Gilded Ashes-Chapter 82: Ruler

---A few weeks later---

The lab was quiet. Overhead lights set to low, ventilation fans humming behind ceiling panels. On the table between them, a holographic projection glowed - a rotating wireframe of a new kind of grapple rig, annotated with measurements, stress tolerances, and tiny directional arrows marking force vectors at each joint.

Raizen leaned over the table, forearms flat. He still didn’t believe that Alteea granted him 24/7 in a full laboratory, and he had everything to himself – And Saffi, of course. He had been studying robotics and engineering like crazy the past week or two.

Frowning, he looked at the hologram on the table.

"If we shave two grams here" he said, tapping near the wrist joint, "the rotational lag should drop, right? I should be able to change direction without the harness throwing me around."

Saffi stood on his right, slate pressed against her ribs. "Two grams is - we can do that, but it..." She pushed her glasses up with one knuckle. "It changes your moment of inertia at the - " She stopped. Breathed in. "It’ll feel different. Uhm... A bit lighter on the turn. Maybe too light." Her stylus hovered over the slate without touching it. "...Maybe."

"Well that’s exactly what’s what I want" he answered, not looking at her.

Saffi nodded - three times, when once would have been enough. "We could add a counterweight at the - " She sketched a shape in the air with her finger, not on the projection. "Or we leave it and see."

"Leave and see will probably make Alteea shout at us for a few minutes" he said. Half-smiling.

She tried to laugh. It came out as a weird squeal instead. When she handed him the torque driver from the tray, her fingers stayed near his a second longer than the handoff required. He took it without noticing. She noticed. A flush crept up her neck.

His jacket hung on the chair behind him. The inside pocket was unzipped - the folded packet slightly visible. Saffi’s eyes flicked to it once, then flicked away as if she thought it wasn’t important.

"Anchors here, here, here" Raizen said, tracing three points around the wrist housing. "If they hold under lateral load, I can redirect mid-swing without losing the line."

"Hm... Turn actual corners" Saffi finished - too fast. She winced at herself. Stood very still. A strand of hair slipped forward; she tucked it behind her ear. Checked it was there. Tucked it again. "Sorry... I’m - I’m a bit excited."

"Good" he told himself, not paying a bit of attention to Saffi. "I can feel what this thing needs to be. I just don’t have the engineering to get there yet."

Saffi’s mouth opened to say something, then immediately closed. The projection lit her face blue-white. After a second, she tried to say something else -

The door hissed open.

Hikari stepped in carrying a paper bag folded at the top, a grease spot blooming near the bottom. Her helmet was hooked on two fingers. Her hair was pinned up - rushed, a little uneven. She had a smile ready.

The corner of her mouth fell off the tiniest bit when she saw them - Raizen leaning over the projection, Saffi standing close, the two of them lit by the same blue light in a quiet room.

She set the bag on the table. A little too hard.

"Working overtime?" she asked Raizen. Her voice was light. Her eyes were not.

Raizen looked up, blinked, and his face brightened into a real smile. "Oh, savior! You’re saving my starving life."

Saffi straightened so fast her slate squeaked against her jacket. "Just – just running calculations, trying different- It’s nothing..." She stepped back. Checked a number on her slate that she’d already checked five times before.

Hikari opened the bag. The lab filled with the smell of sweet fried bread. She slid a bun toward Saffi without looking at her directly. "You should eat, too."

"Thank you" Saffi said quietly.

Raizen tore a bun in half and handed the bigger piece back to Hikari. "You two are literally keeping me alive" he said. To both of them and neither in particular.

Saffi’s stylus moved across her slate - a doodle, then a correction, then another correction. "If you want to test the weight balance tonight" she offered, "I can stay."

"Tomorrow" Hikari interrupted. Final. "We have a thing now."

"What thing?" Saffi asked. Then looked like she wished she could pull the words back into her mouth.

"Oh, I remember!" Raizen slapped his forehead "Alteea asked to see us today"

Hikari picked up the bag. Raizen grabbed his jacket from the chair. The packet shifted in the pocket - a small, muffled sound that only he heard. He pulled the jacket on and followed Hikari out. In the doorway, he turned back.

"Thanks, Saffi. Tomorrow morning?"

Saffi nodded. Her stylus was still. "Tomorrow."

✦ ✦ ✦

The vehicle bay was now full. Lifts running, cables draped across service cradles, engineers moving between machines with tools and tablets.

Hikari’s Kestrel-X sat on a stand, front lit by a diagnostic strip. A tech rotated the rear wheel while another checked a complicated analysis. Hikari refused to let anyone polish out the small scratch on the side fairing from her training run. It was hers.

Keahi stood under a ceiling rig while a tech clipped a black safety harness to her shoulders. "If the construct destabilizes at height" the tech said, "this line catches you."

"Ugh, fine" Keahi said, rolling her shoulders again. She didn’t like the harness, but it was the least she let them do.

Feris wore the gyropack, straps snug, nacelles folded. Two engineers were murmuring about thrust tolerances. "Spin" Feris reminded them. "I need to spin."

"We know" one mumbled. "That’s the fifth time you remind us today."

Arashi’s Astra-203 sat in its charging dock, powered down. He ran a hand along the edge. "Any chance of a weapon mount?"

"No" three engineers said without looking up.

Lynea stood on the far side of the bay with her fragments humming near her ankles - forming and reforming into the thin ring-wheels, adjusting as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

Ichiro’s hover-quad rested two centimeters above the tile. Steady. He stood beside it with one hand on the housing.

Alteea came in wearing her white coat and her usual grin. "Upgrades are being fitted while you’re in the brief. Today isn’t about machines. It’s about wearing your formal faces and not tripping in them."

Esen raised a hand. "We only trip in style."

"Try to bring that energy to the briefing" Alteea said. "Follow me."

✦ ✦ ✦

The briefing room was glass-walled, small but functional. Folding chairs. A map projection covering the far wall: Neoshima’s rings, the defensive wall, and beyond it - kilometers of forest extending northwest into a canopy so thick the terrain beneath it disappeared from view. After that followed a strange strip of what looked like totally dry, barren ground. Beyond that, a light green vast plain that covered more than sixty kilometers. A sigil pulsed in that green. A name beneath it: Ukai.

"A big storm moving in from the east" Alteea said. She stood behind a chair, hands resting on its back. "Nothing can fly through it. The Ruler will travel by ground - convoy formation, the route to Ukai will be handled by two Wardens. You’re his escort."

"Us?" Arashi said. "Shouldn’t an actual Vanguard unit -"

"Who actually attacks the Ruler in a storm?" Alteea said. "This is ceremony. You’re Neoshima’s Lotus Academy’s showcase - the cohort that beat its upperclassmen. Veterans... Half like fossils, half intimidate too much. You look like fresh beginnings."

Kori slipped in at the back of the room, paper bag in hand, and leaned against the wall. "Keep your uniforms clean" she said. "He notices everything."

"Ukai?" Hikari asked.

Alteea laughed out loud, like that was the stupidest thing you could say. "Hah- no! The Ruler!"

Kori nodded at the map. "Ukai is a city built in the canopy. Bridges between massive trees that make our tallest buildings look short."

Esen stretched his back. "...And why do we have to escort mister Ruler?"

"Ukai’s Ruler has been keeping something - something our Ruler needs to see in person. What it is isn’t your concern. Your job is getting him there and making it look effortless." Kori answered, without any jokes in her voice.

"The forest route is one hundred twenty-two kilometers from the wall to Ukai’s outer platforms" Alteea added, pulling up a secondary display. A line traced through the different biomes - winding, elevation-changing, crossing at least a dozen marked points. "Humidity will be extreme. The surface shifts between packed earth, root systems, and suspended bridgework. Know your limits."

"Rope bridges" Esen said, staring at the route. "You’re serious."

"Ahh, you’ll do just fine" Alteea waved her hand in the air.

Raizen studied the route. One hundred twenty-two kilometers. That would be... Around two hours of travelling.

"Questions?" Alteea asked.

"Will we meet the Ruler before we leave?" Lyne asked, chin up.

Alteea’s expression shifted - something between amusement and something like respect. "He’s waiting."

✦ ✦ ✦

They took the horizontal elevator to the same building where the Lighthouse was, the Council Spire.

Alteea led them to a simple room. Wood paneling, warm tone. Small - built for small meetings, not audiences. The eight lined up along one side, completely silent.

Two Wardens entered first - tall, armored at the shoulders, ceremonial blades at their hips. They positioned themselves on either side of the inner door and stood motionless.

The door opened.

A boy walked in.

Thirteen years old, maybe. He was slight - narrow shoulders, thin wrists, the frame of someone who hadn’t finished growing yet. He wore ceremonial white clothes with silver thread stitched along the seams, the fabric tailored precisely to his body. A sash crossed his chest, silver-clasped, carrying multiple insignia that Raizen didn’t recognize. His shoes were almost completely silent on the wood. His hair was dark, combed flat.

He entered the room with the air of someone who’d spent years being a leader. The difference was in his hands: they hung at his sides, relaxed, fingers loose. The tension was in his spine and his jaw. His eyes were dark blue, steady, and older than his face.

Kori uncrossed her arms. She bowed her head - deeper than Raizen had ever seen her bow for anyone. Alteea lowered her chin. "These are your escort. The Academy’s first year Royal Scholars."

The boy stopped in front of the eight. He looked at each face in turn - not scanning, not staring. As if he was reading something hidden behind their expressions.

"Neoshima’s Ruler" Kori said. "Solomon."

"You may call me Solomon" the boy said. His voice was clear and level - no affectation, no performance. "Or Ruler, if it helps you forget my age."

Nobody moved. Esen’s rings chimed once and he closed his fist around them, killing the sound. Arashi’s mouth twitched but stayed closed. Keahi’s fingers uncurled from the phantom grip of a weapon she wasn’t carrying. Ichiro dipped his head - the precise amount that meant respect without concession.

Solomon’s eyes found Raizen last. They stayed a beat longer than the others. Then they moved - not to Raizen’s face, but to his hip, where the blades usually sat. Then to Ichiro’s shoulder, where the cloak covered the stone. Then back to center.

"This year has indeed been rich" Solomon said to Kori. "A blade user, a staff user, two ranged specialists, two close-quarters fighters, one adaptive, and one..." His eyes went to Ichiro again. "One I’d like to understand better, when there’s time."

The room was very quiet. Solomon was thirteen and he’d read the group’s combat composition in four seconds without anyone telling him what they did. Kori’s expression didn’t change, but something behind it did - pride, maybe, or confirmation of something she’d already known about the boy she served.

"He’s just a kid" Esen whispered. He didn’t mean for anyone to hear it.

Solomon’s mouth moved - the smallest shift, a line that almost curved. He’d heard. But he didn’t address it. He looked past them, toward the window where the clouds were thickening over the north-eastern canopy.

"The weather won’t wait for us" he said. "And Ukai doesn’t wait for anyone." He turned back to the group. "Shall we?"

Raizen made a surprised sound he couldn’t stop in time. "Respectfully, Ruler sir...

...Right now!?"