Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 25

Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 25

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Sivantic.

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I would be a terrible liar, if I said that I did not care for the power that I now had. Part of me felt wonder at what I was now capable of doing. To be able to stitch wounds without touching others, but with greater precision than my fingers. To think and make things happen, as long as I understood what was required. And, finally, to be able to protect myself from the threats that this world had.

Though I feared being thought of as a narcissist, I drew comfort from my power and ability, and I practiced extensively to ensure that I could keep myself safe.

However, for as long as I could and to the best of my ability, I did my best to mitigate the effects of my power upon others.

Anything that could be construed as intimidation, I avoided to my utmost ability, unless lives were on the line.

It felt too much like using violence, even the threat of it, to get my way.

Naturally, I paid enough attention to the world that I was not blinded by my own ideals. When necessary, if it meant saving other people, I would use my power against them against their will. It is better, after all, to be terrified into surrendering instead of being forced into conflict. I would rather scare an enemy into submission, rather than have to fight against them, and be forced to do harm, if I cannot bring low my enemy low safely.

I understood this, I internalized this, and moved forward with my head held high, while knowing the line I set for myself.

With this in mind, I left the hall to stop Djet’Is with my full power laid bare and ready to restrain her.

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There was a stillness and silence in the air as I exited the meeting hall. All signs of life were either not present or silent. Having gotten used to the hustle and bustle of a busy fishing town, it felt eerie to behold it all silent and waiting with a bated breath.

Djet’Is had barely reached the outer gate when my strength struck her. At her side, her guards were struggling to stay standing. Veteran warriors of the As’Kari one and all, they did not fall to their knees in the face of a terrible foe. Despite everything in their body telling them to run, they held firm and with weapons in hand as they kept the heiress of their tribe behind them.

The guards of the Shu’Ann were meant to aid their own against another tribe’s. This much was expected of them.

However, I’d already taken advantage of their fright, and wound strings at their ankles, and hoisted each of them in the air at once.

“So, this is the path you’ve decided. You will oppose the As’Kari directly.” Djet’Is’s eyes held both sorrow and anger. From her point of view, I was opposing a path that would ensure the As’Kari’s supremacy across the land. It was something that she would fight to protect. However, I could not stand by and allow the As’Kari to join hands with the people of this kingdom. “Do you understand that you are stopping me from securing the safety and happiness of my people?”

Djet’Is wasn’t wrong and neither was she a fool. The kingdom was pressed from all sides, desperate for power, and the As’Kari lacked the raw resources of the people of this land. A few tons of steel weapons and armor will allow the tribe to dominate the Great Desert, and they’ll gain much more than that by offering their services now. Djet’Is saw this as an opportunity that could not be ignored for the sake of the As’Kari’s current plight.

She resolved herself to support her nation, by joining hands with a people who wronged so many.

However, there was another path forward.

A better path that would keep the As’Kari from joining hands with those who would leave tens of thousands to die.

“The mines will be cleared soon. We will produce plenty for all within a few months. The As’Kari can wage their war and be victorious with what you trade here.”

“And, I am to deny my people a quicker victory? A victory that will end the suffering we are now enduring? The suffering being inflicted on the other tribes by the prolonged conflict?”

“The As’Kari began this war themselves.

“No, the Great Desert began this war. We are finishing it.”

I stood before Djet’Is and she stood before me. I felt a few gazes upon us, but they were momentary and futile. In the presence of both our bared souls, there was little anyone else could do. Of course, her power was immense. She was her father’s daughter in truth, given the finest of meals and flesh of monsters, and she listened to me just as her father did about the truth of our strength.

But she chose the path of conflict, while I chose the path of aiding others.

My work was precise, meticulous, and enduring… and I started far earlier than she did.

Djet’Is did not strike me down, because it was plain to her that she could not strike me down.

So, she relied upon her words.

“You know more than anyone that the Great Desert is cruel and merciless. It has made us strong, but it has also taken away much from all the tribes. The way we live, the way we think, and the way we feel are all bound by scarcity and death.” Djet’Is was educated to lead to As’Kari as both a conqueror and an unassailable leader. No. She was raised to be imperious over the whole of the Great Desert, a unifying conqueror of legend, who would turn the surrounding nations into rivals and allies. “The war we now fight is necessary. If we do not fight, we will forever be kept in the Great Desert, used as slaves bought by metal and luxuries, while the dwellers in more peaceful lands glut themselves on what we earn with our blood.”

“You and I both know that Kan’Is did not offer to ally with any other tribe. All he sought was conquest. This could have all been avoided, instead war was sought out.” I offered my own rebuttal. Though she left earlier, showing her commitment to her cause, I did not wish to initiate violence on my own. Djet’Is knew this, all she had to do was speak and not listen to me, and it would be her victory. However, a mind as sharp as hers was not a closed one. “All the tribes of the Great Desert could have been united by now against the threat of the beasts and the eternal night, but the actions of the As’Kari the last half-decade made that impossible.”

“We would’ve borne upon us not only shame, but many lost lives, if we did not do as we did.” Djet’Is rebutted with a glare sent my way. My rebuttal at her earlier words seemed to have worked somewhat.  “Do you believe for a moment that any other tribe in the Great Desert would have done differently from us?”

“No, but I wanted the As’Kari to be better, especially with all I gave.”

Those words made Djet’Is’s gaze narrow and for her hands to clench into fists. It was better than the apathetic logic she was using to validate conflict.

“The As’Kari would not have as much as it does now without what I have done.” I refined their systems on retaining and using knowledge. Their diets and understanding of monsters were revolutionized by my own hands. To their physicians, I gave knowledge of how to treat infections, nutrition, and methods to stitch wounds without touching the needle and inviting infection. Not only that, but I killed many dangerous creatures in their path, and gave their enriched flesh to the tribe rather than eating entirely for myself. “You ask me to believe that the As’Kari should use force and power to dominate the Great Desert with power and violence. I tell you that I have given the tribe enough to leverage to take it all peacefully, or at least stop the violence.”

Djet’Is undoubtably thought that I betrayed the As’Kari.

However, in turn, I believed that the As’Kari betrayed me.

“I left the As’Kari to stop the tribe from using any further works I give for war. I will do the same here, if they choose to use my aid as a means to wage war.” I stepped forward and the guards struggled from their positions above us both, while held securely by my threads. “I told you a long time ago that I would never harm another person if I could, Djet’Is. That has never changed.”

Djet’Is was only a few paces from me now. With four strides, he could cross the distance between us and crush me utterly. However, she and I both knew that she wasn’t as quick as my threads.

Her head fell and she stared at the ground at her feet, while her teeth ground against one another.

“…And, now, you will fight against the As’Kari because they seek to harm others.”

“Yes.”

I gave my answer readily, while Djet’Is raised her head after a moment.

The emotions on her face changed. Anger, rage, sorrow, and everything else was replaced by emptiness.

There were no more words after my confirmation, and Djet’Is raised her hand to her sword at her back.

With a lunge and a swing, faster than the eye could see, she could kill me in an instant.

But I’d already won the battle the moment she chose to try and convince me to let her do as she wished.

Just like her guards, I hoisted her into the air, but knowing that she would cut through my threads… I threw her upward with far greater momentum high into the sky.

To her credit, as she fell towards my awaiting net to bind her, she roared and tried to throw her sword at me.

But I dodged the blade, and caught her in the trap that I prepared.

This will lose us much in the short term, but it was better than the alternative of the As’Kari falling ever more from grace by joining hands with the former rulers of these lands.

I thought that would be the end of the battle, but it was not.

With a burst of wind following her movements, she launched herself at her and burst through the net of wires I composed. They were strengthened, so they cut at her skin, but with her toughness they were no more than scratches. Her hand seized the hilt of her sword the moment she landed, and she turned on her heel to strike at me with the blade with both hands, as my threads rushed after her.

But, as I already said, at this distance she couldn’t hope to defeat me.

The massive weapon stopped a full foot away from me, stopped by a thick weave of my threads not only catching the edge and not being cut, but dragging the blade back to cancel her strength.

Djet’Is let go of her blade after realizing I caught it, and rushed at me with her fists. They were dangerous weapons given her strength, and my threads coming after her had yet to reach her.

Her plan was to exhaust my reserves of threads and come at me while I was undefended.

But she forgot one simple thing.

Before I learned how to use mere strings, I began to learn with the very cloth and bandages I now wore.

Her fist collided against a solid pane of threads and bandages. The threads I used for my attacks were as strong as steel as singular strands, which is why I had to weave them carefully and coiled them into thicker strings. In their finest state, they were more like the edges of knives with the speed and force I can exert with them, as well as their strength. It was how I made up for the lack of scalpels and other precision cutting tools during surgery in this word… but that was beside the point.

I turned singular threads into gossamer knives, and clothes and bandages are made of hundreds of thousands of them. Then, I layered them upon one another again and again, coating after coating of something with the hardness of steel, but not brittle in the slightest. In my old world, it would be a material nations would salivate over, but here… it worked as a potent shield against even powerful people such as Djet’Is.

Her fist collided against it and sent forth a shockwave reminiscent of a massive cannon firing. The wood of the freshly-built hall creaked, and the walls around it shuddered, while the dirt at our feet was blown away.

But, in the end, she did not harm me… and her hand was embedded in material under my control, which she could not usurp.

The attack I sent her way caught up with her, binding her and ensuring that she could not move, while the layers and layers of cloth that I summoned off my body wrapped around her weapon and took it away to my side.  This battle would be different, if she wore her father’s armor, but such was not the case. She did not have a living weapon enhancing her every move, giving her body edges and spikes that could cut and puncture my cloth, as well as increase her abilities fourfold.

But she did not have her family’s armor on, so it was my victory.

“This is not over.” She growled at me, as I lifted her up. I was meticulous and ensured that she was held up in the air without risk of her harming herself. Her guards floated down to her side, and I divested them of their weapons too. “We will not stop here.”

“I don’t need to stop you.” I answered her, while imparting my power upon her bindings. “I just need to send your mounts back, then I’ll head over to speak with the king of this land myself.”

“No!” Djet’Is struggled to no avail against her bindings, thrashing against them in a futile effort, before speaking again. “Do you understand what you’re doing!? You’re ensuring the As’kari will struggle in this war and cause far more death and despair! The victory my father sought was perfect for unifying the Great Dessert with as little violence as possible!”

Despite everything, those words were difficult to hear… and I couldn’t muster a reply.

They were a good people, and I understood why the chose the path that they chose.

But I left them because of that, and now I had the means to prevent and act against their war.

Though they were kind and good to me, I still condemned the path they chose and would not stand idly by as they spilled blood for their nation’s future.