-BEN-

  Ben should have gone to check on the intruder problem. Naxisteranda had sounded panicked when she narrated the events at the landing bay. Someone had somehow teleported onto the ship while they were still in jumpspace. Then the intruder had started attacking the crew. Apparently, many were dead, and the fighting was ongoing.

  Ben’s instincts screamed for him to go to the landing bay and check on Blaze and Kaja Khan. The same instincts also told him to check on Amara and her people. That was his job after all.

  But Ben’s rage drowned out instinct. He began to rationalise. Blaze was strong. And if they did have any problem, they would simply contact him. Whatever this was, it did not concern him. Not when his revenge was at hand.

  Ben used his Worrick suppressor device to force the different forms of the Captain to merge into one body. Then he forced the Captain to show him how to get to the VIP area.

  Seeing how capable Ben was of violence seemed to have driven the defiance out of the Captain. He whimpered, and whined, pleading for Ben to let him go. Ben's response was simple. "Get me to my target, and I will release you."

  So the Captain directed him. Ben used a private elevator reserved for the Captain and didn’t encounter any resistance.

  The elevator took him up to the VIP level.

  He had been expecting there to be guards there, but the elevator doors opened to an empty hallway. Whatever commotion was happening below must have drawn everyone away. Again Ben’s instincts told him to go help his friend.

  This is helping, Ben rationalised. I’m killing the man who put him in a regenTank for 3 months.

  Ben had forced the Captain to give him the list of VIP passengers. One name stood out.

  Fen Brown.

  Of course Silver chose Fen’s name. This was an invitation for confrontation. Silver had intended for Ben to find him.

  Room 121. That was where ‘Fen Brown’ was lodging.

  The hallway was broad and fancy. It was decorated with strange statues and paintings. Ben ignored them all and walked to the first door.

  Room 108.

  He looked at the next one.

  109.

  He walked along the hallway counting off the numbers until...

  121.

  His chest tightened, and a heaviness descended on him. This was it. Silver was here. Behind this door was the culmination of Ben’s hatred. He had expected his hunt to take longer, but he wasn’t going to let this chance go.

  He reached out towards the door then hesitated. He hadn’t envisioned this part. What was he going to do? Knock? Burst through the door?

  No. That would be foolish. He needed to be careful and find another way in.

  "You can come in." It was Silver’s voice, but there was something off about it.

  "Come in Ben," the voice insisted. The door clicked and then slowly slipped open, revealing a quaint sitting room. It had two couches and an armchair arranged around a central table. The air smelled faintly of roses. They were Silver’s favourite flower, and he let anyone who got close to him know it.

  "I am a rose." That is what Silver had told Ben, as he held him pinned to the ground and forced him to watch Fen’s execution. "I am beautiful, but I have thorns."

  Ben stepped into the room. He was ready to crush some roses.

  There was a man sitting in the armchair. He held a walking cane, and was dressed in a classic all black 3-piece suit.

  The man looked like Silver, he smiled like Silver, his eyes even crinkled like Silver, but it wasn't him. Ben knew. He could tell from the man’s posture. He was too weak to be Silver.

  Ben entered the room fully, and approached the man.

  "Hello Ben," the man said. "It's been a while."

  "Cut the crap," Ben spat. "You're one of his carvings."

  The pretender's smile widened. "That was quick," he said. "Yes I am." The man stood up. He shifted his walking cane to one hand, and reached out the other for a handshake.

  Ben ignored him.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  The room was garish, decorated with all sorts of paraphernalia so as to appear classy. It had the opposite effect.

  "Take off the face," Ben said. "It makes me want to kill you."

  The pretender laughed again. "We both know you are going to kill me either way," he said. "But if you prefer it."

  The skin on the man’s face rippled and stretched, changing from the imitation of Silver to a disgusting, fleshy visage.

  "My name is Enko," the pretender said.

  Ben had experience dealing with Silver’s carvings. Silver’s magic distorted their features permanently, turning them into hideous creatures. In exchange, they got access to strange magic, including the ability to change their appearance temporarily.

  "What did you look like originally, Enko?" Ben asked.

  "Not like this," Enko admitted. "But I was lost back then. Master Silver freed me. And then he gave me the gift of his image." Enko shuddered, hugged himself, then made a sickening noise that Ben assumed was an expression of pleasure.

  "Where's Silver?" Ben asked.

  "I don't know."

  There was a good chance that was true. Ben tried a different angle.

  "Why are you here?" He asked.

  Enko responded. "The master needed something done on the planet Chin. So he sent me."

  Ben took a deep breath, calming himself. There was something off. Enko himself had said that Ben was going to kill him. Yet he was not behaving like a man about to fail his mission. And why would Enko let Ben know he was on the ship? Why did he speak through the ship’s comms? Either he firmly believed that he could defeat Ben or…

  "Your mission's already accomplished," Ben whispered.

  Enko clapped. "The master was right. You are incredibly sharp."

  Ben continued. "The commotion below was you. You brought the intruder."

  "Right again." Enko’s eyes narrowed. "He said something else about you. That you're not just sharp. You're dangerous." Enko twisted the top of the walking cane and flicked it, revealing the cane to have contained a hidden blade.

  He thrust the blade towards Ben, but the attempt was weak. Ben easily sidestepped it and batted the blade out of Enko's hand.

  Then Ben grabbed the pretender by the throat and squeezed. Enko gasped and gurgled.

  "And you're weak," Ben observed. He was surprised. Silver had multiple types of carvings, but most had some combat orientation. This Enko fellow seemed void of combat magic. His mana was negligible. Ben didn’t think he could even use mana reinforcement.

  Enko managed to find the courage to smile.

  "I was hired for my brains," he said between gasps. "It isn't easy calculating the exact coordinates of a ship hurtling through jumpspace. Much less find a way to communicate that to a planet light-years away. But I did it. I've accomplished my mission. What about you Ben Wilson? Your mission is about to fail. Your friend is dying. Your priestess will soon join him. This ship will crash and you will all be burnt to nothing."

  Ben realised he had been outplayed. In fact he hadn’t even known he was playing a game. If Enko was telling the truth, then there was something bigger going on. Enko had mentioned the Priestess. That meant Silver was interested in the Priestess, or at least in the Order of the first light. But why? Ben couldn’t put that part together. He considered attempting to torture it out of Enko, but that might take too much time. Enko looked like he was prepared to die. Plus, he had just said Ben’s friend was dying. By friend, Enko could only have been referring to Blaze.

  Ben swore.

  Enko laughed but it was cut short by Ben punching him in the face. Ben grabbed the pretender around the neck and was satisfied to see a hint of fear in the man's eyes. Enko began to tremble.

  "Everybody feels like they are prepared to die," Ben said. "Until it is actually time. I want you to know this is your time. I’m ending you here. Then I will stop your plan, find Silver, and kill him too."

  Ben broke Enko's neck. Before the body hit the floor, Ben was out of the room and running for the elevator.

  -NALE-

  The fleshy creature carried Nale to a secluded corner of the ship. They met some crew members on the way, but the creature had been able to deal with them.

  Once they were alone, it carefully pulled Nale out of a pouch it had made for him in its body. The flesh rearranged to fill the hole left behind.

  The creature placed Nale against a wall.

  Nale gasped in pain when his back touched the wall. His body was ablaze with agony. His right arm was useless and blood oozed out of the wounds in his side. Curse that lizard-man. This was not how things were supposed to go.

  The creature drew closer to him. It was an ugly thing. A mass of flesh with disproportioned facial features. Nale had made it from a wad of flesh he had taken from the bodies of dead warriors. He had placed the Lingula symbol on the flesh, and kept it for use in case of an emergency. Using it had taken a considerable amount of his mana.

  It had been his hope to return to his planet, and find a way to maybe create new life from the wad of flesh. Talil had let on that it was possible.

  Now that hope was gone.

  The creature would last only as long as the mana contained within it. It could not generate mana itself, so it would stop functioning when its supply ran out.

  Nale gazed into its eyes, which were simply dimples in the flesh with blue mana swirling within them. He believed he could see the souls of his people within the creature’s eyes. They were cheering him on, and urging him to keep fighting.

  He would go on. For them. He used his good hand to pull out his soul blade, and held the blade in a reverse grip.

  "I'll kill them all," he said. "I promise."

  He plunged the blade into his own heart.

  He felt no pain, just a warmth blooming through his body, and embracing him. Strength flooded into him, and his body jerked as muscles knitted together and bones healed. He spasmed on the floor, and his vision failed.

  When it returned, he found himself staring at the metal ceiling. The blade was out of his chest and lying on the floor next to him.

  Nale stood up gingerly. He needn't have. His strength was back. His wounds were gone. His armour was still damaged but the blade had put him back together. It had come at the cost of the souls of a few of his people. Nale picked up the blade and placed it back in its scabbard. He would not let their sacrifice go in vain.

  The flesh creature approached him with its hands out. In there lay Nale's other blade, the red one. He took the red blade, and again he looked into the creature's eyes. His people were with him.

  Nale clenched his fists.

  "I'll call you Vaku," he said to the creature. "It is the name of a hero."

  He sheathed the red blade.

  "Come Vaku. Our mission is at hand."