“The cost to sign up for the tournant is 50 crystals,” the rchant said, a sleazy smile pulling across his wide lips. He leaned back in the chair behind the stall, the moonlight illuminating his features in a ghastly glow. “And that’s the law. Any one of the others will tell you the sa, but please, feel free to go waste a few hours hunting around for better options that aren’t there.”
The cloaked figures standing in line before him said nothing for just long enough to make things uncomfortable.
“I think you misunderstand,” the taller of the two said in a distinctly female voice. But what surprised the rchant wasn’t her gender so much as her age. Despite the note of steel behind her words, there was no doubt that she was young. She couldn’t have even been 30.
But being so wet-nosed brat wasn’t going to get the cost of a badge any lower. He hadn’t been the one to set the rules. If he had, the price would have been far higher. He’d been tempted to do just more tis than he could count. Gods knew people would pay for it.
The temptation hadn’t been nearly enough to overwhelm his senses of self-preservation. There were so people in Aqua Terra that nobody crossed. Not all of the laws were written in stone, and the ones that couldn’t understand that didn’t tend to stick around for long.
Badges, when sold less than a week before the tournant, were 50 crystals. That was that. They didn’t go for cheaper, no matter how pretty the asking face was. They didn’t go higher no matter how heavy the purse of a fool happened to be.
They were 50 crystals.
“Misunderstand?” the rchant wiped his nose with the back of his hand and snorted. “No. The price is 50, miss. You can flutter your lashes or run through with a spike. The price will remain the sa regardless. Ain’t nothing I can do about it.”
“That’s lovely,” the woman said. She put a hand on the hilt of the sword dangling from her waist. “But I’m not here to buy a badge. I’ve already been enrolled in the tournant. Both of us have. I believe we should just be able to pick our badges up here, yes?”
The rchant blinked.
This young? So noble is sending his brats to make a na for themselves, is he? It’s unlikely that any real monsters would be showing up at one of the normal pickup zones like this. They’d have gotten their badge directly from whoever got them into the tournant so they’d be automatically under the banner of the right clan.
But there were rules about these kinds of things. And, no matter who this girl and her companion may have been, it didn’t matter. If they were on the list… then they were on the list.
Still… this young, and without any real pull?
That’s a score.
The rchant’s lips didn’t so much as twitch. He’d been at this for far too long to let such a childish slipup get past him. He simply coughed into his fist. “Then it seems I must retract my forr line. I misunderstood. What are your nas?”
“I was told that thod is a little outdated,” the young woman said. “I’d rather not go listing off my abilities in public. Can’t you identify via physical contact?”
A flicker of surprise passed through the rchant. That was slightly less common knowledge. While the Tournant of Heaven’s Path was the largest competition in Obsidia by magnitudes, the Coral Empire still held routine, normal tournants with a similar badge system.
He’d been around for quite a few of those — and the people that cared enough about their identity and abilities to want to protect them usually weren’t the ones swinging by the back-alley entryways to the tournants in the first place.
This could be a good one. She’s not just so random kid. Must have picked up a few things here and there. I suppose we’ll know in a few minutes, won’t we?
Stolen from its original source, this story is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Of course,” the rchant said smoothly. “That does cost one crystal, though. Connecting to the Coral Empire’s database—”
The woman pulled out a pale blue crystal before he’d even finished his sentence. He blinked, then took it from her and banished it into his storage ring.
“Do it,” the woman said, extending her hand.
The rchant took it.
At the very instant his palm touched hers, a faint warmth filled the ring wrapping his pointer finger. He released the woman’s hand.
“Confird. You’re in the tournant. I’ll—”
“Her too,” the woman said, nodding to her companion.
Two of them? Both pre-registered, but showing up in the middle of the night on their own? Oh, this is too good. Looks like soone might be on the run, eh?
“With pleasure,” the rchant said. He held his hand out. The second woman shook it, and his ring ward once again.
They were both registered for the tournant. Without a mont longer of delay, the rchant pulled out two black badges and placed them on the wooden counter before him.
“Take these,” he said, sliding them forward. “Press your thumbs into the gold portions on the center to bind yourself to the badge. And rember to show up to the right section of the tournant when it starts, yes? Rank 4 and below. Rank 5 through 6. Rank 7s. Three different sections. Your badge won’t let you into one of the wrong ones. So if you’re a Rank 5 hoping to bully so kids… well, you’ll have a bad ti.”
“Thank you,” the lead woman said, sliding the badges over to them. She tucked one into her pocket, then handed the other to her still-silent companion. “Is there anything else we need to know?”
“That’s all. Once the sun rises, you’ve got 4 days before the tournant starts,” the rchant said as he clasped his hands together. “Best of luck. And keep an eye open when you sleep. Aqua Terra draws a lot of characters during tournants. Even the Prophet can do only so much to keep it safe.”
“Your warning is appreciated,” the woman said. She and her friend turned, striding away without another word.
The next person in line stepped forward, already reaching for his coin purse, but the rchant’s eyes were still on the retreating backs of the two cloaked travelers. He ran his finger along the surface of his still-warm ring.
Mistress. These two are worth testing. I don’t know if they’re strong enough to bring into the fold… but they might have so offerings for us.
Out of the corner of his eyes, the rchant spotted the two won pausing near an alley. A man stood just at the edge of it, a dark cloak covering his features completely.
A small smile pulled at the corner of the rchant’s lips.
“Badge,” the newcor in line said abruptly, clunking down a bag full of crystals. “Give it to .”
The rchant glanced down.
“No ring?” he asked. “You just carry your crystals around like a — oh, no matter. Give a mont.”
He reached over to the bag, drawing the crystals into his ring with a thought.
This one isn’t worth the effort. Entirely uninteresting. Not even worth killing off.
“Here,” the rchant said as he held out a black badge. “Best of luck to you. And—”
A twang echoed through the back of the rchant’s mind. It sliced through his thoughts and sent a jolt of distant pain stabbing into his heart.
He choked on his own saliva, letting out a choked cough into his fist and inadvertently pulling the badge away from the waiting man.
“What are you up to?” the other man growled. “Give my damn badge. I paid for it.”
“My apologies,” the rchant wheezed, sliding the badge across the table and pounding his chest in an attempt to clear is throat. “I breathed wrong.”
The man let out a grunt. He just grabbed the badge and strode away.
Still coughing, the rchant tried to compose himself in ti for the next person in line. He couldn’t keep from glancing over toward the alley where the two won had paused no more than a literal mont before.
They were gone.
So fast? Impossible. That would an they literally attacked before we even had a chance to make them an offer. And they were strong enough to kill our agent? What kind of bloodthirsty monster—
A presence brushed across his mind like the cold embrace of death. The rchant’s back went stiff as tal.
Yes?
Who severed that agent? Did you see?
Huh? Yes. Of course. Faster than normal, but it was a pair of won. Young, I think. Wearing cloaks. But they were selected under our standard procedures. Is there an issue?
Normal procedure? That doesn’t match up with the other kills. But not all of the rchants are in our number. Perhaps this is the missing link. We’ll keep an eye on them. It could be connected… though I doubt it. What were their nas?
The rchant paused. His brow furrowed for a mont as he tried to sort his thoughts back into order and dug for the information his ring had retrieved when he’d shook the girls’ hands.
Alexandra.
Alexandra and Yulin.
User Comments
0 comments from readers