Inheritance (Rise of the Empire Book 5) (14 page)

PART TWO – INHERITANCE

Chapter Twenty-One

September; Year 53 of the Empire – Warpath

Aileen blocked an attack from her opponent, then pushed in and delivered a direct punch to his chest. Surprised by Aileen’s speed and strength, her opponent took the brunt of the punch, which lifted him off his feet and sent him to the floor on his back. Aileen stood her ground and watched as her opponent got back up on his feet.

The man rubbed his chest for a moment and then brought his hands together at chest level and bowed. “Thank you for the chance to learn from you, Sentinel,” the young Nel adept said.

“It was my pleasure,” Aileen said, bringing her own fists together and bowing in return.

The young man then turned and left to join his friends, who were observing from the sidelines. Aileen watched him go, realizing that he wasn’t actually a young man. He looked young, like everyone in the Empire, but a quick check with her implant told her that he was thirty-four years old. Aileen didn’t know her exact age, but she believed that she had passed the seventy-year mark. She shook her head. It had been a long time since she’d been a Ra’a’zani slave on Earth.

Aileen looked around the training room, seeing young trainees practicing forms under the watchful eye of Master Hayashi Hideyoshi. A few adepts were moving around helping the old master with the instructions, adjusting the stances of the students and offering advice. Aileen was there simply to train, as she had finished her learning with the old master years ago. All of Master Hayashi’s classes were open to his former students; they could come and observe, join in, or simply use the facility to train.

She heard a gong, and saw everyone stop what they were doing and move to sit in front of Master Hayashi. Aileen moved to the back and leaned against a wall.

Master Hayashi walked up and down the line of students, looking each in the eye for a moment before moving on to the next. Finally, after a couple of minutes, he finished and moved to the middle of the line.

“This day is marks three months since you came to my class. In that time, all that you have been taught were stances and forms of various martial arts, even though all of you already have martial experience. That has been a test,” he said evenly. Aileen felt a side of her lip twitch upwards. She knew the frustration that these ‘students’ felt at being forced to practice forms that they already knew.

“All of you have combat knowledge. Many of you have been in the Empire’s military, some have studied various martial arts in other Clans, and some have been police officers. And yet all of you chose to come to Warpath. That tells me that you have felt something missing. That you wanted to expand your knowledge. But that is something that you could have done anywhere.” He paused for a moment, looking at the students. “To come to Warpath means that you want something more than that. You want to be leaders, philosophers, warriors. And that is what I am going to help you with. I am not going to teach you how to fight; I am going to teach you when not to. I am not going to teach you how to follow orders; I am going to teach you when to ignore them. I will teach you how to see the far-reaching consequences of your actions, both in a fight and out of it.” His eyes softened for a moment before he continued. “And when I am done, you will be one step closer to becoming true warriors.”

With that, he dismissed them, and then started walking towards Aileen. When he was maybe halfway across the room, one of the students called after him.

“Master? What was the test?” a voice asked.

Master Hayashi turned and showed the student his best confused face. “Why would I know that?” After looking at the students for a beat, he shooed them away with a gesture. Then he turned and made his way to Aileen as the students left.

“Aileen, coming to see an old man before you go?” Master Hayashi said with a childlike grin on his twenty-something-looking face.

“Of course. I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to my favorite master,” Aileen responded with a soft smile.

“Thank you for that. But I haven’t been your master for years. You outrank me now, Sentinel,” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“Perhaps, but we both know that you could be a Sentinel if you wanted to,” Aileen said. Warpath ranks were divided into four ranks: Novice—those who had just joined Warpath; Adept—those who had passed the minimum requirements to stay a part of Warpath; Master—those who had mastered at least one area; and Sentinel—those who had mastered at least four areas and had proven themselves exceptional in all of them. Master Hayashi Hideyoshi was, as his title said, still a Master. But not because he was not capable of being a Sentinel. He was the greatest martial artist in Warpath, probably in the entire Empire, second only to the former Clan Leader Adrian Farkas, now the leader of the Sentinels, who was once his student. But he was the exception; he alone had managed to surpass his master.

Master Hayashi sobered a bit. “I like being a master and I like teaching. Always did, even back on Earth.” Aileen felt herself stiffen at his mention of Earth; it had been a long time since then, but still the memories were always at the back of her mind.

Thankfully, Master Hayashi didn’t notice, so Aileen quickly changed the subject. “What do you think of the new novices?”

“They are good enough, but they are not up the standards that the old generations set. All of them were born in the Empire; they don’t know struggle the way we do. But they are good kids; in a few decades, they might become something.”

Aileen smiled at his choice of words. Calling people that were already past their thirty “kids” might have seemed like an insult, but they were kids to Master Hayashi, who was more than a hundred years older than them.

“If we follow the path that the Emperor and the Clan Leader envisioned, we will need more Sentinels,” Aileen added.

“Hmm…We will, if it works…but we are not the Hand. Their jobs are to keep the peace and justice of the Empire according to its laws and codes. What you will be doing is very different. You will be making decisions based on your own thoughts and whatever information you have available,” Master Hayashi said.

Aileen nodded. Clan Leader Farkas and Emperor Klein had come to an agreement concerning Warpath’s Sentinels long ago. They would act in the similar capacity as the Hand of the Empire, only while the Hand worked inside the Empire’s borders, Sentinels would work outside of it. They would be working both attached to the exploration fleets and on their own in order to seek out other races and make contact. They would evaluate their strengths, find their weaknesses, and inform the Emperor of the manner in which the diplomats should approach them. But not only that, they would provide tactical and strategic counsel to the commanders on the fringes of the Empire’s territory, which had been rapidly expanding over the last fifteen years.

That meant that Sentinels themselves had to possess a wide array of skills, diplomacy included. Aileen glanced at her bare left forearm and the five symbols tattooed there. Five aspects that she was proficient in. They were hand to hand, fleet command, xenology, diplomacy, and computer sciences. That was the way of Warpath; every member had tattoos that signified his progress. Every aspect was represented with a symbol inside of a circle; the color of the circle represented the person’s main focus. Aileen’s were black, meaning her main focus was in the combat arts. Smaller orbs were tattooed close to the circled symbols, and those signified the level of proficiency. Aileen’s hand to hand and fleet command had five and four orbs, respectively. Her xenology also had four, while her diplomacy and computer sciences had three. She was one of the more accomplished Sentinels, standing below only the Clan Leader himself, which was why she had been chosen as the first Sentinel to become the part of the Emperor’s vision.

“I understand,” Aileen said in response to Master Hayashi’s words. He in turn watched her intently, and then, after he didn’t find whatever he was looking for, he spoke.

“So, how are you feeling?” Master Hayashi asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

Aileen looked at her hand, clenched her fist, and released it. She turned to Master Hayashi and smiled. “Good. I am still getting used to the additional weight and strength. Still trying to figure out my new limits. And I need to hold back a lot more now,” she answered. “Plus, I feel sore all over,” she added. The aftereffects of the treatment that had upgraded her body were still not completely gone, even with months of rehabilitation.

“I saw you with that adept earlier. You lifted him clear of the floor with one punch, and he was taller than you by half a head at least,” he said.

“Yes, I didn’t hold back enough. It’s hard sometimes to gauge exactly how much strength I am using,” she said.

Master Hayashi hummed thoughtfully, then the childlike twinkle returned to his eyes. “And what about the…?” he asked, his voice trailing off as he raised his hand and wiggled his fingers in a strange gesture that Aileen recognized the meaning of.

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how to use any of the psionics yet,” she answered in a monotone tone that came from answering the same question a hundred times. “Although, I did have an accident a few days ago.”

“What kind of accident?” he asked.

“Well, I was in the bathroom, and…” She stopped. “On the other hand, I’m not telling you about that, it’s too embarrassing.”

Master Hayashi grinned, but didn’t press her. Then his face straightened, and he spoke seriously again. “Are you sure about going with him?”

Aileen shifted uncomfortably. “No, but I am the only one that can do it,” she said.

“There is always someone else.”

“What I meant to say was that I am the one who can do it best. It makes sense to take someone who is intimately familiar with the Ra’a’zani. And I was the personal slave to the Earth Overlord, I know them best,” Aileen said.

Master Hayashi grimaced. “Perhaps, but you know that no one is forcing you to go, right? You can say no.”

“Of course I know. It has been made very clear to me,” she answered with a sad smile. “But I want to. I need to face them again. And I can’t back out now; he is the only one that can teach me how to use my new abilities.”

Master Hayashi nodded grimly. “That might be for the best.” He then studied her with a strange look in his eyes. After a few awkward moments of the two of them standing there, Aileen broke the silence.

“What is it?”

Master Hayashi blinked and the look was gone. “You remind me so much of him.” He sighed.

“Really?” Aileen said, surprised.

“Yes.” He nodded. “You have the same drive, in here.” He pointed at her heart. “And the same way of thinking up here,” he said, pointing at her head. “I can see it in the way you fight, in the way you reason your actions.”

“I doubt that; we have led very different lives.” Aileen shook her head.

“Yes, very different lives. Yet trust me when I say this, you are far more alike than not. Adrian was born with a raw talent unlike any I have ever seen, and not just for fighting, but for everything. He pushes himself so far, so much. He pushes not to be the strongest, but for the simple reason that he knows that he has not yet reached his limit. And I believe that when he reaches that limit, he will not stop. He will push further and further simply because he can.”

Master Hayashi laid a hand on her shoulder. “That unyielding drive is what you share, although it comes from different reasons. Things always came easily to him, and he knows it. It is what has made him complacent at times, made him suffer great grief. But his goal was never to be the best for the sake of being above others; the only thing he craves is the challenge of that imaginary boundary that he intends to push through,” he said with a respect that Aileen had rarely heard from her master.

“Things come easy to you, too, but not as easy as they come to him, because you are weighed down. You push to run away. You remember what you once were, and you train to get away from that person. But you will never escape her; she is you,” he said sympathetically. “That is where you and Adrian differ. He has left his past behind him, remembering it but not allowing it to pull him backwards. He faced his moment and didn’t break, and he emerged stronger. But his past was not like yours. He had never been left at the mercy of another, and he has never felt helpless to the same extent as you have. He is free. And you can be like him if you face that person, look her in the eye, and let her go.”

Aileen turned away from her former master, feeling his hand drop from her shoulder. She was shaken, because she knew that he was right. She was held back. She hated her past self; each time her dreams took her to that time, she wanted to scream at that pathetic, beaten slave, to grab her and shake her to ask her what the hell was wrong with her that she would allow them to own her, to make her turn on her own people. It was that time that drove her now. She would never be that helpless and weak again.

She had been broken when she’d arrived in the Empire, one of the few survivors from Earth. It had taken her years to learn all about who humans were, their history, their legacy. And then she’d had a choice; she could be anything she wanted. Some of the survivors had left to found their own Clan, but Aileen had never really felt like a part of them. She was the only one who had been in the service of the Ra’a’zani, and they never let her forget that. Instead, she had chosen to stay on Sanctuary, and eventually she’d started working at the progeny centers as a caretaker. It was those children that she’d raised that had helped her heal, had helped her find herself.