Radeon wore the youth like a well-cut coat. The face was sharp and clean. The eyes held that bright, restless shine that spoke of limitless years ahead.
The memories settled into him with a soft click, and his hand found the sword hilt as if it had always been there.
He drew in a breath, and the power of blood rushed through his legs.
In the next heartbeat he was moving, a clean, straight sprint toward the weary guard from the spirit ship.
The man was already at the Cornerstone stage, and his instincts were still sharp enough to answer.
Steel met steel, and he skidded back a few steps, boots grinding furrows in the dirt.
Radeon did not relent. He raised his sword high, and the man brought his own up to guard.
Needles flew from Radeon's left hand and buried themselves in the guard's neck, locking flesh and bone.
With a hard pull on the tethered qi, Radeon snapped forward and appeared before him.
His hands tore the head free. Blood erupted and refused to fall. It hung above him instead, rolling in on itself until it swelled into a dark red orb that pulsed and turned.
It was both a quiet horror and a small wonder. A unique art that let the blood cultists thicken their strength with every kill.
The others saw it and would not let him hoard all the glory. They broke into a run, crashing toward the guards, who now only numbered six.
While the ship's captain fended off ten Cornerstone cultivators of the cult, Radeon did not let his own crew roam free.
Blood gathered into spikes and flew at an old Cornerstone first mate. The old man drew his daggers and deflected the strike.
Radeon gave the old man a small nod, a brief admission of skill.
He wrenched the fallen man's longsword from the earth and took it in his left hand, feeling its balance in his grip.
Then he lunged with the dead man's longsword, steel flashed.
The old man stepped in close, letting his body slide along the blade, edge shrieking past his sides as he reached for Radeon's arm.
Radeon let the weapon go. His foot found the rising hilt and stamped.
The force kicked the sword sideways and drove it through the old man's flank, punching in deep near the liver.
The man did not flinch. He locked his muscles and trapped the blade in his ribs.
Sand spilled from Radeon's left hand in a sharp burst. The old man's eyes vanished in a grit-filled veil.
"Dirty bastard!"
'Common face. Old enough that no one looks twice. No eyes on me. Good. Take everything.'
Radeon's right-hand sword took his life in a single clean stroke.
A moment later the body sagged and flowed into him, flesh and bone swallowed just as he had done with Giovanni.
"Memories, quiet deep. Should let me in on some places."
He did not dwell on it. He pricked his ears, listening for where struggle and fortune might lie for him.
Sight was nearly useless in the dark. Metal sang all around and he let the sound map the field for him.
His feet carried him toward the place where the clash rang second loudest.
As he drew closer, he caught flashes of light stuttering in and out.
The old captain held his ground at the center, boots planted, shoulders set.
Ten cultists still ringing all around him, their breaths already steaming in the cold, but their limits still veiled.
Radeon began to spool a longer thread in his mind. The captain was stalling.
He was waiting for a signal or for help that may come, the lines of his face made that plain.
'What's he betting on?'
But he was not here for the captain's life. He was here for what the man carried in his pockets.
He took position in a maple nearby. Bark pressed against his back while he drew in every sharp thought of killing.
Then he let the heat bleed away until his mind went clear and cold. All his gathered energy narrowed into one waiting needle.
Ten blades moved as one, cutting in and out to pen the captain on all sides.
'Probably a martial array to smother strength, not break it.'
The ten blood practitioners closed in like the tight bud of a flower around him.
As they flowed back, the bloom opened. It bore fruit as they surged again, power lancing out in ten clean lines.
'Five. Six. Seven. Eight.'
Radeon tapped his left finger in time with their rhythm. Experience glinted in his borrowed eyes.
When the next pull in their pattern came, he loosed the needle. His will was as simple and clean as a cool summit wind.
The shot struck true, snagging along the drawstring at the captain's belt.
A coin purse sprang free and flew out of his back pocket.
The needle was like a collaborator, flying fast to the thick of a spruce tree.
The captain felt his backside a little lighter. His hands roamed fast, and no blood or pain bloomed along his backside.
Thinking of it as a simple breeze, he focused on the battle.
Radeon circled the edge of the chaos and watched the old captain's struggle from the corner of his eye.
Beyond that clash, he caught the true storm.
Two Gilded Core experts traded blows in the air itself, their feet finding purchase where there was nothing but night.
One fought with a knife, the other with a spear, their exchange so relentless that only afterimages remained.
Each clang of metal threw off a rain of sparks with every mortal breath.
Radeon measured their distance. They were still far. His goal lay elsewhere.
The spruce came into view, and there the captain's purse hung.
The needle, now only a splat of iron, gave its last service by pinning the treasure for its master.
He plucked the purse down, drew out a folded slip of paper, then pried the leather open and took the three middle-grade spirit stones.
The wallet looked too fine for his taste. He had seen small engravings worked into the inner lining.
'Tracking script. Beacon, maybe. I'm not taking it.'
Time was not his friend. He cut his own fascination with the new arrays, he knew lingering here would just put him in jeopardy.
Radeon slipped back toward the wreckage, to the half where the large array of the ship did not reach.
From his loot he fished out what mattered most.
He held a sky-faring token in one hand and a discipleship pass for the Hemal Tithe cultists in the other.
"Now I wait. See whose backup hits harder, then move."