An Arcanist's Citadel 8 (Patreon)

An Arcanist’s Citadel

Chapter 8

-VB-

Seeing as he wasn’t needed, Hide spent a few days visiting my family and “making connections” with the local elites, who were not expecting me to be connected to the Emperor of the new Qin. Both sides were very happy to form a trade treaty to reroute the latter’s eezo trade towards Elysium, which it was closer to than Arcturus, which was the direction of trade flow for most things leaving Qin. After that trade deal got made, he and his people left. 

The church and the Alliance spooks didn’t leave during Hide’s stay and only moved to continue their operation after he left. 

The church… stayed put. They made their stance clear, and while they looked very unhappy to be on Elysium, they still stayed to collect data. 

The Alliance spooks were not satisfied with the church’s inaction after their first encounter with me and chose, perhaps unwisely, to confront me themselves. 

Wisely, they approached me when I was out and about by myself while en route to check up on how my businesses were doing. 

A good boss was a boss who kept a close eye on his business instead of letting someone else run it, and keeping a close eye was different from micromanaging. 

“Mr. Marris?” 

I sighed as I looked at the two Alliance spooks in plainclothes. 

“You two from the Alliance?”

“We might be.”

“You are or you aren’t.”

“... We are.”

“Good. Is this going to be long or short? Or are you going to say something stupid, piss me off, and get the treatment the church-goers didn’t get because they were smart?”

The two looked at each other. “We would prefer to be polite.”

“... Alright. There’s a cafe across the street that I own. Let’s go.”

I said and just walked on over while they looked at each other again, nervously, and then followed. 

The cafe was open and there were a few patrons here and there. They saw me, raised their cups in salute, and then back to their conversations or reading. The manager currently manning the counter saw me and the spooks, nodded, and opened the doors to the second story “quiet” rooms. 

We walked up the stairs and got into a room that had noise cancelling and soundproofing. 

“Alright,” I said as I gestured to them. “Let’s hear it.”

“The Alliance would like to know how to do what you did.”

“Pass,” I replied immediately. “Aside from the fact that this isn’t something you can mass manufacture like how you can train soldiers, it’s not something that bears fruit in an individual for decades.”

Was I alright with letting them have that tidbit of information? I didn’t mind. Aside from the fact that they have to guess how old I was, they might consider me and my family “not a threat” to them if it took decades to train someone. 

Of course, this didn’t take into account having half a decent teacher and materials for improvement to cut down on the required time. 

The agent on the left, a young woman from her looks, pursed her lips. “The Alliance can offer a lot for your services, even if it is to perform passive assignments.”

“The Alliance,” I drawled. “Is built on a house of cards and caters more to its alien overlord. Even though biological and artificial intelligence research are the future of technology, you banned both of them to make the Citadel Council happy.”

“The parliament chose to do that because there were clear and present dangers just like how dangerous you are.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a threat about classifying what I do in the same category as AI and biotech, Mr. Intelligence Officer,” I hissed as I leaned forward. I know exactly what the Alliance can bring to the field with its navy and army, but those don’t scare me. I highly suggest you don’t make another attempt at threatening.”

“And you think you can win against a whole civilization?”

“I can win. The question is whether or not you want to be alive to be lynched for being the cause of the confrontation.”

To prove a point, I waved my fingers, drawing a series of manuscripts with a combined total of a hundred strokes in under three seconds. 

The young woman slumped in her seat. 

That immediately got the big guy to react. 

But I didn’t do anything other than pull out a crystal and set it down on the table.

And from it, the young woman’s voice rang out in a panic.

She screamed. 

I simply leaned back and crossed my arms while waiting for him to do something. 

He stared at the crystal, panting in fear and panic. Then he looked back up at me, staring at him with cool eyes. 

Then, slowly, he sat down and raised his hands up.

I waved my fingers again.

The screaming stopped screeching out from the crystal and the young woman shot up from her slump with a panicked gasp. 

The big guy quickly got a hold of her before she ran out in terror. 

“Souls are real. Spirits are real. Afterlife is real,” I calmly told them. “Though you can’t see them, you know people who can. Ask them what I’ve done with the Batarians before you come back to ask what I might do to you if you make another threat, okay?” I paused after picking up the crystal. “Oh, and enjoy my cafe’s amenities. This room is for, ah, couples, you see. No sound escapes,” I smiled and left. 

Though no sound may escape, I could hear the echo of the young agent’s soul crying out at what almost happened to her. 

After all, she wasn’t the only one in that crystal. 

I supposed that this was what should have happened on the first day I met the Catholic exorcists and the Alliance spooks when they came together. 

‘I guess the Catholic Church here has its shit together more than the government.’

And wasn’t that something? 

-VB-

“... The target has left without the Alliance agents in tow.”

“Affirmative. Go as planned.”

“Confirmed.”

They followed him from a distance as he made his way back to the car and then left the city. 

There was a considerable distance between the city and his manor at the edge of the municipal district, and this was where they were going to strike. 

Though she didn’t know why the Systems Alliance was playing such a careful hand with this obvious supersoldier, she and her sisters were here to send a message to the Systems Alliance. 

They didn’t get to develop a supersoldier program. Not on the Council’s watch.

But as they moved, things began to … break.

First, it was sand in their boots. Which made no sense because they wore full body suits. 

Next, it was their vehicles suddenly dying and restarting on their own. 

Then, it was Janani collapsing without cause.

And finally, they began to choke. 

The computers read that there was nothing wrong with their suits or the atmosphere, but they choked. 

And choked.

And choked.

And silence fell.

When the locals found the bodies of five Asari commandos, they were quick to “disassemble” them for their gear. Their equipment were scanned and wiped of any tracking. Their bodies were burned. 

And Councilor Tevos never heard back from them again, which only gave life to the previously non-existent conspiracy about the System Alliance’s superhuman program. 

Once Councilor Tevos didn’t hear back from her personal commando team… things started to escalate.