There was no mistaking that the man posing on the flier with his fists raised was a fighter. He had the lean, muscular frame, the intimidating glare, and the scars to prove it. But what Kayden saw was the man that raised her, the man who cuddled and held her when she was scared, who cleaned up and kissed her wounds when she got hurt, who took her to the park and pushed her on the swing. These two images did not fit together in Kayden’s mind.
Ever since she had learned of her father’s involvement with Nikiphero, she had begun to understand that her father was not the man she thought he was, that he had secrets. But a part of her believed his involvement with the gang had been minimal, that he was some kind of businessman or financial advisor, but this proved that it went much deeper.
Xolan Boone, the flier said, was facing off against another fighter named Rem Wesser. It was scheduled for tonight.
Kayden crumpled up the paper and threw it away. She felt a strange mixture of anger and sadness. Anger because she had been lied to her entire life by the one person she should have been able to trust, and sadness because what everyone had said about her father was correct.
It didn’t take much longer for Darris to return. He came out of the building connected to the arena and hurried across the street to her.
“You better pull out those scripts because I found him.”
“No need, I found him too.” she pointed at the crumpled paper and Darris stooped down to scoop it up and look it over.
“Hmph, you still owe me. The deal was that I help locate your father, and that’s exactly what I did.”
She glared at him. She wasn’t in the mood to be swindled out of even more money. “I’m not going to pay you for something that I found the information for from a piece of trash on the ground.”
They stared off for a couple of seconds before Darris smiled and laughed. “Alright, calm down. But I did get some interesting facts about him. How much is that worth to you?”
“Fifty.”
“Seventy-five and you buy me lunch.”
Kayden nodded. The money wasn’t as much of a concern anymore now that she had located her father. She simply needed enough to buy a ticket to his match. And even though Darris got on her nerves, she didn’t want to run him off just yet. For one, she really was curious to learn more about her father, and for another it was still hours before the fight and Kayden didn’t want to be left alone in this unfamiliar city just yet.
They found a little street stall selling noodles covered in thick, dark sauce. The sign said it was called rib sauce, which could mean anything, but Darris dug into it eagerly enough. Kayden poked at it gingerly then brought up a small bit to her nose to smell. It smelled sweet and slightly tangy. Not finding anything off about it, she took a bite. It was surprisingly delicious and pretty soon she was chowing down on it just as quickly as Darris.
Once they had both had their fill, they got down to business.
“Xolan Boone has been fighting in the arena since he was seventeen,” Darris said.
Since he was seventeen? That meant he had been fighting for almost twenty years.
“He accumulated quite the record in the arena: forty-two wins and three losses. He held the title of champion for eleven years before he dropped out of the fighting ring nine years ago. He is somewhat of a local legend around here. He grew up on the streets of Ivossin Cavern and fought his way to the top. His return has garnered quite a bit of attention. This fight taking place is supposed to be a big deal. He’s taking on the current reigning champion to reclaim the title.”
“If he stopped fighting nine years ago, then how did he make a living since then?”
“I said he left the ring not that he stopped fighting.” For the next part he leaned in closely so nobody would overhear them. “The arena isn’t just about the betting profits that it brings in for Nikiphero, it’s a way for them to train their men. Being one of the arena’s top fighters meant Xolan was most certainly involved with Nikiphero, most likely since even before he entered the ring. Someone had to train him.”
“So you’re saying that he kept fighting for Nikiphero.”
Darris nodded.
“What exactly did he do?”
“There isn’t much I can tell you about that. Like I said before, Nikiphero is a very secretive organization. That’s how they’ve been able to stay out of Uptown’s crossfires, but I was able to piece together a few details from what I have learned and from what you have told me. Nikiphero has been working on increasing their influence throughout all of Cliffside and even into Uptown. They have been brokering some type of deal between the mining unions and the Merchant Council. People aren’t sure about the specifics, but they are pretty excited about it, they seem to believe that it will bring in a lot more wealth. It sounds like your father must have been playing a part in working out this deal, likely through bribing and intimidating city officials.”
“That sounds like an important job.”
“Nikiphero wouldn’t have given this job to just anyone,” Darris agreed. “Your father must be very high up in their ranks.”
Kayden was overwhelmed by this sudden influx of information and sat back heavily in her chair to digest it.
“That’s not all,” Darris added. “Nikiphero is currently at war with a rival gang in an adjoining cavern called Mistech. They claim that Nikiphero has betrayed Cliffside and is working with Uptown to gain more control of Cliffside. They are calling your father out specifically as acting as an agent for the Council, which means he has a huge target painted on his back.”
“But that can’t be true. The police are hunting my father down harder than anyone.”
“I’m just telling you what I heard, not that any of it was true. But from the sounds of it, a lot of people want your father dead. This fight tonight is probably meant to be a show of strength and loyalty toward Cliffside.”
“Who are these Mistech guys? What do they have against Nikiphero?”
“Other than the usual gang rivalries, who’s to say. There are all types of old grudges between the gangs. As for who Mistech are, they formed from one of the mining unions. They are a gang which utilizes extensive body augmentations developed from technological research from your own Ernestine Academy. Their type of tech has started to become fairly popular within some caverns, although not here because of their poor relations with Nikiphero. All I can say as to why they might be spreading these rumors is because they think it will weaken Nikiphero’s influence and increase their own.”
“So it’s just a grab for power?”
“In the end that’s all the gangs are really after. They might say they have people’s interests at heart like with Nikiphero and this supposed deal they are brokering with Uptown, but in the end they will do whatever it takes to get to the top.”
A part of Kayden still clung to the hope that maybe her father really did have good intentions. Maybe Nikiphero really was trying to make this a better place for everyone. But then the picture of her father on that flier popped into her head. She tried to shake it away, but it remained firmly in place.
This was the extent of the information that Darris was able to gather. They sat in silence for a moment before Darris suddenly stood.
“Well, it appears we’ve reached the end of our contract. I better be heading back to the docks.”
“Wait,” Kayden said abruptly. She didn’t really have anything to say, but she didn’t want to be left on her own.
Darris eyed her knowingly. “You’ll be fine. Just head on over to that booth and buy your ticket for the fight. Get a seat close to the ring and I’m sure you’ll be able to catch your father’s attention. In the meantime, just hang around the arena and browse some shops. You're unlikely to be attacked now that you don’t stick out so much and are in such a heavily populated area. There’s really no need for me to stick around any longer, and I don’t think you want to pay me a fee for doing so.”
She had to admit that she didn’t want to pay anymore money, but for a moment she considered it. Finally, she had to admit that it was a ridiculous idea. She was just acting like a frightened little girl. She was sure that everything would be fine until the fight. So she bid farewell to Darris and they went their separate ways, Darris back to the ferry and Kayden over to the ticket booth.
There were still plenty of seats available even though it was only a few hours before the big fight, but the ticket seller was sure that the fight would be sold out. Most people bought them right before. It cost a lot of her remaining funds but Kayden got a seat in the third row from the ring. The first and second rows were reserved for VIP guests.
The rest of the time she spent wandering around the streets, never straying far from the intersection with the arena. Because this area contained so much traffic, there were plenty of shops to browse through, some of them were even higher end because this area attracted that type of clientele.
To her surprise she even saw a shop for the arcane. Curious, she walked inside.
It was a narrow shop but stretched far into the back. There were two rows of shelves packed with all sorts of boxes full of junk. She didn’t see anyone around so she just casually looked to see what it had.
She was beginning to think it was just a junk shop that branded itself as arcane to lure in customers when she caught sight of a familiar book. It was ‘Remory’s Introduction to Basic Rune’s’, a book for first year Academy Students. She had a copy back in her apartment above the butcher’s shop. That didn’t prove this shop was an actual arcanist’s but still it was unexpected to find one here.
Once she had picked that out, she became more invested in searching through the bins rather than glancing at them. Pretty soon, she realized this wasn’t just any regular junk. It was like she was looking at what she might find thrown out of the Academy’s tech building.
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There were pieces of disassembled drones, spent and broken focuses, and even a rune core. This wouldn’t have been that surprising to find in Uptown, but it was the last thing she had thought to find while looking at random shops Cliffside.
Although, now that she thought about it, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise considering that she had just learned that there was a whole gang dedicated to body augmentations. This just confirmed that it was true that Cliffsiders were a lot more technologically advanced then she had been led to believe Uptown. The way they talked about Cliffside in Uptown, she would have thought that Cliffsiders were hardly literate.
She was inspecting the rune core and finding it relatively intact when a voice spoke up beside her.
“I see you have a discerning eye.”
She jumped slightly in surprise and glanced over. A small creature had approached her. It was hard to tell any specific gender but since they were wearing a dress she would go with a girl.
At first she thought the creature was a child, but there was something about the eyes and mannerisms that spoke of her being much older. She was only about three feet tall and had soft features, but that was where the similarities to a human child stopped. She had short hair that was too bristly to be human, her eyes were too large and a mystical shade of purple, she had long pointy ears, and despite being much shorter than Kayden, they were at eye level, and that wasn’t because she was standing on a stool but because she was floating in the air with her feet dangling shoeless.
“I--I’m sorry,” Kayden said hurriedly and put the core back down. “I was just looking around.”
“No need to apologize,” the mysterious floating creature said. “This is my shop. I just came over to see if you needed help with anything. If I may say so, you have the aura of one who is a practitioner of the arcane. Still a novice, but it is obvious you have received some training.”
“Umm,” was all Kayden could say.
This was the second time she had met someone who could read her aura Cliffside, the other being Darris, and those were only the people she knew about. She really had to learn how to suppress her aura better so that she wasn’t so easy to read. That type of thing could attract the wrong sort of attention.
“Pardon me. I didn’t mean to be rude. My name is Sook.”
“Kayden.”
“Nice to meet you Kayden. Were you interested in purchasing that rune core?” Sook floated closer and plucked it from the bin, then peered at it with a scrutinizing gaze. “I could part with it for one hundred and fifty scripts.”
“No, that’s alright,” Kayden answered quickly, recovering from her shock. “I really was only looking. I was just surprised to find an arcane shop.”
“Oh, are you new to Cliffside?”
Kayden immediately cursed her lapse of judgment, of course saying something like that would mark her as an outsider. If arcane shops weren’t a rare thing Cliffside then a native wouldn’t be surprised by the existence of one.
“Don’t worry, I am very discrete and not one to pry into people’s personal business,” Sook said, seeing Kayden become warry. “The arcane arts are certainly not practiced as extensively here as they are Uptown, but we are not without our dabblings. You can find all sorts of interesting creations down here that would be--difficult to acquire Uptown. I assume that is why a student of Ernestine Academy such as yourself has come down here. If it interests you, I have several such creations in the back that may interest you, not like this junk I keep in the front.”
It seemed Kayden had found herself in one of those shady shops she heard that Cliffside housed. What’s more, Sook, had discerned her origins as an Uptowner and thus assumed she was here because she was interested in such dealings.
She was about to attempt to extricate herself from this unfortunate situation, but then paused. How often would she get a chance like this, and if she wanted to continue her arcane education without the aid of the Academy then it might be smart to begin familiarizing herself with the underground arcana scene. She nodded her affirmation to Sook, and Sook floated deeper into the shop with Kayden following.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Kayden said. “But I’ve never met one of your kind before.”
“Ah, you really must be new to Cliffside then. I am a Deep Denizen. There is a colony of my kind that lives Cliffside. You may occasionally see us floating about. We can’t stand sunlight so it is impossible for us to live Uptown.”
A Deep Denizen, Kayden had heard something about their kind being present Cliffside, but she couldn’t recall any specific information about them. She wasn’t well versed on the various less prominent races inhabiting the world or even Mitros.
“How is it that you are--” Kayden trailed off.
“Floating?” Sook finished with a tinkling giggle. “That must be odd to you I’m sure, with all of you humans stumbling about on the ground. My kind have transcended the need to participate in such--mundane practices.”
Kayden had a feeling Sook had been about to say something other than mundane but had changed it at the last second so as to not seem rude.
“We are a type of psionic. We utilize mind magic to levitate and control objects rather than using our own hands or feet. In fact, the only reason we talk with our voices is to communicate with non-psionics such as yourself.”
They had reached the end of the shop where there was a black curtain that led into the back. True to her word, she did not lift a hand to move the curtain. It slid apart as if pulled by an invisible cord.
“After you,” Sook said.
Kayden was beginning to think this had been a bad idea. Not only was she walking into a dark back room of some shady shop, but it was with a psionic creature which probably had a much different thought process then her own. For all she knew Sook could be luring her into her den in order to feast on her brain like those nightmarish tentacle creatures children liked to tell each other scary stories about.
But she pushed aside her fear and walked in. Sook followed and the curtain closed behind her, plunging them into darkness. Kayden’s heart began to pound in her chest.
“Umm, is there any light?”
“Oh, silly me, I forgot myself again. You humans have such terrible eyesight. I was wondering why you were frozen there like you had seen a ghost.”
There was a sudden burst of flames around the room as several candles became alight. It appeared that not only could Sook use mind magic, but she could use fire magic as well. Kayden couldn’t see any presence of a focus on Sook, so that must have meant she did it without any aid. It was an impressive feat that marked Sook as a master arcanist. Was that common among her people, or was Sook just especially talented?
With a display such as that, Sook was more than adept enough to kill her with ease if she so desired. But Sook didn’t seem to care that she was an Uptowner. Of course, that could all be a ruse.
The room was a workshop with many arcane instruments that Kayden had become familiar with during her time at the Academy, although she herself hadn’t been particularly interested in that side of what the Academy had to offer. But anyone who went to Ernestine Academy couldn’t go without a little training in that regard, after all it was what they were world famous for.
Sook directed her to a shelf lined with her completed projects, and Kayden was amazed with what she saw present there. This little Deep Denizen was proving to be an extremely competent arcanist, capable of even rivaling her professors. Once again Cliffside shocked Kayden by just how developed they were.
Lining the shelf were several wands like the one she had stolen from Bellina. There was one of blasting like her own, another that seemed to have some darkness function, although Kayden couldn’t tell exactly what it did in her brief inspection, and a few more that were too advanced for her to understand.
The majority of the shelf was taken up with focuses meant to be used as parts for machines, specifically drones. Drones were an extremely new invention in Mitros, a type of remotely controlled device that can fly. They were all of the excitement around Ernestine Academy at the moment.
And Sook had created focuses that could be incorporated into drones in order to weaponize them. She couldn’t tell if they would work, but Sook seemed pretty confident in her work. It was kind of terrifying to think about what drones equipped with these types of focuses would be capable of. People could kill each other without even being near. If she had found this in an out of the way shop Cliffside, then what else could these people be developing. No wonder Uptown feared Cliffside so much.
“Maybe if you told me what you were looking for, I could better assist you,” Sook said as Kayden scanned the objects. “Is there a current project you are working on? I know you Academy types like to be very secretive about what you do, but any small details you give me could help me find what it is that you need.”
Kayden thought about it. Why had she come into this particular shop, and why had she followed Sook into the back when it would have been much smarter to have left once she was discovered to be an Uptowner?
She had been curious, sure, but a part of her had wanted to know what Cliffside had to offer in terms of the arcane that Uptown and Ernestine Academy lacked. It was a way for her to confirm to herself that she didn’t need them to continue her education. What she found was more stunning than anything she could have expected. And in that way Sook had already given her what she had come in here for.
She certainly couldn’t afford any of this expensive equipment, not that she could use any of it if she did, but she felt kind of bad leaving empty handed after Sook had gone through such trouble. Instead of straight up turning her down, Kayden decided to reveal some of her circumstances and maybe that way Sook might be able to give her something that was more appropriate for her needs.
“I actually don’t work with tech. In fact, I was kind of expelled from the academy, but I’m interested in continuing my education without them. Do you have anything that could help me with that?”
“Ah,” Sook said thoughtfully. “Well, the Academy certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on the secrets of the arcane as much as they may desire otherwise. My people are a perfect example of that. We have developed many secrets of our own without aid from any institution such as the Academy, however there is no denying the Academy's extensive resources and training methods offer a severe advantage. I myself have gained much from following their curriculum. That being said, there is nothing stopping a determined young mind from exploring the Mysteries on their own.”
Sook floated over to a closed cabinet and opened it. Inside, books lined the shelves.
“Some of my customers choose to trade some of the rarer books available to the Academy in place of monetary payments. I have begun to build up quite the collection. Tell me what you wish to learn and maybe I have something that can help you.”
This brought a pause to Kayden. What did she want to learn? She had never been a great student to begin with. She had mostly decided to continue her education because she wanted to prove she didn’t need the Academy. Is this what she really wanted, or was she just being irrational?
No, she decided. This was something that she really wanted. Even if she wasn’t a great student, she still wanted to learn, and it wasn’t just to prove that she didn’t need the Academy. She really wanted to improve herself.
But where did she want to begin? There were a lot of fields she could pursue. She had been pushing this choice off until her fourth year when such things became necessary. The first three years were mainly about general education and theory.
What did Kayden want? She had always dreamed of working with Judge Ragwort and traveling to distant parts of the world, but had that really been a serious desire of hers or a remnant from childhood daydreams. The truth was Kayden had no idea what she wanted. She had mostly been coasting along until her life got turned completely upside down.
What was Kayden actually good at? There was only one thing that came to her mind, and that was her talent for body enhancement magic. She initially turned from the thought. She wasn’t a fighter. But was that true? The Academy seemed to have thought so, and she couldn’t deny that her father was one. It was in her blood. It was at least worth considering.
“Do you have anything about body enhancement magic?” she asked.
“Hmm.” Sook turned back to his shelf and trailed her finger along the spines, looking. “No wonder you got expelled if that is the sort of thing you are interested in. The Academy is strictly against using their knowledge in that way. Of course, their intense regulations are a great benefit for me because I can charge such exorbitant prices for my creations which can’t be found in many other places. Body enhancement you said? It isn’t a field I usually study, my people have risen above such vulgar needs, but I may have someth--aha, here it is.”
She extracted a thin leather tome from and passed it over to Kayden. Written on the cover was ‘Gates And How To Open Them.’
“Gate magic might be just what you are looking for. It is an art form from the East if I remember correctly, although to be honest with you I don’t know much about it. I only glanced through that particular book before I realized it contained nothing of interest for me. Gate magic seems to be interested in uncovering and deepening the aura’s connection to the body. I’ll sell it to you for three hundred scripts. I could probably get more for it because of its exotic subject matter, but I’m not interested in looking for buyers, and it's been sitting on my shelf for years.”
Kayden felt like she had uncovered some dark secret she was never supposed to find. She could imagine what Headmaster Winslow would say just at the thought of her even holding the book, it brought her no small amount of rebellious pleasure. She handed over the scripts.