Kayden looked around but she was alone in the gym. Cassius must be communicating with her through their sycophantic bond.

She was uncertain how it worked so she spoke aloud. “Cassius?”

“I can hear you,” he answered. “Rem wishes for me to expel you from Nikiphero.”

Cassius’s voice in her head was different from how the deep denizen communicated. The deep denizen utilized emotions and concepts just as often as words, but this was like Cassius was simply speaking right next to her. However blood magic functioned it wasn’t like the mind magic of the deep denizen.

But figuring out the secrets of blood magic didn’t matter right now. She forced the analytical part of her brain that the Academy had trained into her, and which was still extremely curious about blood magic, off.

“Are you going to?” she asked. She was surprised at how calm she felt. Beating on the punching bag for the past couple of hours had helped settle her down.

He didn’t answer her but said instead, “Rem got in contact with the Collective and has been negotiating all night. We have been able to reach an understanding that may benefit both of us. I have been hesitant to work with the deep denizen, but this has led me to believe I have been missing out on a powerful ally.”

“I’m relieved to hear that, sir.”

“Is that all you have to say?”

Some of the fear of her being kicked out returned but she kept her voice cold and detached. She had to start taking responsibility for her actions. “There is nothing else for me to say. I am glad my actions didn’t lead to another battle like with Mistech, but that does not change the fact that I disobeyed you. Spax did not receive leniency for his actions. Why should I expect anything different?”

There was a long pause. Kayden leaned against the punching bag and waited for Cassius to speak. She breathed deeply and evenly. She could picture him standing there, most likely on the bow of the ship he was sailing to the East, his dark eyes peering out into the night, his expression measured and thoughtful as he determined how to act.

“Is that what you think you deserve? To be blinded and thrown out into the street,” he finally said.

“What I deserve?” Kayden asked angrily, pushing away savagely from the punching bag and spinning around to kick it. “Is to be treated like any other subordinate. Isn’t that what I agreed to when you took me on?”

“I have to say, I didn’t expect this reaction?”

“What reaction did you expect? That I would deny my mistake, that I would leverage my father’s relationship with you to get out of it? Rem is right, I don’t deserve to be here.”

Kayden paced back and forth, unable to stand still, buzzing with anger at herself and her mistakes.

“There is no denying that you overstepped your position, and that is deserving of punishment. But if anyone is deserving of the brunt of the punishment it is Ruth. She holds a trusted position within this organization and she took a not fully-trained initiate out on an excursion that could have gotten you both killed.”

Kayden had to admit she felt some relief that it sounded like Cassius wasn’t planning to throw her out of Nikiphero. After all, it wasn’t something she wanted even if she did deserve it.

“So, what?” Kayden asked. “You’re just going to give me a slap on the wrist? Can you honestly tell me that any other initiate would be treated the same?”

“You are not like any other initiate,” Cassius answered evenly.

Kayden scoffed in frustration and disgust. “So you admit it. You are giving me special treatment because of my father.”

“No. If I was taking Xolan into consideration then you would still be Uptown and enrolled safely in the Academy. Or did you forget that I broke my promise to your father when I took you under my wing?”

He paused and when he continued there was stern anger in his voice. “You are not like any other initiate because I broke my oath for you. I never break an oath. Never. Do you understand? Of course, I give you special treatment. I have invested more in you than I have in anything. If you do not prove to be worth it then I will have sacrificed my word for nothing.”

It was his turn to scoff. “There is nothing short of death that would allow me to let you leave Nikiphero. We made blood oaths to each other: in the tunnels of the Abyss and again when you became my sycophant. Our destinies are linked, if you fail then I will have failed. You are mine, girl.”

Kayden stopped pacing and stood completely still at his words.

She wasn’t going to be thrown out. What’s more, is that Cassius had just put an incredible responsibility on her. That meant there could be no more half-measures. She was in this all the way. There would be no running away.

It was a strange feeling. There had been a part of her that still didn’t consider herself a member of Nikiphero. They were just a means to an end. She had taken into consideration the full implications of her tying herself to this organization. This wasn’t something she could use to her liking. She had to trust Cassius. That is what would lead her to her father’s killer.

And this wasn’t just about finding her father’s killer, although that was her major interest in being part of Nikiphero, it was about the cause. His cause. Nikiphero’s cause. Because each of the initiates may have joined for their own reasons whether it be simply to get off the streets or to get stronger, but they had come to realize something far more critical.

This was about more than themselves. This was about the war between Uptown and Cliffside, and only being concerned with their needs wouldn’t solve that. That is the reason why Cassius punished Spax. He couldn’t put aside his own selfish needs. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with them, but that he was putting them before the cause.

It might seem like she was giving up on her individual goals by putting Nikiphero first, but the exact opposite was true. The cause is what would lead her to her goal. That was the only way forward, otherwise, she would be left behind with no one to help her but herself. When binding herself to Nikiphero meant that she would have a literal army behind her. The only thing that she had to recognize is that she wasn’t the only one with needs within this organization. It didn’t exist only to serve her. It served the needs of the group. What that meant was that if the group succeeded then she would succeed. That meant converting fully to Nikiphero and serving their interests before her own.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Okay,” she said in almost a whisper, letting the full significance of her commitment to Nikiphero’s cause settle within her.

“Okay,” Cassius said.

*****

For her punishment, on top of her already existing duties, she was assigned to work with a crew of initiates unloading skyships in one of Nikiphero’s warehouses. Since she was working two jobs now, her time for training was basically nonexistent.

But it was better than the alternative of being expelled from Nikiphero. Kayden suspected her punishment had more to do with what she felt she deserved than Cassius actually wanting to punish her. Because even though she had disobeyed Nikiphero and potentially caused extreme harm to the organization, the results had the exact opposite effect.

Since their discussion that night, Cassius had taken to communicating with her almost nightly to check in on her progress since he couldn’t train her directly anymore. And part of those conversations had developed into Cassius revealing some of the goings on within the organization. Thus, Kayden had unparalleled access to the machinations of Nikiphero and Cliffside.

Essentially, bound by their mutual hatred of Uptown, Nikiphero and the deep denizen had entered into a mutually beneficial agreement. Nikiphero had considerable resources and influence, and the deep denizen had extensive magic and knowledge due to their mind abilities. The result was a powerful alliance that could rival the power of Uptown.

It was inevitable that word of this would eventually reach the ears of Mitros’s esteemed peerage in the Palace of Commerce. And, as much as they didn’t like to acknowledge the existence of the caverns beneath their feet, this was something that they could not ignore. Two of the biggest thorns in their side had just banded together.

The ripples were far-reaching. Suddenly the presence of police interference which had quieted down after Mistech’s fall was back in full force. The division which had been created to combat criminal organizations, ADOC, suddenly found that they were flooded with resources and privileges in order to reign in the out-of-control Cliffside.

With these resources, ADOC introduced a new unit to their arsenal to be reckoned with, the highly trained and outfitted special ops, Combat Infiltration Troop, or CIT. In Cliffside they became known by the more accurate nickname, Bullies.

The Bullies’ purpose was to enter into escalated combat situations that couldn’t be handled by regular ADOC forces and de-escalate them. Their method of de-escalation was singular, extreme violence. They did not negotiate. If they were called in, they fought to kill, and short of everyone surrendering, they showed no mercy. Sometimes even that wasn’t enough.

In theory, having a specially trained tactical unit would make sense for dangerous situations. The problem came around the language of what constituted a dangerous situation. Because they were such a new unit, they had little to no regulation, and the leaders Uptown didn’t really pay attention to what was going on Cliffside. All they cared about were results.

This allowed the Bullies the liberty to carry out their orders as they saw fit. And they saw fit to disband any and all gatherings that constituted “inflammatory doctrine.” Inflammatory doctrine was anything that served the purpose of causing a rift between Uptown and Cliffside.

In short, ADOC had been founded for the purpose of combating criminal organizations like Nikiphero, and the Bullies were meant to work as nothing more than an appendage of that organization by entering into high-risk combat situations they couldn’t take care of on their own. But the Bullies began branching out from criminal targets to anyone who voiced ideological dissension against Uptown. In other terms, words were violence and could be reciprocated likewise.

The unions, as a result, became their main target as they were the ones known for voicing anger toward Uptown. They of course did not take kindly to this treatment.

Unfortunately, although they had the will of the people backing them, they did not have the raw power that the Bullies had, and the Bullies quickly crushed any dissent. However, although it could be said that the Bullies were successful in this endeavor, the resulting hostility grew Cliffside on an unprecedented level.

Uptown of course was blind to this hostility. All they saw were the reports flowing over their desks. And all reports agreed that the Bullies were an unequivocal success. For all intents and purposes, Cliffside had once again been reigned in.

But how did this affect Nikiphero, who was the main reason why the Bullies had been created in the first place?

They were flourishing under the reign of terror.

There were some slight inconveniences at first. Warehouses being raided, gang members apprehended, etc. On one occasion ADOC had even made a house call at Hedone Resort with Commissioner--correction, Captain--Ackelman, the founder of ADOC himself, at their helm.

It had proven unfruitful of course, still, it had been worrisome. ADOC had never been so bold before, and it could prove troublesome for the legitimate side of business. But C&X Holding Co. held strong.

The rumors of C&X’s connection to Nikiphero resurfaced, but they were quickly quenched, after all, C&X was still proving extremely profitable. And over the course of the months in which C&X had been founded all traces of any connection to Nikiphero had been wiped from the face of the earth. There would have been nothing to find even under the closest scrutiny.

Besides, C&X was an Uptown business, and even with ADOC’s newfound support from the upper echelon, not even their reach extended that far. The very people who had given ADOC their power had a vested interest in C&X. To attack C&X would be to attack them, and Captain Ackelman had learned his lesson from the last time he had attempted to do just that. So he had to satiate his bloodlust for Nikiphero on pointless shows of intimidation.

These small inconveniences were well worth the trouble for what they were receiving in return. And what were they receiving in return one might ask? Unity.

As Cassius had said in that speech after the fight with Spax, Cliffside’s glaring weakness in the fight against Uptown had always been disunity. Just as much as they fought against Uptown, they fought among each other.

The criminal organizations and the unions had always been at odds with each other, even if there were the occasional dealings under the table. But now? Now, their combined hatred for Uptown was bringing them together on an unprecedented level.

And thus, the force that was meant to combat the new alliance between Nikiphero and the deep denizen only accomplished bringing the third most influential Cliffside force into their fold.

The criminal underbelly had their physical and economic power, the deep denizen had their magic and knowledge, and the unions had the support of the commoner. These three Cliffside pillars came together and formed the Might of the Downtrodden, or simply the Downtrodden, a council of the most influential individuals Cliffside.

On the surface everything seemed to be under more control than ever before, Nikiphero was forced further into the shadows, the deep denizen had entombed themselves in their sanctuaries, and the unions were pacified. But in reality, Uptown had overstepped itself more than they could possibly imagine, and as a result, Cliffside was like a field of dry grass that only needed a spark to set it ablaze.

One would think that business for Nikiphero would suffer under the extreme scrutiny of Uptown, but the opposite was true. If they had been working alone, they certainly would have struggled. But they weren’t alone. They had the entire support of Cliffside behind them. The result? Business had never been better.

Smaller gangs, ones notoriously difficult to control, were suddenly willing to lend their support, and recruitment was off the charts. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Nikiphero as a result could take a hands-off approach to the day-to-day criminal activities and instead delegate to other gangs while they focused on the big picture.

Hiding in the shadows, it turned out, required everyone’s eyes be averted. And everyone was more than willing to oblige if it meant getting back at Uptown. The thing is, the longer people’s eyes are averted, the more they forget about what they can’t see, until they have forgotten there was anything to see at all. And that was how Nikiphero became all but invisible. The puppet master pulling everyone’s strings.

With this newfound power, Nikiphero was more than able to make up for the power they had lost from their recent gang war with Mistech. Sure, they had come out of that struggle on top, but it had left a deep mark.

While C&X had been bringing in great wealth, Nikiphero, the true power behind C&X, had been limping along. Now that they had recovered and multiplied their strength far more than they could have hoped in such a short time, C&X was pushed to new heights.

Cassius’s plans were coming along nicely. The equilibrium they had reached was to his benefit. At any time he could snap his fingers and all of Cliffside would be up in arms against Uptown. But not yet. They weren’t ready. But they would be. Soon.