Nicolai had now completed his right arm. The desire to use the full Spectral Claw, to experience it at last, was overwhelming.

So, now he stood in the middle of his cave, with all the Spectral Claw's Symbiotes in their proper places.

The Finger set filled his digits—Grasping Finger, Repulsive Finger, Sliding Finger, Lifting Finger, Anchoring Thumb. In his hand Major Node, the Phantom Clawer. The Spectral Mantis was in his forearm Node, and finally the Long Stick Insect resided in his shoulder Node.

He'd already practised combined-Arts the last time, and so managed easily. With a flex of will, a solid stream of Oma, and quick Art-weaving process as they all activated simultaneously, he forged eight disparate Arts into one.

The Spectral Claw burst into view, the Aura rippling around it. Nicolai wasn't worried by that—he'd determined that the occasional ripple wasn't a risk.

He raised his hand, fingers spread, and on the end of his Soul Sense tendril the Spectral Claw mimicked his motion. He could feel it, moreso than any other Art he'd yet used. An extension of his arm and Soul, something that he knew would be visible even to those without a Cultivator's eyes (many Arts, like the working of the Grasping Finger, were not).

Nicolai reached out, and grasped at a heavy length of metal lying on the floor. Material waiting for placement in the ongoing construction. It weighed over a hundred kilograms. The Claw scissored tight around it, and he grunted as he lifted. He felt his body and his Soul strain as it rose into the air. It wasn't even that difficult. Interesting. He couldn't lift a hundred kilograms with one arm.

He guessed that the Art, when used like this, was making use of two separate strengths. The strength of his arm and body, plus the strength of his Soul. He believed this was because the Symbiotes in its makeup drew on, or scaled off, separate things. He knew that the Fingers tended to use his own physical strength—using them was quite strenuous. But the Phantom Clawer and the Spectral Mantis, those he felt went more off the strength of his Soul.

Combined, he was able to lift something with both his Soul and his physical strength, added together and put into the same Art. Another reason why this Art was so powerful. The stronger his body and Soul became, so the greater a cumulative strength this Art would hold.

He dropped the chunk of metal and struck out at a patch of cave-wall the bots hadn't got to yet. The Claw flashed past, tearing furrows in the rock.

He moved over and examined the damage. It was quite significant. If this hit an undefended, non-augmented human, it would tear them apart. Against someone more augmented it might need a couple of hits. Against someone made entirely of metal it may struggle a little, and he might be better served by trying to pick them up and smash them into something.

Still, the true strength of this weapon wasn't just that it hit decently hard, he knew it would also tear through Shields and Soul Senses easily. He supposed that also meant it could be quite useful defensively—if someone tried to hit him with an attack guided by Soul Sense, he'd be able to disable it very easily.

It was some time until he stopped playing—practising—with the Spectral Claw.

###

Finally arriving at the top, they saw the platform she'd mentioned but moved quickly past it, and arrived in the Trade Link proper.

Kleos hadn't seen it before, but he was pretty sure it'd never looked like it did now.

There was a kind of shanty town spread through the area. Mostly little buildings made of flimsy sheets of metal and wood, though there were a few bigger places made from actual bricks and what looked like the same mortar as used below. An endless blue glow came from blue lines shot through the floor, but this glow was interrupted and in many places overwritten entirely by a warmer yellow light from all kinds of human lamps and lighting devices.

A sussurrus of relaxed chatter came from the large space around the Trade Link, where he spied tables and chairs scattered around, mostly clustered outside a few of the shanty buildings. There were people working—cooking, mending, making—and others just moving around or sitting and talking.

One of the proper buildings fronted this central area, and had bored-looking guards either side of the entryway, which was an opening with stairs leading onto a large raised porch around the door to the actual building.

Jo led Kleos and Maric rapidly through the strange little town, to one of the actual buildings, where she led them down a hallway past doorways and eventually into what could only be her room.

It was small and taken up mostly by one large bed then table which had weapons and tools and devices scattered across it. More weapons were stuffed into a corner.

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Beth was lying on the bed, and Azure was lying beside her. Beth wore a skinsuit much like Jo's, though open at the top and stripped down to fall over her legs, some kind of white vest covering her top. Azure wore something a lot like a skinsuit except he was pretty sure it wasn't one. She had a belt around her hips, a pistol proudly displayed from a holster. The pair glanced up, saw Jo, relaxed, then saw Kleos and Maric following after and Beth shot up in this sudden spasm of movement, launched from the bed with eyes wide.

'Shit! Who the hell is this!' she cried, leaping towards the weapons and making a futile attempt to cover them up with a sheet grabbed from the bed.

Jo gaped at her and all those guns. 'What? What? You had to give them all up to Maxine! What are they doing back here?'

'Well…' started Beth, before trailing off. She raised her hands in a shrug.

Jo glowered at her and then at Azure. 'What the fuck?'

'Hi Jo,' said Azure, grinning, though the grin faded in only a moment. 'It wasn't me!'

'I took them back,' sneered Beth, and now she stood tall, hands on her hips. 'They're my fucking guns. I paid for them. Or stole them.' Seeing Jo's incredulous expression she waved dismissively. 'The details don't matter, the point is, I earned them. That bitch isn't having my fucking guns. They were all just stuffed into some storeroom with everything else, not even being used! I'm not leaving them there to get broken or be given away to shitheads!'

Azure nodded all the way through this, letting out little mutters, 'Damn straight, yeah, you tell it, mmhmm.'

Jo stared at Beth, mouth open. 'This is… she's going to find out, you idiot!'

'She wouldn't except you've brought two randoms here!' snapped Beth. 'Who are these guys?!'

'Don't worry,' said Kleos quickly. 'It's just me, Kleos. Me and Maric.'

Beth blinked at them. 'Uh. What?' she said. Then she frowned and darted across the room, wormed between the pair of them with impressive speed, reached the door, stuck her head out. She stared left, stared right, pulled back, slammed it closed. She turned her stare on them. Took an especially long look at Kleos, thoughtful now, and he felt her Soul Sense touching and smelling at his own, then Maric's.

Azure leapt off the bed and came to join her and the both of them stared at Kleos.

'It does look like him,' murmured Azure.

'Right?' breathed Beth. 'Weird to see you on top of a body, instead of resting on a table,' she added.

'A pleasant change, if you ask me,' said Kleos, leaning back from the overly close inspection. He could see the pores—did humans have pores?—on their skin, and their wide eyes, Beth's blue and Azure's light brown, filled his vision.

They shifted over together, moving in sync as if they shared the same condition as he and Maric did, to subject Maric to a similar stare.

'Hello,' said the skeleton-now-a-man with some worry, his voice unusually high as they peered closely at him.

'Hard to tell, 'cuz he used to be a skeleton,' said Azure.

'Mmmm,' mmm'd Beth. She leaned back. 'Well. Cool. Good to see you guys.' She turned and tossed herself back on the bed, followed swiftly by Azure.

'Cool?! How is she not going to find out!' snarled Jo, who'd been observing all this with her hands on her hips and an increasingly irritated expression on her face.

'Don't worry. I covered my tracks. Pinned it on the communists. Heh. Anyway what do you have to worry about? Maxine loves you, you're like her main girl.'

'Not if she thinks you stole from her,' muttered Jo.

'You worry too much. Be real, what'll she do, even if she does work it out? Take them back, slap on the wrist, stern talking to.' Beth's voice dropped into some kind of affected accent, low and drawling. 'And by the way, thanks fer all y'all work keepin' errybody safe, you're muh main gurl, etc etc stuff like that. She needs us. Chill.'

'Well,' mumbled Jo, unhappy. 'It's happened now, I guess. We need to hide them better.' She sighed. 'Later.' She ran a hand down her face, and a smile appeared in its wake. 'Okay.' She turned back to Kleos and Maric. 'Uh, have a seat.' She gestured to the two chairs set around the table then sat on the bed by Beth and Azure, who were sat on the edge. Beth put her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands and watched them. Azure copied Beth. Jo remained standing.

Kleos noticed that Beth's hands and arms were changed. There were some artificial looking black lines that circled her wrist, then extended in a straight line down the back of her forearm. They looked like they served some kind of function, hid an "augment" of some kind. Azure, oddly, had the very same black lines except he was pretty sure hers were drawn on.

Watching them all with Soul Sense as he and Maric settled into the chairs, he noticed Jo and Beth's Senses had grown a little larger, and denser. A sign of possessing more Nodes, quite a few more Nodes. Definitely brain Nodes, since that was the main one that benefited Soul Sense. Azure had more Nodes too, though to a much lesser degree From the ripples he felt, the sisters now also had numerous Symbiotes, perhaps five each. It would take him a bit more time to work out what those Symbiotes were, exactly, by teasing apart the ripples—

Beth has a Skin Shield, said Maric. And the same fire Symbiote. Also something that boosts movements. Perhaps some of the Finger set, like Nicolai had. Jo has a Burst Shield, and the same movement Symbiote as Beth. Then… something else. Not worked it out yet. Something to do with vision, perhaps. They also both possess Pegasi rings.

Kleos kept his face blank but he couldn't hide the surprise he felt. That was quick, and based on Maric's confidence and what he dimly felt of how the man had come to those conclusions, accurate. Maric possessed skills he hadn't realised. He felt the man's smugness as Maric felt his surprise, but wasn't bothered. If pride was earned, then it was fine. That had always been the way of his people.

Beth meanwhile had been subjecting the pair of them to a curious stare, and now she turned to Jo.

'So? What's the story?'

'They came out of the ground,' said Jo. 'I don't know all the details, just the broad strokes. They said there was a thing called the Coffin. Something to do with Nicolai. I didn't get the whole story.' She looked to Kleos expectantly.

Kleos, sinking into the chair, felt a sense of uncertainty as well as a very strong sensation that someone was staring at him. He turned and there was Maric, giving him a look. A look that he could feel because he felt the man's thoughts.

Well? What shall we tell them?

Everything, I suppose. We need allies. They are better than anything else we could hope for, we know them already. He felt Maric's assent, and turned back to Jo and Beth and Azure.

Where to start…

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