Luthando Moya

It is entertaining watching Luvuyo pave his way through the local inhabitants. Taking aside the fact that they are fragile mortals only reliant on mana their skill with its use is extraordinary. Though they have absolutely no chance they don’t sell themselves cheaply, and if some of them had heavenly weapons they probably could have hurt him badly at times. So naturally I start enjoying myself as we all admired their skills. My cousins admiring the martial while I admired the mana skills.

‘’Hey Luvuyo, looks like you’re actually breaking a sweat!’’ Noluntu calls to him then snickering as he redoubles his efforts. Noluvuyo smirks.

‘’It’s still that easy to get a rise out of him?’’ She asks and I remember Luvuyo, Luyolo, Noluntu and Noluvuyo were all in the same training group as kids. I’ll keep my guard up; though they might not have close relationships if anything goes wrong I have no doubt I will end up in the hot-seat.

‘’He does look to be enjoying himself,’’ Luyolo says looking on with apparent envy.

Luvuyo does seem to be enjoying the slaughter. He even made a game of it, deflecting their many bladed weapons only with the palm of his hands while also battling their mages with his aura showing off his brutality. As a side effect he is going through them slower and I can watch the skill usage much easier.

These locals use mana more delicately than I’ve ever seen I’ll have to say. Like how that energy lance had so much impact on the Brute’s aura but took so little energy at such a quick casting or there, where the one dodged with the use of some movement technique. None of them should be able to dodge a strike from the Brute, not at their mana levels let alone that they are chi-less mortals.

My curiosity is piqued as I’ve never seen mana and biology so seamlessly harnessed as I have seen in my brief time here. Well, only Teacher Mac but Uncle Mxi found him far outside Valeria past the Gqwirha lands to instruct me in mana use. I watch them carefully assessing how many of them have adapted to their mana usage as efficiently. Almost all of them, I look at my counterparts then back at the stupidly brave locals yet to break and retreat. Could this world be rich in more than just resources...

‘’Ahh, some for me finally!’’ Luyolo exclaims as several more come over the horizon in an organised group. He flies quickly over the remains of the little village in a dash, landing, a cloud of dust billows from the crater created in the middle of the now scattered group of reinforcements.

‘’How much do you think the weapons are worth?’’ I eventually ask as I eye all the abandoned metal skewn amongst the blood and viscera marking Luvuyo’s path.

No one moves or says anything as we all watch the 2 idiots try to outdo each other depopulating the area. Still, I can feel their attention on me and I know its for different reasons. Noluntu pities me, she probably thinks accumulating wealth is beneath her and any proper bantu, maybe she’s right but I still have a lot of tempering and healing aids to buy.

‘’The weapons aren’t worth as much as you suspect, to collectors and other eccentrics the value goes up but as you can see they are ineffective against a fully tempered body.’’ Noluntu says dismissively waving her hand.

‘’Not quite, see the micro-lines on his skin? In numerous places he’s gotten himself scratched. These aren’t just any ordinary weapons, certainly better than anything any of the mortal kingdoms in Valeria have access to.’’ Noluvuyo says smugly.

I school the frown that almost formed on my face, surely like me they can feel that these weapons need to be bound for them to scale up in efficiency. It isn’t that the weapons are subpar but that the people wielding them are only on the 1st or 2nd level of mana evolution.

‘’So you mean to arm the mortals with your share of the loot you collect from this area?’’ I ask to affirm a growing suspension.

‘Pffhhh’ Noluntu snorts. ‘’It is known that the Khama Household raises their Faceless personally from promising mortals from their pet kingdom. Isn’t that right cousin?’’ she asks Noluvuyo scathingly.

Surely I am not the only one here that knows the value of these weapons, or am I missing something? I wreck my brain trying to discover why Noluvuyo wanted this place if not for the mineral deposits and the many already forged scalable weapons waiting to be snatched away. Maybe because they are so used to using chi to sense things they haven’t noticed?

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Damn, I should really stop over estimating the mana senses of cultivators.

Still, even if the others haven’t yet noticed I doubt none of the many Faceless we have are as blind to mana. It’s taboo to know who they are but could any of these be personally trained in Noluvuyo’s Household loyal to her instead of the Clan as they should? I say nothing but I’m distracted enough from the killing not to notice the rest of my cousin’s game until the very end when the last body falls apart in two pieces.

Landing lightly I walk through the carnage, my 10 Faceless silently landing around me without prompting while the others stay in the sky. They are trained to be always vigilant but now I find myself paranoid on what they are most closely paying attention to. The body mesh suits are too well made and enchanted so ever seeing their true faces is impossible. But what if these really are plants by of the Khama Household?

I pass my mana through some of the now dune weapons scattered about. It’s not mana that scales them nor is it chi exactly as far as I can tell; is that why the others haven’t noticed their value? There are chi variants very similar to this though, Noluvuyo could just be fucking with me, wanting all the spoils for herself and Lukhanyo but testing me somehow or thinking no one else knows.

I’m brought out of my musing Blinking upwards having to dodge the blast that just blew away a quarter of the village. I scowl at the giggling Luyolo his finger pointed at me childishly.

‘’The look on your face,’’ he says mirthfully then smirks and crushes a skull under a his sandals ruining the helm. Idiot. But its clear they all don’t see the value of the materials so I can get a lot out of this if I play my cards right.

I dust myself casually then Blink twice then float my way to be near Noluntu once more and she gives me a strange look. ‘’What do you want?’’ she asks dismissively signalling two faceless to start looking for something interesting and another 4 to scout past her senses.

You know its creepy how the Faceless swap roles with each other like that, weren’t they in squids of 10? Yet as I look around they’ve divided themselves differently now, most efficiently for the situation I notice. Any or all of them could be spies for any of the Familie-

‘’You know why no one likes you? It’s because you are too slow to react and you look at everyone funny, like you are plotting in that little head of yours but you’re too cowardly to do anything about it. And that’s why no one likes you, because you’re a coward.’’ She says after twice putting her finger up in my face.

I don’t react to her taunting, I am used to being disdained and have learnt well how to weather it in order to survive.

‘’You see there, you have that look in your eye like you want to punch my face in but you never do anything. It’s very strange, you’re very strange and I don’t like it. You’re the first coward I’ve ever met you know,’’ she says almost with genuine pity in her voice then she flies towards Luvuyo who is going into an underground system.

That didn’t go how I expected at all, I send to the nearest Faceless and a group of them start collecting and sorting the loot.

And I’m not a bloody coward, I’m just still collecting my resources.

*

Nikita van Damage

After da’s disappearance everything started happening all at once; it’s all hazy as though I was in a fugue state until now. Maybe even now, maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up feeling like today was a haze as well, who knows.

Michael has really stepped up, so has Aurora in a noticeable way. The roles have slightly shifted to take into consideration all the people we no longer have at this point in the journey. Thankfully Katya can confirm that da is alive or I would be having a much harder time. Losing Hanna was hard enough, and now..

‘’You okay?’’

‘’I’m fine,’’ I say quickly going back to sanding mindlessly, tedious work but everyone has been pitching in. Mirabilis doesn’t persist which is one of the things I like about the woman.

She goes back to her small class of students still getting their feet wet learning about mana and other energies. How could these people not know anything about energies, they didn’t even know about auras until we reconnected with them and started co-operating. Another one of Michael’s ideas, it’s been very surprising how insightful he seems to be about being stranded on an isle. Shrava says it’s because they are civilians and have never had to fight and kill but that’s a silly excuse not to learn how to fight and kill, and aura is basic stuff isn’t it?

In the days since da has disappeared Katya’s leg has creepily started to grow back, Aura and Andrew have been at it like rodents in heat, Ma’Mira has been particularly bitchy and John has been fiddling with the mana stone things. Usually I’m the fiddler but he seems to know a lot more than is usual suddenly and has been very tight lipped about it.

On a more practical note the locals like us because we help repel attacks by the other strange sea people and help train the few dozen locals that want to, there are only 8 trained warriors from the local inhabitants. So far Mirabilis and Zhen give a few lessons but I suspect its mainly cause they don’t want to do anything else. The rest of the locals have been making a ship we’ll use to get off this ball of sand, already we’ve felled and prepared almost half the forest in building something that could just barely fit everyone.

It’s coming along nicely I have to say but the work needed to make ships gets tedious fast, at least the sanding part of the job. At least there is a plan now, at least we have a goal we are working towards. Hopefully we won’t run out of food before finishing the ship, that would be a problem.