“Exciting to see such diligent members of our lovely Division!” Zhoulong says with a saccharine smile, strolling into the room like he hasn’t a care in the world, hands clasped behind his back and eyes bright. “So early and already testing! My, aren’t you all just the highest proof of the most delicious of virtues? I’ll have to look over your results, see what lovely results we might be getting, hmm? Ah, but here’s the glaze on the cake!”
Talking almost nonstop since he’s arrived, he pivots and leans at the waist until his face is only inches from the desiccated cocoon, that inane smile nice and locked on his face. “Truly, Honored Researcher Boriah was not exaggerating! A genuine marvel, hmm? And the runework on these formations! They don’t call him a Runemaster for nothing, it would seem. You’d think he’d have trouble with those unfortunate hands of his, but the detail work is impeccable!”
He pauses, tapping his chin and spinning in place to face Yun Ka. “Unless, of course, this lovely example is your doing, Honored Yun Ka?”
Yun Ka is silent for a moment, clearly off-guard and then almost immediately shrinking back under Zhoulong’s gaze. “I- I only assisted, Honored Researcher,” she mumbles, quieter than Raika has ever seen her. “All my direction and talent can only be attributed to a worthy master.”
“Oh, now, I’ll have you know my dear, that false modesty is almost as bad as unearned pride!” Zhoulong laughs, smiling wider in a dazzling display of pearly whites and what seems like genuine enthusiasm. “This is phenomenal work! And cutting edge, as it were, separating the past from the future with such majestic new tools!” He gestures at the many apparatuses and delicate limbs perched on Yun Ka. “I’ve rarely seen anyone so well-versed in Imperial apparati, especially ones so new. You certainly don’t fail to impress!”
“And you!” he continues, turning on his heel again to face Raika, who has mostly been watching proceedings, face neutrally positive as she forces her muscles to soft-lock into her mask. “You must be the new arrival I’ve heard so much about. Oh he’s most certainly tried to keep you under wraps, but word about as enlightening a prospect as you do get out and about, yes indeed. Raika the Bloody, as you were, and Raika the delightful as you are!”
She blinks at that, then bows. Patience, always. She’s stayed with Taurus on the promise of repaid patience, she can manage to let this… eccentric fuck bother her for long enough for him to leave her alone.
Then again… the thought of the repayment of patience being the right moment to sneak a finger through his ribs and heart is awful tempting. Either way, then.
“You are too kind, Honored Researcher,” she says, trying to imitate the style of honorifics the Division uses. “That is the proper mode of address? Researcher, lead of your own pack, as it were?”
Zhoulong throws his head back in mirth, cackling with good humor. “Indeed, and what unruly a pack they make!” he smiles. “Hard to leash, never mind house-train! Considering the rumors around you and this lovely thing-” he says as he taps the cocoon- “you paint a lovely picture of your mentor and his ability to leash you, as it were. Such a feral thing, yet so polite! Color me pleasantly surprised, lovely.”
She is very, very glad for the fact that she can consciously keep any tics from hitting her face.
“I am honored by your kind words, Researcher,” she says with another bow (is this too many bows? She doesn’t know, but better too many than too few, and people bow way too often as it is right?). “I can only credit the actions of my benefactor and his wisdom.”
Oof. That one hurt to say.
He laughs. “Speaking of which, I do apologize, but he will be arriving shortly and likely in a huff. You know how his kind can get, all riled up, but I just couldn’t help myself, I just had to come see what delights await in our cooperation.”
She cocks her head. “Cooperation?” she asks.
“Oh, don’t worry yourself over the matter,” he says, smiling and waving away her question. “You’ll be informed as needed, I assure you.”
Before she can do much more than twitch a finger at the thought of strangling the arrogant, smiling ass, she smells a wave of Qi as it flows in through the open door, wind and mountains and that which grazes upon them landing inside the flesh of the massive, horned and alien-looking Taurus. As far as she can read his expressions and the nuance of the Qi he’s using to land on the earth from above (leaving barely a scuff against the dust), he doesn’t even seem upset, but there’s a slight giveaway in how his eyes flick to them and back to Zhoulong. She’s not sure if the smaller human noticed, but his smile doesn’t waver, even at the arrival of the towering minotaur.
“Runemaster Boriah!” Zhoulong says, throwing his arms wide in welcome. “What a joy it is to greet you! I trust that my associates handled introductions and paperwork properly?”
“They most certainly did,” Taurus rumbles, a slight smile on his face as he bows his head to enter the building. A slight brush of his Qi activates as he does, shutting the doors behind him with a flare of glowing reactants and formations. “I must say, while this has been a pleasant surprise, Researcher Zhoulong, a surprise it remains. I am impressed by the speed in which you have arrived after what must have been such a startling breach of security, no?”
“Ah, but what’s a little security breach amongst friends, Boriah!” Zhoulong laughs, patting the much, much larger man on the bicep so he doesn’t have to strain to reach his shoulder. “I know how you love your niche little projects, but come on, now, you can’t keep them hidden forever! And tell me, is all this just to keep hidden this lovely new acquisition? I mean I can understand rural living, but the whole building is practically a hovel!”
“Not all of us have the mindset required to dedicate ourselves to high standards of luxury,” Boriah says with a cold smile. “But perhaps with you here, we can expect a fresh influx of silks and elderwood.”
Zhoulong chuckles, nodding along amicably. “Why I surely can’t imagine why not, especially considering the unfortunate lack of results we’ve been seeing in the search for these new weapons. But I hear that one of your experiments assisted in a takedown of a newer model of the Paleblossom constructs? Surely such a thing should be admired post-haste, no? Come on, Boriah; as a fellow Honored Researcher, I am sure I can assist you in some small way upon a closer examination, no?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Boriah gives a calm, quiet huff, smiling without teeth at the spectacled human beside him. There is a silent beat where Raika wonders if he will say no… and then-
“Yun Ka,” he says quietly, “keep an eye on the cocoon, will you? And if you get a chance, please send Kaena to the basement to meet us. They’ll know where to go.”
Yun Ka, quiet, nods. The apparatuses all around them click into place along their harness, even as her jade stone attached at her hip gives a soft glow before diminishing. She takes a few steps to the side, well past either of them, and bows lightly at the waist, hands held in front of her.
"Raika,” Taurus says as he starts to walk past her and the mask she wears, Zhoulong watching them both closely the whole time; “Taran is waiting outside. If you would be so kind as to go and keep them company in whatever they’re doing, it would be very appreciated.”
She looks over at Yun Ka, who seems not to notice or perhaps simply not to want to respond, and nods before the hesitation can point to any sign against her. She’s not really sure if or how it might be held against her, but if the cold war of compliments between the two of them might be any indication, it points to troubles of the absolute worst sort; political. Taurus has alluded to how other Researchers might interact with her and “those she cares for”, but all she really has is his word, so to speak.
Patience, then. It chafes at her a bit. The feeling of the leash coils, as it always tends to do these days. The more she grows, the more she feels it, tugging at her, reminding her of her Truth and of how it strains against where she stands and what she is doing, the mask she is putting up.
She can cope. For now.
Besides, Zhoulong means there’s a new player on the scene. Chaos presents opportunity far more surely than patience, and if she can use both, well… all the better, perhaps, to hunt with.
All of it passes through her mind in a heartbeat. She smiles, easy and simply and pleased, quiet and friendly and demure despite her size. “Of course, Honored Researcher. I am yours to command.” All it takes is another bow, and she is free to go, free to see what she can learn from all this, and what vulnerabilities she can find with Taurus distracted and new elements thrown into the mix.
She’ll have to keep Maen safe, of course. Erase some of the writings Taurus has about her if she can, see if she can’t take Qen Hou and Li Shu off the list of targets, and remove the trackers, on the assumption that they’ll detonate or send some signal (or both) if separated from their assigned flesh for too long. All doable, to some degree. If she can learn how they’d try to track her, or if they’d even care to without “Boriah” to push for it, then she might be all the way in the clear, or at least in a much better position to find future vulnerabilities. All of this is very doable, especially out here in the wilds, rather than in central, where they’re off to for “testing” after this.
Honestly, this might even be rather ideal. A hint of a plan is forming.
Except for the smile on Zhoulong’s face, which follows her.
It’s not as good as hers, though she can hardly blame him for that. She’s a freshly-evolved freak of nature with the ability to stop her face from moving at all if she wishes, shaping it to conscious will alone. He’s just a very, very well trained actor. But a mask is a mask.
His is well crafted. She can see, through enhanced eyesight and newfound understanding, exactly how good it is. But the smile, and the laughter, and chaos and carefree attitude he exudes all reek of falsehood to her.
So. Maybe not ideal-ideal.
But what’s another predator in the bunch? An added thing to maneuver around, something else to dig her claws into if she needs it. If she can. Another challenge, in a grand series.
Arrogance and assumption are what got JiaJia fucking killed last time she went off half-cocked. So it cannot be arrogance that guides her now. But she just fought her way through a week long horror story in the wilds. She has eaten the flesh of monsters and been remade. She told a dream vision of a fragmented infinity to go fuck itself and lived to tell. What it actually meant, or means, she doesn’t know, and Yun Ka, her first attempt at finding out more, is as lost as she is. Either way, what matters is that it is a mistake to let herself assume she is the same, even as it is a mistake to act as if being greater in strength is enough to let herself act the same as before.
So she will wait. She will be patient. She will learn.
And if she sees a chance, a real chance, she will not hesitate.
She walks out the front door, hands clasped before her, the very image of a proper and respectful young woman, towering a solid bit above anyone but Taurus in their vicinity, wearing robes gifted by a fellow experiment and under the authority of a monster that has asked of her to be a slave so that she may kill him.
And finds Taran standing, surrounded by more of the very same.
None of them are using Qi, not so much as a drop, and while she probably still could sense them if she pushed herself and got a bit closer, it’s not the time for that. That can come soon, but it doesn’t have to be now. Introductions are in order, after all, and she has a mask to wear. Better not to show too much, even if it means she doesn’t get quite as much immediately, either.
All five of them stand, side by side, in a sort of pyramid with one slightly further forward, two behind and to either side, and one behind and to the side of those after. Taran is leaning, casually, rather lackadaisical against the side of the door to the stone building they’ve set up, a long rifle with its butt on the ground and the tip of its barrel over one of their shoulders, the whole thing seeming to be made of living matter, long and snow-white flowers over where the sight should be, bits of bark and living green plant and pale wood making up ever part of it, including the barrel and trigger. They give her a nod, their body language once again strangely distinct from before, almost serpentine in its grace and fluidity, but say nothing, and never take their eyes off the newcomers in front of them.
The first one is tall, their skin scaly like that of a reptile, flowing and shifting and churning until, like an optical illusion, she occasionally thinks that she can see them breaking apart and reforming into actual snakes, all coiled about each other to imitate a person clad in albino skin and purple eyes. The one on his right has a sharp and strange look, and his skin is scarred, red and bright and painful. Every part of him looks like it has been wounded in some way, but rather than being bandaged, they have all been left simply to fester, bits of pus showing themselves here and there with metallic edges poking through in a dozen different places, leaving his hair patchwork, his body muscular and bulging but wounded always. On his left instead, there’s a woman, short to the point of being barely up to Raika’s thigh, hair and body bright red with tones of brown and black poking through like the spots on a cheetah, and ears so large and pointed that they make it almost all the way to the ground behind her as she stands, barefoot and clawed. The two behind them, in turn, are identical in every way, perfectly inhuman, their bodies too perfect, taken to an impossible extreme… and yet, each one bearing a familiar dot of peach and gold on their face, one over their left eye, the other over their right.
The man in front bows before her as she arrives.
“A pleasure,” he whispers, his voice a surprising and beautiful baritone. “I had heard we may meet more of our fellows, but given the way of our greeting by your surprisingly vocal friend, I was starting to assume that we’d have to lodge out here. I am Jun Vral. You, I assume, would be the one known as Raika?”
She bows her head, smile perfect and perfectly polite. “I am she,” she says with an exceedingly short bow. “I assume that you’re here as the members of Researcher Zhoulong’s team?”
He gives her a strange smile, made all the stranger by the way it looks as his skin moves, ever so subtly. “I suppose that might be one word for it, yes,” he says. “Here to assist however we may the Honored Researcher, Runemaster Boriah.”
He bows again, deeper this time, and this time she does sense something. A drop of Qi, sent out as a greeting, a bit forward but not unexpected in cultivator circles, and as the scent of it hits her. And her mask slips for a moment.