(Ancestral Empowerment | Art by Tomasz Jedruszek)

Each living soul in Rathe has a family, a purpose, a story. And so do our heroes. Through Tales of Rathe, we’ll get to meet each hero again, through a story from their perspective. Let’s take a look at Uzuri and her story.

Whitetail loves showing me around the Pits, boasting in his glorious triumphs. The sights, the smells, and the slimy hands of sneaky pickpockets topped off with a familiar face and a confidently annoying voice. Killing this one here or that one there, making a show of slitting throats, or pushing people off ledges. It’s all the same to me, just cockroaches fighting for scraps. 

He heard of my exploits, and I made sure of that. This “simple merchant travelling from Metrix to Misteria” has a lot of stories to share. After all, getting into the Spiders isn’t exactly a walk in the park.

“You killed anyone before?” he asks. Did the boy in Misteria deserve it? Perhaps, perhaps not, but there were many after him, so it matters little. I left the days of the Mistveil behind along with any and all emotions of that time. Now, killing is just a means to an end.

The sketch Whitetail passes me is surprising: Overseer Crichton from Blackjack’s Mining… Is this a trap? Why would Whitetail want someone outside of his Spiderlings to hit a target this big? We pass Ankomeido, a district in the Pits that is too similar to Misteria for my taste. The only part I visit strictly for business. If I were the Spider, I wouldn’t mind paying this place a visit every so often. 

Coin is the Spider’s only currency.

The Spider is nothing without its web.

Cross the wrong people and you get your name on a contract. That’s the Spider’s business.

These words have resonated with me more than anything since the first time I heard them. With hopes that this will be the job that gets me in, I ask for details.

“The Leaf House on Sori 16. You know it?” he asks. He says that a package will be waiting for me when I get there. It seems I won’t be escaping the Mistveil any time soon… But I don’t care. Favors will be cashed in and I will win this game Whitetail is playing. 

The waitress greets me politely and I tell her what I need. She returns shortly with papers wrapped in rice paper in hand. 

“With compliments from Jemjang”, she says. My gut was right – this wasn’t a mission, it was a one way ticket to a date with death. I ask to talk to her and take out a small gold coin with a hole in the middle and a tiger nestled and sleeping on it. The waitress looks at the tiny token in her hand with no explanation needed. She hurries through a side door, emerging moments later and showing me to Jemjang’s office. 

The old crane still wears her age with pride, scanning me with a look of dissatisfaction. She and my parents were partners once, if you could call it that. The Running Tigers ran a smuggling business that stretched from Metrix (where my mother worked) to Misteria (where my father worked), with Jemjang keeping the thoroughfares open between them. My father wanted out, so he did what must be done. But Jemjang still owes him.

“What would you have me give you?” she asks me. I show her the papers, explaining my situation, my suicide mission. She thinks for a few moments before producing a map and marking in swiftly with red ink. A way out, lost and forgotten – an old mine shaft. With this, she and my father are even.

The location is swarmed with guards, with the patrols proving too frequent for a silent spider-climb up the wall. I jump from the shadows at the lone guard, dirk in hand and aiming for his throat. My throwing knife pierces, but it’s not enough. Too shallow. He grabs my hand, the metal armor piercing my skin. In my mind’s eye, I imagine a different weapon, and the dirk I held turns into a sword, finishing the job. They don’t call me Switchblade for nothing.

After climbing up, I find him – Overseer Crichton. In bed, wrapped up in his blanket, oblivious this will be his final sleep. My dirk turns into a razor and I slash his throat. I slice off his fat fingers and stash them for later. “This was the easy part,” I think, then I hear an alarm being set off. Of course… I run as fast as my legs can carry me, winding through hallways and down stairs, all the while remembering where the entrance to the mine shaft was. I find it, and of course it’s nailed shut. No time to pry off nail by nail. I take a throwing knife and place it on the wood. It changes form once again – a stick of dynamite should do the trick. As an incendiary drops next to the stick (I should thank the marksmen who sent it my way), the fuse lights and moments later, my escapeway is cleared. 

The next morning I find Whitetail in a bar. He’s surprised to see me and he doesn’t even try to hide it. I sit opposite him and drop the overseer’s fingers into his wine cup. With a deep sigh, he puts a pouch of gold on the table. If only it were just about gold. 

“There is nothing else you need to give me. In fact, it’s something I want you to keep,” I tell him.

“What is it?” he asks.

“Your promise.”

Whitetail laughs, reaching out his hand.

“Welcome to the Spider”

Further Reading:

How to Play Uzuri in Classic Constructed

Is Flesh and Blood More Than Just a Math Game?

Get More Involved in Your Flesh and Blood Community!

Valera

Valera tried Magic in highschool then forgot about it. Some years later, she fell in love with broken FaB heroes (like Data Doll MKII) and tribal commander MTG decks. A shapeshifter, collector, traveller, writer... Who needs free time?