Shadow Fist marched into his brother-in-law’s office, “You called for me Elder Forest.”

He placed a fist over his heart and bowed to the man standing in the reception hall. Despite the size of the room, it was nearly empty. On certain holidays this room could host over three hundred people. It was tiled, just like the rest of the Elder’s mansion, a granite-topped bar ran along one wall, and the windows currently had thick crimson curtains closed over them. It gave their meeting a gloomy atmosphere.

Today only three men stood in the hall. Shadow Fist, Elder Forest, and an extremely well-built man with black hair streaked with grey along the temples and jawline. Shadow Fist was a martial artist first and, a politician second, so he could recognize dangerous individuals when he met them. He had thought that the Golden Heart patriarch was the most dangerous person he had met. The man beside Elder Forest stood head and shoulders above the patriarch, if not in height then in threat. He wore simple brown and yellow combat robes with metal weave laced into it. Normal for anyone with an earth kern, however, the man possessed a dark kern that dwarfed Shadow Fist’s by an enormous margin.

Forest smiled at Shadow Fist’s reaction. He had never liked his sister’s husband, but he could never find a good reason to get rid of him. At least not without crushing Helen. She had gone through a lot when her son had his kern revealed, no need to hurt her more.

“Let me introduce to you, Ren, leader of the security at the mine,” Elder Forest gestured at the big man, who nodded his greetings to Shadow Fist, “This is Shadow Fist, one of the head family’s support managers.”

Shadow Fist did not miss the spike of hostility. The danger that this Ren represented rose a few notches. He obviously had something against Shadow Fist, but he was not sure what that could be. The mine was where his firstborn lived, but he was a silver-blooded devil, there was no way someone like this would pay him any attention. Aside from that, he had no connection with that pit of malcontents.

Elder Forest smiled slightly at Shadow Fist as he took a step back from Ren, “I have gotten news that the River Caldera is pulling all of their warriors off the walls to expedite the reclamation of the plains. We need to beat them to it. It should take almost a month to mobilize, the wall is quite far away from the River Caldera after all.”

“What about our plan to create conflict between the alchemist and Elder River?” Shadow Fist asked. That plan had originally been his idea, so he was quite proud of it.

“Their once-in-a-generation genius acted exactly how we anticipated, Kerri was always spoiled by them. However, River sent a rescue team, which was destroyed. Kerri escaped, unfortunately,” Forest sighed, “Though, it seems that Elder River blames the Stone Caldera for the scheme.”

Shadow Fist nodded, it was too much to expect that every plan go his way. Splitting the Stone and River was not a bad result, breaking up allies was a good result as well. However, Forest did not call him to inform him of the success of his plan. He waited patiently for Forest to get the point.

When he finally did, it came as a shock, “Where is your son?”

“Pardon?” Shadow Fist frowned, “I have no son, the records show-“

“Burn the records for all I care,” A spark lit in the Elder’s crimson eyes, “That excuse may work for lesser people, but don’t compare me to those drudges. I will ask one more time. Where is your son?”

Shadow Fist glanced at Ren, the man had a stern expression. With a shaky voice he said, “I, I don’t know.”

“Let me explain the current situation,” Forest said, “I want to field an equal force to face River’s men, however, they need equipment, lots of it.”

Shadow Fist could understand that. The weapons needed to fight beasts were different than the ones necessary to fight men. A beast would go for the throat, stomach, and hamstrings. While these points were not off the table, a human would be more than intelligent enough to break fingers, bend joints backward, and be generally more adaptable to circumstances. In short, vastly more defenses were needed for people.

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The thing Shadow Fist did not understand was, “Why does this matter,” he continued at Elder Forest’s raised eyebrow, “In relationship to me, of course.”

Elder Forest gestured to Ren. The big man folded his arms and spoke, “The reason is simple. All the metal we need is sitting thirty feet below one of our tunnels, it could arm our soldiers with the highest quality equipment, at relatively little expense. Unfortunately, there is an elemental down there that I believe to be between tiers six and nine. It is a metal elemental, thus very resistant to anything we can do to it, we need to know where it is and prepare a trap for it. Tristan is capable of tracking it with a relatively high level of precision. I will not waste lives excavating some rocks so that Forest can get his hands on some dirt.”

“The plains are more than mere dirt, Ren,” Elder Forest said, disapproval evident in his voice.

Ren glared back, “And my men are worth more than fertilizer for the flowers their families will plant over their graves.”

Both Shadow Fist and Elder Forest took a step back at the venom in Ren’s voice. This man seemed to have a grudge against them both. Shadow Fist was beginning to think that this brute did indeed have a fondness for Tristan. He couldn’t think like that, it would make him soft. Ren had a fondness for the silver devil. In that case, anger towards the devil’s father and uncle would be understandable.

A flicker came from an empty space beside Forest. It was a spot where the curtains were parted just enough to let a beam of sunlight through. Shadow Fist had thought nothing of it but when he narrowed his eyes, he saw a haze there, like Forest was giving off a heat shimmer. He shook his head, to clear it, but when he looked back the shimmer was gone.

“Ren, despite the service you rendered to my father, it does not mean you can take that attitude with me,” Elder Forest said. His voice was calm, but he was not used to being reprimanded.

Ren simply inclined his head, “Indeed, my tone was inappropriate. However it is my duty to keep my men alive, and that includes the miners. I am still reticent to allow them to open up that deposit even with Tristan’s assistance.”

Shadow Fist suspected that this argument had been going on for hours at this point. It took guts to oppose an Elder to their faces, as doing so could be seen as insubordination. Shadow Fist was always keen to gather these people below him if they did so for moral reasons. Anyone willing to risk death for their beliefs was someone you could trust with tasks that aligned with those beliefs. In this case, Shadow Fist would put Ren on guard duty, to capitalize on the value he placed on his charge’s lives.

A boom caused Shadow Fist to jump back. Just off to the side of Elder Forest the light shimmered, but where it cut into shadow a person appeared. Half an armored torso, an arm holding a sheathed sword, and a leg. Everything else was indistinct in the light, and it was unsettling. The boom came because the invisible man had swung his sheathed blade like a club at Ren, who had simply stopped it with his forearm.

Henry Golden Heart glared at Ren, “Your duty is to obey the Elder, it is the oath you swore when you entered service.”

Ren looked sad, “I know, the exact words were ‘to assist the Elder in the defense of the Forest Caldera.’ Unfortunately, we have an elder who incites conflict, creates environments perfect for enemies to develop, and is willing to risk releasing a second apocalypse.”

“So? It does not change your duty,” Henry tried to retrieve his blade.

The smug grin slowly slid off of Elder Forest's face as the scabbard cracked and brown blood started dripping between Ren’s fingers. It was slow and it rolled like a marble instead of dripping. Henry pulled harder, but when the blade started groaning he stopped.

“I do my duty, but I can do nothing about the wars my own elder starts, I can only redirect the rage of the monsters that are unjustly created. Thankfully, I can do something to mitigate a potential elemental plague,” Ren said the last word in a growl, “My oath is why I don’t leave the Caldera altogether.”

The sword shattered in a spray of metal and, Shadow Fist had to do a double take, liquid diamonds. Did Ren have diamond blood, how was that possible? The warrior looked passively at the Golden Heart patriarch who had a pale face, but he still managed to step between the Elder and Ren.

Ren snorted and shook his head, “I have met children more dangerous than you,” his eyes fell on Shadow Fist, and he struggled to stand tall under those eyes, “Find your son, bring him back, and bring him back safely. I can’t protect you if you fail.”

Shadow Fist released a breath he had not realized he was holding. He nodded to his brother-in-law and immediately left. Wondering what was so dangerous that not even Ren could protect him. Regardless he had to go find his long-lost, silver devil.