Author's Preface
The next morning, Blue sat in his new living room with Chris and Darrien. Chris leaned back in his chair. "So what do we do until the building is up and awakeners start joining?"
"Aaron said Titus will be sending us some awakeners and a construction crew. Grayson's doing the same." Blue shrugged. "I'll let Eve and you all handle that side of things."
Darrien looked at him. "What the hell are you doing while we're working?"
"I'm going to turn a few porter friends who aren't awakened into awakeners who can kick your ass." Blue smiled. "Any more stupid questions?"
Chris laughed. "Yeah, listen to the man who owns the guild. Or I'll tell Olivia you're making Blue's life difficult."
"You guys are dicks." Darrien stood and checked the clock. "Bringing my sister into this." He grabbed his jacket. "We have to go anyway. We're supposed to start tearing down the pizza shop today." He headed for the door. "Enjoy playing pretend with your porter friends, Blue."
The door closed behind him.
Chris tapped Blue on the shoulder on his way out. "He's just mad he has to do actual work."
Blue picked up his phone.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Ugh, hello?"
"Hey, Jon. It's Blue."
"Blue? You mean... Oh my gosh. How are you, man?"
"I'm great. Hey, I have a proposition for you and your crew if you're interested in not being porters anymore."
"You've got my attention. Go on."
"I have my own guild now, and I need people who aren't awakened. I can't go into details over the phone. Better to do it in person."
"How could I say no to someone on the rank one team in the world? We've got a gate run scheduled today, but we're free after. I'll round the guys up. Five o'clock, the Chinese place by the Association?"
"That works perfectly. I'll see you there." Blue paused. "Be careful in the gate today, Jon."
"You know it. See you then."
Before heading to the restaurant, Blue swung by the construction site. The pizza shop was already gone. Just rubble and a cleared foundation where it had stood for years.
"Hey, Blue." Eve appeared beside him as he approached. "We've got the place torn down. Titus and Grayson's people made quick work of it."
Blue stood at the edge of the site, watching awakeners and construction workers in hard hats carry debris away. The golden gate hummed faintly in the center of it all, unchanged and unbothered by any of it.
Eve walked up beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. "We had a lot of good times here."
"We did." Blue looked at the cleared ground. "I'm sad to see it go. But this is where it all started for me. Seems right that it ends here too."
Eve looked up at him. "Almost like it was all meant to be."
Blue smiled. "All as God intended."
She took his hand. "Come on. Let me show you the plans."
Eve spent the next fifteen minutes walking him through the building design. The structure would rise around the golden gate rather than over it, with the gate at the center and a garden surrounding it. The whole thing was built as if the gate was the guild's foundation rather than just a feature of it. A shrine. That's what it looked like.Blue listened without interrupting, then checked his watch.
"Eve, I need to go. Just wanted to check in." He looked at the site one more time. "I made the right call making you guildmaster."
Eve nodded. "Yeah. You did." She nudged him. "Go handle your business."
Inside the restaurant, the food came and the conversation flowed the way it always had between people who had carried gear into dangerous places together and made it back out. Stories, laughs, and the easy rhythm of old friends catching up filled the table. Then Blue told them everything. Murim. Qi. His past life. Seori's plan. What he needed from them and what it would mean if they said yes.
Jon flagged down a waiter halfway through. "Can we get some harder liquor over here, please?" He looked at the waiter seriously. "We're going to need it."
Jon set his glass down when Blue finished. "So you're telling me you want to train us in qi, then send us to Murim to learn martial arts from actual masters."
"Yes. But it's your choice what you do after that. Help their fight or come home. Nobody in Murim will force anything. You'll be able to come and go, with some restrictions during training."
Jon looked at the four men around the table.
One of them leaned back and crossed his arms. "Hell. I've got nothing tying me here anyway."
Todd nodded. "Me either. Lost my family in the invasion."
One of the younger ones leaned forward. "Is it actually like the animes and manhwas? Like for real?"
Blue thought about it. "It is. Almost eerily similar. Like humanity somehow knew about Murim but could only imagine it as fiction."
The table went quiet for a moment.
Then Jon stood up and raised his beer. "Fuck it." He looked around at the others. "I'm tired of being an awakener's punching bag anyway."
One by one, the others stood with their glasses raised and their eyes on Blue.
Blue stood with them. "Then it's decided." He raised his glass. "Welcome to Eclipse."
They clinked glasses, drank, and stayed until the restaurant started putting chairs up around them.
The next day, Blue walked into the Buckeye Guild hall around noon.
Aaron was waiting. "So these are your first recruits?"
The porters looked at each other.
"They are." Blue nodded. "Thanks for letting me use the arena while the building is going up."
"I told you, I got you." Aaron waved and walked away without another word.
Blue led the men down to the arena and lined them up shoulder to shoulder. A few minutes later, two workers came in carrying a wall. Ten feet tall. Solid.
"Just set it right there."
Jon looked at it. "What's that for?"
"Something I learned in Murim." Blue reached into his bag and tossed each man a scroll. "The Twilight Flow technique."
He slowly pulled a rod meant to imitate Wu Jin's from his waist.
CRACK.
The sound echoed off the arena walls. Every man straightened instinctively.
"These scrolls stay on you at all times. They do not leave your body. They do not touch the ground." Blue looked down the line. "When you aren't physically training, I expect you to be mastering that. I'll guide each of you as best I can, but everything comes down to your own effort."
CRACK.
"Ten laps around the arena."
He watched them take off before looking down at the rod in his hands. This thing really does work, doesn't it? He shook his head slightly. Scary as hell. Blue watched them catch their breath.
"Alright. That's enough." He looked at the wall. "Seems you're all in fairly decent shape. Now we start the fun."
He gestured toward it. "Wall runs. Reach the top."
The men looked at each other, then at the wall, then back at each other.
CRACK.
They took off. Twenty minutes later, Jon grabbed the top edge and pulled himself over. He dropped to the ground on the other side and didn't move. Blue walked over.
CRACK.
"Did I say you could rest because you managed one minuscule thing?"
Jon pushed himself up.
Blue threw him a water bottle. "Everyone stop." He looked at the group. "I'm going to be straight with you. I'm being hard on purpose. I want you to experience exactly what Murim training is like because if you ever cross that gate, I don't want it to be a shock."
Jon nodded. "That makes sense."
CRACK.
"I didn't ask for a response." Blue pointed at the ground. "Lotus position. Scrolls out."
The men sat. Blue stood in front of them and looked at the rod in his hand for a moment.
Wu Jin would be laughing right now.