Dead Star Dockyards

"Ahaha! WOW!" Donovan's stalker and assailant spoke clearly despite his head being embedded a quarter of the way into the dirt. "That one stung a little!"

If Donovan was a normal person, he might have become demoralized at that. Any normal person would have either died or been debilitated by this, even the stronger necked individuals would probably be knocked out, but Donovan recognized that his opponent was not fighting back. Given his attitude, it was highly likely that he had become conceited after noticing the insurmountable disparity in power between them, but that didn't mean this man was invincible. As a matter of fact, Donovan had three friends on hand who could put this man's defenses to the test, they just needed to land a hit. 

Despite Donovan's poor position from a grappling perspective, beneath his opponent's center of mass, he managed to get out from underneath and pin the arm he had grabbed to the ground, firmly placing one of his knees onto the man's elbow. Pulling hard on the hand, Donovan used his opponent's strangely stiff arm as a lever to force him into the ground. Unfortunately Donovan wouldn't be able to entangle the legs, so it would be possible for the man to get some leverage back, but for the moment he was restrained.

"KAYES!"

Donovan heard footsteps rapidly approaching him, but for some reason Kayes halted.

"Sheath your blade, Bishop." Donovan could not see what was going on, but he could hear Nemo saying something. "We don't want t-to get involved."

Despite the neutral tone, Donovan could make out hints of fear in her voice, which did nothing to improve his prediction of future events. Nemo fell into the general category of 'espionage agent' in Donovan's mind, the same with this man. If there was anybody present who would be able to identify an additional threat, it would be her.

"Nemo . . . why?"

"Nemo, do you think I won't cut you down as well?"

". . . I should have brought a gun as well."

"P-please understand! We can't beat him!"

"So you'd put a knife to my throat?"

Donovan felt like he'd been stabbed in the back.

- - - - -

The first thing Nemo had done after recovering from the shock of his reveal was to put her weapon back into its sheath. At her level, it would have been less than worthless to use it should he actually attack her. Her hands, her body, was better suited to fending him off despite it being weaker than her blades. The second thing she had done was determine which person should be the hostage, which was so easy it came to her instinctually. 

It wasn't because Gawan was weak, though that would certainly make it easier, but because Trebar and Kayes would be unable to risk his life. He may be the successor to the Montaug, the person who's ultimate duty is to be a sacrifice, he was not the Montaug yet. As such, Trebar and Kayes would do everything in their power to ensure that he survived this encounter - Montaug was too old to properly train another successor. 

She also knew that a threat to Gawan's life wasn't something he could ignore while in the vicinity.

As such, Nemo placed her fingernails up to his jugular, penetrating enough for tiny beads of blood to start rolling down into her clothing. This was not a lethal injury, not even close, but Gawan could very quickly become a dead man with so much as a thought from Nemo. That was all it would take for a lethal dose of her own blood to enter his body. 

"Let go of Lord Strauss!" Nemo stated her demands clearly, ignoring her disgruntled compatriots who didn't quite understand the danger they were all in. "If you don't, I'll kill him." Nemo was intimately familiar with this man. It was this familiarity that informed her actions, the only way she could imagine he would stop. "Y-you know what happens if I do, don't you?"

". . . who said you could get in the way of my fun?" His voice was muffled, a combination of his face in the grass and being directed away from her. "She said that as long as I don't break the rules-"

"I WILL FUCKING KILL HIM!!!" Nemo's vision was shaking, she was quickly losing her nerve. His voice was enough to arouse a primal fear within her, one she could only push through by screaming. 

". . ."

"GET AWAY FROM THE EMPEROR!!!" Nemo pulled Gawan in tighter, pushing slightly deeper into his neck to emphasize her point. "I WILL END US!!! ALL OF US!!!"

". . . fine." That word alone felt like a nail being hammered into her brain. "Hey, kid, mind letting go of my arm? I don't think forcing my way out of this will end well."

Nemo could not peel her eyes from that man for even a second if she wanted to ensure the safety of all involved. It followed that she could not address him if she wanted to keep her focus. Nemo could only hope that Donovan would relent in this situation, and that he wouldn't escalate this mess further.

"NOW LEAVE!!!"

"What? Why?"

"LEAVE!!!"

"Bleh, have it your way." In an instant, he disappeared. Trebar and Kayes looked around warily, searching for danger, while Donovan was focused on a point in the distance . . .

"I SAID LEAVE DAMMIT!!!" A moment after the words left her mouth, Nemo's instincts kicked in. Dropping like a rock with Gawan in tow, a swishing of air above her head followed by a light *thunk* on the wall behind them told her this was as much of a concession as he would assent to. Panting, the strength leaving her body, Nemo looked to the wooden wall behind her.

A black needle protruded from the wall, the wood around the place it was embedded turning a vile black as it rotted.

- - - - -

Donovan continued to stare intently at the location he knew that man was currently observing them from. He couldn't see anything to suggest it, it wasn't possible for him to make out footprints at this distance, but he was absolutely certain that he was there. Donovan could feel it. 

". . . can you let go of me now?"

"Gimme a second."

Now that Donovan had the opportunity, he spared a glance back towards the rest of the group. Nemo was atop Gawan, thumb on the back of his neck while the rest of her fingers pressed into his throat. Her fingers were a little bloody, but the damage did not appear to be severe. One thing that stood out to Donovan was Nemo's eyes, dilating. 

"What the hell. . ." He didn't know what to say. "Nemo?"

"I-I'm sorry, my lord! It was the only way!"

"The only way to what!?"

"It was the only way to drive him away!" Nemo had removed herself from Gawan, and had assumed a dogeza position on ground. She seemed to be making herself as small as possible. "We wouldn't have been able to defeat him."

"Who is he?" Donovan was confused, how did their inability to defeat him transfer to a need to threaten Gawan's life? That didn't track. "Nemo?"

"Our Watcher." Nemo clenched at her chest. "The Watcher of the Nameless."

"Soooooo . . . is he your leader?"

"NO! No." Nemo paused, her breathing growing ever heavier. "He's the prisoner keeping the rest in line. Whenever somebody breaks the rules, he is the one doling out punishment on the Progenitor's behalf."

Donovan, still on edge, felt the urge to get out of that man's line of sight. If he was under the Arboreal Maiden he shouldn't have anything to worry about, but given Nemo's reaction this Watcher guy probably wasn't the most amicable of individuals. He threw a cautious look back before hoisting Nemo up, only for her to fall back down. 

"Why? Why is he here? Did I do something wrong?" Nemo was breaking down faster and faster. Donovan wasn't quite sure what he should be doing.

". . . Gawan? Are you good?" A brisk inspection told him there was no danger to Gawan's life, but he still felt the courtesy to ask. Despite what the blood might suggest, the damage was surprisingly insignificant. There was already a decent amount of scabbing, though the flow had not yet been completely stymied.

"I'll probably have to throw away this shirt, but otherwise I'm fine." Gawan looked to be a little out of breath. "I'm more concerned as to why we resorted to a hostage situation rather than, say, something else entirely. Nemo?"

Nemo was unresponsive.

- - - - -

"Nemo."

". . ."

"Nemo."

"What must I do to atone?"

"Right now? Tell me who that guy is. We can talk about an actual punishment later." Donovan, Diana, Trebar, and Kayes surrounded Nemo in a room without windows. Here they could keep away from the eyes of the Watcher, Donovan seemed confident he wouldn't enter the Barracks.

"The Watcher? I, um, I don't know if I should tell you."

"Why?"

"Because I don't know what he would do to me, or you." Donovan rubbed his eyes. Nemo had managed to collect herself, but she was incredibly reluctant to talk about this Watcher character. Donovan had come to the conclusion that he was like a boogeyman to the Nameless given the abject horror with which she treated him. "I've only seen him twice, not including what happened today, and I don't know if everything I was told about him is true. What I do know is that he has an awful temper, and has killed some of our clansmen for slights considerably lighter than that which I committed against him today."

". . . Does the Arboreal Maiden know about that?" Kayes seemed suspicious of something. "I've worked with your people for decades now, the Theocracy as a whole has been cooperating with you since our inception, and this is the first time I'm hearing anything about him. Then again, you people tell us fuck all about your internal politics, but I feel like his existence is something we should have been notified about."

"Really?" Trebar seemed surprised. "I thought you were about to give us a lecture about him. Don't you claim to know everything there is to know about the Velar?"

"Evidently not."

"Uh, sorry." Diana, still struggling to process what had happened in her absence, desired more information. "What's this about internal politics? Is there something I should know?"

Kayes cringed slightly, he hadn't meant to bring that up.

"Kayes?"

"The Velar . . . well, they aren't exactly a unified body. They work together on occasion, and they don't go out of their way to obstruct or inconvenience each other, but they certainly aren't friends. If anything, I would argue that they hate each other, though I don't know why. They seem to be fine with those of their own clan, cooperative if not friendly, but things get tense whenever individuals of different clans are in the same spot for too long. As I said, they never escalate into conflict, they just . . . bristle? At each other?"

"Bristle?"

"They get really defensive. They, uh, keep their distance, and a hand on their weapons. They also get a bit jumpy, not entirely unlike what we saw with Nemo earlier, though not as severe." Kayes grabbed Nemo's arm and pulled back the clothing on her arm, revealing a lattice of blue hairs, spikes, running up and down the length of her arm. "She's a juvenile, still unable to completely retract her needles, but the patterns and sizes denote the clan to which she belongs. The Nameless have larger spikes directed towards the hands running along their forearms. If they are willing to put up with a the pain, they can pluck the larger ones from their forearms and use them as impromptu weapons. They exclusively operate as espionage and intelligence gathering agents, so I speak with them quite frequently given my duties outside of the Theocracy."

Kayes took a seat, finishing the contents of a cup on the table next to him.

"To think that all of the Velar are like the Nameless here would be a substantial mistake. The clans differ from each other in almost every way imaginable. The Mollified, another clan I have worked with, have flatter needles that run the opposite direction along their arms. These needles, along with their hair, tend to assume a redder color. Unlike the Nameless, they don't remove their needles, instead using them as a form of armor. They also perform a completely different set of jobs, usually physical labor or work in harsh conditions, and are sworn against combat. I have relied on their services to compensate those harmed by the criminals I hunt."

"So they are specialists?" Diana received a nod in response to her guess.

"If you would like to get more specific, they are 'Contractors'. The vast majority of them live within our borders, but they are by no means loyal to the Theocracy. Should someone offer an appropriate compensation for their services, they will perform the job to completion, even if it ends up killing them."

Donovan raised an eyebrow at this, taking it to mean they operated like mercenaries. If that was all there was to it, he would be forced to question their loyalty at every step. He got the feeling there was more to it though.

"Why?" Diana took offense to the last portion. "Why would they do a job knowing it would kill them?"

"Because we don't deserve to live."