Adamant Blood

Mark found himself at the bar taking a shot of whiskey.

He moved on.

He walked over to the pool area where a bunch of kids were running around under the sun, screaming and playing and diving and swimming, while the adults stood around watching the kids and talking with each other. Someone was grilling burgers on a large grill that was actually a whole mini-kitchen, built into some brickwork a little bit away from the pool, on a stone circle surrounded by grass and dads all talking to each other about the right way to cook meat. They were probably talking politics, too.

Mark heard ‘Addashield’s Dragon’ every now and then as he walked over to get another beer from the open bar by the pool. He got a big burger from some big guy who was grilling them up.

He walked… somewhere.

Isoko found Mark under a tree, looking at the gardens. “Hey there.” She sat down on the ground with him. “So the Villain Program is a no-go, huh?”

Mark huffed a laugh. “This whole thing has been a rather eye-opening experience.” And then Mark was simply silent, and so was Isoko. The sounds of kids splashing and yelling and playing filled the air. Someone had some music playing in the house somewhere, and song flowed out into the yard as the trees tousled in the breeze. Mark said, “Intellectually, I knew that people did dishonorable things to promote the general welfare of all of humanity, but… is it really dishonorable to ignore a problem that is beneficial in the short term in favor of promoting the general welfare? I don’t know. All I really know is that I’m not cut out for politics and all this maneuvering.” He looked at Isoko. “Unless I’m mistaken, the Villain Program is all about politics.”

Isoko said, “People don’t usually fight each other or monsters with any sort of brains to them. It’s the same for heroes. It’s not widely publicized, but the ones who actually kill dragons are those who have a lot of experience fighting people. Inquisitors, Mark. In all of Daihoon that’s who kills dragons; the same people who kill murderers and Fallen and demon-touched. Not the people who kill kaiju; they’re different spheres that overlap, but they are not the same. You want experience fighting people and killing the true monsters, then you become a villain and you get heroes aiming at you every week to be put down, or else you get put down yourself and you suffer, like, a week in a comfy ‘jail cell’ that’s… Well that’s a whole thing. And yeah, there are cameras and shit like that, but you get the experience to fight anyone and everyone.

“Grandma has killed four dragons in her lifetime.”

Mark’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of dragon killing… And then he looked at Isoko. “Why are you pushing for this?”

“Because I can’t do shit against the big threats in the world, Mark,” Isoko said, her voice containing depths of rage that she kept as hidden as she could. After a moment to compose herself, she continued, “That’s my burden to carry from now until forever. You will be able to do what I cannot. That split that I talked about, between kaiju-capable warriors and otherwise? You don’t know the true depths of that split because you were raised fundamentalist. You didn’t know the true nature of the world until recently, but that gap is there, and it is the largest gap in the world. It’s a gap that Daihoon dealt with by making Contracts with demons, to make archmages and maybe even dragons that would help humanity. They succeeded enough that they didn’t die, and that is about all that can be said about that history. The Two Worlds are doing better than that these days. A lot better. We get by with coordination and City AIs and vast resources that Daihoon never had. Our heroes can kill kaiju without demons or dragon help, if they’re suited for it, if they’re lucky, and if they have access to those vast resources…

“But there’s another gap.

“The gap between a dragon-killer and a kaiju killer. It’s much smaller than the gap between monster killer and kaiju killer, but there’s still a gap. It’s an airy sort of gap, too, because it allows some people to cross it, like grandma, because fighting a dragon is a lot different than fighting a kaiju. It requires true talent and a lot of expertise.”

After a moment of silence, Mark looked at Isoko, and said, “You’ve been dealing with that rage for a long time, haven’t you.”

Maybe she thought she could bridge the gap to killing dragons, but from her tone, that was a special path that was forever denied to her, but people like Wandering Sage could cross it.

Isoko sighed, chuckled in a small, unknowable sort of way, and then said, “Yes. In case you couldn’t connect some dots, grandma is a Sky Shaper. Mom is a Wind Shaper and Dad is a Mist Shaper. I ended up with Platinum Body; completely unsuitable for everything that the family focuses on, and unable to rise high. Brawny was a 4% chance on my False Tutorial. Easy enough odds to roll. I ended up losing that roll.”

Mark felt a kinship in that moment. “… I had a 96% standard brawny roll, so I had to do something drastic. I think I ended up losing that roll in a lot of ways, too.”

Isoko huffed a small laugh. “Yeah. You did. I’m gonna be a monster killer. You need to rise higher than anyone in order to survive the real world.” She eyed him. “That’s another reason for joining the Villain Program.”

“… Yeah?”

“Grandma is pretty sure that if you try to become some great hero, like you want, then your ‘brother’ is going to be pissed if you get any sort of spotlight at all. Dragons are very vain, Mark. If you turn hero and talk of killing him, or anything like that, then he’ll get mad. If you turn villain and talk of killing him, then he’ll say ‘yup, that guy is a villain! Look at me! I’m a hero!’ and he’ll turn ‘hero’.”

Mark had no idea what to do with that information.

Mark said, “I have no idea what to do with that information.”

“I wouldn’t either, if I were in your shoes.”

Mark looked away.

After a moment, he said, “I don’t much like the politics of governing a world, and would like to not be a part of all of that. The truths here are all murky, at best. I much prefer the idea of killing monsters because they need killing, saving people because they need saving, and leaving all concerns for dragons calling me ‘brother’ to the side.”

After another moment, Isoko asked, “Does it bother you, for him to call you brother?”

“Yes... and no. I haven’t interacted with him at all. If he is Addashield in disguise then yes, I would be furious beyond measure. But… They had dragon rulers in Daihoon for the last 5,000 years, didn’t they? Ever since the Veil solidified in that ancient time and split our worlds firmly in two, they were walking a path of dragons as rulers, as powers. Better than demons? Who knows. I certainly don’t know anything at all. I do know I’m an only child who never really thought about having a brother at all… So I don’t know what to do with him as a… brother.” Mark asked, “Is your grandmother’s theory of him turning evil if I turn ‘hero’ a real concern?”

Isoko said, “Yes, to her. To others as well.”

“Then I probably need to run away and not allow myself to affect whatever he does for a long while.”

Isoko grinned. “Running away is a good sideways solution.”

Mark suddenly asked, “Why has he not chosen a name yet? I don’t get that. Of all the things I hear, I don’t understand that the most.”

Isoko shrugged. “I don’t know.” She nodded at his empty beer bottle. “Want another beer?”

Mark chuckled. “Yes! And everything else, too… and thank you. For coming out here.”

Isoko smirked, saying, “You should know that I was sent by my grandmother just as much as I came myself.”

Mark laughed. “What was the split? 60/40?”

“Oh I was 100% already headed your way, for sure. My reasonings for wanting to help you were just updated when grandma took me aside, and I think her reasonings worked better for you than my own. You’re a good person, Mark, and you have no idea how rare that is.”

Mark stood up, saying, “Bah! People are basically good!”

Isoko stood up, too. “When they’re not tested they can afford to be good, so they're are good. That’s not the same thing as actually being good.”

“… Maybe, yeah. But how often does that happen? Not often, I bet.”

Isoko snorted a laugh, just once. “You and I have led very different lives.”

“Everyone does, right?” Mark walked back to the party with Isoko, asking, “So what were your reasonings for coming over here?”

“I like you and think you’re cute and I want to fuck around with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not interested.”

Mark felt his face heat up. “Err… Yeah. Not interested. Sorry.”

“Boys, then?”

“Not that either. No one, actually. At all.”

“Oh! … Well. That’s cool. So sushi? I want some of that and I think they just set out a new spread.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had good sushi! I would like to try it, though.”

Isoko smiled. “So you’ve had bad sushi?”

“Mom and Dad and I would go out…” Pause. He continued, “—to this place in Orange City sometimes because Dad loved it, but I tried every kind of sushi they had and I never saw the appeal. I hope that high-class sushi can change my mind.”

It hurt to talk about Mom and Dad, but it also felt good to talk about them.

Mark felt a lot of ways about that thought, turning it this way and that way in his mind as Isoko took up the conversation, talking about how to properly prepare sushi and what fish is best and all of the various arts of sushi that Mark had never known before. When they got to the sushi table, Isoko showed Mark how to eat it properly and then again how to eat it to make it taste good (which were two different things, somehow).

Mark decided sushi was okay.

“I suppose it’s not for everyone,” Isoko said.

Mark laughed. “Have you had those burgers off of the grill? That guy is a great cook.”

“Not yet! I do want one, though…”

- - - -

Eliot looked down from the balcony at the pool area. Mark was down there with that Kanno girl and with a few other acolytes from the week’s Class, all talking about the resolution to that week’s Empire of Foodstuffs. One of Mark’s minders started walking up from the sides; the Paladin Orissa, if Eliot remembered correctly, and he was pretty sure he did. A quick check on his phone told him that yeah, he did have that right.

Orissa met with Mark and Mark looked embarrassed for a moment —probably about breaking that glass and spilling wine; everyone would be talking about that for years— but Orissa waved him off, probably telling him not to worry about it.

One of the acolytes moved in to talk about something unrelated, and then that person’s partner moved the conversation around to training missions, and ‘Oh! You’re up for a training mission too, huh, Mark? Fancy that!’.

Gods above, that guy was in the eye of a storm of popularity and intrigue.

Eliot was pretty sure the guy either fully recognized that fact, and he maintained his core beliefs —the Villains hadn’t persuaded him, after all— or he was oblivious.

But he clearly wasn’t oblivious.

Cousin Tomou nudged his shoulder with his own, saying, “He’s not that unstable.”

Eliot scoffed. “I’m not worried about that.”

“You should be. I’m worried about that,” Tomou said. “My father and uncle tried to talk to him about our new ocean wall but he exploded at both of them and then rapidly apologized and then he started crying.”

Tomou was Nigerian, and Addashield’s Dragon had put down an ocean wall across their bay last month, finally securing the pass between Asaba and Onitsha. That entire inland-sea behind that new wall was now truly usable territory, as long as they kept it clear of monsters, which they certainly could, now that new monsters weren’t crawling inside all the time. If Mistress Storm and Red Thunder were still alive, then they would have had no problem clearing that entire place. It would have taken them several days, but that was fine. Without those two, it was going to take a year or five to clear that ocean.

Even still, Nigeria was set on a path to becoming one of the largest powers in Africa because of that ocean wall, though it was already pretty much there. The wall just secured their base of power.

Cybersong’s Nigerian cousins were going to get very politically powerful. More than they already were, anyway. Tomou wasn’t handling it very well, in Eliot’s opinion.

Eliot said, “Of course he exploded at you. You guys tried to get him to talk about maintenance plans. Holy shit, Tomou. Just talk to the dragon himself.”

Tomou strongly said, “We’re not talking to the dragon himself. That would be a violation of the Humanity Accords.”

“Like all the rest of humanity isn’t violating those accords daily, and even more so now…” Eliot’s voice trailed away as he looked down at Mark, and at all the people circling him who were clearly waiting for a proper moment to talk. He wasn’t worried about most of those people. One shark made him very worried. A woman in pastel pinks and a sequined hat. “Oh gods. Crystal Tower’s Villain Program failed their bid, so now the Hero Program is trying? I thought the general consensus was that that was a bad idea.”

The woman in pink was Ivona Gusca, also known as Mind Dancer; the Recruitment Coordinator for Crystal Tower.

Tomou said, “Ivona is probably going to try and direct him to the Villain Program, too. They can’t have Mark’s opinions about the dragon shouted out of a hero’s mouth.”

Eliot had too many sudden thoughts about all of that, so his mouth moved faster than his brain.

He exclaimed, “It’s crazy to care about what that dragon wants! We should drive him off like we did all the rest. Tell me I’m not insane, Tomou.”

Tomou said, “You’re insane.”

“I said to tell me the opposite of that.”

“Addashield’s dragon is a High Dragon. Not just a smart kaiju, but a person-like kaiju. The High Dragons ruled all of Daihoon for 5,000 years, and some of them were even benevolent.”

Eliot felt some kinda hypocrisy in the air. He eyed his cousin. “So explain again why your people won’t talk to him, if he’s so benevolent?”

Tomou scoffed. “We won’t violate the Humanity Accords, but at the same time we know what is what.”

Eliot found himself suddenly not caring about that dragon anymore. “Ugh, gods. I don’t want to talk about this shit anymore.”

“Fine, fine! So when are you going down there to make a plan with him for a training mission? Your mother bid heavily to make this week her week. Don’t throw it away.”

“When did you turn into such a politician, Tomou.”

“When a High Dragon changed the fortunes of our city overnight and both father and mother slapped some sense into me.”

Eliot rolled his eyes and said nothing. Instead, he put hands to the railing and looked down. Mark was talking with Ivona now, and it seemed to be going… about as well as could be expected. Eliot stressed some sensors in order to listen in.

Mark didn’t want to be a part of any Hero or Villain Program. He wanted to do real work in the real world; not do jumped up propaganda and placation shows for the populace. Of course he was nicer about it than that, but Eliot could read between the lines. Everyone could.

Eliot backed away from the railing and snatched up his glass of wine again, saying, “I kinda like how he wants to go out into the wilderness and just kill shit. It’s plain honorable… But fucking hell, Tomou, I’m a Man-made Manipulator. I don’t want to whittle spears out of trees, or get trapped weeks from civilization.”

“You’re getting way ahead of yourselves. It’s just a training exercise. What could go wrong?”

“Ah. So now you’re cursing me. I see how it is.”

Tomou laughed. “I can do just fine away from civilization for a month. What’s your fucking problem?”

Eliot frowned at him. “You told me you hated your expedition to the Richat Structure.”

Tomou smirked. “Nothing quite like holing up in a cave in the ground that you excavated yourself while the monsters prowl overhead. Makes you appreciate civilization more. It might be the same for Mark.” He shrugged. “Worst case scenario you get a massive first video with millions of views. Maybe two or three videos.”

Eliot rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah yeah. I already thought about that…” His voice trailed off as he looked downstairs again. Looked like Mark was moving on to somewhere else. Back to the food? Oh yeah. Back to the food. Eliot breathed deep, and then he said, “Okay! Time to do this.” Eliot downed the rest of his wine glass and picked up his phone. “COFR. Can I actually get a training mission with Mark Careed in a timely manner, or is he still under watch?”

The phone flickered gold. Citadel of Freyala Resources said, “Training missions for Mark Careed are subject to approval. You have already been approved.”

Eliot breathed out softly—

Tomou looked affronted. “You mean you didn’t already know?”

Eliot laughed. “Come on now, cousin Tomou! Contrary to perception, I do a lot of pre-planning and quintuple-checking.” Eliot started walking inside but he turned back briefly, saying, “I was unapproved as of an hour ago, and I bet you’d still be unapproved if you bothered to check.”

Tomou straightened up and then he fell in line with Eliot, walking with him. With a quick whisper he asked his phone, “Can I get a training mission with Mark Careed?”

“Training missions for Mark Careed are subject to approval. You are not approved.”

“Well okay then.” Tomou put his phone back into his pocket, saying, “Good luck on your bardic career, Eliot. The world will be watching.”

Eliot grinned wider. “Gods I hope so.”