Assassination Attempt

The Academy was busy, workers had stations set up in the courtyard as items were being brought in through portals opened up and coordinated by Berion.

Naha stood on the second floor, overlooking the work. Their orders had finally started to arrive a few days ago and they were starting to furnish the rooms in all the Academy wings. So far they had only the cheap furniture that they’ve been able to source locally—or at least as close to their territory as they could.

Now, deliverymen and workers worked in a concentrated effort to carry everything inside. Okim and the other wardens stood nearby, watching over everything, while the assistants that Bera had hired and Hiro organized everything.

Naha smiled at him from above. He was their ward, a son in almost every way. It was strange seeing him like this, grown up. It felt like they had just yesterday found him in the ruins of the Empire, and taken him under their wing. Now, he was walking his own Path, was on his own journey, shaping the person that he wanted to be.

It was… sad, but it that was life. He had advanced faster, and that was as much a testament to his own talent as to what being taught by the truly gifted could mean for people. It was why she believed that their Academy could work. The people of the Infinite Realm had been incredibly selfish with their knowledge, and that had caused many of the problems that they had. As well as created areas where their knowledge was simply wrong.

Hopefully, their Academy would be able to start fixing that.

The yelling from bellow her brought her attention back to the busy courtyard. Most of the stuff being brought in were chairs and tables for the classrooms. They had most of those types of rooms. But there was also a lot for the dorms, the offices, even for the armory. But at least things were moving forward.

They had a list of students, and they were planning on starting classes next year and using that first class as a test to see what was the best way to move forward.

They’ve decided to go with a bit older children, in between the ages of 20 and 25, who hadn’t advanced past the second tier of their focus.

That way they could guide them properly. They would eventually probably need to develop a martial track and others that dealt with directions other than just combat. It was going to get complicated, but she was confident that they would rise to the challenge.

She turned around and walked away. She knew that Zach was having a meeting with Bera about some things he had asked of her, so she headed that way as she didn’t really have anything better to do, she had already done her cycling for the day.

She had taken a Path, as they were going to attempt to raise all of their focuses. The Paths offered to her had been powerful. All were Eternal and in line with her build, Shadows, Fear, and protection, with her Oath of the Custodian of Shadow.

She had always wanted to protect others, and she had shaped her Oath to make her be able to do that, to make her current capability stronger.

The new Path was the same. Her choices had been Paths related to Shadow, to Fear, even one that was called the Path of the Warden. Ultimately though, she had picked the Path that resonated with her the most, the Path of the Unseen Bulwark.

She hadn’t progressed much, only through to the peak of Lord Realm, but hadn’t yet chosen a second Path. Cultivating required time if one wanted to do it right. But she had followed a Path before, so she had some experience. She found that it was coming… easier to her now. Perhaps because her new Path was fully aligned with the meaning of her Soul, of her very being.

Obviously, she had chosen Shadow for her Aspect, and was debating taking Fear for her second. But ultimately, she was taking the time to practice drawing in Essence, forcing herself to do it faster. They had purchased a lot of Shadow Essence crystals so that she advance with more ease, but gathering on her own had its own benefits. Especially when they had a room that was filled with top tier Shadow Essence. It seemed like a waste not to use it.

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They’ve also purchased some Essence gathering arrays so that they could make their own Shadow Essence Crystals, or any other Essence that they had on hand really. Not only for their own use, but for future use for the school or just as an additional source of income.

Things were starting to fall into place, and Naha felt like she finally had a real home and was able to help others in a meaningful way.

She climbed up the stairs then paused as someone walked through a shadow on the floor below her. She didn’t recognize them, though there were many people on the Academy staff that she didn’t know more than on sight. And there were many new people around today for the deliveries. Someone had to have gotten lost, as they were on a floor that wasn’t on schedule to be furnished today.

She sighed, and climbed down a set of stairs to a floor just beneath where their meeting room was.

She rounded a corner and saw a thin figure with their back turned towards her near a wall.

“Are you lost?” She asked as she approached.

The person twitched and turned, revealing a human with wide blank eyes. Naha tilted her head as she saw the man twitch again and his hands tighten on the long cylinder he held in his arms.

Naha frowned, when the man didn’t answer immediately, the way he was acting was… her Shadow’s Intent perk wasn’t getting anything from him, even though he was standing in a shadow, which was unusual. It was as if he had no intent at all.

She triggered a more advanced perk, Shadow’s Insight, and the shadow around him shifted, showing her images that let her glimpse insight into the person.

She saw a man screaming as he was being pierced by wires through his head, and cables wrapping around him like chains.

She had barely a moment of time to react. The human twitched as her shadows rose from beneath him and cut his hands off, the cylinder twisted anyway, and something clicked.

The world shuddered. Directly above her, she sensed Zach react a heartbeat after her. A white light, a field of collapsing Essence exploded outward. It consumed the human and the wall and floor behind and below him—cracks spreading to the ceiling above as the floor was carrying its weight.

Naha didn’t run, she pulled hard on the plane of Shadow, her will seeping into the shadows all around her and her Image manifested. She destroyed all the lights, crushing them in her grip and covered the windows of the corridor, throwing them into complete darkness.

—Arcadia—

Zach’s ideal washed over her, bolstering her and protecting her.

—Grasp of Shadows—

She smothered the growing ball of energy that was hungry only for destruction. Her perks flickered through her being, boosting her.

Then she triggered Might of the Shadow. All the Shadow Essence in the territory was drained and flowed into her, her stats soared, and her Shadows strengthened.

She shaped a ball of utter darkness around the reaction and stopped it cold.

Zach tumbled through the collapsing floor, surrounding by a sphere of power and holding Bera in his arms. Immediately, she felt his perks activate and surround her containment as wind picked up and carried him over to stand next to her.

It took three beats of her heart for the reaction to spend itself, and as soon as it did, she dropped her Shadows. She sagged, more in relief than any real effort.

“Well,” Zach started slowly as he sat the disheveled Bera down next to him. “That was unexpected.”

It had been one of the new, smaller Reaction Engines. Their destructive power was unparalleled, or at least it used to be. Perhaps, if they were any other High Rankers, it would’ve been more dangerous, but Naha and Zach had moved past that level of power.

It was still dangerous.

“If you hadn’t been here,” Zach said slowly as he looked at Naha. “That could’ve been dangerous.”

She nodded, he had some forewarning through their True Link. And she had obviously caught the man before he had placed the device properly. If he had placed it closer to where Zach was, just beneath him? If she wasn’t there to give him that instant of forewarning. Yes, that could’ve been dangerous.

“I guess that looking into the Exalted Empire was the right move,” Zach said as he glanced at Bera. “Now the question is if this was what I had discovered in the Plane of Knowledge.”

Bera collected herself and spoke. “An attack like this is a declaration of war. We need to be certain it was them.”

“The assassin was a human,” Naha added.

Bera grimaced. “The Exalted Empire is xenophobic, a human would suggest it wasn’t them.”

“Except that we know that they are the ones creating those weapons,” Naha added.

Bera nodded. “This is a delicate situation, we need more information.”

Naha could feel people rushing through the corridors behind them, heading toward them. The attack was noticed.

She glanced at Zach. “We need to prevent anyone from leaving, they might not have been working alone.”

Zach nodded. “I’ll handle it, you check everything else.”

Naha nodded and fell into the shadows. If she had to check every living person in the territory, then that was what she was going to do. There was going to be a reckoning for this. No one went after her family.