Thirty-Three

"Wild Bunch have successfully finished their evac. Full rescue on all prisoners, minimal casualties," Jurgen reported, his face distorting as the Puca pulled ahead of the rest of the rag tag battle group. Benny was pushing the ship hard as they left the system, her engines were screaming as he cranked the old girl to her full extent.

Kon glanced away from the table and its holographic display to look over to where the cockpit was. He couldn't see Benny, but he couldn't imagine what it was that had him in such a hurry.

"Thank you, Knight Jurgen for your aid in this matter. Knight Benjamin is appreciative as well," Kon said, dipping his head in a nod. Jurgen snorted and shook his own head in disagreement.

"If he was appreciative he would have stayed in system instead of running with the prisoner before mop up was finished. Left so fast I couldn't tell you the news. I have squired your friend Mathis. He wished to say hello, but I wanted him to focus on the mission and thought we could have had a moment to discuss afterwards. Next time, we will have to stay and talk," Jurgen said.

"Thank you, Knight Jurgen. Give him mine and Diur's best regards, that his company is missed as well," Kon said. Jurgen nodded and the line cut off a moment later. Kon slumped back against the seat, feeling tired as the rush of the day faded away.

"You could have at least taken off your armor," Diur said as she came and sat down next to him. Her hair was slightly damp and hung in strands to her shoulder. Her jumpsuit was fresh and she carried a canteen of water as she sat primly next to him.

"You already hung your new sword in your room?" Kon asked as he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and cradling his head. A headache had begun to build, running across the side of his skull.

"Of course. Plenty of room for more as well," Diur said, a slight smile on her face.

"You're a lot more bloodthirsty than you used to be," Kon said, closing his eyes as his skull pounded.

"I am around bad influences too much. You have infected my thoughts and actions."

"Really? Don't see you running around in power armor any time soon," Kon said.

"If your armor is made like I suspect it is. I can't fathom the cost of how much it'll be. Body cultivation is hard, the pain can threaten to derail one's mind, but it is the cost of treasures that will truly stop most. Wealthy scions or favored young masters can afford it, but most don't."

"The pain isn't that bad," Kon said as he tried hard to stop from falling asleep at the table.

"It's something I think I will be experiencing shortly," Diur said. Kon's head popped up as a manic smile filled his face, headache banished to a distant corner of his skull.

"You're going to body cultivate with me?" Kon asked. Diur's face scrunched instantly before relaxing and she laughed from the belly, a deeper sound than one would expect.

"That means something very different than you think. I ask you politely never to say that to cultivators, they'll assume impropriety. And yes, I think this is a journey I must begin if I wish to keep up with you," Diur said. Kon frowned for a moment before his addled mind caught up and made several connections. A blush threatened to escape his control so he dropped his head back towards the table.

"Sorry. You see something in those texts that you'll be able to work with?" Kon asked.

"Yes. My ancestor has forged a path that I will refine. She never had the wealth to body cultivate, but I think I can build upon her swordsmanship and techniques if I work towards a water body," Diur said, her voice taking on the tones people used when they were thinking out loud.

"Hmmm?" Kon asked, his headache returning with a vengeance.

"Daniur sent her personal notes to several advanced techniques that I will start building the foundations too as I have now accumulated enough energy to actually use them. They would work well with a water body," Diur said.

"No, I'm asking what a water body is," Kon said.

"Oh. It wouldn't make my body actual water. Well, not immediately. It's hard to describe at the earliest levels of attunement. It'll be what you are going to start doing as well. I would find myself more flexible than should be physically possible, able to heal faster, things of that nature. As I attune my body and enrich myself with water based treasures I could even, for short periods of time, achieve a liquidity," Diur said. Kon looked up from the table.

"Are you fucking with me? Like actually becoming water?"

"I am not and not quite. More like my body would lose almost all rigidity and I would have near perfect control of the water in my body."

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"Lose rigidity on command? You wouldn't be all…sloshy, all the time?"

"Why would I be, sloshy?" she made sure to fill her voice with scorn at the word, "all the time."

"I don't know. So, it's controlled then," Kon said.

"Yes, it is controlled."

"You two done?" Benny's voice came through the table's speaker, loud enough that it sent pangs of pain through Kon's skull.

"Yes. Why are we in such a hurry?" Kon asked.

"If you stay, you have to clean up and share. I don't want to do either. We'll ride the lane for a bit, stop and interrogate Te'Vin. I've already started working on decrypting the data we stole from their base. Might take a bit of time though," Benny said.

"They have good encryption or something?" Kon asked.

"No. Goblin tribes languages can get…messy. Trying to piece together their language and figure out what the hell it all means. That and there's nearly a century of data buried in the thing."

"What does that mean for us?" Diur asked.

"Kon is owed a rune. Then he can begin to think about what full-rune he incorporates to cap his web. For you, there's a moon around this area that has a nice scattering of rifts. Ran off some weirdo cult there a few decades back, shouldn't be anything above D-Grade. Plenty of fresh energy for you to cultivate," Benny said.

The intercom clicked off but neither of them were dumb enough to think there was anywhere in the ship that the old man couldn't hear them. Kon slowly dragged his head off the table and looked at Diur.

"Final rune to finish my web. I'll probably be stronger than you by then," he said, offering her a competitive smile.

"That is a possibility. I will have to redouble my efforts and start my body cultivation as fast as possible. If this moon Benny speaks of has the required treasures, I could begin there," Diur said. She didn't look too distraught over the thought of Kon surpassing her.

"You know, I'd think you'd be more upset about me becoming stronger. You were pretty competitive back on the ship when we were in the gym," Kon said as he dragged himself away from the table. The stench of his own sweat was wafting up from his armor and he was desperate to get it off and find a shower.

"That is true. But your rate of growth is unparalleled. Combining both of our people's methods has truly started you on a path that I, nor any current cultivator, could hope to keep up with. I simply seek not to be left so far behind that I become a hindrance," Diur said.

"She sounds sincere. But there's a bit of pain in there."

"I don't think you'll be getting left behind any time soon. Who knows, maybe this body cultivation won't work and I'll blow up," Kon said, trying to lighten the mood.

"That is a distinct possibility. You have a reckless penchant for attempting the improbable."

"Not the impossible?"

"If it was impossible, then you would have died. You succeeded once, so now it is simply improbable," Diur said, shrugging with a shoulder as they both headed to the back of the ship.

Kon stripped his armor off and set it on a stand so he could clean it later. Diur helped him with some of the straps that were hard to reach, her fingers nimble as she unbuckled his backplate.

"Should we start working on the post mission analysis now, or after some sleep?" Kon asked as he stacked the gear, wincing at seeing the blood and matter clinging to some of the segmented joints.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep. I'm tired, but I'm still wired," Kon said. There was a deep lethargy clinging to his body, but his mind was still sharp, even with the headache pounding his skull.

"These have been helpful. It's not something really taught to us. Most of our confrontations are against rift beasts or other cultivators, not organized militaries like the Knights do," Diur said.

"Really?Huh. You don't find it weird that nobody has a big organized military?"

"Cultivators cull those who do. You just saw how a small team of Knights demolished those goblins. A full sect displaying their might would have sundered a planet."

"Why not a militarized sect then?" Kon asked as he pulled his boots off and sat there for a moment, enjoying the fresh air blowing over his feet.

"There have been militarized sects before. War-like and expansionist. They have been…unsucesfull."

"Why? Shouldn't they have plenty of power to overwhelm groups or small planets?"

"Something always happens. A system or even a few is one thing. The Ulmna Confederacy is like this. A series of sects and clans working to protect a series of systems we've colonized. But, if they get too far, somehow, calamity always befalls them," Diur said.

"Well, that's not creepy. Some old monsters hiding out who decide to squash the upstarts before they get too strong?"

"It could be. There are many examples and your people have been used many times to end budding empires before they begin. It is something I will need to think about now," Diur said. She sighed and shook her head as Kon headed toward the showers.

"How is that the more time I spend with you, the more I have to question everything?"

"It's cause I don't know shit. I have to question everything and sometimes thinking about something beyond the standard answer can lead you to enlightenment," Kon said. Diur froze for a moment before squinting her eyes and glaring at him.

"Where did you hear that?"

"I paraphrased a speech by an early World-Ship governor," Kon said with a smile.

"I'm taking away your history lessons. You almost sounded wise for a moment," Diur said with a laugh. Kon chuckled along with her, finally relaxing as he closed the door to the showers behind him, glad she didn't see his trembling hands.

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