Somehow, in the brief few moments it took the riftan to call him over, Hangaku had managed to not only free herself of her chains, but also injure two of her four guards. The more damaged of the two was one of Ryku’s helpers, a quite fair skinned woman. She bled from a number of wounds and sported several scorch marks across her exposed upper body. The other injured was the draken. For all her combat ability, she had no protection. None of them donned armor anymore. Dalric’s conjurations had naturally dissipated so they had little by way of defence against the explosive, fiery swords. If Dalric hadn’t come when he did, Hangaku could have quietly killed them all.

He ducked under the doorway and unsheathed the stolen blade in the same movement. His second step was to lunge forward at full speed. Whether or not she knew it was him outside the door, she certainly focused on him when he stepped inside it. To the untrained eye, that would obviously be because he was the greatest threat to her escape. That assessment wouldn’t be wrong, but it would miss something key.

She sent two more swords, but he deflected them, inadvertently destroying them, with the one he’d taken from her. In a breath, he crossed the length of the former storage room and bared down on her. Her final two daggers dove toward him as he did, her last bit of token defence. Dalric dodged the incoming daggers and angled the edge of the uchigatana as if he moved to take her head. She evaded, or at least appeared to.

The moment she spotted him, Dalric knew she switched plans. Escaping would have been nice, but a general would know where the true priority laid, not being captured alive. Her evasion was a ruse. She did move out of the arc of his slash for a moment, but not a blink later she dove toward decapitation. If Dalric didn’t know better, he’d have played into her hands and caught her neck. He did know better, though.

He instantly adjusted his false swing, shifting the blade of the sword toward him and extended the butt. Instead of meeting a bladed edge, Hangaku’s head met the base. It did no damage, as he intended, but it did surprise her for a brief moment. Dalric capitalized. His gauntlet met her mask once again, finally breaking it. He followed the punch up by stepping forward and driving his boot through the middle of her chest. She groaned as her body shot into the back wall, but he wasn’t done. He arrived by her side not a blink later and gripped the entirety of her skull. While he rammed her face into the wall, a spell came to his lips.

~The earth listens for I command it~

Free from all the absorbing metals, he was once more engulfed in ambient ahjer. He made sure to make use of it, slowly sinking her into the earth of the unadorned wall. Of course, she realized what was happening and quickly switched back to kill mode. It was too late for that, but she still sent daggers his way. He deflect-destroyed them as well.

Realizing the futility of her conjuration she instead thrashed around and triggered some explosions around her body. The reinforced nature of the earth rebuffed all her attempts to free herself from it though and Dalric compacted it even further as it surrounded her. After a few more thrashes and explosions, the spell completed its work. Only her head remained uncovered. It jutted out of the wall like a hunting trophy.

Fifteen daggers instantly appeared once he was done. Her ability to form and manipulate fire-attuned weapons remained undiminished by being trapped. They were of no risk to him, but it seemed she was feeling petty.

He dashed back. The injured two had wisely left already, but the other two foolishly stayed. Two more also stepped into the room.

He intercepted as many of them as he could, “Everyone! Get Out!”

They all sprang into action instantly. Hangaku managed to sneak some of the daggers past him to get free looks at their backs, but thankfully the few that he didn’t reach were dodged or destroyed by their intended targets. She almost caught one of them in the back of the head, the jupiter that was one of the original four standing guard, but her quick reflexes saved her from the almost certainly fatal fate.

The room wasn’t large so beyond that one close shave, the four crossed the door before any harm could come to them. Dalric followed them behind and backed up until he stood at the doorway.

“Someone go and grab some Devil Glass and a new set of chains. You.” He gestured toward the draken, “Stand guard outside. Ryku is busy at the moment, but when he arrives, explain to him what happened here.”

Once again, they got moving instantly.

He nodded his head at their haste and quickly shut the door. Now that it was just the two of them in the bare room he took a breath. She didn’t bother wasting her daggers on him so she merely stared daggers instead. Her mask broke diagonally, so half of the somewhat grotesque looking man she covered her also somewhat grotesque looking face with still clung to her skin. It covered most of her mouth and one eye, but the other eye was free to practically pour hate in his direction.

He shook his head as he walked closer, “A bit spiteful of you, no?”

She didn’t respond, just continued to stare.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“If you’re hoping to provoke one of us into killing you, it's not happening. None of us are interested in being seen as the murderer of a supposed national hero.”

Still no response.

“I am quite intrigued why a supposed national hero is running around the jungle like a bandit. Weakness? Blackmail? Is the finality of your impending death getting to you?”

Silence.

“I’ve been thinking about it and I’d wager it’s some mix of all three. You’ve bought someone’s tale about being able to improve your ahjer and further your lifespan if you partake in this little scheme here. Frustrated at your complete lack of progress, you took them up on their offer.”

Hangaku stirred, but only a little. His face didn’t appear to change at all. The movement was only barely perceivable through ahjer sense and completely unnoticeable with his regular vision.

“Oh? Am I correct?”

She finally spoke, “You know nothing Salian.”

Whoa. What an accent.

Dalric shrugged, “Maybe. But the truth will come eventually, whether you speak it here or not. Acute stupidity is a common symptom of too much age, power, and influence, so I could be completely wrong. I’ve seen greater figures than you stoop to even lower levels.”

Silence returned.

“Anyway, I came here to offer you a trade. No, I will not kill or free you, but I am willing to return this.” He unsheathed the uchigatana, “To your people that is.”

She was mute for a moment, but she ultimately took the bait, “What do you want for it?”

That was quite difficult for him to translate. Beyond the even stranger accent, it seemed she also wasn’t quite fluent in Salian. That would be understandable if true, but also very annoying.

So getting this back to her people has value to her. Is that evidence that her presence here may not be personal or is that just pointed patriotism regarding the blade itself?

Dalric eyed its exceptionally sharp edge.

Maybe she just doesn’t want it in Sailian hands. She did spit out ‘Sailian’ like it was a poison… Why work with the Duke then... Ah! It’s not my job to think about this.

“Devil Glass, tell me about it in exchange.”

She was silent again, this time for longer. Dalric vaguely wanted to take off the rest of her mask so he could get a better read of her facial expression, but he had a feeling there would be little he could glean off it. Especially in the tarnished state it was in.

...

“What do you want to know?”

She’s decided to play.

“How does it work?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No trade.”

“Ah.” Dalric rubbed his face. That wasn’t a good sign. He could be incorrect in his estimate of the importance of the blade, but everything pointed toward it being a meaningful weapon. Aside from its obvious quality. The fact she didn’t even pause to think about explaining how Devil Glass worked in exchange for it meant that digging deeper into Devil Glass was going to be troublesome.

Unlikely she’ll answer this, but.

“How about how it’s made?”

She gave an immediate and loud expression of contempt, “Humph.” Then she went silent again.

Can’t say I didn’t expect that.

He thought about different questions that could be of use to him, but really those were the only two. The only two he’d trade the uchigatana for at least. So instead of wasting more breath, he resheathed the blade and they both waited in silence for the others to return.

The first was the jupiter. She brought back eight chains and three pieces of Devil Glass. Excessive, but he thought that about having four guards placed in the room with Hangaku and look how that turned out. Still weary of another wannabe student, or worse, he sent the jupiter out as soon as she handed over the items. She was tasked with calling Ryku over, now that Dalric was done speaking with Hangaku there was no need to delay.

He finished fully restraining her in the meantime. The Devil Glass was put to the side for later, but he sunk the chains into the wall and clasped them around each of her limbs. Combined, they would stop her from making any attempts at casting spells.

After he was done, he was basically back to zero ahjer. The spells had drained the little he built up. He really regretted connecting to Thunderfield so early. Even though he knew it was a blessing in disguise, the disguise was exceptional. He already had a paltry amount of ahjer, ruining his ability to replenish it would seriously hinder him for the next few weeks as his body recovered. He couldn’t afford to laze around for those weeks either, he had a lot to prepare for in that time. Only the incredible purity of his ahjer made the situation in any way salvageable.

While Dalric continued lamenting his poor judgment, the door flew open.

Ryku walked in holding a number of folders, “I apologize. I completely underestimated her ability and assumed one chain and four watch—”

“It’s fine. I thought you went overboard with that in the first place, so how can I judge? Just make sure you get the most you can out of her.” Dalric patted him on the back and quickly made his exit.

To his joy-dismay, a couple with a plate of food waited for him outside.