Yasiin burst into the small quarters belonging to the XO. Amara stepped aside, brows furrowed as she explained what she saw to the Captain. Morwen kneeled down next to Akamori whose face was pale, with black veins spider webbing up his neck.

“Took you long enough,” Akamori said with a raspy voice.

Morwen frowned as Amara listed off what she could see. She’d seen this kind of poison before. “I know this toxin.” She announced finally.

“Sauridius?” Amara guessed.

Morwen frowned and shook her head, resting her hands on Akamori’s wounds. “It comes from a marshland drake found on Anazi Prime. Their dragon riders harvest it to lace their weapons with.”

She glanced up at Akamori with concern, “That they’ve set their sights on you is worrisome. Dragons who feel spurned enough to dispatch assassins are just as like to devour you on sight.”

Brilliant golden light pulsed from Morwen’s hands as she channeled life giving light magic that cleansed and strengthened Akamori’s aether. His weary and wounded boy recovered, knitting the stab wounds together and erasing the black veins. Akamori’s eyes fluttered shut for a moment as the exhaustion overtook him. A moment later he blinked them back open, looking at Morwen, Amara and Yasiin.

“Why all the long faces?” Akamori asked.

Morwen sighed, rolling her eyes. Amara snickered, and Yasiin bit back a grin.

“Any ideas on why a dragon rider assassin was making an attempt on your life?” Morwen asked.

He shrugged, the gesture weak given his condition. “Your guess is as good as mine. We have mowed through our fair share of dragons lately.”

Morwen eased back just a hair, nodding. She wasn’t entirely satisfied though. Something about this didn’t add up. Even if the dragons on Anazi Prime were mad with Akamori, how would they know about anything happening beyond their world? They’d have to monitor that wrinkle and watch it for further developments. For now, they had a mission to be about.

Morwen stood, holding a hand out for Akamori and helped him to his feet. He swayed a little, looking green in the gills. “Get some rest for now. You have a visitor due by before we depart.” She set Akamori down on his bed, who looked like he wanted to protest, but thought better of it.

“Who?”

“Your Artificing friend, Kusinaki. Somehow he got word about your armor’s death by Lucinda’s hand. He wouldn’t stop badgering my mother about bringing you something to replace it with, even threatening to leave her employ for someone else who would.”

Amara chuckled, “Yeah, that sounds like Ku. If I had to guess, he picked up the stubbornness from the XO.” Amara teased.

“I taught him nothing of the sort.” Akamori stated matter-of-factly.

Amara gave Akamori a flat look, and he shrugged, “What?”

Morwen stood back a step and gestured for the others to leave Akamori’s room.

“Alright. Everyone out.”

The squad milled out slowly, leaving Akamori to himself, who took the chance to catch up on some much needed rest, rubbing his chest where the blades had punctured his flesh earlier. Rest claimed him quickly as his exhaustion made it easier for a deep sleep to claim him.

In the corridor on the other side of the door, Morwen, Amara, and Yasiin’s expressions darkened without Akamori’s casual good natured joking to defuse the seriousness. Amara scanned the corridors and saw nothing.

“Anything?”

Amara shook her head. “Not that I can see. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something there to see. They can fool my ability.”

Morwen nodded, not wanting to lean on Amara’s maetrayops as a crutch. Experience taught her that after an attempt like this it was likely the would be assassin would go to ground either to regroup, or check in with their handler. All they could do now would be to wait and see if anything else happened. She disliked such a passive approach, but in this case, it was necessary.

Morwen sunk 5 points of her AP into cleansing and healing Akamori’s poisoning. The color was returning to his complexion. He glanced up, giving Morwen a thankful nod. The Captain stepped back, giving some breathing space.

“Alright, get some rest. I suspect your friend is going to come and bring a gift my mother is loath to part with. Which makes me want to see it happen all the more.”

Akamori’s brow furrowed. “You and her aren’t that close, are you?”

Morwen shook her head stiffly. “No. She was always more focused on her success within the Guild. That success came at the cost of her marriage, and our relationship, such as it was.”

“I see.”

That put her relationship with Lucinda into context a little better. A pang of guilt ricocheted off his heart, etching a weary look on his features. Morwen tugged her jacket smooth, scrutinizing him.

“I know what you’re thinking. Don’t. My family was a mess long before you killed Lucinda. And the nature of her bindings made saving her with enough time to stop the spell bomb an impossibility. Fretting over our failures is a cancer we can I’ll afford. It’ll eat you alive from within if you’re not careful.”

“Focus on the wins, huh?”

“Essentially. You don’t lose to Ominek and the Sauridius as often as I have without learning a thing or two about resilience.”

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Akamori nodded pensively. Then gave her a thankful smile. Her forgiveness, however unnecessary, relieved him. Getting up with a grunt, he rubbed the areas his attacker stabbed him. Two pink scars stood out against his normal skin tone. He needed some sun bad.

“Sure could have used some armor.” Akamori grumbled. Settling down on his bed with a sigh, he figured he’d take his chances with a nap. The squad was on alert now, so anyone would be foolish to come back for a second shot. Still, he kept his spell rifle under his arms. Just in case.

A couple hours later, Akamori got up from his short nap and threw his uniform top on. Studying himself in the mirror, he frowned. His feelings about the uniform and the Federation had gone all over the place. He started out hating it for his conscription. Then he accepted it as a necessary evil. Then he’d tried to believe in it. And now he just wanted out.

The desire to fight the Sauridius was as strong as ever. Whether he fought them under the Federation’s banner or not didn’t matter. More and more lately, he was thinking the squad would be better served free of the Federation. They could fight on their own. Little would change, save for the patches or uniforms they wore.

A quick tug on the front of his uniform jacket caused him to pause and chuckle. Gods, he was acting like Morwen. Because the sector needed that. He strode from his room with Thanaton sheathed at his back. Ever since the invisible attacker, his blade had been extra on edge.

The walk through the mess hall and towards the aft cargo section didn’t take but a few minutes at his purposeful stride. As he approached the cargo bay, he could hear voices engaged in idle chatter. Amara, Kusinaki, and Morwen came into view. In the corner, sulking, was Arefhel, Morwen’s mother. She stared at a scrypad with practiced disinterest in everyone gathered. It was the look he imagined someone wore when they wanted to look like they wanted to be anywhere but where they were.

“Akamori! Am I glad to see you! After the good captain told me about what happened to your last set of armor, I was afraid I might not make it back in time with our latest creation.”

Akamori grunted as Kusinaki rushed forward and wrapped him up in a tight bear hug. He patted the artificer on the back, chuckling. “Well, you almost didn’t get the chance. Someone took a stab at me before you got here.”

Kusinaki pulled back and frowned. “You annoying someone so badly they sent an assassin after you? That sounds crazy.” Kusinaki said dryly.

Akamori sighed and glanced around. Unlike last time, he didn’t see a massive transport case holding any spell armor. “Well, I assume you’ve come to bring me something. But I don’t see anything.”

Kusinaki beamed proudly. “That’s because it hides in plain view. Watch.” The artificer tapped a black bracelet on his wrist and it melted. Almost taking on a living appearance, the armor slithered up his arm, and down his hand, forming a gauntlet, and a bracer, pauldron, chest plate, and soon a full suite of jet black armor. Akamori could only whistle. “That was impressive.”

“It’s our latest mk 15. It’s made with an experimental material. Twice as light, and uses void magic for a unique defensive feature. Go ahead and shoot me.”

Normally when the phrase ‘go ahead and shoot me’ is uttered it draws concerns and skepticism. But if the person who says it is wearing jet black spell armor that deployed itself like living ink? Well then, it’s just one more in a list of weird boxes checked for today’s strange bingo card. Akamori glanced at Morwen and Amara, who both just shrugged.

Akamori retrieved his spell rifle reluctantly from his void storage pocket. Taking aim at the obsidian armor, he put the center of the chest in his crosshairs. He drew in a short breath, then depressed the trigger slowly. A small level one fire bolt shot from the muzzle. The fireball rippled as it contacted the armor’s skin, then it reappeared behind Kusinaki and crashed into the bulkhead, leaving a small fist sized scorch mark.

Everyone just stared, blinking at what they’d just seen. “Do it again.” Kusinaki said. Everyone heard the excited grin in his voice, even though they couldn’t see it behind the armor’s face plate. Shrugging, Akamori fired again. The bolt spell again rippled on the armor’s skin and appeared to emerge from Kusinaki’s back to strike the back wall.

“Ok, what’s going on exactly?” Akamori asked, lifting the weapon’s muzzle up before stuffing the rifle back into his void storage. He was glad he’d had the forethought to purchase that void storage mount for the coat he’d purchased. Secretly, he still wished it could have come in blue.

The helmet turned to liquid and melted down to the neck collar. Kusinaki grinned ear to ear. “This stuff is bleeding edge. They won’t tell us where the material comes from, but it’s heavily enchanted and costs a fraction of what standard spell armors cost. We could outfit more units for the same costs.”

Kusinaki tapped the bracelet, and the armor shivered, turning back into fluid as it melted back down towards Kusinaki’s wrist, forming a bracelet. The young artificer waved his hand around excitedly, showing off the latest piece. Akamori saw the pride and excitement in his friend.

“I’m going to go on a limb and guess you were part of the development team.”

Kusinaki’s grin spread into a beaming smile that almost parted his face inhumanly. All Akamori could do was chuckle at the gushing excitement.

“This is innovative technology, Akamori. We can finally protect the sector with this.”

Kusinaki pulled the bracelet off his wrist and held it out for Akamori to take. He nodded to Akamori. Akamori took the bracelet in his hand and shivered. The metal was as cold as the void. Like using a teleportation spell in combat. Only he felt the frost growing on his soul instead of his skin. Deep within, Bahumet stirred in agitation. Something about the bracelet’s magic bothered the slumbering soul. Like an icy splinter in the skin.

Pushing aside his momentary discomfort, Akamori slid the bracelet onto his wrist. He rolled his wrist a few times to model it for the others. Kusinaki nodded towards it encouragingly.

“Ok, so how I turn this thing on?”

“Once it’s bound to you, it’ll deploy at will, or you can tap it. Either way works.”

Akamori frowned. DO NOT BIND TO THIS. A deep voice rumbled up from the depths of his soul. Thanaton hissed its approval. When two elder souls disapproved of something. You tended to listen. He went with the tap.

The bracelet turned to liquid and spread across his body, then hardened into the armor. The transition from bracelet to armor felt like an ice-water bath that made his skin crawl. He felt like it wrapped him in a blanket of void magic. He tapped it several times and slowly studied himself. His hud paper doll got more detailed in this armor. It even broke down the body to better display damaged sections.

“Gonna need that feature.” He mumbled to himself with the helmet set to internal. His AP gauge was a bar now, which he assumed would also show refill rates. There was a status section for buffs and debuffs. That would prove helpful. Having a better idea of his physical situation would go a long way to keeping him from being unalived.

Satisfied with his new gift, he thanked Kusinaki. The Artificer waffled, looking like he wanted to go along with them. Akamori figured it was probably because he wanted to see how his creation fared. Still, something about the armor felt wrong. It reminded him of transitioning through the void. That sensation of being watched.

“Akamori? You ok?” Kusinaki asked.

Akamori shook the feeling off. Attributing it to nerves. He had just been attacked earlier. That was surely it.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just been a long day. We’re heading out soon, so this was just in time. Once again, you pull through with a clutch save.”

Akamori retracted the armor and watched Kusinaki leave with a disinterested Arafhel. Morwen’s mother barked harsh orders to several aids as they left the Indra. As they walked away, Akamori thumbed the black bracelet distractedly. What was it made of and how had the magic worked like it had? The secrets of a creator, no doubt.

“Let’s get underway. We’ve a sector to save.” Morwen said at the mouth of the deck leading into the Crasher’s Hanger. A chorus of yes sir’s echoed from the squad as they fell in stride with her.

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