Yama quickly waded through the dark, in-progress hallways to the khan’s complex, warry of each door that didn’t belong to a contestant. That each one could be a staircase to another horrid lab only made Yama move faster, as if one of those Y shaped things was on his tail.
No such ghoul accosted Yama, but the man at the fire did with every turn. Yama was utterly unfazed by the shitty specter’s tries to stop him and didn’t waste so much as a word.
The arches preceding the complex’s gate held Otganbayar’s red banners, and the door was customarily flanked by two horse statues. Two guards in black ceramic armor stood below each of the towering horses—nearly statues themself—and at the foot of the stairs to the gate, stood Kano.
Yama’s right hand twitched, fingers curling as the wrist crossed over toward Uzumaki on his waist. “Do it now,” the specter said, breath hot against Yama’s ear. Yama reached with his mind for his twitching fingers, pulling them one by one back under his control like he was reigning in a spooked horse.
Kano descended to meet Yama, arms spread. “Kikuchi, come to kill me? I’d use that time better for your match with Bolor tomorrow.”
Yama shook his head. “I need to talk to the khan.”
“He’s locked himself in and—”
“Then what are you doing outside?”
Kano rolled his eyes. “Had you let me finish, I would have told you that he wanted me to stay guard.”
“Bullshit.”
Kano turned back to the guards. “Isn’t that true?” They nodded. “Like I was saying, the khan wants me to watch over him for the night. I am to be his eyes, his ears, and his blade. In addition, I am to update their security protocols as part of my duties as liason between the khan and the queen back home.”
Yama raised a brow. “Security consultant? For a man of your talents?”
Kano nodded. “It’s a simple job, for which my skills and past experiences are well suited.” He tapped his upper lip, then his eyes. “And, as I said earlier, the benefit package compensates for the more boring stints as a security consultant.”
“And shouldn’t Captain Altan be here for such lessons?” Yama asked, already knowing the answer.
“Otganbayar has tasked the captain to see to the wedding between Lady Ganzorig and Lord Dulgun after the second round of matches. There are many preparations to make for the big day.”
“So soon?”
Kano nodded. “The khan thought it prudent to wash the image of today from people’s minds as soon as possible, and following the second tier of matches is the shortest timeline. The final four will face off after the wedding, and the final two immediately after that.” Kano brought his hands together behind his back. “Since that clearly isn’t why you’re here, why were you seeking the khan’s attention tonight?”
Yama straightened. “I would like to speak with him without you in between us. I’m sure you can understand.”
Kano scoffed. “My understanding has nothing to do with it. In addition to overhauling security, I have also taken it upon myself to implement tighter HR protocols.” He looked Yama up and down. “Do you have that with Ishimura? It stands for human resources; large headache, but is what separates us from the animals.” He shook his head, sighing. “As is, the only messages to the khan are through me. So, tell me, what do you wish to tell Otganbayar?” When Yama was still silent, Kano dropped his head into his hands. “Damnit, Kikuchi, can you not let bygones be bygones for a week? Do you have a message or not?”
Bygones be bygones? He didn’t have his friends run through with bamboo! Yama thought, feeling his hand wander again towards Uzumaki.
Damn this grudge, the khan needs to know, Yama reasoned, settling for balling his hands into fists. “I saw Captain Altan wandering up from a hidden room in the halls, covered in blood and chemicals,” Yama lied. “I think there is something going on in the tunnels beneath the castle.”
(Was that really the lie I came up with? By the Shade, how was I such an idiot?) Our hero swats aside his empty plastic cup. (No wonder he didn’t buy it!)
Two lines formed briefly on Kano’s brow. “I see. I will make note of it for the khan.”
“Thank you,” Yama said before leaving the hall and resigning to his room for the night. His needles were waiting for him in their neat compartments, and his hand twitched as he injected each of them. His chest heaved as he set the final syringe back into its slot, and Yama wiped himself of sweat before falling onto his bed.
Day came once more, and again Altan led them to the arena after breakfast. Bolor was not with the group that Altan had led, and he wasn’t in the waiting room either. Where is he, we’re the first match? Yama wondered before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“The others wanted to wish you good luck,” Danzo said, his black suit an extension of Yama’s shadow.
“How are you here?” Yama hissed.
Danzo would have clutched at pearls if he had any but settled for gasping instead. “How little confidence you have in me. I’m Danzo fucking Maeda,” Danzo fucking Maeda said as he stepped out of the shadow. “They also wished you good luck, oh giant,” Danzo said before bowing deeply.
What a showoff.
“Maeda,” Kano sang from his corner of the waiting room. “If you’re here and Kikuchi is competing, can I expect the rest of your brood? I only ask because I’m getting catering later tonight.”
Danzo smiled as the other competitors turned to look at the two samurai. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yes, because I’m getting catering,” Kano said through his teeth, “like I said.”
“That would ruin the fun, don’t you think?”
Kano scoffed and looked past Danzo at Yama. “It’s going to be even better when I win, and he has to watch. Don’t die to Bolor today, Kikuchi,” he said before walking away.
“You’re going to kick his ass, right?” Yama nodded. “And Bolor?”
“If he shows up.”
“If you want to help Bolormaa, you can’t just beat him,” Danzo said. “You have to destroy him and his name.”
I have no grudge against the Dulguns and see no point in interfering in this spat. “If Batbayar is truly so bad, why don’t you just kill him?” Yama suggested, sickened at the thought.
“I have other matters to attend to,” Danzo said before cheers from outside overwhelmed his words.
“BOLOR!”
“BOLOR!”
“BOLOR!”
“It seems your date has arrived,” Danzo added before scampering away.
Yama turned back to the doors, shaking his muscles loose like he was turning over his wallet. Nothing, but not surprise there. Action begets action, he told himself, wishing for once that he could will his numerous tendons to act before the steel was drawn.
“Saint,” a voice said from behind Yama, clear as a bell. Yama turned and frowned. Batbayar, all the room’s attendants suddenly gone.
“Prince,” Yama said, “Is something amiss?”
Batbayar shook his head. “No, not for me anyways. I simply came to see you before my brother had at you.” He chuckled, like a bell down a drainpipe. “I see now that he may be doing you a favor.”
And Yama had heard those words before. As far as insults went, he had expected more from the prince, manners not the least of which. He forced his crooked spine into a bow, arm drifting to his side. “All of Tata has tried to scrub this mug clean,” he said, rising, “all the khan’s horses, all the khan’s men.”
Batbayar grinned, perfect teeth mirror bright. Oh, how Yama wished they were less so. “We shall see if you are still smiling,” Batbayar said, turning his back and retreating toward the steps. “Fight well, saint. You may not fight later.”
Yama let the prince disappear before he scoffed. “Action begets action,” he muttered as the gates swung open. He sucked in a breath, lifting his straw hat to his head and stepping into the arena.
Yama understood why Bolor hadn’t showed up in the contestant’s room and part of him felt cheated. Bolor loomed large on not just any warhorse, but Stalius, the duo standing proudly like one of the statues around the castle. A helmet styled in the form a knight chess piece rested on Bolor’s head, making him another foot taller. Uzumaki was light in Yama’s hand, not for his own strength, but because of how pitiful it would be here. Stalius dragged his foot behind him, scraping the gravel like Death sharpening his scythe. Yama looked around for the pale bastard, if only to meet his end a little quicker. A long saber hung at Bolor’s side and Yama figured it would serve much the same purpose.
Yama looked behind him, hoping Danzo was still there and that he might give him a nudge into the arena if he couldn’t move his legs on his own. Instead, Yama found his mother a few feet away—still faceless—with a small washcloth in hand. “You got this Yama-tan,” she said softly, easing the feeling of the cold around Yama.
Not wanting to disappoint his mother—or whatever it was—Yama strode forward, some of the chants turning his way as he entered and returning some of his sapped strength. His drug-swollen ears split each chant from the ones around it, letting Yama know exactly where his fans were and how few of them had showed out.
Or hadn’t, rather. Entire pie-slice sections of the stands were covered blue. Tatans are in ze house tonight, Yama lamented. He had fought several Tatans on their horses and taken all of them to the next life, but those had been under simpler conditions. Yama had a gun then and it had been an official rule during the race to not harm the opposing horses. While Yama could bring himself to hurt Stalius—he thought he could, at least—Yama knew the crowd would flay him alive if he killed the horse.
“And zere is ze Sword Saint himself!” Charley announced as Yama took his spot. “And he is looking small compared to ze Highlander on his steed.”
“His steed, no less,” Ganbataar added. “What will Kikuchi do here?”
The screens cut to Otganbayar, flanked by Bolormaa who looked close to puking and Batbayar whose wide grin and perfect fucking teeth could wedge apart seismic plates. “I am pleased to see all of you, in high spirits no less after yesterday’s tragedy. I can see many of my countrymen in the stands and I know that you will be pleased to see one of our champions do battle with the Sword Saint. I expect a good match from both of you.”
“Why don’t you come off that horse and make this between us?” Yama called out as the referee stepped into position.
Bolor chuckled. “Now why would I do that? No. This is for everyone at the front that you’ve killed, most of all my brother Chagatai!” Bolor yelled, pointing his saber at Yama.
The name rang no bells for Yama who had probably killed hundreds of Chagatais, but he was not sorry regardless. War was war, and the less words that were spent on it, Yama found, the better. “I have no intention of dying today Bolor, not to you or anybody,” he said calmly as he palmed a black bead.
“At the drop of my hand, you may begin!” the referee called out.
Stalius was a smart horse and galloped in a tight angle to Yama’s left, Bolor extending his saber to bisect Yama’s chest. Yama knew Stalius’ speed and rolled immediately out of the saber’s grasp. As Stalius passed him, Yama threw the black bead at Bolor, cracking it on his helm.
Bolor batted away the smoke with his free hand. “Is that all you have Kikuchi?” Bolor called before pulling a glossy, translucent mesh from his saddlebag.
A Tatan net, Yama thought dismally, knowing the little cloth could easily cover five men before the nanotubes filled with steam to weigh them down. He had been under one once and resigned himself to never be in one again.
Stalius charged forward again, and Yama’s eyes tracked the net in Bolor’s hand. At this angle, he’ll have to reach across Stalius to hit me with the blade. I only have to avoid the net, Yama reasoned, strafing to deny the net distance.
The sheet coiled into a length no thicker than a finger, the thin length grinning wickedly in the sunlight before it struck Yama’s helmet. The world spun around him, feet everywhere and nowhere beneath him. Another strike landed on Yama’s waist as he stumbled back, rippling through his plate carrier and breaking a rib behind it. Yama didn’t know where the next strike would be and sidestepped blindly in time to have the whip crack in the air he vacated.
“Wow! Zat vip is sure giving ze Sword Saint problems? Is zis his last sermon?” Charley asked as Bolor’s fifth strike stung Yama on the hand, immediately painting it a deep grey.
Could be, Yama thought bleakly as his eyes tracked Bolor’s whip hand. It’s just like a really long sword. When the whip disappeared again, Yama wheeled his foot to the side. The whip cracked an inch from his side, and Yama grabbed it. He yanked back with all of his might, hoping to bring Bolor and his stupid fucking hat tumbling to the ground, only for the Highlander to let go of his whip.
“Is that all you have Dulgun?” Yama yelled. “Do you think Chagatai would find it valorous to whip a man from atop your horse, in an arena where he can’t even wield a blade against you?” Yama pointed at Stalius with his sword. “And you,” he ground out, “the only place I’m taking you after this is the glue factory
In the corner of his eye, Yama glanced the screens above. Otganbayar looked amused, while Batbayar gripped the railing. “Kill him Bolor!” Batbayar yelled.
Stalius charged again and Yama strafed so he would collide with the horse instead of Bolor’s saber. “Is he looking to be trampled?” Ganbataar asked.
As Stalius neared, Yama dropped Uzumaki to the ground, eliciting a collective what the fuck from everybody watching. When Yama could no longer see Bolor atop Stalius, he shifted to the side and grabbed Stalius by the foreleg before dropping to his back and securing the leg behind it. With Stalius’ momentum and his own grips, all Yama had to do was buck his hips upward.
Yama watched happily as Stalius flew over him and into the arena’s far wall, a web of cracks spreading across the concrete. The Sword Saint dusted himself off quickly and grabbed Uzumaki before making his way to the thrown horse and toppled rider.
“Did he just—”
“Suplex a fucking horse?” Ganbataar completed.
Yama knew Stalius was still alive by the shallow rise and fall of his chest. Bolor had been luckier, falling to his side and scrambling for his saber. Yama stomped his hand into the ground and laid the tip of Uzumaki on Bolor’s chest. “Yield,” Yama said, “or Stalius gets it.”
Bolor’s eyes widened before he frantically pushed at Yama’s foot. Yama rolled his eyes before shifting his weight onto Bolor’s wrist, crushing it like a bug. When Bolor didn’t tap, Yama shifted his weight to pin Bolor’s forearm to his chest before pressing his blade into Bolor’s neck.
Yama looked to the screens, stupidly thinking that Batbayar would yield for his brother. Yama’s gaze met Bolormaa’s and he knew what needed to be done. “You are going to make sure this marriage goes off without a hitch. If Batbayar so much as tells the gonji the weather wrong, I will not just complete the set, I will end the Dulgun line!” the Sword Saint hissed. He tapped his drug-swollen ears. “See these? I hear everything that goes on in this castle,” Yama embellished, “and if I hear any complaints or issues, you’ll see just what else I have. Am, I, clear?”
Bolor nodded slowly and Yama stood up as the referee raced to him. “Victor by horse suplex, the Sword Saint, Yama Kikuchi!” Hardly any cheers accompanied Yama out of the arena and the Sword Saint didn’t bother to wave Uzumaki as he left. That the arena hadn’t sunken into chaos again was reward enough.
A servant intercepted Yama on his way to the waiting room and took him instead to the infirmary. Namuunaa was waiting for him with a fresh gi while the servant took his busted plate carrier underneath, promising he’d have a new one for the next match. Yama didn’t like the idea of being separated from his armor, but the thought left his mind quickly as the cold numbness of morphine spread through him. When the nurse was done with her alterism on Yama’s rib, Namuunaa gave the giant the grey gi top she had been holding. “That was great!” she whispered as she helped him into it. “I knew you would win but I never figured you’d do that.”
Danzo was there as well and managed to pat his brother on the back before Bolormaa raced from the stairs to meet Yama. “Good job,” he said, his words trailing off as the gonji ran to them.
“That was amazing!” Bolormaa said, grasping Yama’s hands in her own. They were soft, and Yama was sure this was the first time a princess had ever held his hand or complimented him. Not knowing how to take it, Yama stood like a grey obelisk.
Batbayar bounded after Bolormaa, his sudden entrance shaking Yama from his stupor. Order still had work, it seemed. Yama made his face a jagged stone, daring Batbayar to cut himself on it. Having a swell-sight brow had its uses besides sniping people, but Yama still found he’d prefer the rifle. “What did you say out there?” Bolormaa whispered.
Yama didn’t stop glaring at Batbayar until he had retreated up the stairs. “I told Bolor if his brother so much as breathes on you wrong, I will end his line.”
Bolormaa smiled, perhaps the first Yama had seen from her. “Did you really?” Yama nodded. “Why?”
“If it will help the khan end this little spat in the castle, then so be it. And”—Yama grinned—”it felt pretty badass to say.”
Bolormaa leaned to down to kiss Yama’s hand. “Thank you, oh Sword Saint, truly. Bolor is a better man than his brother and he will keep his word.” She turned to the stairs back, Namuunaa following behind.
Danzo clapped his brother on the shoulder again. “What she said, that was amazing,” he said. “Might even be able to have her open up more of the castle to our new friends.”
Yama removed Danzo’s hand. “No. We are not involving her,” he said, huffing at his brother’s audacity. He respected Danzo as the eldest of Ishimasa’s adopted brood and the only true samurai among them. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to choke him with the collars of his suit sometimes and leave him tied up in the arms. “It’s bad enough, without the khan involved, and now you want to disrupt the marriage that is supposed to happen.”
Danzo threw his hands up. “Ok ok, you’re the victor, we do it your way,” Danzo conceded. “No need to preach to me, oh Sword Saint,” Danzo said before bowing, like a dick.
Before Yama could call Danzo out, the screens flared to life once again. “Well, I think this tournament is shaping up to be full of upsets,” Otganbayr said. “But I hope you are otherwise not upset by the proceedings.”
Ze Tatans forget a grudge, Yama thought as none of the boos, cheers, or chants were directed against him.
“Splendid! I’ll hand it over to our announcers!” Otganbayar finished before the screens cut to show the two announcers, who looked more or less how Yama thought they did.
Charley’s glassy white skin was contrasted not only by his short crop of brown curls and straight-comb looking mustache, but also by his too-big dark blue suit coat. Conversely, Ganbataar’s deep blue skin was helped by his black suit, buzzed black hair, and bulky box beard. Ganbataar was carved from wood with how his muscles bulged against his suit, and Charley looked like he was the matchsticks left behind on the floor.
“Ze khan is right!” Charley exclaimed. “It has been a week of upsets, several of zem from ze Sword Saint, mind you.”
My pleasure, Yama thought with a smile.
“Yes, Kikuchi has fared far better than anybody could have predicted. Not so hard to predict, however, is Atlas—”
I’m from Atlas you fucks!
“Consistent through and through and that is what we have for you right now with Broomhandle Heidi Becker squaring off against the Heir of the 10,039th Anna Schulz,” Ganbataar finished as the screens cut to show Anna and Heidi juxtaposed with the commentators.
“Now, mademoiselle Schulz is part of ze 10,039th, no?”
Ganbataar shook his head. “Actually, it was her grandfather who served in the famed unit, she simply inherited the beret.”
“Interesting,” Charley mused as the live betting odds swung more in Heidi’s favor.
Under her beret, Anna wore a black visor, the front a thin band of clear techni-glass. She rocked her gun into her shoulders, shooting one of the screens displaying bets around the stadium. The crowd gasped in panted breaths, sucking in breath like it was a limited commodity. Murmurs spread through the crowd as the camera-droned drew closer to Anna, turning to cheers and jeers. In the lower corner of the screen, the odds swung back to Anna. “What are the odds I hit the commentary booth next?”
“Ooh, fury!” Charley exclaimed, clapping the tips of his fingers together. “Let us hope she can bring zat to ze match!”
Ganbataar nodded. “Like her fellow last-minute entry, Ms. Schulz has repeatedly defied and denied the expectations, being ranked lowest in both the boulder challenge and in the racing challenge.”
“Just shameful, that commentary,” Lee said from besides Yama as the commentators spouted off. “If you wanted to rough them up, I’d help you.”
Yama scoffed and tapped Uzumaki. “I can handle both of them just fine.”
“I’m not worried for you, I just want in. It’s pitiful, what they’re doing. She deserves to be here, just as much as you do.”
“It makes a spectacle,” Yama mumbled. “If that’s what the khan wants, that’s what he gets.”
Lee nodded. “Especially when we have people like you in this tournament. I had no idea how you’d win without touching the horse and I certainly didn’t expect…that.”
“Me neither,” Yama said before the screens cut to the referee. Yama was pretty sure the referee had served him at the entry dinner.
“At the drop of my hand, you may begin!” the referee called out. Before his hand could descend fully, microphone static ripped through the stadium.
“There has been a change of plans,” Otganbayar said smoothly. “A little something we’ve been working on for this match. I think you will all enjoy.”
The arena shook, disturbing the loose debris and dust in the waiting room like rice tossed in a pan. Is it zombies? Yama wondered as he watched the screen. The ground shot up from under Anna and Heidi, hoisting them two stories in the air as several smaller pillars shot up around them at varying heights and thicknesses. Would have been nice like five minutes ago when Bolor was trying to tan my hide.
The pillars began to rise and fall. “Now, you may begin.”
Anna ran for the tallest spire as a bullet from Heidi’s first salvo landed against her shield, pushing the protective field inwards. The blonde flung herself toward the pillar, landing along the side before her shoes dug into the grey metal surface.
“Our armorer has been cooking up wonders! Let’s give him a round of applause!” Ganbataar exclaimed, screens cutting to show Jochi waving sheepishly from the khan’s suite.
Anna’s visor grew hazy as multiple holographic planes were projected across it. She peeked from her cover, loosing a single shot before weaving back around toward the next pillar.
Heidi leapt toward another pillar. Her instincts were good, but not nearly fast enough, Anna’s shot flattening against her shield. Her shield retreated inward—nearly a third, Yama guessed—but Heidi continued between pillars, firing off salvos as she went.
When Anna peeked from cover again, Heidi had rounded on her and fired both of her pistols. Two shots landed on Anna’s shield with all the impact of range-setting jabs. Anna loosed a shot of her own, but Heidi ducked low, shot passing over her shield. “Rusting fucking slag!” Anna exclaimed as she ran like hell from Heidi, jumping between pillars to break up Heidi’s shots. Before Heidi could ready another shot, the pillars moved again, taking her footing from under her.
“You didn’t think I’d have them stay that way, did you?” Otganbayar asked over the speakers. “Where would the fun in that be?”
Anna wasted no time in lining up another shot on Heidi. A pillar ate the shot, earning a large dent along the top. Anna’s rifle cycled to the next barrel as Heidi devoured three pillars of distance in the blink of an eye.
“She is fast! If Ze Heir doesn’t get going, she’s going to bite ze dust.”
Heidi flipped onto a platform, already firing. One, two, three shots landed on Anna before she fired her rifle like a shotgun at Heidi. A sharp crash cut through the air like glass shattering as the field around Heidi was pushed further inward, clinging to her like a shimmering skin.
Heidi flicked her foot into Anna’s chest, her leg a long grey spear. Anna’ body bent into a strained, question mark shape, and Heidi swept her legs out from under her with another savage kick. She stumbled from the pillar like a worm writhing in the heat, Heidi a hungry hawk above her.
Anna landed shakily, as if her feet were cups held on stilts. Anna raised her rifle frantically across her chest, but Heidi stepped gracefully out of the way before pressing a slim barrel to Anna’s stomach and head. “Yield!”
Anna swung at Heidi with her gun, swiping air before her legs were kicked from under her again. Heidi rested her boot on Anna’s stomach before pointing both guns at her chest. “Referee, this match is over,” Heidi called out to the referee two pillars away. “She yields.”
Anna pushed the boot from her chest. “No, I—”
Heidi lazily swung her boot into Anna’s armpit, pinning it. “This match is over.” Heidi fired two more shots. “She yields.”
The referee shrugged. “Does she?”
The drones zoomed in on Anna’s face, thin streams of tears running down her glassy skin. The projected bands across her visor disappeared and she nodded. “I yield,” she said, head falling back as if recoiling from her own words.
The referee tried to grab Heidi’s hand only for her to bat it away and offer it to Anna. “And the 10,039th ends here as Schulz yields to Becker!” Ganbataar called out. “We will be back after lunch with the Ogre and the Jackal!”
Like the first night, Anu was nowhere to be seen in the waiting room and Yama hoped he wouldn’t show, if only so he could fight Orphiel in the next round. The thought brought a smile to Yama that lasted until Anna and Heidi entered the suite.
“Looks like you’ll have to win this for the both of us,” Anna said, her cheeks shiny with dried tears.
Yama placed a hand on her shoulder. “You did good out there.”
Heidi nodded. “She is a tough soldier, but she is just that,” she said in Atlasian. “We are mercenaries, and she is not.”
agreed but didn’t nod, for Anna’s sake. He and Heidi had seen far more battles than a typical soldier like Anna, bloodier ones too. “She would make a good mercenary, I think, with a good mentor, that is.”
Heidi took Anna’s hand, smiling thinly. “That is what I have been telling her.”
“If you’re going to get shot at, might as well get paid for it. Becker’s outfit is one of the best in Atlas.”
Heidi raised an eyebrow as the corner of her mouth rose in challenge. “One of?”
Yama nodded. “I’d put my brothers against anyone.”
Heidi turned away with a hmmph, a smile still on her face. “Perhaps when I find Danzo crawling around the castle, I will trade words with him.”
Anna grabbed her partner’s shoulder. “Heidi, don’t be mean!”
Yama laughed. “Please do. Give him a kick in the balls when you see him for me.” Because I can’t kick him in the balls myself.
“I already planned on doing that, but I will convey the sentiment,” Heidi said before bowing and stepping past Yama, followed by Anna who did the same.
Yama’s stomach growled and he knew now that he could truly dig into the catering in the suite above. Yama found the room abandoned, with only the Tatan champions clustered around the khan and the princess. Anu, Kano, Lee, and Orphiel are all downstairs, Yama reasoned. Bennet is dead, the girls are out, and Danzo is working with four others. Leaves only Grigori, Balderson and Petrov.
An idea whipped through Yama’s mind like wildfire, nearly hot enough to make him abandon it altogether. Petrov might know what Grigori and Balderson are planning, Yama reasoned. Flagging down a servant, Yama found where Kiril’s room was before descending into the winding halls of the castle. If he’s on the outs with the Bratva, maybe I can have him cut off their supply or at least slow it.
Show the noble foe mercy, for honor pays its debts
Show the savage foe none, for his dues are paid in death
The Tenets of Tenshi