Beware the fel-touched, the tainted, the alien, and the Abyssal. Know that what lingers beyond the reach of the light can only be born of the grasp of the unholy.

Know that the will of the underworld depths is the domain where a man’s soul is subverted.

And know that with strength and fire in one’s heart, with focus and diligence, the shadows may be parted.

The prophesied day will come, when all are ignited under the glow of auroral bright, and the sun rising over Yellowstone will make the world complete.

-Edict of the Auroral Ascendants, Yellowstone Republic

19 (I)

Diplomacy

“You,” Adam sneered, “are an absolute asshole, Tanner Lowe.”

“Hey, that’s my line,” Shiv said, folding his arms as he arched an eyebrow at the Young Lord. As he did so, he also swept his gaze and his mana field through this wing of the Cradle of Flesh. “You know, I made arrangements to come here tomorrow—well, today,” Shiv continued. “I was gonna come here and learn Biomancy and let the Weaveresses prod me a little. But you just had to go and shit all over that, didn’t you, Adam?”

The Young Lord was currently dressed in a white medical gown, and holding a shivering Weaveress hostage. He had an arm wrapped around her neck and a scalpel pressed against the back of her hairy spider head. She seemed terrified. Shiv was surprised he read that from her body language. He was getting really good at judging the moods of these spiders.

Meanwhile, everywhere else around the building, there were Weaveresses, Umbrals, automata, and a few other races preparing to breach to rescue the hostages. Things were extremely tense, and it was only the word of the Composer and the arrival of Sister Uva that ensured Adam’s continued survival. Goddamn bastard, Shiv thought to himself. Shiv caught a few ugly looks directed at him from those gathered because the other surfacer—the only other surviving surfacer—couldn’t behave himself.

“Oh, you really felling did it,” Shiv said, shaking his head at Adam. Behind Shiv, several Weaveresses poked their heads around the doorway, glaring angrily, brandishing large, glowing daggers and mana-forged riot shields. “You really got yourself into a mess this time.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked. “And why—why aren’t they—” He gestured at Shiv.

“Aren’t they what?”

“Why aren’t you a prisoner? Is this a trap?” Adam narrowed his eyes. “Have you been working with the Abyssals this entire time?”

Shiv stared at Adam as if he were a simpleton. “Adam, you remember a few days ago when I got thrown off the top of Blackedge?”

Adam nodded slowly. “Yes.” His expression changed—a look of shame passed through.

“Yeah. So think about what you just said to me. Do you think that I, in a few days, could establish contact with the forces of the Abyss, commit to them, and complete this great treasonous scheme in record time?”

Adam stared at Shiv. “Maybe. Or maybe you were working with them all along.”

“And maybe you’re a felling idiot. I think you might have hit your head harder than I have—and I’m the one who fell all the way down.”

The Young Lord shook his head, his grimy, blood-red hair moving from side to side. “I’m just…”

“You’re very stressed, and you’ve experienced a lifetime of terrible propaganda,” Shiv surmised. “It happens to the best of us. And morons like you.”

The Young Lord clenched his teeth again. “You’re an asshole. Tanner Lowe.”

“Yeah, you said that already, Adam,” Shiv sneered. “And also, don’t call me that. It’s not my name.”

“It’s the name they gave you,” Adam said. His reply was cold and final.

“Well, I call myself Shiv. I don’t give a shit about the people who birthed me. Not like you do.”

“Yeah. Because what did they ever take from you?” Adam muttered bitterly.

A flare of old pain passed through Shiv, but he ignored it. For now. “A world where I don’t need to negotiate the release of a humanoid spider hostage to save the only other deranged surfacer around.”

Adam took in a breath and let it out. “So, what now?”

“What do you mean, ‘what now’?” Shiv said, doing a double take. “You called me here. It was in the middle of the night. I was sleeping soundly in my bed.”

“Your bed?” Adam said.

“Yes, my bed. They gave me an apartment, a proper apartment unit. It’s larger than my house back on Blackedge. A full bed,” he gestured. “Nice sheets. I was asleep. And now your dumbass ruined it!”

Adam’s mouth opened, closed, opened again, and his face contorted in something between raw disbelief and sheer concentrated rage. “If you get a bed… then why am I trapped by monsters in this dungeon?”

“It’s a hospital,” Shiv said. “It’s called the Cradle of Flesh, and that”—he pointed to the Weaveress Adam was holding hostage—“is probably a Biomancer.”

“No, no,” the Weaveress cried out. “I’m just a nurse! I’m just part-time! I’m a student. Please!”

Shiv closed his eyes. “That’s even worse. Adam, you are holding a literal student hostage. A spider-child. Is there no depth of depravity you won’t fall to?”

“The spider’s a student?” Adam breathed.

“It’s called a Weaveress.” Shiv sneered.

“And I’m a she, not an it,” the Weaveress added weakly.

“I’m sorry,” Shiv said, opening his hands. “I’m also just getting used to this. But still, Adam, come now.”

“Shiv, if this fool does not surrender in the next few seconds, please shove me through his eye socket and keep going until you strike his brain—for I doubt the organ’s existence and wish to verify it through tactile confirmation,” Valor said.

Adam Arrow blinked. “Wait, who said that?” Shiv held up his stone dagger. “What? Is that some kind of communication device?”

“No, it’s a dagger with someone in it.”

Adam stared at him some more. “The dagger speaks? Someone’s in the dagger?”

“Yes, and his name is Valor Thann—the Great Valor Thann, He Who Stills Eternity. He’s a Legendary Pathbearer.”

The last part caught Adam’s attention. “The dagger?”

“And soon I will find myself still inside your vacant head, you stupid fool. You interrupted my meditation. You interrupted Shiv’s sleep. And now you’re causing a diplomatic incident in Weave, holding the people who helped you hostage. You enormous buffoon.”

Valor’s sharp remarks finally got through to the young lord, but Adam’s face contorted in offense.

“Shiv?”

“Oh, finally, you’re using my name,” Shiv interrupted.

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Adam kept going. “You tell that dagger that I will not be insulted this way. I am an Adept Pathbearer. My father is Lord Roland Arrow. I demand to be treated with proper respect, and not to be insulted. Especially by an inanimate object.”

“I will make you an inanimate object in a moment,” Valor growled. “Shiv, stab him. Stab him now.”

Shiv sighed. “Everyone, calm down,” he said. He couldn’t believe it—he was now the rational party in this mess. “Adam, let the Weaveress go. She’s not going to hurt you. If you don’t let her go, however, all the very powerful Weaveresses waiting around us will come in and beat you to death—very painfully.” He paused, and he remembered something important about this place. “Then again, maybe not. Maybe they will take you alive. And then they will breed you.”

“B—breed?” Adam stuttered.

“Yes, breed.” Shiv nodded. “I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe: men strung up, wounds cut open on their bodies, eggs pushed in through the incisions for warmth and incubation.”

“Incubation?” Adam muttered, his face turning pale. He looked at the Weaveress he had a scalpel to.

“It’s not as bad as he makes it sound,” the girl said. “We don’t usually do it to living bodies. Unless they’re prisoners or terminally ill.”

“Living bodies?” Adam whispered.

Oh, this was working better than Shiv could have expected. Going from casual to scary as his negotiation tactic was paying off. It took him all his will not to break down laughing.

“Now, Adam,” Shiv began, “you have no idea how hard I had to negotiate to preserve your life. But if you don’t surrender soon, I won’t even be able to maintain the sanctity of your corpse. They will make you a mother. Do you understand me? They will make you a mother. They will make your corpse a mother.”

At this, the scalpel fell out of Adam Arrow’s hands, and he leaned back against the wall, seeming like a terrified boy for the first time in his life. The Weaveress scuttled away, and she cried a quick thanks to Shiv, telling him that she’d name her next hatchlings after him, whatever his name was. She was intercepted by the breach team just outside the door, but before they could move in, Shiv held up a hand.

To his surprise, they waited. One of them even nodded at him.

Shiv slowly walked toward Adam. The Young Lord was huddling against himself, hiding next to an overturned medical bed. His silken medical gown exposed recently-healed wounds that formed white outlines of messy scars. Shiv remembered what the Biomancer told him earlier: If the healing was done right, it shouldn’t scar. Shiv wondered what went wrong with Adam.

The Deathless knelt down just a few meters away from the Young Lord—not getting too close in fear of provoking him to action. On the periphery of Shiv’s mana field, he sensed another team of Weaveresses slowly approaching. He checked the scene and held out a hand, signaling them to wait. To his satisfaction, these ones did as well, and no attacks came. Adam’s life was preserved, for now.

“You’re alright,” Shiv said, moving beyond the amusement of messing with Adam Arrow and checking on his mental well-being. Shiv didn’t much like Adam—but “didn’t much like” wasn’t the same as “wanted him to suffer immensely.”

Adam shook his head, his sky-blue eyes wide and terrified as he stared at Shiv. “I was attacked. In a few days I was supposed to be married,” he muttered. “Everything was arranged. I was showing her the garden.”

“Isabella?” Shiv asked.

“Yeah. Isabella Van Stormhalt.”

Shiv thought about Isabella, about how several things during the attack didn’t make sense, but he put it out of his mind for now.

Adam continued. “They attacked us. Attacked Blackedge.” He looked around. “Are these spiders with them? Are we prisoners of war?”

“No, that’s another Faith that committed the attack.”

Adam looked at him. “Another Faith?”

“The Necrotechs. Actually, not even the Necrotechs,” Shiv said. “They’re like a splinter faction, led by someone called Vicar Sullain.”

“Vicar what?” Adam was completely lost now, and Shiv let out a long sigh. The Young Lord knew a lot less of the actual situation than even Shiv did, and Shiv barely considered himself educated about it at all. It was the blind informing the blind. He explained what he generally understood about the situation, and had Valor fill in what he missed. By the end, Adam’s eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Did you… Did they do something to your mind?”

Shiv wanted to say no. Then he thought of Sister Uva. And decided to lie anyway. There was no point in worrying Adam even more. “No. This is what I’ve gathered: We are not dealing with all of the Abyss. In fact, all of the Abyss doesn’t seem to want to deal with us. We are dealing with a splinter group, and they are attacking Blackedge specifically to avenge their failure. Vicar Sullain seems to have a very, very concentrated grudge on your father for destroying him years past.”

“How is he still alive if he’s been destroyed?” Adam blinked. “He’s a lich? An undead?”

“That is not the correct term,” Valor snapped. “You… uncouth ignoramus!”

“Don’t use that word,” Shiv said.

“Which one?” Shiv tried to say the word, but he paused in fear of offending Valor. “Lich?” Adam guessed. Shiv shook his head. “Undead?” he said again.

“Yes,” Valor snapped.

Shiv nodded this time. Adam looked absolutely confused. “But that’s what they are.”

“That’s not what we are. We are not dead. We are not ghosts trapped inside corpses. It’s a symbolic vessel for our… Oh, I’m not explaining this to you..”

Adam stared at the dagger, still unable to process what was happening.

“There are some things you’re going to need to get used to, Adam,” Shiv said, barely able to hide a smirk on his face. “There are some things that, when spoken, sound prejudicial and offensive. And let me assure you, there are people you very much don’t want to offend down here. Valor is one of them.”

“The dagger is one of them,” Adam said, disbelieving.

“Yes, he is a great warrior. He’s simply temporarily trapped inside the dagger. It’s part of his soul or something,” Shiv said. “Anyway, I have good news for you. Before you worry too much, I think I can get us back to the surface.”

And finally, it seemed like a spell broke over Adam.

“Why didn’t you start with that, you bastard?” Adam snapped. And that was the Adam Shiv knew better.

“I didn’t start with that because you had a knife pointed at an innocent person.”

“It was a spider.”

“It’s a Weaveress, and it’s a she,” Shiv said, correcting his own mistake. He took in a deep breath and glared at Adam. “When we leave here—and we are leaving here—you will apologize to all of them.”

“I refuse,” Adam said. “They were keeping me hostage. You! You had them bind me! You said you didn’t know me.”

“Yes, because I was afraid this might happen.”

“That what might happen?” Adam asked incredulously.

“That you might get hysterical and threaten people.”

The Young Lord huffed. “I didn’t get hysterical, and… and…”

Shiv stared at Adam.

“You’re a bastard, Shiv,” Adam finally said, for the third time.

Shiv closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath through his nostrils. “Well, at least you’ve used the right name this time. Broken Moon—it seems like Young Lords truly can learn.”

“Never mind that. Tell me about going back up to the surface. How are we going to help Blackedge? Will”—Adam leaned in—“will the spiders help us? The Weaveresses?”

Shiv stared at him. “Their goddess might. However, you doing this puts some of that in jeopardy.” Adam looked horrified for the first time. “Yes, didn’t think that one through, did you?”

As Adam sank into his own shame, Shiv decided not to continue pressing on the wound. “Adam. Adam, look at me.”

Adam stared at him, blinking rapidly. “You’re going to be fine. We will go back and save Blackedge. There is something we need to accomplish, however. We need to break the siege, and we need to stop the war. Do you understand me? If we do not, there will be a conflict between the surface and the abyss, and that ended poorly last time.”

“The Eclipse War?” Adam breathed.

“No,” Shiv said.

Adam looked confused. “What do you mean, no? Even you should know about the Eclipse War from the histories of the Republic.”

“I’ve learned,” Shiv said, wondering how he was going to approach this conversation, “that there are missing details.”

“What kind of missing details?” Adam said.

“The kind that involves a whole other war—an invasion of the Abyss, conducted by us. Apparently, by your… uh…” Shiv paused. “Your father. He even sacked a Necrotech city called Submission.”

Adam stared at him for a long moment. “Shiv?”

“Yes?”

“I’m now sure they have invaded your mind and turned you against your own people.”

Shiv sighed. “Never mind that. Just know this: We need to get back up. The Weaveresses—and their goddess especially—will have a way for us to get back up. And, ultimately, there is a Quest we need to fulfill. If we fail this Quest, the Abyss will expand to swallow the entirety of Lost Angeles. All of it.”

Adam blinked. “All of it.”

“Yeah, I was surprised too,” Shiv said.

“You even got a Quest… The System must be—Wait, why didn’t I get this Quest?” Adam asked.

“Because you didn’t accept it,” Shiv said.

“Well, I couldn’t accept it. I was… I was here.”

Shiv nodded. “And I was off dealing with proper matters.”

“You… So… what’s the reward?” Adam said, narrowing his eyes.

Shiv looked back at him. “That is restricted information, Adam. I will tell you another day,” Shiv said. “Maybe if you behave. I’ll see if they can give you your armor back too.”

“Shiv,” Adam snarled, his voice severe. “I’m going to…”

Shiv simply grinned. “Adam. The Weaveresses are only holding themselves back because of me.”

Adam opened his mouth, but Shiv beat him before he could say the word bastard. “I’m a bastard? Yes, I know.” Shiv said it with such pride that Adam’s expression turned sour.

A silence lapsed between the two, and Shiv offered his hand. The time for overdue bullying was over. “You want to get up and get out of this place?”

Adam blinked. “I—yeah, I really do.”

Shiv nodded. “All right. I’ll see if I can get you somewhere else. I am staying at a place right now. Well, I believe there’s a couch in the living room.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep