Forty-Two

"Is that a human ship?" Kon asked as he leaned over Benny's shoulder, his eyes locked on the floating ship that hovered over the planet. Benny pushed him away absent mindedly as he scrolled down a list of menus as the Puca sailed closer to the planet.

"I'm trying to figure out who we are, give me a second," Benny grumbled as he finally clicked on a line of text. The engine rumble changed suddenly, vibrations rattled the deck plates as whatever Benny had just done worked its way through the ship.

"Camouflage?" Diur asked from her seat at the scanners, watching her station with much more diligence than Kon had been watching his.

"Yeah. Should fool these idiots. Ships coming back as an assault cruiser, the Velvet Fist," Benny said with a snort as he looked over a new array of data that flooded his master control. Kon continued to peer over his shoulder and let out a low whistle as he saw just what it was the old man was seeing.

"How do you have their personnel files?" Kon asked.

"Boyo, I helped install the damn databases used to house this information and influenced the writing of the regulations that make sure everyone uses them. Think I don't have a master key to get into them?" Benny said, reminding them all that he was a critically important piece of history.

"Why doesn't it say what Order or Chapterhouse they're from?" Kon said, looking over the list of named Knights and naval officers on the ship.

"They're a freelancer group, like the Wild Bunch. Different than a Chapterhouse, less protections, but less responsibilities," Benny said. He clicked a series of menu, a hint of a frown creasing his face.

"I'm not picking up who they're under contract with. They're breaking some rules," Benny said, sounding genuinely shocked.

"Don't you break rules all the time?" Kon asked.

"Yes. Rules I wrote for others to follow." Diur stifled a laugh as Kon glared down at his hypocritical master.

"Where is this?" Kon finally asked as he slipped back into his own seat as they cut the distance quickly.

"Some planet in the middle of nowhere. Have to find a place off the beaten track so they don't stand out too much and risk people coming to settle old scores, but close enough to the main arteries of the lanes they can get here fairly easily. Also has to have a small population or none at all. Not as easy as you'd think, but the galaxy is a big place and some of them get reused after a century or two," Benny explained as the ship ate the distance quickly, slowing as they got closer to the planet.

"Now, we have our identities ready?" Benny asked suddenly.

"Same as the broker station?" Kon asked.

"No," Diur and Benny said together. Kon groaned as he thought back over the four ready to go false identities that Benny had made him memorize.

"Don't want that little incident being linked back to us. Use a fresh identity," Benny said. Kon started to think of which one to pick but paused as he thought it over.

"Which one would work best?" Kon asked. Benny chuckled and shook his head in wry amusement.

"You're getting lazy. Use the secondary human identity," Benny said and Kon frowned as he thought back to that identity and went through the details.

"A splinter faction of humanity who have inhabited a moon under the aegis of a rogue sect?" Kon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There's nearly two dozen factions you could belong to. It's uncommon but not rare, something that will stick out to someone but not make you the talk of the town. I'd put a few false scars on, dye your hair, and maybe a false beard?" Benny hummed at the last one before shaking his head.

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"Too young for the beard. Do a couple big, ropy scars on your throat and face. Fast wash dye your hair blonde and that should be enough," Benny said. Diur rose and headed toward the back without saying a word, Kon following on her heels as they cut through the ship and toward the makeup room.

"You ever think he enjoys this stuff? He can just use his rune to be invisible or forgotten, but he enjoys the little things like this," Kon said as they settled down to grab the fake scar mix. It was a mix of adhesive and flesh bandaging that Benny had claimed was a state secret. When he had taken Kon through how to use the stuff he'd made several yards worth of it in the right skin tone that would blend in well.

"Of course he enjoys it. The years have weathered and whittled him down, only the things that can bring him joy have survived," Diur said as she started to work on her own makeup. She was staying as an Ulmna, who Kon had found out had several large sects, clans, and even a tradition of wandering cultivators, but she had to change her distinct opal markings.

"That makes sense." Kon focused on applying the fake scar tissue along the tendon on his throat, tracing it upward towards his jaw. He did another scar across the opposite side, running over the bridge of his nose.

"Think you're going overboard?" Diur said, leaning in close to him, looking over the scars with a straight face.

"Naw, it looks perfect," Kon said as he looked in the mirror. His face looked like it had aged decades with just the two scars, giving him a rugged appearance that he couldn't help but preen at.

"You look ridiculous," Diur said as he finished hiding some of her markings on her face, darkening others, while adding a whole new shade of markings that were a vibrant yellow that contrasted sharply with her pale blue skin.

"Yellow?" Kon asked. He couldn't remember any of the other Ulmna having yellow markings on them.

"Different clans have different markings. These are generally found in the southern hemisphere of our primary planet, which is our most populous continent with a series of small sects and clans there. Hard to distinguish unless there's another Ulmna on planet," Diur explained.

"What's the odds of that?" Kon asked.

"We have a strong cultivation culture, but not many drift away from the Confederacy. Less than someone recognizing that your scars are false," Diur said as she finished her markings, having gone down to her collarbones. She grabbed a fresh set of robes, plain emerald robes with black stitching across the bottom that looked like waves.

"Unless someone hits me, I don't think they'll notice they're false," Kon said.

"We're on a planet full of rogue cultivators and your trainer believes in learning by experience. He's not as bad as Alice in that regard, but we will both end up fighting," Diur predicted.

"Can't argue against that," Kon mumbled as he ran his finger over the scars again before shrugging.

"Just won't get hit in the face," Kon said with a shrug while Diur rolled her eyes, both of them leaving the room and heading toward the bridge.

"Have you participated in a tournament like this?" Kon asked as they opened secret hatches and moved closer to the center of the ship.

"Not like this, but smaller ones with local sects friendly to my clan. They're generally friendly enough, but I have a feeling these ones won't be," Diur said.

"Deaths?"

"A strong possibility," Diur said, nodding as she brushed her hip where her sword normally sat.

"Don't know how I feel about that," Kon said. He'd killed goblins and helped in the death of Lupine cultivators, but that had been the heat of battle. The thought of killing someone in a structured manner like a tournament was…unsettling.

"It will be what it will be. Focus on yourself, we need many ingredients to begin pushing you towards D-Grade for body cultivation. Rift treasures, cores, natural treasures, arrays, and more will be needed to properly aid you. All of that will be ruinously expensive," Diur said.

"Benny won't be paying for all of it," Kon said, knowing that the old man was serious about Kon being his apprentice. Benny was also serious about Kon being able to make his own way in the wider galaxy.

"Exactly. So we must participate in cultivators' second favorite activity," Diur said as they reached the cabin door to the bridge, sliding it open and settling in next to Benny. He gave them a once over and grunted in rough approval as they strapped in.

"Second favorite activity? What's the first?" Kon asked. Diur sighed and he could feel her rolling her eyes behind him.

"Meditation. Second favorite it gambling," Benny said.

"We're going to gamble to win what we need? What do we even have to gamble?" Kon asked. He'd drained most of the cores and she'd consumed nearly every treasure they'd had on her two baths.

"We don't need much, the odds will be heavily against us. Traveling cultivators don't have a good reputation in performance in tournaments like this. A few cores and treasures will be enough seed money," Diur said, sounding confident. Kon thought about it and was sure he heard a bit of eagerness in her normally placid voice as well.

"Think she's more eager for this than I am."

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