Sasha had yet to even make it anywhere near the duo when the man stood up, prompting her to stop and stand in place, confused. Silas still remained with his guns drawn at the door, feeling the immense fear energy of the two guards and knowing they wouldn’t fire, too afraid for their own life. “Why do you say that?”
“A good bet.”
“On?”
The gentleman remained silent with a grin and lifted his hand, signalling for the two guards to calm down. With sighs of relief they both lowered their guns and scrambled to the sides. Silas stepped in immediately afterwards, the full scope of the room in view now. He could see well over a dozen or so First Gate Empyreans and a few at the Second. Lots of guns.
If he didn’t command the main two, he could probably hit them all with a command at once and only once. He’d have to fight with strictly blood energy after that. Doing so would be an almost certain loss against the man and woman at the centre.
His sole advantage against such entities was his fear energy. Without it, it would be several lives in exchange for his at best. Likely an instant loss. Diplomacy was the goal, luckily. The result, maybe not.
With a wave of the man’s hand, another chair was brought over to their table. He motioned for Silas to sit and, after the latter did so, sat in his own seat with a genial smile. The entire time, Silas could practically feel the lady’s gaze burn through him.
“I’m Richard Knight, leader of the Blackwall Triad. A pleasure.” Richard extended a hand that Silas tentatively shook. “This is my daughter, Lilith. The heir and inheritor to Blackwall. Wayfinder.”
Silas raised a brow and extended his own hand towards Lilith, who lazily grabbed it. He did his best to resist the pain as she gripped his hand tight, so much so he could almost feel it shattering. She was strong. One of the last Wayfinders not accounted for?
Shaking his hand slightly, Silas turned back towards Richard as the man resumed his game of cards with his daughter. Not forgetting to keep an eye on the surroundings with fear energy all the while. “Those men wanted to strip me down to nothing and toss me to the streets. I didn’t kill them, though.”
Richard raised a brow, looking towards Lilith. She nodded back and a flicker of confusion appeared in the man’s eyes before Sasha ran up and whispered something into his ear. His expression immediately turned grave and Silas just sighed.
“You told him to shoot himself and he did.”
“Silvanus Albrecht. Wayfinder.”
As if hit by a sudden bout of clarity, Richard exclaimed softly. The way he tightened his grip on the cane or how his men fidgeted didn’t escape Silas’ senses, nor did Lilith's sudden relaxation. These men clearly had some understanding of the term.
“How’d you know they were dead?”
Richard gestured to Lilith weakly and then played another card onto the table. He wasn’t quite sure what they were playing at the moment, Silas mostly focused on what that meant. What about her Pathway could determine that? What was her Pathway? Her core was red with an almost fiery orange colour. Vital Source, fire related?
“Why’d you make her lead you here?” Lilith finally spoke up, similarly playing another card as she did so. “You could have simply left. You are not powerful enough to throw your weight around here.”
“Trade. I was there for herbs, not blood. Unlike your people.”
Sasha once again made herself known and spoke into Richard’s ear, prompting the man to turn with a rather baffled look. This time he waved his hand and Sasha quickly rushed off god knows where. Silas could see the man’s mood visibly sour. Another card played. “It seems my people have been taking liberties above ground.”
“That wasn’t authorised by you?” Silas’ brow furrowed and yet his body practically breathed out all the stress he had. If that was the case, things might be easy. “So you have no particular desire for what was in that storage?”
“We have no use for it. Plenty stockpiled down here already. I only sent men up to top us off, patrol the area and make sure no mutants finally showed up.”
“And are you aware of the other groups in the Market District?”
“Vaguely, but mostly the other gangs. Specifically the Rooks and the Vultures. Seen nothing about the Cragsmen since the Darktide.”
“Haven’t met any other Wayfinders?”
“Just one. Silent fellow in armour. My Lilith sent him off.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“I’m with him. I was sent out to find materials. Goldwater Lilies are all that's left.”
“We can give you half of what we have.” Richard shrugged and played one last card, the King of Hearts. Whatever it meant, the game ended and Lilith tossed her cards onto the table with a huff. “But why should we?
“We retain a large portion of Ironside’s combat strength as well as continue to keep the refinery going. Helping us is helping you.”
The Blackwall Leader raised his hand up, grinning at his daughter and her apparent frustration at the loss. He called someone over and briefly instructed him before shuffling the deck of cards and starting a new game for the Knight duo.
A few minutes later and halfway into their game, the lackey returned with a small sack. Politely handing it off to Silas, the man scurried off without another sound. The sequence of events all had Silas feeling rather.. Incredulous.
Richard even had someone pour the table cups of tea, albeit Silas got coffee. Once the drinks had been served and another game over with a winner still unclear to Silas, Richard finally made his idea of payment clear. “Take her with you when you leave.”
Instantly Lilith stood up, grabbed her father by the hand and practically ripped him from the chair. She dragged him away in front of Silas off into one of the side halls as he stared on in shocked silence.
Not really caring about the wait now that he’d achieved his goal; Silas did a recount of all his stuff, ignoring the wary looks as he loaded his revolvers again and checked his clothes for tears. He decided to patch up his coat as he waited. The mutant dog did quite the number on it. As he worked, he thought.
He could bring her back if she agreed with it too. The Wayfinders, realistically, would grow better in a community. Not to mention she would no longer be responsible for the whole group's safety. Every additional Wayfinder made their group stronger too. He doubted any sort of espionage was going on, and it would explain why this whole charade was so easy.
Thirty minutes passed and he had patched up every hole in the coat by the time the father daughter duo finally returned, the former with a smile and the latter with a dark expression. Silas imagined she was convinced, but not happily so.
“Give her a moment to gather her things and then she’ll come along with you. Is that fine?” Richard leaned against his cane and looked at the cards on the table, remnants of their last game. “She’ll listen to the leader, if not you,”
“So long as she’s helpful, she’ll do well. We’re just trying to survive.”
“She’s also going to help facilitate trade between Blackwall and the Refineries.” Richard added, patting her on the shoulders and ignoring the death stare she gave him. “We have a surplus of medicine and weapons but lacking food. As far as I know it’s the opposite for you folk.”
Silas nodded and finished the rest of his coffee. Before long, Lilith returned with a small bag of belongings and they were quickly being ushered out of the Blackwall Stronghold without much issue. Chalked up to a misunderstanding and then the start of an agreement. Two lives.. worthless.
They walked by the doorkeeper and stepped out into the street, the cellar closing behind them with a heavy clang and then a click as it was locked. As the energies filled his eyes, he could barely see the starry sky above them through the fog, still eight stars short. No one knew where they went.
“Call me Silas.” He outstretched a hand yet again, his other silently putting away the bloodstone. Once again, the lady gripped his hand tight and nearly crushed it as she shook.
“Lilith.”
“I’m a Nightweaver myself. What about you?”
“Solari.”
“Sounds fancy.” Silas chuckled and started down the street. “I’m an Empyrean too, though. I got lucky in that regard I suppose.”
Lilith just released a soft hum of agreement and didn’t say a word. Silas felt like she wasn’t bothered by the conversation per se, or his attempts at it rather, but she simply felt comfortable in the silence. He didn’t mind it either, it let him think.
The street near the hospital still remained covered in corpses and debris, a turned over carriage occupying half the street, the corpses of its horses taking up the rest. Bodies still hung limply in the window, still remembering how their living self desperately tried to escape. No mutant remained inside.
Just as they passed the Ariadne his hair stood on end, weak fear signatures appearing within his perception in the houses across the street. Soft clicks as guns were aimed at them, auras appearing like beacons in the fog. Empyreans.
There shouldn’t be any people in the area except for the gangs. His brow furrowed as Silas continued to walk forward normally, counting the steps until he reached the ruined carriage. He couldn’t tell if the Solari behind him was keeping up or not.
He leapt behind the wreckage just as bullets littered the ground in which he previously stood, scattering gravel and stone. Silas still had no idea what was going on until Lilith spoke concisely. “Rooks”
Gang warfare. They didn’t recognize him. Were they worried an outside force would interfere with their little gang standoff for territory? Don’t they understand just how fucked the city was? Silas counted an easy dozen gunmen and a few other auras, the five Empyreans.
A bullet or two maybe, but that many was impossible for him to dodge. With their suppressive fire, he couldn’t fight the Empyreans on his own. Silas was just thinking of a plan when Lilith pat his shoulder gently and then stood up next to him. It had only just registered that she dived after him.
Lilith stood and rolled her shoulder gently,, her frame still hidden behind the carriage as she silently stared out at the buildings around them. With a flick of each wrist, her fists suddenly burned with bright red flames that travelled up to her shoulder, meeting the edge of her sleeveless shirt.
Just as Silas was trying to understand what she would do next, she looked at him. “I’ll get the guns, you do the rest.” Then she booked it out from behind cover and disappeared into the buildings on the side of the street. Flashes lit up the windows, followed by shouting and ceaseless gunfire.
It was almost automatic when Silas found himself rushing out from behind the wrecked carriage himself, blood energy willing his hand to grip the Black Iron Blade tight as he ran straight at the group of five.
They were all at the Second Gate, blood energy flowing across their skin as they each held different weapons. He was injured, outnumbered, and only opened one more gate than they had. As Silas prepared himself mentally, he sighed. It was basically a fair fight. More people would die.