There was a moment of silence. Clara dropped the broken haft of her spear, and backed up to the exit of the cave, searching the ground for another weapon. Hudson stopped hammering with his silverine claw and prepared to fight. There was no way this wasn’t a trap.

The woman looked at her partner, who nodded in silent agreement.

“Please,” she said. “We just want to talk. We only have a few minutes before George sends in the next two.”

Hudson was behind the portal and currently out of sight. He couldn’t attack directly through the portal, and was in a very poor tactical position. He needed time to get into a better position when they sprung whatever surprise they were planning.

She looked around the cave in confusion. “Where is Hudson? Did he run?”

“No, I didn’t run,” he said as he warily backed out of his cramped tunnel and into the cave. “What do you want to talk about?”

The two stared briefly at the silverine claw sticking out of his hand. They both held broad, curved swords. The woman glanced at the portal, the claw in his hand, and the stone rubble on the floor; her gaze grew thoughtful.

“Did you kill my cousin?” the man asked gruffly. He was tall – well over six feet – and if he had missed a day in the gym, it wasn’t recently. Muscles bulged and flexed under his tight shirt.

“Are you Guo’s cousin?” Hudson asked in response. He had an intuition that this guy must be Qian Huang, the winner of the strength contest that morning. He had the same last name as Guo.

“Yes.”

Hudson paused before answering. This was indeed a surprise, but a very different type of trap than he was expecting.

He wasn’t sure why Qian was asking him about Guo’s body. He had been so close to grabbing the box emitting the portal, but had not made it in time. He didn’t think the situation could get any worse, and so he decided to just tell him the truth directly.

“He died because of me,” Hudson said simply, and Qian’s fist clenched around his sword. “When we found him in the ravine, he had crawled out of the rubble. He never made it back to the portal, but he tried.”

“Show me where he died.” There was a complex play of emotions on Qian’s face – grief and anger in voice, but also guilt and regret as he turned his head to stare at the ground.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” the woman next to him hissed.

“This is important to me, Suzume. Please,” Qian responded.

Hudson struggled to decide what to do. He didn’t want to give up his position. Vince and Cor had already been wounded fighting to keep the cheaters out, and to follow his plan.

His incredibly, horrifically bad plan. He was coming to realize that the strategy might be there, but tactically it wasn’t. His execution of what needed to happen was lacking and had already gotten two of his friends wounded.

Qian had snapped Clara’s spear thrust in half in one move without even using his sword; they were clearly a cut above the rest, but they weren’t attacking right away. He obviously couldn’t trust them – could he?

Trust no one. A vague pressure, like the beginnings of a headache, pushed from behind his eyes, and he shook his head in irritation. They didn’t seem to be following the same orders as the others. Were they following George’s orders? Or were they going off script? They were asking about Guo, and had thrown down their weapons. What did they really want?

Another small, insistent part of him wanted to show Qian the blood on the stones. To be judged, and to admit his guilt, so that he could move past what had happened.

“Are you going to show me? Or will I have to go find it myself?” Qian said, taking an aggressive step forward.

Hudson shook himself free of his thoughts.

“Actually… if you give me those two minutes, I can solve the time problem. But you have to do what I say.

“Throw your weapons in the corner. Stay right next to the portal. Keep your hands where we can see them. Clara – drop the spear, but if they move, tackle them back through the portal. Can you all do that?”

Qian looked like he was about to stalk out of the cave on his own, but Suzume grabbed his arm and shook her head. The two cheaters threw their swords in the corner as asked, and stepped back within inches of the portal.

Clara was extremely loath to drop the new weapon she had just picked up, but she followed Hudson’s directions.

“I think I know what you’re doing. Quite clever – but you do need to hurry,” Suzume said.

Hudson hurried back behind the portal and began shaving the last few inches away from the portal emitter carefully. After exposing the side fully, he carefully dug out behind, above and below. The metallic box shook slightly and came loose, the corner dipping slightly.

The portal turned to follow the movement of the emitter, and the bottom right edge of the portal touched the ground. Hudson froze, but nothing happened. He couldn’t tell if the portal had sunk into the ground, or if it had ceased extending as far as it previously had.

“Move out of the way – further into the cave,” Hudson called out. “I’m moving the portal.”

Reaching forward with his left hand, Hudson very gingerly grasped the edges of the portal emitter and pulled it from its perch on the cave wall. Very carefully, he backed out of his cramped half-tunnel, turned, and immediately placed it so that the portal faced the cave wall.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Do you think it’s ok if I place it on the ground?” Hudson asked. He glanced over at Clara, Qian and Suzume. No one answered.

He decided to rest the portal on a larger piece of rubble, with the exit direction inches away from a cave wall. If someone tried to come through, they would run directly into a rock wall. Any charged-up hammers or pickaxes would demolish the wall, but also leave behind the rubble, still making it impossible to pass through.

“Ok. Thank you for letting me do that. We should have all the time we need now,” Hudson said. “Clara – can you stay here? Don’t touch the portal emitter, but run back and get us if something happens.”

“I will also remain here,” Suzume said.

That was not ideal. She could potentially overwhelm Clara, throw her back through the portal, and then George’s group would have complete control of the rift.

“I don’t know you. I can’t trust you,” Hudson said in response. “We all go.”

Suzume looked at Hudson coolly. “Understandable. We all go.”

“Follow me,” he said, motioning to Qian. “Then her,” pointing at Suzume. “Clara, you bring up the rear.”

He turned and walked out of the cave and into the ravine. He kept his breathing technique at a low tempo, ready to respond to anything. The rest followed after him.

“What did you do to your hand?” Suzume asked as they walked down the ravine.

Hudson glanced backwards then down at the glowing silverine claw sticking out of his bloody palm. “What I needed to do.”

They continued in silence until arriving at the dark stains on the rock marking where Guo had bled out. The silvery starlight and green tints of borealis washed over the rocks in the canyon.

“I see bloodstains. Where is his body?” Qian asked.

“I brought it back with me through the portal.”

“Why?”

“I-I thought… I thought his family would want to bury him,” Hudson said. “I can’t say I was thinking clearly at the time, but Clara told me your family would want to cremate the body. I’m sorry for your loss. I know it doesn’t matter, but I didn’t want to kill him.” Hudson’s throat was clenching shut, but he said the words clearly. He stared at the dark stains on the rock.

“You didn’t kill him,” Qian replied brusquely. Hudson looked up at him in confusion.

“You didn’t hit him with that hammer of yours. Did you?”

“Well… no…but…”

“But you are still partly responsible for his death. And by the same token, so am I,” Qian said bitterly. Suzume reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned away and looked up at the stars.

“He was like a brother to me. My older brother. He was only born a month earlier, but he always lorded that over me.

“And when he needed me… I left him to die.”

Hudson didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here, right?” Qian asked.

Hudson nodded.

“I’m wondering the same thing. Don’t misunderstand – I will never forgive you for this. Never.”

Qian turned and stared Hudson in the eyes.

“I knew that he was dead, but some part of me refused to believe it. Refused to think that he needed help; to admit to myself that I did not search for him, that I hadn’t tried to find him, and that I had been right to follow my orders. To retreat without him and protect… George.” He said the name like a curse.

Hudson stood in silence with Qian, still not sure what to say.

“What would Guo want?” Hudson finally asked.

“He’d want me to follow orders. Protect the young master; protect our clan’s interest and future. Ignore the injustice of his death and do what’s best for our family and for S.E.C.T.”

Qian clenched his fists and smiled. It was not a pretty smile. It was ugly, cruel, and promised violence.

“I’m not going to do what Guo would want.”

The hackles immediately raised on Hudson’s neck, and he jumped away from Qian, accelerating his engine breath technique. The sharp glow from the silverine claw cast long shadows down the ravine.

“Oh, I’m not going to come after you, little man,” Qian said. “While I will never forgive you, I don’t blame you, not more than I blame myself.”

Hudson relaxed slightly, but didn’t let up his technique or lower his hands.

“Easy,” Suzume said, hands open and palms up towards both Hudson and Clara. “We are not fighting you. You are an honorable man, in your own way, Mr. Hudson Appleseed. Not many would have brought Guo’s body back. Not many within S.E.C.T., anyways.”

Hudson slowed his breathing, and the harsh glare from the claw began to fade. He wasn’t sure about Qian; he had been very close to his cousin and took his death hard. Suzume was almost impossible to read, but it seemed she was very close to Qian.

He couldn’t help feeling a certain amount of relief, though; he had confronted his guilt and taken ownership for his actions. Qian had unwittingly helped him with that.

Qian’s attitude towards George was frankly terrifying, so it also appeared that they now had a common enemy. Perhaps an enemy of his enemy was his friend.

“So are you with us or against us?” Clara asked.

Hudson wanted to facepalm, or at a minimum pull at his hair. Why push things so quickly? Clara’s timing was terrible, and her approach was even worse: why force a decision that could end in a fight? Why not focus on their shared enemy?

“Hahaha,” Guo laughed out loud. “I missed you, little Clare-bear. You have a certain way with words that is… refreshing.”

“Call me that again and I will pound your face into the ground,” Clara retorted.

“I’m ready any time you’d like to fight,” Qian said smoothly. “It will end the same way as the last… four times?”

“Five,” interjected Suzume.

Before Clara could say anything in response, Hudson jumped into the conversation. “Sounds like you know each other quite well. Is everyone in S.E.C.T. as strange as her?”

Suzume looked over at him with a smile. “You’ll find out after the trial… but no. Not many as unique as our dear Clara. Or as… difficult as our mutual problem, Mr. George Adams.”

She frowned and shared a look with Qian.

“As an outsider, I’m interested to hear your perspective on S.E.C.T. at some point, but Clara does have a point. We need to know what you intend and what your plans are.”

Hudson nodded. “Ok, fine. Let’s talk.”