It took a lot  of encouragement and prodding from Adam, but eventually the girl gave him all the necessary details of her situation. Her name was Sera Enn, and her sister, Mira Enn, was just recently abducted. Sera nearly was too, but her sister was able to help her escape capture. They were twins, and both variant humans known as “maena”. Maena were born when the mother was exposed to too much ennea while pregnant. Apparently there was an accident at the enneofluid refinery where their mother worked before she knew she was pregnant which caused the twins to become maena. Sera never knew her father, and her mother was killed in the abduction trying to protect her daughters.

 

Hearing this story made Adam angry, and strengthened his resolve. He’d been a bit carefree since being reborn, but this cold reality reminded him of his purpose in life - not the one given by whatever “Jade Order” was, but the one he’d decided on when he was a kid. Crush evil.

 

“Sera, do you know why you and your sister were targeted?”

 

At this point they were sitting across from each other, Adam wanting to clean up the mess he’d made had had her talk to him while he brought the second man’s body back to the first. He shoved them both in a hatch he found somewhat out of the way, before sitting down with Sera again. She was sitting on her heels, and her fists balled up on her knees at Adam’s questions.

 

“Not… exactly. Mira, mother and I have been somewhat in hiding for as long as I can remember. Mom always used to say bad people wanted to take us, and she’d been trying to save up to take us to a sect that could protect us, and then… this happened.”

 

Sera was quite visibly trying not to cry. It hurt Adam to see, but he had to think carefully. As much as he wanted to immediately run to the rescue of this girl’s sister, there were still too many unknowns. However, it wasn’t hard to deduce what the kidnappers were after. Maena were semi-magical beings, given the nature of their birth. Akraya had a long history of medicines and body related modifications being used by weavers to strengthen themselves. It was likely they were capturing maena to use as materials.

It sickened him.

 

“How long has it been since Mira was taken?”

 

“About a day or so.”

 

“Can you find your sister? Do you know where she was taken?”

 

“I can track her scent! I have a very good nose.” she said, a sliver of pride entering her eyes.

 

“Alright, take me there.” her eyes lit up. “Don’t get too excited yet - I’ll take a look, but I am a young daemon, only recently manifested. If it seems too dangerous I won’t risk my life, no matter what you offer me.”

 

Sera tried to squash the hope as quickly as it came, but it was hard. She knew she might just be disappointed again, but the possibility of saving her sister, as slim as it may have been, still lifted her spirits. With determination in her eyes, she began to lead Adam to her sister, following the familiar scent with as much concentration as she could muster.

 

Adam followed Sera, and thought deeply about what had happened so far, and what was going to happen. If Mira’s captors looked like common thugs or low-level weavers he was confident he could easily kill them and save her. If they were stronger, he was unsure. He’d attempt to devise a different plan, likely much stealthier, but he’d cross that bridge when he got to it.

 

Thinking back to his first fight, he couldn’t avoid the memory of eating the man’s arm. He’d done it on reflex, and it won him the fight, but he wasn’t exactly happy about it. He knew that objectively it wasn’t much worse than just killing the guy, as far as Adam was aware there was no burial requirement for afterlife access, especially given how his previous body was likely tossed in an incinerator after he was riddled with bullets. Still, his sensibilities from earth cringed at consuming human flesh. The problem was that not only did the man’s blood taste and smell amazing, he now felt extremely refreshed. Powerful, even.

 

He could pick out a sweet scent now too, that reminded him of the man’s blood. It came from Sera. That gave him an idea. Daemons were a kind of magical creature, and weaver’s bodies, especially their blood, should be suffused with magical energy, ennea. What if that was what he’d tasted? And given Sera was a maena, her scent being similar made sense - she had a significant amount of ennea throughout her body simply from the nature of her birth.

 

The thought made Adam feel better - he’d much rather have a taste for the ennea inside people than a taste for human flesh, despite how little the distinction affected what he’d be drawn to.

 

The fight had also awakened Adam’s body, to some extent. He could definitely feel it, there was more to his body than what could be seen. He quietly tested out bringing out both weapon’s he'd eaten and sure enough, he could manifest them out of his body. When he tried manifesting the man’s dagger, a hand came out as well, holding it. Luckily it didn’t seem to be the man’s hand, it looked nearly identical to Adam’s “normal” right hand. He put the weapons away, as he didn’t want to distract Sera, who hadn’t said a word since she started tracking Mira. The girl showed good spirit, able to focus this well when her sister was in danger. That, combined with her nature as a maena made Adam want to recruit her. She’d probably accept, if he took in her and her sister, given they lacked anyone to protect them or anywhere to go, but he wouldn’t force them. 

 

The rest of the journey to the captor’s hideout was uneventful, Adam spending the time in silence thinking of plans and practicing spinning spira from his kernel. The spira were definitely getting more regular, but the progress was slow.

 

Adam pulled himself back to reality when he noticed Sera had stopped. They’d been walking for roughly fifteen minutes, if Adam’s sense of time was correct. They stopped at the point the alley they were in connected to a mainway. She pointed at a building across from the exit to the alley they were in.

 

“She’s in there.” spoke Sera, turning to look Adam in the eyes.

 

Adam’s eyes met hers, and he was again resolved to do what he could. “Stay here, I’m gonna take a closer look”

 

She grabbed the hem of his robe. “I want to help.” Her eyes were determined.

 

Adam smiled “Don’t worry, you can. I just need to take a look at what we’re dealing with here. Stay here, out of sight. I’ll come back and tell you the plan, alright?”

 

She seemed to want to protest, but couldn’t think of a valid complaint, letting go of his robe.

 

Adam began approaching the building, a squat thing squished between what looked like two derelict factory buildings. This area of the underlevels likely hadn’t seen management by a sect in years. It was a perfect spot for criminal activity away from prying eyes. The only people wandering this mainway were those who lived here, and likely had nowhere else to go. They paid no attention to Adam as he walked through, despite his weaver’s robes. As Adam got closer, he became careful. He’d learned stealth techniques when he was initially establishing Sicariidae, and he naturally flowed back into his mindset from that time.

 

Steady, slow breathing, footsteps light and silent. He moved like a fish through water, and soon he was at the building’s front window. From afar, only a small light could be seen within the window, and up close he could see the window itself was empty, no glass. Taking a peek inside, he was presented with a barren living room/kitchen combo. Some tattered furniture, old appliances, and copious amounts of dust filled the room. The light was coming from an open door he could see in the back right of the room. With his new eyes he found he could actually see the trail of disturbed dust that led from the front door into the one with the light.

 

Closing his eyes, Adam focused on his hearing. It was quiet outside the building, the few dozen people within his earshot not doing anything louder than hushed conversations or cooking dinner, but inside he could hear something. Focusing, he parsed it out. It sounded like a hushed conversation between two men, but all he could make out were a few numbers. Behind that though, there was something else… labored breathing.

 

Mira was alive, and she was in that room. Adam made his way back to Sera, just as silent as before.

 

She looked at him expectantly, and he described what he saw.

 

“Based on the condition of the building, and the lack of guards, I don;t think these guys have a large backer. It's probably just the two of them, they might be trying to use your sister to buy their way into joining an organization.”

 

“So what do we do?” Sera asked, more conviction in her voice than Adam had heard so far.

 

“It looks like the room is too small for us both to go in at the same time. I’ll go in first and see if i can fight them. You come in behind me and see if you can grab Mira and bring her out. She’s likely bound with something, so be careful.”

 

Sera turned to face the building. “Alright.”

 

“Wait, one more thing. If it looks too dangerous, wait for the fighting to calm down. I don’t want to accidentally hurt you, and it’s pretty cramped in that building.

 

Sera simply nodded.

 

Then Adam began the walk back, Sera in tow. He got more attention this time, and thought a few might even be glares, but none dared to walk up to a weaver and ask his business, even if his robes were a bit shredded and tattered.

 

Reaching the window, Adam clambered through it in one fluid motion, producing almost no sound, and began to make his way towards the door. As he reached the door, he heard Mira’s breathing clearer now, and it sounded pained. He began deliberating the best way to start this utilizing the element of surprise, when Sera, following behind him, stepped on a particularly angry floor panel. The resulting sound felt louder than a gunshot to Adam, so straining his hearing in the quiet, and the two perpetrators began to move.

 

Thinking quickly, Adam stood up straight next to the door and brought out the sword he’d reappropriated from the White Snake weaver. Closing his eyes, he used his hearing to time when the two would be exiting the door, and quickly stabbed where they would be. The resulting groan of pain told him he’d hit, and one of the men doubled over from the sword stuck through his gut. As Adam turned to face the doorway and look inside, he twisted the blade while pulling it back out of the man’s body and took in the sight of the room beyond.

 

It was a small bedroom, with a few chairs, a desk, an empty wardrobe, and a threadbare mattress. On the mattress was a girl who looked remarkably like Sera, but a bit more sickly, and her horns were curled rather than swept back.

 

On the desk was a bunch of what looked like medical equipment, and the second man stood in the middle of the room holding a large vial of what looked like blood. Given the clearly visible bandages on Mira’s arms, it wasn’t hard to guess who’s blood it was.

 

The second man himself was unremarkable, his only distinguishing feature an old face scar, which was hard to notice on his fearful expression. He threw the vial in his hand at Adam, and grabbed for a knife on the table. In response, Adam opened his maw without thinking and crunched the glass blood vial between serrated teeth. He was lucky that the act of opening a giant mouth from his abdomen shocked his opponent into freezing where he stood, because when the taste of the blood in that vial hit Adam, he nearly fell to his knees.

 

It was indescribable, and it filled him with a feeling of power he’d never felt before. He smiled widely, basking in the feeling, before the clattering of metal brought him somewhat back to reality. The man was trying to grab a knife, but in his terrified state had knocked over a bunch of equipment. Adam locked eyes with the man, still smiling wide. The man raised the knife he’d grabbed and made a terrified charge at Adam, but he was in no fighting state. Adam simply sidestepped the man and slashed his throat.

 

With the man dead, Adam savored the last remaining feelings he had from tasting the blood before fully coming back to reality, and remembering the whole reason he was there - Mira. She was still there, cuffed to the bed and staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. Before he could say anything, Sera burst into the room.

 

“Mira!” She shouted, nearly tripping over the multiple corpses and random debris on the ground before jumping onto the bed and smothering Mira in a tight hug. Adam decided to let them have their moment, and stepped outside, waiting in the main room. PLus, he needed to sort out his thoughts from that ordeal.

 

Tasting Mira’s blood had pretty much confirmed his suspicions; he had a taste for ennea. This was a slight problem, as ennea could only exist within living creatures or their parts, like blood. It would take other, likely less palatable forms outside living creatures, like enneofluid. Enneofluid can and often is processed into injections weavers take to bolster their magical energy, but he had no way of knowing if that would satisfy his daemon body.

 

Thinking about his body, he still barely understood it.  He had several clues; the words “assimilation” and “beyond”, were all the being gave him about his body specifically, and the general knowledge on daemons was scarce. They were a sort of magical entity with a physical form, and whether or not they aged was unknown. Thinking about what had happened so far, he could understand what “assimilation” was referring to - he assimilates things he eats with the maw, making them part of his body and able to be brought out when desired. “Beyond” likely referred to wherever these things were being stored, as it felt like he had more to his body than he could see, and bringing out the weapons felt more like moving a limb than some kind of summoning action. He had an idea to confirm that one, and promptly took off the rags left of his robes and opened his maw. Looking down, he was struck by just how not surprised he was to see a massive, toothy mouth open in his own abdomen. It felt like something that he’d always had, despite only learning about it a scarce 40 or so minutes ago. 

 

Bending over and looking into the maw, his suspicions were confirmed. The throat behind the maw definitely went much further back than should be possible, given how thick his torso was. He closed the maw, but left it manifested, lipless teeth interlocking and forming a surprisingly tight seal. It felt right to keep the maw out, like it was truly a part of his body like any other limb. He could always cover it with clothes if needed as well, and he never knew when he’d be in a situation where he’d need it quicker than it could manifest, even if manifesting it took less than a second.

 

Speaking of clothes, Adam looked down at his robes. They’d been sufficiently shredded from his two combat encounters, and only the lower parts seemed somewhat intact, tied around his waist and properly covering what needed to be. Which he was soon quite glad for, when the two sisters walked out and looked at him, now bare-chested with his maw out. If he hadn’t had enough life experience from his first life he’d probably been somewhat embarrassed with two young women looking at him shirtless, but he’d gotten over things like that a long time ago.

 

Mira spoke first. “Thank you for saving me.” she said with a deep bow. Lifting up from the bow, she continued, “I heard my sister promised you quite the reward for your service, great daemon.” Sera reddened at her sister’s mention of her desperate pleas to Adam.

 

“She did, yes, I remember it quite well given the short time ago it happened.”

 

“Yes,well,” Mira continued, “we’d like to pay that now, if that’s fine. What do you ask of us?”

 

“Before I request payment, I’d like you to tell me anything you know about my kind, daemons. I was only born recently and am still trying to find my way.”

 

Mira seemed slightly surprised, and made to speak but Sera beat her to it.

 

“Daemons are great beings, formed spontaneously for reasons still unknown. They have great power tied to their ‘aspects’. The birth of a new daemon generally heralds some kind of large change for their place of birth. It's unknown whether or not they age, as all recorded daemons who’ve died never once showed signs of aging.”

 

Adam put his hand to his chin, thinking. “Anything else?”

Mira took over. “Daemons are treated as normal citizens law-wise, but because they hunger for the ennea intrinsic to people they aren’t seen in that great a light by the populace. Also, it’s taboo to owe a daemon a debt, so if you’d allow us to pay you back quickly that would be appreciated, great daemon.”

 

“I see. Thank you. As for the payment, I think one vial of Sera’s blood  would cover it.” he said, manifesting the vial the man had thrown into his maw and tossing it to them. They began to walk back to the room Mira had been held in to use the equipment there, but Adam stopped them.

 

“And before you go to get that sorted out, I have an offer to make you.” He brought out his sect core. “Do you know what this is?”

 

Both twins’ eyes went wide. “A sect core…” Mira said.

 

“Exactly,” replied Adam, “I’m forming a sect. In fact, I was scouting territory before Sera found me and requested aid. I want you two to join me, and I can provide you payment in exchange for your blood. I’d rather not have to resort to criminal activities to feed myself. Additionally, if you want, you could join the sect proper and become my first retainers and direct disciples.”

 

Both girls were silent for several seconds.

 

“Can you… give us some time to think about it?” Mira asked.

 

“Of course, of course. It's a big decision to make. Just to get some questions you might have out of the way, the primary offer is that I provide you food, water, and a place to live, in exchange for your blood, extracted infrequently enough and in the quantities that ensure it's not damaging to your health. The secondary offer is to become my first retainers and direct disciples. The position of first retainer is essentially like my personal assistants, and direct disciple means I will teach you weaving directly. That entails a lot of hazard work and training, which is why I made it a separate offer. Take your time and find me outside when you’ve made a decision.”

 

With that, Adam left the contemplating sisters and exited the building. As he was walking out the door, he turned to his right, surveying the area. He was pretty sure the short fight hadn’t made too much noise, though he knew people had seen him and Sera enter the building and it was pretty quiet out on the street, so he was looking for anyone that might be working with the kidnappers. At first it seemed like he was right, as nobody down the way he was looking even seemed to notice him, until a voice piped up behind him.

 

“Hey you!” it shouted.

 

Adam turned around, only to see a boy, roughly the same age as the twins, pointing a sharpened piece of piping at him. He must’ve been focusing too hard on Adam’s face, since he made no sign he noticed the maw on Adam’s exposed abdomen.

 

“What did you do with Sera?”

 

Adam’s eyes widened. It must’ve been one of Sera’s friends, too scared to confront him until he saw Adam leaving the building without her. But before Adam could answer the boy and clear up the misunderstanding, a much older man ran up from behind him with fearful eyes locked on Adam. When he reached the boy he grabbed his head, and dropping, forced them both into deep bows on the floor.

 

“Forgive him, o great daemon! Fueled by the flames of love, my idiot son failed to notice your magnificent visage!” the man shouted, shaking in fear. The boy had initially resisted, but stopped moving when he heard what the man said.

 

“Daemon? Wait, I’m not in love with Sera we’re just frie-” the boy was cut off by a swift shoulder from his father. 

 

“Please forgive his ignorance, great daemon.” the father pleaded once again.

 

Adam struggled not to let out a small laugh at the display. “Don;t worry about it. I understand what it's like to be young.” Adam couldn’t help but chuckle slightly.

 

“Raise your heads.” He turned to the boy, who now noticed the maw on his abdomen, eyes going wide. “Boy, what’s your name?”

 

“Triske, great daemon s-sir.” the boy said, stuttering slightly.

 

“Well then Triske, you say you’re a friend of Sera’s?”

 

Triske nodded forcefully.

 

“Well I’ll have you know that Sera made a deal with me, to save her sister. They’re both in there,” he pointed back to the building, “getting my payment together and deciding whether or not they’ll accept my offer.”

 

“O-offer?” Triske asked hesitantly, earning a hit from his father, but before the father could speak, Adam responded.

 

“Yes, “ he spoke, pulling the sect core from what remained of the robes around his lower body, “I’m forming a sect. I made them an offer to join.”

 

Adam had been sure the two in front of him couldn’t open their eyes wider, but they proved him wrong in response to seeing the sect core and hearing what Adam said. A smile began forming on Adam’s face.

 

“In fact,” he turned to the father, “what’s your name?”

 

“Luther, great daemon.”

 

“Alright Luther, you have any experience with the enneofluid business?”

 

Luther’s face lit up, then hardened. “I used to be the business chief for the sect that ran this district, at least before that con man took all our stuff and booked it.”

 

“Con man?” Adam asked, “I’d heard the sect that previously managed this district collapsed due to financial issues…”

 

“Not even close!” Luther was incensed at this point, losing the overly polite and cautious demeanor. “I managed the finances myself, and they were great! I’d been increasing productivity and all the workers were happy since I made sure they were properly compensated and treated well, and we were even making new developments! Then that con man of a sect leader, for some reason I can’t even begin to fathom, just up and takes all the wealth the sect had accumulated and disappears off the face of Akraya! Not only that, but the nearby sects refused to take up management of the district, and none of them would even hire us! Some bullshit about how we ‘worked with a con man’ and ‘couldn’t be trusted anymore’. Now the district’s fallen into disrepair, and all we can do is live here in squalor, wasting away. So many families with kids to feed, left to die.”

 

Luther breathed heavily, recovering from his rant. As he did, he realized he’d dropped decorum and made to apologize, but Adam cut him off. It was quite obvious to one as experienced as Adam that Luther was not lying.

 

“That’s terrible! I wonder what caused him to just run off like that. Well, I’ll need a competent leader to manage my finances if I'm to be able to accomplish what I want to. How’d you like another shot at life?”

 

Luther was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to jump on the opportunity to escape this life of poverty, but on the other hand he didn’t want to get burned again.

 

Adam understood this, and continued. “I know you’re probably wary to accept such a deal given your history, so if it makes you feel better, we could set it up so sect funds are under our joint control, so both of us are required to access it. Additionally, I’ll need workers for many other things. If what you’ve said is true, you have a good relationship with the former laborers who worked under you, yes? Here’s my offer. Take tonight to deliberate. If you decide to accept, meet me at the enneofluid extractor with at least two dozen workers. Whoever you think will be useful for quickly bringing us up into working condition.” Adam fished out some money from his robe pockets, and was happy that it seemed none had fallen out during his recent escapades. He fished out five golden coins and forced them into Luther’s hands. “Take these as a gift to your people. This is separate from the deal, I do truly feel sorry for what happened to you and your people.”

Luther was taken aback, not only at the money, but the kindness and sincerity Adam spoke with. He looked up at Adam with resolve in his eyes.

 

“I will speak with the people.”

 

“Good,” Adam said, his smile returning in full force. “Now go, I have things to attend to before tomorrow.”

 

Luther left, dragging his still somewhat stupefied son with him. Shortly after the entered another building, trailing several others they hailed along the way, Adam heard footsteps coming towards him from inside the building he still stood in the entrance of.

 

It was the twins, and he moved out of the way so they could exit and stand in front of him. Sera now had a bandage on her upper arm, and she handed the now-filled vial to Adam, who stashed it into one of his remaining robe pockets immediately.

 

“I just had an interesting conversation with a man named Luther and his son Triske.”

 

Sera made to speak, but Mira started first. “What did you talk about?”

 

“A bit of this district’s recent history, and then I offered him and his people jobs.”

 

“Jobs?” asked Sera.

 

“Yeah, Luther claimed he had the business skills I'd need to help manage finances, and I tasked him to find workers to help me begin the sect.”

 

“You made a good choice, great daemon. Luther is considerably skilled.”

 

“That’s good to hear. And my name is Adam, by the way. It’s a bit strange to be called ‘great daemon’ all the time.”

 

“Well then, we’ll call you Sect Master Adam from now on.” Mira said, her and Sera did the traditional weaver’s bow.

 

Adam raised his eyebrows. “Does this mean you’ve decided to accept my proposal?”

 

“Yes, Sect Master. We’ve decided to accept both offers.”

 

“That’s great to hear! Now follow me, we’ve got some preparing to do before we really get started tomorrow.” Adam smiled widely as he led the girls towards a shopping district he’d passed earlier while on his way to the district they were in.