Chương 73: Chapter 72 Edited

Cale My foul mood persisted over the next several days. That little Kaoru punk hitting on my sister was complete nonsense. She was too young for that, and he was too much of a punk. I wondered, briefly, how much trouble I would actually get into if I wiped out the Yamato line. They could not be that important, right? Besides, there were too many warrior families anyway, and they were not even part of the Dominion of Vera. Nobody would miss them. No. No. No.

Gran would absolutely kill me if I wiped out an entire family. What is wrong with you, Cale? Your first instinct should not be to wipe out an entire family. But maybe I could just break the kid's legs. When I thought about it that way it seemed totally reasonable. That was more or less how we handled things in the Wastes. I considered the moral implications of might makes right as I walked back from the market. I made my way into the house and was not surprised to see two people sitting at Gran's kitchen table.

Even with them masking their presence, I knew them well enough that they could not get it past me, even slightly distracted as I was. The first was Knight-Captain Aiden Vanta, sitting at my Gran's table sipping coffee with that strange mana blend he liked. Behind him stood one of the Vanta household retainers, Marina from the Morea houseline, who was not one of the Thirty-Fourth. That alone told me this was not official Dominion of Vera business.

"You know, Captain," I said conversationally as I stepped inside, "if you're trying to help me remain incognito and keep the Ghost of the Wastes out of people's attention, you're not doing a very good job." Aiden looked up calmly.

"As the duke's son and heir to the Dukedom of Vanta," I continued, "you showing up at a nobody's house, even one in the moderately nice part of Valecis Isle, is going to cause questions. I think you underestimate how well-known you are, Captain." He waved my concern off with a lazy flick of his hand.

"They're not going to automatically assume I'm here to see the Ghost of the Wastes," he said.

"Remember, everyone thinks you're an old man." I rolled my eyes.

"Sure. People will start asking questions, though."

"People always ask questions, Cale," he replied.

"Welcome to Upper Plane Dominion politics. Everyone's always asking about something." The retainer snorted quietly. Marina Morea, third-generation retainer to the Vanta household, leaned back against the wall and looked me over with open amusement.

"And how are we doing today?" she asked dryly.

"Better before you showed up," I muttered.

"I'm trying to remain incognito, remember?" The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. She grinned.

"Incognito. Right. You wouldn't know the meaning of that word if it bit you on the face. Cale, seriously, when are you going to stop messing around and come back to the unit? It's so boring without you." I smiled despite myself.

"I miss you too, Marina."

"Can you explain to me," I continued, looking back at Aiden, "why the Captain decided to drop in and visit instead of following the established protocols he himself suggested?" Marina gave Aiden a pointed look.

"You'll have to ask him," she said.

"It's almost like someone warned him that simply showing up was a bad idea." Aiden ignored her. His expression shifted, the teasing quality pulling back.

"We've got movement on the Priest's whereabouts," he said. My moderately good mood vanished.

"Where?"

"A Middle Plane housing a single Dominion in the Eastern Bloc, off the main Nexus lines," he replied.

"He's hiding there. We don't know exactly what he's doing, probably there because those portions of the Nexus are harder to access. What we do know is that he's with remnants of the Brotherhood of Iapan." I blinked.

"The Brotherhood of Iapan? Isn't that a splinter sect from the Raiders of Ikana? The same people that kidnapped your men and the Professor? That cannot be a coincidence." He nodded once.

"Speaking of the Professor," he added, "she's complaining that you haven't reached out." I frowned.

"She told me that reaching out would be a bad idea. That we had our own lives and our own goals and that it was probably better to maintain some distance. Those were her exact words." Aiden's mouth twitched.

"Yes, Cale. That's true. She did say that. It's also true that women sometimes say things they don't actually mean."

"Why say it if you mean something else?" I rolled my eyes.

"That doesn't make any sense, Captain." Marina snorted. I ignored her.

"Where is she now?" He shrugged.

"Unknown. Location classified even to me, apparently. She never fully transitioned to her destination in the Upper Plane of Thalara Prime. The Dominion of Sannovar is still complaining about it."

"That tracks," I muttered.

"They still haven't figured out how the Raiders of Ikana pinpointed our location," he continued, "or how they had enough power to bring down our transport." That part still bothered me. It had bothered me since the crash. The Raiders of Ikana were not supposed to have that kind of reach. Pulling something like that off required help. Someone positioned high enough to feed them the information they needed and the access they shouldn't have had.

Despite Aiden's best efforts, they still had no idea who that someone was. Aiden studied me carefully.

"You've been thinking about that," he said.

"I've been thinking about a lot of things." He leaned forward slightly.

"The Brotherhood isn't operating at full strength. Whatever the Priest is doing, we have to assume it isn't good. His reputation is built on success. He will try again. He can't afford not to."

"And you think this intel is real?" I asked.

"Not a ghost trail? Has it been verified?" Aiden's gaze did not waver.

"It's real." Silence stretched between us. I could feel it. The familiar tightening in my chest that meant something old and ugly was waking up. The Priest was not done. I was not done with him either. He owed me a debt I intended to collect in the most thorough way possible. The man was going to pay for what he did to those people. Every single one of them. That would have to wait. I had other things to accomplish first, and I knew I could not involve too many people in any of it.

Which meant I needed what Aiden could provide, and now was as good a time as any.

"Give me a moment," I said.

"I have something to show you." I went to my room and retrieved the item in its resting state. It looked like an admittedly ornamental letter opener. Aiden raised an eyebrow. Marina studied it with open curiosity. I rolled my eyes.

"Restoration." The blade unfolded with deliberate elegance. Mana gathered, structured, and locked into form. In a breath, it stood complete. The gladius was exactly as I remembered it. Long, balanced, double-edged, with that distinctive hourglass taper toward the hilt. Mana-treated steel gleamed with restrained intensity, the surface catching light in quiet pulses that hinted at what rested beneath. The blade was clearly powerful. The manner of making it was dense and refined.

It existed with the confidence of something forged for war and honed for discipline. Aiden stood slowly. The awe was evident in his expression.

"Why," he asked carefully, "do you have a gladius that is clearly from the Veskari?"