Sometimes, you don’t need to actually kill or hurt someone to get what you want. Sometimes, a few threats, a bit of charm, and some bribery can go a long way…

–Memoirs of a Master-Tier War Mage

105 (I)

Persuasion

Exalted Mother Null Mont stared at the Court Leviathan hovering just over the Abyssal Gateway. A crackle of Aeromantic lightning danced along the metallic strips jutting free from her body. It did that when she was focused. It did that when she was excited. And right now, she was extremely excited. A Court Leviathan captured for Weave, as an offering to the Composer. This would be the offering of the decade, and more importantly, it would allow Elaboration a deeper insight into their greatest adversary.

Pair that with the unconfirmed turncoat vampire that remained aboard the Court Leviathan, and Null Mont had a bit more than just a significant offering. She might have a way to strike deep into the First Blood itself, if he could be properly adjusted…

Of course, it wasn’t just good news. As Cherished Sister Uva Mettabon reported, there had been traitor Weaveresses here as well. Traitors Weaveresses who defected from Elaboration of all places. The Cherished Sister said they were part of an illegal weaver breeding operation and would have delivered them into custody, but the traitor Weaveresses unfortunately perished when the eldritch entityrevealed itself.

And that led into the lamentable part of things.

Despite all the good work she had done, Sister Uva tragically allowed herself to be compromised in the process. The Sister recounted what happened in the gate, how things became so dire. As Null Mont listened, her disappointment grew. She expected more of a Sister of the Arachnae Order than to turn away from the Composer’s song and seek power from a most unholy and unnatural source.

Outsiders, creatures beyond the System’s purview or perhaps barely in it, were unworthy divines. And now one such unholy being had struck an accord with Sister Uva. More than an accord, it had infested the Sister’s very eyes and imbued in her an Eldritch Skill. And Sister Uva had taken it into herself willingly.

Instead of being rewarded, she would likely need to undergo a lengthy interrogation and observation process at Elaboration. It seemed unjust, but alas, it was absolutely necessary. They couldn’t let down their guard against the Outside. Or any unknown adversary for that matter. Weave only endured due to constant vigilance and the actions of Weaveresses like Exalted Mother Null Mont.

As she leaped across another chasm and landed atop a sloping half-collapsed wall that used to be the outside of a building, she stared at the great Court Leviathan and let out a light laugh. She stood at the very edge and gazed into the distance, as if an explorer standing atop a mountain. A mountain of ruin.

“Quite the windfall, isn’t it?” she said to Brother Urad, one of the few male Umbrals who had joined the Arachnae Order. He gave the Exalted Mother a bow, yet there was something in it that seemed uneasy, and the unease in his body language was given voice by one Still Water.

“Exalted Mother,” Still Water said, “I’m going to strongly suggest this again, I believe you should talk to Gate Lord Adam or Exalted Guest Shiv before making any decisions.”

“What is there to speak of?” Exalted Mother Null Mont asked. “They are but guests. They have offered great deeds in service to Weave, but guests are all they are. This is a matter of the Composer’s honor. This is for the defense of her, Lady Arachnae, for the defense of our city. In fact, they should be honored. Honored that I will mention their name in this service. If you are so concerned that they will be offended, then be off, Operative Still Water. Seek out the Gate Lord and Hero Shiv, and inform them of my decision. I had this conversation with Cherished Sister Uva already. I don’t think I need to have it again with you.”

Still Water held back a twitch of her palp, the closest thing a Weaveress could offer in place of a sigh. But then she adjusted her bandana and slowly turned to walk away instead of saying anything. Midstep, she paused as she noticed something. Still Water looked up into the air and let out a loud hiss of surprise as she almost tripped.

Exalted Mother Null Mont shook her head in disapproval. How a Heroic-Tier Trapdoor Weaveress could be so careless was beyond her. In fact, Null Mont was going to mention Still Water’s lacking attention during the overall debriefing—

And then a shadow passed over Null Mont. A shadow passed over everyone. There came a heavy rush of wind, and Null Mont’s Aeromancy sensed what felt like a heavy gale washing over her. Suddenly she turned, and she saw what looked to be a small mountain tumbling in her direction. Her Umbral escorts froze. She froze. Still Water threw her invisible cloak around her body and vanished from sight.

The colossal shape descended, and Null Mont quickly updated her description of the object. It didn’t look like a small mountain. No, it was a tower. A tower the shape of a wickedly curved blade. It was thin and absurdly long at the top, and its edges radiated with a rainbow hue, while the flat sides of the blade pulsated with the darkness and distortion of Dimensionality.

As it fell, something clicked in Null Mont’s head. She summoned a burst of Aeromancy and flung herself out of the way.

Just herself. The members of her escort would know how to handle themselves.

Null Mont landed on something fragile, something that shattered beneath her. It felt like porcelain. But to her surprise, she realized dodging was not necessary. The blade continued tumbling along, sailing far through the air until it crashed hard into the ground in the distance, just beneath the Abyssal Gateway. There, a column of dust and debris rose into the sky from where the massive, tower-sized blade hilted itself.

And even still, it grew, swelling larger and grander until it was at least three hundred meters long before it finally stopped.

Through a haze of dust and a rain of descending shrapnel, Exalted Mother Null Mont stared at the colossal weapon, and it radiated with prismatic brightness. Suddenly, atop the hilt, came a pulse. A pocket of space opened, and a figure emerged. A figure clad in skeletal armor. Null Mont recognized the figure immediately. It was Exalted Guest Shiv, the Deathless Surfacer; the one that Cherished Sister Uva had also unwisely chosen to start an intimate relation with.

Exalted Mother Null Mont’s mind whirled. Had he just thrown that tower at her? A… knife tower? A knife that he was now standing on, that he was… And there came an ungodly noise. A terrible noise as Shiv hovered across the sky, dragging the knife behind him with his left hand.

The ground parted. Things broke and split. More dust, more debris, more shrapnel filled the air. But what shook Null Mont the most was how easily he dragged that long blade behind him, as if it weighed nothing at all. As if he wasn’t cleaving an entire section of the landscape apart as he got closer and closer to her.

Null Mont was also technically a Heroic-Tier Pathbearer—except her Heroic-Tier Skill was in Physics. Her Toughness and Aeromancy were a fused Master-Tier, but throwing that thing at her like that was…

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What kind of skill allows one to casually drag something of that weight behind them? Could he truly have Gravitic Wrestler? I saw his profile, but…

Then, faintly, over the clatter of falling detritus, she heard something. She heard him whistling. His head was swinging from side to side, and the actions he performed were dramatic and exaggerated. Then, finally, he paused and then he looked down at Null Mont. He looked down at her Umbrals. He brought a dramatic hand up to his face and let out a very loud and obviously acted gasp. “Oh, no,” Shiv cried. He planted a hand on his head. “Exalted Mother. Sisters. Uhh… Brother? Sorry. Can’t tell with some of you. I did not see you there. I am so terribly sorry. I was just testing out this newly reforged knife I got. It is a very good knife. I was trying to see how far I could throw it once it reached its full size. Unfortunately, I was both stronger than I remember being, and this thing was larger than I expected. Whoops.”

Null Mont’s palps reared back in fury. Part of her mind screamed at her to be outraged, to rise into the air and to demand why the surfacer had done this. But another part of her warned her that this might not be the wisest course of action with someone dragging a 300-meter-long building-sized dagger along the ground. That, and the other detail about how he couldn’t quite stay dead…

That… that skill couldn’t possibly work as had been described… Could it?

Beside Null Mont, Still Water suddenly unveiled herself again. “Well,” Still Water said, a hint of mirth in the other Weaveress’s voice, “looks like I don’t need to go looking for them after all. They came looking for us. How convenient. Well, I’ll leave you to it, Exalted Mother. I believe this is your duty now as the highest-ranking Weaveress present.”

The Trapdoor Weaveress threw her cloak over herself and vanished once more.

“Wait, Still Water? Still Water!” Null Mont shouted.

And again, a shadow rose over Null Mont. Slowly, she turned to face the massive, looming blade…

***

“Shiv, Shiv, Shiv,” Uva repeated again and again through her telepathic link. “Do not hurt her. Do not kill her. Do you understand me? Do not—absolutely do not—even touch her!”

“I’m not going to kill her,” Shiv replied, his mind perfectly calm. “I’m just going to talk to her. I’m just going to cook some food for her. I just want to talk to her, you know? I like talking to people. I find people interesting. I find everyone interesting. I especially find it interesting when they try to steal my Court Leviathan from me, take a guest I invited into this gate prisoner, and demand that my girlfriend submit herself to some kind of questionable interrogation process after she nearly broke herself for me and the other survivors. So interesting.”

Uva was about to issue her complaints again, but then she paused. “Shiv. Why am I last on your list?”

“Because between you, Angelo, and Courtney, only one of you could fry the mind of this poor, mentally challenged Weaveress.”

“I cannot fry the mind of an Exalted Mother!” Uva’s voice was filled with absolute revulsion.

Right, the Umbrals had that complex about the Weaveresses. Well, here was the worst outcome.

“Yes, but that’s more of a personal decision rather than you not being able to do it. Angelo’s too traumatized to put up much of a fight against anyone. Courtney’s about as smart as a snail. So comparatively, you’re the one I’m least worried about.”

The temperature of Uva’s mind fell by a few degrees.

“It’s a compliment,” Shiv replied.

Her mind got even colder.

Shit, I’m going to have to cook her something really felling nice after this.

“Listen, I’m not going to hurt her, okay? I just want to talk to her,” he repeated.

“Adam,” Uva spoke across their link. “Do not let Shiv hurt Exalted Mother Null Mont.”

“What are you calling me for?” Adam replied. “I want to talk to her too.”

Despite everything, an incredulous snort escaped the Umbral. And she sailed through the air, flying atop her shield as she blasted towards Shiv’s current position. She could directly jump into his mind, but Shiv had a feeling that part of her wanted to see this. Part of her wanted to watch what might transpire when he had his little conversation with the Exalted Mother. And Shiv would oblige her.

In fact, he wasn’t lying at all. He wasn’t going to kill the Weaveress. Frankly, he wasn’t going to hurt her at all. From what he could tell, and from what Uva described, Exalted Mother Null Mont was mostly a narcissistic glory hound. An asshole, in other words.

That didn’t mean she had to die. But that was a good thing. Because he needed to train his Dread Aura some more.

But then again, if Shiv had to kill all the assholes in the world just for being assholes, there might not be that many Pathbearers left. Hell, there wouldn’t be that many people left for that matter. “And I’ll absolutely not do that, because it’ll end with me stabbing Georges too,” Shiv grumbled to himself. “No, I’ll just be convincing. Real persuasive. Use reason and argumentation and all that, just like I wasn’t taught at school.”

There came a series of loud shouts from the Exalted Mother. She sounded kinda pissed, but the winds and the noise Shiv made as he continued pulling his new Skysplitter through the ground really made it hard to hear.

“How’s the knife?” Adam asked telepathically, more curious about the weapon for now.

“Pretty good,” Shiv replied. “Gets up to 300 long, but that’s about it. Anymore and it starts shaking uncontrollably. I think I’ll end up breaking after that.”

“And the mass?”

“Mass is stable,” Shiv replied. “Right now, it feels… I don’t know, maybe a fourth as heavy as the Jealousy. I think it can still draw in more weight, but it’ll make moving it around harder.”

“A fourth as heavy as a massive Greater Demon. Sounds pretty impressive to me,” Adam replied. “It will come in useful if you need to weigh someone down or potentially smash a large group of people to death.”

“Or just one very annoying spider.” As Shiv thought those words, he narrowed his eyes at the Exalted Mother. Again he wasn’t going to kill her. He absolutely wasn’t. But it was very, very unkind of her to just try taking what was his.

“Hero Shiv!” Null Mont shouted. This time, he was close enough to hear her. She was flying through the air, lightning crackling across the many metal extensions jetting out from her body. Shiv wondered again what kind of Skill Evolution that was. Aeromancy and Physicality? Toughness?

“I guess I can ask her in a minute,” Shiv muttered to himself.

“Have you gone completely mad?” Null Mont asked, her tone clearly extremely pissed. “What is the meaning of this?”

Shiv pulled off his helmet and gave the approaching Weaveress a wide grin. “What? What’s wrong?”

“You!” she cried again. She stuck one of her long limbs in his face. And just then, Shiv realized she was a pointer. She liked to point. She pointed the same way at Uva’s eyes. He eyed the small humanoid finger sticking out from her forelimb, ignoring the intrusive thought to bite it. “What has possessed you, surfacer? Was this deliberate? Do you have any idea what you have just done?”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Shiv apologized again, putting his hand on his chest. “I didn’t realize you were there. You see, I was testing my knife.”

“Testing your knife?” Null Mont asked, incredulous. “Your… your knife? This?”

“Yeah, it’s my knife.” He ripped the enormous Skysplitter out of the ground, casually lifting it over his head. He bit back a slight grunt of exertion as he forced himself to not topple over backwards. Yeah, this wasn’t that practical for most combat scenarios. He needed speed more than mass. Frankly, what might be more useful was injecting doses of mass into an enemy or stealing mass from them, if that was possible. It was something he was going to have to discover in the field.

The Weaveress’s palps flared back. A few strings of lightning went off course, whipping into the wind rather than traveling along the many metal extensions sticking out from her arms. “You—” the Weaveress choked. Shiv lifted the blade high, rearing it back. He felt her courage crack down to its foundations. “No! Do not—The Composer will—”

Then, with a casual swing, Shiv slashed out with his knife.

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