You Do Not Seem To Understand

The Fire Skyscraper, the highest building in the South district of Incipere. In a meeting room were 6 men and 1 woman, discussing the terms for a cooperation. The Capu family dealt in mines, but not normal mines. They dealt in fire crystal mines. These fire crystals were used to strenghten and speed up training for people who used fire techniques. These mines were not a finite resource as they just got bigger faster as time went on. Mining them was more of a containment strategy but you had to be careful, overmining would kill the mine. If that happened you would have to search for a new mine.

The six Capu family Elders were discussing a contract for fire crystals with a pale woman. Her name was Emma Silva of the An family.

"Miss Silva I am sure we can come to an agreement, but the prizes you suggest are just too low. We would incure massive losses if we would take your suggestion."

Emma Silva was a ruthless but fair business woman. She understood the worth of the crystals. One fire crystal was worth 1.000 Credits. The Capu family inflated the price to 10.000 in this region of the Country. She was no idiot and could see through the claims of the Capu. She did not care though, she was not prone to violence and the family rules forbid using force if the problem could be solved with money.

As she lifted her head she saw something fly in the direction of the meeting room from the outside. It was a body. It crashed right through the windows and fell on the Capu family head. Insid Capu was an old fashioned man. He wore a black suit had short hair and a middle aged face. He looked at the body and saw the carvings on the back. His face was filled with anger and he looked at Emma as she was part of the An family.

"What is the meaning of this", he calmly said gritting his teeth.

"Can't you read? It even says with kind regards. Our elder sure is polite." Emma responded while laughing. She really did not expect something like this. Yuri An was in town for just a few hours and dead bodies were already flying through the town.

The meeting was ruined but this played right in Emmas hands. They surely would use force now and she could use that as an excuse to just annex the mine. "How convenient", she thought.

"Explain to me why some random member of your clan can just kill one of my disciples.", Insid Capu was livid. He really wanted to kill her but he understood that one does not fight someone from the An family. This was a reasonable family whith a history to rather compromise than fight. But you should not mistake this with weakness. The An family was a family of violent people. The rules were there to keep them in check and ensure the prosperity of the family. Those who did not understand that tried to use violence. The An family always ran away at first contact but what terrified everyone was that every family who used violence against the An family disappered after just hours of their first fight with the An family.

Insid was confident though, the An family needed their crystals and if they wanted a deal they had to please them.

Emma saw his intentions in his eyes. She did not look like it but she was many thousand years old. Not many people knew how old but those who did would not tell, for you don't disclose the age of a woman.

"You do not seem to understand the predicment you and your family is in, little boy." Emma said in a condescending tone. "We do not need your little deal anymore. I will be going, lest I displease my Elder.". With that she stood up and just vanished.

At the roof of the Fire Skyscraper she looked up and saw Yuri An. She was standing in the air and watching the city below her, with contempt. Emma flew up to her and saluted, before she could say anything Yuri lifted her hand, signaling for her to be silent.

"Weakness is not something to be disgusted by." Yuri said. "What I am disgusted by is those who are content with their weakness. Look at this city, people who are as strong as children from years ago are now family heads. What kind of sick joke is this. I am starting to belief that I should just kill all of them and restart humanity."

Emma looked in Yuri Ans eyes. They were black. Her black eyes were like an abyss. No one could look into them wihout feeling drowned. Darkness flowed out from her eyes like water from a waterfall.

"I have regained my memories, Little Silva. This is why I am disgusted by those weaklings. Why are you negotiating with ants?"

"Elder, these are the rules and you know that. I can't go against them. The creed of the family stands above all. This is what I was thought since my childhood.", Emma answered. She was afraid. Not for being punished, as you could only be punished if you broke the rules, but because Elder Yuri was the Eldest. She was a person who fought every war of the family and gave her all. Losing her respect would be like losing every form of credibility.

"That is right. But this should give you a reason to take the mine. In fact I order it." Yuri commanded. Her words were absolute and could not be questioned.

Emma just nodded and said, "Elder I am from the finance department, I do not have any forces which can help me with my quest. I first need to return to the family branch in Incipere and request for some troops."

Yuri looked at her and gave her a token, "Take this, tell them it is my order and if there are problems then contact me personally. If they will not spare some forces for you, come look for me. I still have some personal forces of my own."

She took the token, it looked like a dagger, saluted and went on her way.