Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee

Before heading to the southwest plaza, I detour to the central Oathmark of Azure Prime.

Richard’s contract has been sitting in my inventory, signed by both Diver Marks since the night he agreed to run the factory. Between the move, the training, and the unwanted visits, I’ve put off the registration for too long.

I press the contract against the crystal at the monument’s base.

The runes read the clauses, recognize our marks, and sort the roles.

[CONTRACT REGISTRATION COMPLETE]

[GUILD MEMBERSHIP: SAFE HARBOR]

[MEMBER: RICHARD BOULEVARD]

[GUILD POSITION: COMMON MEMBER]

[PROFESSIONAL ROLE: LDP FACTORY MANAGER]

[ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY: NONE]

Good.

Richard runs the factory, the workers, and production. That doesn’t hand him the guild’s internal contracts, the vault, or the founders’ decisions. Professional power and guild authority are different animals. Mixing them is an efficient way to wake up one day with no money and half your staff giving orders to the other half.

I file the contract and open the infrastructure section on the Oathmark screen.

The upgrade list is long, expensive, and full of things a small guild has no reason to buy yet: private training beacons, squad tracking systems, linked depots between cities, Memogram archives.

I find what I need near the bottom.

[GUILD REPORT FORUM]

[INSTALLATION COST: 4 PLATES]

I confirm the payment from the guild vault. The Oathmark lights under my hand.

[4 PLATES WITHDRAWN FROM GUILD TREASURY]

[GUILD REPORT FORUM INSTALLED]

A new section appears on my HUD.

The word "forum" suggests something freer than what the system actually gives you. It works as a report box bolted to the hierarchy. A common member can open a record for the administration, follow only his own records, and reply when an administrator joins the thread.

The administration can start contact with any member, send notices, request updates, and route reports between the people responsible.

Two common members still have no direct access to each other. No voice calls. No group channel. A worker can’t use it to chat with another worker on shift.

Soldiers speak upward. Officers answer downward.

Limited, but useful. Ocean’s Law has never allowed direct public contact with many people at once. This is close to the ceiling.

I open the first thread.

[ADMINISTRATIVE NOTICE]

[RECIPIENT: RICHARD BOULEVARD]

[You can buy the wagon now. Follow the specs we agreed on. Use the authorized factory funds and keep the receipts in case Veric decides to throw a fit.]

The reply comes not long after.

[REPLY RECEIVED]

[Glad we can talk now. Sits better with me, knowing I can reach you without a Party slot or a runner. I’ll get it all arranged.]

Richard seems to have discovered the first genuine joy of management: the ability to transfer worry to the owner.

I close the forum and head for the plaza.

The group is already waiting near the dry fountain. I don’t waste time explaining Freya. I set four small markers on the ground, forming an uneven square around the center of the plaza, and step inside it.

"Today we stop fighting like four people who like each other."

Veric raises an eyebrow. "That definition already sounds optimistic."

"You’re the exception."

Oliver lets out a short laugh. Rhayne hides a smile and goes back to paying attention.

I point at the markers. "I stay in the center. You attack. One at a time."

Oliver looks at Motorhead. "Hard?"

I glance at Zhang Xi before answering. "If you want to pay for my healing."

He adjusts his hand on the haft. "So... not hard. Lean times."

"Exactly. The goal here is different. When an attack forces me to correct my stance, the attacker stops. The next attack comes from someone else, entering the opening that correction just made."

Veric frowns. "Why stop, if the opening is mine?"

"Because I’m still reading you. If you’re the one who made me open up, then however bad my position is, I’m still braced for something else from you."

The smile drops off his face.

"If you keep the sequence alone, I keep defending the same man, the same reach, the same weapon. Even where there’s no read, there’s expectation. I want you to force me to answer Undertow, then hand me to someone else before my defense is finished."

Rhayne looks at the markers on the ground. "With no fixed order?"

"With an order first. Without one later."

I take my stance and raise Eventide without lighting the blade. "Go."

The first attempt lasts a few seconds.

Undertow comes spinning at chest height. I leave the line with a lateral step, but Veric releases the chain, driving the shield after me to keep the pressure. I slip the shield as it yo-yos back, and I raise my hand, stopping the drill.

"Did you get what you wanted?" I ask him, level.

"You only took one step."

"And put my weight on my right leg. Rhayne was on that side. You worked alone."

Veric looks at her, then at my foot. "Again."

On the next attempt, he stops after displacing me, but Rhayne comes in late. Eventide is back at center by the time the Battle Ribbon reaches my leg.

"Restart."

She reels the ribbon in. "I saw the opening."

"You saw it after I finished correcting. The opening exists ’during’ the answer. The link has to be tight, timed, chained. One thing, not three."

We run the sequence again. Then again.

Oliver has the same problem for a different reason. Motorhead carries enough momentum to turn any entry into a commitment. When he forces my guard up, he still wants to complete the arc and collect the result himself. Not personality. Style. That hammer stores too much energy in the swing.

During one of his attacks, I step in and catch the haft before he can recover his position, exactly the way Zhang Xi does it.

"You don’t have to finish the strike."

"But, boss... I spent years learning to finish."

"Now learn to give it up and pass the chance along."

He breathes deep and nods.

The three of them understand combat. That’s precisely where the bad habit lives. Good fighters learn to hunt their own victory inside the opening they create.

In the trenches, that gets people killed.

"You’ve all seen a mass assault?" I ask.

Oliver nods. Veric too, though probably from a cleaner vantage point than mine.

"When a whole line of low ranks advances on something stronger, the first group almost never kills. It forces shields, barriers, spears, and feet to pick a direction. The second line enters before that choice is finished. The third takes away the path the beast would have used to back out."

I walk between the markers, showing the directions with my hand.

"If everyone attacks at once, the formation jams. Weapons clash, allies close each other’s lanes, and the enemy gets one single mass to block or dodge. A mass assault works by rotation. Each line manufactures the defense the next line needs. If the timing is right, the enemy never attacks, and never gets a clean chance to defend either."

I point at the center. "Same thing here. Just with three people."

Veric spins the gladius in his hand. "So whoever starts it doesn’t choose the ending."

"Exactly."

"And whoever comes in next has to read what he was handed."

"Now you’re starting to get it."

Then Rhayne says something that surprises me. "Not only read what you were handed. Also decide whether to finish it, or whether it’s worth passing along again..."

I smile, and I mean it. "Exactly. Good girl."

We start over.

At first I set the order. Veric creates the first displacement, Rhayne attacks the correction, and Oliver closes the exit and finishes. Then I invert it. Then I shuffle it again, until none of the three depends on which weapon opens the sequence.

The difficulty climbs when I ban talking.

Once an attack begins, any explanation after it means a restart. If two of them pick the same opening, restart. If I get both feet back under me and return to center guard, restart.

The plaza spends the whole afternoon marked by chains scraping stone, the metallic hiss of the Battle Ribbon, and Motorhead stopping inches from Eventide.

They fail a lot.

I also eat the hammer a few times. Not because it worked, but because it was a collective mess, and I didn’t want to hurt him.

The difference starts to show when they stop looking only at me. Their eyes begin tracking the effect the ally produced. A shoulder turning. A foot giving ground. A weapon leaving the line. Weight dropping onto one leg.

Late in the afternoon, Undertow crosses my field and shoves me out of the center. Veric ends his entry at the right moment.

The Battle Ribbon is already coming in low.

I pull the leg back before contact with a lateral pivot. Rhayne releases the pressure without chasing me, and as I move to recover my guard, Oliver is already vaulting over her, Motorhead above his head. He takes the space above my shoulder and forces me to lean out of the arc to block high.

But Oliver holds the strike for a beat, freezing the hammer.

At first it looks like an error. It isn’t. He read Veric.

The tip of Veric’s gladius stops against my ribs.

I could still spin out of it.

But when I look to the side, the Battle Ribbon is in the way.

We hold still for a moment.

None of them shouted an order. None of them tried to steal the end of the sequence.

I lower Eventide and nod. "Again."

Veric pulls the sword back. "It worked."

"For the first time. Which doesn’t mean you own it yet."

"You could show a little happiness."

"I can. When it works on someone trying to take your head off. Remember, I’m only defending here."

We train until the light over the plaza starts to fail.

When I finally call it, the three of them are tired, but the change exists. Small still, still limited to a few sequences, but real. Instead of three consecutive attacks, they’re starting to produce a single pressure that changes hands.

They’ve finally understood the shape of it. Sequential Tide Waves.

A notification surfaces on the guild forum, asking for my attention.

[NEW REPORT — RICHARD BOULEVARD]

I open it.

[Wagon bought. Enclosed, ordinary-looking, suspension checked, room enough for the crates. Driver hired and given only what he needs to know. Everything you asked for is ready.]

I answer from beside the dry fountain.

[Perfect. Tomorrow we put the plan to work.]

I stop for a second before finishing.

[Tomorrow is show day.]

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!