12 Miles Below

“This is the knight? From Altosk?” Hexis asked, watching the relic user on the lower courtyard. “Doesn’t look quite look the part.”

Knights were usually rather striking. Undersider armor was equipment to be used in combat situations. Surface dwellers had a more ceremonial obsession. Usually they’d cover plates with writing, colors, textures, trophies and other religious trinkets for that strange religion of theirs. Colors especially, since it was a symbol of wealth and power.

This one did not fit the part. Rags and tattered cloth salvaged from the far reaches hid most of the knight’s frame, with the few bits revealed plate looking unadorned. Small hints of blood red marking on the shoulders as the only break in the pattern, but the fabric was covering too much to make sense of the full symbol. The knight remained in seiza position, like most clan knights were known to do when waiting, so at least he had that correct.

He’d put out the message to search for clan knights nearby, hoping to snag a few guides before he left. The chance of finding a clan Altosk knight was next to zero, but regular clan knights were always honored guests to other clans, so traveling with a few would get him seen once he reached the surface.

That he found both a clan knight, and one from the very clan he planned to visit was… suspicious.

He hadn’t gotten any catches, no passing delegations or smaller trading routes were in city at the moment, meaning his options were limited. Very easy for a pretender to hear the summons and decide to play the part. Hexis had to be cautious.

“Doesn’t seem like he fits all the stories I’m hearing. Looks more like a pauper. What vetting has he been put through?”

“Your magnificence, this relic user arrived from the wild reaches. Alone.” Sebastis said, licking his lips as he carefully considered his next words. “And he was carrying enough power cells on his back to fuel a small army of machines. All of them near full.”

“Right. The Numeris forge is around that area if I remember, right?”

If anyone could survive that area alone, they would be quite the survivor. Not exactly evidence of this drifter being a genuine clan knight, but it would be evidence of a skilled veteran.

Or a dedicated conman.

“Carrying a few dozen power cells could be done by having a supplier give him a set just out of sight from the city walls.” Hexis said. “And he could have arrived from a far safer direction, circled around and arrived from the wild reaches instead. Has he shared video footage yet?”

“No, your magnificence.” The butler said, bowing low and sounding slightly frustrated. “The knight has refused to give any evidence other than his word.”

Hexis laughed, “Don’t feel too put off, Sebastis. Ironically enough, that does help convince me he’s a true clan knight more than any of the other circumstantial evidence presented. He has their arrogance at the very least.”

It was all academic of course, he didn’t care about this knight from a force perspective. He needed the political clout that came with that armor. If this man wasn’t a clan knight but dedicated enough to try and con a Warlock, Hexis could make use of that. A few more adjustments, some tips and planning from him and the conman would do his work well enough. Not enough to pretend to be from clan Altosk of course - but from a distant clan, it could work out.

There was one skillset all surface knights had of which a conman simply could not hope to pretend - the surface schools of combat. All knights were masters with their blades and daggers. Simply wearing armor on the surface was something only their elite warriors could afford.

“Have him tested.” Hexis said, waving a hand. “Your master of arms here might not recognize the strange combat arts that savages use, but I’ve seen it in action firsthand. I’ll be the judge.”

The butler nodded, “I have already accounted that you would wish for him to be tested directly.” He waved down at the courtyard to a group of soldiers. One waved back, then gave a lazy point directly at the waiting knight, gathering up the men around him.

Six undersider knights walked forward across the ground a moment later, weapons drawn out. Simple steel practice blades, made to mimic occult blades. The clan knight remained seated, helmet remaining staring straight ahead.

The lead Undersider Lieutenant began to call out instructions to his team, the group of six taking a practiced formation.

Clan knights were well known to be excellent duelists, reliably taking out even veteran soldiers. Only Imperial Imperators could take on clan knights and win.

Things changed once larger scales were applied. Undersider knights were trained to fight as a unit, against an opposing unit of knights. Throw two Undersiders against a clan knight and the surface savage would run circles around them, easily splitting them apart and cutting them down.

Throw a good number of clan knights against the same amount of undersiders, and the fight was far more even. Now the Undersiders had the numbers to respond to division attempts, had cohesion to retaliate and protect their squadmates. Clan knights weren’t ignorant to working with each other, but their battles were far more fluid and relied on individuals being able to move on their feet. An Undersider formation was tailor built and drilled on remaining together as a whole unit.

“Why six against one single knight?” Hexis asked, curious why the man at arms decided to drag an entire wing for this demonstration. The warlock only needed one example to verify the combat techniques. “Have they really been spooked enough to go that far?”

Sebastis nodded. “He has not yet been beaten, your magnificence. A team of four tried earlier and they were eliminated.”

“I see.” Hexis muttered, pondering. The butler had been smart, he’d waited until Hexis was directly here to verify in person. That boast would have rung hollow if they had been just words in the wind.

Hexis watched as the knight stood up slowly, drawing out two practice blades and taking one of the strange stances surface knights fought with. He approved, that matched his memories perfectly.

First time he’d seen surface dwellers take arms, he’d thought it looked ridiculous. Especially the one where they had two fingers pointed right at the enemy, while their blades were lifted far above their head. Something about using the fingers to guide the blade like snow in the wind, or other philosophy like so. They were filled with such things.

He hadn’t thought it so ridiculous after he’d seen the techniques in true action. Whatever they did, it worked. To a point. One against six was far past that point.

The six undersiders advanced as a line, each keeping their blades ready to both protect themselves and the soldier to their sides. Traditional, elegant, and efficient.

The lone knight held his ground, waiting. Then took a step forward and probed the defense with a quick lunge and a set of flying movements. The flowing rags around him made the knight look more like a wraith, skirting about the defensive line.

The line battered him back, following their own experience. The knight darted off to the side, and the line readjusted instantly to keep him fended off at all times. Feints or attempts to bait out the men in the line failed as well. The undersiders refused to break formation for any reason, even to surround one single lone target. The Lieutenant continued barking out orders, moving the line in directions that would slowly pen the knight against a wall.

Once the knight had no place to escape to, it would be over.

“He’s moving rather fast for a knight. Twenty years? Possibly twenty five.” Hexis muttered, analyzing. “Fortunate for us to find such a veteran guide.”

“I take it you already approve?” Sebastis asked, preening. He’d been the one who’d hunted down this rumor in the first place. It was his head on the stake here, but Hexis didn’t hire fools. He had been reasonably confident his personal butler wasn’t going to be fooled by a simple conman. The man has been in the business for years now.

“I do approve.” The warlock said, waving a hand for silence. He wanted to focus. There was far more to this knight than met the eyes.

In general, knights grew faster with more years of experience. Part of the reason Imperials and Undersiders kept technique numbers to a minimum. The less there was to practice, the faster those simple movements could be internalized. In a few years, a soldier was considered a veteran and already moving at near peak speed. A decade or more and those movements would come close to what Imperators could do.

That worked for the kinds of battles Undersiders and Imperials had to fight in, mostly against machines or large armies from another city where individual skills weren’t the deciding factor but rather positioning and follow through. But surface dwellers were hyper-specialized in killing other knights, and their combat techniques were ridiculously large since every movement eventually had a counter developed, and that counter had a counter-counter. And so forth until the entire tree of possible movements was stupidly vast.

Not to mention there wasn’t just one, but three entirely different schools. Took decades to master that many techniques to any kind of speed. On the other hand, even the fastest Undersider wasn’t going to be able to beat a fully realized clan knight. Those three schools of combat were far too effective for something like faster speed to overcome. An Imperator could out-speed something like that, but they were freaks of nature capable of attacking almost too fast to see.

Against machines, clan knights weren’t that much more efficient than regular soldiers even at the highest levels of skill, and so there was little point to learning those schools down here besides a passing hobby for some of the richer nobles.

Regardless - surface culture was all about reputation. A veteran knight was someone important within the clan who has been around for a long enough time to be well known, and so someone Hexis could use to get an easy head start into it.

“What is a knight like this doing wandering alone?” He muttered, watching as the surface dweller not only survived the onslaught - but began to dismantle the six Undersiders. Speed seemed to alternate often, almost as if the knight was making use of only what he needed and relaxing otherwise.

An… odd fighting style. Speed was a constant thing. Once it was developed, it was hard to consciously turn off or limit by default. Hexis hadn’t seen anyone able to modulate speed like this.

Something was off. He suspected the knight wasn't showing his true potential, this all reeked of obfuscation.

From a man who could survive alone in the middle of a devil’s nest, and return with trophies hunted down. Yes, there was more to this.

The movements changed up, the knight deviating from the regular movements Hexis was used to seeing. Now they looked far more wild and made up on the spot. Pairing up with positioning, looking more like a hammer probing among the shell of an oyster, seeking a weak point. He was adjusting.

A moment passed, and the knight lunged right into the formation, slipping through like silk pulled over a smooth rock.

The undersider pair that should have stopped him had been a moment too slow in moving correctly. They were thrown off balance, tossed on the ground or tripped in one fluid motion. The knight then began to strike away at the exposed line, blades flashing out in quick successive blows that lingered just long enough to deal damage. And quick enough to avoid retaliation.

The undersider line reformed swiftly, turning around on themselves and advancing again. Two knights had been eliminated, the armors calculating connection time between blade and plate as long enough to break a shield. And the strike points fatal.

Hexis had seen enough to make a decision already. Watching the knight break a group of six and win was something Hexis remained simply for the novelty at this point.

The Altosk knight continued with the pattern. Find a weak point, break through, eliminate one or two knights, and reset the fight afterwards. And none of the Undersiders could do anything against it.

Eventually, only one knight remained, the last Undersider who’s formation had been too flawless for the clan knight to exploit. Unfortunately for the lieutenant, all his training and skills were worthless when he had no team to fight with.

The grim realization of being pitted against a clan knight in singular combat surely passed through the doomed knight’s head. Still, the man took a step forward, weapon sticking to his fundamentals to the very end.

The surface dweller nodded slowly, raising his blades once more in a different stance. Then advanced and executed a flurry of strikes. There wasn’t any mercy or playing around. Two seconds was all that the Lieutenant could survive, not even managing to parry a single strike.

“It seems the pure soul guides us even now.” Hexis said. “And this knight has mentioned nothing about why he’s around here alone instead of with his clan?”

“No, your magnificence.” Sebastis said. “Only that he seeks passage up to the surface as quickly as possible.”

“A most fortunate request. I just so happen to wish for the same. Now that we have our guide, I see no reason to delay our departure.”

“Is one clan knight all you need as a guide? We may find more if we continue the search for a week. Perhaps one of the further off cities happens to have an expedition team passing by.”

“I would gather a few more. Normally. They always come as a group. But a single knight of his skill from his own clan is something else entirely. We have all the excuse we need to be welcomed as a guest among their ranks, no need to waste more time with anything else. Bring him to me, I would like to question his motives directly.”

“It shall be done at once.” Sebastis said, bowing deep before scurrying off.

Hexis watched as the knight sat back down in the courtyard, waiting for the next fool to challenge him.

But there were many ways of fighting. And just like the surface knight had utterly demolished his opponents, Hexis had his own way of fighting that this knight might not be as well guarded against.

“And Sebastis?” Hexis asked, keeping his eyes fixed down at his target. “Bring out the tea.”

Tea was served by his maid, and set down in an ornate pot before two delicate cups of gold and white ceramic. Behind the warlock, two more maids waited at the ready, while his personal butler stayed off on his right hand side, standing like the rest.

“Have you had Yalsbran vine tea before?” Hexis asked, hands folded over his lap as he watched the knight before them all.

No answer.

That worked fine for the warlock, he preferred it. “Few have. It is a rare and fussy plant you see, refusing to grow in cultivated fields. Like certain mushrooms. It only grows out in very specific mite biomes. Men have tried for years to discover the secrets. Even consulted mitespeakers. Imagine that. Asking mites for help growing a plant.”

The knight said nothing, helmet unmoving.

“Naturally, obtaining such a plant is a delicate process. I don’t mean brewing it either. Logistics. Everything always comes down to paperwork. Have to have both a skilled gardener who knows how to trim and collect the vines, and a full escort detail to make sure such a person can make it to the groves without being killed. And then having the right servant who knows how to best bring out the bold flavors from such a vine, given that there will be few opportunities to practice. To cut out only the parts that are useful, boil only what’s needed and skim off the waste so only what’s needed remains. To brew this tea, it took an entire team working together from multiple different disciplines.”

He waved to his maid. The white leather gloves she wore weren’t simply for show, the pot itself was preheated right down to the handles.

Hexis watched the amber liquid leave seamlessly the spout. “The right pot is a process in of itself as well. As there are no tea remains if brewed correctly, no strainer is needed. Presentation, thus, must take a step forward. Fluid engineers had to mathematically model a perfect spout that would leave no splashing. The inner walls have to be uniform and perfectly smooth, as even rough texture, divots or the smallest burs will create flow separation. Even the nozzle was machined to a knife's edge by a master craftsman. This pot alone is worth a small fortune.”

Indeed, the maid rose the sprout up further, expertly tilting the tea to keep the flow constant, ending with one sharp twist of her wrist to cut the flow at once. She repeated the process on the next cup then set aside the pot. Two seconds was all she took for each cup. And both ended with exactly the same amount.

The knight remained watching. No sign of movement.

“I see this as a metaphor for life. Every small detail matters, put together, to create something. A caravan to the surface is like this tea. A navigator to lead the direction, soldiers to protect the convoy, engineers to keep the airspeeder running, logistics teams to prepare food, water, and vet the right people. And finally, one guide for the surface itself. The question now is if you are that missing piece?”

“You would not have brought me here to speak to you if you had not already decided.” The knight said. His voice was strange, almost echoed. As if the armor was repeating at the same time. An odd request to make to relic armor, but again, surface savages were just as obsessed as he was in presentation. In their own ways.

“Indeed.” Hexis said, taking his cup and smelling the vapors for a moment. Everything was already pre-dissolved within the tea. To add sugar or additional ingredients now would be to insult the brewmaster. “However, if we are to work together, I need to know more about you. Strange men walking from the far reaches should not be blindly trusted after all.”

“You do not need to know more about me, warlock.” The knight said. “You only need to know what I can do.”

“Distrustful?”

“No. Disinterested.”

He nodded. Regrettable that a display of Yalsbran vine tea seemed more wasted on such a hick. Most Undersider delegates would have been awed by his speech earlier. But not every tool could be used in every situation.

The tea was very tasty on its own regardless. Even if the company was lacking in social graces, Hexis wasn’t going to let one stone man ruin an otherwise perfect cup of tea. Life had to be savored.

“We’ll be departing tomorrow at fifth bell. Engineers are currently outfitting three airspeeders, two for protection detail and the third for my own comfort. I expect a day’s worth of travel to reach an ingress point on the surface, followed by a straight line through the white wastes. I assume you have no issue with joining our convoy as a guide?”

“No issue.” He said.

“Soldiers I have on hand will be in charge of combat should the metal devils get in our way. Your Othersiders traditionally do not attack any Undersider delegations, for obvious reasons. And particularly not one with a warlock aboard. You will be hired not as a bodyguard like most surface knights generally are, but as a guide and introduction to the clan. Do we have an agreement on this? You may come with us, but in exchange I want access into your clan.”

“The clan will decide that. I cannot assure that you will be welcomed.” The surface knight warned.

Hexis tutted, waving the issue off. Then took a deep sip of his tea, breathing in the warm air to get the full flavor.

The knight wanted to return home. If he were desperate, he would have given Hexis any kind of reassurances or said anything at all to be part of his convoy. That the knight chose to give Hexis a more real answer was information inadvertently whispered.

Alone out in the wilds, but not desperate to return home. Despite the impending attack from the Otherside. And clearly capable of fighting. Was such a person related to the sword saint? A discarded disciple? Or one that was separated away during the fight with a Feather?

Yes, this man was absolutely part of whatever conspiracy surrounded clan Altosk, Hexis concluded by his second sip. Already moving on from his conclusion to the next topic.

“Your clan will not reject me.” Hexis said. “I am well informed of what the stakes are. The Othersiders above are massing up to sweep through the white wastes in numbers not seen for… well, ever. Even the Undersider cities nearby are beginning to worry that your unfriendly neighbors will have eyes bigger than their stomachs.”

“We will not falter to animals.” The knight said, a little too confident. Confirming Hexis’s suspicions.

“Yes.” Hexis said. “Yes, I am also quite certain you won’t. You do have a sword saint, four disciples and a Deathless. Rumors are also floating around about the current war effort. I’m sure you’ve heard already, given your current answer. Why, many of it seems outright… fantastical.”

The relic knight said nothing. His cup remained untouched, rapidly cooling past the optimal temperature.

He wouldn’t be able to bring Yalsbran vines with him, those had a notorious half-life when it comes to flavor, but the teaset was versatile and could easily be used by a skilled brewmaster. Surely someone in clan Altosk could understand the deep flavors of tea, although he suspected it would be one of their traders. The few surface dwellers allowed to venture underground, and trained to negotiate with people like himself. And given the current alert state, all the clan's traders would be locked down to keep them safe. So he would find at least some nugget of civilization deep within those walls.

“Might I have your name then? That, at least, should be fine to know, my mysterious friend.” He asked, reaching out for the unused cup and replacing it with his empty one. An extremely rude and uncouth gesture by anyone’s common sense, but Hexis was fond of his little teas and this particular one was his favorite. He wasn’t going to watch a cup be wasted. Nor did he think the knight cared about such displays in the first place.

“Sagrius Winterscar.” The man said.

“Very well then, mister Winterscar.” Hexis said, raising the second cup up in a small toast. “To the road ahead. Perhaps on the journey there, you will let me know more about what left a man such as you, all alone down here. I am sure that would be quite an interesting and thrilling tale.”

And possibly give more clues about the rumored sword saint herself.

Seems his work had started before he’d even stepped through the clan gates.

Next chapter - The grand return home

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